I think it might be a worthwhile project (not that people haven’t necessarily done this before) to compile, list, write a short book of, etc. those characteristics that distinguish Lutheran liturgy specifically, as opposed to Western liturgy or liturgy in general. For example, as has been noted before and is shown in the painting you posted here, the administration of both kinds was distinctively Lutheran or at least “Evangelical” at the beginning.

I do think it’s interesting Walther uses the definite article “the Lutheran liturgy” at least in this translation; not “a Lutheran liturgy” or “Lutheran liturgies” or simply “Lutheran liturgy”. I’m curious whether that definite article is there in the German, and whether it’s significant.

Question: During worship on Sunday, our pastors in the liturgy decided to substitute Confession & Absolution with the Rite of Baptismal Renewal. Is this a sign to run away to another Missouri Synod congregation? Thank you.

@Jesse Pr. McCain: My concerns about the change in yesterday’s liturgy are sincere but there was a little bit of sarcasm embedded in my comment. Hopefully I will have a productive talk with my pastor. I have a habit of occasionally making mountains out of molehills and I pray this is one of those moments.

@ptmccain
I’m not sure what’s in the above-mentioned Rite of Baptismal Renewal (is it in the new LCMS hymnal, or was it a homemade rite?). But since yesterday was the celebration of the Baptism of our Lord, my WELS church made use of a baptism gathering rite that’s included in the new(ish) WELS hymnal supplement which includes confession and absolution.

The wisdom of Dr. Walther never ceases to amaze me.

Christine

The American religious landscape needs a good strong dose of Lutheran liturgy.

@ptmccain
Pr. McCain,

My apologies; I didn’t mean for my comments to be unclear. What I meant was that at the time of the Reformation, or when that painting was made, one of the most distinguishing features of the Lutheran liturgy was the administration of both kinds in the Sacrament, unlike the Roman church of that time, while on the other hand the candles and vestments and other artwork were distinctive of the Lutheran liturgy because they had been abolished in the Reformed churches. That’s all I meant, and it wasn’t really that original of a comment as it had already been made by Dr. John Stephenson in a book review in one of the Logia issues last year.

Administering both kinds in the Sacrament was a bad example for me to pick. What I meant to include were things like using the Aaronic benediction or placing the Nunc Dimittis after the Communion or using the “bare Verba” at least in Germany or using two candles on the altar instead of six (which Piepkorn himself recommended against because it was a Counter-Reformation usage). I believe Pr. Weedon has mentioned more of these in various posts and comment threads. All I’m trying to say is that I think it would be good for Lutherans to see themselves as Christians with a Christian liturgy (always and everywhere determined by Word and Sacrament), blessed by the Western liturgical heritage (having the strong Christological focus as the church of the Filioque), with a unique Lutheran liturgy shaped by the Gospel as it was fought for during the Reformation (anti-iconoclasm, true reforming conservatism, adherence to Christ’s institution of the Sacraments, solus Christus). Too often I think the “liturgical” crowd looks elsewhere because we’re unwilling to see our own heritage as legitimate and having its own rightful place in the Western church.

When our Lutheran fathers mentioned that ceremonies need not be identical everywhere, I would think that foremost in their minds was the difference between the Eastern Rite and the Western Rite, and we could say that there are several things in each liturgy that are “characteristically Western” or “characteristically Eastern”. Beyond that, my understanding is that there were a number of different liturgical traditions in the West (Sarum Rite, Gallican Rite, Mozarabic Rite, the various rites in German and Scandinavian lands) which were eventually more or less overrun by the imposition of the Roman rite. Yet there are things which were “characteristic of Sarum Rite” or “characteristic of the Germanic rites”, and I wonder whether the Lutheran reformers didn’t have these distinctions in mind.

I really have no position for or against “liturgical minutiae and accretions” in general, without talking about specific practices, although it seems like in many cases one man’s accretion is another man’s essential and vice versa. Today, it seems like we’ve gotten to the point where you can always find someone in the LCMS who considers anything in the liturgy to be an accretion because it developed over time.

Rev. McCain has written correctly regarding communion under both kinds. The Reformers acted as the “traditionalists” against the innovations of the high and late medieval periods (1150-1500). Lutheran art that depicts the divine service always purposely shows the distribution of both elements to the laity as proclamation of the correct practice. Another example of their rejection of later medieval innovation is the Lutheran rejection of parading consecrated hosts around outside its use in the Lord’s Supper. The Roman Church declared a special festival for this practice in the late thirteenth century called Corpus Christi.

“It is a pity and a dreadful cowardice when one sacrifices the good ancient church customs to please the deluded American sects, lest they accuse us of being Catholic.” Walther’s quote is a stinging rebuke of many modern Lutherans advocate exactly what he rejects.

“

I appreciated this post very much, Pastor Paul. The current “powerpoint, musical variety, live action, let’s entertain generation Y” approach to liturgy that crops up even in good Lutheran churches is so disheartening to me. I have to sit through powerpoint presentations all week at work. I am surrounded by pop music everywhere I go: doctor waiting rooms, diners, bookstores, coffee shops, even bathrooms. I don’t want to be entertained; I want some sacred space to pray in and hear the Word in. I want to experience a sense of another reality, not be immersed more deeply in the tasteless excesses and often pointless busyness of this one.

RE: “lecture halls in which the hearers are addressed or instructed”

I find that interesting, because among my non-Lutheran evangelical adult acquaintances today, I generally find a greater appetite for learning.

Thanks for the post! This really hits home with me right now. Thanks also jmark, you speak very clearly and have a great point. Luther speaks of the 8th day and that is what our time in church is, not of this world, but heaven and earth together, why should we want this time to remind us of the rest of our life. It is our one time each when when heaven and earth are together.

