Innovation? Bah!

April 18, 2005 · Filed Under theology

[note: I feel like a blogging slug. I've been slowly wading through the backlog of blog entries -- when I finally started wading through my Lutheran "usual suspects" I had 500 entries waiting! That's a bit daunting, and it didn't even count my tech & current event blogreadings... So, this has kept me from blogging about more substantive (i.e., non-reality TV :-P) things. Until now...]

During yesterday’s thoroughly edifying DS & Bible Study, a thought came to me, and was reinforced by some of the catch-up email reading that I’ve been doing in the past week. More specifically, the thought was/is this: Our fascination with innovation & “progress” does us a great disservice. “Innovation” has given us Sunday “Short Attention Span Theater” wherein the Divine Service has (oftentimes forcibly been) yielded to “Contemporary Worship” services. But I’m not really meaning to rail about service style, per se. Nope, I want to rail against “Innovation.”

“Innovation” feeds, and is fed by, our desire for entertainment, change, and (above all) to serve & exalt ourselves. We’re driven to ask, “Why not?” when faced with the temptation to change things like the liturgy, rather than asking “Why would/should we do…?” Rather than accepting the simple, clear language of Word & Confessions, we engage in eisegesis & semantic gymnastics, so that we can proudly say that Scripture either is silent on, or (even better!) speaks in favor of our desired innovation.

“Why?” forces us to hold our motivations up against the Law, thus laying bare our sinful inadequacies. “Why not?” allows us to rationalize things such that God’s Word fits, oh so conveniently, our agenda.

A companion question that belongs right there next to “Why?” is, “What does the Bible say?” When used in tandem, they will not steer us wrong — something that is a constant danger with our emotions & intellect. Try it on any of the hot-button issues facing us today — contemporary worship, the usurping of the pastoral office by the laity (e.g., lay “ministers”, lay readers, priestitutes (aka woman “pastors”), doctrine & practice, evangelism, etc…

Ahhhh, that feels better!
-ghp