The Wisdom and Benefit of Retaining Traditional Lutheran Worship Practices
Some time back I think I heard somebody say that it is no longer our grandfather’s Synod anymore, but it seems, when it comes to issues like this, more’s the pity! I’ve also heard it said that the problem with common sense is that it is so uncommon, but I really don’t understand why it is so hard to put the pieces together when it comes to these kinds of issues. A Lutheran Church that no longer looks, sounds, or acts Lutheran in worship practices won’t long remain a Lutheran Church. Here is an interesting quotation from one of the earliest theological journals published in the Missouri Synod, in English:
It appears to be our duty to aid in spreading a knowledge of the rich treasures of our Lutheran Church among those in our country who are unacquainted with German. A good liturgy, the beautiful Lutheran service form part of those treasures [of the Lutheran Church]. Church usages, except in the case when the confession of a divine truth is required, are indeed adiaphora. But they are nevertheless not without an importance of their own. Congregations that adopt the church usages of the sects that surround them, will be more likely to conform to their doctrines more easily and quickly than in those that retain their Lutheran ceremonies. We should in Lutheran services, also when held in the English language, as much as possible use the old Lutheran forms, even if they are said to be antiquated and not suitable in this country. We will mention here the words of a pious Lutheran duchess, Elisabeth Magdalena of Brunswick-Luneburg. Her court-chaplain Prunner relates as follows: ‘Although her ladyship well knew that the ceremonies and purposes of this chapter (at which Prunner officiated) must have appeared to some to be, and was even said by some people to be, “Popery,” she still remembered the instructions which the dear, venerable man, Luther, had once given to her father concerning such ceremonies. I remember in particular that her ladyship several times told me that she did not desire at these present times to begin discontinuing any of these church usages, since she hoped that so long as such ceremonies continued, Calvinistic temerity would be held back from the public office of the church.
Source:
August Graebner, "Review of Church Liturgy for Evangelical Lutheran Congregations of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession." in The Saint Louis Theological Quarterly August 1881 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House), pages 77-78.
On the nature of the liturgy, it’s unchanging nature is both a reflection of the unchanging nature of God, as well as a protection and defence from heresy and false doctrine and so false belief. People need this, because over the generations mankind has shown a remarkable preference for their own wants and desires in the form of “innovative” as opposed to God’s strength and love.
It’s a shame if people aren’t taught that a changeless liturgy serves as a shield, protection, and unmoving post in the ground that can always be relied on to never fail.
Unfortunately, if people get the idea that church is something they do, not what God does for them, you’ll see them chasing for new ways to “worship” Him that are actually aimed at pleasing themselves.
The more I learn the more liturgical I become, and I think that’s the key, the average pew sitter needs to know the who, what and why about the Divine Service and the music that goes with it.
Hello…thank you for an excellent blog.
I do have a bit of a comment/request for clarification though…
You suggest that “A Lutheran Church that no longer looks, sounds, or acts Lutheran in worship practices won’t long remain a Lutheran Church” and I question what really makes for a Lutheran Church?
Would it not be the confessions? Would it not be the Christ-Centered, faith-alone, grace-alone, Scripture-alone attitude put forth by our reforming ancestors?
I would suggest that when the form of worship becomes the primary focus that you are in more danger of loosing your “Lutheran-ness” than if you don’t turn to page 5 or 15 every Sunday.
Indeed, the Confessions seem to clearly indicate that we should NOT be telling other churches how to do worship: “We believe, teach, and confess also that no Church should condemn another because one has less or more external ceremonies not commanded by God than the other, if otherwise there is agreement among them in doctrine and all its articles, as also in the right use of the holy Sacraments, according to the well-known saying: Dissonantia ieiunii non dissolvit consonantiam fidei, Disagreement in fasting does not destroy agreement in faith.”
My point is simple: Our keen focus on Christ and his Grace as mentioned above is the summation of what makes us Lutheran. If that focus is in place then our worship will be too.
The minute we flip it around, we are in danger of going the way our Lord warned against in Mark 7, and truly falling into love with our tradition rather than our Lord.
