By: Thomas F. Booher
Last time I wrote about reforming
evangelicalism. I wagered that there was a solid 25-30 million non-Reformed
evangelicals that would be willing to listen to Reformed/biblical teaching that
could be positively impacted by it. I argued for incrementalism, that any
improvement in the non-Reformed is a victory, even if they end up simply
incorporating some Calvinistic teaching into their theology. Obviously, we want
them to see the reality of their deadness in trespasses and sins and to express
that biblically, which would lead to belief in election and predestination, but
if they come closer to that, becoming more God-centered and biblical, that's
still a victory. Progress, any degree of trending in the right direction, would
be a huge improvement over the current state of affairs in Evangelicalism.
Tonight, however, I want to
address the issues in the PCA that I have seen. Because it is a confessionally
Reformed denomination, I cannot so easily argue for incrementalism. The
ministers and elders should know better and have taken vows to affirm the WCF.
It's not that I think most of them have rejected Calvinism or the majority of
the WCF, but WCF chapter 21, section 5 does say that the reading of Scripture
should be done with "godly fear" and that the hearing of the Word
should be done in "reverence." I do think most ministers strive to do
this in the PCA, however, I also believe our clothing, the pulpit (or lack
thereof), pews (or lack thereof), all the external things in the church
building, speak about reverence and godly fear. I am not saying you have to “dress
up” to preach with godly fear in the heart or read the Word with godly fear in
your soul, nor am I saying pews and a fancy pulpit are essential to righteous
worship of God. But I am saying that ministers who understand their role will
want to show their godly fear consistently, including in the architecture of the
worship area, the place where the saints meet each Lord's Day to draw nearer to
God, sing praises to Him, and hear from His Word. The very next section of the
WCF (XXI.6) says that,
"God is to be worshipped everywhere,[28] in
spirit and truth;[29] as,
in private families[30] daily,[31] and
in secret, each one by himself;[32] so,
more solemnly in the public assemblies, which are not carelessly or
wilfully to be neglected, or forsaken, when God, by His Word or providence,
calls thereunto." (bold added).
It is probably legalism to mandate
that one cannot preach in jeans and at the same time be "solemn" in
the public assembly and "reverent" in the reading and preaching of
the Word. I'll grant that. My concern, however, is that there is a theological
and ecclesiological motive behind many who preach in casual clothing such as
jeans and possibly even T-shirts, and that this motive has the effect of
de-solemnizing worship. This is because their motive is to make visitors and
members feel more comfortable and less intimidated. But the hallmark of
solemnity and reverence is not, or at least should not, be comfort. The stated
motive of these PCA ministers is usually to teach the congregation that God
accepts them just as they are and presumably that they can come before Him just
as they are. But passages like Zechariah 3:3-5 show that external garments,
particularly of the priest/pastor, speak to the congregation, and indicate
something of the majesty of God and His worthiness. Revelation 3:4 says that
the faithful will walk with God "in white" because they are worthy.
Revelation 19:8 explains how the church, the bride of Christ, has made herself
ready and is dressed in fine linen, clean and bright. Yes, it is the righteous
deeds of the saints being referred to, but does this mean that we won't be in
fine clothing of some sort? Revelation 19:11-14 further describes the
appearance of Christ and his heavenly army, again in beautiful bright
clothing.
I understand this is imagery, but
do we think Christ is going to return on a donkey? Do we think Christ, now at
the Father's right hand clothed in glory, will come down without a glorious
appearance? You cannot be clothed in glory without appearing glorious. We
worship the risen, ascended, and exalted Jesus. The lowly Jesus that emptied
Himself of His rightful glorious appearance (Phil. 2:5-8) has finished His
sacrificial act of love and mercy for humanity (though in His exalted state He
continues to be loving and merciful), and is now enthroned once more with the
eternal glory that He had always possessed (John 17:4-5), and He is to be
worshiped in His full glory (Phil. 2:9-11), not in His emptied, lowly
appearance while on this cursed Earth. He is man, but He is exalted God-Man,
and He is to be worshiped as such.
