Date: 2004-12-11 14:23 Subject: A few words about the Mass Security: Public Mood: accomplished

Yes, Lutherans may use that word. We are not some Protestant, separatist group contrary to popular belief.

(Sometimes, though, I wonder)

I've jotted down a few thoughts concerning the Mass toward those who are inclined to go all "happy-clappy" on Sundays and Holy Days.

What do you think?

Knowledge of the Lutheran Confessions would help.
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Informal Remarks Concerning the Mass

How do you teach catechumens young and old about what Lutherans believe? Children learn in a long series of catechetical instruction in the Six Chief Parts of Blessed Martin Luthers Small Catechism. For adults it may be the same thing shrunk into several weeks instruction using a wide variety of texts.

Have you considered answering the question of What do Lutherans believe? with Come to church on Sunday and see for yourself? The Latin phrase lex orandi lex credendi has become so worn out among us that it should probably be retired, much like the equally worn out and misunderstood word ministry. Yet that four word Latin phrase meaning The rule of prayer is the rule of faith says it all. To put it another way, Who we are is how we pray.

Among the congregations of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod there are differences in how Christs flock gather corporately to receive the Means of Grace and return thanks to God through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Some of these differences are differences in rite. You will recall Paul H.D. Langs helpful definition of the word rite: Ritual refers to that part of a divine service which consists of its words, that is, the rite or the order of service. We have congregations that use The Lutheran Hymnal. Other congregations use Lutheran Worship. Still others use rites from other Lutheran synods. A few have a new rite every week by means of word processing and the human brain. It is true that the Church needs some sort of rite. These rites need not be the same but for the sake of walking together on the same path (syn-hodos) we are given to use those rites that are found to agree with our confession.

Also differing among us is the use of ceremonies. Lang defines a ceremony as:

everything connected with the performance of a rite. It refers not only to bodily expressions, such as speaking, singing, kneeling, bowing, make the sign of the cross, and the outward observance of the church year, but also to the ornaments, symbols, and material objects employed in the churchs worship, for example, the church building, the altar, crucifixes, candles, and vestments. Ceremonies are solemn religious things and actions.

Note that in Langs definition he does not call the Divine Liturgy of the Church a ceremony. Ceremonies are not the actual rite itself but those outward things connected with the rite. It is given to each congregation to adorn the rite with as little or as much ceremonial as desired. For many of our parishes we see a modest amount of ceremonies. Others might have much more ceremonies. The commonality of ceremonies among us is that we have some sort of ceremony, but how much does not necessarily need to be the same through time and place.

Now that we have defined terms it is time to start asking questions like Is so-called contemporary forms of worship in keeping with Article 24 and its bold confession of we do not abolish the Mass, but religiously maintain and defend itand the usual public ceremonies are observed, the series of lessons, of prayers, vestments, and other like things ? Also needing an answer, Are the words form and rite the same thing?

There is a more fundamental question needing to be asked that shakes the very foundation of how God serves His flock corporately: Is the Liturgy of the Church an adiaphoron that may be dispensed with or changed around to suit the needs and wants of a specific time and place?

AC XXIV begins with Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence. There are many among us who abide by AC XXIV and joyfully offer Christs Body and Blood when there are communicants who hunger and thirst for the Sacrament. What about those of us who literally practice closed communion every other week against our people and do not offer the Sacrament every Sunday? It is clear from AC XXIV that we should be busy preaching and teaching toward a more frequent reception of Christs Body and Blood. The Sacrament of the Altar is not an adiaphoron. If this were so, then one must consider corporate worship an adiaphoron.

There is the argument made by some, The sermon is the most important thing in worship. Everything else is adornment around the sermon. If this were so, then we should only have a sermon every Sunday morning with nothing else before or after it. What would our people think if they came to church to see the pastor stand in the pulpit, preach the sermon, and dismiss them to their homes when finish? Such minimalistic attitudes toward the Mass may be extreme but one sees the absurdity of the primacy of only preaching or only the Sacrament or only the offering.

