Worship, Christ and Salvation

WORSHIP, CHRIST AND SALVATION

Rev. Daniel Preus (July 2007)

First of all, I want to tell you how absolutely delighted I am to be with all of you here in Australia. Back in 1984 my wife and I were able to spend six months in Mt. Barker, South Australia and we learned to love the country and its people. So we are absolutely thrilled to be here in Adelaide and to be back in Australia.

Introduction

When I graduated from the seminary in 1975, I confess I did not know a lot about the historic liturgy of the church. I had it memorized. After all I had used it since childhood. I knew how to lead the people in worship, performing the liturgy as a pastor. I had learned that at the seminary. But why the liturgy was structured as it was, why the various parts of the liturgy came to be placed where they were – those were things I didn’t know. Those were things I hadn’t been taught. Those who graduated about the time I did will all give the same testimony.

The Good Old Days

Back in those days in our church everybody used The Lutheran Hymnal. Although some pastors wrote a litany now and then and some churches had specially written services for Reformation or Christmas or Easter, for the most part all our congregations used The Lutheran Hymnal. As a result, you could visit a congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod anywhere in the country and you would know that you were in a Lutheran church. You could sing the liturgy along with the rest of the congregation with total confidence even if you didn’t have a hymnal in your hands. Everywhere you went the words were the same. And although you might encounter hymns that you had not sung before, there would always be a few, usually most of them that you knew.

Those were the days when you could tell by the worship that we were all members of the same church body. Those were the days immediately following a terrible controversy in our church. Many of our professors at the St. Louis seminary had been teaching that the Bible could have mistakes and all sorts of other wrong teachings had resulted from this basic error. We fought a terrible battle over this matter and as a result all of the liberal and Bible-doubting professors had left along with over 200,000 members to form a new church body and although the controversy itself had been very bitter, the future looked bright to many of us. They were days when it looked like controversy was in the past and the unity we had in our worship gave indication of the unity among us in doctrine. Those were the good old

days. And those were the days during which Satan was considering how to take advantage of our complacency and our false sense of security and our lack of understanding of the nature of the church militant.

Complacency

For a few years I was complacent. I was not complacent about my work in the congregations I served. There I was daily among sinful people and it was evident that they needed help. It was obvious that Satan was at work leading people to neglect God’s Word and worship, seducing them into various kinds of sins that caused them no end of problems and grief. No pastor who cares about the faith and salvation and comfort of his people can ever become complacent about the congregation he serves.

But I was complacent about life in the Missouri Synod. It appeared that we were a fairly united church. It seemed that our conflicts over doctrine were behind us. I thought that the future of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod would be peaceful. I was wrong.

False Teaching in the Church

I didn’t yet have a good understanding of what it means to be a member of the church militant. I should have known better. After all, I knew the words of the apostle Peter. “There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.” (2 Peter 2:1-2)

Error and Unfaithfulness in the Missouri Synod

And so it was that I lived in complacency only a short time before I began to see the truth assaulted in various ways in our church, a church that for many years had been a faithful beacon shining the light of God’s grace into a world darkened by sin through the proclamation of the Gospel. One of the most obvious ways our teaching was being undermined was in regard to our communion practice. I am sure you are all aware of what our practice is, namely that in our churches we give the Lord’s Supper to those who are members of congregations in church bodies with which we have altar and pulpit fellowship. And of course our practice is based on what is taught in Scripture. St. Paul says in Romans, “I urge you brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine you have learned, and avoid them.” (Romans 16:17) It is hardly avoiding offenses and divisions and error to give the Lord’s Supper to those who belong to churches that teach completely contrary to ours regarding various aspects of our Christian doctrine and even about what the Lord’s Supper actually is and does.

But in spite of the fact that our practice was known and understood by our pastors and in our congregations and in spite of the fact that our Synod in convention has on numerous occasions restated its commitment to this Scriptural practice, many pastors and congregations were simply beginning to ignore or defy our church’s position regarding closed communion.

Many of these pastors hold to the same view you and I do on the essence of the Lord’s Supper: they agree that the Roman Church is in error in viewing the mass as unbloody sacrifice to the Father for the sins of the living and the dead and they do not agree with the Calvinists who wish to confine the humanity of Christ to Heaven, thus making impossible a proper understanding of the words of Jesus, “This is my body.” It is equally clear, however, that today in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod we have anything but unanimity concerning the practice of closed communion, even though the historic position and approved practice are quite clear.

