It’s not clear that anyone besides the preacher presided in worship, so Clint got the day off from liturgy duties. Otherwise note how much the service focuses on the word, or perhaps more accurately on words and on the person preaching them. To be fair, Calvin’s attitude about congregational singing did soften, just slightly, later in his career, but it is his early restrictiveness that endures as his reputation. The one exception we are making there is, irony of ironies, for a text long attributed to John Calvin himself (although it’s not completely clear that he actually wrote it). Also, the songs we have sung in today’s service do mostly comply with his edict that only scripture was to be sung in worship, either psalms (as two of the songs we sang) or other appropriate selections (as the final song we will sing later). In the midst of searching for a new organist we’re not about to shut off the organ down for the day over a five hundred-year-old ban, for example, nor is the choir being shut down. (Reminder: it was John Knox, a Scottish student and follower of Calvin, who brought those ideas to Scotland, where they took root and grew into the tradition we now call Presbyterianism.)Ĭalvin certainly had ideas about worship, some of which have not been observed in our usage of today’s service. Calvin was not the first such voice, far from it, but his formulation of ideas about theology and worship and the life of the church proved to be most influential and substantially accepted among voices in this tradition. It is based on an order that was reconstructed about ten years ago to commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, the scholar and teacher who became the chief voice of theology in what came to be known as the Reformed tradition of the Protestant Reformation. The order of worship today also reflects this concern for order. It shows up in our form of governance, which was in fact a model for the organization of the different branches of government of the United States. So we’ve got the Bible on our side after all.Īll joking aside, churches in the Reformed tradition do in fact have a history of taking that particular fragment of scripture pretty seriously. In fact, we just heard it in the last verse of our reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. No, we’re not frozen, we might say, but we do believe in doing things “ decently and in order.” The other punch line, more of an “insider” view, might be regarded as a somewhat more kindly spin on the “frozen chosen” line. Now if it meant we got special tickets for the big Disney movie premiere coming up about a month from now that might be something, but sadly that’s not how it works. Maybe you’ve heard it? You know, how Presbyterians are all emotionless and unexpressive? That we’re … (wait for it) … the “frozen chosen”? Yeah, it’s an old one that somehow refuses to go away. One of the punch lines, more reflective of an “outsider” view of Presbyterians, is less a joke than a rather cold two-word description of us (supposedly). I know, it’s a little strange to think that there’s really anything funny about us, but hear me out. Or maybe three, if you count how quickly you can get a crowd of Presbyterians to call out “and also with you” just by saying “The Lord be with you” loudly enough for everybody to hear, but that happens in other denominations too. There are, in the broader life of the American church, two running jokes or maybe punch lines about Presbyterians.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |