Reformed worship focuses on the majesty of God’s transcendence and the frailty and sinfulness of humans. Reformed worship captures, proclaims, and enacts the gospel.
Two somewhat contradictory images might be used to introduce the theology of Reformed worship: the majestic vision and call of Isaiah in the temple (Isa. 6:1–8), and the depiction of the high-pulpited Congregational church in Melville’s Moby Dick. Disparate as these images might seem at first glance, both, like the depictions of the worship of the redeemed in the book of Revelation, assume the majesty and the transcendence of God, even in the white simplicity of a New England church. The historic trail of Reformed and Presbyterian worship has always emphasized God’s majesty and power and the frailty of humanity in approaching him.
Central to Calvin and his followers was the proclamation of the Word. The Word declared through Scripture and even more than for Luther stood at the center of worship. God was transcendent, all-powerful: viz., the Westminster Shorter Catechism: “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.” This is why early Reformed worship, both in Geneva and in Scotland, always had near its beginning a general confession or penitential psalm, to demarcate who the worshiper was, relative to God. This Calvinistic (and Augustinian) sense of the sovereignty of God is the “ground bass” of this worship, and although the awe of Isaiah might be present, it swiftly yields to a search for the divine will expounded in the Word and submits in human obedience to the Word’s commission.
As in the book of Revelation, the Word is Jesus Christ, but Reformed worship (partly in reaction to elements of the medieval Mass perceived by Protestants as fanciful) eschewed the pageantry of the Revelation worship scenes, though the Christ was still the center and the source of its word. Church historians speak of the passion of people of the Reformation for sermons, and such was indeed the case. Worship is not to be “creative art,” pace much of modern Protestant and Catholic experimentation. To use the metaphor of Dr. D. H. Hislop (Our Heritage in Public Worship, Edinburgh, 1935), Reformed worship contains more of the “downward” motif than the “upward,” although the Reformed insistence, from Calvin on, for sung psalms and hymns encourages the latter. The “upward” was held in check so that the focus would not be on the worshiper and on his or her feelings, but on him who is worshiped and on His Word to the worshiper.
The classic Reformers, which would include Calvin, Bucer, Oecolampedius, Beza, Farel, Zwingli, and Knox, all sought a weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper, which they viewed as an apostolic custom, as part of regular Sunday morning service. It was expected that Communion would be received in both kinds by all repentant worshipers on each occasion of celebration. This would have radically increased the frequency of individual Communion from the prevailing pre-Reformation custom, in which individuals might commune once a year or even less often. Calvin was thwarted in his hopes, however, by the governing laity in his church, who supported the quarterly observance of the Lord’s Supper. Similar compromises seem to have been made by other Reformers as well. (When the sacrament was not celebrated, the service ended where the prayer of consecration would have occurred, with a concluding hymn and benediction.) In Reformed churches a common loaf was used, broken for their own portions by the worshipers, and a common cup was passed. Many congregations gathered around tables for the reception of the elements, maintaining the aspect of a covenant meal rather than a sacrifice. These Reformers generally used a set prayer of consecration in the Lord’s Supper and most assumed some form of the Real Presence in the sacrament. Calvin clearly emphasized Jesus’ presence through his Word, made apparent at the words of institution, “This is my body … ; this is my blood.… ” Zwingli, on the other hand, saw the Real Presence more in the memory of the gathered community.
The Reformers used prayer books of varying degrees of complexity. The prayers of the invocation at the beginning of the service and the great prayer of intercession, further along, would be from a prayer-book; but a time, usually after the sermon, was allotted for free prayer by the minister. John Knox’s Book of Common Order for Scot’s kirk was largely modeled on Calvin’s Genevan Form of Prayers, but also showed some awareness of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.
Significant differences began to develop by the 17th century between the English-speaking churches of the Reformed family and the Continental ones. The Puritan Revolution in England and Scotland, culminating in the Westminster Assembly (1643) during Cromwell’s rule, saw the more liturgical Scots’ kirk making common cause with the Puritan party among Anglicans and even some English Congregationalists. The Anglican Puritans were skeptical of liturgy and the English Congregationalists were hostile towards it, but the Scots were political enough to compromise in liturgical matters. This led to a significant decline in both liturgy and liturgical theology in Scottish Presbyterianism and its later American forms, as well as in American colonial Puritanism. In a similar fashion, the five “evangelical holidays” observed until then fairly uniformly in the various Reformed churches (Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost) were neglected or proscribed in the Puritan era in England, Scotland, and America. In contrast, descendants of Continental Reformed churches in North America stayed closer to their Calvinistic roots, although some of their more evangelical offshoots tended to adopt Puritan anti-liturgical practices.
Advent and Lent were generally discouraged by the Reformers as being non-Biblical. Their penitential slant appeared too close to a doctrine of salvation by works and the possibility of pre-Reformation abuses to which such a theology had given rise. Similarly, saints’ days and prayers to saints were eliminated by the Reformers, but the church was encouraged in sermons to remember with thanks and emulation the faithful witnesses and teachers across the centuries of church history.
