logos redux

Calvin on Psalm Singing:

The psalms could incite us to raise our hearts to God and to move us with such ardor that we exalt through praises the glory of his name . . . . And truly, we know through experience that song has great force and vigor to move and enflame hearts to invoke and to praise God with a more lively and ardent zeal.

And a description of worship under Calvin’s leadership:

Finally, after these acts of adoration, these prayers said kneeling, this quickening instruction, the worship culminates in the supreme ceremony of holy communion. Calvin has been very greatly misunderstood. For him the complete act of Christian worship is that at which the Lord’s Supper is celebrated, and the complete Sunday morning office is that which includes the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Have men said that this worship, the true Calvinian cult, was in its nature poor and cold? Those who were present at it have told us that often they could not keep back tears of emotion and joy. Singings and prayers, adoration and edification, confession and forgiveness of sins, acts ritualistic and spontaneous—all the essential elements of worship were there; and what is not less important, they were combined into an organism that though very simple, was yet both supple and strong.

Further, in the same way that the church has wrestled with its understanding of Christ and the Scripture through creeds, commentaries, systematic theologies, and the like, so also the church has developed ways to do its worship. These include structural forms, written prayers, hymns, rules for preaching, the church year, the lectionary, and numerous symbolic ceremonies. Interestingly, in the early church these resources were being developed at the same time that creedal statements were coming into being. Yet, we evangelicals who affirm the Nicene and Chalcedon creeds and boast that we remain faithful to their intent are profoundly neglectful of the liturgical forms and theological perception of worship shaped by some of the same Church Fathers. Specifically we need to recognize that those who have gone before us, those who have wrestled the meaning and interpretation of the faith in creeds and liturgy, were women and men of faith. To accept the creeds, on the one hand, and reject the liturgies by inattention that often expresses itself in disdain, on the other, is contradictory and unwise. For orthodoxy was primarily given shape in the liturgy, and the creeds were originally part of the larger liturgical witness. We recognize that the early church was unusually gifted with the spiritual leadership of Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Athanasius, John Chrysostom, and Augustine. Yet we neglect to study the worship of the church which reflects their faithfulness to Christ and the orthodox tradition.

Robert Webber, “An Evangelical and Catholic Methodology”

Many of you may know that my wife and I are going with a group from our church, Providence Reformed Presbyterian, to plant a new church in Carondelet, which is one of the older neighborhoods in the South of St. Louis City. Well, here is the building that we have just gotten confirmation we will be worshiping in. A 150-year-old Lutheran (LCMS) congregation has been extremely gracious to us and is sharing this sanctuary with us along with a parish building next to it. Please pray for our core group (we have 67 as of right now) as we prepare to move into this new location and begin worshiping and ministering as Resurrection Presbyterian Church.

The early Eucharist was a time of rejoicing in the risen Christ, and was experienced as a communion both with Christ in the foretaste of the messianic banquet, and with one another. The celebration of the Eucharist today should express this same rejoicing. Instead, it continues to be the most private and individualistic event in the worship of many congregations of the Reformed tradition. The Eucharist should carry the praise of a celebration of resurrection glory, with the music being more closely related to wedding music than to funeral music. After all, this banquet is a foretaste of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Too often it focuses on Good Friday and is funereal. As one of our people has said, many worship leaders, even musicians, though they use the words of the new liturgies, can find ways to make the most celebrative of liturgies another “funeral for Jesus.”

And, all the Reformed denominations have either already moved to, or are considering moving to, the communing of all baptized persons, even the youngest of children, “right upon their baptism,” as stated in the Hussite church of the fifteenth century (see endnote 3), thus returning to the early church pattern, a pattern never dropped by the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Recapturing the Liturgical Essence of the Reformed Tradition

How I wish that last quote were true in the conservative branches.

