Ephesians 4
CELEBRATE THE CHURCH!
Just about 70 years ago a young Lutheran evangelical pastor began a sermon with words something like this (translated, of course:)
"There is a word that, when a Catholic hears it, kindles all his feelings of love and bliss; that stirs all the depths of his religious sensibility, from dread and awe of the Last Judgment to the sweetness of God's presence; and that certainly awakens in him the feeling of home; the feeling that only a child has in relation to its mother, made up of gratitude, reverence, and devoted love . . .
"And there is a word that to Protestants has the sound of something infinitely commonplace, more or less indifferent and superfluous, that does not make their heart beat faster; something with which a sense of boredom is so often associated. . . .
"And yet our fate is sealed, if we are unable again to attach a new, or perhaps a very old meaning to it. Woe to us if that word does not become important to us soon again. . . . Yes, the word to which I am referring is church."[1]
What comes to your mind first of all when you hear that "c" word? Is it a warm fuzzy? Or is it boredom or something completely different? An honest answer here might give more insight into yourself than into your definition of "church"! The word "church" means different things, perhaps, to different people at different times. Often people come into this sanctuary and say, "What a beautiful church you have!" I always smile and say, "Yes. This building is beautiful, too." We all know that first of all somehow the church is people. The Bible tells us the church is composed of people to whom God has given eternal life and called his own.
This chapter (Ephesians 4) is a Golden Chapter of the Bible. It is a rich description of the church as the body of Christ on earth. It is also a practical prescription for being and becoming an integral part of that body. I commend it to your study and meditation at least for some portion of this summer's reading.
From this chapter are derived the basic doctrines of the church. Although there is great diversity in expression and interpretation, all orthodox Christendom, from Roman Catholic to Anabaptist, from Eastern Rite to Pentecostal, from Calvinist to Wesleyan-Arminian-- all of Christendom agree that the marks of the church are four. (Learn them well!) The church is one, holy, catholic, apostolic.
Other working definitions help give insight. Luther said the church is 'where the gospel is preached and the sacraments duly administered.' Wesley would agree. My own humble thought is that the church is wherever God meets his assembled people who have come to worship Him. (Store fronts, cathedrals, house churches, underground meetings . . .) But at the risk of making the pulpit sound like a lecture podium, it might be profitable to think briefly on the four marks of the church.
The church is ONE. There are many manifestations, many denominations. Many of them claim to be the one true church. But the scripture makes it clear that there is only one God, one Lord, and all who call Jesus Lord are members of the one church. No true reformer ever started a new church, nor intended to start a new church. No denomination is the true church. No human institution can make that holy claim. Timothy George speaks well when he says that all too often we evangelicals "have sinned against the body of Christ by confusing loyalty to the truth with party spirit, and kingdom advancement with self-promotion."
The church is HOLY. Of course only God Himself is holy in an underived and absolute sense. And of course the church is made up of imperfect and even sinful human beings like you and me. But we are called to live holy lives, that is-- lives dedicated to obedience of God's will. And one powerful definition of holy is "that which belongs to a holy God." The true church belongs to God, and it is HIS!
The church is CATHOLIC. Many contemporary evangelical fellowships have abandoned the word "catholic" and have even altered the traditional wording of the creeds so they don't have to say the word. But that does not change the fact: if we belong to Christ's church we are catholic. The church is world-wide. It fits the cultures, it reaches humanity wherever it goes. We worry about being confused with Roman Catholics. But in a sense Roman modifies Catholic and is to that extent less than truly universal. Don't be afraid of the word. Christ's church is world-wide. It is catholic.
The church is APOSTOLIC. "Built on the foundation of the apostles" (Eph 2:20) Some branches of denominations take this to mean an unbroken line of authority handed down from the apostles, particularly Peter, the first church leader. But there are serious problems with this definition. No one could be absolutely sure the line is pure and unbroken. And it is NOT this succession that gives the church its vitality. For apostolic refers to the same pure foundation of a gospel which was delivered by the Risen Lord to his disciples. By the power of the living Spirit we have the assurance that that same message is alive and well in the church today!
These marks of the church lift our perspective of what the church really IS from the partial and often imperfect impressions we may receive in our own spiritual journey. Wherever we begin our walk with God we have come by way of some expression of the church. We think "THIS is the church!" And it IS! But that expression may well be incomplete and even inconsistent. But it is the Spirit-- Christ's Spirit-- that validates our experience, and helps us build our understanding of how rich the church really is.
What was your experience of the church when you found Christ? Where did you begin? As a boy of six or seven, my parents landed in a city church not far from the factories of north Lansing, Michigan. It was a plain tabernacle of a building. The aisles had hard rubber runners instead of carpets. Most of the members were "blue collar", although there was a sprinkling of all kinds of people. But they were all fiercely serious about their faith. It had old theatre seats with arms that sometimes came off and when you turned them over they looked sort of like a boat and you could play with them while service was going on and on and on.
I know that often the sermons were extreme, and I often went home frightened that something terrible might happen, I wasn't sure just what. But I also know that the gospel was proclaimed, and I know that there were people in that fellowship that absolutely knew Jesus! They had His love radiating in their lives. They were the ones that helped reach me, not the fear, nor even the facts-- but the love. Not the distinctive doctrines, now, either-- but the Person of the Risen Lord.
