“A brief survey of the biblical motifs as seen through the eyes of the Ancients”
You can find/download the Power Point presentation here and follow along…
This is a Power Point presentation was given by me, at Saint Andrew Anglican Church in Wilmot WI, on November 17, 2019. It explores the cosmological relationship of Genesis, the Ancient Near East, and the Gospel. Some of this study covers how the Genesis account of creation is similar to the temple building liturgies that have been uncovered by archaeologists in the last few centuries in the middle east, in the areas of what we cais ll the ancient near east (ANE). Temples, temple liturgies, gardens, divine images, sacred waters, divine presence, are just some of the shared worldview ideas found among the peoples of the ANE. We will be touching on how Genesis shares many of these worldview ideas with thier ANE neighbors, but is actually a polemic (an argument) against thier ANE neighbors understandings of these. It also traces how these ideas become the motifs that flow into the Old Testament, it’s temple system, the Gospel and eventually find thier finality in Christ and His people; the body of Christ, the Church.
In Philip J Lee’s book Against the Protestant Gnostics (1987. pg 143-144) goes right to the heart of the low eclessiology of much of evangelicalism (why the Church no longer matters for one’s salvation, how salvation is, strictly speaking, individualistic):
“Another religious development contributing to the focus on self arose from a significant change within Calvinistic ecclesiology. The change occurred because of the almost obsessive drive to establish a pure Church. Whereas Calvin had been convinced by the parable of the wheat and the tears, as well as by the history of the church, that God’s Church on earth will always be an imperfect organization an ad-mixture of saints and sinners – later Puritans were determined that the Covenant people would be free of mixture and error. They interpreted the parable of the wheat and tares as an admonition to “gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned but gather the wheat into my barn.”
It was from this pressing concern for the purity the church that the Great Awakening and the revivals which followed where to receive their impetus. Out of the revivals came the view that a subjective experience of God’s salvation was a required mark of a Christian. Whereas classical Calvinism held that the Christian’s assurance of salvation was guaranteed only through Christ and his church, with his means of Grace, now assurance could be found only in the personal experience of having been born again. this was a radical shift, for Calvin had considered any attempt to put “conversion in the power of man himself” to be gross popery. Now with the ascendance of revivalistic religion, conversion had certainly been put in the power of man. As Sidney Mead has recognized:
Conversion tends to make man’s initiative primary. Revivalism thus tends to lean theologically in an Arminian or even Pelagian direction with the implicit suggestion that man saves himself through choice….. In the hands of New England revivalists in the line of Timothy Dwight, Lyman Beecher, and Nathaniel W Taylor, Calvinism was “modified” almost beyond recognition.
Another way of understanding this not-so-quiet revolution within Calvinism which, finally, was to create an anti-Calvinism is to see that with the advent of revivalism, the Covenant itself had become individualized. Jonathan Edwards on January 12th, 1723 solemnly renewed his personal Covenant with God:
“So that I am not, in any respect, my own… Neither have I any right to this body, or any of its members-no right to this tongue, these hands, these feet, no right to the senses, these eyes, these ears, this smell, or this taste. I have given myself clear away, and have not retained anything as my own.”
In a similar way, Susanna Anthony renewed her Covenant in February of 1757, concluding that, “there was not the least reserve; not the least iota, but was solemnly given up to God.”
What makes sense in terms of a corporate image, could become ludicrous in individual terms.”
On this post I don’t necessarily disagree with Mcknight (It is refreshing to me that he recognizes there is just as much of what I call messianic statism on the left as there is on the right – something that is often overlooked by progressive leaning Christians IMHO). That said, whenever this kind of discussion arises what comes to mind is the “Orthodoxies” which have very strong bonds between ethnic identities, language (their liturgies are often done in their ancient tongue), and their particular Christian tradition. I recognize it because my wife is 100% Armenian and among the Armenian’s there is a strong bond between their identity as Armenians and as Christians (they will always tell you they were the first nation to accept Christianity as the religion of the state in 301 AD). It’s the same with the Russians, Serbians, Greeks, the Copt’s and others.
