God is a God of rituals. He reveals his ritualistic nature in his actions in creation and his prescriptions for his people. Though there are variations on themes, fundamental rituals provide a stable context in which change moves history forward. Ten times in the opening chapter of history, we hear, “and God said.” Evening turns to morning in a ritualistic pattern forming a day. Seven days form a week, weeks form months, months form seasons, and seasons form years. Over and over again, the ritual continues.
As God forms new creation and moves the creation project forward through worship, he does so through prescribed rituals. From the details of offerings to the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly rituals, God’s people were called to be ritualistic. This doesn’t change in the New Covenant. Jesus reshapes the rituals of baptism and feast to reflect the new age, but both are still ritualistic.
Rituals provide the rhythm of life, bringing stability, order, and a sense of identity. They have this power because they are conscious, ceremonial reenactments of our foundational stories. We experience these rhythms at the family level when we get together on holidays, birthdays, or anniversaries and move through our traditions. We have certain things that we do during these seasons that identify us. As we move through these rituals, we are drawn together as a family and experience the joys of our unity–our shared story.
What is true in the culture of our families is also true in the wider culture. Rituals are established to bring people together as a culture by recounting our story as a people in some form or fashion. If you are an American, you are expected to participate in “The Star-Spangled Banner” when played or sung. Everyone stands. Hats off. Hands over hearts. Turn toward the flag. Whether it is a proper ritual or not is not the question. It is a ritual that unifies people in recounting our American story; it is one of persevering through the attacks on our independence just as the star-spangled banner continues to wave amidst the ravages of war. Every time we participate in this ritual, we are given a renewed and reinforced sense of our American identity.
No matter how much you recognize it, the ritual gets into your bones. It is a part of you. It is a rhythm of our cultural life. This ritual, like all other rituals, deserves deep and critical reflection. We need to ask questions such as, “What kind of person is this ritual shaping me to be? Do I want to be that kind of person? Do I want to be identified this deeply with these people?” Rituals shape us; therefore, we must reflect upon them and be conscious of the people we are becoming through our rituals.
Jesus established a ritual for his people. This ritual is our foundational story, a foundational story that runs deeper and supersedes any of our other identities. In the Lord’s Supper, we move through ritual actions: take the bread, give thanks, break it, distribute, and eat it; take the cup, give thanks, distribute, and drink it. Jesus gave us these ritual actions and told us to “do this” as his memorial. The story of the death and resurrection of Christ is where we find our identity as the people of God, the place where we are unified. As with all of our rituals, this is a ritual upon which we must reflect, asking questions such as “What kind of person is this ritual shaping me to be? Do I want to be that kind of person? Do I want to be identified this deeply with these people?”
The ritual of the Lord’s Supper identifies you with the people of God in Christ. This is who you are. More fundamentally than your blood family name or national identity, you are “Christian.” As such, this ritual is shaping you into the image of Christ himself, the one who gave himself for the sake of others. When you eat the bread and drink the cup in the context of the worship of God’s people, you must ask yourself, “Is this the type of person I am? Is this the type of person I want to be? Do I want to give my life for others?” Since this ritual is forming us into a distinct culture, you must also ask, “Am I fully participating in this culture as the ritual calls me to do? Am I living as a faithful member of this culture? Is my life in rhythm with the church’s life as God intends it to be?”
Even though rituals can and do function at subconscious levels (that is, they always affect you whether you realize it or not), we are not called to leave matters in the realm of the subconscious. Granted, we are affected in ways that we may never understand, but we are called to reflect on what we are doing so that we don’t move from ritual to ritualism. Ritualism, we might say, is unreflective, going through the motions or possibly even consciously rebelling against the substance of the ritual while still checking the ritual activity box on the “to-do” list. God’s people have always been tempted to fall into ritualism with God’s prescribed rituals. When we have, God has severely rebuked us (cf., e.g., Isa 1:10-17). His rituals are not merely activities through which we go to appease him as if he is feeding off of us like some pagan god. God’s rituals are his story into which he wants us to enter and participate with the fullness of our beings: mind, will, emotions, affections, and actions. He wants us to live these stories out, to be shaped into the image of these rituals. He desires this because all of his rituals are ultimately his own story revealed in Christ Jesus, into whose image we are to be conformed. To be conformed by the ritual and to the ritual in God’s economy is to be conformed to Christ.
Image by Deborah Hudson from Pixabay
Excellent. Thank you.