I was eight years old when I joined that tabernacle church. I knew what I was doing-- and yet I couldn't know ALL that it meant that day. I do recall many times thinking as a boy of ten or twelve when I would hear what had to be the finger of suspicion pointed at other Christian churches-- how could it be that out of all this big world we Nazarenes have the very corner on truth! I knew my aunts and uncles knew Jesus, too. And some of them were Methodists and some were Baptists. I don't think I knew any Catholics. But the seeds were already there to believe that Christ's church is not some little sectarian group somewhere.
Our salvation is not based first of all on what we know, or even the purity of our understanding, but rather on Who we trust Before the doctrine comes the convicting, converting Spirit. After the doctrine, again, the Spirit! Keen observation by Rob Staples in latest "Herald of Holiness":
"In Fundamentalism knowledge is the foundation, and salvation is the superstructure. In Wesleyanism, the opposite is the case- salvation is the foundation and knowledge is the superstructure." Once our hearts have been warmed by his assurance, then we can, as Peter says,
"Add to your faith-- virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, and agape love or charity!"(2 Peter 1:5-8) This Golden Chapter closes, not with a doctrinal lesson of profound truth about the church, but with some absolutely essential steps to making our local fellowship a living, vital part of the one, holy, catholic apostolic church to which we already belong. You might say that Paul could paraphrase President Kennedy's famous Inaugural challenge by saying:
"Ask NOT what your church can be doing for you! Ask what YOU can be doing for Christ's church!"
NO UNWHOLESOME WORDS BE SENSITIVE TO THE HOLY SPIRIT (Don't grieve Him! By dividing the church!) KINDNESS! Ephesians 4:32 TRY TO BE LIKE FATHER GOD! We're his dear children! PUT ON CHARITY! Place the center outside yourself!
Conclusion
What comes to your mind first of all when you hear that "c" word? Is it a warm fuzzy? Or is it boredom or something completely different?
[Bishop Michael Baughan spoke here several years ago. He told of 300 churches in the See of Chester, England, which are under his care, that use the same form or liturgy. But Bishop Baughan said that as he went from one church to the next, on church would "worship" and another would simply go through a form. The difference was the evident Presence of the Living Word among those worshiping.]
Prayer - Lord Jesus Christ, whose very name has been given to us to make us your church, open our eyes and help us to see You, and help us to love You better, to the glory of God the Father, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God high and holy, world without end. Amen.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
AT HOME WITH GOD
AT HOME WITH GOD
John 14:23
When I was a little boy my parents were song evangelists. We literally lived out of suitcases, on the road at least 36 weeks a year. Our "home" was simply the address of an aunt and uncle in Lansing, Michigan.
I guess I didn't think of traveling all the time as strange because it was the only life I knew. I think I felt sorry for other kids who didn't get to see new things all the time. But at the same time I looked with great longing at houses, homes, permanent places to live. How I looked forward to coming back to Lansing to be with aunts and uncles and cousins by the dozens! How I valued that aunt and uncle's home!
Still I think I learned something very early in my life that applies to this scripture lesson today. It is good-- best perhaps-- to have a sense of place and permanence. But being "at home" finally is a people matter. When we did not have any permanent house whatsoever when I was with father and mother I was "at home." Their security was my security. Their peace was my peace. Occasionally, their discontent was mine, too-- for while they were people of integrity they weren't perfect.
That first lesson, then, was where the people you love and trust are-- _there_ is home, at least in the sense of security for the child.
Later, when circumstances made it necessary for my parents to leave the itinerant ministry, our first-ever house of our own was a bungalow at 610 South Magnolia in Lansing-- you know-- two blocks over from Hayford Street. I had a room that was mine, and I slept in the same bed every night, and could have my own closet and my own pictures on the wall. It was far from heaven. But there I had my family, and I had a sense of permanence as well.
I know it is a stretch of imagination to apply this homely and personal understanding of what it means to be "at home" with God, but the facts somehow seem similar:
The reality is that we are not yet at home. [The choir has sung "I Feel Like Traveling On" because "This world is not my home, I'm just a-passing through..."] The promise of Jesus early on in this great passage is that in the place where he lives are many dwelling places, and that he has gone to prepare a place for us so we can be where he is permanently. The passage from Revelation is not so much descriptive, to my literary understanding, as suggestive of a glorious reality that transcends everything we know now.
But the reality also is that God Almighty, YHWH-- the Father, Son and Holy Spirit want to be "at home" with us while we travel towards home. This kind of being at home with God isn't the final word on glory or fulfillment or permanence. We are not yet what we are going to be. But if in fact God is wi-i-i-i-ith us!! as the choir sang last Sunday night and Tom Waltermire has been TRYING to sing all week-- if God is with us on the road, and we are at home in him-- then we need to make sure this has happened in a personal way in each of our lives.
"IF YOU LOVE ME," said Jesus,
"YOU WILL OBEY ME, AND THE FATHER WILL LOVE YOU, AND WE WILL COME TO YOU AND TAKE UP PERMANENT RESIDENCE IN YOU."
