Introduction
From the establishing of an independent Church of England in the mid-16th century up to the early 20th century, the form of Anglican worship has remained largely unchanged. The dominant form was found in the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), primarily in the 1662 version of that book.[1] But as regional variations and innovations began to emerge over the last 100 years, a question arose as to what holds Anglican worship together. What common threads are found in each of these new forms? What is the essential core?
In 1995, the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation met in Dublin on several issues related to the Eucharist, including this one. In observing the structures of the various Eucharistic liturgies that had emerged, they noted a set of five commonalities: the gathering of God’s people, the proclaiming and receiving of the Word, the prayers of the people, the gathering around the Lord’s table, and going out as God’s people.[2] And while considerable variation is found within the various provincial churches, these parts of the liturgy are frequently seen in roughly this order. Indeed, Christian worship generally tends to include these elements—from the liturgy described by Justin Martyr in the 2nd century to Calvin’s Geneva and Strasbourg liturgies.[3] Why? Why do these elements of worship show up so frequently in Christian liturgy?
An obvious place to start is the Scriptures. Several of these common elements of the liturgy can be seen in the New Testament. For example, we find several familiar parts of worship—prayers, reading and exhortation from the Scriptures, fellowship, the Lord’s Supper—in descriptions of gatherings of the Early Church.[4] But we get very little detail as to the particulars of corporate worship at the time. We know Paul was concerned with the order of the church in a very broad sense and Clement of Alexandria maintained such concern in the 2nd century.[5] But as it specifically relates to the form of worship, do we have older precedents? Or, to put the question differently, how far back can we connect the dots from modern liturgical worship? I would suggest that the book of Leviticus, especially the cycle of sacrifices found early in the book, might provide some interesting answers.
Levitical Offerings
In Numbers 16, Moses speaks of the Levites being engaged in ‘performing the duties of the Lord’s tabernacle.’ The Septuagint translates this as λειτουργεῖν τὰς λειτουργίας—performing liturgical service.[6] And like some subsequent New Testament references, this word refers to the system of sacrifices established for the tabernacle.[7] The sacrifices, that is, were thought of liturgically. And so, it only makes sense to look at the various offerings found in the ancient handbook of worship in the center of the Pentateuch, the book of Leviticus.[8] In the first seven chapters, we find a cycle of five sacrifices for regular worship: the burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, and the peace offering. While the precise order of the offerings varies in practice and it is unlikely that they were all made at the same time as a single experience of worship, it is clear that they served different functions in worship and were made in conjunction with one another at various points.[9]
1. Burnt Offering
The first chapter of Leviticus describes the burnt offering.[10] Two aspects of this sacrifice emerge as significant. First, this sacrifice is for everyone. The three cyclical divisions of animals to be sacrificed are ostensibly dependent on a person’s economic status, making it both possible and necessary for everyone to participate. Second, and more importantly, the burnt offering is the only offering which is completely burned—no portion is reserved to be eaten. The whole sacrifice is turned to smoke so that it becomes a pleasing odor to God, indicating a notion of total surrender to God.[11] In being listed first and indicating this total surrender, this sacrifice is what allows a person to come into the presence of God in the place of worship. This is made even clearer in Deut 12:13-14.[12]
The 1662 BCP Communion liturgy begins with a similar notion, a prayer frequently called the Collect for Purity (in Worship). The bishop or priest will begin the service with a recitation of the shorter version of the Lord’s Prayer followed by this collect:
Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The liturgy wastes no time in acknowledging the unworthiness of the worshipper and the need for grace in order to even approach God to ‘magnify his name.’ In both contexts, the worshipper is expected to surrender completely so that subsequent worship (or sacrifices in Leviticus) might be considered.
2. The Grain Offering
The grain (or meal) offering was not of an animal, yet it was burned on the altar in the same way.[13] The language mirrors that of the Suzerain-vassal relationships of the time period (including the reference to salt, which was generally eaten as part of ratifying a Suzerain-vassal covenant), suggesting that offering is a kind of tribute. Allen Ross describes it this way:
It is fitting for those who have been accepted by God through sacrificial atonement to express their dedication to him. And this is the relationship between the meal and burnt offerings. The meal offering was an acknowledgment that everything the offerer had and was belonged to God; and now, a portion of that substance was given back to God as an expression of the belief that God was the source of and the provider for life.[14]
The theological concepts established in this sacrifice include 1) a desire to please God through voluntarily bringing him gifts, 2) a recognition that God deserves tribute, and 3) a recognition that all a person has is, itself, from God.[15] It is an offering of thankfulness.
