_THE UNCHANGING FEAST_ The Nature and Basis of Lutheran Worship by A.L. Barry The Office of the President The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod 1995 THE UNCHANGING FEAST IN OUR TIMES The whole area of worship and liturgy is very controversial at this point in our synod's history. To raise the issue is to risk incurring the irritation of a whole host of people. I certainly do not want to be part of simply increasing the level of tension on this point. As I travel throughout the synod, time and again people tell me that they sense that I am communicating to them in a pastoral way, as a pastor would speak to his beloved congregation. I do hope and pray this is so, for I have a deep love for our Missouri Synod--a very genuine pastoral love for her and for her people. I have lost count of the numbers of church workers and lay people who have expressed concerns to me about this issue. Lay people are troubled when their pastors lead them down paths away from their traditional worship practices. They are also sometimes troubled by a pastor who imposes on them customs and ceremonies they have never been exposed to before. Pastors are concerned by erosions in our strong, confessional principles of Christian worship and are troubled by various aspects of these issues. My concern for our synod is what prompts me to offer a very genuine word of concern on this matter of worship and liturgy. I have concerns about using worship forms and styles which are not in line with the historic worship practices of our church. I also have pastoral concerns about how we use our historic, Lutheran worship practices. CONCERNS IN REGARD TO MOVING AWAY FROM HISTORIC LUTHERAN WORSHIP PRACTICES I am concerned by what I notice happening in various parts of our synod when it comes to our worship and liturgy. There are those who want to move away from our historic worship practices. They wish to use worship styles which they feel are more "informal" or "contemporary" or "user-friendly." I notice that there are those who are not saying that they want to modify the hymnal, but are advocating simply not using a hymnal at all. As I express concerns about various trends along these lines, I need to make it clear, very clear, that in many ways I respect the motivations of those who are calling on our synod to adopt worship styles along these lines. They are concerned about reaching the lost with the precious message of the Gospel. They are concerned that the church needs to communicate in a way which reaches unchurched people effectively. We certainly agree with these feelings. These concerns are very, very understandable. However, embracing worship forms alien to our Lutheran confession is unwise, to say the least. There are some strong words of warning being sounded even from non-Lutheran Christians as they notice worship tendencies within their own denominations. I was given an article which appeared in the publication _The American Organist_ which sounds a firm, yet important, warning to us as we evaluate various trends in Christendom, and trends we find within our own church body as well. Let me share a portion of this article with you: Today's culture tells us that we deserve whatever we want whenever we want it, and that mentality is rapidly invading the church. The ultimate blasphemy of a consumerist culture is its desire to consume God. Though not church-growth advocated, televangelism has turned religion into magic instead of the mystery we may all need. If the church roots itself in marketing and consumerism, it will always seek to please the customer. Worship planners will seek to use the "immediately familiar." The result will be the "tyranny of the familiar" that changes every few years even while we ignore our own traditions. The long-term implication will be that we can cut ourselves off from deeper and longer lasting Christian roots and even our own unique denominational roots. In a "Get and Go" culture, and in one which says, "Don't worry, be happy," how are we to proclaim that we depend upon God rather than having God depend upon our ceaseless activities that may masquerade as gospel? The focus of worship has moved from God almost exclusively to the people, and the product has shifted from God to the activity of the institutional church if church growth pushes the idea that the church can make you feel better than anyone or anyplace else, then we may do all in our power to make it so. Are we finding ourselves in the middle of a gospel of success, a lopsided gospel, to say the least, that seeks to avoid the cross or any cost of discipleship? Where is the prophetic edge? Where is our willingness to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable? Bonhoeffer's "cheap grace," is forever with us, but some eras reveal larger doses of it than others. The gospel of "feeling good" doesn't have much to do with what Jesus said early in his ministry. Jesus did not say, "Repent and feel good," but he did say, "Repent and believe in the gospel."