Joel Garver explores the nature of the liturgy in this wonderful piece. He concludes:
Finally, liturgy is humbling. Our worship seeks a repeated encounter with our living Lord through word and sacrament to cultivate gospel-shaped lives for the sake of mission. Our identity and renewal is neither a private, individual possession nor a product of our own corporate efforts. Nor is grace dependent upon what we might feel at the moment or our personal worthiness or intellectual grasp of theology. In its set patterns, liturgy manifests salvation as a gift we receive from outside of us. God’s promise of salvation, held out in the gospel word and sacraments, is offered freely to us. Only in the humility of faith do we receive what God offers. As a community practice, liturgy urges us humbly to wait upon one another, to set aside our own agendas, and to coordinate our actions with those of fellow believers. The humility of faith works itself out in humility towards others. Liturgy reminds us that God never calls us out of the world simply to confer upon us some kind of privileged status, but always in humble service to his mission. We are summoned together in worship so God can prepare us to bear his saving purposes out into the world.