I’m curious on the comment on when the “Nunc Dimittis” is sung.

I’m (LCMS) used to singing it AFTER communion. I was at a family baptism at an Episcopal Church and it was sung by a cantor just before the Eucharist.

What is the difference in timing?

Well I don’t know if this is what the pastors used at the church in the post above, but this is the Rite of Baptismal Renewal that we used this weekend at the church I serve as well as the vacancy congregation.

The Rite of Baptismal Renewal

P Dear friends, we were buried into Christ by baptism into His death, and raised with Him to newness of life. I call upon you to renew the solemn promises and vows of Holy Baptism, by which we once renounced the devil and all his works and ways and were made members of the Holy Christian Church. Do you renounce the devil?
C I do renounce him.

P Do you renounce all his works?
C I do renounce them.

P Do you renounce all his ways?
C I do renounce them.

P Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty?
C Yes, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

P Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son?
C Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

P Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?
C Yes, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

P Pastor: Is it your purpose to continue steadfast in this faith and in the promise of your Baptism and, as a member of the Church, to be diligent in the use of the means of grace and prayer?
C Yes, with the help of God.

P Come then, trace the sign of the cross upon you with the baptismal water, recalling your baptism into Christ, and renewing your pledge and promise to live in this baptismal identity and promise as long as you live.

(The congregation may come forward according to local custom, dipping their fingers in the baptismal water, making the sign of the cross and returning to their seats.)

P Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given you the new birth of water and of the Spirit and has forgiven you all your sins, strengthen you with His grace to life everlasting.
C Amen.

P May He who began this good work within you bring it to completion on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6, adapt. The peace of the Lord be with you.
C And also with you.

Greeting
P The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father + and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
C And also with you.

LSB does not include these words on page 204 of LW, speaking of what to do after performing the baptism.

20. All return to their places. The service continues with the Introit, Psalm, or Entrance Hymn.

It would seem that a baptism in the service serves the confession and absolution, especially when the renunciation questions are asked. With celebrating the Baptism of Our Lord; Creative Worship for the Lutheran Parish from Concordia Publishing House had this as part of their service. Is it right or wrong I don’t know, but it sure helped illustrate the point of baptism this weekend.

Ben

I usually do not comment on this blog, but jmarks comments could not go with out remark. as someone who has grown up with the screens in front of me providing the worship information i need to participate with the body of Christ in worshiping our creator/savior. I have discovered that when i am in a worship service which does not use some type of presentation, it becomes very heard for me to concentrate. Rather than looking up at a screen to get info for lyrics or readings, i have to look down at a hymnal (which is very distracting for me.) Also i do not resonate with classic Lutheran music, which was just popular music of old. Luther is famous for making hymns out of common songs, so it seems to me that using new instruments, new media, new art, and new music; would be decidedly more Lutheran (and confessional for that matter) than using music and technology from the late 1800s. @jmark

@Cris

Cris, please study your Lutheran hymnody, let me reference Dr. Robin Leaver’s “Luther’s Liturgical Music”, Luther was very careful in his selection of a tune for his hymns and other music. The tune served to support the text. If memory serves correctly, Luther tried a common tune once and then was so displeased by it he wrote his own tune for the text of the hymn. He composed his own music quite often because of the belief that tune was subservient to text.

Having been in both types of services, ones with powerpoint presentations and those without, let me encourage you not to be trapped by the slavery of a screen but to focus upon the worship of God through the beauty of the church you are attending. There are rich blessings to be experienced when the liturgy is committed to memory and truly concentrated upon as one progresses through worship with Christ.

@Cris
You raise some good points. I know that this is a problem in other churches, also. I heard one pastor say that the style of music used in services was the most divisive issue in his church. I do not know what the solution is. Personally, I find screens, show business style lighting, live-action acting out of sermons, pop music, video presentations, power-point sermons, etc., to be as distracting and unhelpful as you do more traditional approaches. This isn’t necessarily a generational issue, either: I know younger people (Calvinists and Baptists) whose move to the Orthodox churches was partly inspired by the ancient liturgies of those churches. And I know middle-aged and older people who consider services and music that I find contemplative to be funereal : o

The Baptismal Renewal was from the Creative Worship resource from CPH.

@revfish That is exactly what the pastors used on Sunday.

Is Creative Worship among the “synodically approved resources”?

jim_claybourn :I’m curious on the comment on when the “Nunc Dimittis” is sung.
I’m (LCMS) used to singing it AFTER communion. I was at a family baptism at an Episcopal Church and it was sung by a cantor just before the Eucharist.
What is the difference in timing?

In the Anglican tradition, the Nunc Dimittus is reserved for the second canticle at Vespers, or, more generally in the contemporary useage of Anglican liturgy, as a canticle for use at any office, with a particular preference for evening. Unlike the Augustana Rite, the English Liturgy has no history of using the Nunc Dimittus as a post-communion Canticle (though the Gloria in Excelsis is a fixed post-communion canticle in the historic BCP from 1552 through 1962).

There is a widespread practice in the United States of using the Daily Office (at least Morning and Evening Prayer) as the Ante-Communion, joining the Eucharistic rite at the offertory. This practice (less than affectionately known as FrankenMass) tends to prevail in parts of the US where Morning Prayer was the principal Sunday service before the Liturgical Renewal of the 60′s and 70′s. There, MP was a tradition with, at best, a simple early Eucharist or, more usually, Communion either monthly or otherwise infrequently.

Did the readings on the day you attended the Baptism relate to Simeon and Anna by any chance? If so, it is somewhat common for cantor or choral anthems to be sung at points in the Anglican liturgy… but other than that.

Rob+