What Makes a Pharisee?

If we’re honest about it, much of blogging is incestuous. We find ideas somewhere, answer them, expand, and so the pattern repeats. Obviously, there is more than that, but a lot of the time we generate ideas by answering each other. I don’t have a problem admitting it. The entire convention of the “hat tip” is because of this.

This particular post, however, is a little bit more obviously so. Last night, I read on Matt Schultz’s “God, Politics, and Lessons Learned” blog a post which he had originally left as a comment on Joel’s “Sovereign God Ministries,” the post for which had actually been copied from Ingrid Schlueter’s “Slice of Laodicea.” The theme of these posts is one that represents a sore spot for me, really … very harsh criticism of churches which have a contemporary style.

I am a member of my church’s worship team. In fact, I am one of the graphics-projections techs. (I have coined the term “graphician,” but I think I’m also the only person using it consistently, so take that for what it’s worth.) My role is to run the computer in the back of the church which feeds images to the projector which projects song lyrics, sermon outline notes, Bible readings, and occasionally other videos on the screen in the front of the worship center. Other members of my worship team play the piano, keyboard, accoustic guitar, bass guitar, electric guitar, drums, saxophone, or flute. We have had a violinist at various times … and for a while we had a trombone player. I played trumpet during that brief time … I’m almost certain that I scared away the far-more-talented trombone player.

Anyway … we also have, of course, the singers. Both leaders and a choir of usually 4-10 singers. My worship team also includes the sound techs, who operate the sound board and control the main speakers and the on-stage monitors. For my own part, I love to worship. I’m one of those people who can’t really carry a tune, but what I lack in talent I more or less make up for in volume. Eyes closed, hands raised, clapping, whatever … I’m there with God and telling Him that I love and honor Him.

Before I say anything else … I deeply respect each of these bloggers. Ingrid Schlueter is a great columnist whose work I read frequently, and with whom I, more often than not, agree. This time, though, I couldn’t disagree much more than I do.

In his comment exchange with Matt, Joel tossed out the charge:

The minute an older Christian protests the changes in their Church, they are immediately labeled a Pharisee by the new, young, leadership (and sometimes by older leadership that has been blinded by ambition).

For the most part, I find the charge fallacious. I know many people involved in disagreements about worship style, and it’s always an ongoing question at my church as to whether we should have more hymns or fewer, just what the volume level should be, and so on. I haven’t heard a lot of people accusing each other of being Pharisaical or disrespectful to God.

However, I spent some time rereading the comment, the post, and so on. There is validity in the charge of being Pharisaical, depending on just what is being done.

Before we get there, though, I think that we need to define who and what the Pharisees were. And are.

The Pharisees were the “powers that be” in 1st century Judaism. They knew the Scripture and the Law backwards and forwards and they followed everything as well as they could. This, by the way, is admirable. The problem came to be as the movement wanted to make sure that it followed everything, and began building up more and more rules.

Let’s take an example. We have a very clear Commandment to honor the Sabbath and remember it as a day holy to God. The specification through the Law given to Moses said not to do any work. Okay. We’re good with that.

But … what constitutes work? You’ll be pleased to know that the Pharisees figured out how many steps you’re allowed to walk and what you’re allowed to carry without working. And their determination became the substitute for the God-given Law. Jesus challenged a number of these determinations Himself, when He committed such grievous acts as healing on the Sabbath and instructing a beggar whom He had healed to pick up his mat … since carrying a mat is considered work.

Interestingly, by the way, while the Pharisees consider it blasphemy to heal on the Sabbath, it’s okay to plot the murder of the person who did the healing.

The defining trait of a Pharisee is taking man-made rules and defining them as God-ordained.

That is important to understanding the rest of my point. The Pharisees wanted everything their way, and would not accept a God who wasn’t their type of God. Several of the Pharisees raised questions about their judgment through the Gospels, since Jesus didn’t fit into their neat little formula. But few of them were able to step out of their comfortable little zones of control and accept that Jesus was legitimate.

This brings me back to the dispute about “traditional” or “contemporary” churches. Frankly, this should not be an issue at all. There is nothing wrong with a church that has stained-glass windows, ivy on the walls, and an organ. There is nothing wrong with a choir robbed and holding song books.

There is nothing wrong with a group of worshipers dressed in whatever they have on, singing lyrics shot up on a wall by a computer-controlled projector.

I have two primary problems with the complaint that Ingrid brings forward, and which Joel echoes. The first is the broad brush used to paint contemporary churches. Apparently, because we don’t impose a dress code on our congregation, we need to be accused of not bathing and dressing indecently.

The other is the imposition of what she wants, in order to be considered a Bible-believing Christian. Mostly, her post is a list of things she doesn’t want. She then goes on to define a traditional worship service, with her defined readings, benediction, etc.. That’s all fine. I hope that she goes and finds her church.

But I don’t see that we have any business condemning other Christians for worship services that don’t fit that mold. She asks why people are so arrogant as to think that we have something more to say than the writers of classic hymns. Why, I guess, were they so arrogant as to write hymns in the 1700’s when there were surely older songs? Why has anyone written anything since the Gospels were put down?

Maybe, just maybe, the same God who inspired Isaac Watts, John Newton, William Wilberforce, and Martin Luther is still speaking to Chris Tomlin, Tommy Walker, Lincoln Brewster, and Michael W. Smith. The worship pastor at my church writes songs … wonderful songs. (And I’m not just saying this because he might read this post.) He doesn’t do it because he thinks that “Amazing Grace” is just too old. He does it because God is speaking to him and giving him words to write.

There should be one standard, and only one standard, by which we determine whether a church is really God focused. It doesn’t matter whether we have the largest pipe organ in the area, the second oldest set of Methodist bells in world, nothing but a guitar, or the 10,000-piece orchestra. The only issue should be whether the church is preaching the Truth. If anyone would like to check out the Biblical teaching of my church, I invite you to listen to sermons, check out sermon study guides, or come on by for a visit some Sunday. We have services at 8, 9:30, and 11:15. I’ll probably be in the tech booth if you come at 9:30.

It is by fruit that you can see the merits of a believer, and I think that the same principle applies to a congregation. To be honest, I think that we’ll show ourselves quite well compared to the traditional churches in the area. Nothing against Dover Baptist Church (the church which planted mine, by the way) … I think that they’d do fine compared to the contemporary churches.

Let’s not fight with each other. I enjoy “A Might Fortress is Our God,” and I also like “Only A God Like You” (by Tommy Walker). Both songs are full of worship and adoration. Yes, “Only A God Like You” has a bridge that repeats and a rock style. That doesn’t make it any less worshipful.

A final note … What we call the traditional church didn’t exist from the beginning. The organized denominations and worship services are relatively-recent constructs. More than that, they don’t exist everywhere. I’m not quite prepared to condemn the churches being founded in Africa, Asia, Latin America, or anywhere else because they don’t hand out bulletins telling everyone when to sit and stand.

What makes a Pharisee? Really, it’s having a “my way or the highway” attitude about how God is to be honored, when God has defined those standards. He gave a lot more leeway than some people want to.