Emerging Worship and Jesus--Up-Date

I now have an up-date to this post. I received an e-mail from Charles A. Wiley III coordinator of the Office of Theology and Worship. Here is his e-mail:

"FYI, the emerging worship page you cited on your website is about 4-5 years old (at least the first version of it was—I’m not sure about that particular piece). Chip Andrus left our office 2 years ago to become pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Harrisonville, Arkansas. Thanks for the heads up, since it looks like that page has been orphaned with the original material still there.

Charles"

Hans Cornelder of Presbyweb linked to a paper on the web site Emerging Worship , a new section of the Office of Theology and Worship for the Presbyterian Church (USA). In the paper, “The Emerging Worship Initiative,” Chip Andrus, of the Office of Theology and Worship asks the question "What is emerging worship." One of his categories is theocentric. Andrus’ explanation of this is:

“This also means Trinitarian. Therefore, being focused on only one person of the Trinity is not a suggested liturgical practice. A popular example would be music or liturgy that exclusively addresses Jesus. The communion of fellowship and mission of the church is an incarnational expression of the Trinity. By limiting the focus of worship to Jesus Christ exclusively, there is a tendency to accentuate a “personal” relationship, at the expense of a communal identity in the Body of Christ. An identity we accept through our Baptism (which is done in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit).”

This seems to me to be a straw man. The only church I am aware of that focuses exclusively on Jesus would be the “Jesus Only” Pentecostal groups who are not Trinitarian. However, I don’t believe that theocentric is properly defined by the word Trinitarian; it simply means God centered.

Nonetheless, truly the biblical God is Trinitarian; that is an essential doctrine of the Christian faith. But we know God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit because of the Incarnation, because of Jesus Christ.

With this statement, Andrus doesn’t seem to be so much interested in lifting up the Trinity but rather an incarnational and “communal identity” of the Church. He writes that the “Church is an incarnational expression of the Trinity.” I believe that incarnational is a bad choice of words because having eliminated Jesus Christ as the central focus of worship the emerging worshipers seem to be lifting up community rather than Jesus Christ. And this is undoubtedly a misunderstanding of the Incarnation and the Christian's relationship to Christ.

Jesus Christ is the Incarnation. He is fully God and fully human. And his two natures cannot be separated. He didn’t become the Christ; he is from conception the Christ. That is settled in Scripture (John1:1, 14) and explained with The Definition of the Council of Chalcedon. Part of the definition states:

“…recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; …not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed down to us.”

Because Christians are united to the resurrected Lord by the Holy Spirit they are adopted Sons and Daughters of the Father. That hardly makes them an expression of the Trinity in the same way that Jesus Christ is the “exact representation” of the Father. (Heb 1:3)

But more important is Andrus’ concern that “limiting the focus of worship to Jesus Christ exclusively” leads to “a tendency to accentuate a ‘personal’ relationship, at the expense of a communal identity in the Body of Christ. This is a misunderstanding of what it means to be a Christian. (And here I am going to ignore the word “exclusively” because it doesn't make sense.) Having a "personal "relationship with Jesus Christ is called for if one wants to be a member of the body of Christ. Having a "personal" relationship with Jesus Christ is called for if one wants to have fellowship with the Triune God.

But of course what does that mean? Well it isn't like having the next door neighbor for a best friend. No, first, it's having the Son of the Father die on the cross for our sins. It's understanding that the blood of the lamb has cleansed and made us whole. It's allowing Jesus Christ to be the Lord of our life. And we each one come to this individually. We may be baptized as infants and then walk into that relation as we grow and as the Holy Spirit draws us into a clearer understanding of our relationship with Christ.

Or we may come to Jesus Christ as adults, but however we come it is always because of the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is always the Father and the Holy Spirit drawing us to the Son.

Frederica Matthews-Green writes of her unexpected experience of meeting Jesus Christ beneath a statue of him in a church in Ireland. She writes of how that affected her, how it shaped her life. What her focus became:

"In that explosive moment I found that Jesus was realer than anything I’d ever encountered, the touchstone of reality. It left me with a great hunger for more, so that my whole life is leaning toward him, questing for him, striving to break down the walls inside that shelter me from his gaze. I am looking for him all my life, an addict."

The whole Hebrew Bible foreshadows his coming. The whole New Testament proclaims he is Lord, Redeemer and coming King. The Father tells us to listen to the words of his Son. (Matt. 17: 5) The Holy Spirit reveals the living Word through the written word, Scripture. (2 Peter 1: 16-21) The book of Revelation presents him standing in the midst of the Churches. (Rev. 1:12-20)

And it is in fact, to the Father's glory when we confess Jesus Christ. "For this reason also, [because Jesus was obedient to die on the cross] God highly exulted him, and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil 2:9-11)

It is not less of a focus on Jesus that we need but more. As Sylvia Dooling, head of Voices of Orthodox Women recently asked, Has Jesus become an embarrassment? The Presbyterian Church (USA) has failed so many times to lift up Jesus. In publications, in sermons, in articles on web sites Jesus is often missing. Indeed, may the emerging church break forth into that place where Jesus Christ is truly Lord.