Reformation Riches for the Contemporary Church

Liberation for Both Skeptics and Burned-Out Evangelicals

Bruins

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781498281508
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

"Whether it is described as recovering treasures of gold, removing the clouds to reveal the clearest and bluest of skies, replacing fast food with delectable and healthy cuisine, or coming out of the valley to behold the most amazing Alpine splendor, rediscovering the glorious biblical truths which were recovered during the Reformation is extraordinarily liberating and invigorating."The biblical teachings of the Protestant Reformation five hundred years ago freed Christians from many of the same forms of bondage that, ironically, have now reappeared in much of contemporary evangelical Christianity. Many evangelicals now find themselves trapped on performance-based treadmills, enslaved by neurotic introspection, and often just burning out and walking away from the church. Whether it's being fixated on "my performance" (legalism) or "my inner experience" (mysticism) or some other exhausting entanglement, there is, thankfully, a way out.Protestant evangelical churches need to rediscover the liberating treasures of biblical Christianity that were recovered in the Protestant Reformation. This book encourages burned-out evangelicals to take another look--from a Reformation perspective--and begin basking in the good news and all of its vast riches. Through a series of thought-provoking essays, this book also introduces other skeptics to an undiluted and robust Christianity.

Part 1

Rediscovering Some Foundational Biblical Truths That the Reformation Had Also Once Recovered

1

Why We Go to Church

Whatever Happened to the Divine Service?

The Divine Service: I vaguely remember hearing these words a few times during my lifetime as the historical name for the worship service. Even when I more recently learned what these words were all about, I assumed this title had long been extinct. I hadn’t realized that there was still at least one Reformational denomination that had preserved it in many of its churches to the present day. The first time I set foot in a Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod), I was utterly amazed to find the Lutheran Service Hymnal actually still called it the Divine Service. After participating in the service, tears of joy literally flowed from my eyes on the way home. Ever since that first time and the paradigm shift which resulted for me, I cannot wait for Sunday to roll around and so look forward to going to a good church. At no time in my life before can I honestly say that was the case. Yes, I would usually attend church on vacation when no one was looking, but it was much more out of a sense of duty than desire. There is probably no more important a chapter in this collection of short essays for the church today than this one.

This paradigm shift I experienced wasn’t so much about the more liturgical style, although there is much that can be recovered in that regard as well; rather, the paradigm shift concerned the basic elements of what was happening, who was doing what, and, that the primary direction of the service was the exact opposite of what I had come to believe. It was in the Lutheran Divine Liturgy that I clearly recognized the elements of worship, specifically God’s activity of showering the people with his gifts and graces.

These elements had more vaguely existed in the Reformed services of my childhood as well as in other Anglican and Presbyterian services that I had occasion to attend. The vagueness I had experienced often resulted from an over emphasis on worshipping correctly (obediently) in accordance with Scripture at the expense of an under emphasis of why that was important. It often became all about doing it right for the sake of doing it right. It was eye opening to realize that God put in place his ordained means of worship as means of grace precisely so that he could draw near to sinners and give to us his gracious gifts.

In the past few decades, evangelical church services in general, including Reformational churches, have increasingly slipped into becoming human-centered rather than God-centered events. I guess there’s no surprise here, since it is part of our very nature to make everything about us. As a result, these elements, that were formerly present, are largely absent in most contemporary worship services. Across the board, church services have largely become constant drones of exhortations for us to do more and try harder as opposed to recounting what Jesus has done for us. Churches vary in what to do more of, and, what to try harder at. For more conservative churches it may be private and public morality, for more liberal churches, social justice issues, and, for more charismatic churches, having an inner experience. Undergirding it all is a constant exhorting, all of which only ends up puffing people up and/or burning them out. It never provides the actual nurture needed if there is any hope of doing more and trying harder at anything.

A good first question to ask ourselves is: Are our church services primarily about Christ and him crucified or are they are primarily about the Christian, i.e., us? Who is being maximized as awesome—us or Jesus? Then, even when we can acknowledge it should properly be first and foremost about God, we usually still have a way of making it about us. Therefore, a good second question to ask is: Who is the main actor in the service—God or the people? That is, even if the focus is shifted away from our narcissistic selves and our problems to God, is it then still all about our addressing God as opposed to us being addressed by him?

Basically the evangelical church has somehow gotten it all backwards on both counts for some time now. Our problem is that we are going to church primarily for the wrong reasons—for us to do something for God, to experience God and/or to speculate about God. These reasons which we commonly have for worshipping are precisely the three ladders of idolatry identified by Martin Luther: the ladder of good works, the ladder of mysticism, and the ladder of speculative knowledge. Church becomes our means of attempting to ascend to his throne or of trying to reach up and to pull him down to us (Rom 10). Even good things then become distorted and turned into idols. Worship becomes all about our service to him, our “building” the kingdom, our being missional, our changing the world and making it a better place, our “connecting” with him through praise, our efforts to emotionally and mystically experience his presence, and our finding ways to speculate about him through inner contemplation. But who are we that we can give God anything? What do we have that we did not first receive?” (Rom 11:35; Job 35:7; 41:11, Ps 50:7–15; Acts 17:25; 1Cor 4:7).

