Liturgy and the imagination

From next months newsletter:

The liturgy of the church is an astounding gift.

I just finished reading a very thought-provoking book by Anthony Esolen entitled, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child. In the book he highlights ten habits of our culture that arrest and atrophy the imagination of people. Of the many helpful things he discusses, two items that he provocatively unfolds are the benefit of memorization and structure to the imagination.

In regard to memory Esolen writes about the ancient practice of the oral traditions where people would sing epic tales in sometimes complicated yet memorable rhythm. These poems would be sung over and over and passed on from generation to generation. Esolen goes on to show how people who have created great things were benefited by that which was committed to memory – always by repetition and often by music. The point is that by putting important and useful things to memory, the imagination has tools to create new things and deal with new problems.

In regard to structure, Esolen says that facts can be robbed of their power by keeping them random and unorganized. On the contrary when there is structure and purpose for how things are put together, than we have a skeleton upon which we can build all sorts of imaginative things. The better a person understands the grammar of language the more that person can do with language in a meaningful way; so also with math or art. It’s just true.

This gets me back to my original comment: The liturgy is a jewel which serves to broaden a sanctified imagination and to foster our understanding of God and our life with Him. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, you’re not really dancing when you have to think about the steps. So also when the structure and words of the liturgy become ingrained, so that you can sing it in your sleep then you are really able to dance with God. The liturgy is nothing more than the word of God set in a structure that is able to encapsulate the life of every Christian for it is handed down from generation to generation according to the wisdom and experience of the church. The more we sing the liturgy the more the words become a part of us. These words become the lens by which we can see and make sense of life. They are the tools from which we can draw when we meet new challenges and obstacles and questions. The liturgy is the structure which enables us to engage life with purpose and creativity.

Personally, as I work with people in our church and in other denominations, as I think about issues going on in the world, I’m amazed at how the liturgy frequently pops up, offering guidance. Next month I’d like to share with you the comments of a Lutheran woman who wrote a very nice piece illustrating the effect of the liturgy in her life. For now, I simply want to encourage us all to evermore diligently attend to the words of the liturgy and see how it gives voice to our needs and purpose to our life.