With that in mind Dr Steve Turley on his turleytalks.com youtube channel has been documenting the resurgence of nationalism/traditionalism across the globe (which often intertwines loyalty to the nation, their version of historic Christianity, and socially conservative views politically. (Other nations like Turkey, Japan, and India, are also seeing the rise of nationalism along with their traditional religions as well)
Russian Orthodoxy (the faith of “the motherland”) personifies this:
As a friend pointed out over the past decade Putin has taken full advantage of this, aligning himself with the RO Church (similar to Trump with conservative Evangelicals and Catholics). The same is happening in many other places like Poland, Moldova, and other old Eastern block countries (even in places like Samoa) much to the chagrin of western secular and corporate globalists.
I’m really not smart enough to figure it out but it seems like a deeply anthropological question on how tribalism and the cult are intertwined and that politics is the working itself out from these. (I’m convinced I’m onto something after a deep study on ancient pagans and their rituals of human sacrifice (which is found on every continent) that I did a few years back researching how nations/ethnicities were before they were converted to Christianity).
I keep asking myself is there something innate in humanity in the way the faith of a people and culture (cultus) form our identity and that inevitably work out into our politics?
A message I gave at the Healing Rain III Conference 3/11/17 – Calling for community prayer in the area (NW Lake, NE McHenry, SW Kenosha, SE Walworth, Counties Area)
“The devil was conquered by his own trophy of victory. The devil jumped for joy, when he seduced the first man and cast him down to death. By seducing the first man, he slew him; by slaying the last man, he lost the first from his snare. The victory of our Lord Jesus Christ came when he rose, and ascended into heaven; then was fulfilled what you hear read in the Revelation, “The Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered” [Rev. 5:5]…. The devil jumped for joy when Christ died; and by the very death of Christ the devil was overcome: he took, as it were, the bait in the mousetrap. He rejoiced at the death, thinking himself death’s commander. But that which caused his joy dangled the bait before him. The Lord’s cross was the devil’s mousetrap: the bait which caught him was the death of the Lord.“
“upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” Matt 16:18
Early believers presented the church as the new community made up of the people who constitute the beginning again of the created order. The church is the new society, the people of the future living in the present, the people of Christus Victor, the people that are defined by the living, dying, rising, and coming again of Christ. All Christian truth that flows from Christ converges in the church. Worship, Scripture, theology, spirituality, education, evangelism, social action, and creeds all belong to the church and are defined by the work of the church and are all defined by the work of Christ. Thus, the church is the community in which the vision of a renewed world is anticipated and experienced.
Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3 3:1-3 ESV
I have a sense that there is a subterranean stream brewing under the surface within evangelicalism (as well as the broader culture) within the last few decades or more. It seems as if evangelicals don’t know how to express it, but they have a sense of the shallowness of the contemporary evangelical church today and what it offers is spiritually lacking. There seems to be a deep longing for “authenticity ” and a “real” spirituality given the artificiality of the high tech virtual reality world (and church) culture we all stew in. Some churches in the main stream evangelical sub culture, in the name of reaching the lost and being “relevant” have drunk so deeply at the well of novelty. They have turned what some call worship, into a high tech, concert like enterprise that manufactures a faux spirituality.
There are those within evangelicalism though that are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the seeming artificiality of it all and are starting to turn toward things that have “the feel” of a deeper spirituality in reaction to the artificiality of today’s churchianity. I believe this reaction was one of the undercurrents that fueled the emergent church movement a few years or so back. In many ways this is a good sign that Christians are starting to long for a more authentic Christianity. This longing also reflects trends within the greater culture for a deeper “spirituality”. So on the one hand it’s a positive sign, but on the other hand it can be wrought with many dangers, pitfalls, and even apostasy for Christians if one isn’t grounded in scripture and a biblical worldview, which brings me to the issue I want to discuss.
Over at Tim Challies blog there is a discussion on the phenomenon of Christian coloring books which are all the rage (as he puts it), which are being marketed to Christians as a means of “spiritual formation”. In it Tim gets into a discussion on the distracting and even dangerous problems with elevating hobbies like coloring to a “spiritual discipline” and thus as means of “spiritual formation”. His discussion focuses on how a healthy spiritual formation is one that centers itself around the use of scripture. You can find it here. Tim touches on the fact that some of these things have mystical elements and even some can be imports from other [non-christian] religions. In this discussion I want to unpack that a little more so I can offer a contradistinctive biblical and liturgical “Christ focused” spirituality found in the traditions and robust high liturgies of the ancient church vs the internalizing forms of spirituality found in the quasi new age, neo gnostic, and deeply introspective forms of spirituality found in especially eastern religions.
