Faith Ancestors

I never cease to be amazed by the way youth is exalted in our society today.

It’s not that I don’t value young people. I believe that the energy and passion of the young are desperately needed in our world. I cheered the youth of the United States on when they helped Barack Obama win the presidency. I believe that the youth of South Africa are an immensely significant force for change, and hold the keys to addressing our current challenges. And when it comes to the Church, I often measure the health of a church by how strong, creative and missional its youth work is.

But, young people are still young people. One of the features of the current Millennial Generation is that they have vast amounts of information, and the most powerful technologies at their fingertips, but, simply because they haven’t lived long enough, they lack the life experience and discernment to sift through it all and tell the difference between what is good and life-giving and what is bad and destructive. The real longing of this generation - whether it’s recognised or not - is for mentors: older people who understand them, speak their language and connect with their world, but who can guide them through the labyrinth of information, ideas, changes and technologies that they face. They need fathers and mothers - ancestors - in the faith. And this includes those who are no longer alive.

In Chapter Eleven of the book of Hebrews, the writer tells the stories of the heroes of faith from the Scriptures. Then in the first verse of Chapter Twelve, he offers this encouragement:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” (NLT)

The point is clear - our ancestors in faith offer us strength, encouragement and an example of how to live well as we seek to follow Christ. This week people around the world celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but, of course, he is only one Christian leader among many who can inspire and teach us. From the great biblical saints, to those remembered in each age of Christian history, our ancestors in faith provide a depth and wisdom that we ignore at great expense.

One of the gifts of worship, is that it continually tells the stories of God’s activity in and through men, women and even children. This is not to say that we need to build our lives as carbon copies of these saints, but that, as we worship, we can learn, through them, who God is and how God operates. We can get a glimpse of God’s purposes in our world, and we can find the courage and hope, as they did, to take our place in God’s plan of salvation.

Last week I wrote about the challenges of “consumer worship”. One of the ways this pattern is changed, is by embracing the history and traditions of worship that Christians have used through the centuries. And it is our ancestors in faith, who lived this history and created these traditions, who can lead us into the meaning and life that they offer.

So, who are your faith ancestors? Who are the mentors that you turn to for wisdom and guidance? How can you honour them in your worship of Jesus this week?

From Consumer to Contributor

In the last few years a disturbing shift has happened in the worship of the Church. What began as a helpful way to provide new resources to worship leaders - the production of worship CDs - has become a multi-million dollar industry.

Now, I’m not knocking worship CDs and their related products. I still believe they can be helpful. But, I am concerned about some of the unintended consequences. For example, worship CDs are now recorded with commercial interests in mind - production quality is based on listening - not singing along; song choice is impacted by what will sell; and musical keys are selected to make the lead singer’s voice sound good.

But, perhaps the thing I am most concerned about, is the shift in how we enter and experience worship. In many large venues where “worship concerts” are held, all the lights focus on the stage, while the congregation sits in relative darkness. The music is performed by professionals, and the arrangements are designed to provide a great visual and musical performance. The “audience” in these situations, may choose to participate, but the event is not designed with congregational participation in mind. If it were, the lights would be on, and the music would be arranged to make it as easy as possible for the people to sing.

The result of all this is a “consumer” culture in worship. As author, Brian McLaren puts it, our congregations have become “sophisticated consumers of pre-packaged worship experiences”. And the problem with this is that consumer worship does not change lives. All it does is pander to our preferences and confirm us in our self-centred, “bless-me” spirituality.

This is where the season of Lent is such a challenging and helpful gift to the Church. In Lent, we are called to a life of spiritual discipline which directly and intentionally challenges our self-centredness. In particular, the discipline of giving (which includes giving of time, abilities and resources in service and generosity) confronts our consumer spirituality.

Giving and service are often seen as disciplines that are practiced outside of the church building, and they certainly can be. It is always a good thing to practice our faith in the daily routine of work, family and leisure. But, we really learn these practices in church as we worship together. If we are allowed to only sing what we want to sing, and to only worship in a style that suits us, our consumer tendencies are never confronted. But, when we are brought together with those who sing and pray differently from us, we are forced to learn to serve them by making space for their worship - even it means sacrificing ours. This is the only loving, Christ-like response. As Richard Twiss once said, “you don’t love someone until you learn to love their music”. And then, having learned to serve each other in the sanctuary, service becomes a natural outflow into the rest of our lives.

