"O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!" Psalm 95:6-7 (NRSV)
When I opened my email inbox one day this week, I found two messages relating to the ongoing concerns and dissatisfaction about worship styles (Traditional VS Contemporary) and contents (hymns, liturgical choices, etc.). The following is a portion of a carefully composed response to one of these messages.
An overarching
goal for my ministry is to lead Zion towards becoming and remaining a healthy
congregation. The "worship war" that seems to have embroiled
this congregation for many years is truly unhealthy and not conducive to future
growth and mission. Isn't it time we pursue peace by acknowledging our
unity in the midst of our diversity as a congregation? Our Lutheran
understanding of the Gospel is clear: We are justified (saved) by grace
through faith in Jesus Christ- apart from works of the law. (See Romans 3)
This Word of grace is what unities us. Our worship- whatever form
it takes--is a faith-full response to this word and the call to be witnesses to
the Gospel.
As both Dennis
and I have said in our team meetings, we take a lot of time and care in
choosing appropriate hymns/songs for worship at Zion. Both of us strive
to enhance and support the scriptural focus of the day through the words
of the music and other portions of the worship services. To be sure,
there are some hymns/songs we like better than others, but our personal
preferences are secondary to the Word for the day. We are, also, both committed
to providing meaningful, "relevant", and spiritually-empoweriing
worship experiences for Zion- whether they be in traditional or contemporary
format. We have been willing to add time to our schedules for
additional meetings in order to listen and respond to the concerns,
desires, and suggestions of those who attend each of the Sunday worship
services.
For Lutherans, God's
living word, found in the Holy Scriptures and made known through the life,
death and resurrection of Jesus, is central to everything we do in worship,
whether the style is "traditional" or "contemporary".
The scriptural foundation or bible passages to be focused upon (appointed
lectionary, narrative lectionary or special theme) should form the basis of
whatever we do in our worship- the music, the message, the prayers, etc.
We draw our understanding of God and what God desires of us from God's
Word made known to us in Jesus Christ, and one aspect of our response is our
worship. Thus, the choice of praise songs, hymns, responsive prayers are
in response to the scriptural message. Not the other way
around.
It's true that in many
contemporary worship settings (i.e., evangelical or nondenominational
churches), the music IS the message for the day. Like in Lutheran
worship, the words of the songs and responses are chosen to fit the stated
theme for the worship experience. What is different in these settings is
that usually this theme is decided first and then the scriptural underpinnings
are chosen to fit the theme. The positive side of this way of building a
worship service is that the designers have the freedom to choose whatever theme
or message they think is relevant to the needs of community and then find the
scriptures to support this message/theme. The negative side of this is
that the foundation of worship is based first on what the leadership wants to
say or thinks is important to get across to the listeners and not on
interpretation of what God has to say through the scriptures.
As you
know, there are many scripture passages that can be taken out of context to
support viewpoints that are considered un-Christian today, (i.e., slavery,
genocide) or that support the various sides of political and social
debates. This process of biblical interpretation is known as
eisegesis, or: "an interpretation, especially of Scripture, that expresses the interpreter's own ideas, bias, or the like,rather than the meaning of the text."
(Dictionary.com
Unabridged Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc.
2013. )
As a Lutheran pastor,
I find it much more difficult and challenging to start with the scripture
appointed or chosen for the day and prayerfully determine through
exegesis ("critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text, especially of the Bible" Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random
House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013. )
what message God has for us today. Do my personal opinions and biases
influence what I say? Of course they do because I am merely a sinful,
selfish human being. However, I try very hard to set aside my own
"stuff" and focus on what I hear God saying trusting in the Lord's
forgiveness when I fail.
I do appreciate the concern that we are clear about our
purpose and goal for worship. I do hear and understand the desire for us
to be honest about our commitment to how we reach out through the styles of
worship or liturgy we choose to use. I am thrilled with what both the
Traditional and the Contemporary task forces are doing to enhance our
worship life at Zion. I'm excited about the plans that are being made for
the 10:30 service on Easter Sunday.
I am saddened, however, that we continue to
spend so much of our ministry time and energy arguing and complaining about
"styles" of worship and music and so little focus on the One whom we
worship, the attitudes that we bring to our worship and the witness that
we are called to bring about this One, Jesus Christ, to those who are more
interested in hearing a message to help them to get through the next day than
they are about the type of songs we sing on Sunday mornings.
Please, let's be less adversarial and strive to
lift up the unity we share in the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
As Paul wrote, we are all one in the body of Christ. As we move
into the season of Lent, let us all pray for forgiveness for our lack of
tolerance and understanding for each other. Let us ask that God help us
to focus on the purpose of our worship and not on our personal preferences for
music and styles. Let us pray that our worship services, although different in
style, can become a unified expression of our gratitude for what God has given
us as individuals and as a community of faith instead of a means of dividing
us.
To Christ alone be the glory!
Pastor JMe
