remember

I am currently reading a book called Foolishness to The Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture. I know some of you are thinking, “Wow, sounds like a real page turner.” Nonetheless, it is a great book exploring how we can best proclaim and perform the gospel in our world and to our culture.

As I was reading, Lesslie Newbigin (the author) gives a brief history of the church in Western (Modern) Culture. He showed that the Church began to imitate culture, in the way she spoke of the Gospel. The Church used such things as the scientific method, and she often fell victim to rugged individualism. He showed how the Church often did such things over the last 2,000 years.

He spoke about how when we focus solely on our culture in the present we can lose the sense of history that we have. The history of the church includes men and women like Mary Magdelene, Peter, The Apostle Paul, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Theresa. We have a legacy that has been given to us. Moreover, we have a future about which we must always think. With this in mind I began thinking about the Church now.

Are we looking like our culture, while not remembering our history and (as important) looking ahead to our promised future? I thought about all the times I hear of people not liking something about their church. Maybe it is a certain kind of music … a certain style of preaching (believe me I have heard a lot about this one) … the atmosphere … the way people dress. The list is endless.

While we can never fully separate our personality from our experiences in community of the Triune God, I wonder if we could understand the expressions of worship more fully if we considered the breadth and depth of the Body of Christ.

I have spoken to people who cannot stand old hymns (My personal favorite is Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing). They prefer new songs. Some prefer the more upbeat songs, some enjoy the more contemplative songs. Again, while there is nothing wrong with what one likes, I wonder do we even know why we are singing in the first place?

I read these words by Newbigin, and wrote this in the book …

Rather than recapture an understanding of why we do what we do, we changed what we do. The problem is we still have no idea why we do what we do.

The History of God’s people is rich and wonderful. We can capture so much just from the generation before us … and our job is to pass it on to the generation behind us. So how can we remember?

Tell stories and listen to stories.

The older men and women in our faith communities have so much to pass on to us. They remember well. They were told. I do not believe they have stopped telling the stories, I think the younger has just stopped listening. So let’s listen, learn and remember. For if we do not we are bound to repeat the transgressions that are also a part of our history.