Fundamentally what has been a foot in the contemporary church, and what has been subtly introduced into it, is exactly that; a quasi new age, neo gnostic, eastern and deeply introspective form of spirituality. It has been entering the Church through various channels and venues over the last few decades. From yoga classes held in churches, to the contemplative movement found in books from authors like Henri Nouwen and the christian mystics like Thomas Merton among others. One example is how this spirituality found its way on christian radio on the now cancelled “Midday Connection” on Moody radio which hosted Anita Lustrea a graduate of the “christian” Christos Center for Spiritual Formation. The center she pointed her listeners to teaches the use of labyrinths as a “self alignment tool” as well as trains “spiritual directors” to lead people in the paths of a deeper quasi christian spirituality. Lustrea was on the radio for years until Moody finally pulled the plug after realizing the new age and counterfeit nature of the form of spirituality that was being encouraged through these broadcasts. Also, from what I can discern some within the emergent movement (which seeks much of the same introspective spirituality) have gone so far as to hijack the use of liturgical church furnishings like candles and such (which have been unanchored from biblical liturgical theology because they seemingly create an authentic spiritual experience) to incorporate them into their new “emerging” version of christianity and spirituality. The coloring books mentioned above that Tim Challies discusses on his blog I believe are just one more avenue for this introspective spirituality.
All these examples I mention point to a highly anthropocentric spirituality thathas been making its way into the church from the greater culture which is itself seeking deeper forms of spirituality.
With all of that said I really don’t want to get too much more into the apologetic arguments against this new form of spirituality (which really isn’t new, it’s just repackaged for modernity) but if you’d like more Dr Peter Jones does a great job exposing it for what it is; part of the new gnostic gospel which you can find here. I brought it out here because I wanted to use it in this discussion to explain what I think is going on in the greater church culture so I can juxtapose this anthropocentric spirituality against what I believe is the real one; a theocentric spirituality which dialogs with God through biblically based conversation between God and man found in written prayers, creeds, scripture readings, as well as biblically based sacramental symbols found in the ancient worship liturgies of the church. This biblical dialog and biblical worship is means of spiritual formation which is found in the traditions and robust high liturgies of the ancient church. Thus this bold theocentric spirituality is the answer to the longing for a more authentic and deeper Christian faith.
Which brings us to back the shallowness of today’s modern church.
Older evangelicals used to be much more rooted in a bible centered pulpit. Today most of that biblical centerednesss in my opinion has been lost to a therapeutic gospel of happiness based in psychological healing more than on scripture. This, as well as a gospel that is so sensitive about being offensive to cultural sensibilities that it has been watered down to something almost biblically unrecognizable (all so that we can win folks to the gospel?). Thus if the old latin theological saying is correct “Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi” (As We Worship, So we will Live) then this new kind of shallow worship creates a type of believer that is “blown around by every wind of doctrine“. This is especially true if one is not thoroughly grounded it at least the word of God like our evangelical forefathers were. These older generation of evangelicals might have longed for a deeper spirituality (see my last post), but would have at least been anchored in the word of God, and thus much more attuned and questioning of this modern new age, neo gnostic, eastern, introspective counterfeit spirituality unlike today’s generation (generally speaking this too was the problem with many older main line denominations whom lost their way. They lost the biblical meaning to the liturgical symbols because they had abandoned the biblical pulpit and it’s biblical preaching and teaching and thus many shipwrecked their faith).
Which leads me to idolatry in man.
It has been said in his sinfulness and rebellion against his creator, man is fundamentally an idolater because we human beings were created to worship. Thus if we do not worship the Triune God (in both “spirit AND truth”) we will find something or someone else to worship. This idolatrous nature is the fundamental problem when we are drawn to look inward (into the god within) rather than outward (to our Creator) because we are especially prone to make ourselves into an idol (“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing [deciding for yourself] good and evil.” Genesis 3:5). This is why I bring up the passage in Colossians chapter 3 which is instructive and points us to the direction of our worship: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”. This passage points us to look up to Christ and the things that are above rather then “into” ourselves. Especially if we are dead to ourselves and alive to God because our life is hidden within Christ.
But what of our hearts and our inner restlessness?
Saint Augustine recognized this longing for something much deeper, something that is innate spirituality in all of us when he said so long ago that “You have made us for yourself O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You”. He recognized we all have a restlessness in our inner spiritual man; which longs to see, to know, and to fully experience God because worship is what we were created for. The only problem is the satisfaction we seek to the spiritual restlessness we have cannot be obtained by looking inward into ourselves, by navel gazing, but by looking outside of ourselves to Christ who condescended to become like us, who is now exalted in Glory. This innate need to worship and experience God is why I am becoming more convinced that the worship experience found in the ancient church liturgies are such an integral part of helping us look up to Christ.
