From Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith:
"[M]odern believers tend to trust in therapy more than in mystery, a fact that tends to manifest itself in worship that employs the bland speech of pop psychology and self-help rather than language resonant with poetic meaning--for example, a call to worship that begins: "Use this hour, Lord, to get our perspective straight again." Rather than express awe, let alone those negative feelings, fear and trembling, as we come into the presence of God, crying, "Holy, Holy, Holy," we focus totally on ourselves, and arrogantly issue an imperative to God. Use this hour, because we're busy later; just send us a bill, as any therapist would, and we'll zip off a check in the mail. But the mystery of worship, which is God's presence and our response to it, does not work that way."
Censorious or pastoral?
5 hours ago
5 comments:
With God, must there not be, for us, something of a journey into the unknown -- not unknowable, but heretofore unknown?
Dad
This thought is why Bill and I have difficulty sitting through the typical church service as everyone attempts to figure if the Church is giving THEM what they need. And how the casualness of worship is upsetting as well - because of the lack of awe and not just because we are older.
Hi Aunt Roxie! Thanks for sharing--interesting reflections. And thanks for visiting the blog!
Post a Comment