REFUSING TO GET INTO BED WITH HAGAR
In writing last week’s blog (“Raised Hands”) I seem to have thrown a rock at a hornet’s nest. So let me step back for one blog and lay out what my “pastor’s eyes” see and what I am working toward with my writing.
Our church is a multi-generational church with people from different backgrounds. Our historical base (when it comes to “worship”) sang traditional hymns, and our people valued reverence -- emotional restraint – in worship. We were not given to raising our hands or clapping.
As times changed and new and different kinds of people came to our church, I welcomed them and worked to incorporate their gifts into our church. We have added newer styles of music and some of our people value joyful celebration – overt emotional expression – in worship. They raise their hands, clap, and sway.
Some of our traditionalists are sure it’s just a matter of time before we’re all running up and down the aisles and rolling on the floor. And some of our “contemporary” folks wonder whether the Holy Spirit is at work at all among our emotionally constipated traditionalists. Do they feel anything about God?
These differences rarely result in open conflict. More often it comes to my desk in grumbling and under-the-breath muttering by people of both stripes. The question for me as a pastor is whether such different people can (or should) be shepherded together into one body to love each other and worship together in peace and harmony.
Traditionally, the answer is that they can’t be. Churches usually divide into a traditional service (or congregation) and a contemporary service (or congregation). It’s the only way, they say.
And maybe it is.
Maybe I am just a stubborn idealist, but it sticks in my craw that Jesus said the hallmark of His followers is love for one another (John 13.35) and we seem unable or unwilling to fight our own flesh to achieve that end. Our claim is that the Spirit of God dwells in us – not just each of us, but in all of us together -- the new Temple. But rather than chiseling our living stones to fit together into that glorious Temple, we decide instead to construct something more manageable – a playhouse or toolshed, perhaps.
I believe God can build what He has set out to build – a body of people who work together to love one another and who can show that love to the world. I don’t want to let God off the hook, as it were. If He says that old, wrinkled Sarah will bear the baby, then it seems wise to refuse to get into bed with Hagar.
These worship issues are obstacles for us to the ends He seeks. They aren’t easy to navigate, but they must be navigated -- figured out and fleshed out.
I don’t believe that is best accomplished by a pastor demanding conformity to rules he has laid down. We’ve all seen where that goes. Better, I think, for me to lay out biblical truth to which we ought to say ‘Amen’, and then work to chisel ourselves to His wishes.
And that is why I am writing these blogs.
My hope is that this backdrop will help you understand me and what I experience as a pastor and will provide context for what I have written and what I hope to write about emotion and worship.
Our church is a multi-generational church with people from different backgrounds. Our historical base (when it comes to “worship”) sang traditional hymns, and our people valued reverence -- emotional restraint – in worship. We were not given to raising our hands or clapping.
As times changed and new and different kinds of people came to our church, I welcomed them and worked to incorporate their gifts into our church. We have added newer styles of music and some of our people value joyful celebration – overt emotional expression – in worship. They raise their hands, clap, and sway.
Some of our traditionalists are sure it’s just a matter of time before we’re all running up and down the aisles and rolling on the floor. And some of our “contemporary” folks wonder whether the Holy Spirit is at work at all among our emotionally constipated traditionalists. Do they feel anything about God?
These differences rarely result in open conflict. More often it comes to my desk in grumbling and under-the-breath muttering by people of both stripes. The question for me as a pastor is whether such different people can (or should) be shepherded together into one body to love each other and worship together in peace and harmony.
Traditionally, the answer is that they can’t be. Churches usually divide into a traditional service (or congregation) and a contemporary service (or congregation). It’s the only way, they say.
And maybe it is.
Maybe I am just a stubborn idealist, but it sticks in my craw that Jesus said the hallmark of His followers is love for one another (John 13.35) and we seem unable or unwilling to fight our own flesh to achieve that end. Our claim is that the Spirit of God dwells in us – not just each of us, but in all of us together -- the new Temple. But rather than chiseling our living stones to fit together into that glorious Temple, we decide instead to construct something more manageable – a playhouse or toolshed, perhaps.
I believe God can build what He has set out to build – a body of people who work together to love one another and who can show that love to the world. I don’t want to let God off the hook, as it were. If He says that old, wrinkled Sarah will bear the baby, then it seems wise to refuse to get into bed with Hagar.
These worship issues are obstacles for us to the ends He seeks. They aren’t easy to navigate, but they must be navigated -- figured out and fleshed out.
I don’t believe that is best accomplished by a pastor demanding conformity to rules he has laid down. We’ve all seen where that goes. Better, I think, for me to lay out biblical truth to which we ought to say ‘Amen’, and then work to chisel ourselves to His wishes.
And that is why I am writing these blogs.
My hope is that this backdrop will help you understand me and what I experience as a pastor and will provide context for what I have written and what I hope to write about emotion and worship.