Christians in late antiquity lived in a cultural universe richly populated with invisible realities–a world in which symbol and ritual were not the counterfeit of reality but rather the privileged means to access reality. It is often stated that this worldview rested upon a Platonic theory of knowledge and being. This is true, but it is also somewhat like saying that contemporary individuals are Freudians when they employ concepts like “superego” or “unconscious motivation.” Such an attitude toward the world is not so much orthodox Freudianism as part of the cultural air one breathes.

John F. Baldovin, “The Empire Baptized” in The Oxford History of Christian Worship, pg 90

This is nauseating. I’ll sample a few quotes just so you can get a feel for it. Keep in mind that Twitter has done everything imaginable to make it clear that it is a fun, lighthearted, tool for sharing information.

“Last year, Voelz, a pastor, was tweeting at a conference outside Nashville about ways to make the church experience more creative — ways to “make it not suck” — when suddenly it hit him: Twitter.”

“In Seattle, Mars Hill churchgoers regularly tweet throughout the service. In New York City, Trinity Church marked Good Friday by tweeting the Passion play, detailing the stages of Jesus’ crucifixion in short bursts. At Next Level Church, outside Charlotte, N.C., it’s not only O.K. to fuse social-networking technology with prayer; it’s desirable.”

“On Easter Sunday, pastor Todd Hahn prefaced his sermon by saying, “I hope many of you are tweeting this morning about your experience with God.”

“It’s a huge responsibility of a church to leverage whatever’s going on in the broader culture, to connect people to God and to each other,” says Hahn”

That Easter day with joy was bright, the sun shone out with fairer light, When, to their longing eyes restored, the glad apostles saw their Lord. Aleluia!

He bade them see His hands, His side, where yet the glorious wounds abide; The tokens true which made it plain their Lord indeed was ris’n again. Aleluia!

O Jesus, King of gentleness, do Thou Thyself our hearts possess, That we may give Thee all our days the tribute of our grateful praise. Aleluia!

O Lord of all, with us abide in this our joyful Eastertide; From every weapon death can wield Thine own redeemed forever shield. Aleluia!

All praise, O risen Lord, we give to Thee, Who, dead, again dost live; All praise to God the Father be and Holy Ghost eternally. Aleluia!

Latin hymn, 4th or 5th cy, tr. John Mason Neale, 1851. Tune: Erschienen Ist, 8 8. 8 8. 4, Nikolaus Herman, 1560

The strife is o’er, the battle done; the victory of life is won; The song of triumph has begun. Aleluia!

The pow’rs of death have done their worst, but Christ their legions hath dispersed: Let shouts of holy joy outburst. Aleluia!

The three sad days have quickly sped; He rises glorious from the dead: All glory to our risen Head! Aleluia!

He closed the yawning gates of hell; the bars from heav’n’s high portals fell: Let hymns of praise His triumphs tell. Aleluia!

Lord, by the stripes which wounded Thee, from death’s dread sting Thy servants free, That we may live and sing to Thee, Aleluia!

Anonymous Latin. Translated by Francis Pott, 1861 Tune: Palestrina 8.8.8. with alleluias, arr. from Giovannia P. da Palestrina, 1591

“A few years ago, a CD came out of supposedly ’sacred’ swing music. Someone had taken hymn lyrics and attached them to swing band music. The results were musically and theologically absurd. Take our band’s recording of ‘Take the A Train.’ Now picture that music with words about the Lord’s Supper. That is what the ’sacred swing’ CD tried to do. It was a nauseating combination but, nonetheless, called ‘praise music.’ The music was conjuring up a dance floor scene, but the lyrics were speaking of the Lord’s Supper and Christ’s bleeding sacrifice on the cross. Do we think the Lord is pleased by this confusion?”

Tom Schlueter, “Is Music Neutral?”

I ran across this article recently, in which the author contends that,

“[M]usic without words is morally neutral. By that I mean that sound by itself cannot express truth, or communicate belief or propositional truth. I also contend that music style is neutral, ethically and morally. No style should be considered evil or off limits in expressing the Gospel. I believe that a Christian composer has the freedom to use any style, any materials.”

Barry Liesch

As a musician, I must say that this opinion is plain stupid. Continue Reading…