McCain: The issue is not “flipping” priorities, but rather, what forms of worship serve the purpose of best communicating our Confessional Lutheran theology, the Gospel. It is a very dangerous road to go down to suggest that “style” is of little matter as long as “substance” is correct. It is a harmful thing to suggest that style is so easily separated from substance. The Lutheran Confessions have a great deal to say about the value and utility of the historic forms of worship in the church. The quote you mention from the Confessions has been horribly misunderstood and misapplied to suggest that every local congregation is entirely a “free agent” and can do their own thing. This is not the Lutheran Confessions understanding of “church” but rather, the Confessions assume that territorial groupings of congregations are “church” and will strive for as much uniformity as possible. You might want to refer to previous posts on this blog site about this. I think you will find them helpful.
I would submit it’s not the form of worship that makes us Lutheran, but the “Lutheran-ness” God has given us which expresses itself in a particular form of worship.
A church that’s drifted away from the Lutheran forms is just showing what’s really going on inside the congregation already.
“I would suggest that when the form of worship becomes the primary focus that you are in more danger of loosing your “Lutheran-ness” than if you don’t turn to page 5 or 15 every Sunday.”
My understanding is that the “form of worship” is at heart a catechetical device which directs us to the mercies and servanthood of God; a device in which we speak to the dear Lord in the highest form of communication possible … in His own voice, in His borrowed words.
The psychological and spiritual differences existing between the invocation of God’s Name (“In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,” and the more informal “We begin (our worship) in the Name…” are profound. Immediately in the latter instance, man places himself first in the communicative mode of worship. We serve notice of our existence from the get-go, never mind the drawing near of the One in Three who sought us out even as we were hiding, in the cool of the Garden. I think the latter phrasing makes unconscious inroads in the direction of conversation; it debilitates. We are still hiding, in effect. Now consider those free-falling free-forms of contemporary worship where the Name is shunted aside for a time, or perhaps even abandoned altogether, in the interest of establishing our cleverness. “Maybe if I ignore Your Reality, You’ll leave quietly.”
In contrast to the slights (however unintentional), there is a delightful logic … the logic of love … residing the Lutheran structure. It continually teaches about God (He is Triune), the fundamental nature and state of man, and the relationship existing bewteen the parties, in no uncertain terms.
For example: Immediately after acknowledging God’s presence among us through the Invocation, we who are sinners admit that we dust particles are totally unworthy of that divine grace of attention and sustenance, without His redeeming forgiveness and mercies: “We poor sinners confess unto You …”
The point being that the traditional liturgy is not something slap-dash, like a series of ditties and rounds sung around a camp-fire on the fly; no, it has an underlying energy and heavenly sense which is ordered, and that order instructs the heart with God’s Word. It is catechetical, after the manner spoken of in Ps 119; for it bears truth in which Scriptures are referenced again and again. It is ordered, as God declares Himself to prize decency and order. It is drenched in pleas for mercy, which we need, and the Lord’s sure response to that need e.g., the Kyrie and the Aaronic Benediction.
I do hope all Lutherans are blessed with a weekly Supper, as the Confessions boast to the world is our actual practice. Yes, there is that matter of forgivenss of sins … and life, and salvation. But there is a liturgical motivation as well, one which the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s traditional form uses to instruct us as about the efficacy of prayer. The Lord listens to the just prayer; and He answers. The petitions of the liturgical Lord’s Prayer, all of them, are answered immediately and richly in the form of the Holy Meal. What finer instance of God answering our prayers fully and completely, can be cited by the children of Adam? “Give us this day our daily bread” … “Forgive us our trespasses” … “Lead us not into temptation (but lead us to the green pastures and still waters of Your banquet)” … but “Deliver us from (temporal and eternal) evil.” And these liturgical intercessions are sacramentally done, without fail, in the traditional form that the Church has recited and performed for ages. We are all in this together, after all. As the conclusion to the week’s proper sentence thrillingly relates: “Together with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven …” Yes, and for thousands of years now. Are we of this age that smugly sure of ourselves, so as to abandon the angels and those who have gone before, triumphant in the good fight well fought?