Yesterday in Sunday School class a regular member of the class spoke of their habit of watching the “Discovery Channel” on TV. They had recently stopped watching it because it seemed to them that the programs were always supporting a creation view of the beginning of life as coming from “the crash of an asteroid in the earth and then life just began.” This view conflicted with the one they held based on their view as founded in Scripture. For them, an irreconcilability existed. To continue to watch the TV show created a conflict with their worldview. Their answer to this conflict? Turn off the Discovery Channel. For them, the conflict disappeared. This was their solution over against challenging their world view by asking “How can I resolve what seems to be an irreconcilable difference between Science and Scripture?”
Could the answer have been that the view that was their true difficulty was not one with science but was really with one of how they read, understood (interpreted), and accepted the Scriptural stories of creation? Could it be that such a re-inspection of their creation view would undermine their belief in Scripture or even undermine their faith in God? Or, could it be that with careful investigation done on both a personal and communal level, the riches of Scripture might be better mined allowing for the discovery of a more adequate understanding and fuller realization of the purpose of the Bible and its implications for everyday living?
If it is a given that worship is meant to be a guide for daily living, it would seem that this worship would have to address daily living questions such as these. Though most people do not contemplate creation everyday, their views about creation do inform much of how they live based on their relationship to their understanding of their own source of life.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The Essentiality of Scripture for the Christian Community: Scripture Shapes God’s People
The hearing of Scripture makes up for what cannot be seen in gathered worship. The word of God as recorded in Scripture becomes the presence of God as the text is read and the Spirit carries it to the heart and mind of the listener.
Even better, when the listener is engaged in speaking the text of Scripture there is a breathing out of God’s word. The voice of God is made known to the collective gathering as those collecting gather to hear the voice of God in the collected community. In a real sense the Christian community is born anew in such moments. Thus, Scripture for the body of Christ gathered in worship is essential. God is made present through the reading of God’s word by the children of God.
Even better, when the listener is engaged in speaking the text of Scripture there is a breathing out of God’s word. The voice of God is made known to the collective gathering as those collecting gather to hear the voice of God in the collected community. In a real sense the Christian community is born anew in such moments. Thus, Scripture for the body of Christ gathered in worship is essential. God is made present through the reading of God’s word by the children of God.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Interlaced Worship is Essential
The gathered worship of the Church that is practiced in a disconnected fashion from worship that is lived out in a daily lifestyle practice makes the gathered worship experience little more a religious ceremony.
Recently, while in Jordan as part of a trip to the Holy Land, Pope Benedict XVI is reported to have argued that “when the mix of beliefs and lifestyles goes down, orthodoxy rises as does uniformity of the cultural landscape in a region where tolerance is not an outstanding virtue” (Ethan Bronner reporting in the New York Times, May 13, 2009, “Christians in Mideast Losing Numbers and Influence”).
The importance of an interconnection between gathered worship and daily practice is a central tenet of Christian worship. How one actually interlaces the worship practices of the gathered worship of the Church with a daily life of faith-filled living is central to connecting belief and practice. Simply put, the gathered worship of the Church uses various rituals in Christian worship. These elements of worship have significant, relevant ties to daily life as Christians gather, sing, pray, give, preach, receive, and share good words in their daily journeys among believers and non-believers outside of the gathered community.
The importance of such an interlaced lifestyle is critical, for everyone but especially for those who live in the troubled areas of the Mideast. Christian worship practices which ignore the real world miss the heart of worship, which is loving God with all of one’s heart, mind, soul, and strength, and neighbors as one loves oneself.
The common practice of many Christian communities is to be a shield from the world. This tends to divorce worship from daily life in an almost monastic-like attempt to practice a purity of worship. Such worship minimizes the definition of worship.
Worhsip is best understood as a flow of love. It begins with God. God first loved us. This graceful act of God toward us allows us to respond in kind. This love of God toward us is meant to be lived out by us in our daily lives rather than hoarded. We are to care for those around just like we were first cared for by God, care extended to us even while we were yet enemies of God. As we love those around us, God receives this love as care given to "the least of these." This love flow completes its journey from God to us through others and back to God.
Our acts of worship offered directly to God in the gathered celebrations of the Church are measured by our acts of love in our daily lives. In this way, God becomes part of all of our worship, first gracefully calling us to worship, then gracefully enabling our worship, and finally gracefully receiving our worship.
Apart from the daily worship practice of the Church, practices performed as the Body of Christ scatters into the world, it is questionable whether gathered worship would be recognized by God as anything more than empty ceremonies. The interlacing of these two, gathered and scattered worship, is essential to Christian worship that is more than just form or style.