For lack of a better illustration I will use baseball to explain;
Just as one can read books about baseball and read its rule book, its history and stories in text. It can be somewhat difficult to fully apprehend or appreciate (or even love) the “real” game of baseball with out actually experiencing a ball game or playing the game itself. This to me is like what we have with the text of the written word. God’s divine revelation which gives us a basic comprehension of God, His Holiness, Majesty, and Glory. The liturgy on the other hand works like baseball cards, colored magazines and picture books, as well as one of those baseball board games. These all help one to more imaginatively understand the real game. If one can see it, both of these working together – the books and rules and such and the illustrations, pictures and games – keep us anchored in truth and prepare us for the real authentic experience we will someday have in heaven. Similarly when I played golden tee golf (a video golf game) the video game prepared me for the real game by helping me choose clubs and understand conditions on the playing field, so that when I did go out I understood which club (and which end of the club to hold!) to choose for the right distance and trajectory.
This is why I believe biblical preaching and teaching working together with the ancient church liturgies (again, which are steeped in biblical symbolism) helps us more fully comprehend and imaginatively understand so that we can look beyond ourselves to Christ. With the Holy Spirit living within us, the scripture and liturgy help us on this side of eternity, to enter in to a spiritual and earthly worship experience of the already present reality in Heaven. It is, simply put, preparation for the real worship (and thus real spirituality) that all of us believers will one day experience in glory. Where we too, along with angels and archangels, and all the saints who have gone before, to enter into the eternal reality that is now ever present in Heaven, where our King is robed in Holiness, Glory, and Majesty! Amen
The beautiful little Anglican chapel I worship at; St Andrew Anglican, Spring Grove, IL
This is kind of a personal testimony as well as an explanation to why a Reformed Evangelical as myself has moved toward the ancient liturgical tradition. It seems as though I have to go through some of my whole life’s story in just a few paragraphs so friends and others who have come to know me over the years can come to understand my seeming change in understanding…
As an adult believer it seems as if I’ve always been a seeker of truth. One of my favorite passages is Proverbs 4:7 which says; Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. That passage in a nutshellis part of the fabric of what God wove in my personal DNA. As an adult I have always enjoyed listening to lectures on my ride to work, reading great books every chance I get, and engaging in theologically oriented conversations wherever I go. Along the way I have made many wonderful friends and feel I have tasted, engaged, and experienced most of the various protestant traditions found in typical American churches through my life’s journey. I can also say that I thank God he gave me Sandy, a wife who went along with me patiently in this journey as I followed the Lord in the only way I knew how; to understand my faith and the fullness of what Christ had done for me.
Being raised in a Missouri Synod Lutheran school and church (which had a traditional liturgy – more on that later) I believe that christian education sowed the seeds of my faith early on. But like many youth growing up in the 1980’s I had lost my way in the sex and drugs and rock and roll culture of that era. Through it all, Christ was always there in the back of my mind as I knew He wasn’t please with the life I was leading. It was when I was 21, during a youthful crisis that someone gave me a set of cassette tapes with a message series called “Christianity 101” in 1987 by Bill Hybels of Willow Creek in which he used the story of The Great Blondin to illustrate the nature of true saving faith that took the seeds of the faith of my childhood and made Jesus real for me. Willow was a kind of plunge into the evangelical sub culture in America as I began to meet believers from various types of evangelical backgrounds, baptists, bible believing fundamentalists, evangelical charismatics, and old school as well as word of faith type pentecostals. For over a period of about 12 to 13 years I spent differing amounts of time in these groups bible studies and churches, always pursuing God, seeking to grapple with my Bible desiring to learn. As I would learn I always felt like there was more; sometimes rejecting what I had learned before, and sometimes gaining more clarity, but always after some time feeling like I needed to keep moving on because God had more to teach me and this was about as far as that christian “stream” could take me.
Because of my background in the trades, in 2000 I was hired at Trinity International University as the Maintenance Supervisor (I am currently the Director of Grounds and Maintenance there now). Over the years as I’ve hired students and made many friends from all over the world (Trinity truly is an International community). On a daily basis I would (and still do) rub shoulders with seminarians, future pastors, and future Church leaders. For me it really is a dream job and a blessing for a guy like me who seeks, who wants to wrestle with truth and wisdom in trying to understand my faith.