Lack of Doctrinal Discipline

Another problem facing the Missouri Synod today is that many District Presidents over the years simply have not exercised the church discipline that their election to office requires them to exercise. I will never forget one of the most obvious examples of a District President shirking his responsibility. It began when Dr. Paul Bretscher who was a pastor in Valparaiso, Indiana had written a book back in the 70’s entitled After the Purifying. In his book he had stated that the Bible is not the Word of God. This was after the whole Walkout and Seminex debacle. Anyway, Bretscher had insisted that although the Bible contains the Word of God, it could not itself be equated with the Word of God. I waited for Paul Bretscher to be disciplined, to be removed from his office as a pastor. But it didn’t happen. Decades later he was finally removed, but only after he had actually begun to deny the deity of Jesus, the physical resurrection of Jesus and basically the entire Christian faith.

Since then we have had District Presidents decline to deal with pastors or professors who have taught that evolution was true, that women may be pastors, that Muslims worship the true God and many other doctrinal aberrations.

These violations of our doctrine and practice and the refusal of District Presidents to deal with them demonstrates clearly how serious are the problems we face in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. But there is one more problem that may actually be more serious than all the others.

“Contemporary” Worship

Today we face that problem, issue, attack, challenge, call it what you will – today we face something that is destroying our unity more quickly and more decisively than any other thing. Because you see, when there were a few and even when there were many who were defying our closed communion practice, there was one area of our church life where we were still united – and that was our worship. When there were a few district presidents and even when there were many who forsook their responsibility to exercise the church discipline they had been empowered and instructed to provide, thus permitting error into the church, there was one area of our church life in which we were still united and that was our worship.

Unfortunately, in the United States all of our Missouri Synod pastors and any of our laypeople who have done any traveling at all, are aware of or have seen the evidence demonstrating that we are anything but united in our worship practice today. The reason for our disunity is, to a great degree, the result of pastors and congregations going their own way, neglecting our Lutheran understanding of worship and doing what they please rather than walking together with those of us who have honored our Lutheran doctrine and practice of worship. The Bylaws of our Synod state that our congregations are to use only doctrinally pure hymnals. Some of our congregations use no hymnals at all. I suppose they can argue they are not using doctrinally impure hymnals. Some of our congregations import hymns that are either theologically vacuous ditties or actually contain false doctrine. I suppose they can insist that the hymnals in which these songs are found are not in the hymn racks in their churches.

The Church Growth Movement

I wish I had more time for this issue because the movement has had a significant impact in the United States on the Missouri Synod and also on the smaller Wisconsin Synod. Since those supportive of this movement belong to numerous different church bodies, it is hard to say what the church growth movement “believes.” And since the Church Growth Movement does not produce creeds, it is difficult to analyze apart from the practices and the behavior of those who associate with it. One of the hallmarks, I think everyone would agree, of this movement has been the so-called “contemporary worship” service. Perhaps the word “contemporary” is not the word you use here in Australia to describe this phenomenon. Perhaps you use the word “alternate” or some other word. I refer to the practice of setting aside our traditional, historic liturgies and substituting for them something perceived to be more relevant or timely. In the United States these services are usually called “contemporary services” or sometimes “praise services.”

But even this characteristic of the Church Growth Movement is a bit difficult to get a handle on since there is no standard definition of what contemporary worship is and it is apparent that not everybody has the same definition. I will therefore, of necessity, be speaking to some degree in generalities and using words such as “frequently” or “sometimes.” In so doing, however, I hope to identify practices frequently found in Lutheran worship services and analyze them on the basis of our Lutheran theology.

Liturgical Omissions and Novelties

Some of the services used in our LC-MS churches today are in hardly any way identifiable as Lutheran. In some cases the creeds or even the Lord’s Prayer will be omitted. In a number of cases I have witnessed the Confession and Absolution turned into a ‘Confessional Moment’ which held little resemblance to a true confession and contained no clear absolution. Frequently duties traditionally reserved for the pastor are assumed by laypeople. New hymns or songs are introduced – frequently with little doctrinal content, often moralistic or even legalistic, and rarely christocentric either as to Christ’s person or work. In such congregations the growth of the church is frequently seen as the result of the application of certain tried and true methods known well to those acquainted with effective marketing practices. I do not know how common these kinds of liturgical changes are in Lutheran churches in Australia but if it is not a problem yet, it is sure to become one soon.

The Marketing Mentality of Contemporary Worship

The marketing mentality which has imposed itself on the non-Lutheran worship forms which have in recent years been introduced into Missouri Synod congregations is inescapable. It may be somewhat simplistic to say that in such congregations the belief that the church grows through the means of grace has been replaced by the belief that the church grows through the proper application of marketing principles. However, there is much truth in this statement. Much of what we see happening today in our churches is simply the church imitating the world. How do corporations generate profits? Let’s do that. How do various American industries attract customers? Let’s do that.