Recently, while in Jordan as part of a trip to the Holy Land, Pope Benedict XVI is reported to have argued that “when the mix of beliefs and lifestyles goes down, orthodoxy rises as does uniformity of the cultural landscape in a region where tolerance is not an outstanding virtue” (Ethan Bronner reporting in the New York Times, May 13, 2009, “Christians in Mideast Losing Numbers and Influence”).
The importance of an interconnection between gathered worship and daily practice is a central tenet of Christian worship. How one actually interlaces the worship practices of the gathered worship of the Church with a daily life of faith-filled living is central to connecting belief and practice. Simply put, the gathered worship of the Church uses various rituals in Christian worship. These elements of worship have significant, relevant ties to daily life as Christians gather, sing, pray, give, preach, receive, and share good words in their daily journeys among believers and non-believers outside of the gathered community.
The importance of such an interlaced lifestyle is critical, for everyone but especially for those who live in the troubled areas of the Mideast. Christian worship practices which ignore the real world miss the heart of worship, which is loving God with all of one’s heart, mind, soul, and strength, and neighbors as one loves oneself.
The common practice of many Christian communities is to be a shield from the world. This tends to divorce worship from daily life in an almost monastic-like attempt to practice a purity of worship. Such worship minimizes the definition of worship.
Worhsip is best understood as a flow of love. It begins with God. God first loved us. This graceful act of God toward us allows us to respond in kind. This love of God toward us is meant to be lived out by us in our daily lives rather than hoarded. We are to care for those around just like we were first cared for by God, care extended to us even while we were yet enemies of God. As we love those around us, God receives this love as care given to "the least of these." This love flow completes its journey from God to us through others and back to God.
Our acts of worship offered directly to God in the gathered celebrations of the Church are measured by our acts of love in our daily lives. In this way, God becomes part of all of our worship, first gracefully calling us to worship, then gracefully enabling our worship, and finally gracefully receiving our worship.
Apart from the daily worship practice of the Church, practices performed as the Body of Christ scatters into the world, it is questionable whether gathered worship would be recognized by God as anything more than empty ceremonies. The interlacing of these two, gathered and scattered worship, is essential to Christian worship that is more than just form or style.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Living Generously
Eugene Peterson’s The Message captures the essence of what it means to live generously in his paraphrase of Jesus’ words in the fifth chapter of Matthew's Gospel.
43 "You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' 44 I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, 45 for the you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. 46 If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. 47 If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. 48 "In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you. Matt 5:43-48 (MSG)
According to this text, living generously is living responsively. We live in a way that we have experienced life. It is hard for us to do otherwise. That is it is hard for us to be generous when we have not been taught generosity.
Being taught generosity does not necessarily mean that someone has been generous to us. Rather, it might be just as true that we have never been on the receiving end of someone’s generosity. Reflectively, we decide to “not be like them.” It’s almost as if our generosity grows out of dislike for the way someone has behaved toward us. How common is this?
It is more likely that we became generous when we realized how another has been generous toward us, especially God. At some point we become aware that everything we have, our life, even our very breath, is a gift. This outward look is part of our maturing, part of what teaches us that we are not the center of the world, only part of it.
Living generously begins when we begin to respond to the generosity we have experienced. Such an experience is a maturing one. We are growing up when we begin to live generously rather than protectively. A kindergartner’s concept of sharing is “You have it. I want it. Let’s share.” Such behavior is distressing when it is seen in adults. We teach kindergartners the value of sharing. It takes time for them to learn it. At some point— we hope –they get it. Even more importantly, we hope they practice it.
Worship in the real world is dependent on believers living generously, not only in an economic sense. In fact, it almost is a fault of many Christians that they are more ready to give help by giving money than they are to go help by giving themselves. Sometimes the former is the best way to help. However, not always. Churches which allow Christians to only develop as financial supporters and not also as hands-on servers miss the heart of the Gospel.
Living generously is living toward the other. We do not live generously so that we will feel better about ourselves. Christians live this way because one cannot be Christian and live otherwise. Worship finds its outflow in service. The gathered service is meant in every way to be preparation for scattered service. Scattered service without gathered service sacrifices its root. The gathered body of Christ is where Christians plant themselves so that they can extend out as a living limb of the body.
43 "You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' 44 I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, 45 for the you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. 46 If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. 47 If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. 48 "In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you. Matt 5:43-48 (MSG)
According to this text, living generously is living responsively. We live in a way that we have experienced life. It is hard for us to do otherwise. That is it is hard for us to be generous when we have not been taught generosity.
