Religion, including the religion of Christians, is always accompanied by rituals, symbols, traditions and specialized language that both communicate to and order the lives of the faithful. These provide a sense of transcendence (i.e. that we are doing something out of the ordinary and significant) and imminence (i.e. that we are mutually participating in the life of God and other believers in ways that seem nature and good) – without even having to think much about it. And yet, when we do think about our theology, our worship and the practices of the Church we are more richly able to live our religion. Thus, in some cases the very fact that we do things over and over again, ritually, it has a way of impacting us and transforming us unconsciously. At other times, when we are meditative and thoughtful about these things we can see them in fresh new ways, and be impacted all the more.
Sometimes it is helpful for us to be exposed to our religion in ways that are initially unconventional and even uncomfortable for us. While some people thrive on poetry, others can be bored to tears by it. The same can be said with recitations of the Bible and theological discourse. The video is an example of something religious that is for some people very appealing and edifying, and to others less so. But notice – it is not everyday speech. It is a theological reflection artistically presented that could make us stop and meditate on the truths presented in a new and stimulating way. Contextualizing the Christian message for various tastes, manners of speaking and cultural backgrounds can not only be appealing and effective for unbelievers and new Christians, it can also provide a innovative way of communicating the truth for mature and faithful believers. In the Church, we need to be open to what God is doing in and through all kinds of people as they faithfully articulate the truths once delivered to the saints in the Bible.
Rembrandt, "The Angel Appears to the Shepherds" (c. 1640-42),pen and brush drawing; Hamburg, Kunsthalle.
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Luke 2:14 (NKJV)
Year after year churches put on Christmas programs not unlike this one. We thrill at the retelling of the story of the coming of our savior by our children, and are warmed by the sense of wellbeing that we have. We tend to think of this as a kind of backwards look into the past, as a memorial to what God has done in history by giving His Son to be our savior. While this is certainly true – Christmas celebrations are also an anticipation of what Jesus will yet bring to pass in the future.
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We are in a period of church history when church leaders rarely ask the question, “Does the Bible have anything to say about how we should worship?” It is thought that since most of the biblical directives for worship are from the Old Testament there is nothing in the Bible for the New Testament saints about what should or should not be done in the church today. Most Evangelical church leaders are more ready to ask what unbelievers would be enjoyable in worship than what would please God. Sadly, this is too often the case with the one thing that Jesus explicitly gave instructions for us to do – The Lord’s Supper. In all three of the Synoptic Gospels we have the same directives given, which are repeated for us by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11.
With as much clarity as we have in the New Testament about how we are to administer the rite of Communion, must churches do not follow Jesus’ instructions. Recently, it has become popular among some high profile churches (e.g. Mars Hill) to administer the Lord’s Supper by means of Intinction. Below an excellent article that Jonathan Barlow blogged. Few things are more important than having a thoroughly biblical understanding and practice of the Lord’s Supper – Barlow’s comments go a long way to help provide the church with the basic principles of a biblical Eucharistic practice.
Thinking Through Intinction, by Jonathan Barlow
Intinction is the practice of celebrating communion (aka, Eucharist, Lord’s Supper, etc.) by dipping a piece of bread into the wine and then putting the winesoaked bread into the mouth. This is becoming more popular in my own denomination. Hopefully this essay will help in thinking through the practice.
In any kind of important ritual like baptism or the Lord’s Supper, we want to perform the rite in the proper way. In the Old Testament, through the prophets, God often critiqued both the way in which his people were partaking of the various ceremonies and the heart with which they approached these things. For instance, the temple was in Judah, not Israel, so often God’s prophets spoke against Israel’s presumption to create a rival altar. We’ll leave aside the “heart” issue in this post because we’re really asking more about the mechanics of the sacrament. How should we perform it? The mechanics affect the heart, but that’s a different post.
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From Silence to Song - Peter Leithart
Peter Leithart in 2003 published his wonderful book, From Silence To Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution, which exegetically and theologically demonstrates the importance of David’s tabernacle worship on Mount Zion, both to Old Covenant and New Covenant worship. While I am not convinced of Leithart’s entire thesis (i.e. I think his arguement that weekly worship before David did not involve singing is an arugement from silence, and seems unlikely to me considering the fact that we have songs given to us previous David that were sung in a worship context), Leithart’s work is unique and groundbreaking in terms of its discription of the importance of Davidic worship prophetically.This book is must reading for all serious students of the Bible and its teaching on music in the church.
Last week an article was published by Leithart in First Things, How the Church Lost Her Soundscape, about contemporary Christian worship music. He introduced his subject by saying, “I am not assessing the quality, theology, or sincerity of contemporary worship music. I merely observe the fact, and offer a preliminary interrogation of its cultural sources and effects. What ideas, standards, and forces shape liturgical music? And, what does the church’s musical culture say about the church and its future?”
” Culture is a gift from the old to the young, and the younger generation’s grateful reception is a sign of honor for fathers. Cultural transmission has been thrown into reverse, also in the church.”
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Bread and Wine given by Jesus Christ - Leonardo Da Vinci
In our day, many evangelical Christians believe that there is something inherently evil in alcoholic beverages. As the thinking goes, the problem with drunkenness is with the wine, and not the man who drinks it. The whole idea of “alcoholism” is that some people have a “disease” or genetic and physical disposition to being drunk with just the smallest amount of alcohol. The problem with this view is that it simply is not biblical. It is a capitulation to the prevailing worldview that the problems of men are merely physical and material – not spiritual and sin related.
Jeff Meyers wrote a marvelous treatment of the biblical view of alcoholic beverages that should get a wide reading, called: “Concerning Wine and Beer.” It was originally published by Biblical Horizons in the Rite Reasons series (numbers 48 and 49).
In recent years there has been a renewed interest in biblical and historical liturgical studies in Reformed circles. From a symposium sponsored by The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship James K.A. Smith gave this excellent presentation of a biblical motivation for worship.
Smith is the author of a recent book called Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Cultural Liturgies) that comes highly recommended to me, and is on my reading list. 
