I believe that the divine liturgy is a place where heaven and earth intersect and one can feel or sense experiencing a kind of heavenly worship on earth. I was at an Eastern Orthodox worship service recently and parts of the liturgy and beauty of the service were spiritually impacting. Here are some of the things I really appreciate entering the hymn of the universe of cosmic worship.
1. There is so much scripture throughout the service. I am amazed how Evangelicals would say that their worship forms are more biblical when scripture plays such a huge and monumental role within EO worship.
2. The liturgy being sung in a kind of Jewish form of worship is beautiful. Male and female singing songs of worship to the living God reveal both the Jewish roots and the sense of symmetry of male and female worshipping together and in unison to the God of the universe.
3. The icons, reverence, incense, and visual oriented with all senses touching and coming together is worship that is full and holistic. Ancient forms of worship may seem strange to some but the way they deal with a full orbed Trinitarian and incarnational worship designed service by a full human person worshipping with all parts of the body is quite extraordinary.
4. I cried when I saw a father carry his young son up to partake of holy communion. So many churches, even with open communion will not let small children partake of communion. Jesus said let the children come and forbid them not but we have ways in our contemporary worship to exclude some people, especially children from the sacrament of holy communion. The irony is even though the EO's have closed communion, at least among their own they leave nobody behind.
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