Being “missional” is all the rage these days. Are you missional? Is your worship missional? Do you sing missional songs? All words are prey to sloganeering, and it appears that this one is in a bear trap. The more places I see it, the more it’s becoming obvious that those promoting it are the least missionally minded–that is, willing to confront unbelief with the Gospel of God’s grace.
My most recent encounter occurred at a “Reformed” church where the pastor talked (I can’t say preached) about his pet gerbil and lessons he learned about God from his weightlifting. In doing so, he robbed me of hyperbole. I just can’t top it. It’s funnier now. At the time I whispered to my wife that we need to come up with a point at which we leave the service. When does blasphemy lite become too much? (more…)
God plainly declares that it is His purpose to bring down the evil empire in due time. But how has He chosen do so? Through the prayers and work of His saints–your prayers and mine! We must end the wishy-washy, milquetoast prayers of our own philosophies and learn again to beg for the overthrow of Satan’s domain. (War Psalms of the Prince of Peace)
The imprecatory Psalms are rarely sung in the church today and this is to the detriment of the cause of justice. It is said that God has come to this world to save his people and set the world to rights, and this is precisely what the Psalms call for which are then taken up by the writers of the New Testament and Jesus himself. Sickened by sex trafficking? Cantankerous over corrupt politicians fleecing the poor? Take up and sing the Psalms.
“The gospel song came into great popularity in the middle of the last century largely through the evangelistic ministry of Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899) and his musical associate Ira D. Sankey (1840-1908). It was an authentic expression of the highly emotional and individualistic religious experience which was typical of the American frontier of that day. Many Christians today do not realize what a comparatively recent development in religious music the gospel song actually is. Often when the great old hymns of the church, which have survived the centuries because of the magnificent depths of pure devotion expressed in them, are introduced in contemporary services the people complain. “Why don’t we sing the good old songs? Why must we sing new songs which we do not know?” The “old songs” to which they refer are the comparatively new gospel songs which have been put to highly singable melodies of the general type of the popular songs of the day.”
Thanks to Tim Bayly for posting this video. The problem with doing Scriptural content in pop culture forms is that the forms lend themselves to sinful tendencies. These are not necessary tendencies, but we should never divorce form and content since any good piece of art marries the two fluently. I’m writing from Seattle where it’s hard to find an alternative band that doesn’t whine and complain, and not just with their lyrics–postures, mopey faces and black eyeliner. Christians, largely clueless about what any of this means, think, “I know, people love this stuff, let’s take out the profanity, stick in some Bible words, and voila: gigs at the mega-church.” But pouting and whining doesn’t become disciples, much less worship leaders, of Jesus. Neither does bravado, the signature of rap and much hip hop.
Thankfully, Shai Linne is a shining exception. The lyrics are biblical, the performance isn’t self-centered, and despite the performance element (applause etc), he is aware of the temptation of the setting to forget God amidst the lights and glitter. The clear and bold preaching is consistent with his song. Praise God for this guy.
It is well known that Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses protesting the sale of indulgences and other scandalous habits. Less known is the connection of indulgences to relics (which continue to be venerated to this day).
For no theological reason but in the interest of advertising, the Church associated the dispensing of the merits of the saints with visitation upon the relics of the saints. Popes frequently specified precisely how much benefit could be derived from viewing each holy bone. Every relic of the saints in Halle, for example, was endowed by Pope Leo X with an indulgence for the reduction of purgatory by four thousand years. The greatest storehouse for such treasures was Rome. Here in the crypt of St. Callistus forty popes were buried and 76,000 martyrs. Rome had a piece of Moses’ burning bush and three hundred particles of the Holy Innocents. Rome had the portrait of Christ in the napkin of St. Veronica. Rome had the chains of St. Paul and the scissors with which Emperor Domitian clipped the hair of St. John. –Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther
Rome has repented of selling indulgences, but do the relics play any role in the attraction to Roman churches? Judging by the chains, glass, presentation, security and promotion of them, of course. Catholics still shell out in donation because of these and the superstitious reverence given them.
