"Show me the importance of the simple things; like a word, a seed, a thorn, a nail, and a cup of cold water."
The Power Of A Moment song by Chris Rice
If you walk through a Catholic, Anglican, or Orthodox cathedral, you are met by a sensual banquet of paintings, stained glass images, statues, candles, and various other decorations and devotional icons. Beautiful as these are, protestants are historically suspicious of the use of material items in Christian worship. These well meaning Christians invoke the second commandment prohibiting the creation of graven images, and the words of Jesus that God is spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. (which should be read in context of the plight of the Samaritans.)
But did Jesus speak of a disembodied faith, whereby the physical is discounted and only the spiritual emphasized?
This way of thinking has been brought to such extremes, that some have forbidden dolls and stuffed animals for their children. In some church's the walls are sparse and the congregants plainly clothed and without makeup or adornements of any kind.
In his book,
Evangelical Is Not Enough, Thomas Howard has this to say: "By avoiding the dangers of magic and idolatry on the one hand, evangelicism runs itself very near the shoals of Manichaeanism on the other-the view, that is, that pits the spiritual against the physical. Its bare, spare churches, devoid of most Christian symbolism (except oddly,
some candles, or perhaps a modest cross in some of its churches), bespeaks its correct attempt to keep the locale of faith where it must ultimately be, in the heart of man. But by denying the whole realm of Christian life and practice the principle that it allows in all other realms of life, namely, the principle of symbolism and ceremony and imagery, it has, despite its loyalty to orthodox doctrine, managed to give a semi-Manichaean
hue to the Faith."<font size="1">1</font>
In the Old Testament God understands that we are physical creatures and need the physical to direct our attention to the spiritual. For in all attempts, we cannot maintain for long a purely abstract concept of God. Why did the Ark of the Covenant need to be plated in pure gold, with cheribum affixed with wings spread over it? Why did the Tabernacle need to be constructed of the finest fabrics, or Solomon's Temple of the most costly materials? A purely spiritualist approach to these things would condemn it all as an orgy of idolatrous practices, were it not for the fact that God commanded it to be brought about.
Though we know and expound that God is forever unchanging, we somehow imagine that the God who inspired Solomon's Temple will settle for less today. A rented room in a strip mall with electric guitar worship, folding chairs, paper plates, and a pastor who says, "Just call me Dave," serve as an extreme example of our misunderstanding of the concept that where two or more are gathered in God's name, He is present.
It is the worship of statues and graven things that is strictly forbidden, (i.e. attributing divinity to dead objects) but this doesn't mean that physical things cannot or should not be used to enhance our worship of Almighty God. In fact, they are used effectively to affix our attention to the Divine. The physical, in the right context, can direct our gaze to an invisible God. In fact, this is very necessary, for we are creatures of sensory perception, whereby we need to touch, smell, and see in order to conceptualize in our minds what is invisible and untouchable.
The Bible is rich in symbolism, in the use of objects to impart spiritual meanings and truth; such as water, blood, bread, wine, a dove, and tongues of fire. Though we do not worship these things, God understands that we need more than a nebulous concept of Him, that we need physical cues to remind us of spiritual truths.
God most deeply demonstrates this understanding in the mystery of the Incarnation, whereby the immaterial and seemingly unattainable God takes on human flesh and blood and dwells with us, experiencing our suffering, our joys, our grief, and the hardship of human existance. We can be told that God understands our pain and know this in abstract, but we can never could have really understood, unless God had not demonstrated His compassion and solidarity with us by taking on our form and living amongst us.
In fact the idea of
Immanuel, God with us, was such a sweet comfort and glorious hope to those who hadn't heard from God in centuries. For God did not only reach out and touch suffering and dying humanity, He embraced us convincing us of His incredible love for us on the deepest levels of human comprehension.
The Eucharist is another strong example of the synonomous relationship of the spiritual and the physical, whereby we experience fellowship with Christ by the partaking of bread and wine. By the words of Christ, "Do this in remembrance of Me." He again affirms His understanding that we need something tangeable by which we can reach out and touch the invisible God. By saying, "This IS my body, and this IS my blood", He bespeaks of something deeper than mere symbolism, so that we can understand that we are indeed in fellowship with Christ, and nothing short of it.
And so icons have been used for centuries in Christian worship. They bring beauty and meaning to our worship and impart to us the sublime majesty of our God. Statues and relics bring to our memory the faithful saints of old, whose lives inspire us hold fast to our holy faith and cherish it always. Candles and insense further align our faculties with ever higher and exalted states of worship of the Lord God.
And so I implore you to not fear these things, but rather to incorporate these material witnesses reverently in our Christian faith.
catholicsoldier <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/takethat.gif" alt="" />
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Evangelical Is Not Enough by Thomas Howard pg. 35. Copyright 1984 and possibly out of print. Howard was raised in the protestant faith, but was drawn to a more liturgical faith after a visit to an Anglican Church.
