Around the Jollysphere 12-15-05

Quote of the day comes from Karl Barth, by way of Tod Bolsinger:

In other words, in all that I am, I am only a party to that which God thinks and does.  In all that I do it is not I, but rather God who is important.  Imagine if everything were brought into this great and proper connection, if we were willing to suffer, be angry, love and rejoice with God, instead of always wanting to make everything our own private affair, as if we were alone.
Just imagine, if we were to adapt everything that gratifies and moves us into the life and movement of God’s kingdom, so that we personally are, so to speak, taken out of play.  Simple love! Simply hope!  Simply rejoice! Simply strive! But in everything, do it no longer from yourself, but rather from God! Everything great that is hidden can indeed be great only in God.” (emphasis mine)

Wow, how many implications for life are in that quote?

Mark Daniels puts this whole Christmas on Sunday thing in perspective (HT Tod Bolsinger):

. . .the weekly little Easter is far more important to remember than even the birth of Jesus.

Exactly!  Thanks Mark - we celebrate Easter every Sunday.

Tod Bolsinger himself speaks:

The Cross and Resurrection. NOT being "creative" and "relevant". And if we only get one Christmas every decade or so to combine both cross and creche in one stunning feast, why on earth would we skip it for take out?

As you can see, I'm channeling Tod Bolsinger today.  Hey, why think for yourself when you can get someone else to do your thinking for you.

On that same post by Tod, my good buddy Glenn Lucke gets a little testy with someone who says that preparing for worship can sap Christmas:

1. Worship services are both what we owe the Lord and our joy to give. I am unfamiliar with worship that "killed" Christmas.

2. I am also unfamiliar with non-Christmas worship that "saps" people, "rather than feeding and edifying" them. I've never heard of biblical worship having such injurious consequences for believers.

Maybe if "worship" (and I'm using the quotation marks on purpose) is actually sapping, then cancelling services on the Lord's Day, December 25, 2005 is not enough. I'd cancel such "worship" every Lord's Day.

Again, I've never heard of biblical worship having the injurious consequences of sapping believers.

Glenn may be a little testy there but he is spot on and his comments have far reaching implications beyond this whole Christmas thing.  C. S. Lewis said that the best literature is that which requires something from us.  It's the kind of literature that forces us to read slowly to understand, that has some difficulty which calls out active intellectual engagement on our parts.  Much popular literature puts no strain on our minds, we can absorb it rather passively.

Worship is like that - the most meaningful worship calls on us to exert a good deal of energy.  It may be the energy of simply getting out of bed on a morning you would rather sleep in, the energy of getting dressed and going to church on time.  I can remember when the kids were small you could we could wear ourselves out just getting them to church, and my poor wife bore the brunt of this.  It requires more energy to get everyone to their proper places for Sunday School and often you are so distracted by all of that, that by the time you get to church, it is a real effort to mentally, emotionally and spiritually engage in worship.  Yet, I liken that to what Lewis says  - it takes work and effort to worship in a way that is meaningful. 

And maybe this is what the commenter Glenn is responding to is thinking of.  I am sympathetic to his concerns in some ways because Christmas will require even more effort for worship.  But I think Glenn is right - no where in the bible is public worship considered injurious to believers.  Rather than seeing all of the effort we put into worship as something which saps us, maybe we ought to see that the worship of our God is worth all of the effort because He is so worthy of it.  And Barth's comments above apply.  In worship, I take myself out of play, it is the glory of God I am most concerned about.

BTW - Glenn has enlisted one of our old RTS profs, John Muether to speak on this Christmas closing issue over at Common Grounds Online.

And last but certainly not least, Dan Edelen appears poised to hit a grand slam home run with his new series The Hidden Messages of American Christianity. If you follow that link he's got links on the page to the rest of the series.  I haven't read the posts yet, but the titles look intriguing. And I think the idea is timely.  One of our greatest dangers is the danger of syncretism (the merging of differing belief systems) and it is a danger that is most difficult to spot.  Syncretists often don't realize they are syncretiizing.  Where Dan seems to be going with this is in pointing out many ways we have unconsciously done this, giving "hidden messages" that  may even be hidden to the messenger. (HT - Tim Challies)

Comments

[Kaffinator]

Christmas services can "sap believers" because they typically demand grander affairs than the normal Sunday gathering. A church that wants to reach seekers might make a special effort for those visitors that only come once or twice a year (aka the "CEO's", Christmas-Easter-Onlys). Meaning, rehearsing a short drama, special decorations, preparing special music, additional multimedia, tighter execution, what have you. The extra work that all of this requires can indeed be a drain on the hard-working volunteer core of a church.

And so we see that some churches are asking: is all of this extra labor actually accomplishing anything? Or are the efforts better spent elsewhere? Congregations should be free to make their own decision on this question without snarky commentary from other parts of the Body.

[Carmen T]

Wow, I really like your blogspot. It's fun and thought provoking at the same time. Re: no church services on Christmas Day, I can see both sides. And as a CEO, I am just very glad that I have the opportunity, though my sister in laws church, a very tiny Assembly of God church, to help prepare and serve a Christmas dinner for those who might be alone on Christmas day. It's my kind of thing.

[DLE]

Wow, David, you have an awful lot of trust to say I hit a grand slam just by looking at the titles of my posts in the series!

Thanks for the abundant confidence, though I'm sure at least a couple of those posts won't sit with everyone well. I may be off in a few of them, but I hope they challenge people to think nonetheless.

[DLE]

Wow, David, you have an awful lot of trust to say I hit a grand slam just by looking at the titles of my posts in the series!

Thanks for the abundant confidence, though I'm sure at least a couple of those posts won't sit with everyone well. I may be off in a few of them, but I hope they challenge people to think nonetheless.

[Mark Daniels]

Thanks for linking to my post on Christmas Day worship, David.

Speaking of Christmas, God bless you, your family, and your congregation with a wonderful celebration of Christ's birth...and His resurrection!

Your Brother in Christ,
Mark Daniels