Firbush Retreats Firbush retreats are organized and led by Robert T. Walker. Firbush retreats are designed to make the best theology accessible to as many people as possible and especially those not trained in theology and often not familiar with routine technical terms. They combine times of worship and prayer with reflection on a theme related to Torrance theology. For more information see https://tftorrance.org/firbush. ----------- Firbush Retreat Summer 2014 Robert T. Walker, "Worship in the Theology of T. F. Torrance" https://tftorrance.org/firbushS2014 The audio recording for this presentation is available on the Firbush Retreat section of the website for the Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship. The following AI transcript is too rough to rely upon, but perhaps useful for word searches and time-stamps. It is unretouched; if anyone wishes to listen to it and clean it up we will be happy to post an improved version (contact the webmasters). We invite speakers to send us slides for their talks, which we will post alongside the audios and transcripts. If any speaker wishes to have their talk removed from the website, just let us know and we'll take down both the audio and the transcript. ------------ 00:00-00:07 Worship in the theology of T.F. Torrance. 00:07-00:16 As I've just said, it's always quite hard to take the time to get a hold of T.F. Torrance as a whole. 00:16-00:27 In an interview with Hesselink, at one point he says that he had tried many times to write a sinful handbook of Christian theology and failed. 00:27-00:42 That's no doubt, partly because he saw things as a whole, and how on earth do you put down the living God or theology as a whole sequentially on paper? 00:42-00:49 We can hold things together in our minds as a whole in the way that we simply can't when we write on paper. 00:49-00:55 We have to start somewhere. To some extent you can start anywhere, and yet you have to have the whole in mind. 00:55-01:11 Thinking about worship in the theology of T.F. Torrance, it seemed to me that one of the key things is that theology and worship are inseparable. 01:11-01:17 Theology in its very essence has to be, and can only be, worship. 01:17-01:28 If it's not worship, it's not theology, but equally if worship is not theological, it's not true worship. 01:28-01:37 Worship is not just what we tend to think of it as our response to God in acts of worship. 01:37-01:42 It's much more a fundamental attitude of the whole person. 01:42-01:48 It's what automatically happens when we come to know the living God. 01:48-01:51 We cannot help but worship. 01:51-01:54 So worship, I think we need to have a much broader view. 01:54-01:59 It's not simply what we do in church or when we sing hymns or pray. 01:59-02:09 It's the whole attitude of our life being through encounter with God. 02:09-02:15 That is the basis of all worship, knowledge of God himself in his being. 02:15-02:28 As Kalbar and T.F. Torrance also used to stress, God always makes himself known to us and never anything less than himself. 02:28-02:32 He doesn't just give us truths about himself. 02:32-02:46 He makes himself known so that when we know the Bible, when we do theology, we're not learning truths about God. 02:46-02:51 In a real sense, we are coming to know God himself in his being. 02:51-02:59 When we do that, then that encounter, that knowledge automatically creates its own response. 02:59-03:09 We have to think of worship as the appropriate response to the very nature of God as we come to know him. 03:09-03:13 We were made for communion with God. 03:13-03:21 Just as there is from all eternity a communion in the heart of God, Father, Son and Spirit. 03:21-03:26 Christ is the Word, the eternal Word in God. 03:26-03:31 The Word did not just begin when God spoke in creation. 03:31-03:36 From all eternity, God is a speaking God in himself. 03:36-03:46 Communion, interaction, dialogue of some kind is right at the heart of God himself. 03:46-03:50 We were made to take part in that communion. 03:50-03:57 Worship is the appropriate response to coming to know God himself as he is. 03:57-04:00 We can say several things about it. 04:00-04:04 In the nature of the case, it's dialogical. 04:04-04:09 It's speaking an interaction with God. 04:09-04:16 It's intelligent because God himself is supreme wisdom. 04:16-04:22 We cannot know God without at least some use of our minds. 04:22-04:26 The simplest faith has some understanding. 04:26-04:29 Worship in its nature is intelligent. 