In the 1662 BCP liturgy, these ideas are articulated in the offering sentences, verses of Scripture that introduce the tithes and offerings.[16] The importance of the tithe relates back to the distribution of the Promised Land among the tribes of Israel (Joshua 13-21) and the commitment of the tribes to provide for the tribe of Levi.[17] The concept of thankfulness to God for his many provisions is likewise present throughout the liturgy, including in the very next words spoken by the priest at the beginning of the intercessions: “Almighty and everliving God, who by thy holy Apostle has taught us to make prayers, and supplications, and to give thanks for all men…”[18]
3. The Peace Offering
The peace offering (or offering of well-being), returns the reader of Leviticus to the category of animal sacrifices.[19] The purpose and unique qualities of this sacrifice, however, are more challenging to discern. Unlike the burnt offering, just the fat and a few internal organs (kidneys and liver) are offered to God. The rest, by implication, is eaten (as Leviticus 3:17 places a restriction on what can and cannot be eaten). The reasons for making a peace offering are not introduced until chapter 7.
With your thanksgiving sacrifice of well-being you shall bring your offering with cakes of leavened bread. From this you shall offer one cake from each offering, as a gift to the Lord; it shall belong to the priest who dashes the blood of the offering of well-being. And the flesh of your thanksgiving sacrifice of well-being shall be eaten on the day it is offered; you shall not leave any of it until morning.[20]
This description is significant. Cakes and meat are consumed. The peace offering appears to be a kind of community meal, signifying not only peace with God, but peace with each other.[21] In Anglican services of corporate worship, then, the parallel act of worship would be one that incorporates both a notion of peace with God (through Jesus Christ) and a sign of peace shared among the people. It is often called the Passing of the Peace and involves a declaration of peace from the presiding priest and an acknowledgment of peace among the people. The placement of this section of the liturgy, in accordance with Paul’s pleas for community peace in 1 Cor 11:17-34, is fittingly just before the liturgy of the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Interestingly, this portion of the liturgy is omitted from the 1662 BCP, though it appears in Cranmer’s original 1549 BCP and was restored in more recent liturgies.[22]
4. Guilt and Sin Offerings
The final set of sacrifices are the guilt offerings (chapter 4) and the sin offerings (chapter 5)—sacrifices of atonement for sin.[23] Unlike the burnt offering, the atonement made in the guilt and sin offerings is not in order for the worshipper to be able to approach God or come into his presence, but rather it is to repair an impaired relationship. For example, it is clear that by Lev 5:14, a sacrifice is being introduced which includes mandatory restitution to the party against whom a sin was committed. Sin (or guilt) has separated the worshipper from God and others. It has broken the relationships. This set of sacrifices is provided to set things right. Importantly, these sacrifices include an acknowledgment of unintentional sin (Lev 4:13, 4:22, 4:27), as well as seemingly intentional sins (Lev 5:1-6). They require becoming aware of the sin committed (Lev 4:14, 4:23, 4:28). They also require confession of the sin (Lev 5:5). That is, reconciliation with God requires a full accounting of sin and a desire to repent (or turn away) from them.
This theological notion is articulated in the General Confession at the heart of the Holy Communion liturgy in the 1662 BCP.[24]
Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men; We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we, from time to time, most grievously have committed, By thought, word, and deed, Against thy Divine Majesty, Provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; For thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, forgive us all that is past; And grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please thee in newness of life, To the honour and glory of thy Name; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.[25]
In preparation for partaking of the Sacrament, the worshipper is invited to kneel and make a full confession of sin—in “thought, word, and deed.” The weight of these sins is described as intolerable and the worshipper has no choice but to plead for mercy. And having made confession, the absolution is pronounced—not unlike the forgiveness promised in the guilt offering.[26] The absolution is followed by the Comfortable Words (words of comfort following confession) which include a reference to 1 John 2:1, noting that Jesus Christ is “the propitiation for our sins.”
A second confession of sin is made in the liturgy of the Sacrament somewhat later in a prayer often called the Prayer of Humble Access.[27] In fact, these are the last words a worshipper says aloud before the priest offers the words of institution and the distribution of the elements:
We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.[28]
Notice the focus on the blood and its atoning properties—again, not unlike the focus on blood in the guilt and sin offerings.[29] And it is only after this prayer (and subsequent words of institution) that one approaches the altar to partake of the bread and wine, the body and blood.
