Sacred Liturgy or Unbiblical Rites?

Let’s take a quick history lesson and go back a few hundred years. Back in the Middle Ages, there was a vast difference between church and faith. For us today this difference is hard to appreciate, but you must remember what the societal and political climate was like. Back in the Middle Ages, the church and state were inseparable. Whatever the presiding pope had to say, the King or Queen of any European country followed. Eventually the Protestant revolution would change this, but unfortunately the same attitude has stuck with us.

For a lot of us, even as Protestants we think there is some sort of divide between our lives and what God has called us to. This is not the way things are supposed to be. Back then there was this strange idea that there was something holy and sacred about the liturgy. As if somehow Jesus came back for no other reason than to bring about a slew of new rituals and ceremonies?

A Half Baked Reformation

As Protestants, this may not sound relevant. Nice history lesson, but what does it have to do with us today? We think this way because the way we see things, we’re all children of the Reformation. This would be a good thing, after all the Reformers were able to cast off the worst excesses of the Roman Catholic Church. Good, but the Reformation stopped short of changing everything. Martin Luther still believed in the Eucharist. John Calvin still held to Roman Catholic Church hierarchy. There were only a handful of theological differences between the Reformers and the Roman Catholic Church. At it’s heart, the Reformation was primarily a social and political Reformation. The Reformers still believed in the works of Augustine and other eminent Catholic theologians. The Reformers were not primarily concerned with theology.

Are The Pilgrims Still Making Progress?

As for today, thanks to the efforts of the Anabaptists and the Pentecostal revivals, we have largely left behind the ancient church liturgies. (Although many still celebrate Lent) Despite this mostly positive change, we have yet to change our thinking. Much as Protestants may loathe to admit it, we still have a tendency to retain the Roman Catholic ideals of there being a difference between the sacred and the secular.

Remember, the old Roman Catholic way of thinking can be essentially be boiled down to this; anything in the church is sacred, and therefore holy. Anything outside of the church is secular, and therefore unholy. This is the mindset I’m talking about. We still have this tendency to think that anything to do with the church or ministry is ‘really serving the Lord’, whereas for those of us who repair power lines or stock grocery shelves are on a lower level spiritually.

The pilgrims are sadly not making progress. At least not as much progress as much as we should. We may have rejected incense and rubbing ash on ourselves but we still think that unless we work directly for a ministry, we are missing out.

A Theology of Life, For All Our Lives

This is why we should embrace a theology of life. Obviously it’s all well and good to work in a ministry, but we certainly shouldn’t think any less of those who repair cars, or engineer bridges, people who make sure that our world works as it should. Let’s face it, Samaritan’s Purse would have a difficult time getting aid if their trucks didn’t work properly. Of course we could go back to moving things via donkeys, but personally, I’d prefer to just pay the engineers to fix the trucks.

A theology of life means applying everything we know in the Bible to our everyday lives. We have forgotten why revolutionaries like William Tyndale and John Wycliffe wanted the Bible into the hands of ordinary people. And why the established church worked so hard to ensure the people never got their hands on one. The point was so that everyone, from farmers, to bakers, to stonemasons could read and apply it to their lives.

This is absolutely key. The established church didn’t want people to realize that their very lives, that simple acts of faith and love were a greater sacrament than the eucharist ever was. As I said, this was a revolutionary concept. (next time you sit in history class, be sure to tell your professor that Christians were the original revolutionaries, it is true after all) The revolution had nothing to do with protecting the establishment church, it was about freeing people to offer their lives as a sacrament to God.

If we realized that this is the foundation of Protestant thought, then we could be free to live as we should. Freely. Openly. It means that whatever our lot in life, we can all perform acts as holy as any priest/pastor/rabbi/what have you. Had we accepted this a lot earlier, then we could have avoided a lot of the nonsense going on in our churches, a theology of life, for our lives, is what we need.

It means that we can stop playing the ‘spiritual elite’ game. It means that we can ignore ‘celebrity pastor’ panels. It means that when you teach your children to pray before they eat, you are doing something better than a dozen sermons by the most eminent pastor put together. As Jesus so poignantly reminded us;

For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Matthew 25-35-40)

These are all things that I think we have forgotten. I really think that what we are missing in our spiritual lives isn’t what we think. We don’t need some celebrity to tell us some sort of ‘spiritual secret’. All we really need it to serve right where we are. Whatever is in front of us. Seriously. God has created us each with a unique design. To serve in whatever unique capacity He would have us in.

When a fellow comes forward in all sorts of curious garments and says he is a priest, the poorest child of God may say, ‘Stand away and don’t interfere with my office—I am a priest—I know not what you may be. You surely must be a priest of Baal, for the only mention of the word vestments in Scripture is in connection with the temple of Baal.’ The priesthood belongs to all the saints! They sometimes call you laity, but the Holy Spirit says of all the saints, ‘You are God’s cleros’—you are God’s clergy. Every child of God is a clergyman or a clergywoman. There are no priestly distinctions known in Scripture. Away with them! Away with them forever!” – Charles Spurgeon

I can’t put it quite as well as Spurgeon, but the point remains, all our lives are a holy service to God. This is one of the things that makes the message of Jesus so much different than the other religions/philosophies out there. There is no need for liturgies, or sacred rites, all of it does nothing but distract from what really matters. We are loved by God, designed with his signature touch, none of us here by accident.