04:29-04:32 It's obedient. 04:32-04:38 To know God is to encounter a reality other than ourselves which is true. 04:38-04:48 To recognize it as it is for what it is or for what he is means the whole nature of rationality is to be obedient. 04:48-04:53 To conform to the nature of what we're discovering, the subject or object of our study. 04:53-04:55 We'll come back to that later. 04:55-04:57 Worship is obedient. 04:57-05:11 It's stretching to know God as he is in all his vastness, stretches our minds beyond what they're capable of being stretched of. 05:11-05:14 It's inspiring wonder. 05:14-05:22 Scientists look at the universe and one of the basic impulses behind science is the wonder of nature. 05:22-05:28 There's a far greater wonder in knowing God through nature, of course. 05:28-05:36 Worship inspires wonder, inspires joy and a totality of response. 05:36-05:41 All that is part of worship and not just in our acts of worship. 05:41-05:46 It's part of our whole natural response. 05:46-05:54 God can never be known himself directly or simply in himself. 05:54-05:56 We are creatures. 05:56-06:00 There's a fundamental gap between creatures and God. 06:00-06:03 We've been brought into being out of nothing. 06:03-06:10 So in that sense we can only by ourselves think at our level in terms of creature realities. 06:10-06:16 Even then it's only through the gift of God that we have senses and wisdom and reason and emotion. 06:16-06:21 But we can only think at our level in creaturely terms. 06:21-06:33 As Calvin stressed, we can only know God because God himself comes down and speaks to us within creation on our level. 06:33-06:40 Calvin called this accommodation. God accommodates himself to us. 06:40-06:48 Just as an adult or a nurse will come down to the level of the child or the baby and use baby language. 06:48-06:53 So God speaks to us at our level. 06:53-07:00 In that sense, all knowledge of God is incarnational or incipiently incarnational. 07:00-07:13 God comes down and takes on some kind of human form or speaks in and through human language using human metaphors to speak about himself. 07:13-07:25 He comes down and speaks through what we might call word event within creation. 07:25-07:32 God always speaks in some form in word. There's always some kind of message that God speaks. 07:32-07:35 Read the Old Testament or the New Testament. 07:35-07:42 God never just comes nakedly as a mystical experience. There's some kind of word that people grasp. 07:42-07:47 But it's also an event. He encounters somebody in space and time. 07:47-07:53 Something happens. He does something. He saves his people out of Egypt. 07:53-07:58 He says what he's doing. He explains it. It's a kind of word event. 07:58-08:04 All knowledge of God is through some kind of word event in creation. 08:04-08:10 But ultimately, all that is fulfilled in the Incarnation. 08:10-08:17 And the Incarnation is not just God becoming man. 08:17-08:26 Well, obviously it is, but the meaning of that is much, much more than simply becoming flesh. 08:26-08:33 A key part of what it means is that this is the knowledge of God in God. 08:33-08:44 Christ the Word knows God in God. When he becomes man, that is the knowledge of God becoming man, becoming human. 08:44-08:55 So the Incarnation means that now in Christ we have the ever-living, present, incarnate knowledge of God within history. 08:55-09:01 God knows himself. When he became man, he became man. 09:01-09:11 A key part of his ministry, and the reason for that, was that as man, he might learn to know God. 09:11-09:19 And that is a fundamental key part of the Christian faith. 09:19-09:27 So Christ has not just come to save us from our sins, but he has actually come to be the human being, 09:27-09:40 the man who in our place and for us has embodied and worked out and grown up into full human living knowledge of God. 09:40-09:46 So he is the incarnate knowledge of God within history. 09:46-09:52 So not just God becoming man, but God becoming knowing man. 09:52-10:05 And as we know the importance of Christology, that Jesus is God as man in one person. 10:05-10:13 One reality, but the action of God and of man in one. 10:13-10:21 Jesus Christ is the one and only true God making himself known in space and time and saving us, 10:21-10:28 but at the same time becoming the one true worshipping man. 10:28-10:35 And that is a key fundamental point of the whole theology of Thomas Torrance. 