I had the blessing of gathering at table for a time of
fellowship with ministers from differing faith traditions this morning over
breakfast. Though I hadn't originally
intended on going, it was a joyful time in which the Priest in our midst shared
a wonderful devotional to remind us that as Christians, “we are third” (God,
other, then self), and also that “we are the keepers of the flame of Christ”. Breaking bread and sharing encouraging words
is something that scripture calls us to and I fear that as a community in
Christ we sometimes forget that we are to spend more than an hour on Sunday
together.
That being said, I found myself lingering with Damon Plummer
and a couple of young bucks in local ministry and we entered a discussion about
traditional worship. Damon is in my
experience, a man who is passionately in love with God. He is honest in sharing his faith and his
pursuit is to disciple followers of the Christ.
I truly have a mad amount of respect for him. And I am not saying that to add a “but”. It is just truth. Damon is “good people” as the folks in
Mississippi are prone to say.
When the discussion began I was making a point that
tradition in worship shouldn't be ignored because it connects us with the
saints who have gone before. I am not
advocating the ignoring of contemporary styles of worship by saying that
either. I believe firmly that there
should be a balance that we can strike that honors tradition while allowing for
new expressions of Spiritual creativity.
(Expressions that the Spirit of God moves us to create.) And this is where my confession of
defensiveness comes to light…
Damon asked a question (that at the time I took to be a
statement, when with distance from it, it may have just been a question) that
made me automatically feel as if I needed to defend my position. I don’t think he attacked me, or insulted me,
but I bristled just the same. “Do our
traditions push down on a genuine movement of the Spirit by seeking to deny the
emotional connection to a given song or prayer or moment in worship because of
our need to adhere to form?” (I’m
paraphrasing as best as I can at a distance of a couple of hours by now.)
I think that this is a valid question. And I admit to wondering about this
myself. But I also think that when we
ask it, we need to determine whether our traditions can be understood to be interchangeable
with our belief systems. I think that my
colleague was coming from the stand point that they are one and the same. Our worship traditions are born out of our
beliefs about how we are to approach God.
How we interpret our interactions are guided can be shaped by our
traditions.
