Pagan Eucharist

I heard a report on Radio 4 this morning of a pagan wedding service where, amongst other things, the couple ate bread and drank mead to represent the body and blood of the earth. The reporter mentioned that the rituals seemed largely to have beeen borrowed.

Ritual & belief

ritual and belief beget and support one another.

A rather obvious thought, perhaps, from C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image p1

Spiritual eating

Medieval Roman Catholic theology claimed that one can "eat" the Mass spiritually by desiring it without actually consuming the elements. This is not so far away from some Evangelicals who think that the whole point of the Supper is thinking about Jesus such that one almost might as well just think about Jesus and not bother too much with this bread and wine business. We must not forget the importance of eating if we would not be Gnostics or Papists.

Free use of symbols and ceremonies

According to Zachman:

According to Calvin, both the apostles and Jesus were rather free in their use of such symbols and ceremonies, as when Jesus at times uses dust and spittle, at other times just a touch, or the apostles heal by word or touch, as well as by oil. (Image and Word etc. p319)

Granted that Jesus and the Apostles had the authority to institute ceremonies and symbols which we do not have, and wisdom which we cannot fully achieve, is it not still reasonable to take their actions as a model for our own? At least their actions show the lawfulness of symbols and ceremonies, even ones for which there is little explicit commandment in the Word of God, and not just in an entirely Old Testament context since Jesus is bringing in the Kingdom.

The Forgotten Calvin

More Zachman:

The laying on of hands, which Calvin causticly dismissed in 1536 as Rome’s “aping” of the apostles, is described as a sacrament with regard to ordination, and a useful rite with regard to confirmation, by the third edition of the Institutes in 1543. The gestures of prayer, such as the uplifting of hands and eyes and the bending of the knee, are increasingly seen as both expressing and stimulating piety in ourselves and others. Calvin even recognizes the legitimacy of the pious use of the cross, though he thought that too much superstition was attached to it to restore in in his day. [see Calvin’s Ecclesiastical Advice trans. Beaty & Farley, John Knox Press, 1991, p74] His willingness to adopt and endorse sacraments and rites he initially rejected has not been fully appreciated, and can serve as an important resource for ecumenical understanding. (Image and Word in the Theology of John Calvin, p438)

The Hermeneutics of High Church Puritanism

Granted we are not under the Old Covenant, Rev'd Dr Peter Leithart rightly identifies a very important question: how, if at all, may the ceremonial, ritual and cultic aspects of the Old Covenant be used to govern the practices of New Covenant worship?

The Reformed would generally assume some continuity between the covenants while recognising differences: e.g. they circumcised their children, we baptise ours.

If you assume NT only worship you may end up in a rather different place than if you are willing to learn from the OT: e.g. you might ban musical instruments (which many Reformed people have), which you'd never do if you thought the Psalms taught New Testament believers the practicalities of how to worship.

See further Peter Leithart, 'Sacramental Hermeneutics' in Greg Strawbridge (ed.), The Case for Covenant Communion (Athanasius Press, 2006)

Illegal Sign of the Cross

I understand that under the Lincoln judgement it is illegal for a Church of England minister to make the sign of the cross while conducting public worship?

Glory and Beauty in NT worship?

It is interesting to note that Exodus 28 repeatedly points out that the priestly garments are given "for glory and for beauty" and are to be skillfully made in a variety of spelendid colours.

Granted that the Lord Jesus Christ is our supreme and final High Priest and that the Old Covenant is fulfilled and the ceremonial law radically changed, how do the OT cultic laws regulate New Testament worship today?

Of course there is great glory and beauty to the New Covenant and all of it is fulfilled in Christ (2 Cor 3 springs to mind), but what are the implications for our church buildings, our clothing and our collective public worship today? Is it still appropriate to look for glory, beauty and skill on a Sunday morning?

Surely such things are not necessarily Judaizing returns to the Old Covenant shadow-lands? The Book of Revelation would suggest such symbolism in heaven and in the New Creation too. So why not a little foretaste of heaven coming on earth too?

It feels quasi-Marcionite to say that the OT no longer regulates public worship and semi-Gnostic to say that simple invisible spiritual worship is best.

Ritual, buildings and clothes would seem inevitable. Neutrality would seem impossible.

So what should it look and sound and feel and smell like?

Good ceremonies

It is true that Calvin didn’t want too many ceremonies or too Jewish ones, or ones people had dreamed up, but he did think ceremonies were essential and one must have as many as the circumstances dictate.

“There are three things on which the safety of the Church is founded and supported: doctrine, discipline, and the sacraments; and to these fourth is added ceremonies, by which to exercise the people in offices of piety.” (p232)

Ritual Actions and RP

I reckon it would be useful for understanding the Regulative Principle of public worship in the NT era to go through the NT and make a list of more or less "ritual actions" that are spoken of maybe more or less positively. Of course all or most of our actions are in some way ritualised, but I hope you can see what I mean and the point of it all. Off the top of my head:

baptism
OT rituals such as circumcision as good in themselves in their place
the Lord's Supper
meals / feasts - waiting for one another
weddings
shaking the dust of your feet as a witness
feet washing
riding a donkey into Jerusalem
Jesus asking Peter the same question 3 times
white robes
incense
Sabbath keeping
Jesus' habit of appearing to his disciples on a Sunday
Putting aside an offering on the 1st day of the week
regarding some days as special to the Lord
day and night, waking and sleeping
communal singing
formal excommunication
laying on of hands / ordination
holy kiss
public reading a scripture

Can you add to my list?

Ritual (like "tradition") seems inescapable. God seems to like it. The options are good ritual or bad and confused ritual not no ritual.