Contemporary Art June 29, 2006

The Ancient-Futurity of Christianity is evident foremost in our faith. With our religious roots stretching back millennia, we are unified with our brothers and sisters in the faith through the Holy Spirit who has preserved God’s true Word over time. The observance of the church calendar also has this effect. By worshiping according to a set schedule each year, we are involving ourselves in both global and temporal unity with God’s people. The standardization of the church calendar meant that Christians were able to have a sense of fellowship though they were separated geographically. We benefit from this as Christians who are living generation upon generation after our early brothers and sisters because we can know that we are stepping into a very wide stream that is powered by reverence for and awe of God’s character. This indeed sounds catholic–and it is, in the sense that the worship of our God is universal, spanning both earth and space. The Future aspect of our faith, in part, is that our worship–our reverence and awe of the Lord–is now powering this mighty stream so our future brothers and sisters who are yet to be born, but whom God has chosen for himself from before the foundations of the world (Eph. 1:4), can step into the great story that God is continuing in us and on through us. This is one small though significant way in which we are a part of the Father’s answer to his Son’s prayer in John 17:20-23:

“My prayer is not for them (his disciples) alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

As Paul says in Ephesians 4:4-5, “There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to one hope when you were called–one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” What a wonder that very God, Holy Spirit, dwells in us. This is reflective of the way that the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father. This is the same Holy Spirit who dwelt in Jesus, and dwelt in our ancient brothers and sisters, dwells in our present brothers and sisters, and will dwell in our future brothers and sisters. Though sin strives to divide us, God in his Son has defeated sin with its consequences and has sent us his Spirit so that we cannot be divided, we are eternally fitting for God’s kingdom. Our unifying participation in Ancient forms of worship points us to the Future when all divisions and sins will be entirely eradicated and Jesus’ sinless prayer will be perfectly answered. In this way, God’s work in his people is perpetually and relentlessly contemporary art with both Ancient and Future characteristics.

Incarnational Ministry and the Drama of Doctrine June 27, 2006

Incarnational ministry, fully being one’s self for others, is an integral part of worship. We can only give ourselves to others when we have ourselves, but we only have our true selves when we give ourselves to God. Incarnational ministry, then, is also a necessary consequence of worship that itself leads us back to worship. Kevin Vanhoozer, in his Drama of Doctrine, compares Christians to actors who are enfleshing a given script in order to communicate a significant message (consider the *astericks* as italics):

“…[T]he telos of the actor/disciple is spiritual communication: performing *Christ* in the power of the Spirit, speaking and acting as a *persona* ‘in Christ’ should speak and act. It is not enough merely to know what to do; one has to become the kind of person for whom such doing comes *naturally*. Doctrine aids the process of becoming integrated persons whose characters coincide with their roles. *Doctrine not only indicates what it is we are to do to participate fittingly in the drama of redemption but actually helps disciples become spiritually fit.* It does this by exposing our mechanical acting and by stripping off our false masks that require so much time and energy to maintain. In place of these false masks, doctrine discloses our true identities, summoning us to become who we are: persons called, known, and loved by God. Doctrine does not construct new masks but unveils our true faces, faces that reflect the glory of God seen in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3:18; 4:6).”

So, fully being one’s self means that, as Christians, by the power of the Holy Spirit we are successively entering deeper and deeper into Christ’s way of being human. We are realizing in our lives with other people the eschatological, the promised, reality of being like Christ. The fact that we get to experience being redeemed humanity now is a fact of grace that must draw us into one another’s lives in such a way that the intentional and self-conscious worship of God is unavoidably elicited in our relationships.

I’m not so good at this.

An Apparently Technical Untechnical Definition of Worship June 26, 2006

In trying to think through how to conceive of worship, I’ve developed a pseudo-definition to aid in my own reflections on the Christian life. This pseudo-definition comes in two parts: the Everydayness of Worship and the Service of Worship.

The Everydayness of worship, or general worship, is the act of imitating/imaging God with one’s whole person (body, mind, strength, and soul) as one thinks, speaks, acts, and lives one’s day-to-day life. This is most effective when done in communion with others seeking to do the same.

The Service of Worship, or special worship, is setting one’s body, mind, strength, and soul to recognizing, appreciating, and glorifying God with confession, praise, thanksgiving, and supplication in the gathering of God’s people in anticipation of the final day when, all together, we will be in perfect worshipful communion with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

These categories are intended to mirror the other ways in which we come to know and love God. For instance, he gives us a general revelation of himself in all of creation (including in ourselves) and a special revelation of himself in his incarnate Son Jesus Christ as well as his written Word, the Holy Scriptures. Also, Scripture makes clear that God is present everywhere, but that he is especially present with his gathered people. It seems consistent with historical theological discussion, then, to view worship in a similar manner. If this dual definition of worship is even approaching accurate, then worshipping God is something each of us is doing right now in some capacity as image-bearers of our Creator. How humbling.