Voss and Community
I have a great deal of respect for the Vossian movement in the Reformed Church. It has helped me to develop an eschatological understanding of my life, and a redemptive-historical exegetical method. Most importantly though, it has helped me understand the incredible importance of the Lord's Day and corporate worship,as a foretaste of my already-not-yet eternal rest in Heaven.
I have some concerns though with this movement. I've heard many people in the Reformed slice of the Church make the assertion that "good theology breeds good living." Its my opinion that good living is the test of good theology. Not absolutely of course, but "living rightly" is certainly a good indication of whether or not a particular slice of theology is, in its core, really encompasing the fundamentals of the Christian faith.
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I've noticed that in many Vossian churches there is a lack of real Christian community. So much emphasis is placed on the primacy of Sunday worship, that real benefit of that worship, that is, a Monday through Saturday walk that is glorifying to the Lord, is lost. So much time is spent on nailing down the eschatological nature of the preached Word and the Sacraments, that we've forgotten that in their essence they are a demonstrative, substantive representation of the Covenant love Christ has show us that we are to manifest to one another as the Covenant community of God.
Its sad that these churches so bold and strong in their theology are unfortunately falling apart, and the covenant community is detoriorating. People, because they are taught this from the pulpit and in Sunday school, feel that if they punch their time cards on Sunday morning, they are in fact living 1 Corinthians 13. Unfortunately, Sunday worship is a poor format for deep, meaningful, interpersonal relationships. Even worse, its a poor format for passionate, intimate, revealing confessions to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. Its these things that Sunday worship are to encourage in our Monday through Saturday lives. I find it sad that there exists in many that attitude "if we can just make it to Sunday, everything will be alright." This of course, has been my attitude, and I feel it stands contrary to the militant call of Christ to live every moment, before the face of God, living as Christ, moved by the Spirit, showing the grace and love to one another that we so underservingly receive from our Savior.
The Reformed Church has been so spooked by post-modernism, that its thrown the baby out with the bathwater. The ideas of context, culture, and "everybody just love one another" have so scared us, that we've forgetten our contexts really do play a huge role in our Christian identities, that our culture is something to be embraced in an active living out of the Gospel, and that of faith, hope, and love, love really is the greatest.
Josiah Q. Roe | By Josiah Roe | 10:58 PM
