Disclaimer redo - it seems the other site has a problem
I have to put this here just so no one is
needlessly offended (its the chaplain in me)
If you are
not a
Bible-believing, evangelical, baptistic person with thick skin and can't take
some cynical looks at your faith - you will not want to read the following
entry. Just so you know. I'm not trying to offend - I just had a long day at
churches that are not mine and I need to vent. If you want
to believe that there are three places you
can go after you die - thats up to you. I mean hey, you can make up anything you
want - after all some people believe that the Earth is flat. Doesn't make you
right - kinda makes you a, well, see - its happening. Just don't continue. Leave
this page.
You did it. You went here anyway. Ok, I warned
you. Be prepared for some partisan comments. Its your choice.
We were given an assignment several weeks
ago to go to all denominations services. We have had several weeks to do the
assignment and I have left some churches till last. Today I went to four - thats
right - four services. I feel thoroughly churched. However, I still feel like I
have not heard nor experienced the Word.
The
day started bight and early with the Episcopalians. They are in the second week
of Lent and that was the focus of the service. Interestingly, I enjoyed that
service more than any other. As it started at 0800 I (and everyone else in the
sanctuary) were a bit bleary-eyed but the homily (sermon) was good and the
service was ok. The Episcopalians do not seem to practice the veneration of Mary
so that was not present in the service. Outside of the communion practices I
didn't find anything about the service objectionable. I believe the Nicene
Creed, Apostles Creed and I too, ask for Christ's forgiveness. Therefore, except
for the deplorable lack of singing, it was alright. It was as close to Church as
it got for me. They rang a bell though and I was not expecting it. Scared the
hooah right out of me. I think I actually jumped. There should be a note in the
service or something like - "after this next prayer, we are going to ring a loud
bell. It will sound like the bell that rings in
Scrooge
as Marley comes up the stairs and will spook you. Be not afraid, you'll make it
through." That would have been nice. Now, I will say that it did put the whole
experience into a genre that was reverent, but it still spooked me.
The next service was at the Main Post
Chapel. It was the Catholic service and was very well attended. Now, you need to
know that one of my closest friends here at CHOBC has been Father Sean Poland.
Some day I'll tell you his story. Its fascinating. He comes from Northern
Ireland during the uprisings and well, I'll tell you another time. Anyway, the
point is that he personally has tried my understanding of salvation. We are
going to have a long talk about it sometime. But as he puts it - "Catholics
trust Christ for salvation. Its simple faith. They just express it though the
Sacramental System." Now, I really like him and he is practically a Protestant,
but I still was very uncomfortable in the service. (Side note: he was stressing
about writing his sermon for the field service. He's 48 years old and has been a
priest for about 16 years. I said, "Sean, just use an old one - you'll be fine!"
He responded that he didn't have one. I was shocked. It was then that I found
out that priests do not write sermons. They give the homily (with their
observations and in their style) from the book of prayer (or whatever it is
called). He noted that he knew how to prepare a message from his Harvard days
but had never actually done it. I showed him mine and gave him a quick refresher
course. It was ironic that a 26 year-old Evangelical Protestant was giving
exegetical tips to a priest. You'd have to be there.) Anyway, back to topic. I
was at the catholic service. I just do not get into having to pray to Mary in
order to get my sins forgiven. Just rubs me the wrong way. And the way they
talked about the Pope. I mean he's a good guy and all but really - he's not god.
Good grief! Someone in the Church really needs to take some music classes and
come up with some
singable
music. Chant just does not work in English. So the Catholic service just didn't
do it for me I guess.
