pilgrim people

Without doubt, tithing and giving is a topic that I would rather avoid. As a pastor, I know that many parishioners have come from churches that not only had terrible theology, but seemed to maintain an endless fundraising campaign. That sort of financial pressure, coupled with the non-doctrinal, moralistic, therapeutic deism in the teaching and preaching, has left many poor souls with an aversion to the topic of tithing and giving.

Not only that, but talking about tithing and giving, for many of us, just seems so, well, tacky. Talk of budgets, incomes, and expenses just doesn’t seem very heavenly-minded. And with the cost of gas and food on the rise, is this really something we want to talk about?

And yet, God has chosen to advance his kingdom through ordinary means. God uses ordinary people giving of their time, abilities, and resources. As uncomfortable as the subject may be to us, financial giving is something which the New Testament clearly addresses as a regular part of the Christian life. The Bible describes giving, not only in terms of joy and worship.

We must, therefore, ask the question: what exactly does God require of me in financial giving? This post will consider briefly what the Scriptures say about this sometimes uncomfortable, but potentially joyful subject.

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Another reason for praying the Lord's Prayer in public worship every week is that it gives us continuity with the historic Christian church. As we look at the liturgies (orders of worship) of the historic Christian church, we find that the Lord’s Prayer has almost always been a regular part of the worship service in the patristic, medieval, and Reformation eras.

For some, the weekly practice of praying the Lord’s Prayer evokes frightening images of Roman Catholic ritualism. But we should remember that this is an historically Protestant practice. In all of the liturgies of the Reformation – the liturgies drafted by Martin Bucer (1539), John Calvin (1542), Thomas Cramner (1552), John Knox (1556) as well as others – the practice of praying the Lord’s Prayer was included as a regular part of the divine service. Like the Apostle’s Creed and the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer was not deleted from the service by the reformers. In reforming worship, they sought to remove superstition and idolatry, but they held fast to those things that they believed were biblical and useful, not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Instead, they sought to maintain the biblical practice and instruct Christians on the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer through useful catechisms which were written, published and used for the benefit of the people.

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As we conclude this series of short posts on the importance of the evening service, there are a few concluding thoughts to which I would like to draw your attention. First, we should keep in mind that the evening service provides a broader scope of preaching on the whole counsel of God, allowing the pastor to take his congregation through more of Scripture than only one service would allow. By calling two services on the Lord's Day, the elders have ensured that the menu is broadened. How else is a congregation to hear expository preaching through most of the Bible as well as frequent catechetical sermons on the doctrines of Scripture? Two sermons a week, rather than one, provides more rather than less.

Secondly, by making evening service attendance a norm for our families, our children grow up with a better understanding of the importance of the means of grace and the gathering of the saints in holy assembly. When parents make both services a priority for their families, there is a far greater chance that children will maintain this pattern later in their adult lives. Attending both services is not only good for our families souls now, but it is also a spiritual investment for the future.

Finally, while there may be legitimate, pastoral reasons why attending the means of grace in the evening is a practical impossibility for a particular family, we must be careful to examine ourselves to see if our aversion to the evening service is in reality an attitude that asks, "What is the least that is required of me?" Let us lay aside such ungrateful thinking and be reminded that we are pilgrims on the way to our heavenly home. Just as our lives are marked with the beautiful sabbatical rhythm of six-and-one that was established in creation and looks forward to the consummation, so we have a beautiful rhythm of worship each Lord’s Day that provides us with an opportunity both in the morning and the evening to gather together with God’s covenant community and receive his good gifts of Word and sacrament from his open hand.

As one charged with the responsibility of feeding the flock of Christ and watching out for their souls, I encourage you to attend the evening worship service. It is good for your soul. Make use of the spiritual feast prepared for you each week in the morning and evening.

Heidelberg Catechism Question and Answer 65 asks, “Since then we are made partakers of Christ and all his benefits by faith only, from where comes this faith?” It answers: “The Holy Spirit works it in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel, and confirms it by the use of the holy sacraments.” I sometimes wonder how many Christians really believe that. One of the main reasons why the evening worship service has been greatly neglected in our day is because of a generally low view of preaching and the sacraments. Who wants to sit through another boring sermon when one can get a bigger “blessing” in a small-group Bible study, personal devotions, or, to be very honest, something interesting on TV?

But if the worship service really is the Divine service, that is, the holy event in which God condescends to us and meets us in his preached and visible Gospel, then surely Christians would not want to miss this. If it is true that "faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ" (Rom 10.17) and it is "the preaching of Jesus Christ" that strengthens us (Rom 16.25), then the preached Gospel is the lifeline to our sanctification.  What other reasonable response is there but to heed God's call to worship in the evening as well as the morning? It is as if God is announcing to his people, "It's meal time for your soul!" He calls us to Mount Zion for a family meal twice each Lord's Day so that we have a foretaste of heaven, our minds renewed, our hope built up, and our discipleship advanced. Why on earth (literally) would we want to miss that?

In the Divine Service, both in the morning and evening, a meal has been prepared for us. We take our seats at the table while he who came not to be served but to serve (Mark 10.45) feeds us and nourishes our souls.

Some Christians balk at the practice of attending an evening service because it is not what they are accustomed to. What they must understand, however, is that if what they are accustomed to is only one service on the Lord's Day, then they are accustomed not to the practice of the historic Christian church, but to a modern novelty.

As we look at the history of the church, we see that morning and evening worship on the Lord's Day was the norm. In the early fourth century, the church historian Eusebius of Caesarea described what he understood to be the universal practice of the church:

"For it is surely no small sign of God’s power that throughout the whole world in the churches of God at the morning rising of the sun and at the evening hours, hymns, praises, and truly divine delights are offered to God. God’s delights are indeed the hymns sent up everywhere on earth in his Church at the times of morning and evening." (emphasis mine)

During the Middle Ages, morning worship became known as “lauds” and evening worship “vespers.” Attending both lauds and vespers was standard practice for Christians.

At the time of the Reformation, the custom of morning and evening worship continued as evidenced in the liturgies of the Reformed churches in the sixteenth century. Typically, the evening (or in many cases, afternoon) service was devoted to an exposition of Reformed doctrine and was more catechetical in nature. So important was this second service to the life of the Reformed churches, that when it was threatened by the protests of the Remonstrants (Arminians), the matter was brought to the Synod of Dort (1618-19) and discussed at great length. The overwhelming testimony at the Synod by the delegates from countries all over Europe was that the second service was something to be guarded and cherished in order that the Reformed faith might continue to flourish and Christians have greater opportunity to mature in their understanding.

Through the centuries, this practice continued to be a principal part of Reformed worship as it can be traced in the traditions of the Dutch Reformed churches, English Puritanism and Scottish Presbyterianism, as well as Anglicanism and early Lutheranism. Thus, it must be understood that Protestant churches that have dropped the evening worship service altogether have sharply departed from what has historically been a normal practice of Christ’s church.