Worship Archives - Page 8 of 23 - Kuyperian Commentary

On April 1, 2020 By Uri Brito In Worship 3

Can we do communion at home during this time?

There are numerous discussions on the Lord’s Supper today. But they are not the common discussions among Reformed, Lutheran, and Evangelicals. Those distinctions are pronounced historically and we debate the objective merits of each position. Rather, the shape of modern debates on the Supper has to do with how we partake of the elements when we are not gathered together doing worship on Sunday.^a It’s safe to assert that most congregations in America are wrestling with this question. No one is immune to it. Even evangelical traditions that practice the Lord’s Supper infrequently (monthly or quarterly) have to tackle the matter since none of us can determine how long this virus will plague the country.

There are still some churches meeting on Sundays, though with limited numbers and with abundant caution, but I am not speaking to those rare groups. I would like to address the thousands of churches that moved to some form of virtual practice. At the outset, it’s important to note that I am not aware of any pastor who is taking these decisions lightly. Some have wrestled with these questions in profound ways. Some sessions have not reached a consensus, adding another layer to the headache. These are difficult days. But every decision has consequences.

In large evangelical churches with hundreds of households, it is likely that members will take matters into their own hands. A pastor or a group of pastors cannot be sacramental policemen. People will adjust and their adjustment will be a clear manifestation of their theological paradigms.

I recall meeting an old Episcopal deacon about a decade ago. He attended a fairly well-known parish in town. In our conversation, he shared with me how excited he was to do the Lord’s Supper with the youth group that night. When I inquired, he related that instead of bread and wine, he was going to bring Pepsi and crackers. He was thrilled with the prospect of doing communion in a “fresh new way.” I did not take the time to protest. My disappointment was too great.

That dreadful story, unfortunately, is an illustration of the kinds of creativity we are seeing in some churches today among parishioners. I have heard countless stories of families partaking of the Lord’s Supper alone at night, or even of pastors encouraging their people to drink and eat in their separate homes after hearing the pastor deliver a sermon on-line.^b. Dr. Scott Swain summarizes the case against such practices:

A sacrament, at the most basic level, is a symbolic action ordained by Jesus Christ to which he has attached the promise of his presence and blessing (Exod 20:24; Matt 28:18-20; Luke 22:19; 1 Cor 10:1-4, 16; 11:24-25). The “sign,” on this understanding, is not simply the “elements” of water, bread, and wine. The sign is the entirety of the symbolic action which, in the case of the Lord’s Supper, is a shared meal (1 Cor 10:17). Moreover, when it comes to the Lord’s Supper, the symbolic action of a shared meal has a specific, divinely ordained context: “when you come together” (1 Cor 11:33).

This apostolic imperative of togetherness is all over the Epistle to the Corinthians. It is not a spiritual togetherness but a fleshly togetherness. When individual families or individuals are taking upon themselves the ritual of the Supper they are forsaking this crucial Pauline imperative. Further, they are diminishing the significance of the meal. Extraordinary times do not justify trivializing the Supper or taking it out of its original setting.^c. The church is deeply impoverished when it takes this perspective and the Supper takes a back seat to theological pragmatism.

Many comments today echo a form of Gnosticism when it comes to church. Some will boldly state that the church is not a building, but the people. While that statement may seem innocent, it has serious implications. First, because the Apostle Paul calls us a building:

For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

The Apostle compares God’s people to a foundation. It does not mean that if a hurricane came and hindered us from meeting in a particular location, therefore we would not be the church, but it does mean that we are building blocks, stones, and furniture in God’s holy temple.

But secondly, we must be cautious lest we embrace a view of life that takes the Christian away from sacred space to form our own autonomous spaces. We meet together to eat together in a building together, a building which however small or great stands for the space that God calls us to unite as one body eating one loaf, not twenty loaves.

These days offer us moments of great reflection. The Church is scattered in the city. Families and friends cannot hug, kiss, or shake hands and the Lord’s Supper, that meaningful grace to the Church, is far from reach. Our approach should not be to take it at all costs or adjust as we see fit but allow the Supper to maintain its proper role in the life of the Church. We eat and drink when we are together as a body ordinarily led by the physical presence of an ordained minister. When we are apart, and this pattern is not present, we wait. If we decide to eat and drink alone, the very purpose of the Supper is thwarted. We must all wait in anticipation for the first Sunday when we will join with our bodies the corporate assembly. Then, we will feast again as God intended.