There simply is no denying that marketing concepts are being employed in many of our congregations with the expectation that with the application of marketing principles the kingdom of God will grow. At no time has this fact been clearer to me than when I attended a Professional Church Workers Conference in the Northern Illinois District back in the late 1980’s. During the opening worship service, which was also a communion service, I saw what Church Growth can do to the liturgy. The entire service was bad, as far as I was concerned, but what struck me the most was one of the hymns sung by the entire congregation, as far as I could tell, except yours truly and a school teacher who was sitting next to me.

1. The franchise, Lord, is Your invention

Which You developed for our sake.

It is Your own divine intention

That we work for You. So please make

Our lives branch offices of Grace

To serve you well in every place. .

2. You send Your love to us, Lord, wholesale;

So needed by each human soul,

Which we distribute then without fail

Through Your own quality control

Of our blest lives. And may we see

More customers increasingly.

3. This franchise, Lord, is so amazing!

It cost us nothing to obtain!

It came when You from death were raising

Our Savior, Who for us did gain

Eternal life, so that we may

Conduct Your business ev’ry day.

4. Those daily shipments, Lord, do send us:

Your Holy Word and Sacraments.

And in our weakness please attend us

That we may never give offense.

As franchised merchants of Your grace,

Supply our needs through all our days.[i]

The Lutheran focus on the means of grace, has here been supplanted by a marketing model complete with merchants, customers, a franchise with branch offices, wholesale distribution of a product which goes through quality control before reaching customers and although there is surely some truth contained in the hymn, the crass emphasis on marketing the Gospel effectually obliterates the Gospel as means of Grace. And so it is in much of what is typical of today’s Church Growth movement. The concepts may not be expressed in quite so vulgar a way, but the assumptions expressed in this hymn do appear to be driving much of what is happening in the Church Growth movement and in Contemporary Worship.

Methodology Rules

The method replaces the means and the church grows not so much when the means of grace are properly administered, but when the correct methods are used. Thus, the Gospel and the Sacraments, of necessity lose their place as the God-ordained means of growing His church. The result is that many of our churches are simply no longer Lutheran in their worship. In many cases the historic liturgy has been discarded and the people, needless to say, have often become disturbed and, I am sorry to say, sometimes even, dispossessed. And they have become dispossessed of the Gospel.

Worship and the Gospel

The debate raging in the church today over whether we should use traditional, historic liturgy or contemporary worship is not simply an argument over style or as some might suggest, a differing opinion as to whether we should focus more on style or substance. The issue really goes much deeper. It actually goes to the heart of our faith and our understanding of the Gospel. It deals with what it means to be a sinner, how sinners are saved and how the church is created. It is perhaps this last doctrine that is more at the center of the so-called worship wars than any other. What is the church and how is the church created? Of course, we all know what the church is. In the Smalcald Articles Luther states, “Thank God, even a seven year old child knows what the church is, namely holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of the Shepherd.”[ii] We also know how the church is created. Again the Smalcald Articles answer, “In these matters, which concern the external, spoken word, we must hold firmly to the conviction that God gives no one His Spirit or grace except through or with the external Word.”[iii] The word of God, the Gospel and the Sacraments, the means of grace are alone that which creates the church and causes it to grow. How do Lutherans believe the church grows? Every Lutheran who has been confirmed in an orthodox Lutheran congregation already knows the answer to this question. Every good Lutheran knows that God has definitively answered this question—in the Scriptures. The word of God gives birth to the church; the word of God nourishes the church; the word of God strengthens the church; the word of God preserves the church; the word of God sustains the church to the end. All growth of the church and in the church is caused by the word and by the word alone and specifically by that Word of the Gospel that points to Jesus Christ as the Savior. The church is created when the Holy Spirit shows sinners that a Savior has come who through His life, passion, death and resurrection has washed away all sin has opened the gates of Heaven and promises everlasting life to all who look in hope to Him.

And should not this truth – that Christ is our Savior and that He alone is our salvation – be reflected in our worship? The divine service on Sunday morning or whenever it is held is when and where the people of God gather together to hear the voice of God, be fed by Him and respond to His grace and love in Christ the Savior. It is hard to overestimate the importance of the divine service. It is frequently the only forum in which people have the opportunity to hear God’s word. It is, therefore, the event at which, more than any other, one has the right to expect God’s sheep to be fed with the Word of life. The Word of life, of course, with which God feeds His sheep is the Gospel of forgiveness. And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. It is therefore, not unimportant what form our worship takes on a Sunday morning.

Now those in favor of “contemporary” worship are undoubtedly of the opinion that it is simply a matter of difference in style and that contemporary worship can be effective in reaching out to non-Christians. Those who prefer the historic liturgy of the church are convinced that much of what is called contemporary worship is unsuitable for use in Lutheran churches. How do we work through this disagreement?

Adiaphoron?

