“Be reconciled with your brother, and then come
and offer your gift.” St. Matthew 5:24
When we
gather together as God’s people, our common act is called liturgy. The word liturgy
is taken from the Greek, and like many of the terms we think of as exclusively
religious, it originally had a secular meaning.
It means “public service,” and in ancient times, when a ruler or a
prominent person would build a bridge or sponsor a series of athletic contests,
he might describe it as his liturgy—as an act he had done for the benefit of
all.
Much of our
practice of the Christian life is conducted in private. In our homes, hidden from the world, we pray
for the world’s needs and the good of our souls. At our desks, we read the Bible and decide
how we will use our wealth to care for the poor and support the work of the
Gospel. Our faith comes to life when we
insist on honesty in the staff meeting at work, or tell our children Bible
stories at the bedside, or talk to a friend in distress about how God has
helped us through a hard time.
But this
work, our common service, is public, for the benefit of all. The doors are open to everyone. It is conducted in a large and prominent
building, and we fill it with sound, color and movement. Pastors sometimes call what happens on Sunday
morning our “shop window,” the place where our deepest convictions are on
display to those who won’t know anything else about our faith and our
particular community. As Jesus reminds
us in today’s Gospel, it should flow from our love and care for each other, as
people reconciled to God and to one another.
