June 8, 2022
What is old often becomes new again. Sometimes it is a welcome return, other times, not so much. Plagues are old and are now with us again. Not such a good thing, most would say. On the other hand, there are approaches to religious education and faith formation that fell by the wayside after the printing press was invented, that have returned with renewed vigor in the past half-century.
The Reformation is the direct result of the printing press. What I grew up being told was a “biblical Christian faith” could not exist until people had Bibles and were able to read them. The printing press changed education both inside and outside of churches. Before the printing press, books were beautifully hand written, expensive, and rare. A “lecture” was originally an instructor reading a text aloud, after which they would then discuss it together. Once books could be published easily and cheaply, textbooks for each student became common. And learning often became content distribution—the assimilation of facts, rather than listening to and discussing ideas.
One of the things that marked many religions ‘before the book’ was the place of practices in faith formation. These were practices of corporate worship, public service, and personal devotion, and they were often seen as being powerfully faith-forming. In fact, early Christian practices of baptism and the Lord’s Supper were never taught, explained, or even witnessed until you received them yourself. You then had a period of extensive reflection on your experiences of these rites with others who had just been baptized and celebrated the Lord’s Table. But the practice was primary, the reflection was secondary.
For about half a century now, Christians have recovered practices as an important part of forming and expressing our faith. One practice we are familiar with are the particular practices of each season of the church year. Over the course of a year, we break down our faith into periods of focus on particular themes and stories in our faith and scriptures. In Advent, we focus on anticipating Christ’s Second Coming even as we remember and learn from how God’s people waited for Christ’s first advent. We celebrate the Incarnation at Christmas, and signs of Jesus’ divinity through miracles and healings in Epiphany. Doing these practices year in and year out forms and deepens our faith in profound ways, often in ways beyond words. It’s not that these themes or stories are true sometimes more than others, it is just that we separate and isolate the themes and practices to increase their impact.
An example is this past Sunday’s celebration of Pentecost and its focus on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In our pietist tradition, we believe that the church is served by a “priesthood of all believers,” as we are all gifted by the Holy Spirit for ministry. So on Pentecost Sunday, and the Sundays that follow in the season of Pentecost, we celebrate our mutual priesthood through the Spirit by singing the final benediction to one another, not just receiving the benediction from the clergy. This may seem strange to us, but for some Christians in the Reformed traditions a benediction can only be offered by ordained clergy. I hope now each time you sing our benediction you are reminded that you are gifted by God for ministry and are to be a blessing to others, even as you are blessed by them.
Another practice that runs deep in our tradition as a Christian church is the practice of “fellowship”. The practice of fellowship is not conversation over a cup of coffee. Instead, fellowship literally means “joint sharing”; as in sharing possessions, sharing ministry, sharing food, and sharing responsibility. (See Acts 2:44) This is something that we continue to practice in our church in a variety of ways. An obvious one is collecting your offerings and tithes for our church ministries and God’s wider service in general. The practices of stewardship go beyond our personal resources, they extend to our common resources: our church property, our common ministries, and our shared identity in Christ. The practice that best exemplifies this is the many meetings of our church and the decisions made in them. These happen in our council sub-groups (Equip, Serve Others, Proclaim, and Nurture Faith), our Church Staff, and our Church Council as a whole. But this becomes most evident when we gather as a collected church for a business meeting, as will happen this Sunday after Church.
I cannot stress enough how important this practice is, not just for the running of our church as an organization, but for your own identity as a baptized Christian and member of the body of Christ. Paul reminds us that the church is the equalitarian and interdependent Spirit-filled community of Christ’s body on earth. (See 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4) And the practice of these meetings reminds us of our place in that community. I hope all who can, will prayerfully attend to the spiritual practice of attending our church business meeting as part of your spiritual discipline of growing in Christ through the Spirit.
Maybe this old habit might become a new spiritual practice.
Pastor Todd