Sabbath Study Guide

About a year ago, I created a Study Guide for members who were asking questions about the Sabbath and the Biblical teaching of it. I put together this study guide to walk people through the Biblical Theological basis for Sabbath by reading text and asking critical questions about what each text is saying. I provide it here for those interested or who want to use it for their own study:

Sabbath Study Guide

This guide is meant to assist one reading through relevant Scriptures dealing with the subject of the Sabbath. Some of the questions are meant to help think through the facts of the passage, other questions the deeper meaning, and finally other questions are meant to think through our practical application of the passage.

Genesis 2:1-3
1) What is significant about the Sabbath starting in Creation?

2) If God did not "need" to rest, why did He?

3) If marriage (2:18-25) and Sabbath are creation ordinances, can either one be abolished before the new creation?

Exodus 16

1. Why would it be significant to see Sabbath keeping before the law is given at Sinai?

2. What implications does this passage have about the day before the Sabbath?

3. APPLICATION: Do we have to work at resting or prepare to rest on the Sabbath like the Israelites?

Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 5:12-15

1. One account of the 10 commandments roots Sabbath in Creation, the other in redemption: how is the Sabbath significant to how we understand creation? How does it help us understand Redemption?

2. In reading though the other 9 commandments, would you see these commands as always morally binding? Are these commandments arbitrary or rooted in something deeper?
   
   
3. APPLICATION: Name the imperative verbs (commands) in the section. Then think through any contemporary applications.

Exodus 31:13-18

1. How does God fulfill his promise: “Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.”

2. Read Exodus 31:16 – How long was the Sabbath to remain as a part of the covenant with God’s People?

3. Read Exodus 31:18 – What is referred to by the phrase “two tablets of stone”? In light of the establishment of a “covenant forever” what implication does this have for the validity of the “two tablets of stone”?

Isaiah 58:13-14

1. What is included in "your own pleasures"? If “our pleasures” are not necessarily wrong, what does this tell us about our pleasures on the Sabbath?

2. What is the blessing attached to Sabbath keeping?

3. APPLICATION: What blessings might we be missing out on by neglecting Sabbath?

4. APPLICATION: What personal pleasures may be appropriate on other days, that are not on the Sabbath?

Nehemiah 13:15-22

1. What was the violation that upset Nehemiah?

2. What was Nehemiah’s reaction (punishment) to Sabbath breaking?
   
   
3. APPLICATION: How, today, do we violate the Sabbath like those in Nehemiah 13?

4. APPLICATION: Why, today, do we not take the Sabbath as seriously (as worthy of physical beating for breaking!)?

Matthew 12:1-14

1. Read Deuteronomy 23:25 – Was it “unlawful” for the disciples to pick grain from the field in 12:1-2?

2. Read 1 Samuel 21:1-6 – The Westminster Confession will talk about works of mercy and necessity on the Sabbath – How do we see that in action in this episode from the life of David?

3. Jesus declares Himself “Lord of the Sabbath.” Read the lead in to Matthew 12, in Matthew 11:28-30. How is this a demonstration of Him being “Lord of the Sabbath”?

4. Jesus does a work of healing on the Sabbath. How does Jesus fulfill His role as “Lord of the Sabbath” in Matthew 12:9-16?

5. APPLICATION: How do we come to Jesus like the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath?

6. APPLICATION: Mark has a parallel account, but includes the observation “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) In what ways does the Sabbath benefit man?

7. APPLICATION: In no place does Jesus condemn the principle of Sabbath-keeping. Yet, the Pharisees are condemned for the way they “kept” the Sabbath with no regard to doing works of mercy. How should we be mindful of that in our Sabbath-keeping today?

Hebrews 4:1-11

1. How does “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” align with Old Testament teaching on the Sabbath?

2. Hebrews 4:8 “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.” In what ways have we still not fully entered into that promised rest?

3. APPLICATION: Reflect for a while on Hebrew 4:10. What is God’s role on the Sabbath? What is my role on the Sabbath?

4. APPLICATION: What efforts can we “strive” to do to enter the rest that Sabbath promises?

PRACTICAL APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

1. Do you believe that today in America, we are more like the Pharisees in Matthew 12 or the Israelites in Nehemiah 13 in our problem with the Sabbath?

