But seriously though, it's remarkable to note the change during
the past twenty years. Colson's project has reaped a harvest indeed.
Back in the 1980's most Evangelicals would have raised
critical eyebrows at the notion of embracing the wider Church calendar. It has
always been an inconsistency that they keep Christmas and Easter and neglect
the other days but nevertheless that's how it was done.
If you suggested to a Baptist or most Evangelicals for that
matter that we should celebrate Ascension, Epiphany or Holy Week... you would
receive a pretty hostile response.
"Those are Catholic holidays."
Of course they are. All of them are part of the same
post-Constantinian tradition. While the hints and prototypes of some of the
holidays were already at work in the 3rd century, the whole
Liturgical Calendar and all the superstitions and idolatries that became both
Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism were founded in the Constantinian era.
The Higher Church spectrum of Protestantism (Lutheranism and
Anglicanism) continued these traditions.
Over time many of them were (partly) incorporated in the various
Wesleyan splinters and to some degree in the Reformed spectrum. This was
especially true as the Reformed Churches embraced Modernism in the 19th
century.
When you have no message to preach anymore you tend to fill
the meeting time with other things. High Church worship excels at this.
But now, these ideas are making strong incursions into Low-Church groups, many of which were born
during the Fundamentalist era.
It's strange to hear Nazarenes and people from Holiness
groups, the Church of God, Brethren and others talking about 'keeping Lent' and
other such nonsense.
This is a huge shift. The Culture Wars and the work of its
intellectuals and propagandists have driven these people to look for historical
roots. Rather than turn to true Biblical witness which eschews political power,
they are embracing paradigms and symbols of an age when the False Church
wielded great political strength. I'm speaking of both Romanism and
Protestantism.
The temptation of the tactile (as I call it) is pulling
these people in and they're employing the temptation as a tactic to draw in
outsiders. Some have turned from the entertainment/seeker model and re-embraced
High Church forms. They find comfort in the tradition and the historical roots.
But many others are trying to incorporate both High Church
tradition and modern seeker style worship. They resulting hybrid is bizarre and
certainly distasteful for many reasons.
In the end, there are very few who seem content to rely on
Scripture alone and find the beauty of simplicity to be dull and
uninspiring. Worshipping in spirit and
truth has no appeal to them.
They wish to employ trapping of tutelage. They think the Old
Covenant possessed a glory to be emulated.
It would be bad enough if they did that. Returning to the
symbols of Judaism is to reject the Messianic fulfillment of those types.
But syncretism and innovation are even worse. That's at the
heart of what Rome is... A Judaizing tendency mixed or syncretized with
European Paganism.
It's very telling and very sad to see the desperate
measures, even the panic that is driving congregations to find whatever they
can to stay viable... which for them means sufficient numbers to keep the bureaucracy
going and the building maintained.
Call me a cynic, but that's what it seems like.
I've become conflicted on this for competing reasons.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, I'm opposed to the binding these holidays create. There is the pressure to conform to the celebration, with all the things that this entails. Christmas becomes, for all the talk of Incarnation (which is usually a confused conversation), a selfish and indulgent celebration. Then, personally, I'm not terribly enthused with holidays in general, even secular ones like Birthdays.
But on the other hand, I'd rather have people celebrating particular aspects of the Gospel (be it Incarnation, passion, resurrection etc.) than Fourth of July or Memorial day. I'm all for Two-Kingdoms, but as I've said elsewhere, there is a rotten form and a true form. I find some of the types today (in Lutheran variety particularly) end up creating such a wall of the Spirituality of the Kingdom that it creates a schizophrenic belief.
So Luther is able to preach forgiveness and the fullness of Christ but also advice princes to slaughter peasants and council hangmen to remain as such and do their job well. The desire for purpose will bleed somewhere. So thus the Magisterial Protestant societies very quickly become secular sacralisms.
We become what we celebrate. So, given that we all participate in liturgies, or simply having an order and a means of keeping time, as long as it is not crushing and binding, I tolerate the holidays and can rejoice that people are at least considering a hope of resurrection instead of a hope for revolution.
I agree with the Lollards that church bells would better serve as cattle bells. But I don't know what to do. I'd rather worship with so-called "High Church" Christians than the so-called "Low Church" christic Americanisms.
I think a major problem is how little regard is given to the Eucharist. If the Supper was seen truly as eating and drinking the Body of the Lord, of tasting a heavenly banquet, even a "re-presentation" of the one, true, and eternally complete sacrifice, then there'd be less drive for innovation. At least when coupled with the sufficiency of Scripture.
We're given the means of celebration, but it's not counted enough.
I, too, am shocked and horrified to see how "Lent" has gone viral in the evangelical world. When I became a Christian in 1980, it was with a real regard for sola scriptura, and with a radical turning to worship in spirit and truth. We received ire from our Catholic families because our conversion led us to reject Romanism and its extra biblical syncretisms. Like you, Proto, we in our flesh love the ornate buildings, the robes, incense, processions and all that pomp. But it must be left behind if one is to obey the Lord and approach Him in the ways He proscribes. Thirty or forty years later, most of the "leaders" of that time who helped us see the truth of biblical simplicity and of "coming out from among them", now heartily embrace these celebrations and traditions. Some even comment that they were sincere but childishly foolish in their former avoidance of such religious bacchanalia. Boy, I could feel betrayed. I don't, but I do feel sad that opportunities for corporate worship and deeper-than-superficial fellowship are so few and far between, not to mention the true deep concern for the brethren who I see as having been seriously corrupted and compromised.
ReplyDeleteWhat caused this? I think, as you mention, the dominionism of culture war that has become so pervasive and aggressive in recent decades. No one seems to have thought through any of the underlying assumptions and inconsistencies of its sacralisms. Folks are so desperate to be a "witness" or to "live out their faith" but are pressured by all the current public "voices" on religious radio and TV to do so in an aggressive in-your-face culture war way, of fighting over holidays as if they should be "owned" by Christians rather than by "the secular world." It's culture-war dissipation. Where are voices leading the flocks to be witnesses and live their faith in humble biblical ways of Christlikeness and sharing the gospel?
There is quite the sorting and sifting going on, and the old lines of division have been erased. Now the line of demarcation is the issue of the Kingdom antithesis vs. monism.
I also think Cal is on to something vital: that the churches have largely abandoned the eucharist (communion, Lord's table) and all that it highlights: the cross, the gospel, self-denial, the nature of the church. I think of Jeraboam and his altar and the resulting Samaritan worship, which came because of political considerations.
Anyway, it is becoming an increasingly lonely time.
Victoria