conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

calvin post seven

Calvin had some interesting thoughts about liturgy. Aside from more simple ritual in order to "cleanse the church" from unecessary or idolatrous practices, Calvin was intent on expressing his theology in his liturgy. He was subtle like a red truck in flames.

...We have heard brethren, how our Lord celebrated his Supper with his disciples, thereby indicating that strangers, and those who are not of the company of the faithful, ought not to admitted. Therefore, in accordance with this rule, in the name and by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, I excommunicate all idolaters, blasphemers, dispisers of God, heretics, and all who form private sects to break the unity of the Church, all perjurers, all who rebel against parents or their superiors, all who are seditious, mutinous, quarrelsome or brutal, all adulterers, fornicators, thieves, ravishers, misers, drunkards, gluttons, and all who lead a scandalous and dissolute life. I declare that they must abstain from this holy table, for fear of defiling and contaminating the holy food which our Lord Jesus Christ gives only to his household and believers.

Therefore, in accordance with the exhortation of St Paul, let each man prove and examine his conscience, to see whaether he has truly repented of his faults, and is dissatisfied with his sins, disiring to live henceforth a holy life and according to God. Above all, let eact man see whether he puts hid trust in the mercy of God, and seeks his salvation entirely in Jesus Christ; and whether, renouncing all hatred and rancor, he truly intends and resolves to live in peace and brotherly love with his neighbors.

Philipians would also work, but he is looking at 1 Corinthians in this. His theology of the Table is drawn nalmost entirely from this passage. He may glean specific sins from the rest of scripture, but it is the situation of the church in Corinth that draws him. Paul is responding to the sins evident in that community. He is responding to the tremendous lack of compassion and egalitarianism. The practices would have gone against what Calvin saw as the work of the church which is tied inexorably to his humanism. The humanism of Calvin would not have stood for that behavior. That Calvin names gluttons and misers, for example, is both scriptural and indicative of his humanism. All are to be persuaded by the Gospel into right Christian behavior, the graceful and educated and the rough and crude alike. The Corinthian Christians deny this entirely by their actions. He wishes to persuade the Church by his own words. The choice is all in the hands of the believers, but that they are excommunicant until they get it worked outbetween themselves, God and the community is telling. He challenges from the get go. Is this rhetorical or theological or both? That is what interests me here. Is he trying to frighten and per chance offend? Perhaps that is his very intention.

Posted by tripp at March 24, 2004 04:39 PM