"High Church" at the NYG?

I gave my share of criticism of the 2022 National Youth Gathering. But one thing that was a great positive was the closing Divine Service. The Rev. Robert Paul was the celebrant and the Rev. Matthew Harrison was the preacher. There is no video footage of the service that I can find, and so I have to rely on my memory.

My complaints are minor. I would not have included the so-called “praise band” at all. Fortunately, its participation was limited - mainly so that the orchestra could participate in the Sacrament. Its repertoire did seem to be limited to actual Lutheran hymnody during the Eucharistic service. The usual showboating of the rockers did seem to be dialed down. The other complaint that I have was not with those officiating at all, but rather with the attendees who rendered applause after each part of the Divine Service - as if they were watching a concert rather than participating in a worship service. That shows our need for catechesis about the Divine Service and the danger of a steady diet of “contemporary worship” (so-called) and “praise bands.” It reduces worship to a show, the altar to a stage, the celebrant to a “front man” and the preacher to a guy giving a Ted Talk.

That said, those conducting the Mass did so with reverence and dignity even in the venue of a sports stadium filled with clapping fans.

But not everyone was happy with the Divine Service.

I read some complaints on Facebook that it was “too high church.” Some complained about the chasuble worn by the celebrant. Some complained about the pace of the Words of Institution and the celebrant’s touching of the elements during the consecration. Those complaining were saying that the level of reverence and ceremony was wrong.

As far as LCMS Divine Services go, this was not what one could reasonably call “high church.” It was distinctly middle-of-the-road. And I don’t say this by way of complaint. The service was reverent and followed the ordo. What more could one ask? The celebrant and preacher were focused on Jesus and His incarnate work of coming to us in Word and Sacrament. Again, what more could one ask than that? Both men are faithful servants of the Word, and both carried out their vocations as they have been called by the Holy Spirit to do - both at the altar and in the pulpit.

The celebrant spoke rather than chanted the prayers and - if memory serves - his part of the dialogue of the liturgy. He did chant the Words of Institution and did so with reverence - something that came across as a bit of a scandal for those not used to a reverent celebration of the Eucharistic Service. He made the sign of the cross over the elements, and indicated the elements that he was consecrating by touching them - which is not a “high church” ceremony, but rather a practical way for everyone to know exactly which elements are being consecrated.

Here is how this is practical. When I consecrate for my congregation, I count out the number of hosts that I need. I take them from the ciborium, and then close the lid. The ciborium is set to the side, off of the corporal. The hosts to be consecrated are set on the paten on the corporal. During the consecration, I make the sign of the cross over them. That way, everybody understands that the body of Christ is on the paten, and the hosts in the ciborium are merely bread. This is important, as if I misjudged the number of hosts needed, the deacon is not going to take a host from the ciborium thinking that it is consecrated.

By contrast, the pastor who fills in for me on occasion, not being intimately aware of how many are communing, consecrates the entire ciborium. His actions indicate this, and it is important for everyone to know what is consecrated and what is not. This is not some pie-in-the-sky ceremony. It is a practical matter.

Along those lines, one person complained that the attendees were “forced” to take the chalice, and that there should have been individual glasses for those who prefer them. This betrays a lack of understanding of the practicalities involved. Pray tell, how would that work? There would literally need to be 20,000 shot glasses filled with wine and somehow brought to the altar and positioned for consecration. They would have to be brought out for distribution. And then, after the service, that which was used would have to be cleansed, and that which was not taken would have to be drunk and then cleansed. Just how would this even work from a practical standpoint?

I guess people think this all just happens by magic.

There were complaints about the celebrant’s chasuble - as if this is something weird in American Lutheran churches of our day and age. Of course, the complainer was a Usual Suspect of a certain demographic cohort, a man who has “been a Lutheran all his life.” Of course. And like many such grumblers, they decide what is proper based upon their narrow life experience. While 70 years may seem like a long time, the Church has been around for some 2,000 years - spanning the ages back in time to the days of the Roman Empire. We pastors have been wearing chasubles for many centuries, including our Lutheran fathers. Such vestments only went missing in America a short time ago - thanks to Pietism and other un-Lutheran cultural influences. The lack of chasubles is a bug, not a feature; it is an aberration, not a standard. But unless one is humble and willing to learn, unless one reads and/or travels outside of his own little corner of the world, he may not realize just how ordinary and normal the use of a chasuble is for the Lutheran Divine Service.

But all of the complaining is to be expected. For whether something is “high church” is really a case of relativity.

By way of an analogy, to a bachelor who rarely cleans his bathroom or changes his sheets, who eats off of paper plates and drinks directly out of the can - the use of a plastic margarita glass would come across as formal beverage service. The hard cardboard Chinet plate would seem like “high dining.” To a person who normally wears ripped jeans and tee shirts, a pair of khakis and a polo seems like something you would wear to Buckingham Palace.

And that is how impoverished we have become in our culture - even in the LCMS - where we believe that Jesus is physically present in the Eucharist, but where people will gripe and moan over one single hour of reverent propriety during a Divine Service. One hour of reverence was even too much for some people. Oh the humanity!

The music that was played during the event outside of the Divine Service included a lot of un-Lutheran pop music from the heretics at Elevation and Hillsong. That became normalized during the several days of the gathering, to the point where just one hour of Lutheran hymns and Lutheran liturgy, by contrast, seemed like a papal high Mass celebrated at St. Peter’s.

Again, this was not a “high church” service. There were no consecration bells. There was no incense. The celebrant did not genuflect. Nor did he chant most of the service. His vestments were the standard Missouri Synod fare. He did not don an amice or wear a maniple. He did not genuflect during “and was made man” during the creed. I don’t think he used a lavabo. I don’t believe there were corpuses on the crosses used in the Service. And again, I’m not saying any of this as a critique. Not at all. But to disparage this Divine Service as “high church” is simply, in the words of the late great disk jockey Casey Kasem, “ponderous, man!”

So what should be done next time?

We should not back off from reverence and standard Eucharistic vestments. We should insist on at least a middle-of-the-road level of ceremony - as this service displayed. We should not cave to those who would introduce casualness into the Divine Service of Word and Sacrament. Indeed, there is more than enough time for that during the National Youth Gathering. In fact, the Divine Service is holy. It is set apart. It is the one hour in which we wear things we don’t otherwise wear, say things we don’t otherwise say, make gestures that we don’t otherwise make, adopt postures that we don’t otherwise adopt, and eat and drink that which we don’t otherwise eat and drink.

It is not the time for dirty sheets, paper plates, and plastic cups. It is the time for us to consecrate ourselves humbly before our Lord who deigns to come to us in His Word and in His body and blood. It is our time to dress ourselves for our Lord and to confess before friend and foe alike, before God and the devil, before one another and before the hateful world, that our King is present, and we will honor Him not only with our words but with our actions.

The Gottesdienst is the one hour like no other: a sacred time and place of incarnational holiness, of Jesus coming to us in a literal miracle, whether in parochial life, or at a gathering of tens of thousands of young people in a stadium.