So, how is your worship? Do you come as a consumer or as a contributor? How prepared are you to learn to worship in different ways and styles - to serve others by laying your own preferences aside? If we can learn to do this, then we begin to get a glimpse of the vision of heaven: “I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9 NLT)

______________
John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

I Don't Want It All

Years ago the band Queen sang, in one of their hit songs, “I want it all, and I want it now”. This could well be the anthem of our age, and yet, we are living through the consequences of this way of living. Don’t get me wrong - I love Queen, but, I believe that the arts both guide and reflect the soul of the society from which they arise, and our society is not healthy. Our addiction to material wealth and convenience - to “wanting it all” - has driven us to levels of consumption that has made our planet sick. Our greed and inhumanity has created vast chasms between the rich and the poor, and our indifference has set us up for the kind of economic collapse we are dealing with today.

None of this is news, and we are all culpable. Which is why we desperately need something to challenge us, to stop us in our tracks and call us to a different way. In other words, we need something to help us repent.

Both John the Baptiser and Jesus built their ministries around the call to repent. John called people into the water and instructed them to live differently - justly, generously and mercifully (Luke 3:3-14). Jesus proclaimed that God’s reign had come, and that to enter it required repenting and believing (Mark 1:14,15). Repentance and believing must go together - we cannot hope to change if we don’t believe in the new way we seek to live. Perhaps that’s part of the problem with how we do things. We struggle to let go of our materialism and consumption, because we trust it for security, and we don’t have much faith in the alternative - sharing, simplicity and equity. So, again, we need something to help us to believe, and then to lead us into repentance - to turning ourselves around, choosing new values, and embracing new behaviours.

This is why we need seasons like Lent, with its discipline of fasting. If we will embrace the journey with the mindfulness that it deserves, it offers us a chance to “test the waters” of a new way of living. It’s a small step to commit to just 40 days of Lenten fasting, of turning away from our addictions and greed. We are given the opportunity to choose just one area of our lives, and to repent for a while, doing things differently, and observing the results.

This may all sound a bit shallow and unspiritual, but for me it demonstrates the grace and patience of God. If we will accept the challenge, Lent will lead us into a first hand experience of what our lives can be like when we turn away from “I want it all” and trust in “Give us this day our daily bread”. And, as I have heard from many sincere Lenten pilgrims, this taste of a new way of living is usually enough to boost our faith, and inspire us to wholehearted repentance - the kind that overhauls our lives completely.

So, even though we are already well into Lent, it’s not too late to take this small step of faith. And, if more of us would do it, perhaps the power of Lent would grow, and perhaps the values that drive our world into consumption would slowly shift. Yes, it’s a dream. But it’s a dream worth dreaming.

Facing the Darkness

Much of the conversation around faith is framed in the language of sin and holiness. Faith is often seen as striving for sinlessness by extricating all sin from our lives. But, what if this isn’t the whole story? What if trying to separate ourselves from sin leads us into evil? What if true holiness is found in facing the darkness, not running from it, or denying it?

Jesus confronted the forces of evil many times in his earthly life, and many of those confrontations arose because he went looking for them. The Spirit drove him into the desert, specifically so that he could be tempted. He deliberately went to Jerusalem even though he knew the religious leaders would challenge him and try to kill him. He willingly chose the solitary Garden of Gethsemane to pray, knowing the grief and temptation he would face there, and making it very easy for the soldiers to arrest him without causing a riot.

Jesus, then, did not strive to keep himself free from darkness and evil. He went out of his way to step directly into its path. As Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr, explains - Jesus’ strategy was to absorb evil into himself, and transform it. The image Rohr uses is that of the scapegoat that had Israel’s sin laid on its head, and was then released into the desert. (See Leviticus 16:1-22).

Rohr makes the point that scapegoating is easy and pleasing for us - we feel good when we project our sin onto others and then judge them for it. But, the way of Christ, he suggests, is to BECOME the scapegoat - to stop projecting, and to “own” our darkness, absorbing it and allowing God’s Spirit to transform it and us. And then, by extension, we become those who bring light into the world by absorbing darkness wherever we may find it, rather than just judging and bemoaning it.