The Reformation was a great recovery of the second commandment which forbids worship of anything physical on the earth. In case we weren’t sure, Moses sinks this one deep: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I Yahweh your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Ex. 20:4-5). Just in case some religious shaman might find an acceptable artifact to worship, he uses the all inclusive “in heaven, the earth beneath, or water under the earth.” Anything. And if we wonder what worship is, he forbids the most common way: “You shall not bow down.” So the issue isn’t only what is going on in your heart; bodies matter, and bowing down in a setting of worship is worship, idolatrous explanations aside.
Indulgences are an embarrassment to Rome and they should be. But what is just as important and generationally significant is the institutional commitment of both Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy to image veneration. The second commandment is crystal clear and the consequences are severe.
Evangelicals are far from setting up icons, and yet the need to recover the centrality of Word as the magisterial reformers began to do is dire. Take the content of so much modern praise music, for example, and see how it measures up to any Psalm or other song written in the Bible. Worship consisting of words isn’t the goal, but rather worship of the Word with words that accurately describe him. Only biblical literacy and Christ-centered worship can fuel the next reformation.
These thoughts come a bit late after our 4th of July independence celebration (or “Happy America!” as my enthusiastic four-year-old son puts it), but I’ve been both on vacation and mulling these things around the gray matter before committing to pixels.
While on vacation, in a sandy-duned coastal town of northwest Michigan, I attended, wife and offspring in tow, a worship service in the Reformed Church of America following July 4th. In said worship service, the call to worship was decent, given by a gray-crowned gentleman full of faith and gravitas, a balancing contrast to the late-twenty/early-thirty-something pastor who would share the sermon later. What followed is what startled me. We proceeded to open worship with American the Beautiful, a song I like (once or twice a year, anyway) and remember learning in grade school choir along with Home on the Range and other musical Americana. The song in itself is healthily patriotic, praising the abundance and natural beauty of the US, and asking God to shed his grace upon her. If one was to complain about it, perhaps it would be for the line “crown thy good with brotherhood”, if this referred to some sort nationalistic brotherhood that trumped the waters of baptism. But such a complaint would be too fussy, even for me, since we take our oaths in God’s name and put it on our money as we should. There is a constitutioal separation of church and state, not of religion and state (nor can there be). We are hypocrites as a nation, but only hypocrites because we have a standard to be hypocritical to. This is better than no standard at all. (more…)
Commenting on Leviticus 9:4-6 Gordon Wenham says “The return of God in his glory was always something to be looked for. There was a recognition that if God was not present in the tabernacle then all worship there was meaningless. These sacrifices are designed to make fellowship between God and man possible again.” (more…)
Northern Europeans aren’t known for their emotive bodily expressiveness, but neither did they write the Bible. Paul “desires then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling” (1 Timothy 2:8). Note he says men, not effeminate, overly-emotional males who are about to melt into a puddle. This expression is consistent with Paul’s insistence that Timothy be a good pastor-soldier (2 Tim. 2:3) and fight the good fight of faith (1 Tim. 5:12).
Praying with lifted hands is not an uncommon in the Scriptures. Moses spreads his hands (Ex. 9:29), David lifts them toward the sanctuary (Ps. 28:2), Solomon dedicates the temple this way (1 Kings 8:22), and Jesus raised his (Luke 24:50).
Since our bodies are not just transportation for our brains, bodily posture is important. It expresses how we feel, what we want, and whom we honor–note Barack Obama’s recent bow to the King of Saudi Arabia, but not the Queen of England. From the biblical examples, it looks as though lifted hands should play more of a role in evangelical corporate worship. Most of the examples I’ve seen of this have been where one individual is off in his own emotional cocoon, swaying, muttering his own prayers and generally stoking his emotions. This seems to have no resemblance to the biblical examples. But neither does lifting no hands at all.
