Copyright: © 2000 Paul F. Bosch.
This document may be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes with credit to the author and mention of the Lift Up Your Hearts web site http://www.worship.ca/ as the source.

Faithful reader, will you indulge my desire to depart, yet again, from my series on the various arts of worship, for still another extended footnote on a related matter that presses to be addressed, in my own mind at least? Suspending, for a second time, my series on the arts as they pertain to Christian worship, I want to address myself this month to the place of rubrics in the leadership of worship. And as a metaphor for discipleship!

Rubrics, from the Latin rubor for "red," are those little directions for the conduct of worship, printed in red in most service books (to distinguish them from the spoken texts of our worship), and in Lutheran Book of Worship helpfully numbered as well.

Yes, rubrics are a bothersome nuisance, to some pieties: those "word-reductionist" sectarianisms that regard the words -- the texts, the verbalizings -- of our worship as the only voice of any importance there. This is the sectarianism (see Essay 3 above) that fails to take into account the awesome power and persuasiveness of those other "voices" by which human beings express themselves and communicate meanings: architectural arrangements, "body language," music, vestments, etc. -- what I am calling here the "arts of worship."

Each of these "arts" could be thought of, from this perspective, as simply non-verbal extensions, or amplifications -- or even contradictions! -- of our verbalizings, depending on context. In worship, the slogan "Word alone!" is never a reference merely to our verbalizings!

I send these essays out into the ether, therefore, as a call to the Church to take its rubrics seriously. Sure, we may have to change them some day. Meantime, those rubrics intend to invite you into an alternative piety, a piety different from the piety that informed the old Service Book and Hymnal; still less any of its predecessors. Ignorance of rubrics, carelessness with rubrics, contempt for rubrics are sure-fire signs of "trouble in River City!"

And it's occurred to me with some force only recently that the rubrics in LBW provide, not only "stage directions" for the conduct of corporate worship, but also serve as a set of splendid metaphors for Christian discipleship out there in the world.

Let's take a look at the rubrics pertaining to the role of Assisting Minister in LBW, and let's look at each as a metaphor for ministry, a design for discipleship.

(Among other things, I hope to point out, by this exercise, the critical importance of having lay- people, not ordained pastors, filling these roles. For whatever it is worth -- plenty, in my view! -- these roles have belonged to the laity since the earliest days of the church. These roles for lay people, that is, were not invented by framers of the LBW; they have a long history.)

You might want to follow my argument, step by step, by reference to the pages of LBW. My numbering will follow that of the appropriate LBW rubric: Look for the capitol A (for "Assisting Minister") in the little red box.

Rubrics 6 and 7

The first occasion for lay leadership in LBW's Service of Holy Communion is at the singing of the Kyrie and Hymn of Praise. It is a lay person, not a pastor, who leads the congregation's praise. The metaphor here is clear enough: We are a people who praise the triune God. We are to be people whose lives can be perceived by others as hymns of praise.

Rubric 9

Next, it is a lay person who reads the First and Second Lessons -- the reading of the Gospel normally being reserved for the Presiding Minister, on the principle that it is she who preaches on its texts. The metaphor here: We are to be a people who witness. Once again: The surest witness, the most winsome witness, the most persuasive testimony, is the often-non-verbal witness of your life, lived out among family, or friends, or co-workers. An insight attributed to St. Francis of Assisi comes to mind: "Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words."

Rubric 22

Third: the Prayers of the people, the Intercessions. It is a lay person, not an ordained pastor, who leads the congregation's prayer. (Look elsewhere in this web-site for suggestions about "Crafting the Prayers" and the importance of both scope and sequence in those prayers.)

The metaphor here? We are to be a people who intercede for one another, and for our world. More than that: We are to live lives of intercession. We are to live intercessory lives, vicarious lives, representative lives; not simply for others, but also on behalf of others, in place of others. The Christian life is a life of intercessory service: You stand, and serve, and obey -- and suffer, if need be! -- on behalf of, in the place of, all those out there who cannot, or who will not, stand and serve and obey and suffer. Note that plural pronoun in the accounts of Jesus' healing of the paralytic: "When Jesus saw their faith..." -- the faith of the friends on the roof! -- he heals and forgives the paralytic!

Rubric 26

At the presenting of the Offering and the singing of the Offertory, it is a lay person, not a pastor, who receives the gifts of money, bread and wine, and prays the Offertory Prayer.

The metaphor: We are to be a people who serve as stewards of the world's riches. To use two nouns as verbs: We are to steward the earth, to husband it. (Sign on the Ohio Turnpike: "The following are prohibited on this highway: pedestrians, bicycles, and implements of husbandry...") This aspect of discipleship is in our day only beginning to attract its due attention. Human beings are the earth's stewards. Christian human beings have an enormous responsibility precisely here. We receive the world into our hands, and use its resources, with prayerful reverence.

Rubric 35

At the distribution of Bread and Cup, lay people participate with the ordained. The metaphor: We are to be a people who feed the world's hungers. The hunger for food is of course primary; here is a "hungry feast" that models the justice of God's reign. Rich and poor receive the same: The rich at this Table do not get more than enough; the poor do not go away hungry. But there are other human hungers also: the hunger for truth, for beauty, for goodness. Artists and musicians are thus feeding the world's hungers, as surely as those in agriculture and earth "husbandry."

And following the prolepsis suggested in the Lord's Prayer, we are given authority, by our Lord, to feed the world's hungers today with "tomorrow's bread." See Essay 30 above. We have yet to work out most of the implications of that promise!

Rubrics 40 and 43

Finally, after post-communion prayer and benediction, it is a lay person who has the last word in our worship: "Go in peace. Serve the Lord." The metaphor: We are to be a people sent out in the world as a blessing. You, me: each of us a benediction to the world. If we only believed that! Wow!