霍顿论敬拜4：改革敬拜仪式Reforming the Church ServicePart 4 of a 6-part series onWorship
作者：Michael S. Horton 译者/校对者: 岑跃环/王一
https://www.facebook.com/groups/462030323850206/posts/4097072803679255/ 2 Virginia Yip译版
https://www.facebook.com/groups/462030323850206聖經神學研究推廣小組
https://yibaniba.blogspot.com/2021/08/reforming-church-service-1-2-michael-s_15.html
https://www.facebook.com/groups/462030323850206聖經神學研究推廣小組
https://yibaniba.blogspot.com/2021/08/reforming-church-service-1-2-michael-s_15.html
仪式”（liturgy）听起来很像是“过敏”（allergy）（在英文中两个单词的读音相近），这真是完美，因为许多现代基督徒对“仪式”过敏。但事实上仪式的意思就是，有些事情应该一直在崇拜中出现，而另一些事则不应该。所以，你需要有某些标准——某些基本原则：什么应该做、什么不应该。
每个教会都有仪式。我小时候参加的那些圣经教会和浸信会，每个主日的仪式都很相似，甚至各教会之间都很像。你知道在崇拜中会做什么，并且非常清楚什么时候要坐下，起来，伸手去拿诗歌本或钱包（指奉献）。
但是，在十几岁的时候，我在灵恩派的圈子里呆了一段时间。在那里，我们曾经嘲讽浸信会信徒为“传统主义者”，认为他们是用教会报告单扼杀了圣灵的人。如果连浸信会都这样，可以想象一下我们对长老会、圣公会、路德会的看法。天呐！他们真是“该死的传统主义者”。我们所讲的“死”并不指教义，因为这不在乎教会是自由派，还是保守派。可能某间教会是方圆百里内最正统的，但如果它的风格不年轻活泼，那它就是“死的”，平淡无奇。教义神学并没有决定着教会的生死，礼拜仪式才是决定性的。这难道不是很讽刺吗？在我们灵恩派的圈子里，我们批判别人按仪式来区分教会，可我们自己也这么做。但我们其实也有自己的仪式，我们要求一定要以年轻人为导向、一定要弹奏吉他、一定要举起手、一定要非正式的风格。最终，我们都以自己所认定的某些特定仪式来判定教会的生死。
一旦我们意识到我们都有一套仪式——我们都有一套敬拜的哲学理念和我们进行批判的标准。这样，我们就该问问自己和其他人，符合圣经的仪式是什么？如果上帝是在我们的敬拜中得荣耀的那位，那么应该是由他来决定，这不是由教会里的年轻人决定，也不是老年人决定，不是由去教会的人决定，也不是由那些不去教会的人来决定。我们的责任是去寻求上帝想要我们怎么敬拜祂。毕竟，祂是观众。祂是在我们的敬拜中得榮耀的。因为，神才是真正的“顾客”（Seeker），我们必须对神敏感（约4）。
我记得，当我开始参加长老会和改革宗教会时，那种感觉既熟悉又陌生。我刚刚接触的改革宗神学观告诉我，神才是关注的焦点，所以在主日崇拜中，从呼召到赞美，到圣道的宣讲，圣礼的执行，祝福祷告，都看见祂被高举，我才开始明白这一切的意义。你知道，我以前参加阿民念派的教会，那些以人为中心的神学很自然就塑造了以人为中心的仪式。无数被称为“见证”的个人自传，寒酸的宗教式助兴表演，没完没了的决志呼召祈求人给上帝让路，穿着五彩长袍的诗班站在舞台中央，一篇想尽办法取悦我的献殷勤式讲道，希望让我下周再过来重复同样的事。当然，不是所有的教会，也不是所有的崇拜都想我描述的这么轻浮，但你应该能明白我的意思。
所以，不是要不要仪式的问题，而是用哪一种仪式的问题。只是说“仪式是过时的”是不够的，用是否能够吸引年轻人作为判断标准也是不对的。衡量我们敬拜的圣经标准是什么呢？这应该是唯一的问题。
在这里，我提供了七条指导原则帮助你分析崇拜。你也可以推荐这些指导原则给你的教会或牧师。
1、崇拜仪式本身必须宣讲律法与福音，仪式本身有宣讲的功能，与圣道和圣礼同样。讲道不仅是崇拜当天唯一的宣讲。整场崇拜都是敬拜，传递着教会对上帝、基督、救赎的看法。仪式里是否有认罪悔改的祈祷和赦罪的宣告呢？这不仅是古代基督教会的要求，也是使徒崇拜的一部分。正如你在使徒行传第二章和保罗书信中看到那样。
2、崇拜仪式必须把个人与更大的教会身体联系起来，不仅仅是此时此地的教会，更是那各地各方、各世各代的基督身体。我们的崇拜是否是美国独有的，当代思想决定的？这不仅是风格的问题，而是教义的问题。我们是与如同云彩般的见证人（来12）一同在敬拜的。诗篇中也充满了历史上神在祂子民身上工作的描述。我们不是寻求与适合自己“崇拜体验”的个人主义者，而是在“圣徒相通”与“圣而公之教会”（使徒信经）的约中受了洗的基督徒。
3、崇拜礼仪必须是以上帝为中心，而不是以我们为中心的。上帝是观众，我们是诗班。那些 在舞台上的“专业人士”是否成了崇拜的焦点？他们是在娱乐我们，还是带领我们在娱乐上帝呢？谁才是焦点？
4、崇拜仪式必须正确地敬拜真正的上帝。十诫的前三诫关乎我们对独一真神的正确敬拜。上帝在乎正确的敬拜胜于其他任何事。甚至我们的救赎也为了将赞美和荣耀归给上帝的名。只凭自己的想象敬拜上帝是不够的。上帝必须按祂自己吩咐的方式受敬拜。亚伦的儿子们为此付了极大的代价。当他们想在圣殿（会幕）中献凡火的时候，即使是出于最好的动机，但上帝仍使他们在亚伦面前把他们烧灭。上帝说，“在众民面前，我要得圣洁”。在敬拜的世上，我们绝不能轻视上帝。
5、崇拜仪式必须强调并巩固圣道与圣礼在崇拜的中心焦点地位。在我们的教会中，是不是“团契时间”变得比讲道和圣餐更重要？
