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| The Pilgrim's Blog Fair, Balanced and Lightly Sauteed |
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1/16/2003 Haloscan is really starting to tick me off. posted by Rob | 11:47 AM |1/15/2003 Some people call me Space Penguin.
Reading through Leithart's Kingdom and the Power, I found this passage interesting:
"On the Lord's Day the heavenly sanctuary opens, and the church on earth joins with all the company of heaven, with the heavenly choir of angels and saints, to worship the Lord (Hebrews 12:18-24). Now I have heard this quote or something like unto it from a number of blogs as well as various essays I have read. I admit, it is certainly an attractive saying and it does much to help me think about corporate worship in a different light. Surely it’s a persuasive antidote against the individualistic American mindset which favors private over corporate and settles for “a coupl’a hours of TBN” rather than attending church on Sunday. Yet I’m wondering if he’s assuming too much from the passage he’s citing? According to Hebrews 12, is Heaven really opening up and all of its citizens meeting together with the saints on earth when corporate worship occurs? If so, it doesn’t seem very clear at first glance. So I went to the Scripture text that Leithart cited: ”For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned." Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I tremble with fear." But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” – Heb.12:18-24 (ESV) Wow, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully understand all the ideas that are present in that passage but nonetheless, some initial observations: 1. In the context of this passage, the writer of Hebrews (*cough*Barnabas*cough*), seems to be repeating the prevalent theme throughout Hebrews of the preeminence of the New Covenant over the Old rather than describing a corporate worship service. 2. With that said, I can possibly see the idea of corporate worship coming through in that when the writer compares Mt. Sinai to Mt. Zion, he uses the idea of Israel gathering corporately before Mt. Sinai to receive the Law. Is this where Leithart gets the idea of “coming to Mt. Zion” as a description of corporate worship as well? 3. Something else I just thought of is that when the letter was originally read some 2000 years ago, it was being listened to in the setting and context of a corporate worship service. So if we see that the specific claim of vv. 22-24 was being addressed to group of people, the picture of “coming to Mt. Zion” as being corporate worship becomes clearer. I dunno, is there anything else I might be missing? posted by Rob | 3:55 PM | I want a new pub…one that won’t make me sick…
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