|
To many Christians, Reformed folk
seem more than a little uptight about worship. Calvin left Geneva when
the city council attempted to force him to adopt liturgical forms from
the city of Bern, even though Calvin admitted he had little quarrel
with the Bernese liturgy itself. Puritans made themselves odious to
moderates in the English church with their opposition to vestments and
ceremonies. And today, when many churches have made great strides to
bring Christian worship into relevant conformity to the demands of
popular culture, all we Reformed can do is balk and criticize and stand
in the way of progress. There we go again.
Whatever
the wisdom of the particular liturgical protests that Reformed pastors
and theologians have registered over the years, the Reformed instinct
to protect the purity of worship is exactly right. Worship is more
closely regulated than other areas of life. We are to obey God in every
circumstance, but when we gather for worship we gather to rejoice
before the face of the Holy God. We must always obey God in our own
homes, but when invited into His home, we must be on our best behavior.
Our joy depends upon it.
At home, we are free to
read Shakespeare and Judith, Trollope and Joyce, but here our public
reading is limited to the canon of the Old and New Testaments. At home,
we may tell make up fresh stories every day, but a preacher is bound to
keep telling the same old story again and again, which is the story of
Jesus. At home, we are free to eat cheese crackers and drink grape
soda, but at the Lord's Table there is no buffet of choices. This is
the Lord's service, not ours, and we have no right to do what we please
with it.
Nor, for that matter, does anyone outside
the church. So much as it lies in you, Paul says, live at peace with
all men. We may submit and accommodate and yield charitably in all
kinds of ways for the sake of peace with our brothers and even with our
enemies. But the threshold of the sanctuary is the threshold of our
peace. Jesus is the Lord of this service, and His word determines what
is said in the pulpit, what kinds of prayers are prayed, what is served
at the Lord's Table, who eats and drinks. There are times to be defiant
elsewhere. Here we have no choice. Here we must be defiant.
Peter Leithart's exhortation on Sunday, August 7, 2005 Peter Leithart's blog
Kerry
|
