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Feb

8

Lent, Ceremony and Evangelicalism

Posted By: 'Okie' | 11:18 pm — 2/8/2005 | 3 Comments See comments below:

I read two posts today that have made me think about my young years spent in the Southern Baptist Church, my experiences outside of that church and my current state of religious observances.

First the context. I read The Anchoress daily and her post “So, what are you giving up for Lent?” is a beautiful expression of her faith:

Let me go on record as saying I love Lent. It’s a wonderful time of preparation, and for all the fasting, abstaining and “quiet” time for prayer and introspection, it’s really quite cheerful – it’s like a spring cleaning for the soul. …

In our house, we’ll use Ash Wednesday evening to watch Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, and then our daily sacrifices. During supper together, we will light a candle during grace, to remind us of the season and the promise of light at its end. Each week of Lent I will place a different Icon at the center of the kitchen table, each one depicting a different part of the Life of Christ or his Passion – and on Easter that Icon will be Resurrection. “

Mark at Stones Cry Out remarks on Anchoress’ post with:

… In doing so, she reminds me of my almost daily lament: the sad absence of grandeur, pomp and circumstance, pageantry, beauty, tradition, and sense of history that so characterizes, and so impoverishes, the Evangelical church in America. … “

We didn’t have a lot of pomp and circumstance in our church, the First Baptist Church of Collinsville, Oklahoma. There were no saints’ statues on the walls, only a few prints of Christ hanging in some areas, mostly in offices and classrooms. The sanctuary was marked by a lack of ornamentation, if memory serves me at all well. As I remarked in one of my earliest posts, my mother was not comfortable in participating in the foot washing ceremony at her sister’s Free Will Baptist Church, as we did not do that in the So. Baptist denomination. Our most sacred group ceremony was Communion, or as we called it, the “Lord’s Supper”. Never was Welches Grape Juice elevated to such a high calling! (No wine in that church!) There were others, such as the ordination of Deacons, laying on of hands for some such callings, etc. but these were rare occurrences and so obscure that even with 18 years of exposure I am not familiar enough to comment on them.

My first real education in other branches of Christianity came when I dated a daughter of a holy-roller preacher while in high school, and went to church with her a few times. I kept thinking, “Only in the movies!” as I watched her father play the trombone while the choir wailed in accompaniment to his less than Baptist’s style rhythms.

I had absolutely no concept or appreciation of the Catholic, or other Orthodox religions before spending time with a Greek Orthodox woman out here in Southern California. I went with her to the Church of Saint Sophia in LA, listened to the Mass in Greek, watched, and went with her as the congregation approached and kissed the Icon. Even though I could not understand what was being said in the Mass, I could feel the presence and power of the Lord in that Holy place. I went to Greek Easter Mass with her. It was a serene, peaceful experience that I will never forget.

So what is going on in my religious life today? I am a born again Christian, and so is my wife of 13 years. She is a considerably much better witness for Christ than I am, for a lot of reasons. Neither of our backgrounds include the observances of Ash Wednesday, Lent, special services on Good Friday, and I think that actually we might be the poorer for it. There is something to be said for the communal bonding of those services in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

But irregardless, the glory of Easter is there for all of us. That Christ died and was resurrected so that we may live, is the greatest, most wonderful event in history, and the significance of that day is the true meaning of Christianity, no matter what the denomination. We thank God for His Mercy, His Sacrifice and His Love. Amen. (db)

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 8th, 2005 at 11:18 pm and is filed under Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |  Print This Post Print This Post  |  Email This Post Email This Post

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3 Comments on “Lent, Ceremony and Evangelicalism”

  1. 09 February 2005 | Mark Sides Said:

    Okie,

    Thanks for the link. You are exactly right that Easter is there for everybody and taks no special ceremony. My only point is that the celebration of Ash Wednesday, the observance of Lent, and the grandeur and pagaentry all add to teh Christian experience and that Evangelical Churches (at least the churches I have been to) are the poorer for the lack of those ceremonial aspects.

    Mark

     

  2. 09 February 2005 | Laer Pearce Said:

    Beautiful post, Okie Boy. Really got me thinking about my basically church-less upbringing, and my coming to the Lord at Saddleback Church, which is about as modern evangelical as you can get. Now we go to Stonecreek (www.stonecreek.org), an unpretentious, Gospel-loving, community-loving little assembly that is short on grandeur, but when we do something grand, boy does it feel good.

    Two weeks ago, most unfortuntately, I found myself at the Episcopal funeral of a friend who died suddenly, leaving his family in shock. I found little comfort or solace in the service, but it was obvious his family did. The ceremony and formality spoke to them of their relationship to the Lord. How marvelous that He works in so many ways!

     

  3. 09 February 2005 | OkieBoy Said:

    Mark — In my own wordy, meandering way, I was agreeing with you!

    Thanks for coming over, reading and commenting. — Okie