1. CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Part 2: How Ancient Worship Became Less “Contemporary” and More “Traditional”
30 June 2019
Dr. Lester Ruth
Duke Divinity School

2. Word and Table Four-Fold Order
Gathering
A time in the Word of God (the Bible)
The Lord’s Supper and other acts of response
Sending

3. Justin Martyr, Mid-Second Century
On the day called Sunday, there is an assembling of those who live in cities or the countryside, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits. Then, when the reader has stopped, the presider in a sermon admonishes and invites us to the imitation of these good things.

4. Then we all stand up together and offer prayers to God
Then we all stand up together and offer prayers to God. And, as we said before, when we have stopped praying, bread and wine and water are brought, and the presider sends up prayers and thanksgivings in similar fashion, to the best of his ability, and the people give their assent, saying “Amen.” And there is a distribution and a partaking by each person of the food over which thanks have been given. And the food is sent to those who are not present by means of the deacons.

5. A question for the translator: Could we have the entire passage from Justin Martyr up here in Chinese?

6. An Open-endedness to Time

7. Extemporaneity

8. Actions, Not Objects

10. Common Ground Justin Martyr Praise and Worship Open-ended Time
Extemporaneity
A Flow of Actions

13. Open-ended Time Extemporaneity A Flow of Actions
Bounded Time Written Out Texts A Sequence of Objects

14. Examples of Liturgical (Objects)
Gloria in Excelsis (Glory to God in the highest….)
Te Deum (We praise you, O God. We acknowledge you to be the Lord….)
The Doxology (Praise God, from whom all blessings flow….)

16. Objects individually listed

20. Can an ancient Word and Table order be done today with the same groove seen in the second century and in contemporary praise and worship services?