10:35-10:42 The fact that the whole mind of Jesus, what it meant for Jesus to become man, 10:42-10:48 to take on the whole of our flesh, all our human life in all its aspects, 10:48-10:54 all the physical senses, all the appreciation of the beauty of nature, 10:54-11:04 all the pains of hunger or being burnt, but everything that was human, Christ took on. 11:04-11:15 But a key part of all that is coming to know God as man for us in our place. 11:15-11:19 So he becomes the one true worshipping man. 11:19-11:26 That means of course that Jesus is the one and only true worshipper. 11:26-11:38 He is the one true living worshipper of God. 11:38-11:46 He learned as a God, he grew in wisdom and faith and stature and favour with God and man 11:46-11:52 and by the age of 12 he somehow knew his Bible. 11:52-12:01 He knew more about his father than the Pharisees or asked them questions that stretched them. 12:01-12:08 So he and all his life as we've heard yesterday was a life of prayer, 12:08-12:12 of dependence on God growing as man. 12:12-12:22 He knew God as God but he's come to know God as man and as man to live in dependence on God. 12:22-12:30 And as Christ offers himself to the Father in heaven for us, 12:30-12:35 while he does that and as he does it, his is the only right offering, 12:35-12:39 his is the only offering we can rightly make. 12:39-12:49 He is the leader of our worship who prays for us and with us to his father and therefore ours. 12:49-13:00 And so all true worship must reflect the nature of Christ as the one centre and agent of all true worship. 13:00-13:08 And clearly that's something that we've very rarely grasped in the church. 13:08-13:15 Certain key people in the church have grasped it to some extent, Cyril of Alexandria, Calvin, 13:15-13:24 but by and large we don't even begin to appreciate that. 13:24-13:30 A lot of you will know James Torrance's book, 'Worship Community and the Tryin' God of Grace', 13:30-13:36 and he makes that point that most of our worship simply thinks of God 13:36-13:40 and our worship is our response. 13:40-13:49 And there's nothing about Christ having become man and as man being the worshipping man, 13:49-13:55 the true response and also all our worship is in him. 13:55-14:02 But it's a key point and if we can take time to think it through and take it on board 14:02-14:14 and slowly work it out and do all the necessary multifaceted changes to the whole way we sing and pray and worship and read the Bible, 14:14-14:20 then this would make a massive difference to the whole way we worship, 14:20-14:27 to the life of the church, to its impact on others. 14:27-14:34 So all worship must reflect the nature of Christ as the one true centering agent. 14:34-14:41 All worship is necessarily Christ-centered and therefore must also be Trinitarian, 14:41-14:52 because Christ is in the center, he is God, but he is also man and that means man in the Trinity. 14:52-15:00 All Christian worship must reflect the incarnational movement of the Bible fulfilled in Christ. 15:00-15:07 The Old Testament can be thought of as the word beginning to become incarnate, 15:07-15:12 the word beginning to speak to people, beginning to make himself known, 15:12-15:17 and it's a foreshadowing of the Incarnation. 15:17-15:25 So for example, in the Old Testament God makes himself known, he makes his words known, 15:25-15:27 the Ten Commandments are known as the Ten Words. 15:27-15:34 When the tabernacle is set up, the Ten Words, the Word of God at the heart of all worship, 15:34-15:38 was put in the Holy of Holies in the Ark. 15:38-15:53 When the moving tent in the desert was dedicated, the cloud came down on a tent, 15:53-15:56 the shining cloud as a sign of the glory of God. 15:56-16:01 That was a sign that God was now living in the midst of his people. 16:01-16:05 There's a passage which speaks about how the tabernacle is in the middle, 16:05-16:10 I think it's numbers, and all the different tribes are round about, 16:10-16:14 so that God in a sense is literally living in the midst of his people. 16:14-16:18 And of course that is what is referred to in John 1.14. 16:18-16:23 The Lord used to make a point of that in his lectures. 16:23-16:30 The Word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us, and we saw his glory, 16:30-16:34 the glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father, 16:34-16:41 a clear reference back to the fact that this is a fulfillment of the Old Testament worship, 16:41-16:47 that the Word that made himself known to Israel and that was meant to become flesh in their hearts, 16:47-16:49 failed to become flesh. 