Worship in unity?

I always wish that Christians from different persuasions could worship together—in unity with harmony. This entails, however, a certain degree of toleration for one another to allow others to worship God in a way that is meaningful to them. Sadly, that acceptance does not exist among Christians. Those who worship in structured and orderly manners could not worship meaningfully with those who worship spontaneously with loud music accompanied by the manifestations of the tongue speaking and vice versa.

In the mission field, Christian workers tried so hard to worship together for the sake of the gospel, but in spite of the effort this seemingly division among us would always haunt us and it would definitely affect the endeavor to reach the lost people to Christ. Unbelievers just could not conceive the idea that we believe the same God but could not worship Him in one place together.

My friend, a Baptist Pastor while we were discussing about this issue told me that the problem with these current fads in worship—praise & worship, drama and seeker sensitive among others is that they are not biblical with the thought that the Baptist traditional way of worship is the only pure biblical form of worship. Conversely, I asked him that what makes him sure that what we were doing in worship is biblical. With this question came the realization that strictly speaking, it may not be biblical at all.

So my suggestion is this: if we want to have unity in the form of worship, let us look how the biblical Christians do their worship and start from there. Forget about our biases and preferences; let us be biblical in the strict sense of the word.

The first Christians’ worship is an outgrowth of the Jewish synagogue. The disciples were Jews and needless to say, Jesus himself worshiped as a Jew. Looking at the way they worshiped gives us the concept of what “biblical” worship is. The biblical Christian following the lead of the synagogue gave emphasis on reading the Scripture, the Old Testament and some of Paul’s writing and perhaps the recitation of the oral traditions of the gospel story. This liturgical reading will be separated by a psalm and ended with a sermon. The sermon was always the explanation of the reading. And since Jesus Christ initiated the Lord Supper, the early Christians observed this every first day of the week. A prayer of consecration was uttered in the Eucharist and before that there was a prayer of intercession. As I can tell it, this is how the “biblical” Christians worship. If we claim that we are faithful to the Scripture in our worship, it entails that we should follow this structure. However, I doubt if we could do this. If that is the case this post is totally irrelevant.

Here are some interesting facts about Christian worship:

It was in the fourth century that the sacraments of baptism, the use of candles, the use of white garments, the use of the blessed oil, and the importance of sacred formula were introduced in worship. It happened when the influenced of the Hellenestic world and the mystery religion crept into the church. Baptism as sacraments corresponded to the mysterious cults’ practice of initiatory washing. The mysterious way that the Eucharist was done, with the priest secretly whispered to the elements because the words was too sacred for the regular worshipers to hear and only the chosen few had the privilege of actually knowing it. This leads to the practice of excluding unbaptized members to participate in the communion. In this time also that words such as Eucharist, mystery, epiphany, advent, doxology, hymn and liturgy came to be used in Christian worship. More and more practices in mystery religions were accommodated and were given Christian meanings.

It was only during the second half of the fourth century that music had been accepted in the church with much reservation. Church leaders couldn’t agree about this (sound familiar). Prior to this, music in the church were ordinarily were chant by the cantor using Psalms and the New Testament songs such as those of Mary, Simeon and Zacharias. The church condemned the chanting of texts not taken directly from the Bible.

It was until the 13th century that the cross was introduced as focal point in Christian churches. This was perhaps because of the increasing emphasis on the doctrine of Christ as the victim.

And I could go on and on… wait my wife is calling me.

Quote of the day

"As for me, Jesus Christ is the scripture, the inviolable scriptures are his cross, death, and resurrection and faith through him."

Ignatius

Liturgy and the meaning of salvation

I can’t remember the time I last attended a liturgical worship. All I know was that I only experience high liturgical worship in a Catholic church. The majestic cathedral, stained glasses, paintings, arts, sculptured saints and the celebration of the mass add up to a mystical experience. Although I believe these elements do not make our worship right, they are factors for worshipers to have the sense of mystery.