While the forgiveness of sins through the atonement expressed in these sacrifices is ultimately fulfilled in Christ, we should not assume the Levitical sacrifices and this moment in BCP liturgy server precisely the same function. These sacrifices and, particularly their ultimate expression in the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:1-34) served that atoning function—a function completed in Christ Jesus’s death and resurrection, once and for all (Heb 7:27). Nevertheless, according to Hebrews, the sacrifices served a second function that the Holy Communion continues to serve:
Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach. Otherwise, would they not have ceased being offered, since the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sin?[30]
The sacrifices, and in turn the Holy Communion, remind the Christian worshipper of his or her sinfulness and ultimate need of the propitiation for sins provided for by Christ Jesus. And the liturgy of the Holy Communion continues to have an important function for the formation of the worshipper on a continual basis.
Conclusion
While the liturgy of the BCP Holy Communion and the cycle of sacrifices in Leviticus are not identically structured, there are important similarities in the shape and function of both. In the end, both suggest an ongoing and total need of surrender to God in order to approach him for worship, a need to express thanks, a need to be at peace with both God and fellow worshippers, and a need to make confession of sin and receive forgiveness, to receive and to be assured of atoning reconciliation with God (of which God is the author). And however one sees this historic liturgy, the theological concepts that give it shape are worth seeing in this early context of worship. That is, the theological concepts behind the Levitical sacrifices have an ongoing value for the Christian, even after Christ put an end to the need for such sacrifices: surrender, thanks, peace, and forgiveness. As the BCP suggests, we must not forget, the hope is that the worshipper “might continually profit more and more in the knowledge of God, and be the more inflamed with the love of his true Religion.”[31]
This resource is part of the series Made Like Him: Reflections on Formation and Gathered Worship. Click Here to explore more resources from this series.
Robert Kinney is a priest at Christ Church in Vienna Austria and the Director of Ministries at the Charles Simeon Trust. He holds a PhD in New Testament from the University of Bristol. He is a member of the St. Peter Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
Notes:
[1] Thomas Cranmer, The Book of Common Prayer (1662 Revision), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1662. The current version of the Prayer Book with modernized and adapted liturgies—and which is very widely used in the Church of England—is called Common Worship. The Archbishop’s Council 2000, Common Worship (London: Church House Publishing, 2000). The American equivalent is a 2019 revision of the Book of Common Prayer and can be found here: bcp2019.anglicanchurch.net.
[2] David R. Holeton, ed., Renewing the Anglican Eucharist: Findings of the Fifth International Anglican Liturgical Consultation, Dublin, Eire, 1995 (Cambridge: Grove Books, 1996).
[3] See the discussions of Justin Martyr’s liturgy found in his First Apology as well as John Calvin’s liturgies in Bard Thompson, Liturgies of the Western Church (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1961), 3-10 and 185-224. See also the Sarum Missal (the dominant Roman Catholic source for the Anglican Book of Common Prayer) and Richard Baxter’s Savoy Liturgy and countless other examples from throughout the church’s history.
[4] Acts 2:42-47. Cf., 1 Cor 11:17-34.
[5] 1 Tim 3:14-15, 1 Corinthians 11-14. See 1 Clem. 40:1-5.
[6] Num 16:9.
[7] See Heb 9:21 (λειτουργία) and 10:11 (λειτουργέω). See Act 10:32 for the use of term (λειτουργέω) in a broad sense of worship.
[8] For several useful observations as to how Leviticus is the conceptual center of the Pentateuch, see L. Michael Morales, Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?: A Biblical Theology of the Book of Leviticus (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2015), 23-27.
[9] See Num 6:16-17.
[10] See Lev 1:2-17.
[11] Leviticus 1:9, 1:13, and 1:17.
[12] It later becomes apparent that these sacrifices are made twice daily in Numbers 28:7.
[13] See Lev 2:1-16.
[14] Allen P. Ross, Holiness to the Lord: A Guide to the Exposition of the Book of Leviticus (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002), 98.
[15] These ideas related to tithes and offerings are found throughout the Old Testament: Lev 27:30-34, Numb 18:21, Deut 14:22-29, Mal 3:8-10; cf. Heb 7:1-28. The principle of giving to the Lord for the good of his people is, likewise, maintained in the New Testament (Acts 4:34-35, Acts 20:35, 2 Cor 9:6-9).