Some may opine that we do worship anytime, but this is a silly analogy. The Bible places the corporate worship as the primary act of worship among other acts of worship through the week (back)
There is a case for a drive-through system where saints take the elements from an ordained minister and take it as they receive on the church’s parking lot. We can say they are eating together as one, rather than in isolation (back)
There is also a case for having various ordained ministers administering the Supper to folks in nursing homes or in regular homes in times of great trial. Note that this is not a household communion, but the proper administration comes from men called to serve the body. These exceptions are offered in most denominations manuals. What I am arguing against is the individualization of the sacraments apart from the togetherness of the body and the presence of a church officer (back)

On March 18, 2020 By Uri Brito In Theology, Worship 1

Death and Resurrection in Uncertain Times

One of the clearest biblical themes is that of death and resurrection. Virtually every single biblical story includes these motifs. Whether these moments are actual terminations of human life or whether these are endings of human seasons, these themes pervade the biblical narrative. God loves to kill and make alive. He loves to judge and restore. He loves to see day one end to bring about day two.

However we parse this time of global existence, we can conclude with utmost certainty that God is ending and starting new things. We may read of deaths near us, but God is still working loudly in the silence of our existential dilemmas. God does not hide in times of chaos, but he shows himself even more clearly. In fact, in such times he gives of himself so that we may receive more of him daily. Lamentations says that his mercies are new each morning, which means that God constantly makes things alive that was perhaps dead the night before.

Consider even now how God is transforming the dynamics of life. Things we once took for granted are now things cherished. When common biblical sense prevails over dangerous habits, God is making something new. We are becoming more attuned to what matters most. This re-prioritization is a newness in our lives. We are finding out that certain things we once idolized were psychological icons that needed to be put down. God gives and takes away and he takes away and then gives. He is the God of death and resurrection.

At the beginning of time, when darkness and void prevailed, God brought light. In fact, his first creational act was to illumine, resurrect the world with his light. So too, human formation in times of uncertainty brings to the forefront our creation projects whether good or ill. We are often content in keeping our lives dark and void; to hide our prejudices and proclivities; to avoid the resurrection light of Yahweh. But God is an ever-present help shining our way and challenging our deaths by providing glimpses of resurrection.

The Coronavirus may be with us for some time. If we use this time to refill our sin prescriptions or to bask in the darkness and void, we will never know Easter joy. We will never know the goodness of God’s resurrection project for our lives. But if we see that every new phase of history–however small–are opportunities to experience death and resurrection, then we are entering into that blessed project. And to whom much is killed, much is resurrected.

On March 16, 2020 By Uri Brito In Theology, Wisdom, Worship Like

The Ultimacy of Worship in the #Coronavirus Age

Another week begins, and the topic is universally the same in coffee shops (if you still frequent those), the workplace and worship spaces. The #Coronavirus is trending more frequently than your favorite five celebrities put together. Our culture has exchanged TMZ stories for the primacy of the geeks who once made their living in the privacy of their laboratory. These are now our modern-day celebrities. It’s safe to say the experts surrounding this topic will probably consume the news cycle for the foreseeable future.

Since this is the general trend, Christians must ask, “How now shall we live?” Recently, I encouraged pastors to preach the Word on the Lord’s Day without allowing the trends to dictate the church’s agenda. The Church should be the last place where people come to educate themselves about any virus or plague. The church should be that one place where we immunize ourselves against such cultural ubiquity. What the church must provide in this time is a heavenly normalcy that affords Christians a glimpse into the holy as they experience the unholy of disease and death in the world.

Whatever the future holds, and I forbid myself from acting like a prophetic epidemiologist, we know that the future belongs to Jesus. After all, he has lived and reigned over every imaginable pestilence and plague throughout history. He was Lord then and is Lord now. Christians often forget that reality in times of crisis. It is a real danger. There is no more excellent opportunity to flex our monergistic muscles than a scenario where we envision ourselves as experts and when we can quietly act as lords over human despair.

Of course, it is right and prudent to take measures, but it is even more crucial to take good and necessary measures towards our daily actions and reactions; to honestly examine ourselves in Lenten fashion to see if we are living as Christ would have us in our day. One inevitable temptation is the predicament of tomorrow. The anxious person will worry about everything until he gets one thing right. He will worry about a thousand things, and when that worry is finally validated, he will use that event to justify his fears about the next thousand things. It’s an unhappy cycle. If the things of today are sufficient (Mat. 6), then there are sufficient things to occupy our faith today. In sum, opportunities abound in living out our faith in times of peril. Our habits and rituals can be changed; our view of the world and others can change, and we can discover in such a time of transition that our priorities have been wrong for a long time.