2. What spiritual activities do you wish you had time to do? [Are there any spiritual books to read, songs to sing, time set aside for prayer, family worship, Bible Reading, listening to sermons?]

3. Record a schedule of your Sundays.
   1. How much of the time is used in preparation [to go somewhere, to make a meal, cleaning etc]?
   2. How much time is used for recreation and entertainment [watching or participating]?
   3. How much time is used in “holy” activities?
   4. After doing this, would you say that you are using the day as set apart to God?
   5. How might you change your schedule to keep the Sabbath holy? What might you have to start doing? What might you need to stop doing [or start doing on a different day]?

Further Studies in the Biblical Theology of Sabbath

These questions are meant to investigate issues or objections to the Sabbath that arise. These deal with deeper and more difficult subjects to think through regarding the Sabbath.

Abolished Law? Read Matthew 5:17-20

Some may cite Ephesians 2:14-16, saying Christ has abolished the law. [“having abolished the law of commandments expressed in ordinances”]

1. What is Christ referring to as the “law” in Matthew 5:17-20? How is that different from Ephesians 2:14-16?
2. Matthew Henry states: “By his sufferings in the flesh, to took away the binding power of the ceremonial law (so removing that cause of enmity and distance between them), which is here called the law of commandments contained in ordinances, because it enjoined a multitude of external rites and ceremonies, and consisted of many institutions and appointments about the outward parts of divine worship.”
   1. If Jesus was not abolishing the moral law (i.e. the 10 Commandments), what significance would that have for the Fourth Commandment? How would the writer of Hebrews 4:9 respond if he was asked if the Sabbath was a part of that which was done away with in the ceremonial law?
   2. Would the Jewish and Christian Sabbath have some differences? Some similarities?

No More Sabbath? (Col 2:16-17; Romans 14:6; Gal 4:10)

When Paul mentions “Sabbaths” in Col 2:16-17, there is more than one “Sabbath” in the Old Testament.

1. Read Leviticus 25:1-7.
   1. How does land have a Sabbath?
   2. Read Leviticus 26:40-45. What was the punishment for not keeping the Sabbath Year?
   3. Read Jeremiah 25:12, Daniel 9:2 and 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 //How did God fulfill his promised punishment in the exile?

2. Read Leviticus 23:1-8. What other days other than Saturday are called “sabbaths”?

3. With the Old Testament context, what then is Paul talking about with “festivals,” “new moons,” and “sabbaths”?
   1. Might we make a distinction between “sabbaths” and THE Sabbath?
   2. APPLICATION: What applications might this teaching have for modern “sabbaths” or Holidays?

Saturday (last day) or Sunday (First Day)?

We only have evidence of the church worshiping as the church on the first day (Sunday) not the seventh day:

• Scripture records worship on the first day:

Act 20:7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

1Co 16:2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

Also cf. Joh 20:19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."

• The Universal Witness of the Apostles was to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the First Day of the Week. [Matt 26:17, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1; John 20:1.]

• The early church testified to worship of the church on the first day, such as Justin Martyr, a Christian in the Second Century AD, in his First Apology, Chapter 67 – “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.”

1. When the Apostles worshiped on the first day, and the Sabbath was referred by the Lord as “my holy day” and “the holy day of the Lord” (Isaiah 58:13-14), and when John says he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day,” (Rev 1:10) What good and necessary application do we have as Christians in the Apostolic Church?

2. If the first day of the week is when creation began, what might the change of the Lord’s Day to the first day have to teach us? [cf. 2 Cor 5:17, Gal 6:15]

Book Review: A Neglected Grace

“God is worshipped everywhere, in spirit and in truth, as, in private families daily…” –Westminster Confession 21:6.

The scene is idyllic. A family gathered around the father in the living room or at the dinning table, with Bible open, hymns or psalms being sung, and prayers being offered by all. I say idyllic, because many of us have never seen this Christian Norman Rockwell scene. The practice of family worship has a strong and influential history in Reformed and evangelical homes, but the practice today has become so rare as to expect that such a scene is expected to be found only in a museum.