Lent, then, can be seen as a scapegoat’s journey into the desert - much like Jesus facing his temptations. It is a journey we undertake not just for ourselves - to find personal purity - but also for the sake of others - to break free from the cycle of blame and judgement. It leads us to face our darkness square on, and then to make a choice - either to scapegoat others, projecting the sin we won’t face in ourselves on to them, or to become the scapegoat, absorbing evil into ourselves by sacrificially refusing to adopt its strategies - violence, oppression, blame, deceit, manipulation and denial.

Worship teaches us to do this darkness-facing work. When we confess, when we intercede and when we meditate on the cross, we are refusing to look away from our own and our world’s sin. And we are daring to believe that we can be part of God’s saving transforming work, by ensuring that the cycle of evil stops with us. We choose to acknowledge that we, too, are part of the problem, and even as we do that, we become part of God’s solution.

So, this Lent, let’s stop pretending that we are holier than others. Let’s stop blaming others for the evil in the world. Let’s face our own darkness, let’s own it, and then let’s offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God, so that we may be transformed. Because when we choose to do this, our world will find a measure of healing through us.

Giving up could save your life

Have you felt like giving up? Like everything is just too much and you can’t carry on? Usually the result of this feeling is that we begin to streamline things – we start pulling out of commitments we’d agreed to, we start protecting our time and shutting ourselves away, and we begin to withdraw from others – sometimes even those closest to us. And, often even while we know that we need to care for ourselves better, we feel guilty, because we have, inevitably, let others, and perhaps even ourselves, down.

I want to suggest that the reason we get to this place, may not be because we have given up too soon, but because we haven’t given up soon enough! We hold on to too much – too many responsibilities, too many expectations, and too many activities – for much too long, and we end up having a breakdown of sorts where we know that unless we make some radical changes, we won’t survive much longer.

This is where the spiritual journey of Lent can be such a gift to us. This season is often thought of as a time of “giving things up”, and, of course, there are many teachers who rightly remind us that Lent is much more than this. To gain the spiritual benefit of the Lenten season requires more than just not eating chocolate for a few weeks, or not watching a particular TV show. But, that doesn’t mean that giving up cannot give us some wonderful gifts. Let’s not underestimate the power in the discipline of giving up.

If we were to develop a habit of regularly evaluating our lives, and giving up those things that were unnecessary, unhealthy, or just not our task, we would be far less likely to hit the burn-out or breakdown that leads to a total giving up. And that’s one of the important lessons that the discipline of giving up in Lent can teach us – that giving up should be an ongoing discipline, and it should result from a deep and continual evaluation of our priorities in the light of Christ’s call on our lives.

This is where worship is so powerful, especially in a season like Lent. As we gather weekly, we are reminded, through our songs, prayers and Scripture readings of the priorities of God’s reign. We are challenged to hear again God’s specific call on us, and to use our unique gifts and abilities in God’s service, while making space for others to use theirs. Worship, when entered into mindfully and whole-heartedly, has the ability to transform us, to remind us of who we really are, and to reset our values and commitments. Worship is the one thing we don’t want to give up for Lent! Rather, this season can be the inspiration to take our worship even deeper, and allow it to fill every moment of our lives through the discipline of giving up.

So, whatever you may be giving up this Lent, I pray that it will be a step toward a discipline of giving up that lasts all year - and that you will allow your worship to lead you and sustain you in this practice. After all, it could very well save your life – or at least your sanity!

__________________
John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

Erotic Worship

This weekend we remember Valentine’s Day - the annual celebration of sexual love. But, we have a rather conflicted relationship with sexuality in our world today. On the one hand, sex is used for everything from entertainment to advertising, but on the other hand, we find it difficult to talk about sex openly and honestly. Nowhere is this conflict more clearly seen than in the Church.

I can’t help but wonder what the impact of this is on our worship. Now, you may be wondering what on earth sex and worship have to do with each other. Well, the Bible is very comfortable with using sexual language to speak about our relationship with God. For example:

And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. (1 Cor. 6:16,17 NLT)

“As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.” (Eph.5:31-32 NLT)

In both cases, Paul compares our union with God to a sexual union. For Paul, there is a definite ‘erotic’ element to our worship. But, what does this mean for us?