6、崇拜仪式必须是方便使用的。换句话说，我们必须教导大家他们不熟悉的内容。很多人说“仪式只是死记硬背古代礼仪”的原因就是因为牧师在解释仪式上的懒惰、漠不关心和缺乏意识。我们不能假设每一个新世代都了解这些是怎么一回事。
7、崇拜仪式必须能与当代人沟通。宗教改革恢复了会众的颂赞与参与。不再有“专业人士”（诗班等），而是全会众同声读经、同声祷告、同声唱诗。但是，这意味着他们必须用自己的语言。所以，宗教改革既不逃避对过去的义务、也不回避当代和未来的责任。
Reforming the Church Service
Part 4 of a 6-part series on
Worship
Michael
S. Horton
©1995
Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
"Liturgy."
It sounds like "allergy," and that's perfect, because many Christians
today have an allergy for liturgy. Actually, the idea's very basic: certain
things should always be done in a worship service, other things shouldn't. And
you need some set of criteria--a rationale, for what's in and what's not.
Every
church has a liturgy. In the Bible churches and Baptist fellowships of my
youth, the liturgy was pretty much the same Sunday to Sunday, and even fairly
standard from church to church. You knew what to expect and had a pretty good
idea of when to sit, stand, and reach for your hymnal or wallet.
During
my teen years, though, I spent some time in charismatic circles. Here, we used
to ridicule the Baptists as "traditionalists" who stifled the Spirit
by the church bulletin. Imagine what we thought of Presbyterians,
Episcopalians, and Lutherans! Goodness, they were really "dead
traditionalists." And "dead" didn't refer to the doctrine,
because it didn't matter whether a church was liberal or conservative. It could
have been the most orthodox church in town, but if its style was not youthful
and lively, it was "dead," plain and simple. Doctrine didn't decide
death or life, the liturgy decided it. Isn't that ironic, that in our
charismatic circles we were willing to divide churches over liturgy just as
surely as we thought others had done! We were just as caught up in liturgy, by
demanding a particular youth-oriented, guitar-strumming, hand-waving, informal
style, that we ended up defining life and death in churches by our particular
liturgical definitions.
Once
we realize that we all have a liturgy--a philosophy of worship and a general
set of criteria by which we judge it, we can begin to ask ourselves and each
other, what then is a biblical liturgy? If God is the one who must be pleased
with our worship, then he should decide--not the youth, nor the older folks,
nor the unchurched or the churched. It's our job to find out how God wants to
be worshipped. After all, he is the audience; it is he who must be pleased with
our worship, for ultimately he is the Seeker to whom we must be sensitive (Jn.