God not only WITH us-- God not only WATCHING OUT for us-- God not only SAVING US FROM SIN-- BUT GOD AT HOME IN US WHILE WE ARE ON THE WAY!
God not only WITH us-- God not only WATCHING OUT for us-- God not only SAVING US FROM SIN-- BUT GOD AT HOME IN US WHILE WE ARE ON THE WAY!
A WORKING DESCRIPTION OF WHAT WE CALL "HOLINESS!"
How do we go about making God at home in us??
Love is the key.
Love is not a feeling, but a centering, an act of will and covenant.
In the case of humans there is a submission to covenant.
In the case of divine-human relationship God is always right.
He accommodates our weakness but cannot compromise dishonesty or selfishness so he must be obeyed, but obeyed because of trust/love.
The everlasting "YEA" is the doorway to everything of significance in the kingdom of God. You know whether or not you have come to the place in your walk with God where you have deliberately said "yes!!!!YES!!! Y E S!!!!!" to God for time and for eternity!
That is the place where God moves in to make Himself at home.
How do we go about making God at home in us??
Love is the key.
Love is not a feeling, but a centering, an act of will and covenant.
In the case of humans there is a submission to covenant.
In the case of divine-human relationship God is always right.
He accommodates our weakness but cannot compromise dishonesty or selfishness so he must be obeyed, but obeyed because of trust/love.
The everlasting "YEA" is the doorway to everything of significance in the kingdom of God. You know whether or not you have come to the place in your walk with God where you have deliberately said "yes!!!!YES!!! Y E S!!!!!" to God for time and for eternity!
That is the place where God moves in to make Himself at home.
Prayer: There is room in my heart for You, O Lord!
Friday, May 9, 2008
TRINITY SUNDAY
The Sunday after Pentecost is called Trinity Sunday, and marks the end/beginning of "special time" when we remember Christmas, Christ's COMING, and Easter, His victory of sin and death, and Pentecost, the Gift of the Holy Spirit to breathe life into the Church-- and of "ordinary time" when we celebrate the Book of Acts, and seek to let the Holy Spirit live through "ordinary people" and keep writing new chapters in that unfinished story.
Ordinary time indeed! The Holy Spirit is not for special occasions only!
Trinity! God in Three Persons! Blessed Mystery! Holy Wonder!
We SEEK after God (Hebrews 11:6) because faith pleases Him, and he is a Rewarder of those who seek!
We WANT TO BE LIKE JESUS (Ephesians 4:32) because that is how God wants us to be: kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, even as God in Jesus Christ has forgiven us!
We ASK TO BE PART OF THE MISSION of God (John 15:8) by bearing MUCH fruit, and so proving we are Christ's and glorifying the Father.
Father...Son...Holy Spirit... with us, in us, making us alive!
So how may we have this Pentecostal fullness?
We ask!
Luke 11:13 (Jesus said it:) If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask ?
I believe that! I am asking right now! Will you join me?
O Father in heaven, please fill me again, just NOW, with your Holy Spirit, and use me this very day to tell someone You are GOOD, and that You love them! Amen.
Ordinary time indeed! The Holy Spirit is not for special occasions only!
Trinity! God in Three Persons! Blessed Mystery! Holy Wonder!
We SEEK after God (Hebrews 11:6) because faith pleases Him, and he is a Rewarder of those who seek!
We WANT TO BE LIKE JESUS (Ephesians 4:32) because that is how God wants us to be: kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, even as God in Jesus Christ has forgiven us!
We ASK TO BE PART OF THE MISSION of God (John 15:8) by bearing MUCH fruit, and so proving we are Christ's and glorifying the Father.
Father...Son...Holy Spirit... with us, in us, making us alive!
So how may we have this Pentecostal fullness?
We ask!
Luke 11:13 (Jesus said it:) If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask ?
I believe that! I am asking right now! Will you join me?
O Father in heaven, please fill me again, just NOW, with your Holy Spirit, and use me this very day to tell someone You are GOOD, and that You love them! Amen.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Pentecost for Today, Now
What happened at that first Pentecost after the Resurrection? What really happened?
Acts 2 gives an account. Joel gave the prophecy years before. The Holy Spirit was given to rank and file believers.
Common people communicated to other common people in a way that could not be misunderstood. Everyone there heard the good news in their own language.
The essence of what happened then is not what we usually talk about. We know the story: sound of a tornado- tongues like fire on each person's head- speaking in foreign tongues- and we think that if only...
But the heart of Pentecost is the Holy Spirit filling praying people and then using them to let other people know they are welcome to join in the blessing.
The very same Holy Spirit-- is what Jesus promised the Father will give us if only we ask. Luke 11:13: If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.
We have Jesus' word on it!
This Sunday, May 11, is Pentecost Sunday. Will you join me in asking the Father to do it again? Fill your church, Father-- as YOU see fit-- in your way! Jesus promised! We ask! Amen
Acts 2 gives an account. Joel gave the prophecy years before. The Holy Spirit was given to rank and file believers.
Common people communicated to other common people in a way that could not be misunderstood. Everyone there heard the good news in their own language.
The essence of what happened then is not what we usually talk about. We know the story: sound of a tornado- tongues like fire on each person's head- speaking in foreign tongues- and we think that if only...
