One of our young people who was recently baptized asked Kathy to help her solve a mystery that perplexed her to no end. Her Bible class teacher took her and the other students on a tour of the building, ingeniously including a trip to the baptistery and baptismal preparation room. Among the towels, garments, and other items, she noticed two black, curly wigs hanging on the wall. Her question for Kathy was, “Why are those wigs hanging there?” Kathy’s wise answer is that they were probably put there a long time ago, perhaps for older women getting baptized whose hair was brittle or thin. They might have looked baldish when they came up out of the water with wet hair, and the wig would disguise that. Yet, between them, Kathy and Kamdyn could not completely solve the conundrum.
Sometimes we have “wigs” hanging around. They may be traditions that were started in other times for specific reasons. You may have seen communion covered by runners or tablecloths going back to times when buildings didn’t have air conditioners and the cloth was used to keep the flies off. The circumstances changed, but the cover remained.
There are many traditions we honor that are fine and acceptable, but which are only expedients and may be a mystery to our young, new Christians, visitors, and the like. That is not to disparage them, but it is to say that we should be ready to discuss them. Whether that is standing before a song or Scripture reading, leading a specific number of songs before prayer, having an invitation at the end of a sermon, having the Lord’s Supper before the sermon (or vice versa), ending worship with a prayer or a song (Mat. 26:30), the way those leading in worship enter the auditorium, or any number of habits and customs congregations settle into, we should never let these simply settle into our subconsciousness.
Periodically, it’s good to explain and discuss these whether in brief form during the course of our services, at greater length in a Bible class on hermeneutics (Bible interpretation) or another textual or topical class, and certainly in one-on-one conversations.
It is also good to ask if and how we might vary or alter some of these customs, periodically or even permanently. There are acts of worship we are commanded to engage in each Lord’s Day (Acts 2:42; 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2), but for how long and in what order? The Word of God is to be reverenced, but does standing inherently do that? What the people did in response to Ezra was spontaneous, and they followed it up by bowing low with their faces to the ground (Neh. 8:5-6).
Let’s remember that these traditions are good, or at least they are neutral. The point is to keep them from becoming mysteries hanging on the walls of our faith or our worship. Let’s continually ask what we are doing and why.
The Preacher Pollard Blog 