When the Confessions speak of the Mass, they speak of the proclamation of the Gospel as a whole. This is everything from the Invocation through the Benediction, including the singing of hymns. Everything that happens in the public worship of the Church is the proclamation of the Gospel. Letting this thought sink in has made us wonder about the so-called division of the liturgy into the service of the Word and the service of the Sacrament. Dividing the Mass only confuses the point. If we are to be Confessional Lutheran pastors (and all of us are even if the term is used as a slur toward so-called conservative pastorswe all vowed to preach and teach according to the 1580 Book of Concord), then we are to retain the Mass in its fullnesspreaching the Gospel AND administering the Sacrament every Sunday.

Further says AC XXIV, Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved, save that the parts sung in Lain are interspersed here and there with German hymns, which have been added to teach the people. For ceremonies are needed to this end alone that the unlearned be taught. Lutherans are conservative reformers, meaning any changes to the Mass are done slowly with every attention to retaining ceremonies that serve to teach the flock. Many of our flock would be shocked if they could go back in time to the churches of the Conservative Reformation up to the early 17th century, especially those of our flocks who believe concerning public worship, the farther from Rome, the better the congregation. Many churches were loathe to give up the richness of ceremonial that adorned the Mass inherited from the Papists. Every Sunday Mass, daily prayer Offices with preaching, priestly gestures at the altar (the orans position in liturgical prayer, bowing, making the Sign of the Cross, the wearing of Eucharistic vestments, et cetera), all were retained and meant to be retained. These ceremonies teach something. When they become mere routine with no piety anchoring them, then one should reassess their need.

It is clear that the Confessions in no way seek to make the words Mass and ceremonies synonyms. Again, Mass is the corporate worship of the Church that includes, but is not limited to, the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of Holy Communion. Actually one should see the latter as a part of the whole that is the former. Ceremonies are the adornment of the Mass, such things as vestments, chanting, crucifixes, candles, the organ, liturgical furniture, standing, sitting, kneeling, making the sign of the Cross, bowing, et cetera. The Confessions also say we do not abolish the Mass while saying that ceremonies need not be the same in our churches. Let us be clear in the following statement: The word Mass and the word ceremony are not synonymous and not interchangeable. To call the Mass a ceremony and say that is may be changed or discarded where and when desirable is not to speak as a pastor who takes Gods Word and the Lutheran Confessions seriously.

This leads to another question, May the rites of the Church be changed to suit my congregation? This question is loaded at first glance because of the prepositional phrase to suit my congregation. This reminds us of a conversation between a pastor and a woman in his congregation. The woman approaches the pastor and says, Pastor, the liturgy doesnt say what I mean. The pastor gently replies, Madam, you must mean what the liturgy says. This is the driving force behind lex orandi lex credendiprayer shapes belief.

All of us have different rites in our congregations as mentioned before. The desire to change the rite to suit so-called felt needs of an individual parish should give the pastor pause to consider the need to do so. Yes, we have the right to change the rite. But the real questions are May I change the rite? Just because you have the right to do something does not mean you ought to do it. We have the right to write up a new rite every week. We have the ability to do a better job than some Commission on Worship. We know where our people are better than a bunch of pastors sitting in a cubicle. We know what it takes to make our people happy and our pews full. So why not?

One good reason is this business of the Conservative Reformation. Our fathers in faith retained what was handed down to them. They threw out those things that muddied the proclamation of the Gospel. Through the various rites of the Church (TLH, LW, LBW, LSB, ELH, CW) we have many options of the same thing. These rites are time-tested and meet the approval of Scripture and the Confessions. Why would one want to exercise the privilege (not the right) to change what is unchangeable? It would be like writing a new version of the Bible to suit ones needs and wants. Messing with the Mass is messing with Gods Word. Its best not to exercise the privilege and spend that time preparing to preach Gods Word rather than writing a new rite every week.

What about the word form or style? The word form is confusing at best. One would be better served to use the word rite. There is one form of the Mass but many different rites of that one form. The style of the Mass is the style of the rite, reverent and dignified. One may gently update the style handed down without making the Mass sound like a Warner Brothers cartoon or an Air Supply concert.

The Mass is the delivery of the Means of Grace to Gods children. It is not a chemistry experiment in progress. It is the public expression of what we believe, teach, and confess, not a concert or entertainment. Learning proper Confessional terminology and how it is expressed in our congregations through the Mass will go a long way to unifying the Mass and certain ceremonies while maintaining a distinctive Lutheran identity from parish to parish.