This does not have to be the case, nor ought it be the case. Jason Helopoulos, Assistant Pastor at University Reformed Church in Michigan, offers readers a challenge and also great helps in recovering this important and necessary practice in the raising of our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. “A Neglected Grace: Family Worship in the Christian Home” is a book I wish existed before it did. Our church made a push for families to begin the practice of family worship, however when looking at the resources available many seemed, although thorough and well grounded, also overwhelming to a layman. Family Worship with complicated orders of worship or long justifications do not keep the attention of the average reader. In this book, Pastor Helopoulos gives an extremely readable and even at points humorous look into simple family worship. I read the book in two or three short sittings and then gave the book to my wife who began to read and enjoy it as well.

The book begins with a helpful look at the different “spheres” of worship. The author identifies corporate, private (or individual), and also family worship. With three spheres of Christian worship, the reader is instructed that “A Christian will find it most beneficial to practice secret worship, corporate worship and family worship.” (27) Such a distinction was helpful for this pastor who typically has collapsed those spheres to two: private and public.

After establishing the legitimacy of the sphere of family worship, the author then quickly moves on to the “why?” - Why should we engage in family worship. Rather than merely emphasizing the duty and command of family worship, or merely the benefits, he combines the two: “It is our joyful responsibility!” Such a response fits the mood and theme of the book, family worship is not a mere burden or another item in the list of responsibilities of a head of household, it is a blessing and a grace that if skipped, we miss out on.

Thankfully, immediately after establishing the joyful duty of Family Worship from Scripture, the book moves on to the important question of “how?” I have several volumes on my shelf that suggests several deep and intricate orders of family worship to resemble a Sunday morning worship service. These have guaranteed that they may look good on paper, but are rarely tried. Pastor Helopoulos suggests something eminently more reasonable: simplicity. Family worship can be simple enough to just contain three simple elements: Scripture, prayer and song. Although additional elements are suggested for later, if it is too complicated, it will distract from intention of the time: the simple worship of God.

Much of the rest of the book is what makes this a unique offering and why I wish it was available to our church sooner. The rest of the book wrestles with the practical overcoming of difficulties, written by a father and husband who has practiced family worship and learned the hard way what to do with energetic small children and disappointing nights when it seems like the entire venture was a waste of time.

At the end of the book, I must warn you, you will be out of excuses. You will have a clear picture of family worship, and it will become a possible reality rather than a wistful fantasy. You will flip through the appendixes and find sample simple worship orders you can follow without handing out trifold bulletins to your 4 year old. And what's more, it will get you excited to reclaim the grace most Christian families have neglected unnecessarily.

I’d recommend this book to most all Christian families, as well as to churches as a resource. The price makes it easy to grab a dozen copies for a church book table or to have it available to give during pre-marital counseling, to aid couple in understanding the importance of family worship early on.

Buy at wtsbooks.com
Buy at amazon.com

A website of Psalms sung a cappella from the Psalter.

http://www.thepsalmssung.org/

The Sabbath in Scripture, the Confession and BCO

Genesis 2

² Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host ofthem. ² And on the seventh day Godfinished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from allhis work that he had done. ³ So Godblessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all hiswork that he had done in creation.

Exodus 16

²⁷ On the seventh day some of the peoplewent out to gather, but they found none. ²⁸ Andthe Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandmentsand my laws? ²⁹ See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives youbread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of hisplace on the seventh day.” ³⁰ So thepeople rested on the seventh day.

Exodus 20

⁸  “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep itholy. ⁹  Six days you shall labor, anddo all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventhday is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall notdo any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or yourfemale servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and restedon the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed theSabbath day and made it holy.

Deut 5

¹² “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep itholy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³ Sixdays you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ butthe seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your maleservant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of yourlivestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servantand your female servant may rest as well as you. ¹⁵ You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and anoutstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your Godcommanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Nehemiah 13

¹⁵ In those days I saw in Judah peopletreading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loadingthem on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, whichthey brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the daywhen they sold food. ¹⁶ Tyrians also,who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them onthe Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! ¹⁷  Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and saidto them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbathday? ¹⁸  Did not your fathers act inthis way, and did not our God bring all this disaster^[a] on us andon this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning theSabbath.”
¹⁹ As soon as it began to grow dark at thegates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should beshut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath.And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be broughtin on the Sabbath day. ²⁰ Then themerchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once ortwice. ²¹  But I warned them and saidto them, “Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will layhands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. ²² Then I commanded the Levites that they shouldpurify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy.Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to thegreatness of your steadfast love.

