Symbols Matter

If you’ve attended Cities for any length of time, you’re familiar with the major elements of our worship: Call to Worship, Confession of Sin (including the Exhortation before it and Assurance of Pardon after it), Consecration through song and the preached word, Communion, and then Commission. 

But in addition to the 5 C’s, there are other symbolic elements, some large, some small that you may or may not have noticed. Symbols communicate. Whether we’re talking about the small black marks on a page that represent words which represent thoughts and ideas and truths, or whether we’re talking about actions that represent and communicate important meaning without words, symbols matter.

For example, here’s a small symbol. Our pastors distribute the elements during Communion. This is a wisdom call; no Bible verse demands it. We do this, because we connect feeding the flock with the word to feeding the flock at the Lord’s Table. But more than that, if you’re attentive, you may have noticed that we never take the elements for ourselves. We take it from each other. This too is symbolic – reminding us that we also are sheep and need to be shepherded. It’s small, but it speaks.

Here’s another, a newer one that you may have noticed and wondered about. Before the corporate prayer that leads up to the sermon, the leader who is praying grabs the small box to my right and places it here on the table. It’s a small act, but a significant one. That box represents our corporate financial offerings, given to support this church and its ministry. In an age when almost all of us contribute via automatic bank withdrawals (we don’t pass an offering plate here), this simple act by one of our pastors or deacons is meant to say, “Those transactions have an additional meaning.” They aren’t simply bank withdrawals, like paying your cell phone bill. They are acts of worship. Indeed, they are an act of corporate worship. So here in our corporate worship gathering, we want to mark that we receive all of God’s blessings to us, and then offer them to him in worship. It may be a little box, but it speaks. 

Finally, here’s a big symbol – this building that we worship in. It was designed to speak – through the architecture, the layout, the stained glass, the wooden ceiling, the tower reaching to the skies. All of these are symbolic, and they speak. And I’d like to draw your attention to this little pamphlet, written by Professor Matt Crutchmer. In it, Matt unpacks some of the symbolic elements of this building, and I’d encourage you to pick one up and hear more clearly what this place is saying.

At this point in the service, all of these symbols remind us of our need to confess our sins, and so let us seek his face together. 

Prayer

Our Father and God, the entire cosmos is speaking. It is your spoken world, meant to draw us to worship and gratitude. But the world refuses to listen. Your invisible attributes are clearly perceived in the things that have been made, and yet in our unrighteousness, we suppress the truth, refusing to honor you as God or give thanks. Your wrath is revealed against such ungodliness, because indeed such refusal is a great evil.

Lord, we confess that in the church, we too frequently refuse to heed your voice. We are deaf to the small but significant ways that you communicate your kindness to us. When we hear your voice, our hearts can, at times, begin to grow hard, and our souls can shrivel under the influence of a bent will. Forgive us, we pray, in your great mercy, and pardon our iniquity, for it is great.

We know that if we in the church regard sin in our own hearts, our prayers will be ineffectual, and so we confess our individual sins to you now.

Father, we thank you for the mercy that we receive at this throne of grace. We ask that, having confessed our sins, you would now renew our hearts after the image of your Son, for your glory and our joy. Through Christ we pray, Amen.