But the heart of Pentecost is the Holy Spirit filling praying people and then using them to let other people know they are welcome to join in the blessing.
The very same Holy Spirit-- is what Jesus promised the Father will give us if only we ask. Luke 11:13: If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.
We have Jesus' word on it!
This Sunday, May 11, is Pentecost Sunday. Will you join me in asking the Father to do it again? Fill your church, Father-- as YOU see fit-- in your way! Jesus promised! We ask! Amen
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Truth- more than Words
John 5:39 "Search the scriptures," Jesus said, "for in them you THINK you have eternal life; but (the scriptures) testify OF ME!"
It is NOT enough to think-- to "comprehend"-- to agree with what we perceive as "truth", no matter how precious. Jesus said "I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life!" HE is Truth!
The Bible is not true because it is written-- it is written because it is TRUE. That means a lot to me-- and I press into the knowledge of Jesus, as He reveals Himself to me, byt he living Holy Spirit that takes the written word and make is come alive.
It is NOT enough to think-- to "comprehend"-- to agree with what we perceive as "truth", no matter how precious. Jesus said "I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life!" HE is Truth!
The Bible is not true because it is written-- it is written because it is TRUE. That means a lot to me-- and I press into the knowledge of Jesus, as He reveals Himself to me, byt he living Holy Spirit that takes the written word and make is come alive.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Charting the Changing Scenes in Corporate Worship
(Article written and published for Preacher's Magazine
by Dr. Russell Metcalfe, Pastor Emeritus,Wollaston Church of the Nazarene,Quincy, Massachusetts )
Just what goes into the Sunday morning worship service at your church and mine? Why do we do what we do? Why do we have Wednesday night Bible study? Why does there seem to be a conflict between some of the needs, interests, and purposes of various representative groups in our congregation? What should we be seeking to accomplish in worship? Is worship a means to an end, or an end in and of itself?
Some of the tenets we stress, and some of the concerns we ignore, may reflect ecclesiastical and doctrinal battles that were old long before we were born. Some of the things we hold as absolutely sacrosanct may be handed down from scriptural times, or they could be derived from idiosyncrasies or personal convictions of some strong personality of comparatively recent years.
God has not been included in this study as a "component part" of worship, for God is what worship is all about. Worship is centered in God, and is directed to Him--or should be. It is taken to be a "given" in this article that real worship will be our attempt to bring our best, our all, to the loving praise of God's glory; and that real worship is not complete unless and until a dynamic connection takes place, a Presence.
Seven elements of worship, according to James F. White, in a fairly recent book, are people, piety, time, place, prayer, preaching, and music. People are "the primary liturgical document." Piety, Time, and Place are what he terms the circumstances of worship; while prayer, preaching and music are the acts of worship.
In graphic form the elements of worship might look like this:
2. Piety 5. Prayer
3. Time 1. People 6. Preaching
4. Place 7. Music [1]
1. "People," to quote James White, are "the primary liturgical document."[2]
Worship which does not connect culturally is like instruction in a foreign language. In any normal church setting there is a wide range of levels of moral and intellectual development represented. Age groups see similar issues from different slants. Birthright Catholics see things differently from past Pentecostals or former Baptists. When there are a variety of cultures represented, a special challenge obtains.
Added to this are the changing attitudes of society at large, attitudes that are often all-too-quickly reflected in the church setting. Deliberate choices must be made by worship leaders about when to seek to be like other voices in current society (culturally correct?) and thus "connect" with people in tune with entertainment, pop psychology, and success-oriented thinking, and when to confront popular thinking, me-ism and television influence with demands for clear separation of lifestyle. Currently we see some odd combinations of living in the name of Christ-likeness.
Much is currently written about the influences of the baby-boomer and baby-buster generations in American society. Depending on how recent trends are interpreted, the flower children and peace-niks of the late sixties and seventies gave way to narcissism and introversion of the eighties, with continued emphasis on physical appearance and youth.
Some of the changing dynamics reported in various denominations have included lack of loyalty to any tradition; supermarket mentality in consumerism; lack of interest in Sunday School or midweek services, and more recently in the necessity for two services on Sunday; relaxed dress codes reflecting sometimes relaxed behavior codes; swing away from classical modes in music, literature, worship styles; instant gratification; preaching that affirms instead of confronts sin or wrongdoing; increasing conflict between a movement's drive and a denomination's stability. [3]
2. Piety refers to the climate in which we relate to God and to each other.
Probably it has most to do with the deeply held concepts of God that we have formed.
People who think of God first as a "God of vengeance," always looking for faults and sins, will worship differently from people who conceive of God as "keeping score, but willing to forgive," which is different from others who see God as predominately interested in sharing His life and joy.
Worship can cover a spectrum from totally evangelistic, with the assumption that everyone present needs to be severely chastised for falling short of God's glory, to almost totally praise and positive thinking, assuming that the assembled church is already "family."
For the purpose of categorizing only, think of three viable evangelistic modes or "sets" of worship as:
evangelistic;
penitential (with confession/absolution as central focus); and
resurrection, or rejoicing and celebration.
It is my contention that an ideal evangelical church will have a blending of all three, without getting stuck in any one category.