4).
I
remember, when I began attending Presbyterian and Reformed churches, how it was
both foreign and familiar. My new theology told me that God was the center of
attention, so seeing him held up in the service, from the call to worship to
Word and Sacrament, to the Benediction, clicked for me. You see, before, I was
attending Arminian churches whose human-centered theology shaped a
human-centered liturgy. Endless autobiographies called "testimonies,"
tacky religious floor-shows, an interminable altar call begging folks to let
God have his way, and a centrally-located choir with colorful robes framed a
sermon of schmooze calculated to please me and make me want to go through this
thing again next week. Now, of course, not all of the churches nor all of the
services I can recall were as goofy as I'm describing here, but you get the
picture.
So,
it's not whether liturgy, but which liturgy. It's not enough to say, "It
should be old"; nor is it acceptable to judge it by how it appeals to the
youth. What are the biblical criteria for judging our worship? That's the only
question.
So
here I offer seven guidelines that you might find somewhat helpful in analyzing
your worship. It may be something that you could take to your worship committee
or pastor.
1. It
must conform to Scripture by preaching Law and Gospel, along with sermon and
sacraments. The sermon isn't the only "preaching" of the morning. The
entire service is worship and says a great deal about the church's view of God,
Christ, salvation, etc. Is there a regular confession of sin and announcement
of pardon? This is not only an ancient requirement of the Christian churches;
it is part of the apostolic worship, as you find it in Acts chapter 2, for
instance, and in Paul's letters.
2. It
must link the individual to the larger church body and not only to the church
here and now, but to Christ's body throughout the world and throughout all
ages. Is our worship uniquely American or determined by the
"contemporary"? This isn't just a question of style, but of doctrine.
We worship with the "cloud of witnesses" (Heb. 12) and the Psalms are
full of the recounting of God's works with his people throughout history. We
aren't individualists who are seeking a "worship experience" that's
relevant to us, but baptized Christians who are in covenant with the
"communion of saints" and "one holy, catholic, and apostolic
church" (Apostle's Creed).
3. It
must be God-centered, not us-centered. God is the audience and we are the
choir. Are the "professionals" up front the focus of attention? Are
they entertaining us or are they leading us in corporately entertaining God?
Where is the focus?
4. It
must worship the correct God correctly. The first three of the 10 Commandments
concern our correct worship of the only true God. God is more concerned with
true worship than with anything else. Even our salvation is a means to that end
of bringing praise and glory to God's name. It isn't enough to worship the true
God according to our own fancy; he must be worshipped in his own way, as
Aaron's sons learned the hard way. When they wanted to offer an unauthorized
fire in the temple, it was out of the best of motives, but God turned them to
ash before Aaron himself. "Before man, I will show myself as holy,"
God declared. We must not trifle with God in the matter of worship.
5. It
must emphasize and undergird Word and Sacrament as the central foci of worship.
Is "fellowship" more important than the sermon and Holy Communion in
our church?
6. It
must be useable. In other words, we have to instruct people in anything that is
unfamiliar. One reason people will say, "It's just rote repetition"
of ancient liturgies is due to the laziness, apathy, or lack of awareness on
the part of the minister in terms of explaining it all. We can't assume that
each new generation understands what's going on.
7. It
must communicate to contemporary men and women. The Reformation recovered
congregational singing and participation. No longer left to the
"professionals" (the choir, etc.), the entire congregation read the
Scriptures in unison, prayed in unison, and sang in unison. But that meant that
they had to have it in their own language, so the Reformation neither shirked
its obligation to the past, nor to the present and the future.
论崇拜礼仪
Reforming the Church Service
1改革敬拜仪式
2论崇拜礼仪
作者：Michael S. Horton
1岑跃环译/王一校 2 Virginia Yip译
Reforming the Church Service Part 4 of a
6-part series onWorship
http://web.archive.org/web/19991009155116/www.alliancenet.org/radio/whi/commentaries/whi.com.msh.wor4.html原文
http://www.reformedbeginner.net/on-worship-4-liturgy/
原译文1岑跃环译/王一校版
https://www.facebook.com/groups/462030323850206/posts/4097072803679255/ 2 Virginia Yip译版
https://www.facebook.com/groups/462030323850206聖經神學研究推廣小組
https://yibaniba.blogspot.com/2017/01/blog-post_1.html原转载
https://yibaniba.blogspot.com/2021/08/reforming-church-service-1-2-michael-s_15.html