In many ways, we lived exilically before any of this came into being. But back then, there was no all-consuming Corona-Virus news; there was just the mundane. Back then, many of us lived flippantly and apathetic toward our Christian rituals. Times of peace more often than not provide rationales for complacency. Thus, in times of uncertainty, we must remember that usually, the best period for the church to sharpen and hone her worship skills and practices is now. Biblical history bears this out. We can think of Israel’s wilderness wandering as a time of exile. Israel had left Egypt and was preparing to enter the Promised Land. But what was Israel doing for those 40 years? She didn’t have any real cultural influence since she had no homeland. She was just a nomadic community moving through the wilderness without the certainty of tomorrow. Still, faithful Israelites carried the tabernacle with them through the desert so that corporate worship became their constant focus.

While we may not know what tomorrow brings, we do know who controls time and space and viruses. For the Christian, this is truly an opportunity for communities to find refuge in one true city. Whether we are worshipping together or in limited numbers in seven days, God’s gift of worship is ours. Whether in exile, free from alarm, or in between the times, worship is always ultimate. So, let the Christian see that the only worthy trend in this world is not the #Coronavirus but the worship of the Triune God.

On March 6, 2020 By Jesse Sumpter In History, Theology, Wisdom, Worship Like

Sabbath Harder: Eric Liddell and Complete Surrender

Original post at CrossPolitic Blogazine

Christians should know how to keep Sabbath. I am not saying this the way that some in our culture would say it. Some people say we need more rest because we are too busy, living crazy, distracted lives. These people suggest we need to do some yoga and find our inner guru stillness. That is not what I am talking about. I am suggesting that we are not doing enough with Sabbath. What we really need is to Sabbath harder. By that, I mean we need to have a better understanding and vision for Sabbath. This means we have more to do, not less.

In the fourth commandment, God commands his people to rest. He says work on six days and then rest on the seventh. This is a command. This is not an option. While it might seem like a command will dampen our joy, the reality is that obedience brings great joy and peace. This command is a wonderful gift so that we have one day out of seven to rest. This Sabbath rest is a gift to us because we are reminded what our rest should be founded on. It should be founded on something that God has done, not something we have done.

In Deuteronomy 5, it says that the Sabbath day is a memorial for what God has done for his people: once they were slaves in Egypt and God brought them out with his mighty hand. God has done this great work and so the people need to rest. In the new covenant, we celebrate and remember God’s work on Sunday, the first day of the week, the day Jesus rose from the dead. Our Sabbath rest is on the first day of the week because our lives are oriented around the Gospel. God has done a great work for us and we are to reflect and remember and celebrate that work. This is something American Christians need to do more.

Eric Liddell and Sabbath

The story of Eric Liddell is a wonderful lesson of how to Sabbath harder. In 1924, Eric was a runner who was going to compete in the 100m event at the Olympics in Paris. However, that year the 100m event was held on a Sunday. So Eric switched events, changing over to the 400m event. Eric refused to run on Sunday because he knew that was against God’s law. He honored God above men. Eric knew of the schedule issue ahead of time so he was able to train for a different event but this new event was still a huge challenge for him. It is crucial to see that while Eric honored God and kept Sabbath, this did not mean that Eric sat back and was passive about it all. Actually, he jumped in and worked harder. He trained for the 400m and he won that race.

The famous movie Chariots of Fire records the story well. The character Eric in the movie talks with his sister about being a missionary in China. He explains that he will be a missionary but that God also made him to be a runner. He says the great lines, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.” In this way, we see that Eric was not a snooty sabbatarian; he truly wanted to enjoy the good gifts of God in his life. He knew that God had called him to be fast and he wanted to use that gift to honor God.

After he won the 400m, Eric explained how he had won: “The secret of my success over the 400m is that I run the first 200m as fast as I can. Then, for the second 200m, with God’s help, I run faster.”

In this quote, Liddell is not saying that he ran 50% and then God added another 50%. Rather, the whole thing was a gift of God. By God’s grace, Liddell ran the whole thing.

That is the correct vision for Sabbath rest: we need it because that is where we are reminded that we cannot do what is required. We must run and strain for the goal but we cannot get there in our own efforts. We must look to God for our strength in order to run. Paul in Romans 9:16 says it this way: “So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.”

Sabbath as Surrender

Later in his life, Liddell went to China to be a missionary. He followed God’s calling on his life and he worked and served there for several years. He eventually gave his life there dying in 1945 in an internment camp. His last words are recorded to be: “It’s complete surrender.”

Liddell’s last words summarize the Christian life: it is surrendering everything to God. But this surrender does not mean that we remain still and passive and don’t have anything to do. Rather, It is a complete surrender to God’s will for our lives and so this means that we work harder and longer than we ever thought possible. But this comes from God’s strength, not from us.

