Thursday, January 11, 2007
Tradition!
Those words of Teyve rang through my mind, with all the force and power of Topol singing it, as I read this post from Dan Edelen.
I have told the story before, but it is worth repeating many times. In the Soviet Union, religion was actively and openly oppressed, killed, murdered, harmed. But the tradition or religion and its many artful expressive forms had wormed their way so deeply into the fabric of the society, that they had to remain. Cathedrals and churches of unparalleled architectural beauty - Icons, ancient in the writing simply could not be removed from view. Even Stalin knew the power of the governed, and he dare not step too far. Besides, such things occassionally brought visitors, which brought much needed hard currency.
By the time I visited there, genuine faith was very hard to find, but mere months later the Iron Curtain fell and in rushed the faithful to attempt to restore it. They found fertile ground. No, more, they found ground plowed and ready for planting. Why? Those forms that seem so idolatrous, so extravagent, kept alive in that nation a hunger for the Spirit. The gospel, instead of being a message from another planet, was a message that provided true meaning to that which surrounded them.
As I ponder the evangelical landscape, the undistinctive architecture, the lack of adornment, I wonder what would be left if the kind of oppression and supression the church experienced in the Soviet Uniion came here? The buildings are too easily and unnoticably convertable to factories and offices. There is no liturgy seared into the minds of the generation to come springing forth in times of stress and desparation, and thus given to the next generation.
What, I wonder will we leave behind? If nothing, we have most assuredly failed.
Related Tags: faith, religion, tradtion, Russia, The Soviet Union
I don't understand Evangelicalism's obsession with wiping out the past. In many parts of the American Church today, a flagrant disregard for what and who has come before us dominates all expression toward God. It's as if today's Christians must live in a self-imposed vacuum. We are told by the more "learned" to build no Bethels. Soon, forgetfulness washes over us like a dulling fog.Modern evangelical faith is built on such a fragile base. Like an army which has stretched it's supply line to long and thin, but still focuses on the battle, we risk losing the war we have fought so well.
I have told the story before, but it is worth repeating many times. In the Soviet Union, religion was actively and openly oppressed, killed, murdered, harmed. But the tradition or religion and its many artful expressive forms had wormed their way so deeply into the fabric of the society, that they had to remain. Cathedrals and churches of unparalleled architectural beauty - Icons, ancient in the writing simply could not be removed from view. Even Stalin knew the power of the governed, and he dare not step too far. Besides, such things occassionally brought visitors, which brought much needed hard currency.
By the time I visited there, genuine faith was very hard to find, but mere months later the Iron Curtain fell and in rushed the faithful to attempt to restore it. They found fertile ground. No, more, they found ground plowed and ready for planting. Why? Those forms that seem so idolatrous, so extravagent, kept alive in that nation a hunger for the Spirit. The gospel, instead of being a message from another planet, was a message that provided true meaning to that which surrounded them.
As I ponder the evangelical landscape, the undistinctive architecture, the lack of adornment, I wonder what would be left if the kind of oppression and supression the church experienced in the Soviet Uniion came here? The buildings are too easily and unnoticably convertable to factories and offices. There is no liturgy seared into the minds of the generation to come springing forth in times of stress and desparation, and thus given to the next generation.
What, I wonder will we leave behind? If nothing, we have most assuredly failed.
Related Tags: faith, religion, tradtion, Russia, The Soviet Union
