Putting the Protest in Protestant
On a recent trip to Baltimore the missus and I worshiped at a mainline Protestant congregation that featured the standard liturgical fare of having everyone present rise and do a “meet and greet” after hearing the assurance of pardon. For the really, really low church, this is the part of the service that comes after a prayer confessing sin and then a reading from Scripture about forgiveness in Christ. At that point, high church Protestants (along with Roman Catholics) take the new found peace obtained through Christ and pass it on to the rest of the gathered. Shaking hands and saying “peace of Christ be with you” is supposed to intensify a sense of being forgiven and involve the laity in ministering to each other (evangelicals sometimes call lay ministry “every member ministry”).
Could anything be more awkward than passing the peace? It does nothing to remind me of being forgiven but instead poses a set of awkward encounters where I need to find a reassuring smile and firm hand to endure the liturgical moment. And invariably the passing of the peace turns into “hi, my name is [blank], are you new here? Please fill out the visitors card.”
This is the time when we need Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. The reason for saying this is that I can’t imagine that I am the only one who finds these liturgical proceedings painful. And the reason I say that is that The Seinfeld Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm were successful television shows. Those productions thrived precisely on characters dissecting the pressures and rules that herd modern people into conformity. From debates over when a phone conversation is finished — a pause or a certain sigh — to the difficulty of a dinner party where a guest occupies the host’s seat at the head of the table, Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld excelled at exposing both the incredible number of morals and manners that shape our lives and voicing objections to them.
So, why then do smart and together people who worship at mainline (and other) churches submit to such routines as passing the peace? Do they really find them meaningful? Or, is it that when they go home they vent to their spouses or children about how much they dread having to endure a round of handshakes and fake friendliness?
If we had a Christian comic with access to HBO, we might find out.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In