OK, maybe that is an overreaching statement.
There are many congregations that do a wonderful job of using the Order of Service as laid out in a hymnal week in and week out.
I guess a better question would be, "Why do we hate including ceremony with the liturgy?"
I have always thought this. I bring this up now because I was out of town for the Feast of Easter and had the opportunity to worship at a sister LCMS congregation.
I was in awe. There was incense. There were torch bearers, thurifer, crucifer, servers, deacons, sub-deacons. I felt like I was in a special place. I knew that I was in the house of the Lord. What was even better was that it was done with reverence and it was done correctly. I do not understand why people are opposed to these things.
Yes, I know, there are groups out there that love to champion FC Ep. X and FC SD X. I get the impression that they have never read the whole thing. They pick out the parts from the confessions that they like and want to use to justify what they're doing, or are not doing, in the chancel.
Looking at the state of liturgical worship, or lack thereof, in this church body makes one stop and ask this question, "Are we the church of Luther and the Reformation, or are we the church of Karlstadt and the Reformation?"
I have never seen in a CPH catalog a reference book on how to do liturgical ceremony. I am not talking about bits and pieces described in a book on the liturgy. I am saying, there is not a single book out there with pictures and diagrams and the how-to. There are more detailed guides for acolytes and altar guilds than there are for a pastor to have proper liturgical ceremonies included in the order of worship! What are we ashamed of?
In all honesty, I would much rather be confused with the Roman Catholic church in regards to worship, than to be accused of there being no difference with other Protestant church bodies in regards to worship. Is not Lutheranism really Roman Catholicism Reformed?
Why does Lutheranism in America so desperately want to be identified with the Methodists, Baptist and other Protestant descendants of Calvin?
Dear Exiled:
ReplyDeleteI think you raise not just a valid point, but a crucial point, one that is a pox on the house of the LCMS.
We could consider the perception of the perceived relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and what it means to be Lutheran as a large part of the problem (i.e. our historically incorrect understanding of Lutheranism as an anti-catholic rebellion against what is perceived as the essence of what it is to be Roman - meaning ceremonies), but I think the issue can be boiled down to Satan.
The devil hates any reminder of the Incarnation - and all ceremonies are just that. Ceremonies convert theoretical doctrine from dusty books into real space-and-time, flesh-and-blood practice and life. It is one thing to philosophize (and even sing) about an ethereal "old rugged cross", but something else to manually trace it upon one's fleshly body in remembrance of one's time-and-space anti-diabolical baptism.
Ditto for things like crucifixes, statues, icons, incense, bells, bowing, genuflecting, chanting, processions, kissing of holy objects, the use of baptismal water in blessings, etc.
Many of these things have been (as a tribute to Satan's craftiness) discarded - along with things like weekly Communion and private confession - by Lutherans under the false assumption that this is what we left behind when we broke relations with the Vatican.
Satan also hates beauty and reverence, and loves nothing more than for our services to reflect flippancy, worldly entertainment, shallowness, and schlock - for all of these things mock our Lord Christ and serve as an anti-confession of not only our Lord's divinity, but also His Real Presence in our midst.
So, I guess I would answer the question in persona of the old SNL Church Lady: "Could it be Satan?"
Fr. Hollywood,
ReplyDeleteI do appreciate your further comments on this topic. I think the term "pox" is very fitting.
I do not know when the "Great Anti-Liturgical Revolution" took place in the LCMS. I guess I can leave that to the historians.
What I do know is that when I was a seminarian, if one wanted to learn how to correctly do ceremonies in the church, one almost had to act like Nicodemus and seek this instruction privately. Any outward signs of interest in this topic and one could face accusations of being a Romanist, a liberal, a liberal-leaning Romanist, or even an individual with Eastern Orthodox leanings.
Fr. Hollywood, was it any different for you when you attended seminary?
Things are structured in a way now that those who would serve as pastors are not taught any practical applications of the liturgy, just theoretical. Even worse, due to this "educational" model, the lay people never are taught. When a pastor who does learn and does educate his members, the laity just eat it up. They are almost on the verge of going after their predecessors for withholding this dimension of worship.
I think the part that makes this even more sickening is the number of so-called "confessional" pastors who loudly (and for some, proudly) attack any and all who promote a ceremonial, liturgical worship life in their parish. This is why this church body is decaying. The attitude of these individuals who have promoted themselves to decide who is a "confessional Lutheran" and who is not, has only helped to cause a more rapid decline of this church body.
Yes, a pox has been put on this house.
Dear Exiled:
ReplyDeleteI attended seminary (Ft. Wayne) from 2000-2003. So, I can only speak for that time period and my own impressions. I found the sem to be liturgical - but with limits. It was as if there were an invisible demarcation that if crossed would mark a man as suspect.
I found my last year in the classroom (2003), as well as my vicarage year (2004) to have been pivotal in the ethos of the seminary. I think the last men to have studied under Prof. Reuning were on their way out, and there was a sea change. In my last year (year three for me) There was actually an underground paper being circulated by some 4th year seminarians who were feeling pressured and frustrated (I had nothing to do with this whatsoever, and to this day I don't know who was really involved).
A fear seemed to rise (among the faculty) against anything that was, for lack of a better term, "too catholic." It was so stifling that the traditional "Q-Party" was moved off campus. The fear was probably overblown, but it almost felt like a witch-hunt.
Unfortunately, the fear became a self-fulfilling prophecy. The increasing hostility and unwelcomeness toward traditional Lutheran catholic piety began to make some of our guys look elsewhere where they would not be shunned or pressed to be more Protty. Several of my classmates at seminary have since left the LCMS - some for ELDoNA, some for EO, a couple for Anglicanism, and I believe one or two for RC.
There came to be a fear of anyone who liked incense or icons a little too much, or anyone who read Gottesdienst or Bride of Christ. It was okay to like them a little - and even some members of the faculty were on this page. But it was as if there is an unknown line in the sand that could not be crossed. In my class photo, there were several of us wearing cassocks - a practice that was tolerated, and even for a while enjoined, by the seminary leadership - but at some point became one of those "red flags." I graduated just in time before the cassock became a kind of scarlet letter.
Some of my classmates ended up leaving the LCMS. One was a pastor whose congregation pressured him to do polka services. Another had been compelled (bullied!) into violating his own conscience on vicarage (with the support of the seminary) by being compelled to "consecrate." Is it any wonder some of our pastors leave?
Our seminaries graduate and certify men who do rock and roll services, who reject the liturgy, who practice open communion, and seminary profs even promote (for example) the ministry of a pastor who has a deaconess at the altar vested in an alb and stole. Personally, I'm disappointed, scandalized, and saddened.
It is as if anything and everything is allowed in the LCMS - except a traditionalist and historic piety. That is treated like a red-headed stepchild. The examples of this are legion.
I really mourn the loss of some really outstanding pastors and theologians from our ministerium. I also grieve for some men who were not permitted to complete their studies and become ordained ministers in the LCMS.
We, as a church body, are the poorer for it, and so are our parishes, schools, and seminaries. In fact, I'm distressed by the state of affairs at Ft. Wayne. I loved my time as a seminarian. I loved my profs. But I can't support the shift in the culture that happened over the time while I was there, and again, I think it has had a bad effect on our church overall - good intentions notwithstanding.