My Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ

One of the 'must-see' films of 2007 must surely be the film, "As it is in Heaven." It is the story of a world-renowned musical conductor who returns to his remote childhood village. He is welcomed there by the parish priest and invited to take over the church choir. Although he initially refuses the invitation, he is drawn into the choir by the villagers. What follows is fascinating; his unorthodox teaching methods bring him into conflict with the choir-mistress and the church authorities, but have an amazing impact on the choristers who begin to discover who they are and who the others are in totally new ways. It is a story about spiritual awakening and transformation and the difference between true spirituality and mere religious conformity and practice.

In her book, '"Called to Question," Joan Chittister writes:-

'There is a difference between religion and spirituality. There is a link between them of course, but one is not meant to be the other.'

Religion is about what we believe and why we believe it. It is about the tradition, the institution, the system. Constructed over centuries … religion draws for the world a portrait of creation and relationships. It gives us creeds and dogmas and definitions of God. It gathers us in worship and reminds us of a world to come.

Spirituality is about the hunger in the human heart. It seeks not only a way to exist, but a reason to exist that is beyond the biological or the institutional or even the traditional. It lifts religion up from the level of the theoretical or the mechanical to the personal. It seeks to make real the things of the spirit. … It pursues in depth the mystical dimensions of life that religion purports to promote.'

She goes on to speak of religion as a system designed to lead us to the divine - 'a light, sign, watermark, path, … map,' but it is very clear from what she says that she has become increasingly disillusioned to the point where she is no longer sure how effective it ever is in achieving that objective. In her life as a religious she has experienced the church as highly controlling and prescriptive; a place far more of commandment than grace. And therefore, as such, the church has been for her a place that has hindered her growth into spiritual maturity as much as it has ever fostered it. What is more, she believes that her experience is a common one, and that that is the reason why so many people today are turning their back on organised religion in favour of other, less prescriptive ways.

Certainly this tension between spirituality and a religion of ritual and law is powerfully portrayed in the film and, although no one in the film turns their back on the faith, the priest finds himself increasingly isolated from the community by his condemnation of what is happening in the choir. It is also clear that the spiritual awakening within the choir is bringing about radical transformation both in their personal lives and in the life of the community in ways that Sunday worship never did. And because it does, it also draws people as Sunday worship never did.

The film illustrates how easily churchgoing can degenerate into religious rituals that can be devoid of any sense of the transcendent and become a place of social gathering for the community rather than a place of encounter with God. Most of the people in the village were faithful church-goers, most would have described themselves as devout Christians, but for all that there is not much evidence to show that Sunday worship had any real impact on their lives from Monday to Saturday. Even the priest, by the way in which he fails to deal with issues in his own life and the way he closes his eyes to what is going on in the lives of his congregation, is caught up in a faith that is more about external observances than inner transformation. As the film progresses his own spiritual poverty becomes increasingly evident, and his inability or unwillingness to grow in the things of God reveals a spiritual and emotional bankruptcy that renders him incapable of exercising any real ministry.

The film got me thinking about Sunday worship services in our diocese and wondering about my own experiences of worship as I travel around the diocese. In some parishes there is a sense of wonder and mystery in their worship that draws people into the presence of God; in others the worship appears sloppy and ill-prepared, a rote recitation of the liturgy that has little, if any, sense of the transcendent and holy in it. Worship is not about manipulating people's emotions or trying to create transcendent experiences, but it must be a place where the truth and reality of God as Lord and Saviour is so powerfully articulated that we are drawn to that place of submitting and abandoning ourselves afresh in love and gratitude to the One to whom we belong. If our worship is not an encounter with the Risen Lord it is not worship, and if our people do not worship they will leave unfed and unfulfilled, their lives unchanged by the One who comes to make all things new.

If our worship is to have meaning it must be the offering and surrender of our lives in ways that become, for all of us, transformative. Sunday worship is the offering of the daily worship of our lives that is comprised of all that we have said and done in the past week and the surrender of our lives to God in the week lying ahead in the light of this new encounter. Our Sunday worship is the offering of our lives as a living sacrifice, and it is in that daily offering of ourselves in all we say and do that faith moves beyond religious conformity and practice.

Worship must be learned, and it is learned through the teaching of the church, and in the practice of our lives, and in the example of role models who make visible in their lives what worship is all about. This is where the image of the priest in the film comes back to haunt me; an image of someone who had all the rhetoric and no substance; who could shepherd the people of God provided that they were content, as he was, to remain where they were; but whose own barrenness was tragically revealed by one far more Christ-like than himself.

In the gospel reading for the past Sunday, the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Lord, teach us to pray." Their request today is no different, "Teach us to pray," but the words are addressed to you and me. May we be such people of prayer and worship that those for whom we care may, with us, be drawn ever deeper into a living encounter with the Risen Lord. May they, following us as role models, learn to pray not simply by the recitation of words, but by the offering of their lives as a daily 'living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.'

May our Sunday worship be visible throughout the week,

+ Brian

(Do you want to see related pages, the whole site or the non-frames Sitemap?)