3. Time refers to the various chronological cycles in which a church worships.
These can be thought of as daily, weekly, yearly, and lifetime. Also under the general heading of time in worship, we consider punctuality or lack of it (often a cultural key,) and the usual length of services, and that length in relationship to the overall time-usage of the worshipers. Highly scheduled people will respond differently from more casual approaches to time management.
In a lifetime cycle certain churches expect their members to do certain things at certain times of their lives in certain ways. Sacraments and sacramental-type events, baptism, joining the church, weddings, passages, and even funerals are observed in widely differing ways, even in the same denomination, in different areas of the country, and in different cultural pockets.
Each church has a yearly cycle, whether or not such has been officially recognized by pastor or people. The American versions of the free church often substituted their own local or national observances for the ancient church calendar abandoned in Europe by immediate forebears. Ethnic-based evangelicals brought old-country celebrations or prohibition of celebrations with them to this country when they came. Evangelicals of many denominations in recent years have discovered the richness of the yearly cycles observed by Christians across the centuries, of days of Advent, Lent, Pentecost, Trinity, and many others.
Also under yearly cycles come such events as revival meetings; district events such as assemblies; as well as unspoken or tacit "attitudes" at various times of the year, such as "easing off" in the summer time from choir and from strictness of form in worship to accommodate vacation habits of large proportion of our people; the gathering of intensity as school starts in the fall; the unspoken and often unrecognized weariness and temptation to negativism in the spring when fatigue sets in for many who have been "flat out" for eight months or more.
Weekly cycles, too, should be examined. How often do we observe the Lord's Supper? Why? Why do we worship at 11 a.m. on Sunday? (Why NOT?) Why do we hark back to a mid-week prayer service for as long as we can remember? What does a church encourage its members to do regularly in order to maintain vigorous spiritual health?
Daily schedules might refer to what is expected of each participant in a congregation; what sort of prayer/devotional schedule/time management is practiced as the norm (or professed.)
4. Place of worship is the third "circumstance" of worship and is probably more important than usually thought.
There is a saying among those who make worship a study: "The building will always win." That statement is probably very nearly true. Many churches have been started in very unlikely places, and "wherever Jesus is, 'tis heaven there.'" But function is often shaped by form. Certain types of worship are almost dictated by certain arrangements of seating, furniture, and participants, as well as respect demanded by or given to the place of worship itself. Building materials of themselves are not sacred, but even as we love and cherish our houses until they reflect our personalities and become our homes, so the House of the Lord becomes more than the sum of its constituent parts.
The "acts" of worship:
5. Prayer is a universal in worship.
It is unthinkable that there should be worship without prayer. How do the people speak to God? Literally, how do they call Him?--"Thou" or "You"?
[Is there something somehow "holy" about addressing God in Elizabethan language? Do we realize that even then the "Thou" was the more intimate and familiar address that one would use with close friends? But when one has grown up hearing only this form of address to God, it becomes a "language of prayer" and connotes respect; so often the "Thee" or the "you" simply denotes the generation of the pray-er.]
What form does the main prayer of the worship service(s) take? How about he use of printed prayers? Is it a "no-no"? How often is the Lord's Prayer used? Is that important? How are people taught to pray? What emphases on prayer are regularly reviewed?
6. Preaching is another basic "act" in the drama of worship.
It is central in most evangelical services of worship. Exegetical, doctrinal, evangelistic, narrative, topical are all styles or types of sermonizing, plus there are always "fads" of various kinds (participatory, team preaching, drama) that come and go. Personally, I have an almost mystic faith that preaching "connects" when God is Present' that the written Word becomes the Living Word for those who listen with the anointing of God as the preacher preaches with the same chrism.
Others have less lofty ideas of preaching, although it remains central in most Protestant worship orders. James White speaks of one task of preaching as "stressing the corporate memories." [4]
Preaching probably at once shapes and reflects, defines and describes, spurs and soothes, enlightens and condemns, influences and is influenced by the entire church and all of worship. It is not beyond the discussion of the governing board, but is so arranged in my mind that I need a separate agenda for talking about it.
7. Music is the last "act" of worship that we discuss here.
Like preaching, music has "life of its own" in the church and we can approach it from many different directions.
The songs and hymns a congregation often sings say a great deal about the communal mind-set. Spiritual songs and hymns reflect all the tenses and moods of all of life. But in worship we tend to begin and end where our emphases are.
First-person songs tell about "I" and "We." They reflect experience, and they are important and useful. They can also begin and end with "me." God is important because of what He has DONE FOR ME! Of course He is to be praised for what He does for us! To paraphrase another author, we sometimes get the idea that "Jesus, Lover of MY Soul" would be turned around to "MY SOUL, Lover of Jesus!" We easily become self-centered, even in our so-called spirituality. We attract attention to ourselves in insisting that WE will do it such and such a way, etc.
But, too, it is hard to improve on "The Lord is MY Shepherd!"
Third-person songs tend to be statements of fact. They can be exalted statements that lift and bless. But in them we stand back and make observation. "Isn't HE wonderful?" (Of course, He is!) "To God Be the Glory!" lifts us as we sing--and all can freely enter in the praise. Many great doctrinal hymns of the Wesleys and others are in this mood.
