FAITH OF OUR FATHERS
I have two Greek Orthodox friends who've injected into my faith parts of their own. They challenge me with their knowledge of the bible and church history and their commitment to their beliefs regardless of how boring or conspicuous it makes them seem to everyone else.
My brief time with these two men has piqued my interest in the earliest records of the Christian Church, in the teachings of the earliest followers of the Way, as they called it.
This morning I bumped into one of them again and one of the many things we talked about was how different a church service is today in America from a church service in the Middle East during the first three centuries. It got me thinking about what exactly Christianity is, where it comes from. Christianity, it turns out, is a Jewish Middle Eastern religion that originally embraced paradox (God is both wrath and love, life with God is easy and hard) and mystery (the book of Ephesians contradicts itself confusingly). Early Christians used Middle Eastern methods of communing with God as well, like the time Peter meditated while fasting and wound up hallucinating about a blanket.
I feel like something's missing from my faith, from the theology or methodology. I don't know what but I'm thinking this new interest of mine in the ancient origins of Christianity, how primitive believers thought, prayed and lived together holds part of the answer - or maybe just more questions we moderns haven't thought to ask.
I'll let you know what I discover.
My brief time with these two men has piqued my interest in the earliest records of the Christian Church, in the teachings of the earliest followers of the Way, as they called it.
This morning I bumped into one of them again and one of the many things we talked about was how different a church service is today in America from a church service in the Middle East during the first three centuries. It got me thinking about what exactly Christianity is, where it comes from. Christianity, it turns out, is a Jewish Middle Eastern religion that originally embraced paradox (God is both wrath and love, life with God is easy and hard) and mystery (the book of Ephesians contradicts itself confusingly). Early Christians used Middle Eastern methods of communing with God as well, like the time Peter meditated while fasting and wound up hallucinating about a blanket.
I feel like something's missing from my faith, from the theology or methodology. I don't know what but I'm thinking this new interest of mine in the ancient origins of Christianity, how primitive believers thought, prayed and lived together holds part of the answer - or maybe just more questions we moderns haven't thought to ask.
I'll let you know what I discover.
posted by Shaun Groves @ 7/09/2005
7 comments
7 Comments:
Oh man, i have 3 Catholic friends who have been trying to convert me for the past 2 years. I never new the rich history of my church until recently. as protestants we have been we in some ways have robbed of about 1700 years of important heritage. There are so many mis-conceptions about the church (greek and roman). the crazy thing is that the things we used to disagree on arent the things we disagree on now. in fact Luther, in some ways, was more of a catholic than some catholics today. anyway, i have grown more in the last year studying our church history than i have in a long time. with things like that davinci code which chalenges our church history and islam becoming the fastest growing religion in the world i think it is time that we stop worrying about how God wants to make all of us rich and start thinking about unity. and i think that will start with knowing where we came from. Every Christian that has preconcieved notions about the Catholic church should read the Vatican II document on ecemunism (sp) which is the document on church unity. and read a few writings of saint clemente or saint jerome, or many of those old great men of God. The catholic church isnt about sprinklin babies and mary worship.
i'm trying to embrace the paradox. . i always tend to relate things with God to my own job as a parent and now a grandparent -- its easy to see the paradoxes in God when you consider your own.. . i'm not always sweetness and light with my kids, at times they would press my buttons, esp. my oldest child, like no one on earth could! and there were also bleak, rebellious times with her that produced a frightening fury and deep pain. . enough said. . l o n g and difficult time. . but i never gave up hope that we would get our girl back. . she was 'in there somewhere'. .at times i feel like i could have taken her out of this world. .its not nice to admit but true. Other times i have been so proud of my kids when they really shone, accomplished difficult tasks, or when they showed love and compassion. My heart would overflow and i would want to give them the world if i could. . you know?
i know that we are so small compared to God. . but we are made in his image and i think there are lots of similarities between us and our maker. paradoxes and all. .
i just finished the Da Vinci code. . interesting, well written. . makes me wonder if things have been hidden from us, but it doesn't alter my foundational beliefs in a triune God, in evil, salvation, judgement. .
years back i read a very disparaging book called "A Woman Rides The Beast" (Revelation prophecy as regards the catholic church's role). . it really did cast the Catholic Church in such a negative light, highlighting some of its darker moments and failures. It poisoned my mind and its taken years to shake that off.
i've attended a couple of Anglican services with our worship band. . there is a different dimension to their worship, there is much more reverence and there are rituals that my denomination (Salvation Army) is not familiar with. There was a 'cantor' singing scripture. . i felt absolutely awed by it. . I felt enriched and less 'possessive' about God. . that he belongs to others who are different from me.
so true, what is interesting is that no one seems to right history books about the worst parts of our protestant heritage. ptl, witch burnings, constant fighting, southern-baptist convention split...ect. one thing that can strenghten our faith is that even in church's darkest hours, catholic or protetstant, the gates of hell still have not prevailed against it. and somehow God uses idiot his church inspite of indulgence abuse or televangalist robbery.
I have been reading and hearing recently about the rise of 'ancient-future' in the church in the last year. That is, the use of ancient traditions and rituals in a way to bring reverance and history into a modern church. At a Passion concert I went to two years back, they did a little bit of that, and I remember being surprised that college age students were loving the rich history of it all.
As someone who grew up catholic myself, I found it all very interesting. I found that the Catholic church often spend too much effort on the rituals and traditions and not enough on teaching. I think there is a line in the middle there, where you can embrace the history and tradition without it become so repetitive and monotonous that it loses all meaning.
Essential Christianity? It must be founded on the truth of God. (Truth in the essentials is what separates us from the materialist, the Muslim, etc.) Unity? Yes, that is what Christ prayed for for Christians (John 17:20-21). But let us have unity in the truth--unity in the gospel (Phil 1:27--let us be "in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel")!
How can we reach unity in the truth? The Word of God. God uses it to give us birth spiritually (Rom 10:17, 1 Pet 1:23, James 1:18) and to feed us (Matt 4:4).
It is absolute truth, on which one can rest oneself fully. You can't replace that primary position of the Word of God with anything else.
So no matter what you call yourself, Protestant or Catholic, found your life on the Word of God. Everything else must come in line with His truth. "God is not a man, that He should lie" (Numbers 23:19). Tradition and historical practices can be cool things, but they must come in line with what God says--or else they should be flushed down the toilet!
Something in the historical church that I've come to appreciate more is the Church's heritage of hymns. Rocking out can be fun, but there seem to be many older poems with great depth (derived from Biblical truth). (btw, this is not to say that everything that was written a long time ago is good stuff.) So perhaps today's church should marry depth with passion?
(Oh, about Da Vinci Code--there are refutations of Brown's version of history. One might read, e.g., The Da Vinci Hoax.)
I found Grace Community Church's statement about Catholicism interesting...
http://www.gracechurch.org/home/doclib.asp?ministry_id=1&dlcat=Distinctives
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