16:49-16:57 And so God himself became flesh in order to take on our flesh, 16:57-17:04 in order to do in our flesh, in his own humanity, what we should have done. 17:04-17:07 So his human life on earth is the Word becoming flesh, 17:07-17:13 a working out of the Word and will of God in our actual humanity. 17:13-17:17 Of course a key part of that is worship. 17:17-17:23 So the Old Testament can be thought of as the Word beginning to become incarnate. 17:23-17:30 There are several wonderful passages about God appearing, 17:30-17:36 and then it becomes clear that this actually is God, 17:36-17:40 often called the angel of the Lord, 17:40-17:47 appearances to Gideon for example, or to others. 17:47-17:56 So all Christian worship must reflect the incarnation of movement of the Bible fulfilled in Christ. 17:56-18:06 And all knowledge of God, as I've said, is an event created by him in space and time. 18:06-18:15 And in Christian worship we are here and now wonderfully made participants in the very same event. 18:15-18:24 So God in the history of Israel and in Christ has made himself known in history, in Word event, 18:24-18:34 and in Jesus become a living person, event, object, who is still alive because of the resurrection. 18:34-18:46 And worship, a key part of worship, as we take part in it, is to think of it as what's called recapitulation, 18:46-19:05 or as James Torrance would say, a re-presentation, a re-presenting the original event. 19:05-19:12 So it's a recapitulation, a re-presentation of the history and person of salvation. 19:12-19:24 We so remember the whole history of what God has done that it becomes a living present event for us here and now. 19:24-19:40 Or perhaps to put it better, as we remember it, God himself makes himself present to us through the same event and we become part of it. 19:40-19:57 So the same historical event that occurred in the Bible, Christ the same God, the same mediator, becomes present and contemporary now. 19:57-20:09 And so in worship we actually become part of that same event, or that same event because it's God's event, 20:09-20:17 when we do things, they're done and then they go into the past and we think of the past as gone and finished. 20:17-20:24 But when God acts in time, because it's the eternal God who is ever living and never goes into the past, 20:24-20:33 when he acts in time, then there's a real sense in which that event does not go into the past, 20:33-20:39 becomes wedded to God himself in his eternal being. 20:39-20:49 There's a passage in the Sadducees, the Sadducees come and the story of the wife who married seven brothers, 20:49-20:53 and they said whose wife would she be in the resurrection? And he said, 20:53-21:00 "Neither the scriptures nor the power of God, he is not God of the dead but of the living." 21:00-21:09 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all dead, but for Jesus God was the God of the living. 21:09-21:15 So for me that's saying that even though these people are dead and in one sense wait for the resurrection, 21:15-21:23 yet for God they are still alive, God holds them in his mind and they don't go into the past. 21:23-21:33 I like to think of the Bible and the whole history of the Bible in a sense as one moving train. 21:33-21:41 We're in some of the front carriages or the front carriage and Adam is in the right back carriage 21:41-21:49 and then Abraham is in the next back carriage. So the whole history is a moving history. 21:49-21:58 It hasn't just gone into the past, it's a living event and we become part of that living event. 21:58-22:05 If you think about it, I mean a generation is... 22:05-22:11 I can't remember, but if you think about it and work backwards, 22:11-22:19 the incarnation was something like 2000 years ago, but that's only something like 60 generations ago, 22:19-22:27 which is not that long if you actually think about it in terms of actual generations. 22:27-22:35 There are people today who lived 100 years ago and we know them or we met them or we've heard about them. 22:35-22:41 It only takes 20 of those and we're back at Christ. 22:41-22:48 It's false to think that this is a huge event a million years back in the past. 22:48-22:53 Time is more of a living event and in the biblical way of thinking, 22:53-23:02 when we think in terms of words and memory, time becomes much more of a living event 23:02-23:09 and we're connected to the past. But in worship, we so remember the past 23:09-23:15 that it's no longer simply past, it's a present event and we become part of it. 23:15-23:20 Of course, that is part of the whole meaning of word in sacrament. 