Isaiah 58

¹³  “If you turn back your footfrom the Sabbath,
    fromdoing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
    andthe holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
    orseeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;
¹⁴ then you shall take delight in the Lord,
    and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Matthew 11-12

²⁸  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I willgive you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, forI am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ Formy yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

^12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on theSabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain andto eat. ² But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him,“Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” ³ Hesaid to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and thosewho were with him: ⁴ how he entered the house of God and atethe bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for thosewho were with him, but only for the priests? ⁵ Or have you notread in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane theSabbath and are guiltless? ⁶ I tell you, something greater thanthe temple is here. ⁷ And if you had known what this means, ‘Idesire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁸ Forthe Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

⁹ He went on from there and entered their synagogue. ¹⁰ Anda man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to healon the Sabbath?”— so that they might accuse him. ¹¹ He said tothem, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath,will not take hold of it and lift it out? ¹²  Of how much morevalue is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” ¹³ Thenhe said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, andit was restored, healthy like the other. ¹⁴ But the Phariseeswent out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

¹⁵ Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followedhim, and he healed them all ¹⁶ and ordered them not to make himknown. ¹⁷  This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophetIsaiah:

¹⁸  “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
    my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
    and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
¹⁹ He will not quarrel or cry aloud,
    nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;
²⁰ a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory;
²¹      and in his name the Gentiles willhope.”

Hebrews 4

^4:1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, letus fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. ² For good news came to us just as to them, but themessage they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faithwith those who listened.^{[a] 3} For we who have believed enter that rest, as hehas said,

“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’”

although his works were finished fromthe foundation of the world. ⁴ For hehas somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on theseventh day from all his works.” ⁵ Andagain in this passage he said,

“They shall not enter my rest.”

⁶ Since therefore itremains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good newsfailed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷ againhe appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, inthe words already quoted,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”

⁸ For if Joshua hadgiven them rest, God^[b] would nothave spoken of another day later on. ⁹ Sothen, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, ¹⁰ for whoever has entered God's rest has alsorested from his works as God did from his.

¹¹ Let us therefore strive to enter thatrest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. ¹² For the word of God is living and active, sharperthan any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, ofjoints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.¹³ And no creature is hidden from his sight,but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

WestminsterConfession 21:8

8. This Sabbath is then kept holy to the Lord when men,after due preparation of their hearts and arranging of their common affairsbeforehand, not only observe a holy rest, all the day, from their own works,words, and thoughts concerning their everyday occupations and recreations, butalso devote the whole time to the public and private exercises of God's worshipand to the duties of necessity and mercy.

Larger Catechism

Q. 116. What is required in the fourth commandment?
A. The fourth commandment requireth of all men the sanctifying or keeping holyto God such set times as he hath appointed in his word, expressly one whole dayin seven; which was the seventh from the beginning of the world to theresurrection of Christ, and the first day of the week ever since, and so tocontinue to the end of the world; which is the Christian sabbath, and in theNew Testament called The Lord's Day.

Q. 117. How is the sabbath or the Lord's day to be sanctified?
A. The sabbath or Lord's day is to be sanctified by an holy resting all theday, not only from such works as are at all times sinful, but even from suchworldly employments and recreations as are on other days lawful; and making itour delight to spend the whole time (except so much of it as is to be taken upin works of necessity and mercy) in the public and private exercises of God'sworship: and, to that end, we are to prepare our hearts, and with suchforesight, diligence, and moderation, to dispose and seasonably dispatch ourworldly business, that we may be the more free and fit for the duties of thatday.

Q. 118. Why is the charge of keeping the sabbath more specially directedto governors of families, and other superiors?
A. The charge of keeping the sabbath is more specially directed to governors offamilies, and other superiors, because they are bound not only to keep itthemselves, but to see that it be observed by all those that are under theircharge; and because they are prone ofttimes to hinder them by employments oftheir own.

