Book Review: Worshiping with United Methodists

 Information about the book

Worshiping with United Methodists (revised edition) by Hoyt L. Hickman. Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2007.  (Cokesbury Link)

Summary

From the Cokesbury website: "Hoyt Hickman explains the basic pattern of United Methodist worship within the broader context of Christian worship. "  The book explains basic resources for planning and leading worship, gives the basic pattern of United Methodist worship and its origins, and provides resources for worship leaders to plan and implement effective worship.

Impressions

I enjoyed reading this book.  I was especially impressed with the explanation of how the basic pattern of Christian worship  - word and table - can be seen in the encounter with Christ on the walk to Emmaus (in Luke 24).  As a person who enjoys history, I liked the chapter that walked us through the evolution of the pattern of worship in the Christian church - through Protestantism, and into Methodism.  The author makes an important point all through the book of the balance between authentic worship and worship that provides for encounter in the church's context.

My understanding of worship planning was greatly enhanced by the book.  Chapters 5-8 take each element of the Basic Pattern of Worship and provide helpful details that both inspired me and informed me.  I imagine I will be referring to this book in the future as I plan worship and will use it as a resource in our Conference CLM Course.

Posts about book

Posts about the book are are here.

Call me Back

Hoyt Hickman, in his book Worshiping with United Methodists, wrote about Jesus’s words, “Do this, as often as your drink it, in remembrance of me.”

He wrote, “The word remembrance has a meaning stronger than we ordinarily mean by the word ‘remember.’ We might better use the word ‘recall’ in the sense of to ‘call back’ — ‘Do this to call me back.’”

This is part of the holy mystery, isn’t it? That we can worship in a way that doesn’t just remember Jesus, but that calls him back to be with us, in that moment.  Communion isn’t a scrapbook event, where we think about Jesus.  It’s a meal WITH Jesus and all the saints.  It’s a family dinner. 

Use any of the words you want.  It is holy ground.  Thin place. Encounter.

I remember going to the funeral of the father of a pastor in our Annual Conference.  He led those gathered in communion, and he talked about it as worship where we gather with those who have gone before - a meal with his father. And his Father.

Recall.  Calling Jesus back.  Remembrance.

 

Mystery

How comfortable are we with mystery?

I was reading Hoyt Hickman’s book, Worshiping with United Methodists.  As he spoke about communion, he called it a Holy Mystery.  “Ultimately, the communion (koinonia) we have with God and one another in Jesus Christ is a mystery.”  He lists several times in the Bible that the word mystery is used.  I like the last one especially.  “We are ‘stewards of God’s mysteries.’” (1 Cor. 4:1).

“When a pastor or other ordained minister presides at this holy table in the name of Christ, she or he is a steward to whom is entrusted a sacred responsibility to pass on to the congregation a treasure that is beyond the understanding of any of us....None of us is so wise to have plumbed the depths of the mystery.”

How comfortable are we with that idea?  Are we able to rest in the idea that we are not wise enough to understand the holy mystery - communion or even any other part of our faith?

I think sometimes we act as if the faith is plain.  Easy to understand.  Black and white.  Right in front of our face. 

Sometimes it is.  Love God. Love your neighbor.  It’s simple enough to understand (not really simple to do, but that’s another story).  I’m glad Jesus said it was THE commandment.

What do we have to give up when we rest in the idea of mystery?  That God is too complex for us to understand, and none of it is simple?  We have to give up our pride, I think.  We have to give up judging others.  We have to let go of the idea that we have the answers and someone else doesn’t.  And we have to give up the idea that we are right. 

Are we comfortable in the mystery?