[1] These are strong words, but they are words which we as a synod need to take to heart. We have much to be thankful for when it comes to worship practices among us, but we must be on our guard lest we too fall prey to false and misleading trends. When I notice the sorts of practices being adopted in some congregations when it comes to the liturgy and worship practices, I find myself asking a whole host of questions. I will share some of these questions with you. For instance, what are we confessing when we do not have a confession and absolution at the beginning of our services? What signal are we sending when our confessions of sin are not genuine confessions of sin or when our absolutions are not really absolutions? What are we confessing when we do not use the historic creeds in our worship service, or the Lord's Prayer? What signal are we sending when we use hymns which come clearly from a Reformed or Pentecostal type of worship context? What are we confessing when we adopt styles of prayer which are more common among, for example, Pentecostal types of church bodies? What are we confessing when our pastors do not wear the historic vestments during a worship service? What are we confessing when mission congregations do not use the name Lutheran? What are we confessing when we no longer follow the church year and use the appointed readings, prayers and other historic forms of worship? What are we confessing when we move away from historic liturgical forms of worship? These are some of the genuine pastoral concerns I continue to have when I notice what is happening in our church body in regard to worship practices. I believe Walther was correct in his opinion that in this country it is especially important that the Lutheran church be clearly distinguished from the whole variety of Reformed denominations which surround us. We recall that our Lutheran church did not throw the baby out with the bath water when the liturgy was reformed at the time of the Reformation. We use the best of the liturgical traditions of the Western church, because we recognize that we are part of that living history of God's activity through Word and Sacrament among His people. I notice that when we begin to make the sorts of changes which move us quite far away from our historic worship practices, we risk embracing man-centered (anthropocentric) styles of worship rather than the Christ-centered (Christocentric) worship forms and styles which have marked the Lutheran church down through the years. And when we say "Christ-centered worship," we do not mean merely worship which refers to Jesus, but worship which is shaped by the actual, specific proclamation and application of the Gospel and the Gospel's sacraments, keeping the focus on the specific teaching of the Gospel and with its emphasis on the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. While I suppose that there may be nothing wrong with clapping hands and waving arms during a worship service, when we import this style of worship into our congregations where this has not been the practice, again, I wonder, "What are we confessing?" In many Pentecostal churches, a highly emotional, highly subjective style of worship flows from their theology that God works through such emotional experiences and not through His appointed means of grace, the Word and Sacraments. I guess another way of looking at it is to put the matter this way: Given our theology of God's work through Word and Sacrament, and given the fact that we believe, teach and confess that God wants to be among us in the Lord's Supper, and given the fact that we believe that God wishes to serve us in the worship service, and given the whole history of Biblical worship practices, which we have traced earlier in this presentation, given all of this: What will our Lutheran worship service "look like"? What will we do, what will we say, what will we sing? I think these are the sorts of questions we need to ask as we evaluate some of the changes which are being considered and actually used in various congregations of our synod.[2] One comment we hear from time to time is that the historic worship practices of our church are German and that we can not expect non-Germans to use the liturgy of our hymnals. That statement is troubling for a number of reasons. Frankly, to me it is very inappropriate to suggest that African-Americans or Asian-Americans or other ethnic minorities are not able to use the historic liturgy. It is also more than a little condescending to suggest that new members of a congregation cannot be expected to learn the liturgy, so we have to use something else for them. I think we need to take a second look at some of these statements which would suggest that we need to move away from our historic worship practices in order to accomodate unbelievers or non-Lutherans.[3] It seems just a tad inappropriate to permit those who know the very least about the Christian faith and about our Lutheran confession to determine the forms by which this faith and this confession is expressed in public worship. Minimal knowledge of the truths of Scripture and the Confessions is not a good basis upon which to study worship forms. I am troubled by the sorts of hymns and songs being used in some of our parishes which are not much more than repetitious phrases like "Give God the glory" or "Praise Him." These sorts of hymns or chant-like songs may have their place, but I seriously question if these are the sorts of hymns we need in our worship services. Lutheran hymns historically have emphasized the fact that hymns are sung confessions of the faith. No, not every hymn will include every doctrine of the Christian faith, but a good hymn will reflect the principles of good, solid Lutheran hymns; namely, it will put the emphasis on Christ and His work for us, on God's mercy and grace, and on the means of grace, on doctrine and Scriptural themes and motifs. Hymns for our church should put the emphasis on man's receiving God's grace, not only on man's emotional response to God's grace. The sort of subjective and "I"-centered hymn we are encountering more and more in our congregations is not a good thing. I want to strongly encourage our congregations to use the approved hymns in our hymnbooks. The whole subject of appropriate music for our church services is very important. Music is not as "value neutral" as some might wish to argue.