Necessary Roughness

The Augsburg Confession has been used both in preserving liturgical worship and in advocating nonliturgical worship. In a recent post Article XXIV was used to defend the use of the Mass.

Yet we are not slaves to the Mass. Article VII tells us:

Also they (the congregations under Lutheran guidance) teach that one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.

And to the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike. As Paul says: One faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, etc. Eph. 4, 5. 6.

We are sinful yet powerful human beings. We can turn any Gospel into Law with our own bare hands. We can look at the ancient liturgy and ask, “Do we have to?” When the rituals point to Christ, the answer is, “No, but why would you not want to?” True, you don’t find an order of worship in the Bible, but you can find a lot of the Bible in a liturgical order of worship.

Interestingly enough, I don’t hear criticism about the liturgical service having too much scripture. No, the chanting is distracting, or it’s a man-made tradition and we should throw it aside, or saying the same things over and over is boring. Chanting was new even for me once; when we went from the 1941 Lutheran Hymnal to the 1982 Lutheran Worship, we got used to it and came to like it. Putting notes with words causes it to stick in our minds better. Man-made traditions? We all have them, liturgical or not. Nonliturgical worship has been with us long enough that it is also “traditional” in some areas. “Liturgical” and “nonliturgical” might be better descriptions than “traditional” and “contemporary.”

Finally, the repeated phrases bore some people. We get bored of the things we find no use for: partial differential equations (sorry, Swede), The Scarlet Letter, Keynesian economics. The liturgy is something that has been practiced but rarely taught even in Lutheran churches. I think we can do the most good here; by teaching what is going on, we can gain respect from those who wish to hear the Word of God.

I want to approach the sections of a Divine Service not with the stick but with the carrot. The liturgy is useful and relevant today, even if parts of it are thousands of years old. The pastor is a sinner. He can say things that are taken the wrong way, or he can split a doctrinal hair wrongly and turn Gospel into Law. He can be tempted; wise is the pastor who doesn’t control the purse. The liturgy with its scriptural content can save him. He is a servant of the Word, and the more Word he uses the less prone to error he is likely to be.

I’ll quote scripture where I can and refer the reader to the PDF of the Lutheran Service Book’s Divine Service III, which is the updated form of the 1941 Service of Holy Communion from The Lutheran Hymnal. I should be able to quote pieces for fair use. You may want to right-click on that PDF and open the link in a new window. It might be more useful for my running commentary.

Confession and Absolution

“In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

Right away we are hit with the identification of the god we worship and the god who saves us from eternal damnation. We acknowledge the true God who is with us in all things. By this statement we reject Gnosticism, Islam, etc., according to the Athanasian Creed.

The Sign of the Cross During Invocation and Other Places

I will admit, when I grew up, I didn’t make the sign of the cross. It really wasn’t taught; some had the concern that it was too “Catholic.” I suppose it’s like the raising of palms in some circles: if you can do it focusing on Christ and what he’s done for you, fine; if it’s a “look at me” action, keep your hands down. Continuing:

“Let us draw near with a true heart…”

This comes from Hebrews 10:22, which complete is another reminder of our baptism. The previous verse says that we draw near “since we have a great priest over the house of God.” Christ is our priest who grants us forgiveness through our baptism. We are personally invited to be in his presence, without the instant death standing in God’s presence meant in the past.

“Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8)
“I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.’” (Psalm 32:5)

We need help. Iniquity is “gross immorality” or a state of moral absence. We try to do God’s will, but we fall. We can only appeal to the maker of all things for his mercy, and the Good News is that he forgives. He is holy, and we are not. He could have chosen to send our sinful selves away, but instead he chooses to save us. This is real thanks, by telling everyone what he has done.

The corporate confession really bugs some people. Let’s break it down:

“I, a poor, miserable sinner…

During the week, hopefully, we get things done. I’ll finish up a class, wire up a new electrical circuit in the house, pull the weeds out of the flower bed, and I can feel pretty able to do stuff. Here I get a piece of humble pie. I cannot effect my own salvation. Any good I do is a gift from God; everything else is out of my selfish motivation.

“…confess unto You all my sins and iniquities…”

And there are more than I can count. “Who can discern his errors?” (Psalm 19:12) I would rather He know all my sins and take them away than for Him to mandate my sitting in confession and listing what I can.

“…with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment…”

When we borrow money, the lender justly deserves his money back after a while. When we do something that harms are neighbor, he justly deserves our best help in making things right. When we commit sin in the face of a sinless God, we justly deserve to be separate from him.

“But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them…”

By the grace of God we want to be with him. We can’t do that if we are sinful. We want the sins to be gone.

“and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor sinful being.”

We exacted a painful price on our God. I’ve heard objections about this depth of confession: it’s not our fault! I’m not that bad a guy! I try to follow Christ’s example! We’re talking about a god who is cleaner than an ISO Class 9 clean room. There is no room for error and no room for sin. He is holy and without a fault tolerance. Even if you weren’t that bad (and we are), he is that good. It took nails in Christ’s palms and a spear in Christ’s side to bring us into his presence after we die.

We then hear the Absolution from the pastor:

“Upon this your confession, I, by virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

The pastor uses first person because Christ establishes the Office of the Holy Ministry to his disciples in John 20:19-23. “If you forgive…” Jesus puts a terrible burden upon his called pastors. They choose whether or not sins are forgiven. Given how good God is and his intolerance for sin, this is the most important function of a pastor. It is not to promise that good things will happen to you in this life if you believe in God. This is one of the reasons why we go to church, so that a pastor, in the stead and by the command of Christ, forgives our sins. Forgiveness of sins relieves our worries so that we can focus on hearing his Word.

I hope this post has been interesting. Comments are appreciated. Next in the series we’ll start the Service of the Word, despite the fact that we’ve already hit 5 Biblical references in the Confession and Absolution.