But second-person songs and hymns address God in the "I-Thou" mode; they are actually prayers put to music. Whether they are older, accepted hymns ("O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder") or choruses ("Thou art worthy, Thou art worthy O Lord!) they address God directly, and put the assembled congregation into dialogue with God in prayer even when it is not called prayer time.
This second-person music must have a central part in any significant plan of worship.
Music is highly significant in the shaping of thought; it reflects our state of piety and belief. Nowhere in the church have the emerging technological advances made more impact; we not only have instant accompaniment by professional sound track musicians in the smallest churches, we have television-trained soloists to clone the stars that make the hits. In some cases, they are cloning the clones of secular singers. These technical facts are not in and of themselves bad or good. What we can lose sight of is the fact that genuinely good music is:
highly subjectively judged; and
not necessarily correlative to genuinely popular church music; and that
there are no spiritual short-cuts to becoming a means or channel of God's blessing, even though it is relatively easy to prepare a performance.
To sing the words and sound the tones may evoke excitement and even applause. To convey the message God intends for the particular occasion still requires preparation for which there is no instant fabrication.
Addenda:The public worship experience itself is dynamic. In my lifetime I have seen a shift from passive participation, if that is not an oxymoron, where just showing up for church was considered worship, to a demand for more active participation in worship, with an emphasis on saying and doing and responding to the Word.
Where we go from here is hard to predict. I have my own strong preferences, but my tastes are far from universal. Hopefully those who chart a course of worship in their local churches will remember they must speak in a language their people can understand, but also that they do not necessarily need to always say, indeed they dare not always say what their people want to hear. As Wesley urged his preachers to preach Christ in all his offices--prophet, priest, and king--so we who seek to determine the direction of corporate worship must use all the elements of worship in sacramental intentionality solely for the glory of God.
1. White, James F. The Study of Protestant Worship,
(Westminster Press, 1989).
2. Ibid., p. 44.
3. See "The Christian Century," July 10-17, 1991, article by
Paul B. Tinlin and Edith L. Blumhoffer on the 'Dilemmas of
the Assemblies of God.'"
4. White, p. 112.
by Dr. Russell Metcalfe, Pastor Emeritus,Wollaston Church of the Nazarene,Quincy, Massachusetts )
Just what goes into the Sunday morning worship service at your church and mine? Why do we do what we do? Why do we have Wednesday night Bible study? Why does there seem to be a conflict between some of the needs, interests, and purposes of various representative groups in our congregation? What should we be seeking to accomplish in worship? Is worship a means to an end, or an end in and of itself?
Some of the tenets we stress, and some of the concerns we ignore, may reflect ecclesiastical and doctrinal battles that were old long before we were born. Some of the things we hold as absolutely sacrosanct may be handed down from scriptural times, or they could be derived from idiosyncrasies or personal convictions of some strong personality of comparatively recent years.
God has not been included in this study as a "component part" of worship, for God is what worship is all about. Worship is centered in God, and is directed to Him--or should be. It is taken to be a "given" in this article that real worship will be our attempt to bring our best, our all, to the loving praise of God's glory; and that real worship is not complete unless and until a dynamic connection takes place, a Presence.
Seven elements of worship, according to James F. White, in a fairly recent book, are people, piety, time, place, prayer, preaching, and music. People are "the primary liturgical document." Piety, Time, and Place are what he terms the circumstances of worship; while prayer, preaching and music are the acts of worship.
In graphic form the elements of worship might look like this:
2. Piety 5. Prayer
3. Time 1. People 6. Preaching
4. Place 7. Music [1]
1. "People," to quote James White, are "the primary liturgical document."[2]
Worship which does not connect culturally is like instruction in a foreign language. In any normal church setting there is a wide range of levels of moral and intellectual development represented. Age groups see similar issues from different slants. Birthright Catholics see things differently from past Pentecostals or former Baptists. When there are a variety of cultures represented, a special challenge obtains.
Added to this are the changing attitudes of society at large, attitudes that are often all-too-quickly reflected in the church setting. Deliberate choices must be made by worship leaders about when to seek to be like other voices in current society (culturally correct?) and thus "connect" with people in tune with entertainment, pop psychology, and success-oriented thinking, and when to confront popular thinking, me-ism and television influence with demands for clear separation of lifestyle. Currently we see some odd combinations of living in the name of Christ-likeness.
Much is currently written about the influences of the baby-boomer and baby-buster generations in American society. Depending on how recent trends are interpreted, the flower children and peace-niks of the late sixties and seventies gave way to narcissism and introversion of the eighties, with continued emphasis on physical appearance and youth.
Some of the changing dynamics reported in various denominations have included lack of loyalty to any tradition; supermarket mentality in consumerism; lack of interest in Sunday School or midweek services, and more recently in the necessity for two services on Sunday; relaxed dress codes reflecting sometimes relaxed behavior codes; swing away from classical modes in music, literature, worship styles; instant gratification; preaching that affirms instead of confronts sin or wrongdoing; increasing conflict between a movement's drive and a denomination's stability. [3]
2. Piety refers to the climate in which we relate to God and to each other.
Probably it has most to do with the deeply held concepts of God that we have formed.
