The
ecclesiology of reformers is that whenever there are the ministries of the Word
and sacraments, there is a church. The Word is the audible, invisible sign of
God’s presence; the sacraments, the visible sign of God’s presence. The people
of God are gathered together around the Word and sacraments to worship God and
listen attentively to the external Word. Even though we evangelical Christians put
less emphasis on the administration of the sacraments and more on hearing the
Word, both elements ought to be placed at the center of worship.[1]
There
is no such thing as gathering
together on Sunday. We can only be
gathered to prostrate and listen. We are then scattered (sent) to
the world to obey the preached Word. Being gathered indicates that God takes
the initiative in worship, and worship is all about revelation and response. God
first reveals; we then respond. When we respond to what God reveals, that is
worship. Otherwise, it is idolatry.
In
the church, the conversation is often centered around parental gossiping and
non-essential nonsense. When we evangelical Christians are not centered around
the Word on Sunday, we miss the point of going to the church altogether.
Whenever we miss the essential stuff, we end up talking about non-essential
stuff and meeting up with friends. Worship is an encounter between God and us,
not between our friends and us. Don’t turn the church into a social club. Go to
Starbucks if you want to meet up with friends on Sunday. You order a coffee and
a bagel. There is communion. But it is not Holy
Communion.
The
church is one, holy, catholic, and
apostolic. It is holy because it is set apart from common use and for his
sacred use. It is holy because it is the church of God, the body of Christ, and
the temple of the Spirit. It is holy because it is a trinitarian community. Paul
said to the elders in Ephesus, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all
the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the
church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28 ESV). The
Triune God is involved with the church through and through.
Ecclesial
gossiping often occurs because pastors fail to preach the Word on Sunday. They
often talk about basic Christian faith (e.g. creation, sin, death, redemption,
Jesus, etc…), but they fail to demonstrate to the congregation that their
sermons come straight from the text. In other words, a chosen text does not shape
the content of the sermon in worship. Rather, the pastors just use the text as
a proof-text for their messages.
Pastors
must practice expository preaching, meaning that a chosen text sets the
boundaries of the sermon content. Expository preaching requires a lot of time
to study and listen to what the text intends to say. When I was in seminary,
Haddon Robinson, the first guy who taught me how to communicate the text, said
that he usually spent about 15-20 hours to prepare a sermon from exegesis,
exposition, to delivery. He said it in the classroom during the Fall semester,
2002 (my first semester in seminary). His voice has still echoed in my head. Expository
preaching can function as a remedy to neutralize the gossiping effect of a
church.
[1] “When the Protestant Reformers
spoke of the Word of God, they understood it in the biblical sense of the work
of God’s Spirit in redemption. However, in reaction to the sacramentalism of
the medieval church, the Reformers placed emphasis on preaching. The Word
became associated with the words of the preacher with the result that the
Protestant/evangelical tradition has tended to neglect the sacraments.” Alan
Reynolds, Reading the Bible for the Love
of God (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2003), p. 100.
No comments:
Post a Comment