Thursday, January 27, 2011

Reclaiming the Divine Service

It is interesting to note that the early Protestant Reformers called what we call the "worship service" the "Divine service." They understood that the Lord's Day was chiefly God's action. We often think that a worship service is primarily about us and what we do for God. Rather than about God and what He does for the Church. We see this in contemporary praise choruses which puts the emphasis on our subjective response (imperative) opposed to the proclamation of the objective person and work of Christ (indicative). The focus tends to be primarily on what we are doing and how we are feeling: "We will lift you up"; "We will praise the Lord", or "I will rejoice." However, in Scripture we see that the indicative often precedes the imperative and that there is a balance between objective content and articulation of subjective responses. The pattern of the Psalter is that there is the proclamation of God's act in redemptive history, creation, preservation and judgment and the people of God's response in praise, thanksgiving, lament, confession and so forth. In other words, the Divine Service is a covenant renewal ceremony by which God serves us through the preached Word and the administration of the holy Sacraments and as a result our response is prayer and thanksgiving.

Furthermore, historically the Reformed churches hold to the Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW) that affirms our worship should be regulated and governed by the Word. We cannot worship God according to our imagination but only how God has explicitly prescribed to us in Scripture. God has determined that on the Lord's Day there should be the preaching of the Word, the administration of sacraments and prayer (Acts 2:42). Unfortunately, it is not uncommon in churches in modern evangelicalism to have a worship service in which there is no sermon and the sacraments are rarely administered. Rather, to some what is central on the Lord's Day is not the Word and Sacrament which communicates Christ and the benefits of the covenant of grace but entertainment through liturgical dances, drama, skits and concerts. As Michael Horton, professor of historical theology and apologetics at Westminister Theological Seminary in California once asserted, "I am persuaded that one of the reasons why so many churches have gone to drama and other theatrical arts in worship is because the sermon and the larger liturgical setting have failed to provide the sense that something important and dramatic is happening here, now, as we gather before God."

Beloved, let us sense the wonder of the divine drama that occurs every Lord's Day. God through the ordained means of grace: Word and the sacrament (Lord's Supper and Baptism) communicates Christ and the benefits of the covenant which strenghtens, confirms and increases our faith. God Himself comes down to us through ordinary elements: water, bread and wine and through the fragile instrument of preaching to assure us of our salvation. Although God is infinitely holy and we rightly deserve condemnation He has offered His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ to be our susbstitutionary sacrifice that we may glorify and enjoy God forever.  Understand that the Church is fundamental to our santification. God has ordained our santification through the means of grace and every Lord's Day we meet with God who serves us in our weakness to remind us of His covenant promises.

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