Diversity in Lutheran Worship

I attended the convention of the Southern District of our church body this past week. I could write a tome about it, but sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. However, I do want to address an interesting debate about worship. For my non-Lutheran friends, we Lutherans disagree with each other pretty vehemently about what should go on Sunday morning in our churches. Here's a brief overview of the controversy.

Traditionalists vs. Non-Traditionalists

Traditionalists advocate a liturgical form of worship that is nearly identical to the Roman Catholic Mass. In fact, many traditional Lutherans maintain practices that the Roman Church has abandoned since the 1960s (such as the altar that faces the wall and a kneeling rail for Holy Communion). Traditionalists do not approve of things like guitars, drums, dramas, dancers, casual attire, themed services (such as polka and cowboy services), big screens, etc. They see worship as very orderly, with pastors wearing Catholic vestments, an altar with candles, with music consisting of hymns, chants, and chorales, typically accompanied by an organ. Some traditionalists even use incense. Traditionalists typically adhere to the liturgy as found in one of our synodically-approved hymnals. Traditionalist preaching is anchored in an assigned Scripture reading for the day and is done from a pulpit.

Non-traditionalists, on the other hand, have a diversity of worship practices. Some retain the litugical form, while incorporating what is known as contemporary Christian music (CCM). Others take a more radical approach, using large screens instead of hymn books, and having no liturgical order at all. Some use clowns, dramas, dancers, puppets, and rock music. Instead of wooden pews, one may find theater seats with cup holders. Instead of chorales and chants, one will find syncopated upbeat modern music that tends to be repetative. Pastors typically avoid vestments in favor of casual garb, and instead of standing in a pulpit, may stroll around the audience with a microphone.

Worship in Today's Missouri Synod

In the modern Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS), one can find both extremes. There is a church in Detroit, for example, that looks like it came right out of the middle ages, with votive candles surrounding statues of Jesus and Mary, in which women cover their heads with veils, the pastor is addressed as "Father," the service is called "Holy Mass," and incense, chanting, and genuflecting are part and parcel of the Sunday service. There are also LCMS churches (many in the South) that have pulsing rock music, a pastor clad in khakis (who is addressed by his first name), in which women are dressed in low-slung midriff-baring jeans, people spontaneously give their testimony, hands are waved around in the air, and dancers interpret biblical texts.

There are obviously different understandings of worship competing here.

Needless to say, those who are comfortable with Gregorian chant don't approve of hip-hop and heavy metal in the church. They find this distasteful and undignified - more entertainment than worship of the living God in our midst. On the other hand, non-traditionalists accuse the traditionalists of being narrow-minded and unconcerned with bringing new people into the church by being more concerned with staid tradition than reaching out to the lost in their own culture.

This is, our worship war, in a nutshell.

The Lutheran Confessions on Worship

One might be tempted to say: "Why not just let everyone do what is right in his own eyes?" This is the 21st century American way, after all. Give the consumer what he wants, and don't criticize what others are doing. Above all, don't be divisive. Can't we all just get along?

Part of the problem is that we Lutherans have all pledged to abide by a set of documents contained in a book called the Book of Concord. "Concord" means harmony. This mutual confession assures that we Lutherans all believe the same thing - and that belief is expressed in our worship.

So what do these Lutheran confessions in the Book of Concord say about worship? This brings me back to last week's Southern District Convention debate.

One proposed resolution quoted a passage from our Lutheran confessions:

"among us nothing in doctrine or ceremonies has been accepted that would contradict either Holy Scripture or the universal Christian Church" and that "no novelty has been introduced that did not exist in the Church in the days of old (for) no noticeable change has occurred in the public liturgy of the Mass" (Augsburg Confession XXIV).

The reason this passage appears in the Augsburg Confession of 1530 is that the Lutheran reformers were being lumped in with many different, more radical reformers. The Lutherans are making the argument that one of the reasons our churches are orthodox is that our worship is traditional. We avoid "novelty" and retain biblical and Catholic "doctrine and ceremonies." In other words, Lutheran worship is, by definition, liturgical and traditional.

Keep in mind that every Lutheran pastor has sworn that all of his preaching and teaching would reflect these confessions - not merely for the sake of convenience or unity - but because they are a correct exposition of Scripture.

A local pastor objected to this resolution, and quoted another part of the Book of Concord to make his point:

"We further believe, teach, and confess that the community of God in every place and at every time has the right, authority, and power to change, to reduce, or to increase ceremonies according to its circumstances." (Formula of Concord [Solid Declaration] X)

Wow. You can see where the traditionalists would rally 'round the Augsburg Confession, while the non-traditionalists would hoist the banner of the Formula of Concord. What's a good Lutheran to do? Is this a contradiction? The Augsburg Confession says (in 1530) that we Lutherans are orthodox because we have retained the Catholic Mass and all its ceremonies. The Formula of Concord (in 1580) says that any church anywhere has the right to change the cermonies according to its needs.

