Bernard Bell's Response to my Email (posted with permission)

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your two recent emails, of 7/14 and 8/10.I have just finished another four weeks preaching on Revelation, 7/18 -8/08, this time covering the Seven Trumpets, 8:6-11:19. This brings meto the half-way point in the book. At this rate I'll finish in 2009!

It's a pity the Orthodox don't spend much time with this book, but then nor do the Catholics. Some Protestants spend a lot of time with the book, but most of them completely misinterpret it.

I still beg to differ with you. I still stand by my argument that it is the vision which leads to worship, but I think we'll find that we meetmidway. However, we have to understand what we mean by worship. As I showed in my second sermon on Rev 1:9-20 (the one entitled The Visionwhich Leads to Worship), both Hebrew and Greek have two different words which can be translated worship:

1. Heb. abad, Gk. latreuo. The word can be translated as either serveor worship; the Heb. can also be translated work. This is the word thatwas used for Israel's cultic activities; I don't mean cultic in themodern sense, but activities related to the cult: the stuff thathappened in the tabernacle and temple. This would include sacrifices,offering incense, tending the lamps, etc. It is interesting that werefer today to a church "service." This is the liturgy (from the Greekword meaning the work of the people). I argue that the liturgy is thisfirst component of worship. Not many evangelicals would see it thisway. But then I don't think many evangelicals have a theology ofworship!!! I don't know enough about the Orthodox theology of worshipto know how Orthodox see this. The people that I know who see itclearest are some Anglicans and the Benedictine monks. A question Iregularly ask people in order to expose their theology of worship (orlack thereof) is this: If no one showed up for the service except the"leaders" would you still hold the service. That depends who you viewthe audience as being. If you think the audience is the congregationthen you would not proceed. But if you see that the audience is Godthen you would proceed. Benedictine monk gather five times a day tosing the psalms to God. God is the audience, and they view thisactivity as opus Dei, the work of God (sadly this term is now usuallyassociated with the Catholic group of that name). It's been this wayfor 1500 years, since St Benedict wrote his Rule for the new monasticorder.

2. Heb. havah, Gk proskuneo. The word means obeisance to one's lord,whether human or divine. In the ancient world this meant falling onyour face and paying homage. Today we don't fall on our faces, butstill we pay homage.

So, what I think ought to be happening on Sundays as we gather forworship is:liturgy (latreuo, service) --> vision of the triune God --> worship(proskuneo, obeisance). So, you can see, we're not actually very far apart. I find woolythinking about worship at PBCC. What I have been arguing for repeatedlyin my sermons, and will continue to argue for, is that we need to be shown the triune God so that we can respond in worship (homage). We can't show up on Sunday morning and sing, "Let's just praise the Lord."We need to shown the Lord through Scripture, through song, through the preached Word, through the eucharist. Those are all liturgical activities. With this vision of the Lord we should then respondautomatically in praise, adoration and worship. As I argued in thatsecond sermon, "good worship" isn't singing a bunch of "happy, clappy"songs that make me feel good, but being shown God in such a way that Iagain see him enthroned at the center of the universe, and I again bowbefore him and give him my all.

Hmmm. Maybe I should write a book about worship some day, or at least collect all my thoughts in one place.

Sue and I have been to Patmos twice this year. In late Jan, early Febwe spent two weeks there. It was the depth of the off-season, so theisland was very quiet. I spent the time writing, working on a book on the seven messages to the churches in Rev 2-3. Patmos has a permanent population (i.e. those who stay the winter there) of 2500, and seems to have almost as many chapels. The little family hotel we stayed in had its own chapel. We were invited to attend a memorial service there for the hotel owner's sister-in-law who had died. It was a very interesting experience. Though the chapel was tiny, the men and the women still stood separately. Sue was with the women. I positioned myself next tothe two cantors, who sang the liturgy. I was able to look over theirshoulders and read the liturgy - I can read NT Greek which is not toodifferent from the Byzantine Greek of the 4th-7th centuries in whichthe liturgy is written. As as result I was able to follow the servicepretty well. We were both very glad to have attended the service.

BTW, last December I led a Christmas Eve service at PBCC, a"traditional" service of lessons and carols. One of the hymns, "Let allmortal flesh keep silence," is translated from the Liturgy of St James. I used it as a hymn for Christmas, though it is actually written as aeucharistic hymn. It is a very beautiful hymn. You can find mydescription of that service at http://www.pbcc.org/services/20031224.html.

We were back in that part of the world in June, as I led a tour throughTurkey and Greece for 14 from PBCC. This was our second tour of Turkeyand Greece, the first being in 2001. We spent 3 days in Istanbul, amost delightful city, where we of course visited Hagia Sophia and againsaw all the beautiful Byzantine mosaics. Then we flew to Cappadocia fortwo days. This is a fascinating region, the homeland of the CappadocianFathers. We flew into Kayseri, the modern name of Caesarea, home townof Basil the Great. We stayed 90 km away in Nevsehir, modern name ofNyssa, homeland of Gregory of Nyssa. I didn't find out the location ofNazianzus, home of Gregory of Nazianzus. In case you're not familiar,the three Cappadocian Fathers are Basil the Great of Caesarea, Gregoryof Nyssa, and Gregroy Nazianzus. Then we went around all 7 cities ofRevelation. Then 2-1/2 delightful days on Patmos and 2 in Athens. In the monastery of St John on Patmos we had a very interestingencounter with an Orthodox student from the US. When our group of 14entered the Treasury (the monastery museum) he volunteered to show usaround. We immediately found out that Christopher was from SouthernCalifornia, was studying at an Orthodox Seminary in Boston, and was inPatmos for five weeks to observe monastic life and help out in whateverways he could. Within just a few minutes, I suspected that he was aformer Protestant evangelical, so I asked him his story. Sure enough!He grew up a Southern Baptist in Southern California. In college he gotinterested in Reformed Theology, and followed the Mike Horton, KimRiddlebarger crowd. He joined a URC church (very Reformed), but slowlygrew disenchanted, and entered the Greek Orthodox church. Now he is atHoly Cross seminary in Brookline. We talked with him for 90 minutes,until the monastery closed; had it not closed, we could have talked formany more hours. I was delighted at this interchange. I was delightedthat the other PBCC folk got exposed to someone very different, and toa branch of Christendom about which most evangelicals no nothing. That night I led a lengthy discussion about or encounter with Christopher.

As I was writing this, I realized this would have been good material toput in a blog!

I am currently reading Daniel Clendenin's Eastern OrthodoxChristianity. Clendenin lives in Palo Alto, and used to work forInterVarsity. He is not himself Orthodox, but is very sympathetic. He lived in Moscow for several years in the 90s. You can find out more about him at www.journeywithjesus.net. Enough, enough!

Blessings,

Bernard