Thrilled to Death

The above is a title to a book that was written by Dr. Archibald D. Hart. The title is similar to a book written probably 20 years ago called Entertaining Ourselves To Death. The premise is that our continuous pursuit of high stimulation is snuffing out our ability to experience genuine pleasure in simple things.

"It's called anhedonia--a feeling of joylesness and cheerlessness. Everyone feels it to some extent these days, and it's not going to go away. In our fast paced, pleasure--seeking society, we are obsessed with increasing our level of excitement to feel a sense of pleasure. When we go to the movies, we expect the action sequences to be more thrilling and spectacular than before. Our music must be louder and edgier than the last album. Even in our churches, preachers must out-wow their last sermon or we might not go back again. We have become adictively dependent on thrills and kicks.....More alarming to me is that anhedonia is impacting our children and teenagers to a greater extent than parents, and if we don't take action to correct it, I pity where the next generation is headed. Deriving pleasure from the ordinary and healthy experiences of life will be a thing of the past."

It seems like the church needs to be focused less on entertainment and more upon fasting, meditation and quiet service to others. It's always got to be a balance, but the influence of a "rock concert" culture should be considered.

Worship Spaces

I'm not a big fan of Ulrich Zwingli of the Reformation. He gave us white-washed churches and reduced baptism to something we do for God and viewed the Eucharist as unnecessary. Sometime, I will spend some time talking about how Zwingli has pointed Protestants in the wrong direction. One legacy of Zwingli is that places of worship should be plain and unadorned. He would love minimalist architecture.

Mark Galli writes in his book, Beyond Smells and Bells, about Jacob's encounter with God at Bethel--on a specific piece of real estate and how this place leaves a mark on Jacob.

Gen 28:16-19
"6 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it." 17 He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." 18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel,"

The place that Jacob marked with a monument became a place of worship. Mark Galli says this: "Sanctuaries are Bethel places, places where God meets and blesses his people. They are pieces of real estate where God leaves his mark on his people and on a place. Places become holy places, sacred places, places that people mark with stained glass or decorative altars or crucifixes. And they mark them by continuing to worship on this piece of real estate. To be sure, we can worship God anywhere, and the church is not the building but the people. Yet this does not take into account how God normally works in our lives--that is, by revealing himself to us in places, places that become sacred and holy."

I used to have a negative view of cathedrals....you know, what a waste...why wasn't the cost of this given to the poor. But my view has changed. Susan and I have had the privilege to visit several cathedrals in Europe and we enjoy going there very much. There is a sense of history and they put your mind in a sense of awe. I think we need more cathedrals to God and less cathedrals to sport (those seem to be ok with everyone). In this postmodern world we need places that are set apart from the secular world. And we don't need a utilitarian building devoid of art that is designed for basketball for players that can't jump very high.

We don't need to be wasteful, but I hope we will give more thought to how we design and decorate our places of worship. It seems odd that we feel it is important to have well designed and appointed offices, homes, malls, etc. ....but often our places of worship are plane boxes lacking any sense of being special Bethel places.

Am I off base here?

Note: The picture is of the cathedral located in Bath, England....a beautiful place.