[16] The purposes of the grain offering are even more clearly articulated in one of the modern Common Worship liturgy’s prayers at the preparation of the communion table: “Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the splendour, and the majesty; for everything in heaven and on earth is yours. All things come from you, and of your own do we give you.” This language is taken from David’s prayer in 1 Chron 29:11. The Prayers at the Preparation of the Table are found in the President’s Edition of Common Worship. The Archbishop’s Council 2000, Common Worship (President’s Edition; London: Church House Publishing, 2000), 291.
[17] In particular, the tribe of Levi was given no land: “To the tribe of Levi alone Moses gave no inheritance; the offerings by fire to the Lord God of Israel are their inheritance, as he said to them.” (Joshua 13:14). This is significant because they were the tribe who was to take care of the Tabernacle and, later, the Temple (and from which the priesthood is chosen). In chapter 21, they are given cities and pasture lands by the other tribes. In other words, the people of God tithed their property to take care of the tribe in charge of worship and the worship spaces—though it is not typically portrayed as a means of taking care of the tribe of Levi, but as gifts given to the Lord (and only thereby for use by those in his direct service).
[18] Cranmer, Book of Common Prayer, 301.
[19] See Lev 3:1-17.
[20] Lev 7:13-15.
[21] “The main emphasis of the peace offering must be on celebrating all the benefits of being at peace with God; it indicates that all is well between the worshiper and God. The law of the peace offering does not elaborate on the point and so a good deal of material will have to be introduced from parallel discussions. But all the occasions for the peace offering are connected to the blessings of God on the righteous. Such a celebration, then, was the high point of Israelite worship.” Ross, Holiness to the Lord, 111.
[22] The 1549 Book of Common Prayer has a very simple approach to the peace: “Then shall the priest saye: The peace of the Lorde be alwaye with you. The Clerkes. And with thy spirite.” Common Worship introduces the Peace with various scriptural paraphrases (e.g., “Christ is our peace. He has reconciled us to God in one body by the cross. We meet in his name and share his peace.”) and then follows it with: “The peace of the Lord be always with you,” to which the people respond “and also with you.” After this, the congregation is generally invited to ‘share the peace’ through shaking hands or some other gesture. See Archbishop’s Council, Common Worship, 175. The Scriptural basis is, of course,
[23] See Lev 4:1–5:13. It is worth noting that scholarship is divided on whether these are the same set of offerings or whether some distinction between them is important. “To a certain degree both observations are valid. That this is a part of the purification offering is clear from the continuity of the ritual between Lev. 4 and Lev. 5, but that this is a separate section can be seen from the differences between the chapters: 1) The qualification in Lev. 4 of the sins as being inadvertent is not included in Lev. 5. Whereas Lev. 4 gave a general description of the type of sin covered, Lev. 5 lists specific sins—and these sins could hardly be judged as inadvertent. 2) In Lev. 5 the sins bring guilt (ʾāšām) and require confession (hitwaddâ). Neither of these terms is used in Lev. 4. 3) The sins in Lev. 4 seem to be committed alone, but the sins in Lev. 5 affect another person. 4) No distinction is made in Lev. 5 about the type of person making the offering: it could be any person (nepeš)—common or highborn, male or female. 5) The summary statement “any of these things” in 5:13 must refer to the specific sins listed in 5:1–4 and not in Lev. 4.” Ross, Holiness to the Lord, 139.
[24] This is also captured in the Prayers of Penitence in Common Worship: “Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we have sinned against you and against our neighbour in thought and word and deed, through negligence, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault. We are truly sorry and repent of all our sins. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all that is past and grant that we may serve you in newness of life to the glory of your name. Amen.” See The Archbishop’s Council 2000, Common Worship, 169.
[25] Cranmer, Book of Common Prayer, 309.
[26] Lev 4:20, 26; 5:10, 13, 16, 18.
[27] The BCP actually specifies that the priest says the Prayer of Humble Access, though it has been common practice for generations that the congregation joins in saying the prayer.
[28] Cranmer, Book of Common Prayer, 312. It is worth noting here that the people say the Great Amen to conclude the words of institution.
[29] Lev 4:16-18, 30, 34.
[30] Heb 10:1-2.
[31] See the preface to the BCP. Cranmer, Book of Common Prayer, 6.