23:20-23:30 In the Church of Scotland, we believe, not just in the Church of Scotland, 23:30-23:37 but the Reform Church has always emphasized this, that ministers should be trained in the Bible, 23:37-23:43 in the languages necessary, so that by proper exegesis and understanding, 23:43-23:50 they can understand the original, get as close as possible to understanding the original meaning of the words, 23:50-24:01 the intention of the writer, of the Spirit, and be so able to put that into contemporary language for us, 24:01-24:06 that it becomes real for us and we become part of the same event. 24:06-24:10 So a key part of worship is the sermon. 24:10-24:21 Whoever is doing it is helping us to re-understand the living meaning of the original word. 24:21-24:28 And then sacrament, of course, we'll come back to that, but a great emphasis in Tf on the importance of the sacraments 24:28-24:34 as the visible signs and seals of the meaning of the word. 24:34-24:40 I know we'll be hearing a lot more about the Eucharist from Robin, from Jennifer, 24:40-24:48 and something that's hugely undervalued, certainly in the Church of Scotland. 24:48-24:57 So the whole importance of worship is a recapitulating, recalling the whole history of salvation, 24:57-25:04 creation, redemption, in such a way that it becomes present and real for us here and now, 25:04-25:10 and we're caught up into it, become part of it, and part of the ongoing train. 25:10-25:17 So Christ is the leader through His worship, through His Spirit of all our worship. 25:17-25:22 Because of His resurrection, His ascension into heaven, the whole emphasis of Hebrews, 25:22-25:28 as we worship, as we pray, preach, celebrate the sacraments, He is the leader. 25:28-25:34 The leiturgos, as Hebrews puts it, the preacher, the celebrant. 25:34-25:42 Worship is essentially communal, one of the points where Robin and I overlap so much. 25:42-25:50 With Christ as the leader, and always the one and only leader, all, all of us, 25:50-25:55 the whole congregation, all of us here and now are involved. 25:55-26:04 It's not just me speaking. Ultimately it's Christ sounding His word through us. 26:04-26:11 We're all involved, all hearing His word, asking it to sound in us, all praying with Him, 26:11-26:13 with Christ, all taking part. 26:13-26:20 So a key part of worship, and of people coming to understand what worship is, 26:20-26:28 is that to understand it as Christ leading our worship, but we're all involved, we're all praying. 26:28-26:32 And if the whole congregation, if we all did that and prayed, 26:32-26:37 and prayed every time the minister or whoever preached the sermon spoke, 26:37-26:41 it would be Christ Himself speaking through that person. 26:41-26:44 Again that makes such a difference to all our worship. 26:44-26:54 So worship is communal, and we do need to try and just get that part of our thinking. 26:54-27:01 We're not just being passive and watching somebody do their part. We are all involved. 27:01-27:07 Worship is part of the essence of the Church. 27:07-27:12 And in worship the Church becomes Church. 27:12-27:16 That's part of the meaning of the recapitulation. 27:16-27:19 In worship the Church is renewed. 27:19-27:26 It's lifted up into Christ and the Trinity, reinvigorated, 27:26-27:30 made participant in Christ and His ministry, 27:30-27:37 and then sent out into the world for Him, for Him in the Spirit to work through them, 27:37-27:45 through the Church in His dual ministry of preaching the Word and loving, diagonal service. 27:45-27:55 T.F. emphasizes, it's not a point of his thought that's well known, 27:55-28:02 but there's a beautiful article called "Service in Jesus Christ". 28:02-28:08 I know this jock has got copies of Gospel Church and Ministry for sale, and I have some as well. 28:08-28:14 That's a beautiful little book. 28:14-28:22 It's got the memoirs of his parish ministry in Ayleth. 28:22-28:25 The book is worth it for that alone. 28:25-28:33 This article, "On Service in Jesus Christ", emphasizes that Christ's ministry was preaching, 28:33-28:39 but also healing and caring for people in their physical, ordinary needs. 28:39-28:45 The two were essentially together. 