Being taught generosity does not necessarily mean that someone has been generous to us. Rather, it might be just as true that we have never been on the receiving end of someone’s generosity. Reflectively, we decide to “not be like them.” It’s almost as if our generosity grows out of dislike for the way someone has behaved toward us. How common is this?
It is more likely that we became generous when we realized how another has been generous toward us, especially God. At some point we become aware that everything we have, our life, even our very breath, is a gift. This outward look is part of our maturing, part of what teaches us that we are not the center of the world, only part of it.
Living generously begins when we begin to respond to the generosity we have experienced. Such an experience is a maturing one. We are growing up when we begin to live generously rather than protectively. A kindergartner’s concept of sharing is “You have it. I want it. Let’s share.” Such behavior is distressing when it is seen in adults. We teach kindergartners the value of sharing. It takes time for them to learn it. At some point— we hope –they get it. Even more importantly, we hope they practice it.
Worship in the real world is dependent on believers living generously, not only in an economic sense. In fact, it almost is a fault of many Christians that they are more ready to give help by giving money than they are to go help by giving themselves. Sometimes the former is the best way to help. However, not always. Churches which allow Christians to only develop as financial supporters and not also as hands-on servers miss the heart of the Gospel.
Living generously is living toward the other. We do not live generously so that we will feel better about ourselves. Christians live this way because one cannot be Christian and live otherwise. Worship finds its outflow in service. The gathered service is meant in every way to be preparation for scattered service. Scattered service without gathered service sacrifices its root. The gathered body of Christ is where Christians plant themselves so that they can extend out as a living limb of the body.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
A Trinitarian Benediction
A Trinitarian benediction for worship is found in the writing of H. Orton Wiley. “The Aaronic benediction uses the word Jehovah [JHWH] in a three fold sense. Jehovah bless thee and keep thee. Jehovah makes his face to shine upon thee. Jehovah lift ups his countenance upon thee and give thee peace (Num. 6:24-27). The three members of this form may correspond to the love of the Father, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy Ghost (cf. II Cor. 13:14)” (H. Orton Wiley and Paul T. Culbertson. 1954. Introduction to Christian Theology. Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, p. 112).
This “love of the Father, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy [Spirit]” becomes the good words to be used for blessing those who scatter from the gathered convocation of the worshipping body of Christ. These are words which suggest that God neither precedes the dispersal of gathered worship nor leaves it behind, but rather goes with those who go to worship through the life of the spirit lived through attitude and actions of daily life. It is the one God who goes with the body of Christ who departs to live in and out of the Spirit. In each element of the life of the body the presence of God is found to be hovering, encouraging, influencing, calling to be, and enlivening the work of the scattered body. This trinitarian picture of God in the real world is an essential in push against individualism over community, against human initiation in favor of divine prevenience, against favoring existential living over eternal life. These are good words that are to be shared in all of the gatherings to which God calls the body in the great commission to “Go into all the world….”
This “love of the Father, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy [Spirit]” becomes the good words to be used for blessing those who scatter from the gathered convocation of the worshipping body of Christ. These are words which suggest that God neither precedes the dispersal of gathered worship nor leaves it behind, but rather goes with those who go to worship through the life of the spirit lived through attitude and actions of daily life. It is the one God who goes with the body of Christ who departs to live in and out of the Spirit. In each element of the life of the body the presence of God is found to be hovering, encouraging, influencing, calling to be, and enlivening the work of the scattered body. This trinitarian picture of God in the real world is an essential in push against individualism over community, against human initiation in favor of divine prevenience, against favoring existential living over eternal life. These are good words that are to be shared in all of the gatherings to which God calls the body in the great commission to “Go into all the world….”
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The Role of the Holy Spirit in Worship
What is the role of the Holy Spirit in Ordinary (or extraordinary) Worship? How is the Spirit’s influence in worship a “real world” experience? Or, what difference does worship make anyway?
Without a real world approach and expectation, worship is irrelevant because of its lack of connection to the real world. Determining the real world is more than a purely human exercise. Such a determination, like worship, is under the influence of the all pervasive, ubiquitous Holy Spirit of God. Real world determination based only on what appeals to culture is too self-centered to be a holistic evaluation of what is real. Relevance, then, is not solely determined by human thinking and experience, but these certainly cooperate in the process.
How do people become part of the creative process of Christian worship which engages people with God who is worshipped in the power of the Spirit? By observation, Christian worship can often be less than an engaging exercise of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit) which is enlivened by the Spirit of God.
