Do-It-Yourself: the Lay-Mass in the LCMS

The Coronavirus phenomenon has exposed some serious flaws that plague our Missouri Synod. Fortunately, the advocates of the DIY Lay-Mass in the home are outliers, and certainly don’t seem to be the norm. Nevertheless, there is clearly a problem of theological education that is in need to being addressed in our midst - not to mention the ever-present issue of church discipline in the context of a democratic, congregationally autonomous polity.

Here are two recent videos of LCMS pastors teaching their at-home audiences how to prepare a DIY Lay-Mass: one in Texas, another in Washington. One is a graduate of Fort Wayne, the other of St. Louis.

Both are essentially doing the same thing: encouraging lay-people to put bread and wine (or grape juice, in the words of one, “if that is your preference,” interestingly enough) and join the online church service, speaking the Words of Institution over the elements in the home. It is especially fascinating that both of these pastors are willing to use grape juice instead of wine. It looks like there is some kind of common source for this idea. It would be interesting to know where they are getting this.

The pastor from Washington says that God is not bound by space and time. He misses the incarnational and sacramental mystery that yes, indeed, He is! The Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity condescends to take flesh in the man Jesus, and indeed, in love, binds Himself to space and time in the Sacrament of His body and blood. These kinds of ethereal, internet claims of God’s online cyber-presence are Gnostic, and denigrate the holiness of the spaces consecrated for worship: altars, fonts, and pulpits.

Even when the pastor visits a parishioner in the home, he uses a portable altar and employs communion vessels consecrated for this use alone. And the pastor is present, under orders and bearing authority, to consecrate and administer the Lord’s body and blood to the faithful.

But of course, the real issue here is authority. Does a lay-man or a lay-woman have the authority to speak the words of institution over the bread and wine and thus consecrate the elements? According to Article 14, we Lutherans join the church catholic from the days of the apostles in saying, “No.”

This is not because pastors are “better” than lay-people. This is not because the laity are somehow inferior. Rather this is vocational: the pastor was ordained into the office of shepherd and he has the fatherly vocation in the community to preach and administer sacraments - by virtue of his office. Even in the preparatory rite of confession and absolution in LSB, the pastor forgives the confessed sins of the congregation “by virtue of [his] office as a called and ordained servant of the Word, and by His authority.”

In the same way, a president signs a bill into law by virtue of his office. An ordinary American can likewise write his name on the same pieces of paper, but they are null and void - not because presidents are better, or have some magical powers, but rather because the president has an office. He has authority that the “laity” are not given.

The reason there is an Article 14 in the Augustana and the Apology is because in 1530, the Lutherans were being lumped in with various Protestant groups that had essentially laicized or abolished the holy office. Article 14 rebukes the Roman Catholic theologians for their false accusation with which they broad-brushed the early Lutherans, lumping them in with the Radical Reformation.

Every LCMS pastor is under vows that his preaching and teaching are normed by the Book of Concord, including Article 14. Every LCMS congregation, as a condition of membership in our synod, confesses the individual documents comprising the Book of Concord. Pastors and congregations teaching such things as DIY Lay-Mass are teaching at odds with our confession. And though bureaucratic proclamations are not necessary to this issue, this issue has actually been dealt with by the CTCR in 2006.

In addition to these preachers teaching this, there are hearers - some trained for and/or holding lay offices within our church body - who likewise deny Article 14.

In my first call, I was a high school campus pastor under the authority of a principal who claimed that he, though unordained, was qualified under Article 14 to preach, and presumably officiate at the Sacrament of the Altar, because he too had a “call.” He was a graduate of a particular one of our Concordia universities and was no recent graduate. Besides, “Where does it say that in the Bible?” he asked, pitting the Book of Concord (by which he had taken vows) against the Scripture.

Interestingly, there was a recent Facebook exchange that included a 2019 graduate of the DCE program of this same Concordia university. He said that he was taught at this Concordia that pastors could delegate to laymen and laywomen the authority to say Mass under the auspices of the “priesthood of all believers” (1 Peter 2:9). And his dismissal of Article 14 closely mirrored that of my erstwhile boss at the high school: “Lutherans believe in scripture alone.” This the young man said to Siberian Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin, who once met an elderly lady in a remote village who had been exiled there in Stalin’s purge, and who had never received Holy Communion. She told the Bishop that she had waited her whole life to meet a Lutheran pastor and asked for the Sacrament - which he gave her. The Holy Eucharist is not a do-it-yourself project.

Is this just a coincidence that this same Concordia graduated men in the 1960s and in 2019 with the same approach to the Bible, confessions, sacraments, and the Holy Office?

One argument for Lay-Mass lies in the understanding of 1 Peter 2:9, as the claim is that unlike the Roman Catholic Church, the priesthood is everyone, not just ordained pastors. This is also a misunderstanding of the Roman Catholic Church, which also confesses the “priesthood of the laity.”

