June 21, 2006
Still Waters
Our church baptismal water is always ready, and until a few years ago it was common to see Sunday morning baptisms. Today, even the few baptisms we have are closeted away and seldom conducted in front of the congregation. Where we once heard confessions of faith and witnessed new believers come up out of the waters of baptism, we now read about new members in the newsletter and the bulletin. Certainly there are occasional circumstances which call for a private baptism, but it appears that public confessions of faith are becoming the exception, rather than the norm. So, is it a matter of convenience? Are people embarrassed or shy in confessing Christ? Is the invitation to accept Christ even offered on Sunday? Do preachers encourage weekday baptisms, so as to discourage ‘interruptions’ in the worship structure? Personally, I think the Kingdom of God will pay a high price for the loss of public baptism and confession. Humans are naturally visual and follow examples that are placed before them…who’s going to be an example for our children?
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Gail;
---Still waters. What a graphic illustration of a rather complicated situation. In psychology there is a term for what comes to the conscious mind in the form of knowledge and familiar feelings when our attention is given to something. It is called "schema". Schema necessarily rises up from our subconscious when we are consciously experienceing something, say, a church service. This schema that rises to our minds is naturally a part of who we are, because it is how we have seen things and now relate to them.
----So the schema of what church is to one may include the quiet solitude, subtly enhanced by soft organ music before the service begins. It may also include many brothers and sisters silently waiting in reverence, dressed in something special, sharing the realization that they are somewhere special. The surroundings may include many trappings, such as an ornate (but maybe not ghady) pulpit, a communion table, American and Christian flags, wall art reflective of Who is being worshipped, and men leading the worship dressed as if they are certainly aware of a Holy Presence (a presence that evokes either submission to the receipt of grace, or obstinance to the receipt of condemnation.) And occasionally, sometimes often, one or a few went into that watery receipt of grace before the eyes of all, while always a few others chose to exit into their own obstinant condemnation. The whole schema of church was at one time the visual imagery of the serious business of spiritual life on the front lines where decisions were the booty of the battle.
---- But schema is not independent from our surroundings. In fact, it necessarily incurs changes by our surroundings. Today the contemporary leader has swapped the imagery of the fear of God for ambiguous imagery that will reduce the risk of rejection. The leaders' fear of the departure of the obstinant has become so hightened that they must make sure the church does not build into the seeker a schema containing any element reflective of a battle line for decision, even to the hiding of the decision of submission from the presence of the Holy Meeting.
----In fact the Holy Meeting itself must become a happy meeting where thanksgiving can supplant acknowledgement of reverence for the Omnipotent. The air of specialness supplied by the podium, the communion table, and the wall art are also, too risky. Celebration of what we have recieved rather than sober worship of Him from Whom we have recieved it, must become the ambience of the meeting.
----Therefore, everything that has made up the schema of church when we stepped into a sanctuary no longer matches what we behold when we step into an auditorium. Now it becomes apparent that the ones who are being asked to make a decision are the Lord's own lambs, rather than the lost soul who might be among us. The decision now called forth is about submission to the leaders who compel us to reform our schema of church. Humble submission will net happy celebration, but obstinant holding to the old will incur the contempt of the contemporary leader.
----And the lost soul? His decision must be limited to comming back next week. We must not stress him by presenting before his eyes the culmination of the real decision. So the new-birth stirring of the water is kept from the tender eyes of those who might need to think a moment about what they might see, and the waters in the meeting have gone still.
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