There are two errors in how we approach Sabbath rest. One error is to think that rest means inaction: I just sit here and do nothing. Some might erroneously encourage us to a still quietness as if our problem is that we are too busy in life. But busyness is not the problem for Christians. The reverse is more often the case: we are too lazy. So Sabbath is not about finding an inner peace or quiet. True Sabbath rest is about action.

The other error is to think that I must do everything. God might save me, but I am the one who has to run the race. So I get out my running shoes and I run. I grit my teeth and I try to run harder and faster: as if God will be more pleased with me, if I can just do more things faster. But this is wrong too. My job is not to do what I think; my job is to do what God says to do.

This means that I must obey God all the way, every day. I must obey the command to glorify God but the reality is that this command is an impossible task for me. So it is only by God’s grace that I can fulfill the task before me.

The answer then is complete surrender. We must give it all up to God. In God’s command to rest on the Sabbath, he is not saying that the other six days are ours to do with as we please. All our days belong to God. He has claimed them all. There is nothing left over for us. In turning to God, we must surrender it all to him. Then God in his grace gives us back six days to serve and obey him.

Sabbath as Launch

In this discussion, it is important to emphasize God’s grace to us. It is all grace. I am not saying that we must do our part and then God adds his part. The truth is that all of it comes from him. God gives us the task to run and we must run our best. And we run only by God’s grace. And then God takes us even farther than we thought possible. And that is by God’s grace also. When it is all done and we reach the end, we will see that we had run because we had surrendered it all to God. He will get the glory because we were merely obeying what he had told us to do.

In Luke 17, Jesus says it this way, “Does [the master] thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’” At the end, when we have run our hardest and in God’s strength we have gone even farther than we thought possible, we will say like Liddell, I didn’t do it. I just surrendered it all to God. I don’t deserve any praise. I was just doing what I was commanded to do.

In this way, we see that the Sabbath is not about us having a chance to rest or for us to get a chance to take a nap, although those things are good gifts from God. The true vision of Sabbath rest is that life is like a pole vault competition. The pole must be placed in a stationary spot, a spot that doesn’t move. This is not to keep the pole from moving, but because the pole is supposed to move. The stationary spot is the point from which something larger can be launched. Sabbath is like that spot for the pole. We set it there in God and in his great work of deliverance, and then He launches us farther than we ever thought possible.

On March 1, 2020 By Bill Smith In Counseling/Piety, Worship 1

The Lord’s Prayer: Our Father

This past Wednesday the church began the journey to Easter. From at least the second century, the church has prepared for Easter in various ways and for various periods of time. Within the first few centuries, the practice of making a prayerful journey through Lent took an almost universal form: forty days of focused prayer, usually involving some type of fasting. (These fast days didn’t include Sundays, which were always feast days.)

The focus of Lent is penitential, which is why fasting is a part of the journey. Fasting is an embodied or enacted prayer that cries out to God for mercy, confessing that we and those for whom we are praying deserve to be cut off from his blessings in death, but look with faith-filled hope for deliverance.

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On February 25, 2020 By Joseph Bailey In Worship Like

Some Thoughts on Pancakes (and Lent)

Our church always has a big pancake feast on Shrove Tuesday before the season of Lent. It’s one of the highlights of the church year for the kids. Several children, my own included, mentioned that they had skipped lunch in order to have more room for pancakes at the celebration. They didn’t just want to enjoy some pancakes. They wanted to enjoy as much pancakes as humanly possible.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is a picture of what the season of Lent is all about. It is not merely an opportunity to declutter our lives, or to learn contentment with less, or to practice self-discipline. Lent is not a giving up or an emptying out. Lent is about making room for more. And it is the culmination of Lent that teaches us what we are making room for–the resurrection power of the risen Christ in our everyday lives.

The Apostle Paul said, “…that I may know [Christ], and the power of His resurrection, and may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Phil. 3:10-11)

Jesus left left the tomb empty that He might fill the earth with His glory. He left His disciples that He might fill them more fully with the Holy Spirit. Whenever God pours us out in sacrifice and service, it is always for the purpose of filling us up with better things, namely Himself. Each Lord’s Day we come with empty hands to His table and He fills us with strength and joy that overflows into the rest of the week.

So this Lenten season, do not merely ask what it is that you need to give up, but more importantly, ask yourself what it is that you want to be filled up with in its place. Certainly we must throw off the sin which clings to us. ^a We should lose our appetite for sinful pleasures. But we must also hunger and thirst after righteousness. ^b We must long for Christ as the desperate deer pants for water. ^c

Therefore, we fast from those good things that we might feast on the greater things. And there is no greater thing than to be filled with the life and love and peace of Christ.

