Liturgy as "Best Practice"
“Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence. ”
“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.”
“Therefore we believe, teach, and confess that the congregation of God of every place and every time has, according to its circumstances, the good right, power, and authority [in matters truly adiaphora] to change, to diminish, and to increase them, without thoughtlessness and offense, in an orderly and becoming way, as at any time it may be regarded most profitable, most beneficial, and best for [preserving] good order, [maintaining] Christian discipline [and for eujtaxiva worthy of the profession of the Gospel], and the edification of the Church. ”
“ Likewise, when there are useless, foolish displays, that are profitable neither for good order nor Christian discipline, nor evangelical propriety in the Church, these also are not genuine adiaphora, or matters of indifference.”
It’s interesting how we in the Gottesdienst Crowd™ are accused of “legalism” when we advocate for the traditional liturgy - you know, the kind of worship that we all confess is simply what we do, as found in Article 24 of the Augsburg Confession and the Apology. These Lutheran confessions are how all Lutheran pastors have vowed to norm their ministries, and how all Lutheran congregations agree in the constitutions to norm their work in the kingdom as well. But our accusers themselves argue that “best practice” means ditching the liturgy.
So advocating for the liturgy is legalism, but advocating for un-liturgy or even anti-liturgy is a “best practice.” Got it.
The traditional liturgy is the real “best practice” that provides a tried and true guardrail to assure that our worship is biblical, evangelical, Christocentric, cruciform, and in accordance with our shared Lutheran confessions. Far from limiting our evangelical freedom, guardrails provide a range of freedom while at the same time protecting us from crashing the vehicle by veering too far off course.
Often, clever anti-liturgicalists will appeal to Article 10 of the Formula of Concord to argue for tearing down all guardrails and just driving the car right off the road, plowing into anything in the name of “freedom.” According to them, nearly everything is adiaphora, and thus, fair game. There is nothing in the Bible that says a pastor can’t, say, conduct a worship service in a cow suit with his costume teats dangling up and down, while praying for God to “eliminate all distractions in the room.” It’s just not in the text, brother. Therefore this is just an “udder adiaphoron.” To be fair, I can certainly get behind the prayer for God to “eliminate” this distraction, especially in the sense of Numbers 16. “Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer!”
Maybe some in our synod will call this being “entrepreneurial” and “innovative” and defend it as trying to “reach the youth.” Maybe this is yet another example of “storming the gates of hell” (to which I might agree in a certain context). The following video speaks for itself. It is better than a thousand words, since words cannot convey the sheer horror and hellscape of what often passes for youth ministry and worship. “Lord, have mercy upon us.”
I shared this abomination on social media, and someone replied (as I expected), “Please tell me this isn’t an LCMS church.” And yes, let’s admit it: we’re all thinking the same thing. Every time we see a you-know-what show like this online, that is one of the first things (if not the first thing) that pops into our minds. It’s like the disciples asking our Lord, “Is it I?” How sad is that? We actually need a prayer - a “Collect That This is not an LCMS Congregation.” Maybe I’ll write one. At any rate, my answer was that I could not guarantee that it wasn’t a Missouri Synod congregation. Now, I’m almost certain that it wasn’t, but I can’t be 100% certain. And the reason for my relative confidence that this is not an LCMS church is also sad: because if it were, the Lutheran Twitterverse would have already smoked it out. That is really the only reason I’m relatively confident that this isn’t video of an LCMS “worship service.”
At any rate, thank God for guardrails. I’ve been to both High Masses at Zion in Detroit, and I have been to a reverent spoken Mass held with minimal vestments around a portable table in a beauty parlor in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Both of these Divine Services were authentically-Lutheran Article 24 and Formula 10 services. Both were conducted with the “highest reverence” and “in an orderly and becoming way.” Both were dignified, invited participation, focused on the Gospel of Jesus in Word and Sacrament, and did not involve gimmickry or “foolish displays.” Both displayed “good order” and “Christian discipline” and “evangelical propriety.” The traditional liturgy provides familiarity and continuity whether we are in a cathedral or a hospital room; with toddlers, teens, grown-ups, and the elderly.
In the traditional liturgy - whether “high” or “low” or “middle,” whether spoken or chanted, whether accompanied by instrumental music or a cappella - we see both evangelical freedom to adapt to different circumstances, and at the same time, there is a maintenance of the kind of unity and continuity that assures that we can all worship together - without scandal, shame, or shock.
Can anyone say all of this about what we see in this worship service below? I’m sure I’ll get pushback on this. I hope it’s more than the usual, “Did you call the pastor on the phone before writing this” attempt to 8-ball (boring!). I would really like one of our entrepreneurial types to take a crack at this one. And if it is an LCMS congregation, it might be fun to invite the pastor and the District President to make this make sense.
One of my faithful colleagues, the Rev. Fr. Rich Kolaskey commented:
A sentiment that Dr. David Scaer imparted to me (in class) is: when you treat the faith as child’s play, don’t be surprised when they grow up and leave it. It is foolish for us to think we must dress up, etc. to catch/keep our children’s attention and keep them entertained during worship. Last night I was told that a 5 year-old lamb in my congregation (who is faithfully brought to church) was quietly chanting the Verba with me at the Christmas Eve Divine Service. Just let the liturgy teach itself. It is enough.
At any rate, the innovative and entrepreneurial bovine imagery in worship should probably have been abandoned in the aftermath of Exodus 32 in favor of the tried and true dictum: “say the black, do the red.” I’m no scholar of church history, but I’m fairly confident that “Eat Mor Chikin” has never appeared as a rubric in any Lutheran context.