Being very interested in
history, I have long intended to watch the classic 1934 movie directed by the
great Leni Riefenstahl depicting the annual Nuremberg NAZI Party convention,
considered by many to be the greatest (and most notorious) propaganda film ever
made. Today I had time to sit down and watch that enthralling work, and greatly
enjoyed the narration provided in the digitized 2000 edition by Anthony R.
Santoro, Ph.D., at that time Distinguished Professor of History and President
Emeritus of Christopher Newport University, Newport News, Virginia.
In was while watching “Triumph
Of The Will” that Dr. Santoro made mention of the NAZI Party’s frequent use of
flags and standards, remarking about facts that were new to me. For example, I had not known that the famous
architect for Adolph Hitler, a man named Albert Speer, took a leading role in
producing the party rallies in Nuremberg, and created the concept that he
termed “the sea of flags,” with thousands of swastika flags carried to great
effect. However, it was a second remark
he made that intrigued me and dredged up old memories, when he pointed out that
Hitler’s use of standards was copied from Italian Fascist dictator Benito
Mussolini, who had been in power since 1922, and who himself had copied the use
of standards from the legions of the Imperial Roman Army.
I think it was 1999 that I
attended a meeting of pastors in Southern California where I observed for the
first time that I remember in a church the presentation of a pageant of some
kind by the host church, featuring standards of the type I had only previously
observed in Greek Orthodox churches.
Several months later I attended another meeting of pastors in the state
of Colorado, where I once more saw a pageant that made prominent a number of
standards. Finally, when several months
had once more passed, I attended yet another meeting of church pastors in the
state of Tennessee, where I observed a pageant and display of standards. This provoked me to approach the director of
the program to ask him about the pageant and the standards. He was effusive
about the entire subject, volunteering that his idea for the pageant and
standards came from a large conference he had attended in Virginia, but that
the original concept had come from an Assembly of God church in Brooklyn, whose
music director had copied it from a Greek Orthodox church.
Pageantry. What role does pageantry play in most contemporary
churches? I am afraid pageantry plays an
ever increasing role in churches in American culture. However, questions need to be asked about the
proper place of pageantry in Christian worship. We can understand the importance of pageantry
to Imperial Rome, to Mussolini’s Fascist state in Italy, to Hitler’s NAZI
Germany, and even to our own military and political arenas. Pageantry is how you impress people, rally
people, motivate the masses, and generate enthusiasm for a team, be it a
baseball or football team, a rifle platoon, or a construction crew.
The issue raised in my own mind
and heart, however, is the place of pageantry in Christian worship. After all, we see no pageantry associated
with any aspect of the Virgin Birth of Christ, an important point to make at
this Christmas time of year. To be sure,
the angels burst forth in a paean of praise, “Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace, good will toward men,” but their only audience were the shepherds
who had been keeping watch over their flocks by night. It was hardly anything
like pageantry. How about when the wise
men from the East arrived? No pageantry there, either. As a matter of fact, throughout the entire
life of the Lord Jesus Christ here on earth, from His birth to His resurrection,
the only pageantry on display was the pageantry associated with Roman
occupation and the muted pageantry the Romans allowed in connection with Temple
worship.
The point that I make is that
pageantry occupied no place in anything remotely Christian until Constantine
merged state and church and the pageantry of Imperial Rome was adopted by what
came to be the Roman Catholic Church, and which is presently seen in the
ritualized worship of the Roman Catholic Church, the Russian, Greek, and
Armenian Orthodox Churches, the Coptic Church in Africa, and those Protestant
churches that are so much wed to formalism.
Sadly, however, pageantry is flooding back into gospel preaching
congregations and wreaking havoc.
How so? Though there will someday be great pageantry
associated with proper worship of the Savior, beginning with the majestic
procession of His magnificent return in power and great glory (Revelation 19.11
ff), pageantry in Christian worship is not at present sanctioned in scripture,
for a significant reason. The just live
by faith. Pageantry, however, exposes
people to a sensory assault that greatly distracts from any possibility
of communicating or receiving a faith-based message.
Therefore, whenever a ministry becomes devoted to pageantry, there will
be a corresponding diminishing of its focus on those doctrines and
proclamations that foster faith.
After all, if Imperial Rome did it, if Mussolini did it, if
Hitler did it, and if the Roman church, the Orthodox churches, and the Coptic
churches do it, how spiritual can it be?
Methinks we should be so jealous for the Lord that we seek those
encouragements and blessings that derive from the preaching of God’s Word, the
singing of God’s praise, the testimonies of God’s people, and the fruit that
real ministry produces. Let us not
settle for being emotionally moved by pageantry. It is a poor substitute for the blessings of
God.
