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Nielsen’s Nook
Nielsen’s Nook
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A Reformed Liturgical Diet

Will Nielsen
October 2nd, 2006
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Kevin Johnson has a post over at Reformed Catholicism, Regarding Preaching, that sparked my mind to something that is increasingly a burden for me and my family.

My own confessional standards (i.e., the Westminster Confession and Catechisms) ask this question:

What doth God require of us, that we may escape his wrath and curse due to us for sin?

In some of the evangelical churches I have been in the answer to Question 85 of the Shorter Catechism would be something like this:

To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, God requires of us that we sit through as many sermons as possible, order many sermons on tape, present the gospel as if it were merely a series of propositions to believe, and really hope that you do not have too many doctrinal errors in your thinking.

What I am trying to get at in this little parody is that I see many churches who claim the Westminster Standards as their own who at least in practice seem to proclaim the above spoof as their answer to question 85. What we actually find in the Shorter Catechism is much different:

To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, God requireth of us faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life, (Acts 20:21) with the diligent use of all the outward means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption. (Prov. 2:1–5, Prov. 8:33–36, Isa. 55:3)

In the answer to Question 85, I have emphasized that in addition to the things we would expect in evangelical churches (i.e., faith in Jesus and repentance), we are charged with a third, sadly neglected item, being the diligent use of ALL the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption.

Question 88 explains that these outward means are the word of God, sacraments and prayer, all of which are made effectual to salvation. The word is said to be made effectual by the reading and especially the preaching of it. Then the catechism turns to the way that the two sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist are made effectual.

I will leave you to explore the catechism questions 85-94 or so to ponder how the sacraments are made effectual. What I want to explore here is, how is that in confessing that they are effectual we seem to be largely living in a time where the Supper is approached as a burden, something we do because we have to as Christians (to get God off our backs?). If we really believed that the Gospel was something more than rational propositions about good people, bad people, the One, platonic heaven and hell, then might we not run the visible proclamations of Christ’s life-giving death from our churches?

As I have said in another post, the paradigm today regarding the Supper is largely, “How often must we have it to not be in error?” Christ gives himself in the Supper and that would seem to lend itself to a better paradigmatic question, “How often can we have the Supper?” The Westminster Standards lends itself to a three faceted worship of Christ proclaimed in the preaching of the word, in the administration of the sacraments and in the prayers of his people. May a balanced liturgical diet be returned to the Reformed churches of Christ.

3 Responses to “A Reformed Liturgical Diet”

Will,

I too share a dislike for the type of sermons that are (merely) verse by verse, line by line, and detail by detail. In Calvary Chapel (the church in which I grew up), the preaching is book by book and exegetical in style. The problem is that often with this type of preaching the larger picture is missed by focusing too closely upon the details. We must understand all scripture in light of the larger story of God’s redemptive history. Too often preachers present theological propositions without putting them in the context of God’s historical redeeming actions.

In addition, propositional preaching tends to devalue the role of art, imagination, and creativity as means to understanding God’s truth. I think that pastors have been influenced by modern methods in the way that we study for and present our sermons. We think that the only way of understanding the bible is by systematically dissecting it and presenting it in propositional form. Richard Hays in his book Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul discusses the role of imagination and creativity Biblical interpretation. I have learned much from this book and recommend it for further discussion on this issue. In short, I think that we ought to be more holistic in the way we preach the gospel and handle the scripture. Rational thought, imagination, creativity, and art must all be employed to point people towards the savior. I agree with your point that it is probably our modernist prejudices that lead us to neglect the Eucharist as well. The Eucharist offends our modern sensibilities so we avoid it and stick to propositional and systematic preaching of the “Word.”

Left by Brent on October 3rd, 2006

I want to be clear on what I am NOT trying to say here. First, I am in no way trying to diminish the role of the word as a means of grace and even as a primary means of grace. I say primary because we cannot rightly understand the sacraments or prayer for that matter apart from the word.

What I am getting at is an approach to worship in which we find an imbalanced liturgical diet. In other words, to deny a parish the supper is to deny them a means of grace that the word commands. I am not wanting to get into a discussion here about the frequency of the Supper; but what I am asking is for you to think about how we frame the question of “How often should we have the Supper?” I think the frequency will look differently at different churches for different reasons.

My fear is that we have swallowed rationalism hook line and sinker such that things like mystical union that are present in the word are dismissed. I am obviously not coming at the sacrament of the Supper as a memorialist. I belive that we must feed on the life-giving person of the incarnate-crucified-risen-and-exalted Christ to thrive in our union with Him. The Supper is not a magical ritual, but it is a means by which the Lord has told us in his word through which he intends to work in our lives regularly.

Brent, I will try and interact with some of your comments in a later comment-post here. Thank you for your post.

Left by wjnielsen on October 4th, 2006

[...] quite strange when I saw today for the first time a citation of an article I wrote, entitled “A Reformed Liturgical Diet,” from October 2006. The article itself is an exegesis of the Westminster Shorter Catechism [...]

Left by Two-Edged False Dichotomy between Word and Sacrament | Nielsen's Nook on June 24th, 2008

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