Which brought me the
Gospel service. This one disappointed me the most and I think is was because I
was expecting to find some redemptive value in my sunday. I did go late (after
all I have been to many Gospel services and I know the time frame - they don't
even get to the message until an hour and a half into the service! ) I will say
that at least the music was worth listening to. It was exciting, the pastor was
getting divine revelation (God told him that the church needed to get back to
their first love. Funny, I thought I read that in Revelation. But then I must
have been reading something else.) Oh, and the "first love" became the theme of
the service. In fact, we were admonished not only to give the tithe and offering
but a "first love" offering on top of that. The "first love" offering was
distinct from the offering cause it is given out of love. Not sure how that
works - and it is also distinct from the "sacrificial offering" because, well, I
can't even figure out how but the preacher said it was. Then, after an hour of
healing and crying, the message was given. The good Reverend (it was a woman,
which I have no problem with really, except that the theme of the message was
how she was going to conquer the evil spirit that makes her fat and fit into a
smaller dress. Ok, so I am picking here but honestly, thats the majority of what
she talked about) got up to preach. I would have liked it more, but she screamed
so much that I only actually understood about a third of what she said. She had
everyone under thirty stand up and commended them for getting good grades. First
time I've had that since, well, I can't remember. Is that a sign that I'm
getting older? Whew, finally.
Well I snuck
out of that service and went to the LDS service. Yes, I am talking about the
Mormons. This service was the least one that I wanted to attend. In fact, I was
was dreading every minute. I deliberately was late so I could just stand in the
lobby and observe from a distance. Fun fact for the day: The mormons do not use
wine or grape juice in their communion, they use water. Ok, so its not so fun,
but its the only thing I can think of that was interesting about the service.
Its like an AA meeting. Different people get up and talk about living right and
quote the teachings of different presidents. As I was in the foyer, I couldn't
hear everything that was said and was just fine with that. What was making my
stomach turn was the talking going on behind me. There were two missionaries
there and one of them had a young lady and was diligently trying to convert her
to Mormonism. Now, don't judge me, I was under strict orders not to interrupt or
disturb the services in any way. So I was in a quandary. Here was this guy
trying to sell this woman a pack of lies. Honestly, I felt oppressed and angry
as I heard him twist the words of Paul and Christ and use them to further the
lies of lesser men. On
any
other occasion, I would have at the very least joined the discussion and offer a
differing viewpoint just so the girl would see that this was a pile of, well,
again I am limited. So I did something even better, I began to pray in the name
of Jesus that his counsel would be confounded. I interceded on behalf of that
girl as long as I stood there. She kept getting confused and the missionary got
frustrated. Interestingly, he took her to another room and I don't know what
came of it. I left the service feeling like I needed to take a shower. I went
home and read some old sermons just to fill my mind with some truth.
The interesting thing was the emphasis of
each service. The Catholic and Episcopalian services centered on the communion,
in the Gospel service it was the catch phrase that appeared, and in the Mormon
service... I still am trying to figure that one out. What I noticed most in the
Mormon service was the absolute lack of joy. Admittedly, it was a bunch of tired
basic trainees but even in the overweight, elders on stage there was a lack of
any interest whatsoever. One guy just slept for the majority of the service. He
would wake up between elements. I got the feeling that they were not actually
worshiping anything. At least in the other services there were elements of
sincerity and honor in the service. At the LDS service I felt nothing. Some of
this I think I could attribute to my own uncomfort but I still have to give
myself some spiritual intuition.
I did
reflect on the Evangelical traditional service in comparison. In this tradition,
the main point of any service is the sermon. There are sermons in every event.
You can't have a weenie roast without someone preaching. The result of this
obsession is that the preacher becomes the focal point of of the church. There
is something to be learned in all this. The services I went to the earliest
focused on Christ, not the singer (and you need to know that I love music and
would never imply that we should have less music or that the music does not
provide this element in a church service. We should however take account of out
worship time to find out what the focus of the music is - mostly it is us. We
are the emphasis of most worship sessions, not Christ. Just a thought.), or the
preacher's message. It was interesting to me while having the sermon discussion
with Sean (see above) I realized that most (if not the overwhelming majority) of
what I studied in seminary and college revolved around composing and delivering
the sermon. In this tradition, it is the sermon that is the pastor's main job.
Thus, I have very little actual training on the traditional role of the pastor -
marrying, burying, visiting etc. I guess that is just supposed to be learned
elsewhere. In the future - communion will play a much more significant role in
services that I am involved with.
This tirade
has been brought to you by the US Army Chaplain Corps - we'll always be there
for ya!
Posted: Mon - February 21, 2005 at 12:29 PM