Q. 119. What are the sins forbidden in the fourth commandment?
A. The sins forbidden in the fourth commandment are, all omissions of theduties required, all careless, negligent, and unprofitable performing of them,and being weary of them; all profaning the day by idleness, and doing thatwhich is in itself sinful; and by all needless works, words, and thoughts,about our worldly employments and recreations.

Q. 120. What are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment, the moreto enforce it?
A. The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment, the more to enforce it, aretaken from the equity of it, God allowing us six days of seven for our ownaffairs, and reserving but one for himself, in these words, Six days shaltthou labor, and do all thy work: from God's challenging a special proprietyin that day, The seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: fromthe example of God, who in six days ... made heaven and earth, the sea, andall that in them is, and rested the seventh day: and from that blessingwhich God put upon that day, not only in sanctifying it to be a day for hisservice, but in ordaining it to be a means of blessing to us in our sanctifyingit; Wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Q. 121. Why is the word Remember set in the beginning of thefourth commandment?
A. The word Remember is set in the beginning of the fourth commandment,partly, because of the great benefit of remembering it, we being thereby helped in our preparation to keep it, and, in keeping it, better to keep all the rest of the commandments, and to continue a thankful remembrance of the two great benefits of creation and redemption, which contain a short abridgment of religion; and partly, because we are very ready to forget it, for that there isless light of nature for it, and yet it restraineth our natural liberty inthings at other times lawful; that it cometh but once in seven days, and many worldly businesses come between, and too often take off our minds from thinking of it, either to prepare for it, or to sanctify it; and that Satan with his instruments much labor to blot out the glory, and even the memory of it, to bring in all irreligion and impiety.

CHAPTER48

The Sanctification of the Lord’s Day

48-1.“The fourth commandment requireth the keeping holy to God such

set times as he hath appointed in his word; expressly one whole day in seven,

to be a holy sabbath to himself.” (WSC 58).

48-2.God commanded His Old Testament people to keep holy the last day

of the week, but He sanctified the first day as the Sabbath by the resurrection

of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. For this reason the Church of the

new dispensation has from the time of the apostles kept holy the first day of

the week as the Lord’s Day.

48-3.It is the duty of every person to remember the Lord’s Day; and to

prepare for it before its approach. All worldly business should be so ordered,

and seasonably laid aside, as that they may not be hindered thereby from

sanctifying the Sabbath, as the Holy Scriptures require.

48-4.The whole day is to be kept holy to the Lord; and to be employed in

the public and private exercises of religion. Therefore, it is requisite, that

there be a holy resting, all the day, from unnecessary labors; and an

abstaining from those recreations which may be lawful on other days; and

also, as much as possible, from worldly thoughts and conversation.

48-5.Let the provisions for the support of the family on that day be so

ordered that others be not improperly detained from the public worship of

God, nor hindered from sanctifying the Sabbath.

48-6.Let every person and family, in the morning, by secret and private

prayer, for themselves and others, especially for the assistance of God to

their minister, and for a blessing upon his ministry, by reading the Scriptures,

and by holy meditation, prepare for communion with God in his public

ordinances.

48-7.Let the time not used for public worship be spent in prayer, in

devotional reading, and especially in the study of the Scriptures, meditation,

catechising,religious conversation, the singing of psalms, hymns, or spiritual

songs;visiting the sick, relieving the poor, teaching the ignorant, holy

resting, and in performing such like duties of piety, charity, and mercy.

Reformation Worship Conference

Something to check out if you are able, the Midway Reformation Worship Conference in October with speakers such as Derek Thomas, Bob Godfrey, Richard Phillips, T. David Gordon. An introductory video here:



Reformation Worship Conference 2012 from Dana Willis on Vimeo.

Desiring the Kingdom: Critical Interaction

I have little time to blog. But I did begin to notice that many that are pushing the liturgical boundaries of the PCA have a common inspiration for their desires: James K.A. Smith, a professor at Calvin College who wrote on the way worship affects our desires. I read "Desiring the Kingdom" critically can found some things helpful, but other things hurtful if adopted. My interaction in the form of a review and analysis below that I wrote two years ago may be helpful for others that have not read Smith and wonder at its contents and fans.