Around a year after I started working for Trinity we started attending Fox Lake Community Church for the next 14 to 15 years (I had even become an elder there). I knew we would be there for a long time from the first time I heard Pastor Wayne Christensen preach. Wayne was the kind of preacher I had never herd before. He is a traditional Reformed pastor who preaches and teaches in the high theocentric preaching tradition of men like John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, and contemporaries like John Piper and RC Sproul; preachers of “the word” who knew why they were Protestants. Sunday in and Sunday out, Pastor Wayne would go through the word, verse by verse, sometimes going through a whole book of the bible for over a year. I feel forever indebted to that little church and to Pastor Wayne and to all my seminarian friends at Trinity that taught me how to read and understand the ancient Holy writings. These wonderful friends and brothers gave me a Bible I could read and understand for the most part.
Yet after all those years I began to be stagnant, Sundays to me felt like I was going to a “lecture” centered worship service. Meaning even though there was music, the creeds, prayer, and even weekly communion, everything really leads to the climax of the service; the pulpit which stands at the front center in these sermon centered churches. Thus I began to feel like there God had more for my wife and I. I knew the Reformers were simply trying to recover the biblical truth of the early church and cut through all of what they felt were medieval innovations. Yet I felt like the “pulpit centered” nature of the Reformation took me about as far as I could go intellectually and especially spiritually (spiritually I was dry inside). Apart from more very careful theological nuances (things that only reformed folks argue about) I felt like I knew, had fully embraced, and had understood most of what the various streams within the Reformed tradition taught. Apart from understanding the biblical languages, I felt as though I had received a thorough Reformed and Evangelical “seminary like” quality education. I knew I needed a rational understanding of the scriptures, yet I began to feel like seeking understanding alone became for me a form of rationalism for the sake of rationalism (especially if isolated from the experiential and emotional side of who we are as human beings). Over time I felt as though I had acquired a large amount of knowledge and a rational understanding of “the faith once delivered” but a heart that didn’t grow in the same proportion over that time per say.
It became apparent to me that I needed to go back farther to the catholicity of the ancient church and the beauty of her traditions. Yet there was a problem, as an american evangelical I had imbibed a certain attitude toward the high church and ancient liturgies. Evangelicals especially of my age group have a certain view of the older main line denominations. Though we witnessed some believers who were faithful within those traditions, we also witnessed many many of the “mainline protestant” “liturgical churches” shipwreck their faith over the last 75 years plus. And what was left of those traditions seemed to be “dead” at least in terms of the gospel being alive in the people’s hearts. There is a subtle perception of complete apostasy because so many of the old denominations had embraced the postmodern spirit of the age and had run adrift into accepting things like abortion and same sex marriage (which are a no brainer to anyone who has read their bible). It seemed these had lost their faith and embraced “form and ceremony” over-and-against the word of God and the gospel. In many cases this was, and still is true. If you know one of those “liturgical Christians” you probably know what I mean as they have told you they experience this subtle attitude from their more evangelical Christian friends. We evangelicals say to ourselves if that’s where “form and ceremony” lead we don’t want any of it; “we just want Jesus”. I now realize I had did what most evangelicals that had reacted in like manner, I had “thrown the baby out with the bathwater” as the old saying goes. For myself though by that time I had decided I needed to get past those hurdles probably because my change in thinking “was in the making” for a few years. In that spiritually dry season of life – late 2014, I really started thinking about worship and the old liturgies especially the kind I grew up with in the Lutheran Church. I still to this day remember much of it as an adult. I remembered a reverence it instilled in my youth in it’s simple beauty. I still had etched in my mind most the songs from the weekly liturgy of my youth which I now know as the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy), the Nunc Dimittis (the Bible’s song of Simeon) and others.