[4] Let me cite a very concrete example of the problem as I see it. There are some in our synod who have recently suggested that our church would be advised to take a look at the movie _Sister Act_ to see how a congregation was livened up by introducing very secular sorts of musical styles in the worship service. In the movie a group of nuns begins to sing pop songs and suddenly the church is filled. I wonder, again, what we would be confessing before the world if we were to go this route. I find these suggestions troubling, very troubling, and I need to share this with the synod. I know many, many others have found such remarks to be very troubling as well. It would be my feeling that we need to be much more careful and thoughtful as we move into consideration of changes in our worship practices and traditions. The main point here is that there are extremely serious theological issues at stake. I do not think we have given them enough thought. That is why I am glad that conferences like this one have been called. This is why I am also pleased that the new book _Lutheran Worship: History and Practice_ has been made available to our synod. I urge the members of our Synod to study this volume very carefully. It supplies much needed information on these crucial issues concerning our worship practices. As Walther said, our historic worship practices are certainly not the means by which people come to salvation. This is only through the Word and Sacrament. But it is also true that our historic worship practices are what form and shape our identity as Lutherans in this country. We are confessing Lutherans who are not ashamed of our beliefs. We are convinced that this is what Scripture teaches us and what our Lutheran Confessions articulate as well. We need to say boldly, before the world, and with great joy: "This is what we believe, teach, confess and practice." We do not want in our church a watered-down Lutheranism or a poor imitation of another denomination's style of worship. We are committed to walking together as a synod when it comes to these issues. Our synod's constitution points out that one of the expectations for the members of our synodical family is that they make "exclusive use of doctrinally pure agenda, hymnbooks, and catechisms" (Article VI). Our synod has considered uniformity in our worship practices to be a great strength, not a weakness. I believe we need to seriously reconsider attitudes which would tend to move toward everyone doing "their own thing" when it comes to worship and liturgy. It would be helpful if we could encourage and promote uniformity in ceremonies, not as if this is necessary for salvation or commanded by God, but for the good this would do our common mission work, being able to present a united front across our country and a consistent Lutheran identity from city to city and from state to state. CONCERNS WITH THE USE OF HISTORIC LUTHERAN WORSHIP I do need to express a few concerns toward the other side of the debate. I have genuine pastoral concerns for those who wish to maintain the liturgical traditions of our synod. And I need to be upfront enough to share these concerns as well. First, let me share a concern in regard to attitudes. When criticizing moves away from our historic worship practices, we need to take care that we do not trample underfoot the persons involved. We need gently to encourage the brethren on these issues. We do not need to pull out our guns and start blasting away. So, in terms of attitude I do believe we need to take care that on either side of these issues we do not simply "write off" the person or persons with whom we disagree. Oftentimes the problem with these issues is simply a lack of knowledge. Those who change the church's worship practices oftentimes do not have an adequate background in the theology of worship and so do not properly understand the basis and foundation for our Lutheran worship practices. Secondly, we can have the most correct liturgy, yet do it in a lifeless, meaningless way. Simply "going by the book" without quality presentation makes for a dull, plodding liturgy. Nothing could be worse for the cause of increasing appreciation for historical worship than worship done "by rote" with little feeling or joy. Some liturgies are conducted as if the church were putting on a funeral for a dead horse! The pace of the liturgy has to be active, moving and alive--not dull and slow. The quality of the presentation of the liturgy needs to be first- class. Pastors need to speak or sing their parts well, clearly, loudly and with proper feeling and meaning behind what they are saying. The music for the service needs to be well done. Practice for the worship service is essential. It is no wonder some wish to abandon the liturgy, if the liturgy is done poorly. Again, I wonder what we are confessing when we do the liturgy poorly, lifelessly and