Are you acquainted with the word adiaphoron? It means something neither commanded nor forbidden. Those who use so-called contemporary services may at times say or imply that “Worship is an adiaphoron.” This statement is false. It is true that the Scriptures do not dictate or prescribe the precise format Christians must follow when they gather together for worship. This does not mean, however, that worship itself is an adiaphoron. Nor does it mean that Christians are free to do whatever they choose when it comes to worship. This truth should be obvious. Christians are not free, for example, to worship in ways that would denigrate the faith of the Church as expressed in the creeds. Christians are not free to worship in ways that would imply salvation can be found elsewhere than in Christ. Christians are not free in their worship to ignore God as Triune. Those in favor of using new worship formats would normally never take the position that it doesn’t matter what they do, but that they should have the right to introduce new forms, as long as they are in agreement with the Bible. Those who oppose what is found in much of so-called contemporary worship believe that it is destroying our unity. How do we work through this impasse?

Balance in Worship

Luther and our Confessions can help us here. In the first place, Luther, calls for a proper balance in our understanding of what constitutes Christian freedom as it pertains to how the church worships. On the one hand, Luther says in 1523, “But in all these matters we will want to beware lest we make binding what should be free, or make sinners of those who may do some things differently or omit others… For these rites are supposed to be for Christians, i.e., children of the “free woman” [Gal.4:31], who observe them voluntarily and from the heart, but are free to change them how and when ever they may wish. Therefore, it is not in these matters that anyone should either seek or establish as law some indispensable form by which he might ensnare or harass consciences.”[iv]

Uniformity in Worship

On the other hand, however, lest people come quickly to the conclusion that Luther is advocating a liturgical free-for-all, it should be noted that immediately following these words, Luther says, “Let us feel and think the same, even though we may act differently. And let us approve each other’s rites lest schisms and sects should result from this diversity in rites.”[v] Luther is not advocating the right of each local congregation to do something different from the rest of the church. In fact, he counsels persistently for uniformity in worship. When there is lack of uniformity, Luther says, “This causes confusion among the people. It prompts both the complaint, ‘No one knows what he should believe or with whom he should side,’ and the common demand for uniformity in doctrine and practice.”[vi] To those who would claim that worship forms are adiaphora, Luther says, “But those who ordain and establish nothing succeed only in creating as many factions as there are heads, to the detriment of that Christian harmony and unity of which St. Paul and St. Peter so frequently write.”[vii] “Therefore,” Luther advises,

I pray all of you, my dear sirs, let each one surrender his own opinions and get together in a friendly way and come to a common decision about these external matters, so that there will be one uniform practice throughout your
district instead of disorder—One thing being done here and another there—lest the common people get confused and discouraged.

For even through from the viewpoint of faith, the external orders are free and can without scruples be changed by anyone at any time, yet from the viewpoint of love, you are not free to use this liberty, but bound to consider the edification of the common people, as St. Paul says, I Corinthians 14 [:40], ‘All things should be done to edify,’ and I Corinthians 6 [:12], ‘All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful,’ and I Corinthians 8 [:1], Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.’ Think also of what he says there about those who have a knowledge of faith and of freedom, but who do not know how to use it; for they use it nor for the edification of the people but for their own vainglory.”[viii]

Again Luther states,

Therefore, when you hold mass, sing and read uniformly, according to a common order—the same in one place as in another—because you see that the people want and need it and you wish to edify rather than confuse them. For you are there for their edification, as St. Paul says, “we have received authority not to destroy but to build up” [II Cor. 10:8]. If for yourselves you have no need of such uniformity, thank God. But the people need it. And what are you but servants of the people?[ix]

Permit me to conclude this part of my presentation with two more quotations of Martin Luther, this time from his preface to his German Mass and Order of Service.

For this is being published not as though we meant to lord it over anyone else, or to legislate for him but because of the widespread demand for German masses and services and the general dissatisfaction and offense that has been caused by the great variety of new masses, for everyone makes his own order of service. Some have the best intentions, but others have no more than an itch to produce something novel so that they might shine before men as leading lights, rather than being ordinary teachers –as is always the case with Christian liberty: very few use it for the glory of God and the good of the neighbor; most use it for their own advantage and pleasure.[x]

Finally, says Luther, “As far as possible we should observe the same rites and ceremonies, just as all Christians have the same baptism and the same sacrament [of the altar] and no one has received a special one of his own from God.”[xi]

The proponents of contemporary worship cannot cite Luther as an ally, supporting what amounts to the abandonment of uniformity in preference for that which Luther called “frivolous faddism.”[xii]

The Beauty of Uniformity in Worship

In 1999 I attended a worship service in Helsinki, Finland. It was conducted in Swedish and Finnish. I understood most of the Swedish part but not a word of the Finnish part but I understood the entire service. You know why? They used the Lutheran liturgy which I have been using all my life. In 2001 I attended a worship service in Kiev, Ukraine. I know no Ukrainian. But I was able to follow the entire service and understand what was going on during each part of it. Why? They used a Lutheran liturgy, the liturgy I have been using since I was a little child. In 2002 I attended a worship service in Panama and about two months ago I attended a worship service in Chile. They were both in Spanish and I don’t speak Spanish. But although I didn’t understand the words, I understood everything that was happening. They used the Lutheran liturgy. In 2003 I attended a worship service in the jungle in Sudan. I had entered a completely different culture. But we were all brothers and sisters in Christ and therefore culturally members of the same spiritual family. They, too, used the Lutheran liturgy and I understood most of what was happening throughout the service.