There were a few other key things that really started me to seriously think about exploring the ancient liturgical traditions as well. A few years earlier a Trinity Phd student friend of mine named Andre upon graduation gave me an old copy of the Anglican prayer book, the 1928 BCP otherwise known as the “Book of Common Prayer”. You never know about those books you give friends, they are like little bombs sitting on the shelf just waiting to go off at the right time and that was the case with me. I remembered that little prayer book and decided to start to explore how to use it. Not knowing how to use it (which can be a little difficult for someone completely unfamiliar with that tradition) I found a website that had daily readings along with a cantor (a singer). I was taken a back with the beauty and simplicity of the daily routine of morning and evening prayer. I loved the beautiful daily liturgical repeated prayers and sung passages of the psalms and scripture which lifted my longing heart in personal worship and prayer to God my Savior. Along with that, in February 2015 I heard about the 21 orange suited martyrs. I knew most of them were Egyptian Coptic believers and knew a little about the Coptic stream of Christianity from other studies. I knew they were a persecuted minority in the middle east just trying to survive for 1400 years under Islamic rule and that they were of a ancient high liturgical tradition. I thought to myself of how these ancient Christians kept their faith and how their liturgies (which I recently learned can be up to 3 hours long) formed them with the resilience they needed to survive all these centuries in the face of such opposition. I wondered how these liturgical Christians (unlike many of their American mainline counterparts I mentioned) have sustained the faith, even to the point of giving ones life for the gospel?
These reasons and others started my researching liturgies in general, starting from Judaism’s synagogue liturgy (how liturgical it was and still is) used in orthodox synagogues. I also started to explore the ancient church. One thing struck me as I was looking at one of those “tree like” church history diagrams that start with Christ and the apostles at the trunk and then branch out into various traditions showing where all the Christian “tribes” came from as it branches out:
I noticed right at the point where all the traditions branch from the main trunk (around the 3rd and 4th centuries) that every single one of them with out exception have inherited a high liturgical form of worship? Knowing a little church history (that though the scriptures were widely circulated early on) the “cannon” of the New Testimant actually was made official in 397ad . I began to think about how some of the creeds (Apostles and Nicene) and the ancient liturgies (like the liturgy of St James) were in use even before the cannon was confirmed as “official’ in an early ecumenical council? This and it was these same “liturgical Christians” who passed along the “official” NT cannon that we hold as authoritative today? I also began to think about the fact that almost all lay early Christians didn’t have bibles like we do today. Thus you just could’t grab your bible and have a “personal quiet time” like you do today. I started to come to the realization along with the Holy Spirit, there was something else that shaped the faith and the daily lives of the early Christians. I started to come to believe some of it was these early ancient liturgies.
Thus, I felt I had to learn and experience the ancient liturgies for myself. I started to visit a few churches in my area that were in that stream of the high church traditions. I visited the local Anglican and LCMS Lutheran churches and even I visited a Serbian orthodox church in their local monastery/cathedral (a two hour service, in 2nd century Serbian, men standing one side, the women other side). In that time my wife and I had to attend 2 funeral services as well, one for my wife’s aunt that was at an Armenian orthodox church and one at a Catholic church for a contractor who worked for me who had passed away. Both funerals had full liturgical services. In reflecting on all those experiences I was struck by the close similarities of their liturgies (the only difference being that some were more compact and others extended) they all had the same essential order and flow; a two part service merged into one; “the service of the word” inherited from the synagogues and “the service of the Eucharist” (thanksgiving) descending from the agape or love feast we find in the New Testament. I could see the liturgy followed a biblical God exalting worship pattern taken from the synagogue and the temple (as well as the house church) something I will get into in further posts. The liturgy was saturated with scripture, not only publicly read and taught, but articulated through corporate confession, praise, prayers and most of all many symbols steeped in scripture that engage the imagination. All this really rattled me and reconfirmed that all these traditions received their worship from the same source and that somehow the evangelical churches I had been a part of for almost 30 years had reduced the ancient liturgies to prayer, song, and sermon and in most cases an absence of weekly communion.
Thus I wanted to dive in further, I thought deeply about what tradition was closest to my Reformed theological convictions. I was already familiar with the Lutheran church of my childhood. But because of my growing appreciation for the prayer book, I wanted to explore the Anglican tradition which came out of the Reformation but had a high liturgical element to it similar to Lutheranism. I also felt comfortable with the Anglican 39 articles that fit nicely with the Reformed stream of theology that I had come to embrace. I felt my wife and I could feel comfortable there and though Anglican churches follow loosely those 39 articles (especially anglo-catholic ones), we could still stay somewhat close to the reformed Protestant roots I had embraced. Anglicanism after all is a self proclaimed “middle-way” between Protestantism (word) and catholicism (sacred liturgy). This is especially true of the later anglo-catholic stream in that tradition. Also as conservative Christians we could feel comfortable in the new ACNA (Anglican Church in North America), which is a confederation of Anglican churches, who are joined in full communion with the Anglican global south, a new Anglican jurisdiction that stands firm on traditional marriage and being pro-life.
