Liturgical Truth
FatherDMJ (of LiveJournal’s Uneasy Priest fame) has posted an entry that speaks much truth. I’m begging his indulgence by quoting the whole chunk of text upon which I wish to comment..
My reprinted copy of Paul Lang’s outstanding book “Ceremony and Celebration” arrived Monday. I’ve read it before but a re-read is always a good idea. Lang is brilliant. He dares to be a true Lutheran in every sense of the manner with reference to the liturgy and ceremonial. His defense of Lutheran ceremonial from our confessional writings places ALL the burden of proof for so-called “Contemporary Worship” on those who claim to see the Book of Concord and Blessed Martin Luther say that tinkering with the liturgy or that liturgy is something that can be changed and reformed at anyone’s whim. I know of some pastors who will say the Confessions and Luther defend the right of a congregation to change corporate worship to suit cultural or other needs. Those folks are wrong. Using those documents to prove something wrong is wrong. They run against the grain of thousands of years of consisent church practice. To do such a thing would be disastrous for unity in the Church.
Which leads me to another point. It is becoming very difficult to argue such matters these days because the world has bought into the lie of “all truth is relative”. Putting it another way, as the theme song from “Diff’rent Strokes” says, “What might be right for you/May not be right for some”. Absolutes are absolutely forbidden. Everything is up for reinterpretation according to culture and especially according to getting people in church.
Lutherans are apologizing for being Lutheran. That’s the bottom line. It’s like saying “I’m sorry for breathing in oxygen.” Es ist ein undig.
How do we fix it? We don’t fix it by ourselves. We hit our knees and pray the Lord God to strengthen our preaching and teaching with a ready defense using His Word and the Lutheran Confessions (the correct interpretation of Holy Scripture). The ship wasn’t turned overnight but it happened quite quickly. It won’t be a quick return.
Patience: the most despised virtue of all. I don’t have much of it. God grant me a double portion of it as long as I live.
Now, there’s a whole lot of good stuff, however, I think it can be distilled into the following points:
- Liturgical integrity has meaning and importance.
- Change for the sake of change is hurtful to faith.
- Culture does not dictate orthodox doctrine.
- Relativism is evil, and religious relativism particularly so.
- We need never apologize for having been given the Truth - indeed, we dare not do so!
- We’ve been on a long journey downward.
- Heterodoxy emerges more quickly than Orthodoxy can be reclaimed.
- God will give us the patience & strength to stay the course & fight the battle.
Apologizing for being Lutheran. May God keep me from ever falling prey to that snare!
-ghp
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