Church and Culture

There are those who believe that the church should accommodate itself to the culture. This seems to be one of the main premises of the church growth movement which incorporates the style and words and music of our culture into their so-called contemporary worship services. I don’t believe that the church should adapt itself to the culture. I think that it is essential that the church understand the culture and at times certain aspects of the culture will be reflected in the church’s worship but I don’t think it is the church’s duty to adapt to the culture. I believe that the church should constantly be trying to fashion or influence the culture. Normally the culture in which we live accommodates itself to various evils. In these instances the church should be counter-cultural. And the more the culture reflects the evils of this world, the more countercultural the church needs to be. How many of you think that Australian culture or Australian society is improving? How many of you think it is getting worse? How many of you think it makes sense when our culture seems to be getting more and more godless for the church to imitate the culture.

I will never forget a sermon I heard preached by Dr. Paul Kofi Fynn, a pastor from Ghana. I think it was about 1988 when I heard this sermon. He was preaching about how the Gospel had come to the people of Ghana and what joy it brought them to learn about their Savior. Then he talked about how some of the misguided missionaries wanted to encourage the Ghanaians to retain their own cultural practices within the worship service. He replied: “Why are you asking us to do this? Don’t you know that our culture tells us that we need to cut the throat of a chicken and spread its blood before the door of our place of worship before our gods will accept us? We cannot keep this culture. Now that we are Christians, Christ is our culture.”

Now perhaps Ghana was not as civilized as Australia or the United States. But I think that even in my country I will take Paul Fynn’s position. I do not wish to bring my culture into the church. In fact, I want to know that when I enter the doors of my church, I enter a culture that is very different from that outside.

The Highest Worship of Christ

What is it which is at the very heart of Christian worship? Concerning the woman who washed Jesus feet with her hair, our Lutheran confessions say, “The woman came with the opinion concerning Christ that with him the remission of sins should be sought. This worship is the highest worship of Christ. Nothing greater could she ascribe to Christ. To seek from Him the remission of sins was truly to acknowledge the Messiah.”[xiii] Elsewhere our Confessions say, “The greatest possible comfort comes from this doctrine that the highest worship in the Gospel is the desire to receive forgiveness of sins, grace and righteousness.”[xiv]

If the greatest worship of Christ is to seek His forgiveness and if the highest worship is the desire to receive forgiveness of sins, grace and righteousness, shouldn’t our worship, then, be characterized by a focus on precisely that – forgiveness, justification? Should not our worship be focused on Christ and what He brings us?

The Christ-centered Liturgy

About a year ago, while considering this whole issue of historic versus so-called contemporary worship, it occurred to me to look at our hymnal’s services to see how Christocentric they were. If worship is to bring us Christ and His gifts, they need to be Christ-centered, don’t they? I looked at The Order for Holy Communion in The Lutheran Hymnal, p. 15. I have known this liturgy by memory for decades and I was still amazed in discovering how incredibly Christ-centered it is. In preparation for your conference here I looked at a copy of Lutheran Hymnal (1973) authorized by the Lutheran Church of Australia which is remarkably similar to our The Lutheran Hymnal. (I did not have in my possession the most recent updated hymnal used in the Australian Lutheran Churches but it is substantially the same in its form as that of 1973.)

Lutheran Hymnal – p. 1

“In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” At the center of the Invocation is the Son of God.

In the pastor’s invitation to confess our sins, we find ourselves beseeching the Father “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In the Confession itself we pray that the Father would be gracious to us “for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Thy beloved Son Jesus Christ.”

In the questions the Pastor asks the people the second question focuses on faith in Jesus Christ.

In the Absolution the pastor forgives us “in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We move on to the Gloria Patri and once again – at the very center is the Son of God.

The Gloria Patri is followed by the Kyrie and again at the very center is Jesus. “Lord, have mercy, Christ, have mercy, Lord, have mercy.”

After the Kyrie comes the Gloria in Excelsis and in the very middle of that hymn we sing, “O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; O Lord God. Lamb of God, Son of the Father.”