So my question is simply this: Is
God the Father or the Son ever depicted as less than glorious in appearance when
He is to be worshiped? Did the transfiguration not help reveal Christ to the
disciples as the Son of God, and in the transfiguration did not Christ's
clothing turn dazzling white (Matt. 17:2)? Would Christ come in glory at the
Second Coming in, say, blue jeans? T-Shirt? Better question, could He? To
ask the question is to answer it. The verses above indicate that Christ's glory
is understood and experienced externally through appearance, not just understood
and experienced internally through the Word penetrating the heart (the two work together and for the minister the preached Word must always be present), and so the
minister ought to depict the exalted glory of Christ externally consistently, with
the beautiful words of the gospel and the beautiful
garments befitting the minister representing the glorious Christ to the
bride of Christ. The clothing of the minister should ordinarily not be common, everyday
clothes, but special clothes, clothes that bring to mind honor, respect,
majesty, glory. If one objects that the minister and thus the exalted Christ
will then seem unreachable or out of touch with the lowly needs of the congregation,
the answer is that the minister is still a man just as Christ, though exalted,
is still the Word become flesh who dwelt with man and was seen by the disciples
in His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father (John 1:14). The
transfiguration revealed His glory (Luke 9:32) and so did His miracles (John
2:11).
What got the disciples excited
about Christ wasn't that He probably would have worn (as a man who emptied
Himself as part of coming under the curse of us) jeans if He came in the 21st
century, but rather that He occasionally pulled back the veil of His common
appearance to reveal His exquisite beauty and glory and honor. Jesus doesn’t
appear as simply a farm boy in overalls, and He certainly doesn’t personify a
designer jeans wearing, Starbucks latte drinking metrosexual. He is God
incarnate. He is glorified God-Man. While Scripture calls us to remember His
humility and that He can sympathize with our weaknesses as our great high
priest (Heb. 4:15), we are to do that in the context of remembering that He has
"passed through the heavens" (Heb. 4:14). Jesus who died, is now
glorified, and is now enthroned with glory as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Yet, many churches that stress
casual dress and worship can give the appearance of presenting a casual God and
a casual Christ by their casualness. Christ seems to be emphasized in His
lowliness, as He emptied Himself here on Earth, more than as He is now, high
and lifted up, clothed with majesty. Such churches call to mind Christ as a
member of 21st century culture, living in the city and enjoying the
wares of the city, but also teaching sinners in the city to stop sinning. But
we are to worship Christ as He is now, not as He was on Earth. If we get upset
with the Catholics' crucifix for making us think of Christ as still suffering,
we should probably be displeased with the pastor's skinny jeans for making us
think of Christ as still humbled and ordinary.
In researching some PCA churches,
the ones that are more "contemporary" or "casual" almost
without fail make a point of this, not just with pictures but with words. It's
part of the fabric of their worship. They don't leave it to the imagination.
They indicate they are trying to make a statement with their fashion, both of
the minister (often unsaid) and of the congregation (explicit under the
"what to wear" sections of the church websites). One website even
said that God accepts us as we are, and spelled out that we can come into His
presence just as we are! Though I imagine they fail to realize it, that is
antithetical to the gospel. We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ; we
are sanctified by our own righteous deeds done by the power of the Holy Spirit.
But we certainly cannot approach God just as we are. If that were the case,
there would be no need for Christ to come and die. Likely what they mean is
that through Christ we can come as we are. But that isn't made
clear, and often the impression is given that visitors, whether they are
believers or not, those who come through Christ or not, should
dress how they want, because God accepts them as they are no matter how they
appear.
Yes, it's true, some in the
congregation may not understand the theology of dress, and some may honestly be
too poor to have nice clothes. But that is beside the point. The point is that
with our clothing we acknowledge the majesty of the presence of God, or we do
not. That is true for the congregation, but it is especially true of the
minister himself, who represents the glorious presence of God and His Word to
the congregation. Our faith is still not perfect, we still struggle with sin.
We still need the visible reminders of the gospel through sacraments, and we
need it through how the minister dresses as well. This would aid greatly in
solemnizing the public worship service and giving God the proper reverence due
His name in worship. I simply do not see how casual and common attire can
inspire reverence and solemnity. At best it's neutral, but given the theology
behind the casualness in many of the churches that do this
sort of thing, it seems to actually be intended to remove the feel of majesty
or holiness or otherness, in order to make everyone comfortable and
relaxed.
