Something about human nature loves rituals. A ritual is to step from the symbols of alphabetical characters (which convey words unto ideas) to fabricating symbols out of gestures, designs (in fabric, glass, works of art, etc) set phrases, and any other stimulus to support an idea being communicated. They are called ceremonies for civil activities. In the religious world they are called ceremony, and sometimes liturgy.
It is not the spreading of hands, the ceremonial bow, the chant, the candle’s glow, the earthen bowl or the golden cup. The real issue is what God thinks of us. “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” (Heb.4:13) Charlotte Elliott and William Bradbury wrote a hymn harmonious with this scripture; “Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me. .” To be just as we are requires keeping the awareness of how we stand before our Creator, and living by that awareness. Sometimes it gets us down, because we need correcting. “For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” (Prov.3:12) At other times “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:11) is graced upon us through our Lord’s tender mercy. To shun His correcting hand is to drift into fabricating an image of ourselves, which is hypocrisy.
If individual hypocrisy is a problem, what then do we have with man made religious liturgy? Is it a doorway to spirituality, or a guide to ignorance and a pillar of foibles? It deflects us away from the reality of who we are. It deflects because it distracts us from self examination in the face of God’s revelation. Yes, we can get that “Oh it really made me think” or, “Wow, it made me confront. .” When in fact, the thinking and the confronting are not real. They are charades of what we would like to think of ourselves. (“I am real, I confront, I, I, I. . .”) Human liturgy is almost erotic because it relies on stimulating the senses. (Howbeit in the guise of profound revelation.) Jude described the advocates of such religion; “These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.” (Jude vs. 19)
The apostle Paul and those who labored with him brought reality to the Corinthians (subsequently to us):
(God) “Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.” (II Cor.3:6-10)
A testimony of God has been fully given for us to be innocent in spirit and truth. It is the fruit of that covenant which God gave through Moses:
“For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (II Cor.3:11-18)
For the Jews who sincerely look to the Law, it is a veil keeping them from who they truly can be. For the Gentiles, inventive liturgy is like a concrete wall infused with quotes from the Bible coupled with liturgies born of paganism, philosophy, psychology, and our vivid(?) imaginations. Such service to God is farther removed from reality than any shadow could ever be.