We are well into the first week of Advent, and for a person formed in a non-liturgical environment, I find myself drawn to a more formal expression of the season, and the beauty of following the church year. I am especially drawn to the idea of telling the story of Jesus and the church, not only through the song, scripture and sermon, but also through the changing focus of worship throughout the year, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. You see in the progression, the story of Jesus, and the beginning of the church. It is a powerful way to experience the story of Jesus and his church. Often, those of us who live in the non-liturgical world of the church are just as bound by tradition and form as many of our high-church brothers and sisters. It is simply a different liturgy.
The history of the worship life of the church yields a great deal of fruit and form that speaks to the story of Jesus, it can become common place, that is true, but what happens when we begin to reinvigorate the life of the church through worship?
I am increasingly convinced that the ancient ways of the church offer, not only hope for the preset church in North America, but they may also offer a rather meaningful way to interact with the postmodern culture we find ourselves presently interacting and communicating. I don’t suppose that it is shocking to realize one of our best attended services at First Church is a Good Friday, service based on the ancient Tenebra service. It is not a traditional protestant worship service, it does not focus on preaching or choirs, rather it is centered on hearing the word of God read, and it is also experiential, as the lights diminish and the Christ candle is extinguished, it can be a very powerful and moving experience.
Is it just because this service is different, and new that people come? It may be. However, it may also speaks to a deeper place in the human heart, one that is accessed by the simple realities of the Word and the lights.
At the same time is it shocking that people are not flocking to sing hymns from the 1800’s? They are neither ancient, nor do they speak to the present culture. In many ways the early churches culture has more in common with our present cultural setting than the culture of two hundred years ago. In the ancient world, the church was a marginalized group of people. They had little or no political or economic power. The cultural norm was polytheistic paganism, and it does warrant a question as to where our culture is headed. It does not seem to be Judeo-Christian, but rather some form of polytheistic paganism. Perhaps the cultural context of the early church will speak more powerfully and profoundly to contemporary North American culture than the culture of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Scripture, Church and Life 