Friday, March 03, 2006

The Problem of Relevance

The problem with relevance, as has been said by better thinkers than I, is that it sets the worshipper over the worshipped.
Two thoughts:
  1. What if what the modern, contemporary person needs is not what they think they need or what they want? "What you win them with is what you win them to." I think a good case can be made from less theological ideas that what the modern person needs is a church that embodies community, sacramental/incarnational life, experience, and mystery. Enter the Orthodox Church, which in its best moments exemplifies all of these.
  2. If God specifically outlined the form of worship for the Jews, which was liturgical, and the early Christians were Jews, what form of worship would they have naturally chosen? So, if God has revealed the way in which the Jews were to worship Him and the way in which the heavenly beings worship Him (and by extension, the way we will worship in eternity), then who are we to invent something else and call it worship?

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