DESIRING THE KINGDOM REVIEW

            Smith begins his study on Christian Education, Liturgy and Worldview with a tour of the local mall. This tour, however, is described using the language of liturgy rather than our common language. The mall becomes a perfect model to see how American corporate culture has come to understand the forming and manufacture of desire. The entire mall experience aims at creating previously absent desires or exaggerating desires to the point where they will be acted upon in the form of consumerism.

            This example of the mall also offers a perfect model for Smith's idea of the manner in which humans function over against the main ways in which Christians have come to talk about Worldview. Worldview language in Christian circles have almost exclusively focused on cognitive process and intellectual (information) categories. Yet, the mall would hardly be confused for a place of high cognition, yet it competes with the church for the attention and desires of a Christian. Desire, not cognition, ought to be the currency of worldview thought.

            This desiring rather than purely cognitive person is called the liturgical animal (or homo liturgicus).  To make his point, Smith often draws stark contrasts between cognitive and affectual. A picture is preferred to an idea. (53) Smith clarifies that it is a picture painted by stories and myths, picture and icons. (54) Also, mind is contrasted with imagination. The dominant models which see humanity as primarily cognitive or believing fail to take the imaginative, affectual, and desiring aspects.

            Smith expresses his anthropology in the phrase “desire forms knowledge” (70) meaning that our understanding comes from first desire, image and story before there is understanding. Understanding has been distinguished along the line of Heidegger. Smith is not alone in this observation of immediate response as a form of knowledge. Malcolm Gladwell made such a connection in “Blink,” observing how experts or long practictioners in a field can often make snap accessments or judgments with high degrees of accuracy before the sensory input is evaluated by high level cognition. However, this occurred first by cognition, working its way into the unconscious.

            Smith adheres to the formula lex orandi lex credendi, the law of prayer is the law of faith. In other words, worship precedes doctrine. Smith makes this explicit in looking at the historical development of the early  church where worship preceded the introduction of the Scriptures. Smith also applies that to the people of God today in being first worshipers before thinkers.(136-138)

            Although the word is not used, Smith seems to adhere to a form of empiricism. “Gut” or “heart” language often relates to body and sensory experience. To build upon this empirical data, forming into habit, forms the greater part of the activities of daily life for the human creature. Cognition is segregated to those processes that analyze, make connections and articulate truth in proposition.

            In practice, this analysis allows one to see the way non-Christians form our desires. The mall and the sporting event both shape our desires but neither do so through cognitive bookish approaches. For Smith, our cognitive approach must yield to an affective and imaginative approach to combat the world.

EVALUATION

            Smith's approach in Desiring God is helpful in broadening our view of humanity. A cognitive focused approach relegates all but intellectual matters to the perifary. Rationalism must ensue and a platonic anthropology takes the place of a Christian one. Plato believed vice merely flowed from ignorance. Eliminate ignorance and you eliminate vice. A Christian perspective must take into account our bodies and the whole human including their affections. All of these aspects, also, are fallen and mere informational approaches do not produce virtue and eliminate vice. Smith's evaluation rightly recognizes this reality.

            Smith challenges the cognitive approach, however, by greatly depreciating the role of the mind. Such an approach brings with it serious and troubling questions: One cannot help but question that if a view of man that depreciates the bodily for the cognitive does not acknowledge the whole human, does one that depreciates the cognitive, mental and intellectual part of a human in preference of the bodily properly answer this dilema or merely mirror it?  As a human perceives their surroundings, does the input bypass the mind? Has the mind been relegated to such a narrow set of duties (higher level reasoning) that we merely aim for the animal spirits instead? Does the fact that the world aims directly for our desires and bypasses the mind validate the church doing the same thing?

