One of the tenets of postmodernism is its paradoxical intolerance toward the “meta-narratives”, the preposterous notion that humanity can be constrained to some larger story moving to a specific goal at the expense of the smaller stories that are decidedly autonomous. [I say “paradoxical” because their claim is in itself a kind of  ‘metanarrative’ making absolute claims about metanarratives other than theirs!] (Don’t worry, I probably won’t blog on that! Makes my head hurt!) I will say this: it is philosophically unfeasible for a professed follower of Christ and one who claims devotion to that which Christ affirmed, namely the Scripture,  in any significant way to embrace the fallacious view of postmodernism against meta-narrative. (That oughta get me into trouble!) Why? Jesus Himself taught that human history is really God’s story, His-story. He’s working it out and we all play a part in it, as he is reconciling all things to Himself (Col. 1:20). It is impossible for such a believer to deny the reality of His larger story already in progress. That is except…

…in the contemporary evangelical worship arena. (Finally, getting to the worship thingy)

I do not in any way consider myself to be an expert in what takes place in churches, though I have been in churches since I was a zygote and have evolved with them in a variety of denominational contexts and permutations. Far from generalizing I have observed a troubling phenomenon: much of the mode of worship seems thoroughly self-centered or now-centric or sadly historically ignorant and tradition-phobic. There seems to be a defiantly militant attitude to draw attention to the God of the moment and of “my experience” at the tragic and extravagant expense of the God who has been revealing Himself to His Church for 2000 years and His community of faith for thousands of years before that. Surely, as fallible flawed scribes and bards, there is much we can learn from what God has revealed of Himself down through the ages?! Bryan Chapell writes,

“Slavish loyalty to traditions will keep us from ministering effectively to our generation, but trashing the past entirely denies God’s purposes for the church on which we must build. If we do not learn from the past, we will lose insights God has granted to others as they have interacted with His Word and His people.” (From Christ-Centered Worship, Baker Publishing, (c) 2009)

Now don’t get me wrong. I love and prefer contemporary worship to traditional worship in form and sequence, maybe even liturgy, but that is not the point. There have been men and women, much closer to God than I will ever be, who have climbed the face of Mount God and come away with insights I need to know and embrace. There are saints of old to whom the Lord has revealed treasures of divine insight that I would love to peer into. There are pilgrims who, centuries before, walked alien paths divine self-disclosure and mystery that would set my heart and soul ablaze with Spirit conviction and consecration. I need that. The Church today needs that. God’s Word is living and active. It is power and life. It is His telling us of Himself and ourselves as well. What arrogance to believe that He wants us now to hear something new and different and revolutionary, when it’s clear that He loved His Church then, just as much as He loves His Church now and communicated with them in ways that were new, different and revolutionary…for them! We owe a great debt to His Church in our history, with humble respect for the fact that we too, will soon and very soon, become the future church’s history!

Practically speaking, what does this mean? Let’s not be too quick to abandon or neglect our connection the family of God down through the ages and the wonderful ways that God has been revealing Himself to them over the years. Quite frankly, we would not be able to see things the way we do without the past being what it was. (I have been grieved over watching –and at times joining in with– the ridicule of legitimate traditions of liturgical forms.) Let us come to the sanctuary and altar with the kind of humility that makes even old revelations resonate with contemporary vitality. Let’s study the liturgies and lessons from the ancients, the early church fathers, the mystics and be renewed with the phenomenon of God’s transcendent relevance. Let’s allow our worship services, contemporary or traditional, to include the contexts of His-Story that continues to conform His Church to the Perfection of her Lord. Let’s borrow from prayer books, hymnodies, recitations, biographies, and the like and celebrate our connection with His Family, our Family, down through the ages. Let’s not be too quick to write new songs without gratitude for and tutelage from the new songs He inspired then. Let’s not be too quick to package and process new worship formats without reviewing the life transforming liturgies of old that succeeded in also honoring our Holy Lord. Let’s not be too quick to throw out what is precious and possibly lose what it priority for the sake of our idea of creativity, relevance and excellence. (God must get a kick out of that every once in awhile!)

Consider this: If God did want to say or do or leave something special to us in our current context, why wouldn’t we want the future generations to celebrate that then? Why, therefore, would we not be eager to identify and celebrate the same from the past? After all, it is still HIS-STORY!