28:45-28:52 He says that we have separated the two. We've separated the Christ clothed with the Gospel, 28:52-28:58 as he puts that phrase from Calvin, from the Christ clothed with human need. 28:58-29:02 We've separated the preaching ministry from the diagonal ministry. 29:02-29:08 He says we've done that to the grave impoverishment of each. 29:08-29:16 The preaching ministry has been gravely damaged and weakened, but also the diagonal ministry. 29:16-29:19 He makes a strong plea in the church. 29:19-29:23 We try to bring the two together again. 29:23-29:31 A real preaching of the Word, but hand in hand with a caring for people in their actual physical needs. 29:31-29:39 Again, that would make a tremendous difference to the whole life of the church. 29:39-29:51 There are too many things to sum up, but a few key points, and partly some of it in summary. 29:51-29:57 Christ in the Trinity must be the focal point of all attention. 29:57-30:00 This comes back to something that Robin was saying. 30:00-30:09 Christ is central. Everything that we do should only be subsidiary, not the focal point. 30:09-30:17 When you're learning any physical skill, say riding a bicycle, you have to really concentrate on what you're doing. 30:17-30:22 Otherwise you'll fall off. Even then, it takes a while to learn it. 30:22-30:31 If you've learned how to do it, you can forget all about doing it and just think about other things, watch the scenery. 30:31-30:34 When we worship, then all our focus should be in Christ. 30:34-30:38 It shouldn't be on what we're doing, what we're feeling. 30:38-30:43 What we're doing should be subsidiary. 30:43-31:00 Now, as Robin was alluding to this, how often in our worship does the focus get drifted off Christ and onto us? 31:00-31:16 Our singing needs to be richly creaturely, human, full-blooded, melodic, tuneful, best music. 31:16-31:22 As somebody said, was it Luther or Charles Wesley? Why should the devil have all the best tunes? 31:22-31:34 It should be theological. But how far is some Christian worship anemic, tuneless? 31:34-31:46 And also, how far is the very type of music not a kind of losing oneself? 31:46-31:53 And how often are the words, as I've said before, naff and the theology duff? 31:53-32:00 And remember, George Ziegler doing a PhD from the States, and he hadn't encountered these words before. 32:00-32:04 He asked me if these were technical words. 32:04-32:16 But a lot of hymns that we sing are, to me, they're tuneless, the words are naff and the theology is duff. 32:16-32:29 And I'll never forget Jennifer saying, I'm sure she can say more about this herself, but she used to be in a cult, quite a serious cult. 32:29-32:41 And she said that so much of the modern Christian hymns are exactly the same type of music and repetitive in nature as the hymns they sang in the cult. 32:41-32:54 And to me, that's a lot of the very type of music is a kind of, I find it, I call it losing yourself in God music. 32:54-33:04 We are made to be different from God, we're made to be human and to know God ourselves, to be ourselves, to have our own mind and understanding. 33:04-33:14 We don't become God. Now, we can only do that through Christ, but we should be richly human. 33:14-33:24 But in pagan worship, you lose yourself and you try to become the God or lose your mind. You don't know what you're saying when you prophesy in pagan worship. 33:24-33:36 You lose yourself. And this is a question, but how much of the type of music we use is more like pop music? 33:36-33:46 We're losing ourselves. We're becoming part of almost a mass hysteria. They wave their hands. 33:46-33:57 They like loud music to blast into their ears, lose themselves to become. How much of that is Christian worship? 33:57-34:10 It's part of this whole point that Robin was raising about that. It is what people want. How do we speak to them at the place where they are, 34:10-34:16 and yet somehow lead them to what Christian worship ought to be? 34:16-34:26 We can only do it through having a sound theological grasp of where we're going and what we're aiming at. 34:26-34:37 But at the same time, try to stand where they are and somehow, little by little, bring them back, lead them to a sounder understanding. 34:37-34:44 But it seems to me that a lot of modern worship, all the emphasis goes on us and our piety. 34:44-34:50 "Oh, how I love you, God. I just want to be your breath." 34:50-35:02 Those are words I've heard sung. There are some modern hymns I simply refuse to sing, or I change the words as I go along. 