Daniel Oh - Church Visit #1

Church Name: Saint Peter and Saint Paul Orthodox Church
Church Address: 6980 S County Line Rd, Burr Ridge, Illinois
Date Attended: 2/28/16
Church Category: Greek Orthodox

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

I think the general structure of the service was the same as my regular church service. There was a sort of worship at the beginning, a reading of Scripture, a sermon, a time of response, prayer, and the reciting of the Nicene Creed. However, the differences in how each of these played out were interesting. There was singing, to be sure, but not like the worship at my regular church (no Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, or Hillsong). It was all acapella. They sang some liturgy that I had a difficult time following. In addition, instead of reading the Scriptures they sang them (with a great fondness for the high E note and an occasional E flat). What was most interesting about the sermon, which could not have been more than fifteen minutes long, was the response from the woman sitting to our left (Holden and me). She claimed the priest had not given such a long message in months! Another neat thing about the service was the prayer: the priest sang the prayers (very specific ones) with the same two notes they had been singing while reading Scripture.

How did the worship service illuminate for you the history and contours of global Christianity?

Besides the overwhelming presence of icons and imagery, I could not help but think that I was at a Bar Mitzvah. The singing of Scriptures along with the systematic standing and sitting brought me back to the synagogue I attended in seventh grade for my thirteen-year-old Jewish friends. It was then I remembered the Jewish roots of our faith. The early church, which every contemporary church claims to be emulating, probably sounded a lot more like the orthodox service than my regular church services. The whole service seemed to be community-oriented, as opposed to individual-oriented like most modern ecclesial models. There was not one mention of a personal Lord and Savior. There was only the church, the saints, and Christ. Although the whole scene was at first foreign and, to be honest, a bit disorienting, the worshipers looked less and less like strangers and more and more like fellow believers as the service went on.

How did the worship service illuminate for you your personal identity as a Christian?

I think the part of the service that really illuminated my personal identity as a Christian was the message. The priest spoke on the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) and I was quite surprised to hear his interpretation of the passage. While I expected a medieval allegorical hermeneutic, the sermon was not unlike most sermons I had heard growing up about the prodigal son. He told the story of a younger son who did not understand the love of the Father and prematurely took his inheritance to squander it on sinful pleasures. Having reached his lowest point, he returned to beg for a servant’s position only to be received by the grace and forgiveness his Father had prepared for him. I think that is where I find my identity and all of the church has found their identities for two millennia. Whatever tradition, whatever emphasis, whether the emphasis falls on the incarnation or the crucifixion, whether the bread and wine are symbolic or transubstantiated or anything in between; we are defined by a triune God who created us, loves us, and will glorify us.