The Magic of Ritual
Scripture lessons: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
“Jesus said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied right about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This
people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me…”
Mark 7.6
New Revised Standard Version
Some years ago I came across a book by Tom Driver entitled, The Magic of Ritual. When I saw the title I wondered how many people would think to put the words ‘magic’ and ‘ritual’ in the same sentence. I have certainly heard people speak wearily of the ‘same old rituals’ and especially with reference to annual meetings, communion or baptism. Clearly these individuals are describing rituals which, for them, have lost their magic.
People of faith are always performing rituals: marriages, baptisms and memorial services. Then there are rituals that occur as features of daily life: a morning cup of coffee with the newspaper, or a movie night with pizza. These different rituals bring a certain order and richness to life. But sometimes the familiar becomes lifeless because we lose the awareness of what we are doing. As T.S. Eliot says in one of his poems: “We had the experience but missed the meaning.”
I believe that Jesus understood rituals as events that mark profound times of transition in human lives, and that open up the possibilities of communication between people of faith and God. Therefore, when it comes to rituals it is not enough just to get the actions right. There has to be a sense of offering ourselves to the Giver of Life, of giving ourselves to one another. When this sharing of lives has taken place, we have not simply performed a ritual: God has performed a miracle.
Prayer: O God of mystery and the mundane, through ordinary worship and spectacular routine, help us to sense the gentle might of your Spirit, leading us more deeply into the riches of life in community with all your creatures on this good and fragile earth; through Jesus the Christ. Amen.
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