without proper meaning and emphasis. In some cases, it is true that our congregations seem only to be "going through the motions" with the hymnal. A well-done liturgical service is a wonderful thing to be a part of! It lifts the spirit and draws one into the very presence of God who wishes to be with us in Word and Sacrament. It draws us away from the mundane, hum-drum hype and hoopla of Madison Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard and into the "Holy of Holies" of the Lord's presence where we receive His forgiveness through the Word and Sacraments. This is the purpose of a well-done liturgy. A poorly done liturgy, on the other hand, can detract from the very necessary hearing of the Word. Let me offer a specific word of concern to our pastors. The pastor is the leader. He must take this role seriously. He should be aware of the need to present himself well to the congregation, dressing appropriately and being well-prepared to lead the service. He should not stumble through the readings of lessons or miss words and phrases as he conducts the liturgy. He must take care that all can hear him and that he speaks slowly and meaningfully, with a sense of joy and wonder at the fact that we are privileged to be worshipping our Lord and God. The pastor's sermon must be textual, relevant, meaningful and clearly presented to the people of God. I am extremely concerned that the quality and content of our pastors' sermons are not just acceptable, not just good, not even very good, but excellent, truly excellent. Our pastors' sermons should reflect the high and holy calling in the Lord that our pastors have to shepherd the flock of God over whom they have been made overseers by the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:28). The people do not attend church to listen to the pastor simply amuse them, or give them a "pep talk," or a psychotherapy session in feeling better about themselves. The people of God come to hear a word from God through the pastor's sermon. What an awesome privilege! What an awesome responsibility our pastors are given by Jesus Christ, through the call of the congregation, to be their spiritual leader in the Lord. Our pastors must take great care to prepare for their sermon. The people do not want schwaffle, they want good, substantial, doctrinal sermons which touch them "where they live." And, brother pastors, the Gospel must predominate in your preaching! A sermon which is nothing more than a moralistic harangue has no place in a Lutheran pulpit. We need, each Sunday, to work to present yet another facet of the beautiful diamond which is the precious Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the very life and heart of the church. The sermon must be textual! The Word, the Word, the Word--as Luther repeated throughout His life--is the power of God's Spirit. The people want sermons based on the Word of God in all its truth, purity and power. The mighty Spirit-filled Word must fill our sermons and fill the ears of our people. Church musicians must be sensitive to the needs of the people as they sing hymns, being careful to lead the people in worship with music, not simply to impress them with great musical skill. The pastor and church musician need to function as a team. And what a blessed thing it is to see a team working well! How unfortunate when a team does not function well. I want to commend our church musicians here today. Truly you are unsung heroes (no pun intended)! Your labor to support the worship of the people is truly a blessing from God to our synod and I want strongly to encourage you to continue your faithful work in this regard. So, here's a special word of thanks to our church musicians. The next concern I have for our congregations is how well they welcome visitors. Recently I noticed a catalog of materials for Greek Orthodox churches. They have developed a tract to introduce the visitor to the Orthodox liturgy. The tract is very attractive and boldly states, "Welcome." It contains a helpful guide for the visitor. This is the sort of thing our parishes need to do for our visitors. Do not expect a visitor to walk in, sit down and be able to comprehend what is happening in the liturgy. We need to consider printing out the order of liturgy with clear explanations of what we are doing and why we are doing it. A clear, simple explanation for visitors would be very helpful. Perhaps a congregation could train people to be "Guides" for visitors. They could assist them, point out where to go, what to do and make them feel less intimidated by their visit to an unknown congregation and to what perhaps is an unfamiliar style of worship. But it is not only the visitors about whom we should be concerned. Our own members need to be educated on the meaning of our historic worship practices. Our pastors and congregations need to take a proactive leadership role in making information available to our people to enrich and enhance their understanding of and appreciation for our historic worship practices. Finally, the whole matter of creativity and variety comes up in connection with our worship practices. I sense that many in our synod wish to have a degree of creativity and variety, and sometimes this is what leads them away from the historic worship forms of our church. I believe the solution is not to abandon the historic worship practices of our synod but to do a better job of using the worship practices we