The way we worship in the ELCA is built on tradition and ritual. I see worship not as a remnant of an old-fashioned practice, but as a conscious choice to create a commonality and consistency that exists above our human flaws and imperfections. This makes worship “user-proof” – creating something bigger than our individual practices and longer than our individual lives. When we follow the liturgies, sing songs and hymns, and take communion, we sense this permanency. We remember that no matter how much we wander, no matter how many wrinkles crease the folds of our reality, one place is always real and always true.
I believe worship is a form of memory. It’s an acknowledgment of everything that has come before, and a statement of faith in everything that will come after. But the reverse is also true: Memory is a form of worship. When I look back at the stages of my life, I find this common thread: the desire for lasting closeness, compassion, peace, hope, and love.
This message is excerpted from “It’s complicated” by Abigail Accettura in the September 2020 Gather magazine. Today we commemorate Dag Hammarskjold, renewer of society, 1961.
You are invited to pray that traveling mercies attend the voting members of the Twelfth Triennial Convention (2023) who arrive in Phoenix today. The convention begins tomorrow.
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