The Dismissal Rite

Sermon preached at St Alphege, Solihull at the 11am Eucharist.
Sunday 26th July 2009, Trinity 7 Proper 12 Year B
A special sermon on the Dismissal Rite within the Liturgy

Readings: 2 kings 4: 42-44 Ephesians 3: 14-21 John 6: 1-21


So this is the final sermon in our series of four sermons during the month of July about the four parts of the Eucharistic Liturgy. On the first Sunday in July Fr Andrew preached about the Gathering Rite. Two weeks ago I spoke about the Liturgy of the Word. Last week it was Fr Andrew on the Liturgy of the Sacrament and today I will be talking about the last part of the Eucharistic Liturgy; the Dismissal Rite. And let’s remind ourselves once again why we are doing all this. We are doing this in response to the question “Why go to Church?” The more we understand what we do in church, the more we are able to enter into worship and participate in the liturgy, the more simply and naturally we will be able to help others do the same. In particular it will help us as we encourage others to come back to church with us on Back to Church Sunday.
Now the good thing about the Dismissal Rite is that is very short, so hopefully we will not need a very extended homily to talk about it! If you look in your order of service book the dismissal rite starts on page n with the final hymn. We have the notices, the blessing and the words of dismissal – “Go in the peace of Christ”, “Thanks be to God”. The Dismissal Rite is all about being sent out, back into the world to live out in our daily lives the heavenly realities than we have been contemplating in church.
As we think about being sent out in this way, it is helpful to think about Jesus sending out his disciples out before him, as he does for example in Luke chapter 10. He says, “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals…whatever house you enter say, “Peace to this house” … cure the sick who are there and say, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”” This is perhaps the model for being sent out. What we take is not purse or bag or sandals, but above all it is our relationship we Jesus and his peace. We might struggle to cure the sick, but we do strive to be of practical service to the people we encounter in our day to day lives. Also we take the message of Jesus, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” Nowadays we know than many people don’t particular want to hear this message, so we have to sensitive in the way we deliver it. Above all we have to deliver it through the example of our lives much more than through the things that we say. So this is what being sent out is all about, and we will see that these themes are picked up as we go through the Dismissal Rite.
But before the Dismissal Rite even starts we have the post communion prayers or the “Prayer after Communion” as Common Worship calls it. These form a sort of bridge between the time of Communion and the Dismissal Rite. The time after receiving Holy Communion is a crucial time for prayer, and for building our communion with Christ, our shared life with Christ. We offer to Christ our hopes and concerns, and receive from him graces to live well over the coming week. It is a very good time to kneel or sit and silence and listen to what God wants to tell us. In Holy Communion Christ has shared his life (his very body and blood) with us. He has physically entered into our bodies so he is abiding us, and hopefully we in him. It is this communion with Christ which is perhaps the most significant thing that we are sent home from church with, for the benefit of all whom we meet.
Now the prayers after communion collect together all the prayers that we have been offering as individuals and bring them, and us back into the liturgy that we work through together as Church. The pattern of the post communion prayers vary, but typically we have one prayer, set for the specific Sunday and printed in the pew slip, that is said by the priest, and another prayer that we say all together.
Having been brought back together by the post communion prayers we enter the Dismissal Rite proper by singing a final hymn together. Hopefully this is a rousing and invigorating hymn to give us hope and joy and encouragement as we are sent out into the world.
After the final hymn we usually have some notices. Now in one sense these are not really part of the liturgy at all, and we might think that the liturgy would work much better and smoother without them. However there is another sense in which the notices are extremely important because they are usually giving us very practical information about our life together as a church community. So, on a typical Sunday there might be one notice about the Parish Garden Party, and one about the way we use the OBH car park. So someone might think, “Well I don’t go to the Garden Party and I don’t use the OBH car park, so this is nothing to do with me.” Well in one way that’s true; notices that don’t concern us, don’t make any practical difference to us. But there is another more spiritual sense in which we are all part of the family of the church, and we all share in the life of the church. So, even if the notices concern other members of the church family rather than ourselves, it is good that we are aware of what is happening in the family. Hopefully we will want to support church activities through our prayers and by words of encouragement, even if we are not personally involved. In fact I find when I visit another church it is the notices that often tell you most about the life of that church. What is it that really matters in that place, is it about a music group, or a mission activity, or some community service, or the prayer ministry or what? I always find it very interesting.
After the notices we have the blessing. This confirms us in all that we have received in word and sacrament, and blesses us for our mission back in the world. Remember that the word mission means being sent out.
Finally we have the words of dismissal, sometimes spoken by a deacon, and the response to them. Usually the dismissal words are, “Go in the peace of Christ” or “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” It is very fitting when these words to come from a deacon. Not only is a deacon’s role in the liturgy often concerned with the giving of stage directions, but also a deacon has a wider role like a door between the church and the world. The dismissal sends us out of the church door into the world.
Notice that we are sent out with the peace of Christ. This again reminds us Jesus telling his disciples to say, “Peace to this house”. Christ’s peace is once again one of the big things that we take out to be of service to the world.
So that’s it! That’s what the Dismissal Rite is all about. There will be a handout as you leave church. Hopefully we can all get better at leaving Church with Christ’s communion, his peace and his message so that when we arrive back in our daily lives we bring something really valuable for the benefit of all the people around us. Amen.