cherish, with creativity and variety. We do need to recognize that the precise wording and precise form of the liturgy was not handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai. We will need periodically to revise and change the wording of our liturgy to communicate more effectively. For example, there are a variety of appropriate ways to confess our sins and to receive God's absolution. There are a variety of appropriate wordings for prayers in our worship service. We must avoid rigidity in our worship practices which would tend to squelch any attempt to communicate more effectively. Extremes in this regard need to be avoided. We recognize that the church will revise its worship forms to respond to the needs of various places, peoples, times and cultures. There are many options within the liturgy itself that can change and offer variety: a variety of good hymns, singing of various Psalms and canticles, different orders of liturgical services for non-Communion services, and much, much more. New hymns can and should be written for our congregations. Perhaps we should consider as a synod sponsoring a national hymn-writing program to introduce newer hymns to our synod, hymns written to confess boldly to this modern world our Scriptural and Confessional Lutheran theology. I guess what I am trying to suggest here is that we need not be afraid of change, variety and creativity. We can channel these needs into legitimate and helpful forms without giving up or backing away from our commitment to the time- honored confessional worship practices which have marked us as a church body down through the years. These are the sorts of concerns I would have when looking toward those congregations in our synod which are committed to using the historic liturgical services of the Lutheran and Western Christian church. As I said, I believe we need balance and perspective in all of these issues. We need to recognize problems on both sides of the issues. We need to work together to identify ways of addressing perceived needs in our synod without losing sight of the confessional implications of what we do on a Sunday morning. So, at this point, I conclude this expression of pastoral concern. I do hope in our discussions we can focus on the issues, not personalities, and on the theological and confessional implications of what we do or do not do in our worship services, for this is indeed the most important consideration. _________________________________________________________ Notes: [1] Richard F. Collman, "The Tyranny of the Familiar: Critical Reflections on the Church Growth Movement," _The American Organist_ 29: 3 (March 1995), p. 39. [2] Robin Leaver, an Anglican scholar, has this to say about the emergence of a new sort of Pietism in the Lutheran church: "We do not have to look very far to see that today there is a new spirit pietism abroad, a pietism that sees the essence of Christianity in the small, informal group, rather than in the total community of faith at worship within a recognized and formal liturgical order. It is a pietism that measures its success by the number of people it touches, rather than by the truth of the message it proclaims. It is a pietism that is preoccupied with 'simple hymns' and informal structures of worship. It is a pietism that is impatient with the German Reformation of the sixteenth century, a pietism that asserts that we need new forms and less of the old. It is a new spirit of pietism that looks in many respects like the old pietism . . . The leading question, of course, is this: Where did the old pietism lead? By the end of the eighteenth century German Lutheranism had almost dissappeared. Liturgical forms had been eliminated, the highly developed church music of Bach and his contemporaries was no longer heard in the churches, and the content of the Christian faith had been watered down to little more than Unitarianism, with an invertebrate spirituality, lacking the backbone of a confessional theology. Instead of leading to a period of growth in the church, Pietism precipitated an era of decline of the church, a situation which was not reversed until, around the middle of the nineteenth century, there was a recovery of Lutheran confessional theology, Lutheran liturgical practice, and Lutheran church music . . . " Robin Leaver, "Bach and Pietism: Similarities Today," _Concordia Theological Quarterly_ 55: 1 (January 1991), p. 18. [3] In a publication of the English District of our synod, Pastor Charles Evanson offers this observation on the charge that the liturgy is "German." "In one way, such attitudes are quite chauvinistic. Does anyone really think that the Lutheran liturgical tradition represents a unique Lutheran way of conducting public worship? The same basic tradition is shared by three quarters of a billion Roman Catholics, the many Eastern Orthodox churches, the pre-Chalcedonian Churches, the Anglican Communion, and over 70 million Lutherans, not even the majority of whom are German. The basic pattern of liturgical worship is very ancient and most probably originated in the unique fusion of synagogue and Church usages in Jerusalem and Palestine which early found expression in the Jerusalem, Syrian, and North African Churches. Far from being 'Germanic,' our forefathers in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Africa, and elsewhere learned it from those who first brought them the Gospel and the Gospel