The Next Big Thing in Church Services
Just one page into CS Lewis’ “Letters to Malcolm” I was reminded why I like Lewis so much. He’s so readable, sensible, and full of wit.
Here he’s talking about a sort of experimental inconsistency in church services. We might call it, “the next big thing,” or negatively, “the newest fad.” Lewis calls it “novelty.”
“Novelty, simply as such, can have only an entertainment value. And they don’t go to church to be entertained. They go to use the service, or, if you prefer, to enact it. Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best - if you like, it “works” best - when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.”
“But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping….”
“There is really some excuse for the man who said, “I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks.”“
Bonus Twitter Quote: Lewis comments on praying with the saints of all time: “…it is quite different when one brings it into consciousness at an appropriate moment and wills the association of one’s own little twitter with the voice of the great saints and (we hope) our own dear dead. They may drown some of its uglier qualities and set off any tiny value it has.”
