For those who make the claim, “I’m not ‘religious,’ I’m ‘spiritual,’” this word is like death.

For Pentecostals, this word is like death.

I grew up hearing about “dead rituals.” What I have come to realize is that rituals are not “dead.” As believers, it is often US who are dead. We’re just blaming something else.

Ritual belongs in life. The celebrations of life, the commemorations of life, the memorials of life… all are rituals in some way.

In the life of the Church, the Table of the Lord is ritual. Eugene Peterson has a wonderful passage on “Ritual” in his book, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. 

Jesus ordained the Table, and it IS a ritual. Peterson defines ritual in Communion as an ordered arrangement of actions and words that Christians reproduce wherever and whenever they want to “remember” and “proclaim” salvation.

In communion we realize that reality is larger than ourselves. We need that reminder.

Ritual keeps us in touch with and preserves mystery. The presence of the Lord at the Table is very real. Explain that!

Ritual in the Table of the Lord is critical because we need to realize we can’t manipulate the elements of the Table. We can’t rearrange too much. We can’t manipulate response.

“So a ritual, simply as ritual, prevents me from retaining any illusions that I am self-sufficient at the same time that it thrusts me into a life with others.” (Eugene Peterson)

Let us get lost in the rhythm of ritual.