More than just contemporary v. traditional

At our Northern Illinois District General Pastoral Conference in February of this year, a comment was made by one of the presenters that I think slipped by about 98% of the attendees.  It needed to be heard by more.

It went something along the lines of:

The great divide in the Church over the next 100 years is not going to be along the lines of contemporary and traditional, but along the lines of incarnational, sacramental, and liturgical churches, and gnosticizing churches.

The former are churches whose worship and piety are shaped and formed by the One who was Incarnate, the God who became flesh.  He is the One who comes to us in sacramental means, attaching Himself to tangible substances like water, bread, wine, and words.  Because He visits His people in earthy ways, the worship is arranged liturgically, that is, worship arranged in such a way as to best deliver the gifts that are washed, eaten, drunk, and heard.

Gnosticizing* churches, on the other hand, seek to encounter God outside of His Incarnation, through "spiritual" means that are apart from the divinely ordained sacraments.  It may even be that Christ's Incarnation is denied--either explicitly or implicitly.  For an example of the gnosticizing tendencies found even within the LCMS, look here. 

Look at the worship and piety of your church.  Does it confess that God is a God of flesh in Jesus Christ?  Does it confess that the enfleshed One is also the One who comes to His people in earthy means?  Does the liturgy convey Christ to you through His divinely established means? 

Or does it look at the Incarnation of Jesus Christ as an interesting historical footnote, looking past the God made flesh for some sort of spiritual revelation?  Does it search for revelation through experience, emotion, or feelings?  Does the liturgy of your church point you back toward yourself to find spiritual fulfillment?

JWE
VD+MA

*Gnosticism is an ancient philosophy/theology that became influential in the Christian Church even at the time of the Apostles.  Some believe that John's Gospel is a treatise against gnosticizing movements in the Church.  The name comes from the Greek, gnosis, which means knowledge.  A gnostic is one who searches for a secret spiritual knowledge that is unobtainable through fleshly, earthly means.  For more information, see the article on Gnosticism from the Lutheran Cyclopedia.