People who think of God first as a "God of vengeance," always looking for faults and sins, will worship differently from people who conceive of God as "keeping score, but willing to forgive," which is different from others who see God as predominately interested in sharing His life and joy.
Worship can cover a spectrum from totally evangelistic, with the assumption that everyone present needs to be severely chastised for falling short of God's glory, to almost totally praise and positive thinking, assuming that the assembled church is already "family."
For the purpose of categorizing only, think of three viable evangelistic modes or "sets" of worship as:
evangelistic;
penitential (with confession/absolution as central focus); and
resurrection, or rejoicing and celebration.
It is my contention that an ideal evangelical church will have a blending of all three, without getting stuck in any one category.
3. Time refers to the various chronological cycles in which a church worships.
These can be thought of as daily, weekly, yearly, and lifetime. Also under the general heading of time in worship, we consider punctuality or lack of it (often a cultural key,) and the usual length of services, and that length in relationship to the overall time-usage of the worshipers. Highly scheduled people will respond differently from more casual approaches to time management.
In a lifetime cycle certain churches expect their members to do certain things at certain times of their lives in certain ways. Sacraments and sacramental-type events, baptism, joining the church, weddings, passages, and even funerals are observed in widely differing ways, even in the same denomination, in different areas of the country, and in different cultural pockets.
Each church has a yearly cycle, whether or not such has been officially recognized by pastor or people. The American versions of the free church often substituted their own local or national observances for the ancient church calendar abandoned in Europe by immediate forebears. Ethnic-based evangelicals brought old-country celebrations or prohibition of celebrations with them to this country when they came. Evangelicals of many denominations in recent years have discovered the richness of the yearly cycles observed by Christians across the centuries, of days of Advent, Lent, Pentecost, Trinity, and many others.
Also under yearly cycles come such events as revival meetings; district events such as assemblies; as well as unspoken or tacit "attitudes" at various times of the year, such as "easing off" in the summer time from choir and from strictness of form in worship to accommodate vacation habits of large proportion of our people; the gathering of intensity as school starts in the fall; the unspoken and often unrecognized weariness and temptation to negativism in the spring when fatigue sets in for many who have been "flat out" for eight months or more.
Weekly cycles, too, should be examined. How often do we observe the Lord's Supper? Why? Why do we worship at 11 a.m. on Sunday? (Why NOT?) Why do we hark back to a mid-week prayer service for as long as we can remember? What does a church encourage its members to do regularly in order to maintain vigorous spiritual health?
Daily schedules might refer to what is expected of each participant in a congregation; what sort of prayer/devotional schedule/time management is practiced as the norm (or professed.)
4. Place of worship is the third "circumstance" of worship and is probably more important than usually thought.
There is a saying among those who make worship a study: "The building will always win." That statement is probably very nearly true. Many churches have been started in very unlikely places, and "wherever Jesus is, 'tis heaven there.'" But function is often shaped by form. Certain types of worship are almost dictated by certain arrangements of seating, furniture, and participants, as well as respect demanded by or given to the place of worship itself. Building materials of themselves are not sacred, but even as we love and cherish our houses until they reflect our personalities and become our homes, so the House of the Lord becomes more than the sum of its constituent parts.
The "acts" of worship:
5. Prayer is a universal in worship.
It is unthinkable that there should be worship without prayer. How do the people speak to God? Literally, how do they call Him?--"Thou" or "You"?
[Is there something somehow "holy" about addressing God in Elizabethan language? Do we realize that even then the "Thou" was the more intimate and familiar address that one would use with close friends? But when one has grown up hearing only this form of address to God, it becomes a "language of prayer" and connotes respect; so often the "Thee" or the "you" simply denotes the generation of the pray-er.]
What form does the main prayer of the worship service(s) take? How about he use of printed prayers? Is it a "no-no"? How often is the Lord's Prayer used? Is that important? How are people taught to pray? What emphases on prayer are regularly reviewed?
6. Preaching is another basic "act" in the drama of worship.
It is central in most evangelical services of worship. Exegetical, doctrinal, evangelistic, narrative, topical are all styles or types of sermonizing, plus there are always "fads" of various kinds (participatory, team preaching, drama) that come and go. Personally, I have an almost mystic faith that preaching "connects" when God is Present' that the written Word becomes the Living Word for those who listen with the anointing of God as the preacher preaches with the same chrism.
Others have less lofty ideas of preaching, although it remains central in most Protestant worship orders. James White speaks of one task of preaching as "stressing the corporate memories." [4]
Preaching probably at once shapes and reflects, defines and describes, spurs and soothes, enlightens and condemns, influences and is influenced by the entire church and all of worship. It is not beyond the discussion of the governing board, but is so arranged in my mind that I need a separate agenda for talking about it.
7. Music is the last "act" of worship that we discuss here.
Like preaching, music has "life of its own" in the church and we can approach it from many different directions.
The songs and hymns a congregation often sings say a great deal about the communal mind-set. Spiritual songs and hymns reflect all the tenses and moods of all of life. But in worship we tend to begin and end where our emphases are.