Then comes the Collect and every one of them for the entire church year ends with the words, “through Thy Son Jesus Christ, our Lord…”

After the Collect come the Scripture readings. In your hymnal during the season of Lent, following the Epistle, you sing, “Christ humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death; even death on a cross.”

Then we rise at the reading of the Gospel which tells us about the birth life, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then when the Gospel reading has ended, we sing, “Praise be to Thee, O Christ.”

The Gospel is followed by the Creed and of course, the central and longest article of the creed is the second article dealing with the person of Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God.

Then comes the Sermon and “woe be to me if I preach not the Gospel.” And that Gospel is about the forgiveness of sins which comes to me through Jesus.

Then we move into the service of Holy Communion. We read the Proper Prefaces and see how they focus on Christ. For example:

Christmas: For in the mystery of the Word made flesh Thou has given us a new revelation of Thy glory, that, seeing Thee in the Person of Thy Son...”
Epiphany: “And now do we praise Thee, that Thou didst send to us Thine only-begotten Son…”
Easter: “But chiefly are we bound to praise Thee for the glorious resurrection of Thy Son…”
And then look at the rest of them – all talking about Jesus!

We sing the Sanctus and bless Him who comes in the name of the Lord, namely Christ.

We pray the prayer given us by our Lord Jesus Christ.

We hear the Words of Institution that effect the presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper.

Then the pastor turns to the people and says, “The peace of the Lord be with you always.” In many churches it is customary for the pastor to display the host and the chalice. The bread is Jesus’ body; the cup contains His blood. They are about to receive the body and blood of the Prince of Peace. How appropriate that the pastor says, “The peace of the Lord be with you.”

Then we sing the Agnus Dei, a prayer to Christ the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And then we eat the body and we drink the blood of Christ the Son of God and we leave the altar proclaiming in song, with Simeon, that our eyes have seen God’s salvation. Why? Because we have received the body and blood of the Savior, Jesus.

We then pray the post-Communion prayer and if you use the second prayer, you pray, “Heavenly Father, who dist not spare Thine own Son…”

Finally the service ends with the Benediction and once again Jesus is at the center, as the pastor proclaims, “The Lord make His face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee.” And how does the face of the Father shine upon us? What does it mean when we say that a person’s face is shining? It means he is happy. It means he is pleased. And God is pleased and happy with us for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ.

It is hard for me to imagine a liturgy that is more Chistocentric than this beautiful service. And this beautiful service not only focuses on Christ; it tells us who he is and what He has done, pointing to Him over and over again as the Son of God, the Savior who through His suffering and death has brought us forgiveness.

Do you remember the incident in the Gospel of John when certain Greeks came to Philip and said, “Sir, we would see Jesus.”? (John 12:21) When I was a pastor in Oak Park, Illinois, there was a small sign in the pulpit repeating that request: “Sir, we would see Jesus.” It was meant to be a reminder to the Pastor that the people needed to see Jesus. They are sinful; Jesus is the Savior; sinners need to see the Savior; show them the Savior. And I truly appreciated that reminder. Now – When you look at the liturgy that I have just gone through with you, isn’t it true that you can almost imagine that it was constructed in response to the plea, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” It is so focused on Jesus – and isn’t that what a Christian service should be?

A True and Fascinating Story

To illustrate the contrast that I see between our historic liturgies and what goes on during most so-called contemporary services, let me tell you about an episode that took place in the last congregation I served in Colorado. We had lost our Lutheran organist and looked hard for another one. As hard as we looked, though we could not find a Lutheran and finally settled on a lady named Darlene who was a member of the Assemblies of God. I provided her with some instruction on Lutheran liturgy, hymnody and so on and she became our organist/choir director. Darlene was a concert pianist. She was truly outstanding on the piano. In fact, as a member of the Assemblies of God, she had had a “piano ministry” all over the world. Nevertheless, since we were a Lutheran church, when we hired Darlene, I made it clear to her that I needed to approve all of the music before she was permitted to use it. This included music for preludes, postludes, choir numbers, etc. In view of her background, I knew I had to supervise her choice of music if our services were to remain Lutheran in their music. Well, Darlene didn’t have a problem with that. She understood. We were a Lutheran Church. In fact, after about a month she told me one day after the service, “Pastor, I just love this liturgy. I’ve never experienced this before and I absolutely love it.”