I still like the “formal” way of doing worship. It means there is a certain order of worship that the congregation follows like call to worship, prayers, Scripture reading, preaching and the observance of the Lord Supper. This is the closest thing I have been experiencing liturgical worship. Contemporary churches seem to loose the importance of orderly worship. Most of the churches I have been attending regardless of denomination have been doing their worship service very informally. The program usually goes like this: there is an extended repeated singing sprinkled with short prayers followed an extended repeated sermon and an extended and repeated altar call. And sometimes the Eucharist is done while the extended repeated singing is going on.

In the early church, liturgy was very important. It is through the liturgical worship that the average person caught the vision of the meaning of salvation. Historians of theology continually face the problem of trying to determine the average person was thinking while the intellectual theologians were discussing profound theological issues. The early Christians sensed that in the liturgies they understand the meaning of their salvation. The theme of Christ as deliverer was apparent in their worship services, which I believe is not possible to a human-centered style of programs. The early church believe that there was no more dramatic renunciation of Satan, his pomp and service in the baptismal rites of Easter vigil. The exorcisms stressed the expulsion of evil forces from the candidate and away from their old garments as a symbol. Images of deliverance included the creation and the flood. Biblical symbolisms abound in the liturgical worship of the early Christians that for me seems to be lacking today.

Koreans hostage crisis

This is really a sad news. I have many Korean friends and has been in touch with Korean missionaries here. Thailand has extraordinary fondness with Koreans because of their TV soap operas and also with their fascination with Rain. The Thais follow this crisis closely through prime time TV news. Christians and churches everywhere should pray for them. Here are the excerpt from Bangkok Post:

Kabul (dpa) - The Taliban set a deadline of 7:00 pm Sunday (4:30pm Thailand time) for the release of 23 Taliban prisoners in Afghan government custody in exchange for 23 South Korean nationals they have kidnapped.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry said Saturday that one German hostage purportedly held by the Taliban was still alive, but a second hostage had died - while in Berlin the German Foreign Minister said the death had to be assumed.

The radicals said in a statement on their website that their forces had kidnapped 23 South Koreans - 18 women and five men - in southern Ghazni province and was keeping them in a safe area.

"As the Korean and Afghan governments asked for the release of 23 prisoners, we also want our 23 friends who are in custody to be released by tomorrow (Sunday) at 7:00pm," the statement said. That would be 4:30pm Thailand time; 0930 GMT on Sunday.

"If the mentioned governments do not give us a positive response by the expiry of the deadline, they themselves would be responsible for the future consequences."

The statement said that the Taliban would give the list of their prisoners once the governments of Afghanistan and South Korea had accepted their demands.

Thanks!

Having friends from the other side of the globe is one of the many blessings of blogging. I feel honored and at the same time humbled by a friend’s appeal in my behalf. Thank you Ben!

Update: Ben's friendly appeal in my behalf gets kind response from major publishers. He says:

I’m delighted to say that some leading theology publishers – T&T Clark, Cascade Books, and Baker Academic – have also offered to support this appeal by donating books to Joey.

Thanks guys!

What set us apart?

One of the many things I noticed when we came and started working for the poor migrants here in Mae Sai is the presence of many NGOs who are trying to do social works like orphanage, community development, health education and trainings to help people and improve the quality of life. These activities are being duplicated by many Christian groups who are trying to help these people. However, I am saddened by the fact that these Christian groups are trying to do their works without the partnership of a local church. I should say that if Christian missionaries are just duplicating the work of the NGOs then they might as well leave. Here I agree with Carl Volz statements in his book Faith and Practice in the Early Church that Christians should do what they are supposed to do. The thing that set us apart from the others is our faith in Jesus as Lord and God. We do social works, we help people so are the other institutions and organizations. Being a Christian means that in spite of our good works we proclaim to people who our Lord Jesus is. Let us make known how marvelous is our Lord that people can't help but worship the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

What is it that Christians do which no one else does? That is, what is a definition for being a Christian? Certainly it is not in trying to lead an upright life, which is hardly unique to Christianity. After all, the Ten Commandments come out of Judaism, and the Golden Rule is much older than the Bible. If Christianity cannot be defined as terms of unique ethics, it can be described in terms of worship. If all Christian throughout the world would suddenly cease to be, the worship of Jesus Christ as God and Lord would also end. The church is not unique in preaching ethics or doing works of charity or providing social programs, but the worship of Christ is its one activity which no other institution provides.