Hebrews 12:1 (back)
Matthew 5:6 (back)
Psalm 42:1 (back)

On February 9, 2020 By Bill Smith In Theology, Worship Like

Family Conversation

God is a conversationalist. He speaks. He has always been speaking. Speaking is so much a part of who God is that the second Person of the Trinity is called “the Word” (Jn 1.1, 14). The Father is the Speaker, the Son is the Word, and the Spirit is the Breath that carries the Word of the Father. God speaks within the Trinitarian family eternally.

The conversation of God was so full of love and life that, by it, he created the heavens and the earth to join in. The apex of God’s creation was his own image: man. To be the image of God means many things, but one of the primary meanings is that man is a conversationalist. Man is made to speak.

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On February 2, 2020 By Bill Smith In Theology, Wisdom, Worship Like

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

The story of the Good Samaritan is well-known in our culture, not just among Christians, but by everyone. We have Good Samaritan laws that protect those who help people in distress from being sued if the rescue doesn’t go well. Presidents and other politicians have referred to the story of the Good Samaritan in their speeches to encourage certain policies. Back in 2018, Nancy Pelosi recited the entire story in her eight-hour speech on the floor of Congress to promote “The Dream Act.” (https://www.christianpost.com/news/nancy-pelosi-recites-the-good-samaritan-parable-praises-evangelical-leaders-in-8-hour-speech-216989/) There is a Christian mercy ministry run by Franklin Graham called “Samaritan’s Purse.” Christians have a health insurance replacement called “Samaritan Ministries.” The story of the Good Samaritan is well-known, well-loved, and well-used.

When a story like this becomes such a common cultural fixture, it becomes easy to assume we understand the story. Our American culture has taken the story, for the most part, in a very simplistic way, reading it as if it were one of Aesop’s Fables: a story that promotes a moral. In this case, the moral is “Do good for hurting people.” This, of course, is true as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. There is quite a bit more to the story.

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On January 28, 2020 By Kuyperian In Worship 1

Can I Pray Like The Psalmist?

Guest Post by Rob Noland

“Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind. For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness. I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, LORD, proclaiming Thanksgiving aloud and telling all your wondrous deeds.”- Psalm 26:2-7

There is a stream running through the Psalms that I have often found difficult to swim in, and I suspect that I am not alone (especially among reformed folks). How can a desperate sinner like me pray and sing about his righteousness before God? How can I say, “you have tested me and will find nothing” (Psalm 17:3) or, “I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.” (Psalm 119:101-102)?

I tell my wife every day that I love her. Of course, I don’t love her perfectly. My love is a needy kind of love that never arises to the perfection of Christ’s love for the church. But I don’t rise up every morning and confess my lack of love for her. How would she feel if I always told her how little I loved her? There are some days that I just feel like shouting from the balcony of our apartment, “I love Amber Noland!” Of course, that would not turn out to be a very practical way of loving her, because it would embarrass her terribly. But there would not be any hypocrisy to it. It would not be appropriate for someone to take me aside and say, “You know, you really shouldn’t say that you love your wife, because you don’t love her perfectly.”

There is also a place in my marriage for me to proclaim my love for her in a different way. I can say to her something like, “Search my internet history, you will find nothing,” or “There hasn’t been a single time this week that I’ve held my gaze on another woman.” She knows very well that this hasn’t always been the case with me, so there are times when she really needs that kind of assurance. Proclaiming my faithfulness to her is an act of love.

I would suggest that the difficulty comes from a certain posture that is right and good in confession, but not normative for praise. The mistaken idea is that we can only ever confess our lack of love for the LORD. Further, we must always come before the LORD and say, “I have not loved you as I ought,” “I have despised your word,” “I have hated your statutes.” We cannot proclaim our obedience to the LORD, even in thankfulness for God’s grace to us, because that would amount to self-righteous boasting.

What I am saying is, our love for the LORD is expressed through our obedience to him. It is appropriate in some contexts to proclaim our love for the LORD by proclaiming our obedience to his word—not out of an expression of self-righteous boasting. It is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us that enables our obedience, and his work on our behalf that enables us to walk boldly into his holy place. And, of course, we need to regularly confess our lack of love for the LORD, just as sometimes I need to confess to my wife that I have not loved her well. But after we come to the LORD in confession and receive forgiveness, we praise him. It is not self-righteous to praise the LORD. Let all the earth praise the LORD.