Effective worship curation often results from thoughtful reframing. Reframing, Mark Pierson says, “relies on the idea that the meaning of an event, and our emotional response to it, depends on the context in which the event is perceived.” Pierson goes on to explain that reframing as a worship curation practice involves “taking something from nonworship culture – a song, movie, saying, piece of art – and using it in worship.” (The Art of Curating Worship, 79)

When you walk into a barn shed and come across a three-legged stool, the meaning perceived in that context is: “cow milking aid.” However, move the three-legged stool into a worship gathering for Holy Trinity Sunday and the meaning we get is: “metaphor for Trinity.”

This kind of reframing can freshen up our worship. The new juxtaposition we invent by simply moving an object from its common place over into a foreign context forces peoples’ minds to engage the object with altered perspective. At best, this yields spiritual epiphany. At the very least, it leads to challenging and new spiritual questions.

In addition to this kind of “objective” reframing, there is reframing we might call “subject-ive.” Instead of reframing an artifact (i.e. a stool) we can choose to reframe an entire topic. In other words, we can reframe the big idea of our gathering and ‘force’ those gathered to engage the subject of our worship event from a different angle.

I alluded to this in last week’s post about curating Pentecost. While Pentecost is typically viewed as a time to celebrate the coming of the promised Spirit, we can reframe this holy day as an illustration of God’s desire for unity through diversity. Through this theological reframing, we catch people off guard – especially those who have a particular, ingrained (ingrown in some cases) theological spin.

Sunday is Trinity Sunday. This may be the only holy day on the Christian calendar that celebrates a reality rather than an event. On Trinity Sunday, we recognize in our worship the triune nature of the one to whom we bow. Objective reframing for this theme could include the three-legged stool example above. It could also include the other examples shared yesterday by Mandy Smith. Certain items are taken – a tree, a piece of music, a story about personal roles – and placed in the context of worship, specifically worship focused on God in three persons. This reframing of objects yields success, even as people are sent out from worship and come across a three-branched tree or Bach Fugue and are reminded again of Father, Son, and Spirit.

But, what would reframing the entire theme look like in this case? Can we imagine another legitimate focus for Trinity Sunday – one other than simply contemplating the mysterious existence of a God who is one in essence, yet three in personage? As with Pentecost (and virtually every other holy day or big idea in scripture) there is another angle. In fact, there are often a number of legitimate theological angles for every worship topic. In this case, Trinity Sunday can legitimately be reframed as a holiday that is essentially all about loving others. Perhaps this requires a little explanation.

The approach to reframing Trinity in terms of loving relationships emerges from Eastern Orthodox theology. John Zizioulas (a twentieth century theologian and current bishop of Pergamon, Greece) is the modern reframer of Trinity as “communion,” picking up where the Cappadocian fathers left off in the fourth century, CE. Fuller professor of systematic theology, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen translates and condenses Zizioulas for us:

God cannot be known as “God,” only as trinitarian persons in communion: “Man can approach God only through the Son and in the Holy Spirit.” Outside the Trinity there is no God. In other words, God’s being coincides with God’s communal personhood. For Zizioulas, then, the being of God could be known only through personal relationships and personal love. Being means life, and life means communion. (The Doctrine of God, 137)*

Being means life. Life means communion. This is in conflict with the ancient Greek view of the unique individual as a “person,” a view widely held today within and without Christian circles. For Zizioulas and the fourth century Eastern fathers “person” does not/cannot exist outside of relationship. Our being is defined not by our singular, discrete essence, but precisely by our relationship to other people.

Triune God is the prime example of this kind of communion. Taking the evidence of scripture together, there is no God without the intimate, loving relationship exchanged between Father, Son, and Spirit. In reflection of the one after whom we were created, we do not ‘exist’ except in reference to others and especially in relation to the I AM who granted us being.

This is what Mark Galli means when he says that “… our primary duty in life… [is] to love others so that they can come into existence.”

Wouldn’t your Trinity Sunday curation take on a whole new flavor if you went with this angle? What if your answer to ‘what do I want to say?’ becomes: “God’s interpersonal relationship is our model for loving others into existence.” What song lyrics would you sing? In which direction would the Eucharist move? Would you still emphasize the vertical? Or would the horizontal be emphasized more?

Next time you are planning for a holy day or a scripture text for which you’ve curated worship more than once already, try seeking out an alternate theological perspective. Reframe the theme and then, within that new perspective, practice reframing cultural objects. This dual-reframing technique creates new opportunities for worshipers to authentically commune with one another and with God.

Image © iStockphoto

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*Internal quotation from: Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and Communion. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1985.