First-person songs tell about "I" and "We." They reflect experience, and they are important and useful. They can also begin and end with "me." God is important because of what He has DONE FOR ME! Of course He is to be praised for what He does for us! To paraphrase another author, we sometimes get the idea that "Jesus, Lover of MY Soul" would be turned around to "MY SOUL, Lover of Jesus!" We easily become self-centered, even in our so-called spirituality. We attract attention to ourselves in insisting that WE will do it such and such a way, etc.
But, too, it is hard to improve on "The Lord is MY Shepherd!"
Third-person songs tend to be statements of fact. They can be exalted statements that lift and bless. But in them we stand back and make observation. "Isn't HE wonderful?" (Of course, He is!) "To God Be the Glory!" lifts us as we sing--and all can freely enter in the praise. Many great doctrinal hymns of the Wesleys and others are in this mood.
But second-person songs and hymns address God in the "I-Thou" mode; they are actually prayers put to music. Whether they are older, accepted hymns ("O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder") or choruses ("Thou art worthy, Thou art worthy O Lord!) they address God directly, and put the assembled congregation into dialogue with God in prayer even when it is not called prayer time.
This second-person music must have a central part in any significant plan of worship.
Music is highly significant in the shaping of thought; it reflects our state of piety and belief. Nowhere in the church have the emerging technological advances made more impact; we not only have instant accompaniment by professional sound track musicians in the smallest churches, we have television-trained soloists to clone the stars that make the hits. In some cases, they are cloning the clones of secular singers. These technical facts are not in and of themselves bad or good. What we can lose sight of is the fact that genuinely good music is:
highly subjectively judged; and
not necessarily correlative to genuinely popular church music; and that
there are no spiritual short-cuts to becoming a means or channel of God's blessing, even though it is relatively easy to prepare a performance.
To sing the words and sound the tones may evoke excitement and even applause. To convey the message God intends for the particular occasion still requires preparation for which there is no instant fabrication.
Addenda:The public worship experience itself is dynamic. In my lifetime I have seen a shift from passive participation, if that is not an oxymoron, where just showing up for church was considered worship, to a demand for more active participation in worship, with an emphasis on saying and doing and responding to the Word.
Where we go from here is hard to predict. I have my own strong preferences, but my tastes are far from universal. Hopefully those who chart a course of worship in their local churches will remember they must speak in a language their people can understand, but also that they do not necessarily need to always say, indeed they dare not always say what their people want to hear. As Wesley urged his preachers to preach Christ in all his offices--prophet, priest, and king--so we who seek to determine the direction of corporate worship must use all the elements of worship in sacramental intentionality solely for the glory of God.
1. White, James F. The Study of Protestant Worship,
(Westminster Press, 1989).
2. Ibid., p. 44.
3. See "The Christian Century," July 10-17, 1991, article by
Paul B. Tinlin and Edith L. Blumhoffer on the 'Dilemmas of
the Assemblies of God.'"
4. White, p. 112.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
BEST Morning! - An Easter Poem
Best Morning!
I could never forget His face,
Sweet face of forgiving,
Stern face of Temple-cleansing,
Marred face on Skull Hill-
I saw them all.
And yet that morning,
That best morning,
I did not recognize Him
When first I saw Him.
But in my heart a curtain tore
From top to bottom,
Tore when He spoke my name.
And something within me
That had been sorrow
Became eternal life!
-by Russell Metcalfe
I wrote this more than fifty years ago. This is the meeting of Mary Magdalene with Jesus near the empty tomb. If you look at all the post-Resurrection meetings with Jesu in the Gospels you see this seeming hesitation, and then the assurance from Jesus Himself. The definitive "text" that seems to make this come alive is 2 Corinthians 5:16 wher Paul says even if we knew Jesus while he was teaching and doing miracles, which some of the Corinthian people seem to have done, they do not know Him that way any longer. No, "if ANY person by in Christ he or she is A NEW CREATION. (2 Corinthians 5:17) This exciting declaration means that we, you and I, can know Jesus in the same way that the disciuples knew Him after the Resurrection: He comes and speaks to us, and calls us by name. He calls that sorrow and discouragement within to faith, and like Mary, like Thomas, we say, "Master! My Lord and my God!"
I could never forget His face,
Sweet face of forgiving,
Stern face of Temple-cleansing,
Marred face on Skull Hill-
I saw them all.
And yet that morning,
That best morning,
I did not recognize Him
When first I saw Him.
But in my heart a curtain tore
From top to bottom,
Tore when He spoke my name.
And something within me
That had been sorrow
Became eternal life!
-by Russell Metcalfe
I wrote this more than fifty years ago. This is the meeting of Mary Magdalene with Jesus near the empty tomb. If you look at all the post-Resurrection meetings with Jesu in the Gospels you see this seeming hesitation, and then the assurance from Jesus Himself. The definitive "text" that seems to make this come alive is 2 Corinthians 5:16 wher Paul says even if we knew Jesus while he was teaching and doing miracles, which some of the Corinthian people seem to have done, they do not know Him that way any longer. No, "if ANY person by in Christ he or she is A NEW CREATION. (2 Corinthians 5:17) This exciting declaration means that we, you and I, can know Jesus in the same way that the disciuples knew Him after the Resurrection: He comes and speaks to us, and calls us by name. He calls that sorrow and discouragement within to faith, and like Mary, like Thomas, we say, "Master! My Lord and my God!"
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