I wish to weave one final thread
into this post, and I think it's the most important and ties things together.
Most of these casual PCA churches also emphasize being "real" and
"authentic" and "missional." One wonders if wearing your
Sunday best is therefore inauthentic and anti-missional? Whatever missional
exactly means (there seems to be much debate),
it seems to be rather broad and encompasses the concept of "loving people
as Christ loves us." It has to do with engaging culture with Christianity,
though saying "Christianity" would probably not be the way missional
churches would like to phrase it. They would probably prefer to say missional
is engaging the culture/local city in which the church is located in with Christ and
living life together by fostering love and community and "authentic"
relationships with “real and broken people.” Broken seems to be a more
preferable word than the offensive word, sinful.
Thankfully, most of these churches
still at least claim to desire to practice expositional preaching, and I trust
many of them do. But then, if that's the case, other than the externals of
worship, I don't see much difference between missional and authentic churches
vs. non-missional and inauthentic churches (well, except for trading pianos out
for guitars and drums). So, isn't it the missional churches that are actually
trying to claim that clothing and music really are important and really do make
quite a bit of difference? But as I hope I have shown, this exchange of the
externals by those who might identify as missional, while it might be
culturally appealing and palatable, is not more biblical. I do not believe it
represents who God is any better, but worse. I do not believe it inspires
thoughts of God as holy yet merciful, but it could inspire thoughts of God as
common/casual and easygoing.
But I believe C.S. Lewis had it
right. He put it simply enough for even children who read the Narnian
Chronicles to understand. God, like Aslan, is not common, is not safe, but
is holy. But, He is also good. He is holy goodness. He is holy grace and mercy.
And it is His holiness, in one sense His unapproachableness, that makes Him
good, just as much as His mercy and grace and sacrificial love make Him good. To
quote R.C. Sproul,
The clearest sensation that a human being has when he
experiences the holy is an overpowering and overwhelming sense of
creatureliness. That is, when we are in the presence of God, we are
humbled and become most aware of ourselves as creatures. This is
the opposite of Satan's original temptation, "You shall be as gods.”
(Emphasis added)
In summary, the minister shows that God relates to man
because the minister himself is a man, as Christ was a man, but with the
minister's fine clothing he reminds the congregation that God is God and
exalted over man, and that man is a creature. We need to be reminded of this so
that Satan will not deceive us by whispering that we may become equals with God
by Christ becoming man.
To really be missional, I believe we need to engage culture,
but we need to do so with the holy love of God. A simpler way
to put it is that people need to understand the bad news of our sinfulness in
light of God's holiness and majesty before they can rightly receive and
respond to the good news of Christ's becoming a lowly man and dying as a
payment for sin, for all who repent and believe. To be faithful Christians, we
need to be reminded in the pews that there is a solemnity and reverence to what
we are doing in worship because God is with us, and the minister is the
clearest visible as well as vocal reminder of this, for Christ
through the minister and by the power of the Holy Spirit, feeds His sheep.
Authoritative words from a holy God are often better understood and more aptly
received from the minister who resembles something of the authority and majesty
of the risen Savior both in proclamation and physical manifestation.
May our holy thoughts, words, and conduct be matched with a
solemn and reverent appearance when we meet with God in our holy assemblies on
the Lord's Day, and may the minister represent the Lord Jesus Christ in all His
holy glory as best and as intentionally as he possibly can as
an undershepherd of Christ’s sheep.
Psalm 96:1-9 is just one passage that depicts the reverence with
which we must worship God:
Oh, sing to the Lord a new song!
Sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, bless His name;
Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
3 Declare His glory among the nations,
His wonders among all peoples.
4 For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised;
He is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
But the Lord made the heavens.
6 Honor and majesty are before Him;
Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.
7 Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
Give to the Lord glory and strength.
8 Give to the Lord the glory due His name;
Bring an offering, and come into His courts.
9 Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
Tremble before Him, all the earth.
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