And All the People Shall Say Amen

Did you know that this worship service cannot take place without your permission? Even if this is the first Sunday you have walked through the doors of St. John’s. Particularly that portion of the service entitled Holy Communion, when we come to it, cannot proceed without your assent. This power of yours has nothing to do with authority over the style or shape of worship at St. John’s. Episcopal church law grants the rector total and absolute authority over every aspect of worship in a parish. Nor does your power have anything to do with money or the physical plant here at St. John’s. Ultimately, a building and electricity and heat are not essential to worship for the people of God (although they are certainly helpful in February).

But the celebration of the Holy Eucharist does depend upon your presence and your participation. But even more than your presence and your voice, this service requires your active and willful assent. At every service of the Holy Eucharist, you are specifically asked whether or not you wish to embark upon that portion of the service which is Holy Communion. The opportunity comes to you in that portion of the service right after the offertory, when the offerings of bread and wine have been placed upon the altar, when the financial offerings have been received and presented and the offerings of our prayers and our selves have been affirmed.

Then the priest says, "The Lord be with you." It is a greeting; the beginning of a conversation. The words invite a response. If you wish to engage in this conversation, you reply, "And also with you." ["And with thy spirit."] At that point, we are in this together, all of us. It is no longer just I speaking; it is a conversation. Then the priest says, "Lift up your hearts." It is a question more than a command. Will you lift up your hearts? Please, tell me you wish to lift up your hearts to the Lord. If you do, you reply, yes "we lift them to the Lord." And then the real focal point of this dialogue. The priest says, "Let us give thanks to the Lord our God." ["Let us give thanks unto our Lord God."] Give thanks. Remember the word Eucharist means thanks-giving. This dialogue begins a prayer that is called the Great Thanksgiving. Let us give thanks. Again, it is a question. Shall we give thanks to the Lord our God?

The formula of this conversation between presider and people goes back to at least the second century and it is universal in Christian Eucharistic prayers. It is there because we cannot continue without it. The Celebrant in the Eucharist cannot proceed with the thanksgiving of the Eucharist until receiving the assembled community’s authority to proceed in the name of all. "Let us give thanks to the Lord our God… shall we?" And when you, as individuals and as a congregation, say "It is right to give God thanks and praise" ["It is meet and right so to do"], you authorize the Celebrant to continue on your behalf. And, even more importantly, you affirm your belief and participation in what follows. You claim your role as a participant in the Eucharist. A participant.

It is St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that got me onto this soapbox. And it is one of my soapboxes. Every congregation I have ever served has heard some version of this sermon. Several times. My core message being that liturgy—our corporate worship—is active, engaging, participatory. That was a big part of Paul’s message to the church in Corinth. Paul wrote, "Otherwise, [if you are speaking unintelligibly in tongues] how can anyone in the position of an outsider say the "Amen" to your thanksgiving?" The merits or blessings of speaking in tongues is not my focus today. What strikes me is Paul’s emphasis on edifying and engaging the entire congregation—everyone who had congregated for worship. If everyone present—old, young; newcomer, long-time member; cradle Episcopalian, first-time visitor; woman or man—if everyone present cannot or does not "say the Amen" then something, Paul says, is amiss.

As far as I know, the word Amen is the same in every language. At least in liturgical use, it is not translated. It is originally a Hebrew word with the meaning "firm" or "established." It is used in the Hebrew Scriptures as an acknowledgment that a saying is valid and binding and constitutes a claim that is accepted. In synagogue worship it served as a community response of assent and confirmation. Not just closure. Assent and confirmation. In just one chapter of Deuteronomy where the liturgy of ancient Israel is described the phrase "all the people shall say amen" occurs twelve times. And those fiery evangelical preachers who call for "an amen" when they preach are on the right track. The people’s engagement, assent, confirmation, participation are essential parts of liturgy.

That assent and participation are somewhat formalized in our Episcopal tradition, but they are no less important. Think about it. The very first words of our Eucharistic worship service are acclamation and response. "Blessed be God…" "And blessed be God’s kingdom…" Acclamation and response. Question and answer. Prayer and amen.

Paul stresses how important it is for the building up of the community that everyone present "say the amen." Everyone. That means that if our neighbor (either our neighbor in the pew or our neighbor in the world) is not saying the amen with us, we should ask why. We should ask what we could do to bring everyone into participation in our worship. But first we must participate ourselves. At the most basic level we must bring our hearts and souls and voices into worship. Being a life-long Episcopalian, I don’t expect to hear "amen’s" when I’m preaching, but I sure hope to hear them, to hear you say them, throughout the service. "Amen" is so much more than formula or formality. If these prayers are your prayers, say amen like you mean it.

Especially the Great Amen. The Great Thanksgiving, which begins with the dialogue I described earlier, ends with the Great Amen. Amongst what must be hundreds of amen’s in the Prayer Book, only one is written in capital letters. Capital A, capital M, capital E, capital N. The Great Thanksgiving cannot begin without your permission and assent, and it certainly should not end without your affirmation. It is the prayer in which we invoke and consecrate Christ’s real presence with us in this Holy Communion. As early as the second century, Justin Martyr wrote, "Bread and wine and water are brought up, and the president offers prayers and thanksgiving to the best of his ability, and the people assent, saying the Amen." Say the Amen.

Lift up your hearts. Lift up your voices. Engage yourself, all that you are, as an active participant in worship. And let there be no doubt to anyone listening in heaven or on earth that we affirm God’s power and presence in our lives and that we all seek and celebrate with thanksgiving the gift of Christ’s Body and Blood in this Holy Communion.

And all the people shall say Amen.

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