Living the Liturgy: From Table to Mission

In the common four-fold pattern of the liturgy (Gathering, The Word, The Eucharist, and Sending)1 we conclude the section called The Word with the prayers of the people and then enter the Eucharist with our offering. However, it is helpful for us to see the whole liturgy as a continuous movement rather than as four sections of one event. We may find that translating the liturgy to the work of everyday living is better understood as a continuous movement between all the sections of Lord’s Day worship. The movement between the Prayers of the People, the Offering, and Communion are what we will discuss very briefly here.

The Prayers of the People are prayers for our world, the church, the nations, the communities in which we live, those who suffer, and more. In these prayers, we intercede on others’ behalf. We petition God to be at work in the world. We pray for peace in our world and unity in our church. We pray that leaders of nations will seek peace and the welfare of all people. We pray for our communities, the homeless, those who need medical care, and people who govern us locally. We pray for all who suffer and recognize those we know by name. We offer all these prayers to God as people of faith, who believe that God is alive and working in our world.

We also believe that God works visibly through us. Consider the prayers of the people and what we expect to happen. We know that God is already present and active in the world, and we seek to join in God’s unfolding reign. In our baptismal vows we made a covenant to be faithful members of the church and to:

Share in its worship and ministry
Through your prayers and gifts,
Your study and service,
And so fulfill your calling to be
a disciple of Jesus Christ. . . . 2

When we pray for peace in the world, is this also not a call to action on our part? If we pray for peace, should we not actively pursue peace as a service to Christ? When we pray for the welfare of all people, is this not a call to mission and service? Are we not called to respond through our gifts of money for mission and also in service, offering our very lives to the mission of Christ in the world? When we pray for our communities, the homeless, the sick, are we not articulating the mission we have before us? Surely we do not pray for such things without making a commitment to serve those around us! We pray for them as partners in mission with Christ in the world. Our prayers articulate how we can offer ourselves in mission to the world as well as our communities. When we pray for the sick, do we not then visit them, participating in what God is doing by offering ourselves in service to Christ? The same could be said for every petition we make: they all articulate what we most desire God to be doing in the world. While our hopes and desires do not set an agenda for God, at our best we articulate what we understand God to be doing in the world and how we can participate in the mission of Christ. And in all of this we rely on God’s Spirit to guide us. The prayers of the people and our offering cannot be separated from one another when we understand our petitions and our mission to be one and the same.

The Book of Common Worship expresses the act of offering in these words:

“The Christian life is marked by the offering of one’s self to God to be shaped, empowered, directed, and changed by God. In worship, God presents us with the costly self-offering of Jesus Christ. We are claimed by Christ and set free. In response to God’s love in Jesus Christ we offer God our lives, our gifts, our abilities, and our material goods, for God’s service. . . . From early centuries in Christian history, the offering has been the occasion for presenting the bread and wine to be used in the Lord’s Supper. . . . gifts of bread and wine may therefore be brought to the table in thanksgiving for God’s Word.”3

We offer our lives, our gifts, our abilities, and our material goods for God’s service. The way we offer these things is a way of living out of and into our prayers.

The offering is also inextricably connected to the Table. Imagine yourself in the first or second century. You would not have been able to go to the local grocery store and buy bread and wine. In fact, much of your livelihood may have been consumed with growing and producing food and wine.

Regardless of one’s vocation, bread and wine were much more connected to daily living than they are today. To offer bread and wine may have been for the early church as valuable as money is for us today. However, both money and the early church’s food and wine are associated with our daily lives. What we do for a living provides the money for our offering.

The interconnectedness of the offering, Table, and mission of the church is expressed in Justin Martyr’s First Apology:

“After these (the service, which always includes the sacred meal) we constantly remind each other of these things. Those who have more come to the aid of those who lack . . . What is collected is deposited with the president, and he takes care of orphans and widows, and those who are in want on account of sickness or any other cause, and those who are in bonds, and the strangers who are sojourners among (us). . . . ” (Chapter LXVII)

Our offering and the Lord’s Supper are places where worship intersects with our lives. They are inextricably connected to one another and our mission in the world. Our lives, our gifts, our abilities, and our material goods are all part of the offering we bring to this Table where we meet Christ and are given food for the journey. In our prayer of Great Thanksgiving B at the Table we say:

Remembering all your mighty
and merciful acts,
we take this bread and this wine
from the gifts you have given us,
and celebrate with joy
the redemption won for us
in Jesus Christ.
Accept this our sacrifice of praise
and thanksgiving
as a living and holy offering
of ourselves,
that our lives may proclaim the one crucified and risen.4

We ask God to accept our acts as a living and holy offering of ourselves. The offering we make is joined with Christ by God’s Spirit in bread and wine. And we pray:

. . . Give us strength to serve
you faithfully
until the promised day of resurrection,
when with the redeemed of all the ages
we will feast with you at your table in glory.5

Nourished at this Table with the body and blood of Christ we are sent out to be the body of Christ in the world. Our prayer following Communion articulates our sense of mission:

Eternal God,
we give you thanks for this holy mystery
in which you have given yourself to us.
Grant that we may go into the world
in the strength of your Spirit,
to give ourselves for others
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.6