There is a narrative that teaches that somehow, the Aaronic priesthood was replaced by the universal priesthood of believers when the temple curtain was torn, and that now, we don’t need pastors. Of course, they’re nice to have and all, but hardly necessary, since all Christians are priests and can “go to God” directly.

The Aaronic priesthood, with its blood sacrifices, is fulfilled in the High Priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is both Priest and Victim. And of course, all Christians can “go to God” directly in prayer and in confession. But nevertheless, a new testament priesthood was established by God’s command - expressed in the office of πρεσβύτερος (presbuteros) (presbyter, elder). Etymologically, the English word “priest” is derived not from the word “sacerdos” but from “πρεσβύτερος." This pastoral priesthood is not the same as the “priesthood of the baptized.” What is given to the presbyter (the preacher of the Word) is not vocationally given to the lay person (the hearer of the Word). It should also be noted that there is an element of sacerdotal priesthood in the pastoral office based on Romans 15:16, in which St. Paul describes his ministry to the Gentiles as “priestly service” (ἱερουργοῦντα).

In the history of the church, the Office of the Holy Ministry was referred to as “the priesthood.” And so, if you are reading, for example, St. John Chrysostom’s On the Priesthood, a text written in 390 AD and still used in our seminaries, the “priesthood” refers to the ordained ministry, not the office of the laity.

Similarly, when reading Patristics from both the Greek East and Latin West, “the priesthood” is how the Office of the Holy Ministry is referred. And in fact, it is the single most common appellation (by far) for Lutheran pastors in the Book of Concord. So for example, when Article 23 addresses “Marriage of Priests” (De Coniugio Sacerdotum / Von der Priesterehe) the confessors are speaking of pastors, not the laity.

This nomenclature is at odds with a lot of modern LCMS writing, which cultishly describes the laity as “the priesthood” instead of the pastors. It is almost as if we in the LCMS are defrocked from the priesthood at our ordinations. There is also confusion in our appropriation of the biblical term “elder” (which translates πρεσβύτερος (presbuteros)) as a lay assisting office that is not part of the Biblical ministry. Owing to biblical and theological confusion, my congregation, years ago, used to have the Board of Elders solemnly (or maybe more accurately, comically) lay hands on new pastors.

We in the LCMS would do well to write and speak like our confessions and our catholic tradition instead of like an anticlerical sect. In extraordinary times like we are facing now, we are seeing the chickens come home to roost.

We would also do well to find out what our Concordias are teaching - especially in the DCE program, where my young interlocutor said:

“I think that the pastor has the authority to teach others to perform the sacraments (during emergency or certain situations) as an extension of his office. Wait till you hear what we learned about women teaching as DCEs in the church. You guys just have no open mind outside of what you’ve studied and studied and studied passed down by men to the extent that you exclude any churches or people who practice the same beliefs in a different manner.”

He also informed me:

Larry, I’m just telling you what I’ve learned in my studies and what my synod has presented me with for information regarding interpretation of the new covenant and the extent and responsibilities of the pastoral office. I think we’ll all see that we all may have gotten it wrong when Christ returns or when we see in full. I think we may be surprised because our minds are simply human! Haha

If this is what our Concordias are teaching men who are destined for “ministry” in the congregation, I think some monitoring and auditing may be in order - not to mention damage control among the graduates.

I also believe we have a problem of Biblical illiteracy.

While people latch onto 1 Peter 2:9’s “royal priesthood” (βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα), they seem ignorant of the fact that this is the same language is used in Exodus 19:6 (see the LXX: (βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα!). And that said, even though the laity of Israel were also a “royal priesthood” or “kingdom of priests” - they still had the office of the Aaronic priesthood to lead them in public worship.

Moses and Aaron had laity making their own arguments against the exclusive nature of the priestly office, such as Korah’s rebellion (Numbers 16), in which Korah said to Moses and Aaron (Numbers 16:3):

You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, And the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?

I suspect that most of our Sunday School children, a good number of our DCE students, and sadly some of our pastors don’t know what happened next.

Or how about the time Miriam (and Aaron, interestingly enough) rebelled against Moses’s authority:

Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?

Interestingly, in this case, Miriam received the punishment for this rebellion, not Aaron.

We are infected by American democracy and postmodern egalitarianism. This, combined with Protestantizing tendencies - especially among congregations that have walked away from vestments and hymns and have gone running to the hipster duds and the drum kit - have led to a confused sacramentology and lack of understanding about what the Office of the Holy Ministry is.

It’s very clear that we have some work to do - both in our ecclesiastical discipline and in our theological education - to get back to a confession that is authentically Lutheran instead of something that looks like a weekend DIY project at Home Depot.