”Liturgy” means the standard speech of public worship. In a figurative sense, liturgy often refers to approved ritual phrases. While attending a funeral last week, I thought of the religious language that I rarely encounter in my everyday life. In the specialized vocabulary of religion, there are many metaphors (streams of grace, bread of life), archaic expressions (thee, thou, tabernacle), unexpected word order (the Son of Man, the word of the Lord) and uncommon words (hallelujah, amen, atonement). A person’s attention tends to focus on the language and the manner of expression, while the actual message seems remote from our everyday life.
The challenges of the church’s special language are similar to those of the language used by government officials. The church’s phrasing is closely linked to the Bible; administration’s wording is tied to legal text. The status of both sources is so sacred that those who comply with them dare not deviate from accepted expression; instead, they follow past practice – literally. With everyday language, by contrast, the key message could relate more closely to the experience of the listeners, i.e. the word becomes flesh.