Howdy!
Last week our church had the honor and the privilege to head up to “the Gap”, the area of Appalachia where Ewing, Harrogate, and Middlesboro gather together to form three states. Our annual pilgrimage to Camp Jubilee is a highlight of my year. I tell people that a lot, mainly because I mean it. Simple country religion has always been a draw to my heart. Some people like to complicate their faith, others just trust the Lord and sing His praises. There is a sense in which we would do better as Presbyterians to remember that the way our ancestors worshiped looked a lot more like the missionary baptists than modern day ARP’s. I’ve heard it said that what the Lord wants in worship is praying, preaching, and praising. Anything outside that is will-worship. Just read God’s word, proclaim God’s truth, and sing the testimony of the Lord’s people to God. All that without worrying too much about the form and rigid order that we usually witness; moving as the Holy Spirit leads. For today’s prayer and worship help we are going to talk a little about what we can learn from our mountain friends and apply to our adoration each and every Lord’s Day.
Going back to John Knox those in the Reformed tradition have always had a liturgy of some sorts, usually with opportunity for those three P’s to feature prominently. When the Roman Catholic sovereign Mary came to the throne in Scotland John had to run off, first to Frankfurt-Am-Main in the German lands. There he came into contact with Anglicans who insisted on the 1552 prayer book and its forms. The Scottish Reformer felt like their strictures were like a straight-jacket that denied the place of the spirit. Knox had the wild idea that it was okay, and in fact preferred, that the gospel minister speak his own words, seeking the presence of God to answer the particular prayers of the people gathered together in that local place. It seemed to him that things might change and new desires needed to be made known to the Creator considering 1555 was a different time and place. I’m sure some of my Episcopalian friends kind of tisk-tisk at my remembering of events and the place of the prayer book, but I stand by my concerns with its limitations. A man of the cloth ought to be able to speak with authority outside the written word. He’s under the command of Christ, not a bishop. The shepherd who knows his sheep prays with knowledge and understanding, at least he should. Our catechism even makes it clear in Q. 186 that the prayers we make to heaven are born out of not only our remembering what’s going on down the road, but what God did when our brothers and sisters lifted up their needs to their Lord. Our prayers ought to be saturated with the word written on our heart and revealed by the Spirit in the Scriptures. There is some sense in which when the man of God prays he is just supplicating in bibline.
If it sounds like your prayers are written by a Reformed robot you’re missing the point.
Similarly to this call to prayer, the preaching should reflect the needs and capacities of the hearers in a way that neither is paternalistic, nor exemplifies the soft bigotry of low expectations. People need, and should want, to hear about Jesus and what He did about their sins, and they should and want to hear about it in the language of the Bible, because that’s what God says. It’s noticeable that the prophets and Apostles of old gave the Jews and Gentiles reflections on what the Lord had already revealed. Why should the Israelites of Amos’ day repent and turn from their wicked ways? Because that’s what Moses told their grandparents many moons ago. As Jesus revealed Himself to His people He pointed to the example of the men and women in the Wilderness who got bit by snakes and looked up at the serpent stick. Something they could both understand, because they knew the Bible, and then bring to memory recall when Christ was lifted up. It is to be the way good preaching stays with you and comes to mind at the right time. There is a beat to a godly sermon that serves the rhythm of the heart of the redeemed. Without drudging up false emotion a focus on the fixed promises contained in the gospel and what Jesus now requires of you as one who has received His grace and love seeks to both challenge and comfort is to be brought to bear on the conscience and heart of those seeking Christ.
To go back to the catechism well one more time there is a way that Reformed preaching is meant to be interactive. Q. 161 of the Larger one says:
What is required of those that hear the word preached? A. It is required of those that hear the word preached, that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation and prayer; examine what they hear by the scriptures; receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind, as the word of God; meditate, and confer of it; hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives.
At the last two retreats I’ve spoken at I’ve made mention that I love the call and response that’s present in most rural baptist and African-American churches. Primarily because it tells me that the people are listening. Our ARP churches shouldn’t be any different, at least if we are paying attention to what the question says. We can’t engage in the preaching if we are playing on our tablets and phones scrolling and playing games or whatever. Our old Presbyterian ancestors only became the frozen chosen in the last hundred years. People used to have to tell the upstate Scots-Irish to settle down when they were spending time with God. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear that again? Well, that’s what they call a meddlin’.
In closing, the last thing we are going to consider is the singing part. Some people got a chuckle out of my spontaneous Praise the LORD after we got done with #26 (in the back) on Sunday morning. Thing about it was is I meant it. Singing Jesus is my favorite activity. It makes me feel like running the aisles and jumping up and down when the whole of the congregation is lifting up their voices to the one who gave them life eternal. The people of 2 Chronicles 20 sang so loud it scared the army of Ammon and Joab literally to death. What would happen if we were being so moved by the spirit that people slowed down on Maynard-Grayson road because of the noise? At least to me, that would be wonderful. I think sometimes folks in the church are afraid they might actually catch the spirit so they do what they can to quench it. Seems strange to me. Feels like if I was truly saved by the blood of the lamb I’d shout like the twenty-four elders around the throne. We shouldn’t be afraid if our neighbor knows we love Jesus.
Here’s a last word:
https://www.placefortruth.org/blog/sanctification-singing-praise-to-god
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church
Oddly, John Knox liked the form of benediction in the BCP. And prior to Westminster, Scottish ministers "gav oot the Beleef" (read the Apostles' Creed as a public act of confessing the faith). Also, lost to us today is the congregation joining to say Amen at the end of prayers and benedictions, etc. The great liturgical manual was of course, The Psalms of David.