The reader is currently receiving a theme issue about the liturgy of the church. In its composition we were motivated by the consideration that it is proper and necessary to interact with each other regularly about this matter.

Every week we come together as a church of Christ to hear God’s Word, to use the sacraments, to call publicly upon God the Lord, and to show Christian mercy to the poor — as the Heidelberg Catechism says in the explanation of the fourth commandment (Lord’s Day 38). The scope of these actions requires a certain design, which should be aimed to seek the honour of our God and to strengthen our faith. After all, we meet our God who in his majesty and love wants to deal with us. We are living under the gospel that Christ earned for us in his bitter suffering. We dwell in the house of the Spirit and we know our singing to be included in the praise of the angels. In this meeting with God, if our actions are to be a pleasing sacrifice to the Lord, then we will have to act with dignity and proper decorum in God’s house. That is what the liturgy is all about, and we should bear this in mind when reflecting on it.

We all know that the liturgical awareness among Reformed people is not highly developed. Moreover, our meagre grip on liturgical awareness is constantly being threatened by various dangers. We want to briefly point out three dangers.

One of the main threats is the danger of habituation, which inevitably comes with the weekly repeated use of fixed forms and patterns. Liturgy cannot be imagined without fixed forms. In this steadiness lies a suprapersonal element, which remains through the generations, sets us free from casual improvisations by the pastor, and makes us realize our connection with earlier generations. However, as it goes with so many good habits in our lives, here too the beneficial rigidity threatens to take away the splendour of the event. Even the most beautiful things in our lives can then become dull, or rust spots may appear.

How can we combat that risk? By constantly reminding each other of the origin and meaning of our liturgical actions. As often as we do this, each of us will realize that we are only beginners when it comes to the liturgy. Sometimes it may seem as if we, practiced Christians, have mastered the liturgy: we know the required terms and gestures and control the necessary moves. But as soon as we start to think about the meaning of each component we come to the startling discovery that we have never once been able to fully involve our heart in every part of the service, or to make ourselves to focus entirely on the honour of our God and the Lamb.

A second danger, associated with the first, is the domestication of our liturgy. In this instance the meeting with our God is adapted to our lifestyle and we use it in a way that suits our idea of coziness and homeliness, our civility. We no longer see any sacred angels, but we feel like we belong together: the minister is there to provide weekly in our need for edifying thoughts, and while we enjoy our peppermint snack we “say in our hearts” the words of the catholic and undoubted Christian faith and we are under God’s law and gospel. After the service we inform each other of our often-simplistic observations about the minister’s performance.

On the other hand, a lack of capacity to create the right style carries the threat of world conformity — a third danger. While in the past our going to church was often used to show how well-dressed we were, nowadays (for example) the criticism of our affluent society may become evident in our gatherings: well-meaning boys and girls think they can present themselves before the face of God as people dressed in ragged and frayed materials. This would be a “new lifestyle.”

I am pleased to see that in the church services we are no longer living in the nineteenth, but in the twentieth century. But that does not mean that our church services must reflect the notions of our culture, or that we can challenge each other in the church with our deliberate contempt for a worthy stature in our encounter with each other and with our God. “Liturgy” means giving shape to our appearance before God’s majesty. In this place, ostentation and sloppiness, grand-standing and a society-critical lifestyle turn into pathetic and ridiculous displays. Instead, we should learn to build a spirit of mutual identity that in a degenerated society knows how to display the beauty of God’s good creation in the gatherings of the church. At this point we encounter the relationship between liturgy and art: the art of speaking, architecture, music, and vocal arts.

We can still wish and reflect a lot about these things among ourselves. That is why we need to address each other regularly on these points. The editorial team hopes that this theme issue may be an incentive for many to reflect and to act.