A blog of the Evangelical Lutheran Liturgy
Am I seriously claiming there is any similarity between Daniel in the lions’ den and churches in 21st century America being urged (or forced) to shutdown? You might be surprised. In fact, the Book of Daniel is probably an overlooked model for Christians living in a non-Christian, and often hostile, society.
Read MoreI want to encourage parish pastors. You, men, are on the front lines of a war. This is not a metaphor. Spiritual warfare is very real. And the congregation is the front line.
Read MoreThe following is from that book I praised a few days ago, The Chief Divine Service. This particular prayer fell between the Sanctus and the chanting of Our Father and then the Verba in the Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel Church Order of 1657. It rather supports something I have long suspected: that the Admonitions were in themselves “prayer forms” for they were spoken in the awareness of the presence of God. But this particular form actually makes this explicit. It’s on page 245, 246. There are distinct echoes here of the classic anaphorae of antiquity (including the Roman Canon):
Read MoreIt’s a pretty common practice to say routinely the collect for the previous Sunday every day, whether at matins or vespers, or at mass, or in one’s personal prayers.
Read MoreOne the one hand, pastors have to get used to the authority invested in the office they hold. The one who stands in Christ’s stead and by His command has been given authority to speak His Word of comfort, grace, and forgiveness, as well as His word of repentance, admonition, and condemnation.
Read MoreTake 12 minutes of your day and watch President Russell P. Dawn of Concordia University, River Forest, hold forth on what a University of the LCMS is supposed to be. This video is outstanding.
Read MoreIn his Three Books on the Church, Loehe had pleaded that any who presumed to revise Lutheran liturgy ought first make a thorough and careful study of the great Church Orders. Apparently his student, Friedrich Lochner, author of this present volume, took the exhortation very much to heart. For what Friederich Lochner did in his original Der Hauptgottesdienst was to ingeniously bring together the chief sections of the great Church Orders with their music and rubrical instructions into a form accessible for any German speaker in the 19th century. It was an unrivaled liturgical ressourcement.
Read More“Christ is our God. Experience is not our God. Contemporary psychobabble substitutes experience for Christ, pop psychology for revealed religion. Yet we need to experience Christ, meet Christ, touch Christ, not just believe correct theology about Christ….”
Read MoreAll honest attempts in pursuit of the transcendent by means of being edgy and original, novel, and fresh, will end up like that of G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936). In his pursuit of religious innovation, his quest led to orthodox Christianity.
Read MoreIf I need a pilot to fly the plane I'm on, or a SWAT officer to kill the bad guy who has taken me hostage, or a surgeon to remove my tumor, I'm not really that concerned that such a person be a Christian, heterosexual and monogamous, godly, a role model, good with kids, loves animals, doesn't use bad language, doesn't watch reality TV, reads Shakespeare, understands Latin, loathes modern art, prefers an ad orientem celebration of the Eucharist, and stands for the national anthem.
Read MoreIn 1977, while on a European academic exchange program, I found myself in line to view the preserved body of Vladimir Lenin, brought out from his mausoleum in his glass coffin and on special, open display in Red Square.
Read MoreThe Magdeburg Confession is a remarkable document. As a teacher of fourth year high school students at Wittenberg Academy, I have added a study of the Confession into our Paideia IV course (which includes Christian Apologetics, Economics and Government, and Modern Literature)
Read More'Take away theology and give us some nice religion' has been a popular slogan for so long that we are likely to accept it, without inquiring whether religion without theology has any meaning. And however unpopular I may make myself, I shall and will affirm that the reason is not that they are too bigoted about theology, but that we have run away from theology."
~ Dorothy Sayers, “Creed or Chaos”
Read MoreIn the days immediately after the death of Apostles there is no question that the office of bishop began to be distinguished from that of presbyter. It’s true, as St. Jerome and our Confessions point out, that the New Testament is utterly ignorant of this distinction and therefore it cannot be considered a matter of divine mandate (at least not for anyone who insists that the faith once delivered to the saints cannot come unglued from the apostolic witness in the Scriptures). Yet the history is clear that as the Church developed, there was a single man who usually stood at the head of the Eucharistic assembly, and he was called the bishop or the president (as in Justin Martyr).
Read MoreWhen I was first asked to serve as a fire chaplain, I received advice to read a book written by the Rev. Dean Kavouras, a fire and law enforcement chaplain. The book is called Nine One One The Aftermath. It was, and is, an outstanding explication of the pastor as chaplain. The subtitle of the book says it all: “The Word Works.”
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