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Monday, June 23, 2014

Where the leitourgia has no shame: Christus Victor/ trickster calls to worship?

photo credit
Hat tip to Beth for my title; and my apologies to her for my twisting it.
Her wonderful chapter on "Where the Leitourgua has No Name: U2 Live" should be read well by the well-read   (it's in this book; for more on  leitourgia, see this),

Actually, the way I nodded to her title and tweaked it is itself perhaps a cheap example of the liturgical experimentation I am encouraging below.  Hopefully you will get the reference.
(As Beth herself has confessed about me, I can be "ever-prolix"  (:..)

Paul Ryan blogs:


One ordinary Sunday morning, I sat in my pew praying customary words of confession and hearing familiar words of assurance. My pastor announced, as he did every Sunday, “God assures us with these words of pardon . . .” But at that moment, the words surprised me. Immediately, I turned to my wife and whispered excitedly, “Pardon! That’s an image of the atonement!”
I had been studying notes outlining five images of the atonement: Christus Victor, ransom, penal substitution, sacrifice, and moral example. My professor, John Witvliet, had encouraged us to consider how we might balance these images in worship. That morning, I realized that the word pardon is a courtroom image (penal substitution). And I realized that we had been introducing our words of assurance with this image exclusively.
Since that day, I’ve been reflecting on how we might enrich and balance our confession through attention to other images of the atonement... LINK

SOO..what would it sound/look like to  shamelessly incorporate into corporate worship/leitourgia a shameless 
I don't know what it would look ;ike..maybe a high church Zoo TV? (:
Think of ...and suggest below...some practical examples of  such creative calls to worship, collects etc..

I know this next example is taking it too far; but I remember Shawn Rabon and I thinking out loud how to gently satirize   (Yes, I know "gently satirize" is oxymoronic, but...) the tendency of some Christians to, during prayer meetings, address Satan more than God.  We wondered if opening a meeting with "Dear Satan"  would make the point. (:



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