Romaphobia and the Captivity of the Evangelical Church

Evangelicals will have no liturgical renewal until they realize everyone has a liturgy. The problem lies with what story that liturgy is telling.

Evangelicals are allergic to Roman Catholicism for all the wrong reasons. Instead of being concerned with sacerdotal impulses, they are concerned about chanting God's words. I will never forget a visitor who grew up in an evangelical home and castigated our worship service for singing the Lord's Prayer. "That is Roman Catholic," he argued. He then observed that kneeling was not helpful because it kept our eyes looking down instead of up to heaven. I will give him an A for creativity but an F for Bible basics (Ps. 95:6).

There is a general mental paralysis when it comes to the Roman Catholic question. Anything that resembles order becomes Catholicized, labeled as "too formal" or "too not what we have always seen and heard before." This creates problems with modern worship, which produces everything new, and creativity becomes the product of the week.

Roman Catholic dogma has lots of problems. Their current pope is opening the doors to a dismantling of the modern dogma on sexuality, and, likely, something like a Vatican II revolution could disrupt the Roman Catholic order, sending millions to Protestantism.

But their problem is not kneeling or reciting the Lord's Prayer. Evangelicals need to realize that biblical practices, no matter how similar they may look to your Roman Catholic experience as a child or something you heard from a third-party, are non-negotiable. You do them because they are at the core of Christian expression.

The Reformation fixed these tendencies by ordering the liturgical loves according to the Scriptures instead of long-held traditional practices. Instead of elite choirs singing on behalf of the congregation, Luther returned it to the people: "So that the word of God may be among the people in the form of music.” Instead of viewing the Church as authoritative by itself, Luther writes: "The Church is your mother who gives birth to you and bears you through the Word." Luther restored music to the people and placed the Church's authority in submission to the Word of God.

Our evangelical problem is a captivity problem. We are captive by the wrong things and wrong fears. We need to be captive to Jesus Christ, our righteousness. The Reformation takes us back (ad fontes) and places us in the practices that strengthen and call us to an unadulterated faith in the Person of Christ as our central liturgist.

Notations

• I wrote a piece on the Alistair Begg debacle:

“The Begg incident confirms that we can no longer afford to stay away from political discourse. If we were skeptical in the past, COVID infected our political apathy. Pastoral theology will suffer if we fail to speak objectively about cultural practices.”

• Ted Gioia is the substack titan publishing excellent material regularly. He is a musical historian articulating a vision of music that most never imagined existed. I don’t know his religious convictions, but he reflects something of the common grace thunder in his essays. His latest piece argues that we have lost our ability to listen for a host of reasons. He observes that we live “in a culture dominated by text and images—not listening.” The result is that we can no longer sing our world into existence.

The article is fascinating and worth pursuing. But my fundamental application is to musicality in the Church. We have become a form of radical-word-centered people, forgetting that the Word was welcomed by angelic singing and that the very world that the Word came to inhabit in the flesh was a world created by the sung utterances of the Triune God.

• I finished the Leonard Cohen documentary I mentioned in the previous susbtack. The whole thing was well worth the price of admission. Cohen was a metaphysical storyteller. He told stories, but there was always a tension. The tension existed because there was no theistic resolution. Even his closing words reflect that conundrum: “Some people raise their fists to God, and others say ‘Halleluiah!’ And I try to do both.”

• In my series on II John, I am making the case that John’s letter follows the covenantal model. You can listen to my sermons and determine whether that perspective is coherent.

Nuntium

• I have returned from a quick trip in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas, which is not meant as an exaggeration. The place was peaceful and exposed. But what was really striking is that the middle of nowhere is where God is doing something remarkable. I met over 100 saints who were thrilled to see the installation of their new pastor, but more than that, who were delighted to be together and do the kinds of things CREC people often do, which is to rejoice.

I cannot begin to express my gratitude to Elder Collin Houseal for his generous hospitality and the free concert his talented family offered in one afternoon. The congregation of Grace Covenant Church is richer because of them.

Also, congratulations to Rev. Michael Kidd as installed Pastor of Grace Covenant. I am hoping for great things from that flock in the years to come.

• We will host many great people here at Providence Church in Pensacola, including Dr. Ben Merkle and his wife, Bekah Merkle, and David Bahnsen, whom I interviewed for the Perspectivalist. That interview will be available soon. These events require enormous organization, and I am eager to see our team create a wonderful evening for everyone.

• I will do an author’s evening at the NSA Bookstore on February 22nd at the Sword and Shovel. After my talk, there will be a Q&A and some time to sign books. You will be happy to know that my signatures and notes remain unrecognizable even to those nearest me. So, I am happy to take pictures instead. Oh, and if you haven’t pre-ordered your copy, as the great philosopher Greta Thunberg observed: “How dare you!” Here is the handy link! You will love the bookmarks, which include brief but handy prayers accompanying each armor piece.

  

  As always, please leave any comments or questions,

  Uriesou Brito