            The dominate language of Smith seems to be the language of “looking” and “seeing” and “picture.” However, Isaiah 53:2b describes Christ as “ he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” Yet, the language of desire and heart longing pervades our religious expectations. Christ is the bread for which we hunger, the wine for which we thirst, and altogether beautiful. [Here I follow the vast majority of Christianity in time and number who see the Song of Solomon as having something to do with Christ and not merely lustful lovers.] Such statements may warn us that to harmonize these texts, we must see that what attracted disciples, crowds and martyrs to Christ is not purely able to be expressed in the language of sight. We look and see no comeliness. Yet we look and see beauty, and object of desire. That object of desire is not perceivable by the eyes but something different. We are invited to “come and see” but also not to look upon outward appearances.

            Smith has put his finger on an important reality of the need for affective language and dimensions to our idea of what it means to be Christian. Yet, the idea of picturing and icons made me uncomfortable that it might be missing that though we may see those things, we may “see and not perceive.” Indeed, even the ears may be a medium by which we “hear, but do not understand.” We are invited to "come and see" (John 1:46) a man "with no form or majesty" (Is 53:2) and to see as lovely (Song 4:7) a man with "no beauty that we might desire him" (Is 53:2)

            The thesis is very helpful in analysis. Smith focuses mostly on the contrast between the liturgy of consumption and a capitalistic culture or the liturgy of the University versus the liturgy of the Church, constructed to lead us towards desiring the kingdom. The language of forming desire, then, is the language of liturgy. The points of comparison, then, are the liturgies of the church and the liturgies of the world. What do we learn about reality in the church's liturgy? What is presented as the highest good and ultimate object of desire? These questions can assist in adjusting the liturgy to address these questions.

            Addressing changes in our liturgy, however, may undermine lex orandi, lex credendi in an absolute sense. If we change our liturgy, we acknowledge that our worship must fit our theology and doctrine. Then, our doctrine precedes our worship, something that is expressly rejected in pg 136. Therefore, we must re-think lex orandi lex credendi.

            Smith's one-sided language does, however, allow us to re-imagine the relationship between lex orandi and lex credendi. We desire to change the worship/orandi to fit our beliefs/credendi because our worship does feed, nurture and teach our beliefs in many different mediums. Through the hear, the eye, the fingers, and the mouth, our creed comes into our whole person. Yet, if the cognitive could not inform, and our beliefs could not shape our worship, then we would never know to change it.  The relationship should not be seen merely as a one-way street. Our beliefs must inform our worship and our worship must teach our beliefs. The formation of new believers largely takes place through the worship of the community in word, sacrament and prayer. People do, however, move to new communities after conversion for the express belief that certain worship fits the creed better. This is because the Scripture determines worship, belief and all of life. We must have a third category of lex scriptura informing both belief and worship as belief and worship interact and work on each other without absolute priority.

            Overall, Smith's book addresses a blind spot in my thinking on Spiritual Formation. Coming from a Reformed perspective and an introverted intellectual perspective, I am certainly one that is prone to miss that humans are broader beings than merely floating brains. Part of being human involves the affections and the imagination and if only the mind is addressed then people are being treated as less than human. However, Smith does seem to think we can separate and segregate (and ostrocize?) the mind as opposed to the rest of the human anatomy. Instead, in communicating the faith and discipling Christians must involve the mind, but also must involve the rest of the human. Smith's prescriptions, then, largely stand with a return to purposeful liturgy. Sacraments and Prayer must be given proper attention as well as a substantive pulpit. We must have our desires enflamed, but also we must know what or Who we are to love. 

Summary: PRO: We should follow Smith in realizing the way worship drives our love of God and shapes us. CON: But we should reject the idea that worship drives our theology, but rather have our theology drive and be communicated by our worship. We also should reject having our emotions engaged apart from our mind, but rather engage the mind to drive the affections. Finally, we should reject using the eye or ignoring God's 2nd Commandment's validity for our view of worship.

Introducing Baptism in Worship

An introduction I have used for Baptism in Worship:

This morning we have the great privilege, and the commanded duty, to admit ____ of our covenant children into the membership of this particular church and the whole visible church.

When we say “The visible Church” we mean the full number of those who profess faith in Jesus Christ and their children. This is distinct although greatly overlapping with what we call the invisible church which are the number of those who are regenerate, professing and possessing the true faith.