35:02-35:12 If there's one thing that would make a huge difference, it would be if we had tunes, good tunes that modern people liked, 35:12-35:21 that were deeply theological, deeply focused on Christ. Anyhow, enough of that. 35:21-35:29 Both sacraments, but particularly the Eucharist, need to be made much, much more central in all our worship. 35:29-35:40 There's a tremendous resource there for helping people to understand and bringing home to them the meaning of the faith. 35:40-35:48 At this point, the eschatological nature of Christian worship needs to counterbalance the recapitulary. 35:48-35:53 This was a point that Robin was making. 35:53-36:00 A really important part of Christian worship is recapitulation. 36:00-36:07 Maybe not just as important, but equally important is the whole forward-looking aspect. 36:07-36:14 In worship, we're looking forward to what will be. 36:14-36:20 One of the questions I wanted to ask Robin about, I thought it was really well put, and it would be nice if Robin could elaborate, 36:20-36:26 that worship is not simply what we do, it's our becoming. 36:26-36:31 In worship, we become. We're on the way to what we ought to be. 36:31-36:40 I think that's a key point. We never get there. We are sharing in Christ and his worship. 36:40-36:44 In a real sense, we are partaking of the powers to come. 36:44-36:48 Here and now, we have one foot in heaven, as it were. 36:48-36:57 We are beginning here and now to share eternal life in a fragmentary way to taste the banquet to come. 36:57-37:02 So that worship in a real sense is looking forward, it's anticipating. 37:02-37:10 The day has dawned, but the shutters haven't been fully drawn back yet. 37:10-37:19 So that the eschatological nature of Christian worship is key. 37:19-37:30 I spoke already about, yesterday, I mentioned Romans 12, the transformation of our mind. 37:30-37:34 That's only for T.F. It's a key part of worship. 37:34-37:44 A part that is by and large hugely underestimated by Christians, even by key Christians, 37:44-37:51 who spend their lives reading the Bible, praying, faithfully evangelizing, 37:51-37:59 but very often not allowing their own minds to be evangelized by being converted and transformed, 37:59-38:02 theologically, at a deep level. 38:02-38:10 That is a key part of what Paul called our rational service, our logikē latrāya, 38:10-38:16 allowing ourselves to be transformed in our thinking at a deep level. 38:16-38:22 If we are to make a real impact, it can only be through focus on Christ. 38:22-38:25 This doesn't come overnight. 38:25-38:34 It's a slow maturation in which we are trained in theological thinking. 38:34-38:41 It happens through prayer. T.F. says something about, 38:41-38:46 "If theology isn't done on our knees, it's not theology." 38:46-38:51 He didn't mean it literally, but he did mean that we can only do theology through prayer, 38:51-38:54 through knowing God. 38:54-38:59 It can only be done in time and in prayer, 38:59-39:05 but unless we make time in our thinking to study hard, 39:05-39:08 to be radically transformed in our thinking, 39:08-39:14 we will simply not have the finely tuned theological grasp of the whole 39:14-39:25 with which we can use in all the little practical situations of life to guide us. 39:25-39:30 I can't recommend the last chapter of Atonement. 39:30-39:34 It's about ten pages. 39:34-39:38 It's a beautiful article by T.F. on the transformation of mind, 39:38-39:43 or the reconciliation of mind, and what it means to develop a Christian instinct, 39:43-39:49 a theological instinct for the truth, and the importance of that. 39:49-39:55 A key part of worship, and right at the heart of it, 39:55-39:59 should be the theological renewal of mind. 39:59-40:06 Finally, this is something about the twofold structure of worship and of sacrifice. 40:06-40:13 It's always word and response, the word of God and the response of man. 40:13-40:17 But that, of course, is Christ himself. Christ is both. 40:17-40:22 In the real testament, it's Moses and Aaron, both priests. 40:22-40:28 But everything that Aaron does is in accordance with the word. 40:28-40:32 It's gospel and love. 40:32-40:38 It's the preaching ministry and the healing diaconal ministry. 40:38-40:46 We should also think of it as the passive and the active impedances of Christ. 40:46-40:51 In Reform theology, there's been a lot made of that in understanding Christ's work, 40:51-40:55 there's passive obedience and active obedience. 