Leithart on Liturgy in Song of Solomon

Peter Leithart has some intriguing thoughts about the liturgical implications of the Song of Solomon:

“The opening statement of Song of Songs 2 is spoken by the Bride, but the Bridegroom chimes in with an enhancement.  This is the liturgical structure of conversation, and of life, and of love.  When Adam named the animals, he found no one to share in His priestly task in the garden-sanctuary of God.  He is not looking first of all for a sexual partner, or even a friend, but for a liturgical partner.  He needs someone who will speak back to his word.  Eve is created to speak back to Adam the enhancing, glorifying word of the bride, as humanity, the Bride of God, speaks back to her divine Husband.  As James Jordan says, women were created to talk back to men, and that back-talk is primarily liturgical, though the liturgy finally encompasses all of life.

This is the structure of the Psalms and Proverbs.

In many Psalms, the verses are two lines long; the first states something or exclaims a praise to God, and the second is the enhancing, glorifying response.  The second line “parallels” the first, but it is not merely a restatement.  It is the glorifying, feminine response to the masculine statement of the first line.  “Bless the Lord, O my soul” says the priest; “And all that is within me, bless His holy name,” comes the Bridal reply.  That dialogic structure is inherent in much of the church’s liturgical tradition.”

Read the rest here …

Leavened or Unleavend Bread?

Recently, someone visited our church, and was distressed over our use of leavened bread for the Lord’s Supper.  They felt so strongly about it, that they could not partake of the Supper.  Questions were asked, and here is my shooting-from-the-hip response.  If anyone finds a hole in my arguments, or has additional points to add, I’d be most grateful!

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Here is my brief explanation of why we use leavened bread.  First, I’m glad that someone cared so much about what we are doing in church!  Too often, we don’t realize the importance of what we are doing.  We need to think, study, and pray about every detail of our worship service!  Second, we need to ask what our pattern for NT worship is.  Why would we assume that we should use unleavened bread?