No 13: To Abolish all Rituals as the Basis of Salvation

Since 1981, I have belonged to two church fellowships and both have taken a very negative line about rituals and traditions.  This is a hallmark of reformed churches, to a greater or lesser degree.  These are great truths which Piper quotes from St Paul, which were hard-won in fierce argument in the Church's first days.  But as I looked around me, I began to see things were not as I first thought.  My first fellowship prided itself (I fear it did) on not being enslaved to tradition, and contrasted itself with 'traditional churches' like Catholic, Orthodox and high Anglican, which used many rituals and set great store by their traditions.  However, we still retained two rituals: communion and baptism; and we followed all kinds of perhaps unacknowledged traditions in the pattern of our meetings, our church government, and our preferred doctrines.  There was no denying that we too 'did things a certain way'.  We belonged to an evolving pentecostal / charismatic / evangelical tradition, call it what you will.  Of course, knowing our St Paul well, we wouldn't dream of saying this was a 'basis of salvation', although in our enthusiasm at times we probably thought it nearly was! 

So, seeing that we never get away from rituals and traditions to some extent, I began to question the sharp dividing lines I heard being drawn between one church and another, and to examine my own heart and motivations.  Was I really just joining the church whose style I preferred, and whose main thrust of teaching made most sense to me at the time?  Was I misunderstanding what I saw happening at a Catholic Mass, and jumping to the conclusion that those rituals meant Catholics were "enslaved" to them?  Was I, in fact, enslaved to some church practices and doctrines without realising I was because I hadn't recognised that they, too, were rituals and traditions?

In recent years, God has shown me how much He loves every diverse expression of His Body here on earth, His Church; and how much more spacious the Kingdom of Heaven is.  He is constantly enlarging the 'box' of my awareness and letting me glimpse new regions in His Kingdom which He invites me to explore.  One of our sons, certainly already a sincere believer with a good grasp of the Bible and of evangelical doctrines, found his heart deeply touched and converted by God when he was amongst Catholic believers; and last Easter he was formally received into the Catholic Church - an amazing spiritual journey which you can read about in his blog.  Anthony has his testimony of encounter with God in that way, and everyone around him can see how God's hand is upon him and he is alive and fruitful in ways he wasn't before.  His testimony is irrefutable, even if it doesn't fit our different experience: so I am humbled afresh to realise how small my thoughts are, compared to God's whole truth, and how limited are my understanding and spiritual experiences, thus far along the Way.

All this has been the means God has used to bring me into a new freedom which exactly resonates with this chapter in Piper's book.  With the 'eyes of my heart' (Ephesians 1:18) I can now see Jesus in almost any tradition of Christian gathering.  I have found myself barely able to stay on my feet, so strongly have I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, amongst Catholic monks at Douai Abbey (joining their morning prayers whilst doing my quinquennial inspection) as well as charismatic evangelicals in our Wallingford church.  Like He did for St Paul and St Peter, God has taken me into the simplicity of His salvation for us.  And a surprise was waiting for me: a new-born delight in the Church's amazingly rich heritage of tradition, ritual, wisdom and disciplines to help us become complete in Him.