40:55-41:01 His passive obedience is his taking on himself our sin, 41:01-41:05 and in a sense, passively suffering the consequences of our sin. 41:05-41:10 Not the punishment, but the consequences of our sin. 41:10-41:13 But his active obedience, which is... 41:13-41:16 And that's stressed, that this is how he ended our sins. 41:16-41:21 He took the consequences of the penalty. He stood in our place. 41:21-41:25 But not stressed nearly enough is the fact that, actively, 41:25-41:31 he offered to God in mind and heart and prayer and willing obedience, 41:31-41:34 the active response of man. 41:34-41:38 And both go together. Both are key. 41:38-41:44 And in worship, I think there's the same duality. 41:44-41:52 There's the passive side in which we reflect, allow Christ to be our leader, 41:52-41:55 to be our worship. He is our worship. 41:55-41:59 But as part of that, that means our being caught up 41:59-42:05 and our willingly and actively taking part in him. 42:05-42:08 That's only through the Spirit. 42:08-42:14 And there's a very interesting passage in Hebrews. 42:14-42:16 I haven't got my Bible. 42:16-42:24 Hebrews 13 speaks about the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. 42:24-42:30 And then it goes on to say something about love and doing good to others. 42:30-42:37 For this is our service. But it seems to be saying there 42:37-42:43 that when we do acts of love and kindness to others, 42:43-42:48 that is part of our sacrifice, our worship. 42:48-42:53 And that is, to me, saying that behind the biblical concept of worship 42:53-42:56 is not just the death of the animal, 42:56-43:05 but the sacrifice in the Old Testament was a sign that our whole lives are being given to God. 43:05-43:09 And the life of the animal is being given to God in our place, 43:09-43:11 but that represents what we should be doing. 43:11-43:14 We should be giving our whole lives to God. 43:14-43:19 Now, William Milligan, the Scuttle theologian, has argued that 43:19-43:25 when we think of the blood, we automatically think of death. 43:25-43:28 But we should think much more of life. 43:28-43:31 The blood symbolizes the life of the animal. 43:31-43:36 So even though, as it happened, by the killing of the animal, 43:36-43:38 the blood was poured out, they were killed, 43:38-43:42 what that represented and was key was not actually the death, 43:42-43:45 it was the life being given to God. 43:45-43:50 So that sacrifice ultimately is our lives being given to God, 43:50-43:55 the willing dedication of our lives. 43:55-44:04 So the passive and active elements are important in understanding the meaning of sacrifice and of worship. 44:04-44:11 So one final point. 44:11-44:14 I've spoken about the principle of rationality. 44:14-44:17 And reason is used in many different ways, 44:17-44:23 but key to TF and the way to understanding him is that he uses reason 44:23-44:31 as the ability or the gift of being able to respond in the appropriate way 44:31-44:34 to whatever it is we're confronted with, 44:34-44:39 to respond appropriately to the nature of the object or the subject. 44:39-44:42 So, for example, if the object is a person, 44:42-44:48 the reasonable response is love, or at least to treat them as a person. 44:48-44:56 And so reason is not a power that we have as such. 44:56-45:01 Reason doesn't tell us what's true and what's wrong. 45:01-45:05 Reason is a plastic ability to be molded, 45:05-45:10 to conform to the nature of what it is we're discovering or knowing. 45:10-45:14 And when we respond appropriately to the object or subject, 45:14-45:17 then we are rational and not otherwise. 45:17-45:21 So rationality is the principle of objectivity. 45:21-45:27 So the principle of rationality as the appropriate response to the nature of the object 45:27-45:35 governs what worship is, or it's a way of saying what worship is. 45:35-45:42 Worship is allowing Christ to be the continual pattern, focus and agent of all our worship. 45:42-45:49 In the handout I've mentioned those two verses in Hebrews. 45:49-45:52 Two quick questions at the end. 45:52-45:57 What elements do we think we most need to try and recover in worship? 45:59-46:05 And second question, if the auditory element, the element of word is primary, 46:05-46:10 if God can never be seen, no images of God, 46:10-46:14 if the auditory element in worship is primary, 46:14-46:19 how can we best let that guide and inform the visual? 46:19-46:23 Because obviously the visual and all the other senses are key. 46:23-46:28 But how can we best let the word inform and guide everything else? 46:28-46:30 Thank you. 46:30-46:31 [APPLAUSE]