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Worship as Ethics: A Yoderian Visit

Worship as Ethics: A Yoderian Visit

Vincent CP LAU

What is the relationship between worship and ethics? It seems to be a sensible question to ask? However, it is not new since Paul Ramsey was aware of their relationship in the late 1970s. Influenced by Barthian theology, John Howard Yoder argues that the life of the church is liturgical and the church is a worshiping community, that is, worship has to be embodied in the everyday life of Christians. The five practices of the church proposed by Yoder are not only ecclesiastical practices but also social ethical, serving as a paradigmatic public role for the people of God. Those practices are sacraments (ordinances), implying that God would be acting “in, with, and under” those human activities simultaneously. Essentially, these practices are worship, ministry, and doxology, and they are celebratory and mandatory by nature. Those who are influenced by Yoderian theology share a concurrence of views on worship as ethics. Firstly, worship is the real world or real life, that is, a microcosm of Christians' lives. Secondly, worship is the occasion to foster a correct vision and to liberate Christians from “common sense.” They are the ways to refuse the marginalization and privatization of worship by the modernized Constantinian situation that originated from the Enlightenment. Worship is a counterlanguage to the language of the world; namely, on Sunday, the church learns what it is to be Christian Monday through Saturday. Lastly, worship is an eschatological practice of Christian daily life and “liturgy after the liturgy”. All Christian lives are liturgy and a reasonable worship to Christ.

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