Solving the Paradox

There are a couple of ways to look at this paradox.

1) Maybe the Formula of Concord takes precedence because it was written fifty years later. In this case, Lutherans are free to increase or decrease, alter, or abolish ceremonies per its circumstances. If High Mass and "smells and bells" works in the midwest, fine. But if blue jeans, clapping, and "Shine, Jesus, Shine" works in the South, that's fine too. This interpretation seems to preserve the peace, allows for diversity, and avoids the problem of making our church leaders decide that some are right and others are wrong. It seems to be a win-win situation.

And yet, there is another viewpoint...

2) Maybe both statements have to be accepted together - that there is room for variation in cermony from congregation to congregation, and at different times and places - and yet, that variation is limited to traditional and ancient churchly rites. This interpretation is borne out in history, as the Church has always had diversity within a traditional framework. For centuries, the Church has had Eastern liturgies (St. James, St. John Chrysostom, etc.) alongside of various Western liturgies (Roman, Sarum, Gallican, etc.). And yet, these are all traditional liturgical forms that have a great deal in common with each other. Nothing in the ancient worship of the Church resembles today's "contemporary services" as seen in much of mainline Protestantism.

I believe that the only way to accept the Book of Concord in its entirety - without cherry-picking the parts we like and ignoring those that seem to speak against what we like - is to accept the latter interpretation. Variation is fitting and proper - but within traditional limitations. The Formula of Concord is in no way a license to do anything we want (puppets, dancing girls, plays, rock concerts, etc.) within the Sunday worship service. These things truly violate the spirit of the Augsburg Confession - in which faithful Lutheran laymen were making the point to the emperor that they were not radicals, but rather conservative, faithful Catholics who sought badly-needed reforms. These brave princes stuck their necks out and invited the emperor to cut off their heads before they would take back what was written in that confession. Do we dare dishonor their memory (not to mention the faith we have sworn to uphold) by simply ridding ourselves of the confession they made? Can we ignore the Augsburg Confession, or strive to override it by making one confession appear to undermine another?

Unfortunately, the hierarchy of our church (as well as the democratic process of the convention) overwhelmingly supports ignoring the Augsburg Confession's clear statement that Lutheran worship is, by definition, traditional and liturgical. They are taking the broad road that affirms everyone, instead of the narrow road that may upset those who no longer see the confessions as binding.

Just in case you're still not convinced, let me give you a few more words from the Formula of Concord, Article X, that makes the point. While it indeed reads:

"We further believe, teach, and confess that the community of God in every place and at every time has the right, authority, and power to change, to reduce, or to increase ceremonies according to its circumstances,"

The very next words read:

"as long as it does so without frivolity and offense, but in an orderly and appropriate way, as at any time may seem to be most profitable, beneficial, and salutary for good order, Christian discipline, evangelical decorum, and the edificiation of the church." [emphasis added]

Wow.

The advocates of "contemporary worship" always seem to stop short of this part. While advocating Christian liberty in matters of worship, this confession also realizes the necessity of being very conservative in using that freedom. In other words, the Formula affirms the traditionalism of the Augsburg Confession - it does not contradict or override it.

Let me ask those of you Lutherans who advocate non-traditional worship a question. Do these things: entertainment-based pop music, dancing girls, puppet shows, chancel dramas, balloons, wise-cracking walkabout preachers, blue jeans, bare midriffs, and Starbuck's Coffee fit with concepts like: "without frivolity or offense," orderly, appropriate, salutary, order, discipline, and decorum? Can you honestly stand with the Lutheran laymen at Augsburg who bared their necks before the emperor and swore that Lutheran worship is that which has been received (via tradition) from Scripture and the universal (Catholic) Church, that it is not rooted in novelty, and in fact, no major change has been made from the medieval Catholic Mass?

I fully acknowledge that there are faithful Christians who worship without the liturgy. They just aren't Lutherans. Those who are pushing the envelope away from traditional and liturgical forms cannot be committed to our mutual Lutheran confession. The honest thing for them to do would be to leave our communion and stop promising a vow that they have no intention of keeping. Those in our synodical and district offices should cease holding their moist fingers to the wind in a desire to be popular, but rather repent, and join our fathers in the faith in baring their necks before the emperor of public opinion, holding to our confession of the evangelical Catholic faith without regard to popularity or coziness with the secular culture.