sacraments in response to the Apostolic Mandate." Charles Evanson, "Evangelical Lutheran Worship," _Journal of English District Pastors_ 4: 1 (November 1991), p. 11. [4] Kantor Richard Resch writes on music's role as teacher in our churches. "As a servant of the church, music helps teach the timeless and universal truths of the faith. The problem in the church today is that music is seldom seen as a teacher of anything, good or bad. But whether the teacher is recognized or not, the teaching does go on; _something_ is being taught. When church music serves the will of man, emphasis is placed on _how_ the music is received instead of _what_ is being taught. However, if the music of the church is seen as a divine method of catechizing the faithful, then saving truths are easily given to even the youngest saints. The difference between music as a slave of the flesh and music as a servant of the Spirit becomes evident to young and old by witness of the church's practice." Richard Resch, "Music: Gift of God or Tool of the Devil," _Logia_ 3: 2 (Eastertide/April 1994), p. 36. CONCLUSION Finally, in conclusion let me offer a kaleidoscope of pictures of Lutheran worship. I want to talk about the wide variety of people who sit in the pews of our congregations week in and week out. What is their view of worship? What do they think about it? What is their perception of the unchanging feast in a fast-changing world? On any given Sunday there are more than one million men, women and children gathered together in congregations of the Missouri synod to worship and praise their good and gracious God. As I think about this fact, I can almost see in my mind's eye this huge, vast multitude of people. I can't help but be reminded of the pictures of heaven as we have them in Revelation. We worship in our separate congregations, yet we join together to form one people of God. As the people of God, we join with "angels and archangels and all the company of heaven" in praising our good and gracious God. It is as if we are one congregation at that moment, for indeed, truly we are as the Body of Christ, one people united in Him through our baptisms into His name. As I glance out over this Sunday morning congregation, a congregation of more than one million people, I see a whole variety of people. I look over here and see a young family with their two small children, people from the Baby Boom generation, assembled together as a family in the Lord's house--a neat young family in the Lord. My eyes move on and I see, sitting side by side a married couple, life-long members of our synod, rooted strongly in the Word and sound doctrine and in our confessional heritage of liturgical worship. I look a little farther out over this congregation and I see here a single mother with her children. Over there I see a widow, and over there a person who has just gone through a painful divorce and is now all alone in church. I see a person who is sick, another who is troubled by a serious family problem, another who is unemployed, yet another who is poor and struggling, and on and on it goes. I see a whole variety of people and happily I see a growing number of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and a wide variety of cultures--truly a picture of what heaven will be like. And as I look out over this congregation I feel a great sensitivity for the worship needs of all of these many brothers and sisters in Christ in this, our Missouri synod confessional family. But now my eyes begin to focus on something else. I see a Bible in the pulpit and in the pew racks. I see copies of _Lutheran Worship_ or _The Lutheran Hymnal_. I see an organ over there and a choir over here. I see on the altar the elements for the Lord's Supper and I see the baptismal font. I hear the pastor, in the stead and by the command of Jesus Christ, pronouncing the absolution of sins. And as my eyes move from one spot to still another in this kaleidoscopic view of Lutheran-- yes, _Lutheran_--worship among us, I pause, look heavenward and say, "O God, do hold before us with great clarity and purity that unchanging feast that is ours in a fast-changing world. Do not allow anything from within or from without to dilute or destroy that great Christocentric heritage of worship with which you have blessed this, our beloved synod. Amen." _O Lord, let this your little flock, Your name alone confessing, Continue in your loving care, True unity possessing. Your Sacraments, O Lord, And your saving Word To us, Lord, pure retain. Grant that they may remain Our only strength and comfort._[1] _________________________________________________________ Notes: [1] Johann Mentzer, "Lord Jesus Christ, the Church's Head," Verse 2 in _Lutheran Worship_, Hymn 293 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1982). ______________________________________________________________ This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg by Paul McCain of the Office of the President, The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod and Cindy A. Beesley and is in the public domain. You may freely distribute, copy or print this text. Please direct any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith Walther Library Concordia Theological Seminary E-mail: COSMITHB@ASH.PALNI.EDU Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA Phone: (219) 452-2123 Fax: (219) 452-2126 ______________________________________________________________