Concordia: Unity in Confession
“I truly believe deep conversation, centered in the Word of God, needs to occur...especially around “triggering” topics as you listed above. Nonetheless, I truly pray our Synod holds together, by the power of the Holy Spirit, collectively calling all to repentance and belief in the Gospel. All have sinned. All need Christ. As our culture increasingly becomes godless, we must stand united in love, shining a light on the truth of God’s Word. I am praying for deeper relationships to build across various groups (factions?) within the LCMS, and for us to once again universally agree on our shared subscription to the Scriptures and Lutheran Confessions. Our conservative biblical theology is what the world needs. Satan yearns to divide us. Confession and absolution under the cross of Christ is the answer. Jesus is Lord of His Church.”
I agree with Dr. Ahlman as to the importance of our synod’s confession as the world continues to ravage the church, and as entire confessions within Christendom have become apostate. Our proclamation of Law and Gospel, our cross-centered theology, our commitment to the infallible Word, and our unapologetic administration of the Holy Sacraments is indeed what our world - spiraling into chaos and darkness - needs. The world needs Jesus, and desperately so.
But I disagree that we need “conversations” - especially how the world uses this term. In today’s culture, this means “monologues,” where one party pontificates, and the other party shuts up and listens. The source of our unity is not conversation, but confession. I believe that Dr. Ahlman is spot on that unity happens when we “once again will universally agree on our shared subscription to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions.” So well said!
Within the LCMS, conversations (actual ones, not the Orwellian ones in which Big Brother speaks, and Winston is subjected to Maoist-style “struggle sessions”) cannot happen unless and until there is such universal agreement.
Indeed, if we seek unity, we must double down on the Bible and the Book of Concord. The world seeks not unity, but diversity - at least superficially. And as one of my colleagues pointed out, the opposite of diversity is unity. It also follows that the opposite of concord is discord.
We have strayed from our confessions.
How often do we hear Lutheran churches and pastors using hymnody that promotes “decision theology” and enthusiasm, a repudiation of our confession of the Holy Spirit - along with manipulative emotional worship forms that are simply Finney’s 19th century New Measures (repudiated by name in synod’s first constitution), like quickly-spoiling leftovers being reheated and served anew in the 21st century?
How often our churches promote the very kinds of worship forms that are contrary to what we used to universally agree upon based on our shared confession:
“In our churches Mass is celebrated every Sunday and on other festivals when the sacrament is offered to those who wish for it after they have been examined and absolved. We keep traditional liturgical forms, such as the order of the lessons, prayers, vestments, etc.”
We have long since broken into factions: those who still uphold our confession, and those who have indeed abolished the Mass: abandoning liturgical forms, the lectionary, the historic collects, vestments, as well as other parts of our traditional Evangelical Divine Service (Gottesdienst), such as our rich tradition of hymnody. How many of our churches have abolished the Mass in favor of Entertainment Evangelism (a term coined by former Lutheran, now Pentecostal megachurch pastor, Walt Kallestad)?
There is no way to unify these factions apart from the Book of Concord, and from being able to confess together, “We have not abolished the Mass.” And this is Gottesdienst’s mission: to restore the Mass where it has been abolished, to promote authentic Lutheran worship that is both biblical and liturgical, to encourage true sacramental piety, and above all, reverence. We confess that the Lord condescends to us in a literal miracle that should be happening in our churches every Sunday: a confessional practice which many of our congregations - and sadly, many pastors as well - have abandoned. We believe in the ancient dictum Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi - which is why our confessions include Article 24.
I agree that relationships are important - within the congregation, within the synod, within our ministerium, within the worldwide Lutheran confession, within the Church Catholic, and across national and religious lines for all people. But restored relationships within our synod cannot happen unless and until we are recommitted to our shared Lutheran confession - “in doctrine and ceremonies” as we confess in the 5th paragraph of the conclusion of the Augsburg Confession:
In doctrine and ceremonies nothing has been received on our part against Scripture or the Church Catholic. For it is manifest that we have taken most diligent care that no new and ungodly doctrine should creep into our churches.
But it is even worse than that.
Within the LCMS, there are some who don’t agree with what the Scriptures confess, especially in those “triggering issues” of sexuality. Contrary to the Fifth Commandment, there are large numbers of LCMS Lutherans who are not pro-life in matters of abortion. Contrary to the Sixth Commandment, here are some who argue for recognition of same-sex “marriages.” Some advocate for “pronoun hospitality” and overlooking homosexual violations of the Sixth Commandment since same-sex couples don’t believe that they are sinning. Contrary to numerous passages of Scripture, there are some who argue for the “ordination” of women. Contrary to our synodical seminary system, there are some who advocate for sharing theological education with the ELCA: the home of goddess worship, sexually confused “bishops,” vulgar lady “pastors” who make gilded statues of genitalia out of purity rings, and drag queens in the pulpit. Such forays outside of our communion are not a pathway to unity in our synod. Indeed, we need separation from such ecclesial bodies, and from their authors, pastors, and professors. They are not our teachers. They confess a different faith. We are to mark and avoid them. We are to protect our flocks from them. We should not have ecclesiastical or theological relationships with them. We don’t want unity with them.
So in addition to a restoration of the Book of Concord “in doctrine and ceremonies,” we need to be unambiguous in our biblical commitment to the very things that make us anathema in the eyes of the world and of woke churches.
Are we willing to pay the price of more alienation from the world, less respect for our pastors and churches, smaller numbers of parishioners, and not giving people entertainment on Sunday? Are we willing to forsake un-Lutheran worship forms and re-embrace the liturgy? I hope we are, because Dr. Ahlman is right: we have what the world needs. Ceremonies teach, as we confess together in Augsburg 24:
“Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence. Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved, save that the parts sung in Latin are interspersed here and there with German hymns, which have been added to teach the people. For ceremonies are needed to this end alone that the unlearned be taught [what they need to know of Christ]. ”
Again: “Ceremonies are needed to this end alone that the unlearned be taught what they need to know of Christ.”
We have resources here at Gottesdienst, including an instruction video on the Divine Service, to help pastors and congregations pivot back to authentic Lutheran worship. Of course, it won’t happen overnight. It takes patient, but intentional, pastoral guidance and catechesis, as well as sensitivity to the reality that many of our congregations are simply not Lutheran in the way they worship. More practical resources, including instructional videos, are forthcoming. And as people in other church bodies become disillusioned with Entertainment Worship, as Christians in other communions grow weary of fluff and start looking for substance (which has already begun to happen), we confessing Lutherans will be positioned to bring the Gospel to them as they flee American so-called Evangelicalism. We are the true Evangelicals, after all.
The world needs Jesus, who is found in our confession of the Holy Scriptures, “in doctrine and ceremonies,” rather than in vacuous entertainment that apes the worship of non-sacramental churches. And we dare not blur the lines between us and those who are Lutheran in name only: those who treat the Bible as a mere container of God’s Word and the Confessions as a quatenus cafeteria.
As Fr. Jason Braaten puts it in his opening to the podcast The Gottesdienst Crowd:
We believe that the historic liturgy of the Divine Service is more than mere cobwebs of antiquity, but is a true treasure of the church, to be dusted off, and brought down from her attic to be enjoyed. So let’s get dusting.
And let’s get confessing!
Thank you, Rev. Dr. Ahlman, for your thought-provoking commentary.