Thus being a trail blazer for my wife (and even my adult son who would eventually be married there and grandson who was baptized there). I started visiting St Andrew Anglican Church in Spring Grove, IL on ash Wednesday 2015. Every Sunday during lent I went to both churches, the 8am at St Andrew and the 10:30am at Fox Lake to really discern if this is where the Lord was leading. Through the whole process I continued to feel as thought we needed to grow in this and to experience the liturgical Christian life first hand. My wife Sandy confirmed and felt also that it was time to make a change. Thus, with the blessing of Pastor Wayne, the Elders, and everyone at Fox Lake Community Church we made the change on Easter Sunday 2015.
All I can say after almost two years now, is I have learned much. Especially that the liturgy is much more biblical in terms of its symbols and symbolic rituals than I had ever understood. I have come to love the beauty of the ancient liturgy, how it reaches down into my soul and helps me “experience” the beauty of God’s holiness (this is especially true in a church that does the liturgy well). I feel Sunday in and Sunday out like I’ve had a earthly sensory experience of what the heavenly reality of worship is like in the very throne room of God in a way that it engages my imagination.
Lastly, I still feel like not much has changed in terms of my previous theological convictions, I still consider myself in the “Reformed camp” and all that that means in terms of the core doctrines of grace, the sola’s, eschatology, thenomic common law, the inclusion of, and biblical education of children in the covenant, and more. And yes there are still things within Anglicanism I am uncomfortable with, but I’m old enough and experienced enough to know no matter who you fellowship with or what church you belong to there are always going to be imperfections and warts in both practice and doctrine. To not see that and to look for purist perfection in a church is to live as a believer on a very lonely island.
Thus all said, as an older and wiser man, living in the cultural milieu of evangelical “churchdom”and having to choose between either a highly rational lecture oriented doctrinal church (there was a long season I needed that) or a fog light and rock-n-roll, chicken soup for the soul church, that meets in a stripped bare windowless, digitally “relevant” auditorium. Well the choice has become clearer, I have found myself really delighting in the beauty of the worship of the Trinitarian God found in the altar centered, Word AND Sacramental oriented, ancient stream of Christianity.
As I say in the side column; “I have a renewed interest in creation and how God uses “things” to communicate the precepts found in sacred scripture in a more complete and imaginative way then just the purely rational, didactic and grammatical way found in highly rational Christian traditions. These two working together make for a richer and more complete way of understanding the Triune God and the world He has created and placed us to live and worship Him in. Thus both “word” and “sacrament” are both are pedagogical (relating to teaching) because one instructs, gives boundaries to, and sanctifies the rational, the other instructs, gives boundaries to, and sanctifies the imagination. Both help paint a picture for us in our mind’s eye of God’s Majesty, Holiness and Glory. Sacred scripture is written in an agrarian context (which communicates both to the rational, didactic and grammatical as well as the imagination) thus I have a growing interest in the intersection of theology and the beauty of ancient liturgies (found in such places as the biblical Tabernacle and Temple and copied by the early Christian Church). Intersections that have been revealing a beauty and glory and deeper love and appreciation for the things of God that I had not seen as a younger believer and opening me up to worship Him in deeper, richer and a more profound way. Worshiping him in the beauty of Holiness and the Majesty of His Glory.”
In Philip J Lee’s book Against the Protestant Gnostics (1987. pg 143-144) goes right to the heart of the low eclessiology of much of evangelicalism (why the Church no longer matters for one’s salvation, how salvation is, strictly speaking, individualistic):
“The devil was conquered by his own trophy of victory. The devil jumped for joy, when he seduced the first man and cast him down to death. By seducing the first man, he slew him; by slaying the last man, he lost the first from his snare. The victory of our Lord Jesus Christ came when he rose, and ascended into heaven; then was fulfilled what you hear read in the Revelation, “The Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered” [Rev. 5:5]…. The devil jumped for joy when Christ died; and by the very death of Christ the devil was overcome: he took, as it were, the bait in the mousetrap. He rejoiced at the death, thinking himself death’s commander. But that which caused his joy dangled the bait before him. The Lord’s cross was the devil’s mousetrap: the bait which caught him was the death of the Lord.“
Larry Temple - Word, Sacrament, and Soil 