Admitting some to the visible church does not necessarily mean we confess that we know them to be members of the invisible church.

So how, this morning, do we admit our covenant children into the visible church?

The covenant God made with his people carries with it signs and seals. God first gave a command to apply the sign of the covenant to those who are members in Genesis 17, where the Lord declares:

Gen 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

Gen 17:10-12 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised.

God established an everlasting covenant with his people. This everlasting covenant is decreed to last, eternally.

We are told this sign and seal was pointing to the author of the covenant and His righteousness he would give.

Romans 4:11 [says Abraham] received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

Abraham first displayed faith and was given the sign. Isaac, his son was given the sign at eight days before observable faith. The same sign, pointing to the same thing, the righteousness that is available by faith, received from Christ who was righteous in our place, received by resting in his work.

Now you may have noticed today we are not bringing forward subjects for circumcision. Jesus, beginning his ministry, instituted Baptism by his example in coming to John the Baptist for Baptism.

When Peter gave his first sermon, telling Jewish believers, who had as their established practice circumcision and had brought their children for circumcision, were told what Christ had changed in the covenant by his coming, Peter instructed them in Acts 2:38-39: "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children.” Echoing Genesis 17, and echoing the lesson he learned from Jesus that to children also belong the kingdom of God, and we are not to hinder them being brought to Jesus.

The Apostle Paul tells us we are still considered in a spiritual sense to be circumcised saying in Colossians 2:11-12 “In him [Christ] also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism.” And we are also instructed in 1 Corinthians 7:14 that the children of believing parents are considered covenantally holy, set apart.

God instructed his people through Abraham to give the sign of the covenant to believers and their children under the sign of circumcision. Today, God retains his command to give the sign of the covenant to believers and their children under the sign of baptism. Paul tells us in Galatians that if we are in Christ we are sons of Abraham, heirs to the same promise in Genesis. God was not lying when he called it an everlasting covenant.

But just as we think back to Abraham’s sons, Isaac and Ishmael, both circumcised, but only one of the true faith. As we think of Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau, both circumcised but only one of true faith – we are instructed that there is nothing magical in the sign of the covenant.

The sign calls one to faith to receive the righteousness that is offered – a righteousness that is said by our Confession to include, and are pictured in baptism as:

1) Regeneration

2) Remission (or forgiveness) of sins

3) Newness of life

4) Ingrafting into Christ

Yet the sign points to a righteousness that must be received by faith. We know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ, and just as one can sit under the preaching of the word and never be given faith, so one can be under the waters of baptism and not receive the benefits baptism signifies. So, when we bring children to the fount, we bring them with the solemn task ahead of us, of raising them in the nurture and admonition of the LORD. The parents take a pledge to do so, the congregation looking on also pledges to assist and remembers their own baptism, and the duties and benefits it signifies.

We collectively vow to involve ourselves in the raising up of faithful covenant children - to do so by godly example. We do so by instruction in God’s Word. We do so by regular prayer for their souls. We do so by surrounding them with the worship of God, corporately on the Lord’s Day every week and privately in our Family Worship and devotions.

As a wedding ring reminds us of the vows we made on our wedding day, so this baptism reminds us of the vows we make, ourselves or on behalf of children, who we pray will one day make the same profession and vows as their parents.

As we celebrate and observe the sacrament of baptism today, I invite you, the congregation, to think of two things, FIRST: your baptism. The great promises God holds out to you, that are to be received by faith, to be reminded of God’s pledge of faithfulness to you. And the Second, to acknowledge your responsibility as members of this congregation to assist in the teaching of the faith to the next generation, speaking often of the Lord, and his goodness towards you in the presence of these little ones as they grow.

To the Parents, this charge is given. That you

1) teach your child to read the Word of God;

2) You are charged to instruct your children in the principles of our holy religion, as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, an excellent summary of which we have in the Confession of Faith, and in the Larger and Shorter Catechisms for your use in direction and assistance, in the discharge of this important duty;

3) You are charged to pray with and for your child;

4) And you are charged to set an example of piety and godliness before your child; and endeavor, by all the means of God’s appointment, to bring up your child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Remember Acts 16:31 "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."