Gottesblog

Sometimes we advocates of traditional liturgy are stereotyped as not liking any contemporary music. Often amid histrionics and eye-rolling, we are told that unless something was written in the 1500s, we don’t like it.

In a discussion about Screens vs. Hymnals, a man from a certain age demographic commented:

Through a felicitous turn of events, I stumbled onto the writings of the Rev. A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), a self-taught Pietistic Fundamentalist Baptist who was critical of the Evangelical Church of his own time for being too insular, cut off from church history, and who saw worship as entertainment.

The clip above from an LCMS Divine Service is a demonstration of the impetus to liturgical conservatism. Once a particular liturgical tradition has been established, we Lutherans are reticent to change - even when times and situations have changed.

Churches that do not recognize the supernatural element of the Sacraments year for the transcendence of God made imminent in space and time. This is why we see the ginning up of emotion in non-liturgical, non-sacramental churches. Subjective emotion replaces the objective means of grace.