Monday, 01 March 2010 13:09 Last Updated on Monday, 01 March 2010 13:17
Liturgical Worship: Its Meaning and Value Briefly Considered (Pt. 4)
In this final blog I will touch upon how liturgical worship provides ecclesiastical cohesion, confessional identity, and catholic continuity. As I said at the outset, a more complete analysis and historical study of the subject may be sought in the welter of published material readily available to the public
Having come to Lutheranism by way of Baptist and Presbyterian churches (as both a layman and minister), the plethora of worship experiences and theological traditions those communions afford are familiar to me. The variety is rather ample, broadly representative of American evangelicalism, and along the way I have involved myself, to one degree or another, with the religious staples they offer.
I say this for two reasons. First, to notify those who would reflexively dismiss my advocacy of liturgical worship as partisan or insular zealotry that I have quite been on the other side of the fence, where they imagine verdant pastures abound. A generation of foraging for spiritual sustenance in those barren fields that fed me all too regularly a diet of dornen und disteln left me to speak with some authority on the lay of those lands. (And yes, this is my experience; yours may be different. But why such a difference exists must be accounted for and ultimately be judged by the Word of God.) Last, to encourage in those who worship liturgically a simpler appreciation for the gift they possess (which is so frequently derided by fellow Lutherans). They are nowadays vexed and taunted by hubristic voices telling them they’re missing something, or even worse losing something. (This “something” is spiritual sexiness, i.e., God’s seductive power, the divine Eros, but always verbally camouflaged as “God’s dynamic power” or some such religiously unctuous expression. As if Jehovah were a cleavage-flashing trollop or thonged Adonis, drawing worshipers through the plying of sensual wares.)