The Greek New Testament has four words for love: ‘philea’ - the love of friends; ‘storge’ - affection; eros - sensual desire, or sexual love; and ‘agape’ - which is generally referred to as “God’s love”, but which more accurately expresses an unconditional, sacrificial love which puts the beloved first. To call only ‘agape’ God’s love, is to make a mistake. All love originates in God - even sexual love. And when we grasp this, we can begin to celebrate our sexuality as a God-given gift, not just for our human relationships, but also in our worship.

How is it possible to bring our sexuality into our worship? You’ll be glad to hear that I am not talking about temple prostitution, or religiously inspired orgies. But, I do believe that our worship engages every part of us, including our sexuality. Human sexuality is simply a language, a way of communicating, in which we become completely vulnerable and connected to another person. It is a doorway to losing ourselves in the deepest, most satisfying of relationships, and discovering the truth of who we are through honest, open interaction. The physical act of sex is simply a way to express the real union which happens on a spiritual level.

In the same way, worship is a language, a way of communicating with God, in which we become completely vulnerable, and in which we lose ourselves in the deepest, most honest and open interaction with God’s Spirit. The physical acts of singing, praying, kneeling, raising hands and receiving the sacraments are simply ways to express this union.

When we begin to understand this, we are able to enter worship with passion, with expectation, and with openness to the work of God’s Spirit among us. And, then, as in any genuine encounter with another, we will find ourselves truly transformed.

So, maybe this year, you can make Jesus your Valentine, too!
__________
John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

Beyond Words

“The age of symbols is over, isn’t it?”

This question was asked of me after one of a series of alternative worship services that I led a few years ago. The idea of these services was to be as creative as possible (without violating the worship encounter), to be as all-age friendly as possible, and to explore themes that our “regular” church would struggle with. As a result, we used symbols, rituals and the arts extensively. Sermons were short and highly visual, and our themes included a Lent series based on Joan Osborne’s song “One Of Us”.

One thing we worked hard at was not wrapping everything up in nice, neat boxes. Hence the question above, which was asked because we had done some symbolic things that we hadn’t explained, allowing the worshippers to find their own meaning as they engaged with God through the symbols. In spite of this, the question took me by surprise.

We live in a highly symbolic world. From the Nike “swoosh”, to the Mercedes “star” to the famous apple of Apple Computers, we encounter symbols everyday in a myriad ways. All of which makes me very curious when symbols are treated with suspicion.

Perhaps, we get suspicious of symbols because they communicate with us in ways that go deeper than our conscious thoughts. Perhaps, they connect with us and move us and challenge us in ways that surprise us and are unpredictable. Perhaps, we are nervous because they cannot be easily classified or explained or understood, and so they lead us into the unknown. Whatever the reason, we are often tempted to resist the power of symbols. We may select a few “safe” symbols to use, and shun all others. Or we may use symbols, but make them so one-dimensional, or so explained, that they almost cease to be symbolic at all. Or we may simply run from them altogether, labeling them as “new age” or “evil”.

The Bible is full of symbols, and of symbolic acts (or rituals). Think of the Ark of the Covenant, with its spread-winged angels. Think of Ezekiel’s vision of God’s throne, and the many-eyed creatures. Think of Amos’s plumb-line, or Jeremiah’s almond tree. Think of the parables of Jesus, or John’s visions in the book of Revelation. The Bible is very comfortable with symbols - and invites us to explore these strange images and acts in order to encounter God in new and deeper ways.

Traditionally, Christian worship has been a place of great symbolism. The sacraments of baptism and communion, the colours of the liturgical calendar, the candles, incense, crosses, doves, circles, all speak of truth that goes deeper than our understanding. The acts of kneeling, standing, raising hands all open us to knowing in ways that are more than just thoughts or ideas.

So, here’s an invitation. As you worship this week, take time to notice the symbols around you and the symbolic acts you are performing. And then, open yourself to the wisdom that God wishes to speak into your soul. Open yourself to the Spirit who blows through these symbols. And, then, resist the urge to explain or even to understand - at least for a little while. Who knows, God may surprise you with God’s glorious presence.

__________
John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.