Friday, September 19, 2025

It is the 19th of September 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Hey, hey, it’s Friday and the last in a long number of emails and mailbag questions that really started coming in earnest when I asked- a few weeks ago- for you to look around your sanctuary, or nave, or place of worship and wonder “why do we do that?” We had a big mailbag of various questions, and after I answered one question in particular that begat emails from

Katie and Nicholas, Devon from yesterday, asked about it, and even people in real life [IRL as the kids say] who listen to the show asked me, “You didn’t mean that we shouldn’t have worship services, right?”

Answer: Of course, we should! Because when we say that, we mean the breaking of bread, the teaching of the apostles, and prayer. And as we are called to sing “songs and hymns” etc… all of this is the way of the Christian and much of what we do is reflected in these things which we typically do together on the first day of the week- the day of the Resurrection, or what we might call “the Lord’s Day”.

When I answered the question “Which part of the service is worship?” I was trying to point out that we use these words, but the New Testament isn’t so clear.

This takes us to a juicy Reformation debate as to whether or not the Bible lays out for the Christian how they are supposed to worship. “In Spirit and Truth,” of course, in John 4. And in Romans 11 we read “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” and Hebrews will talk about the old system and the new… and in Revelation we get a glimpse of the now and future worship of God and the Lamb in the new Heavens and Earth… but is it three songs, welcome and then first reading? Do you need a cross? Who gets to talk? Which Sacraments and when? Is there formal membership?

It can get dizzying- and there’s where we are lucky- being born so out of time… we have things that seem to have “worked” refined over the centuries and then handed over to us… There’s a fancy word for the things “handed over to us through time”- it’s a “traditio”- where we get the word “traitor”! Someone who hands over something to someone else.

It’s also where we get the word “tradition”- the things handed over by the past to the present.

Is tradition infallible? Oh no. But if it’s based on scripture and good reason, we might want to try those things out before inventing new things. And then some of the things that have been “invented” or suggested have been brilliant and others not so much…

So- when we say “worship” I know what we mean- and it’s what we do in large part in the church when we are gathered to hear the Word of God and break bread, and pray and sing. But a life under grace, led by the Spirit, can be tricky. You don’t get to swing the bat of “this is how it has to be done” and crack skulls. You have to give space for conscience and custom, and the fact that not everyone is like you.

One of the criticisms of the Reformation was that everyone would start to do whatever they thought was right in their own eyes! Or at least, what they thought the Bible taught. The cool thing is that whatever the vision of worship in the book of Revelation does mean, it looks like we’ll all be coming together in worship (of sorts) in the end. In the meantime, do your best to follow the guidance of Scripture and the Spirit and the things handed over to you- the “tradition” might be a place to start, and you can work from there.

Back to some “normal” shows next week and then Sam will come and spell me while I head out on the road once more. Keep sending your emails and questions about church practice- sometimes your proddings are the most helpful and fruitful of questions and episodes.

 The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Romans 8- always a good read:

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 19th of September 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man with a divine service- a Gottesdienst, thank you very much- he is  Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who was recently at a beach baptism- so, what do I know about how you’re supposed to do it… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.