A short while ago I had an exchange of comments with Mark on madetopraisehim on the topic of "protocols we've created to approach God". Mark had used that phrase in a comment and it caught my attention.
Part of the trigger for me was the word "protocol". In the context of my work it has to do with automated communications and systems for business to business communications. And I have the idea that all parties that are in communication using the protocol have to know the protocol and have to have agreed to its specification. So when Mark wrote about protocols WE have created to approach God, I thought, "wait a minute, what does God think about these protocols? When did He sign up for an interchange agreement using these protocols? Do we think we can set these protocols up one sidedly and expect God to conform?"
Mark recognised the point of my question. He responded:
"I don't see protocols in the New Testament.
"In the Old Testament I DO see protocols. I see protocols God ordained to protect an unrighteous people from His righteous wrath. Isn't it amazing that God protects His wayward children from Himself?
"In the New Testament I see the need for those protocols stripped away, as we outrageously receive the righteousness of Jesus. Now God SAVES us from Himself. How incredible!"
This chimes with a passage from 2 Corinthians 3 that is read by Martin Smith of delirious? on their new CD/DVD "Now Is The Time", which I am enjoying this week:
"Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him."
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 (The Message)
Mark goes on:
'But I do see FRAMEWORKS for discipline, e.g. the Lord's prayer. But it's not a protocol.
'"God is with us" is the good news. There's no protocol, just God's family: Father, Son, Holy Spirit, you, me. It seems totally crazy to me when we act any other way!'
So
I was thinking about all this today as our gathering met for worship in
the lounge of a house. We had a rather special Sunday service by
comparison with our normal meetings. This Sunday we had an ordained
priest visiting and he led us in a celebration of Holy Communion
according to Church of England liturgy. So it was a rather formal
regulated process and I was thinking this does seem rather like a
"protocal protocol we've created for approaching God".
And I was thinking about Mark in his gathering at their place in Mojos bar and wondering whether their programme could be classed as a "protocal protocol we've created for approaching God".
But maybe in these gatherings we are using "frameworks for discipline" and order, to use Mark's term. When we come together to worship we do need some shared framework to coordinate our activities. So I guess our liturgies are not actually a 'protocol' for communication in which God is expected to play His role. They are frameworks to help us function in a joint activity.
Thinking aloud here about this. And I am not sure I have convinced myself. We had a good time together in our communion service and sharing lunch together afterwards. We worshipped, we prayed, we heard the word of God, we celebrated the remembrance of Christ's sacrifice. We were like family together over lunch.
But we did not see God face to face and become transfigured. I felt our ritual was rather tightly legislated. Maybe that was why the personal presence of God as living Spirit, as described in Corinthians, was rather muted, at least to me.