Early Reformed worship encouraged the historic three lessons (Old Testament, Epistle, and Gospel), usually with several sung psalms. While some lectionaries were used, a more primary emphasis gradually became reading and preaching through a complete book at a time (or three books concurrently, as above). Since the preacher might want to spend longer on one passage than another, the result was the decline of set lectionaries, allowing greater expository freedom to the individual minister. Scripture was all inspired by God, of course, but little time was generally spent on the more arcane or tribal portions of books like Leviticus and Numbers. The progression through one or more books of the Bible would be interrupted for church holidays or other occasional major events in the life of the community.
With the reduction in the observance of feasts and seasons came a richer observance of the Lord’s Day as a weekly celebration of the Resurrection. No other major Christian tradition can compare with the richness of the use of Sunday by the Reformed, Presbyterian, and Puritan traditions which would have decried our modern Sabbath excursions to shopping malls, professional sporting events, and weekend resorts.
Dr. Hughes Oliphant Old, leading contemporary Presbyterian worship scholar, in his superb review of Reformed worship (Worship That is Reformed According to Scripture [Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1984]), cites five essentials of this worship: it is according to Scripture; it is in the name of Christ; it is the work of the Holy Spirit; the fruits of the Spirit in holiness and love flow from it, not vice versa; and it edifies or builds up the church.
The Reformed understanding of baptism redeveloped the biblical and Augustinian sense of covenant. Baptism is not the final step in sanctification, completing a longer period of catechumenate, as happened at various times in church history and as the Anabaptists wished to restore. Such would put the emphasis on man’s holiness, approaching a works salvation, rather than emphasizing God’s grace through his covenant in Jesus Christ. Instead, baptism was the initiation into God’s covenant family, the church, the body of Christ on earth. Growth in holiness following baptism was expected, from the grace of this covenant relationship with Christ. For infants, this would mean later catechetical instruction and public confession of faith prior to welcome to the Lord’s Supper, usually near the age of twelve. All the Reformers developed thorough and theologically incisive catechisms for this purpose. Baptism as a covenant of the family of Christ was always to be done in a service of public worship. It was a continuation of the Old Testament covenant of circumcision. The Holy Spirit was truly given in the baptism, which was seen as a sign and symbol of something present, not something absent. No other anointing, use of oils, etc., was to be included, for nothing more was needed save the biblical pouring of the water of baptism with the use of the biblical Trinitarian formula.
Similarly, the Lord’s Supper was seen as a covenant meal, with antecedent covenant meals noted in both Old and New Testaments. The Lord was indeed present with his people in the Supper, but his presence was not narrowly localized in the bread and the wine. Again, the Supper was a covenant sign of his presence, not merely a memory of something or someone absent. It was to be celebrated, however, as simply and directly as Jesus himself did with his disciples. This lessened the sense of mystery of the medieval Mass and the Orthodox liturgies, but it strengthened the sense of the power and presence of the Word known through the Scriptures. The eucharistic motif and the praise motif were found in the sung psalms (or sometimes hymns), and in the great prayer of intercession, where the whole history of salvation—Creation, Fall, Incarnation, and redemption—was remembered. “Holy mysteries” would not, however, be an apt phrase for the Reformed Lord’s Supper.
Only baptism and the Lord’s Supper were considered sacraments in the Augustinian sense, but the propriety of some other seven sacraments was recognized, and these were retained as ordinances of the church.
One final note can be added concerning trends of the late 20th century, particularly in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Perhaps as a result of the ecumenical movement, perhaps as a search for more beauty and mystery and drama in worship, this denomination has sought to recover or redeem some pre-Reformation practices. These are reflected in theological or practical suggestions or enablements in the “Directory for Worship,” adopted in 1989 as part of that church’s constitution. There are now six new official but voluntary worship resource books on baptism, the service for the Lord’s Day (Eucharist), marriage, funeral services, daily prayer, and special services. Some of the suggested variations from past Reformed tradition include anointing with oil at baptism and confirmation for the sick, the renunciation of evil in the baptismal service, and certain other phraseological or liturgical actions which most of the early leaders of the Reformed tradition had rejected. At the same time, the increasing success of special interest groups in the denomination has forced other changes in areas such as language, worship, psalmody, hymnody, and even Scripture to achieve “politically correct” ends, so much so that the 1990 Presbyterian Hymnal has been called “the p.c. P.C. (USA) Hymnal.” It is too early to say whether the use of liturgy to achieve politically correct thinking (whether in language or other matters) will succeed or will increase mainstream alienation. Whatever one’s political persuasion, however, it is clear that this change in the Presbyterian and Reformed understanding of worship turns it into humanity’s tool to achieve humanistic goals and is far distant from the high Reformation concept of worship infused by the Word from the mouth of God.