Then a few months later she came to talk to me. She said, “Pastor, I don’t have any problem with your choosing the music. You’re the pastor, so that’s fine. I just want to understand. I submit all sorts of music pieces to you, but you approve only about a third of them. Why is that?” I explained to Darlene that Lutherans look for certain elements that characterize good Christian music. “For example,” I said, “it is good if the hymn or choir number mentions the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. After all, we want everyone to know not only that we are singing to a god, but that we are singing specifically to the only true God, the Trinity.” Darlene understood that fine. Then I said, “Or it is good if the piece can talk about Jesus. And by that I mean not just that the words use His name, but that they tell us clearly who He is, namely the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity and the Savior of the world. Also it is good if they tell us what He did, that He died to take our sins away, that He took all our guilt and shame on the cross, that He rose from death for us so that we might have the assurance of everlasting life.” And Darlene understood all that and appeared to be satisfied with my answer. A week later she returned to talk to me again. Pastor,” she said, “I’ve been going through all my old music, the pieces I have used and played for years. I was so surprised. None of them talk about who Jesus actually is and they don’t talk about what He did, either.” How many Lutherans are there now imitating what Darlene had been doing for years and years.

But Darlene’s story isn’t over. After she had been worshipping with us for about 4 months, listening every week, twice a Sunday, to Lutheran sermons, and being immersed each Sunday in our Christocentric liturgy, she asked if she could talk to me after church one morning. She seemed very worked up so I wondered what she was going to say. “Pastor, I never knew that I didn’t have to do anything,” she said. Whether it was the liturgy or the sermons that brought her to this understanding, I don’t know. I imagine it was a combination of the two. But one thing is sure. The pure Gospel in the divine service brought her to an understanding of justification by grace, through faith, for Christ’s sake – alone.

And you know what? The story still isn’t over. Her husband had been an Assembly of God pastor. And do you know from what source much of the music used in so-called contemporary worship comes? From the Assembly of God churches. It is not insignificant that this lady had not learned the Gospel in her Assembly of God Church. The major focus of the theology of the Assemblies of God, particularly in its music and its worship, is not the teaching of justification.

The Central Teaching of Christianity Attacked

It is this teaching that is being assaulted on all fronts today. This is the teaching that is always the focal point of Satan’s attacks, for it is the central article of the Christian faith, it is the article upon which the church stands or falls. It is the precious truth of God’s grace in Christ that is at the center of our faith, the center of our worship and the center of our lives. I pray that our gracious Father in Heaven will preserve us in this faith in Christ and teach us, as pastors and stewards of His mysteries to love His doctrine and to strive incessantly to keep it pure in our hearts, in our churches and in our confession.

Because the battles taking place in the liturgical arena today are about justification. Our historic liturgies are not arbitrary collections of worship forms used at one time or another by Christian people, but are carefully structured to focus on the article of justification. Art Just insists in Lutheran Worship: History and Practice, “No one would argue against change if something needed changing. But it is a cultural assumption that it is the liturgy that needs to be changed, when, as we have already suggested, it is we who need to be changed through the liturgy, for here Jesus Christ comes to us most completely, Sunday in and Sunday out.”[xv] Again, “The church year is God bringing home His Son to the congregation year after year.”[xvi] This last statement sums up quite well the whole point of all liturgy and worship – God bringing home His Son to the congregation, and in bringing them His Son, bringing them forgiveness, life and salvation. It’s all about justification.

Worship and Justification

Thus, what I showed you earlier when I demonstrated how Christ-centered your liturgy is, I can do again to show you how justification-centered your liturgy is, that is how focused it is on the Bible’s teaching on forgiveness, grace and salvation. And this time I would like to use the second service in your hymn book which is found on p. 18 to make my point. So please feel free once again to open a copy of Lutheran Hymnal and follow along if you wish. But as I do this, please look for words that I would call justification language, words like forgive, gracious, merciful, save and so on, words that point to what God has done in Christ by placing Him on a cross as our substitute and through His suffering and death washing our sins away and saving us.

Lutheran Hymnal, p. 18

1. Immediately following the invocation the pastor invites the congregation to confess our sins and to beseech the Father in Jesus’ name to “grant us forgiveness.” In other words – we pray that God would justify us in His sight.

2. Then the minister says in the second versicle, “I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And the people respond, “Then Thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin.”

3. Then the pastor confesses on behalf of the people and ends his prayer with the words, “Therefore we flee to Thine infinite mercy, seeking and imploring Thy grace for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

4. Then the congregation prays with the pastor “O most merciful God, who hast given Thine only-begotten Son to die for us, have mercy on us and for His sake grant us forgiveness of all our sins…”

5. Then the pastor speaks words of comfort to the congregation telling us that God has had mercy on us, has given His Son to die for us and for His sake forgives us all our sins.”

6. Skip down to the Gloria in Excelsis. Notice some of the beautiful justification words declared in this hymn. Singing to Jesus, we say: “O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, who takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us.”