The Reformation had recovered a biblical sense of worship opposite to that of “the work of the people,” the medieval mass. In short, the assembling in God’s presence was all about receiving his gifts. Through Word and Sacrament, God’s saving power was poured out for the justification of the unconverted and the sanctification of the converted. The gospel was the power for salvation, both justification and sanctification. As Ruth and Billy Graham’s grandson and former Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church pastor Tullian Tchividjian has observed, the gospel “not only ignites the Christian life, but fuels it [throughout] as well”11 (Gal 3:3). Much like a service station, the “service” was God’s service to sinners. It was first and foremost about God delivering the benefits of his work accomplished on behalf of the people. Worship then included echoing back praises, prayers and offerings to God following his demonstrating his worth-ship yet again. Michael Horton likens it to ministers breaking open the piñata and the people being showered with God’s grace every week. It was like sitting at a lavish Thanksgiving feast or unwrapping a plethora of amazing gifts under the Christmas tree. This was also similar to the way many Psalms are patterned, which is what God’s people used in worship throughout the Bible. It is after recounting God’s great works of grace and mercy that there are the responsive praises of the people in the Psalms. God clearly is to take the lead in the dialogue of worship.

The gifts would be lavished upon God’s people through Word and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Like Peter, we naturally resist him washing our feet, yet he reminds us that unless he washes our feet, we have no part in his kingdom. We, like Peter, can then respond, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (John 13:8–9). Jesus then responds, reassuring him (and us) not to worry as he already has that covered. Through baptism and then in the absolution, or assurance of pardon, given weekly as a present-tense reminder, we are ever washed and re-clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Through the Lord’s Supper we are fed, united to the vine, our very source of nourishment. Through the Word, we are further addressed by our Heavenly Father and thereby fed with the Bread of Life. You actually can look forward to going to church like a good vacation, a day at the spa and a sumptuous meal at your favorite restaurant. Spiritually you come to receive a good bath, a nice hot meal and a fresh change of clothes. More profoundly, it’s another effective treatment for the residual cancer of my sinful nature with, yet again, the joyful ongoing sure and certain promise of ultimate and complete recovery.

So how did the church lose its direction? Probably the same way it usually does. The kids complained that church was boring. Parents responded with the sentiment expressed in John Kennedy’s famous saying “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” In this context, however, it was to ask not what God can do for you, it was you who needed to do something for God. So it was taught that we go to church not to “get” something, but to give, i.e., to serve. Now there is a sense in which the expectation of “getting” can be wrong. Jesus desires disciples, not consumers. In relation to God we are all beggars, not shoppers. The church is not like a shopping mall where Jesus is there to meet our felt needs. He is there in the hospital for sinners to give us what we really need. He is there in the law office reading the will, describing and distributing the vast riches of our inheritance as adopted children. We need to learn from him as good disciples and receive that which he has to give, not what we feel we need or want. Therefore, while it is correct to say we are not consumers, it is a grave mistake to say that we are not receivers.

Generally speaking, when we find church boring or doctrine dead, we tend to complicate matters by turning inward and making ourselves the primary givers and servers in the church service. Instead of returning to what made it exciting in the first place—the greatest rescue story ever told—we try to create our own excitements. We want to find the solution in our deeds, our experience or our knowledge. The one place where God promises to graciously descend to serve us for our salvation and refreshment then gets turned into our service. Instead, we should simply refocus our eyes upon Jesus and the gifts he is distributing in this Divine drama. Ironically, it is then and only then that we can actually properly give, i.e., serve. But it’s not God who needs our tangible service, it’s our neighbor! Rejuvenated by God’s service to us we are freed to spend the whole week loving and serving our neighbor. Martin Luther is very helpful here as he distinguished between the passive righteousness we receive from God in our vertical relationship with him and the active righteousness we exhibit in our horizontal relationships with our neighbor. This active righteousness flows out of and does not contribute to the passive righteousness we receive from God. We do serve the Lord (Ps 100:2); however, as Luther pointed out, particularly with respect to the monastics, when we try to appease God, who doesn’t need our service, with our good works, he is not impressed. Moreover, we are frustrated, and the needs of our neighbors, who do need our service, are not met. Luther observed that once we are justified before God, there is no place for our good works to go, except out to our neighbors. As an example, apart from the possible legitimate reasons for hand-raising worship generally, such as responsive praise and adoration, people today are often engaging in it to attempt to “connect” themselves with God. This we need not, should not and cannot do. It is God who serves us by connecting with us, not the other way around. Imagine if all that hand raising energy which is expended were diverted to people putting their arms around their spouses, their children and extending genuine hands of friendship to the visitors beyond a perfunctory greeting!

We have somehow succeeded in turning God’s service to us on its head. If there is anything that needs reforming in the contemporary church’s worship service, this is it. In order to do this, ministers need to recover their functions as waiters or under-shepherds whose job it is to feed the flock. Their job is not CEO, life coach, salesman, comedian, guru, or motivational speaker. Further, sheep are best led by being called, not by being driven from behind and beaten over the head. Parishioners need to come to receive the kingdom he is bringing, even now in the forgiveness of sins, and then to herald it, not to attempt to build it. Harking back to their own historic tradition, many Reformed churches today are recovering this sense of worship and again calling their services the Divine Service, like the Lutherans have continued to do.

We need to rest in his promises that he will accomplish his purposes through the means of grace (Word and Sacrament) that he has ordained. Like Abraham sleeping with Hagar instead of Sarah, we want to “help” God get things don...

Table of contents

• Note to the Reader and Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part 1: Rediscovering Some Foundational Biblical Truths That the Reformation Had Also Once Recovered
• Part 2: How We Do Church
• Part 3: Some Additional Liberating Applications and Implications
• Conclusion
• Bibliography