Liturgy as Transformational Drama

(Part 1)

My wife and I used to live in  Spain and we would often have what I called “Miss America” days.  These were days in which (no matter how much we love Spain) we would have a negative encounter with Spanish culture or we would just find ourselves missing some aspect of American culture.  On days like these we would set up the computer and watch a few episodes of Lori’s favorite sitcom, “Friends.”  Over the course of our time in Spain, we ritualistically worked our way through most of the seasons.  What I’m saying is, we got addicted to this show!  We were watching so much that it became almost an alternate reality.  If we missed our real friends back home we would put on “Friends” and get a false sense of friendship from these characters and their lives that began to seem so very real.  I realized that immersing ourselves in this show was altering our current reality.  I would find myself in situations in which I would say to myself, “What would Chandler say in this moment?” or “That girl is acting just like Rachel!”

Now I don’t recommend making this or any sitcom your alternate reality of choice because there are, as we will see, better narratives that we can find altering our reality.  What I found happening in our time spent with our “Friends” just proved to me the power of narrative.  Narrative or drama has the power to actually alter reality.

I realized that facts and cognitive data do not shape our reality as much as the narratives, the stories of life that influence and shape us.  Of course those sitcom characters weren’t actually our friends, but they were enacting something true.  They were enacting community—so much so that to this day, if Lori and I feel a little lonely, we put on “Friends” and that old nostalgic feeling of community comes back.

It’s not that watching a TV show is a sin.  After all, everything points to the one True narrative.  Only we need to be careful not to let the many competing narratives begin to trump the great overarching Grand Narrative.  The best way to do this is to spend some time immersing yourself in the Great Story.  That is where the weekly gathering is crucial. 

We Christians enact a story on a weekly (and yearly) basis.  Sometimes and in some churches that story is not very interesting or engaging or life changing and there are a lot of reasons for that, one being that we don’t follow the story that was given to us and we begin adding or subtracting the elements that actually make the story great.  Or we may not understand the story very well so we don’t’ tell and retell it very well. 

No matter what we do in the gathering, no matter how well we retell the Grand Narrative of the Gospel, no matter what elements we use and the quality and excellence of our use of them during the hour or so that we are gathered together, our reality is being altered.  We are being transformed.  So my desire is to reenact that drama in all its fullness and glory so that a stupid sitcom, though mildly entertaining, comes under the Grand narrative and is reinterpreted in light of the Grand narrative that is rehearsed on Sunday.  Notice I didn’t say, “Make the church service so great that you don’t want to watch sitcoms anymore.”  That is a false dichotomy that does not bring God’s redemption into every facet of life.  So after having my reality altered (recalibrated) by the Word, Sacrament, Prayer and Song, I can go out into the world and participate in the drama that I just acted out (as if the Sunday gathering is a dress rehearsal) bringing God’s redemption to this broken world.

Think about the elements of your Sunday gathering.  How are they transforming you?  In what way are they altering your reality?  Are you, body and soul, being recalibrated so that Jesus is the focus of your story?