The spirit of a person is in no way to be understood as being the same as the Spirit of God. In that God is wholly other than human beings (though human beings bear the “image of God”), likewise God’s Spirit, being very God, is also wholly other. Nonetheless, it is possible for the human spirit and God’s Spirit to be in an on-going cooperative relationship thanks to God’s initiative work of grace in all people. God’s Spirit is at work enlivening people on a continual basis (“In him we move and live and have our being,” Acts 17:28). At the same time we should remember that a person’s spirit is influenced by many outside forces. Even a born again Christian is non-consciously influenced by the culture that surrounds them. Culture is not necessarily sinful. However, it is other than God’s holy influence which works through people to influence culture toward actions like the lovingkindness of God.
As in the creation story of Genesis 1:1-2:3, the Spirit continues its creative role as the generative breath of life. Like the brooding of the Spirit over the primordial waters, the Spirit of God works to draw people from the chaos of what is purported to be the real world through the re-centering influence of God, an influence which moves us from a self-centered existence to other-inclusive awareness and care. This influence is the unifying act of God upon people. God desires that all should become one in Christ. The Spirit’s work is particularly noticeable in the result. Our spirit’s are joined with the Spirit of God in testimony to Christ’s work among a worshipping body and through the loving work performed as the gathered worshipping body scatters to their daily life as the representatives of Christ. Worship, then, becomes a larger communal event through their daily lives. This too is made possible by the ever-present Spirit. The Spirit is at work in the daily life of each Christian believer, and is preveniently at work in the life of non-believers, so that it is possible for the Spirit flow to and out of all of life. The Spirit can make all of life a community event, and all of life sacramental, as people respond to the influence of God’s Spirit.
That there are non-engaged people present in worship is not necessarily a sign that the Spirit is not at work even in these non-engaged people. Rather, it speaks more about their response. Being gathered for worship is not the same as worshipping. The defining element of Christian worship is response, and to become worship that response must be positive, must be a “yes” sung in response to the Spirit’s call to come and worship. Without response, worship is like students in a classroom who hear what the teacher says yet fail to learn the subject. The teacher cannot stuff information into them. Students only learn when they engage with the subject. Likewise, worship is not done by osmosis. Worship is response. It is action. It is what people do in response to God’s loving influence upon them through the Spirit. Apart from the Spirit, apart from human response, there is no such thing as Christian worship. This suggests, as is often the case in gathered worship, that the influence of the Spirit at work can be ignored to the detriment of everyone in the community. The same can be said of daily life as the body of Christ scatters to be God’s influence in the world. Apart from the Spirit, life is going through the motions but not real living, not real life.
Engagement in worship is not the work of gimmicks or the embracing of style, something which seems to predominate much Christian worship practice. Neither is it remaining steadfast to a faded glory of historic experiences. Engagement in worship is people who are actively remembering the work that God has done in them, and/ or people who are actively responding to the loving influence of God to do the work of God in the real world. This work is the work of worship. This work moves ordinary worship into the realm of the extraordinary. This work makes the real world the real world. This work is only possible because of the influencing Spirit of God.
Without a real world approach and expectation, worship is irrelevant because of its lack of connection to the real world. Determining the real world is more than a purely human exercise. Such a determination, like worship, is under the influence of the all pervasive, ubiquitous Holy Spirit of God. Real world determination based only on what appeals to culture is too self-centered to be a holistic evaluation of what is real. Relevance, then, is not solely determined by human thinking and experience, but these certainly cooperate in the process.
How do people become part of the creative process of Christian worship which engages people with God who is worshipped in the power of the Spirit? By observation, Christian worship can often be less than an engaging exercise of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit) which is enlivened by the Spirit of God.
The spirit of a person is in no way to be understood as being the same as the Spirit of God. In that God is wholly other than human beings (though human beings bear the “image of God”), likewise God’s Spirit, being very God, is also wholly other. Nonetheless, it is possible for the human spirit and God’s Spirit to be in an on-going cooperative relationship thanks to God’s initiative work of grace in all people. God’s Spirit is at work enlivening people on a continual basis (“In him we move and live and have our being,” Acts 17:28). At the same time we should remember that a person’s spirit is influenced by many outside forces. Even a born again Christian is non-consciously influenced by the culture that surrounds them. Culture is not necessarily sinful. However, it is other than God’s holy influence which works through people to influence culture toward actions like the lovingkindness of God.
