The Simple Thing Martin Luther Got Wrong

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately.

I have also been talking a lot with friends, asking a lot of questions on social media, and generally making a nuisance of myself.

Part of that comes from my need to reinvent the wheel which is the church. 

I have been focussing on worship and the fact that it is not doing what I would hope it would - connect people to something greater. 

Out of that, there was an A-ha moment that has really brought on that good old cognitive dissonance where once hearing this everything has to change. 

I have to give credit where credit is due - so without outing anyone, this is not my idea, it was told to me by a friend in a discussion about church over some wonderful craft beer - and he told me it was a friend of his who had originally shared the idea.

Okay, enough beating around the bush. Martin Luther changed the church by saying the focus should be on the word of God - as written, as proclaimed, etc. Before that the focus was on the Eucharist - the literal presence of God in the elements of worship.

So we moved the altar back and the pulpit forward and the centre of worship became the readings and the sermon.

At first, it was novel and connected and we felt God's presence in a new way. But what really happened was that we had shifted away from the presence of God and towards the explanation of God. Church membership became about assenting to certain explanations and ideas. We had to accept Jesus as x and y in order for God to be present. 

But... no... You see, what the church had right before the Reformation was a sense of mystery and awe that required nothing from us. God is present on the altar whether we are there or not. We don't have to believe anything in particular for God to be with us - God is with us and we accept it or not. 

Worship, in the beginning, was simply a way to encounter the mystery and awe that is "God"

Even if you are like me and see God as more akin to the force in Star Wars then to an old man in the sky this still makes total sense. 

No matter how many times Obi-Wan told Luke about how the force worked - it meant nothing until Luke felt the force within himself. Until he had an encounter with something that was bigger than himself. 

We know this to be true about other things. If I explain to you how beautiful a waterfall is  - even if I paint a picture of it and show you - that does not evoke nearly the same feelings that actually seeing the waterfall would evoke in you.

I know everything about the Grand Canyon and have seen countless pictures - but I have exactly zero feelings about the Grand Canyon. Whereas the Rocky Mountains of Alaska and the Yukon which I have seen up close and personal still conjure a sense of majesty and awe in me though I have not been there in two years. 

So protestant worship - whether traditional, contemporary, artistic or seeker focused is still at a disadvantage simply because we are looking in the wrong direction. We are focused on the word of God which means we are one step removed from the holiness and mystery and awe which is to be found in actual contact with that divine spirit. 

Until we change this focus - we will not be getting at the heart of why traditional religion is failing. 

Now - how to do that?