7. The Collect of the day is then prayed and every collect ends with the phrase, “Through Jesus Christ our Lord, etc.” I mentioned this point above as I demonstrated how Christ-centered our service is. Now let me emphasize this word “through.” Every Collect of the church year ends with the words, “Through our Lord Jesus Christ.” When we use that word “through” we are confessing that God gives us everything he gives us through Jesus. Apart from Jesus we receive no spiritual blessing. It is for His sake that the Father hears our prayers and answers them and all He gives us, He gives us through Jesus. Once again we see the justification theme clearly in the words of our liturgy.

8. Then come the lessons and notice the response after the Epistle (p. 164) “Alleluia, Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” In other words, Lord, we’re weak and helpless. We don’t know where to go except to you. We know that we are sinful but we know that eternal life comes from you.” Isn’t this the teaching of justification?

9. Then come the lessons and we rise for the reading of the Gospel which focuses on what Jesus, the Lamb of God, did for our salvation.

10. Following the Gospel lesson comes the Creed and whether you use the Nicene Creed or the Apostles creed, notice that both end with the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting. Both creeds conclude with justification language.

11. After the creed comes the hymn and I will say more about hymns later.

12. Then comes the sermon and, as I sad before, woe be to me if I preach not the Gospel. I should also preach the law, but St. Paul never said, “Woe be to me if I preach not the law.” I need to preach the Gospel, which means I preach about justification. I want to say a bit more about sermons later.

13. Following the sermon comes the offering and when it is presented before God’s altar, we sing the offertory including the words, “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.”

14. Then comes The Prayer of the Church and notice how it begins: “Almighty God and Father, we thank Thee for all Thy goodness and tender mercies, especially for the gift of Thy dear Son, through whom Thou hast made known Thy will and grace…”

15. Then when the prayer ends, we find ourselves praying again, “through Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” There’s that Word “through” again. God is merciful to us through Jesus. He justifies us through Jesus.

16. Then, after the offering, comes the offertory. Notice the words of the second offertory (p. 169) “I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call on the name of the Lord. I will take the cup of salvation...”

This service then moves toward conclusion and does not contain the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. So to see how prominent the teaching of justification is in your hymnal in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, I direct your attention back to the Service with Communion. Please turn to page 12.

17. Immediately prior to the Words of Institution we pray the Lord’s Prayer. And what do we find right in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer? “Forgive us our trespasses.” I would say that petition has something to do with justification. And it is followed by our plea that God would not lead us into temptation but would deliver us from evil. Don’t these petitions also have something to do with salvation?

18. We then hear the words of institution spoken by the pastor and hear that the body of Christ was given for us and that His blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins.

19. After the words of institution, three times we hear the words of the Agnus Dei: “Lamb of God, who takest away the sin of the world.”

20. We then eat the body of Jesus and drink His blood and with the body and blood of our Lord we receive that which His body was crucified and His blood was shed to bring us, namely the forgiveness of sins and where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

21. In the dismissal we are reminded that Jesus’ body and blood are meant to preserve us in body and soul unto eternal life.

22. Then in the Nunc Dimmitis we pray with Simeon, and we confess, “Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation which Thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples.” Yes, we have received salvation, for we have received the body and blood of Jesus given into death to save us.

23. Finally in both of these services we conclude with the Aaronic benediction and in the very middle of this blessing we find the words, “The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you.” And how does that happen? God’s face shines on us through the Gospel, the message about Jesus his Son through whom He is gracious to us.

Worship and Salvation

These services, whether the one with or the one without communion, place the article of justification front and center, constantly before the eyes of the people. In other words, they talk about forgiveness of sins and salvation. Never in a contemporary worship service or a so-called praise service have I seen anything that can compare to our beautiful Lutheran liturgy in glorifying Christ, teaching the Gospel and teaching about justification by grace, through faith for Christ’s sake.

Just as the focus of Scripture is on Christ and as Luther says, He is on every page, (because he is the Savior who by his death and resurrection justifies the sinner), so the focus of a proper Lutheran liturgy will be on Christ. We come together on a Sunday morning in order that God may proclaim to the sinner justification through Jesus Christ, the Savior. This our historic liturgies do.

Conclusion

One cannot simply jettison the historic liturgy, come up with a new one every week and assure the people that, as far as their faith goes, nothing has changed. Unfortunately, many of the so-called contemporary services have so changed the nature of the worship that Christ and His atoning work no longer are the focal point. Thus, the discussions we are having today regarding so-called praise services or so-called contemporary worship are not primarily over new stuff versus old stuff or contemporary versus stuffy, old German. They are not even only about formal versus informal, although that is certainly a huge element of the discussions. But these discussions about the liturgy and worship are also about the article of justification. They are about Jesus and forgiveness and salvation. And so our decisions as to whether we will use “contemporary” or traditional liturgies are decisions that will not only determine the form of worship that will be used by our people; they will also determine how clearly they will hear the Gospel. We need to be very clear on this particular point if we want people to see Jesus, the Savior and receive His forgiveness and be saved.