As in the creation story of Genesis 1:1-2:3, the Spirit continues its creative role as the generative breath of life. Like the brooding of the Spirit over the primordial waters, the Spirit of God works to draw people from the chaos of what is purported to be the real world through the re-centering influence of God, an influence which moves us from a self-centered existence to other-inclusive awareness and care. This influence is the unifying act of God upon people. God desires that all should become one in Christ. The Spirit’s work is particularly noticeable in the result. Our spirit’s are joined with the Spirit of God in testimony to Christ’s work among a worshipping body and through the loving work performed as the gathered worshipping body scatters to their daily life as the representatives of Christ. Worship, then, becomes a larger communal event through their daily lives. This too is made possible by the ever-present Spirit. The Spirit is at work in the daily life of each Christian believer, and is preveniently at work in the life of non-believers, so that it is possible for the Spirit flow to and out of all of life. The Spirit can make all of life a community event, and all of life sacramental, as people respond to the influence of God’s Spirit.
That there are non-engaged people present in worship is not necessarily a sign that the Spirit is not at work even in these non-engaged people. Rather, it speaks more about their response. Being gathered for worship is not the same as worshipping. The defining element of Christian worship is response, and to become worship that response must be positive, must be a “yes” sung in response to the Spirit’s call to come and worship. Without response, worship is like students in a classroom who hear what the teacher says yet fail to learn the subject. The teacher cannot stuff information into them. Students only learn when they engage with the subject. Likewise, worship is not done by osmosis. Worship is response. It is action. It is what people do in response to God’s loving influence upon them through the Spirit. Apart from the Spirit, apart from human response, there is no such thing as Christian worship. This suggests, as is often the case in gathered worship, that the influence of the Spirit at work can be ignored to the detriment of everyone in the community. The same can be said of daily life as the body of Christ scatters to be God’s influence in the world. Apart from the Spirit, life is going through the motions but not real living, not real life.
Engagement in worship is not the work of gimmicks or the embracing of style, something which seems to predominate much Christian worship practice. Neither is it remaining steadfast to a faded glory of historic experiences. Engagement in worship is people who are actively remembering the work that God has done in them, and/ or people who are actively responding to the loving influence of God to do the work of God in the real world. This work is the work of worship. This work moves ordinary worship into the realm of the extraordinary. This work makes the real world the real world. This work is only possible because of the influencing Spirit of God.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Is Christian worship an intelligible response or an instinctive one? Does one choose to worship, or is one graced with the ability to rightly respond to the influence of the Holy Spirit?
To be sure the worship of God is not solely a human invention, though anthropologists report worship as a practice in almost all cultures. There is something within human beings that calls for response to something outside of human beings, the other, the wholly other, the divine, the Creator of all, etc.
Scripture records that God seeks worshippers (John 4). This is a turn around from the often touted worship developments which suggest that the gathered worship of the Christian community should be seeker sensitive. The latter focuses on the human part of the worship equation. That God seeks worshippers and generously and graciously enables the free response of people in recognition of God's goodness suggests that it is God who initiates worship. Human beings enabled by God-given grace respond, and that response in positive praise of God is deemed worship. Apart from God's initiative, apart from God's grace, apart from God's wooing Holy Spirit, the can be no Christian worship. Without these that which poses as worship is empty ritual, instinctive cultic practice. Such worship does not bear the transformative qualities of Spirit-driven worship.
Human beings bear the imprint of God, being created in the image of God. Their ability to respond intelligently sets them above creaturely life which, at least for now, can respond only instinctively. (Who knows how this may change in God's eschatological future?) Though human intelligence is affected by the fall, God's on-going gracious activity calls people from self-centered, self-abegnation to loving response to the Creator and loving care for the created. God initiates what human beings can join, a shared fellowship with the One who seeks true worshippers. Thanks be to God.
To be sure the worship of God is not solely a human invention, though anthropologists report worship as a practice in almost all cultures. There is something within human beings that calls for response to something outside of human beings, the other, the wholly other, the divine, the Creator of all, etc.
Scripture records that God seeks worshippers (John 4). This is a turn around from the often touted worship developments which suggest that the gathered worship of the Christian community should be seeker sensitive. The latter focuses on the human part of the worship equation. That God seeks worshippers and generously and graciously enables the free response of people in recognition of God's goodness suggests that it is God who initiates worship. Human beings enabled by God-given grace respond, and that response in positive praise of God is deemed worship. Apart from God's initiative, apart from God's grace, apart from God's wooing Holy Spirit, the can be no Christian worship. Without these that which poses as worship is empty ritual, instinctive cultic practice. Such worship does not bear the transformative qualities of Spirit-driven worship.
Human beings bear the imprint of God, being created in the image of God. Their ability to respond intelligently sets them above creaturely life which, at least for now, can respond only instinctively. (Who knows how this may change in God's eschatological future?) Though human intelligence is affected by the fall, God's on-going gracious activity calls people from self-centered, self-abegnation to loving response to the Creator and loving care for the created. God initiates what human beings can join, a shared fellowship with the One who seeks true worshippers. Thanks be to God.
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