TheologyGeekBlog.us » Doctrine and Practice (Jesus First Affirmations Con’t)
The question ultimately comes up, why can’t we both have good theology and a fun worship experience or have a contemporary and a traditional service? To answer this question, we must first examine why the liturgy is important. I believe that comes down to two important areas.
1. It is historical
2. The emphasis is on God giving a gift to us that we receive.The liturgy is basically the same service that has been used by Christians since the early church. This connects us with Christians both througout the world and throughout time. By its very nature, a contemporary service can not do this. It is constantly in flux and may change dramatically over time. We believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church. The liturgy allows us to see how we are connected to other Christians in Christ.
Why do you go to church? To praise God. To give him honor? To be with your friends? The liturgy shows us something different. We are there to receive something that we don’t deserve. In thanksgiving, we respond in praise with songs about his goodness, his mercy, and his death on the cross and gift of grace. In humility, we ask of God in our prayers. In unity, we proclaim the magnificent truth in the creeds. The heart of the divine service is a one-way street. It is from God to us. Not something we bring to him. The days of the sacrifice are over. He has become our paschal lamb so that we no longer encouraged to do anything for him to forgive us.
In my review of author Christian Schwartz’s Paradigm Shift in the Church under the Papers heading above I encountered this issue. Even his subtitle “How Natural Church Development can transform Theological Thinking” itself implies that the church growth scheme presented in the text could change the way you think theologically. His presentation and goal is one of broad ecumenical appeal and yet he fails in his “method” to use Biblical concepts of the church. His method might be enlightening on some level to describe of the woes of “institutionalistic paradigm” that plagues us (in his opinion). Unfortunately his presentation lacks any kind of confessional perspective and does not respect or understand the church as transcendent of time. As a result, we are sceptical that there is good theology or orthodox, catholic theology behind his paradigm scheme (practice.) Can we adapt his scheme to our theological perspective or will it only cloud or distort our theology?
In the same way, Jason Evans connects liturgical “liberty” to theological freedom. Even if this is not the goal, it is the result of liturgy which avoids the historical and God-giving aspect of liturgy. Arguably any attempt to present our role in worship will ultimately lead back to works-based righteousness. Click through and read Jason’s whole post. Can you tell I’m on an adiaphora/liturgy kick?
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