Think Church is Boring? Read This.

Amidst the piles of books I’m reading is “The Heavenly Liturgy” by Fr. Emmanuel Hatzidakis. It explains of the depths of the ancient Liturgy (service) that the Orthodox Church still uses exclusively for its Sunday Liturgy today.

It is a thick, difficult, intense book. The lengthy footnotes stunningly incorporate quotes, references, and commentary from the entirety of Christian history.

Uspenski Cathedral, Helsinki

I can’t read a paragraph without thinking of “Church” and “going to Church on Sunday” and what it means to the people around me, and to Americans in general, Christian or otherwise.

Most people think Church is boring. They are right.

Church shouldn’t be boring, though. The way Christians worshiped in ancient Church wasn’t boring.

Church today is seen in different ways. As a way to worship God. As community building. As a communion with God and with other Christians.

These are all admirable things.

The most ancient Christian belief is that the Liturgy is nothing less than the same worship of God that happens in Heaven – indeed, it is a part of it. So “Church” is all that it’s seen as today yet it is also more: it is the true, physical communion with God in the Eucharistic and true, mystical communion with God, Jesus, all dead Christians and Saints, and all the Angels in Heaven.

An icon of the Divine Liturgy

This is anything but boring. This is heaven on earth.What if Church was understood in this way? It was for the first 1500 years of Christianity. It still is in the Orthodox Church (and, to almost a similar degree, in the Catholic Church).

If Church was understood as heaven on earth; if people actually believed in the God they worshiped and in the mystical reality of what worshiping God means; if Church was understood as communing with God; that is, if the Orthodox Christian revelation of worshiping God were well known and understood today; then, and only then, nobody would think that Church is boring.

Instead, worshiping the one true God literally, in reality, and mystically, transcending time and the mere world of our physical existence, would be the triumph, the focal point, the high point, the awe-inducing, inspiring moment of our weeks.

After all, when else are we in heaven?

Lent

Lent, like so many aspects of the Christianity, is filled with depth, wonder, and mystery.

Ash Wednesday is the traditional service that begins Lent in both the Catholic Church and more traditional protestant churches. Lent thus begins with a reminder that we are not immortal, that we will die. This is not morbid by any means, but gives us a sense of context. Context for our lives (it’s not just about us), for who we are (God’s, personally), for who is in control (God, not us), and for what is most important (being His).

When the minister/priest imposes the ashes on our foreheads they say, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” As I go through my daily life it is easy for me to fall into the pit of thinking that everything is about me. That all my problems are a big deal and that my life is very important. That my life is mine. Ash Wednesday, and Lent, help us put all those things into their right perspective. It’s not about us. Our life is not ours, but a gift from a very loving, gracious God. We are but one mere mortal. Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

People outside the church have trouble understanding why some Christians give things up for Lent. For some reason the idea really bothers some people, though I don’t understand why. There are many reasons why Christians give something up for Lent. One of the most significant is to prove that we are not controlled by the things of this world. That we can live without them. That we are not enslaved by what we eat or what we say or what we think or what we do. That we are only slaves for God, and that everything else is secondary. We are called, as Christians, to not let the things of this world control us. During Lent we live that call out more fervently as we follow Jesus to the Cross and share in his suffering.

Lent is, ultimately, a time to prepare for Easter. In order to properly share in the resurrection of Christ we have to clear our conscience and consecrate ourselves back to who we belong to: God. We prepare mentally by praying and happily attending church and physically by giving up a passing, fading, temporary carnal desire that we can live without. Then, when it’s over, we can celebrate with joy and feasting the gift of Himself that God has given for us in Jesus Christ.