Reformed Living

I am convinced that the highest calling and responsibility of all Christians individually and as the corporate People of God is Worship.  The primary mission of the institutional Church is to witness to God in the world.  Our Worship is our witness. Through our worship, we witness about God to the world.

This is contrary to the popular idea that the Church exists to to incarnate and manifest the love of God by serving the needs of the Poor and working for social justice.  This is also contrary to the increasingly less popular idea that the Church exists primarily to preach the Gospel and thus evangelize the lost.  And it is definitely contrary to the idea thst the Church exists primarily for support and encouragment and "building up" of Christians, or of anyone else for that matter, through teaching and fellowship, (especially in small groups), particularly those who have personal or family problems.  In all these models, regular Worship is included, of course, but taken for granted or assumed.  Worship is not [to my knowledge] considered by most to be the Church's highest calling and responsibility, let alone its primary witness to the world.

I was asked by a long time friend to preach the Gospel at the Funeral Service for his wife.  The Service was in an Episcopal Church, where I have preached many times.  The Priest agreed.  Needless to say, my old time Baptist preaching style is a wee bit more dynamic than what the folks present were used to.  Most of them were Roman Catholic or Episcopalian.  I was glad to do it and believe God annointed the message and its delivery.  As usual, many people responded very favorably and said so to me afterward.

But also as usual, I was really troubled by what follwed the Message.  The Liturgy was so flat, yes, "dead."  The Gospel promises victory over death and the grave.  It promises forgiveness and Salvation.  A Funeral is a marvelous time to minister to hurting people with the offer of grace and mercy and hope that comes from the Gospel.  I shared my confidence that our friend was now with the Lord, saved by grace.  She had the blessed assurance that she was redeemed, not by her Baptism, but by the Blood of Jesus through faith alone.

None of this hope and faith came through the Prayer Book Liturgy  or the rest of the Service.  It all just kind of droned on, lifeless.  This should be a time of Celebration!  Nothing.  My Message was followed by a very rote recital of the Apostles Creed and then the very perfunctory "Prayers of the people.  LIkewise, the Burial (Internment) was lifeless and  routine.  I have officiated at innumerable Funerals over 50 years.  They were all personal.  If anything should be personal, it is a funeral. I crafted each one with the deceased person in mind and in conjunction with the family.  None were just read out of a Prayer Book (one size fits all).

I came home, rather disgusted, and set to work writing an outline for my own Funeral, complete with Testimonies and Hymns.  I do not want the usual Prayer Book Service.

Some Chrisitan writers are determined to find the Gospel in pop culture where it simply does not exist.  Recent articles in CT about the current fascination with Vampires illustrate this effort.

The Bible says there is power or life in the Blood, meaning the atoning blood of Jesus.  That is not the same as the life gained by a vampire when he or she sucks blood from a human victim.

The Bible says that we should lay down our lives for others like Jesus did for us. That is not what Vampire stories teach when they have people voluntarily, out of love, surrender to a Vampire's bite to keep him or her alive.

Come on, enough already!  This effort to "relate" goes way too far.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/february/26.37.html