Liturgical Form - Preferences without Consequence?
HT: Cyberbrethren: A Lutheran Blog: Lit or Unlit?
Our Sunday worship offers two different types or experiences of worship, both based on the same word of God and generally the same format or order. Informal worship is at 8:00 and lasts about 45 minutes. As the name bears out, it is more informal, relaxed, without the pastor wearing vestments, or using the pulpit or candles being lit. It serves those whose schedule does not permit them to attend the later service. It usually involves a small group of people who get to know each other well. The songs tend to be more contemporary, folk or gospel tunes or spirituals. A keyboard, guitar or piano is used by volunteer musicians. Our Sunday 10:00 a.m. service is our formal worship, utilizing a formal order of worship form the hymnal, it is offers a sung liturgy in addition to the hymns. It serves the needs of those who prefer a more formal service or a later time on Sunday morning. This service reflects the liturgical heritage and tradition from centuries past in a meaningful way. Normally Holy Communion is celebrated weekly: 8:00 a.m. at the at the second and fourth Sundays and 10:00 a.m. on the first and third Sundays. Additional spe cial services are held during Advent (the four weeks prior to Christmas), Christmas Eve and Day, Lent (the six weeks prior to Easter, Easter Tanksgivinvg, and at other special times. The worship is led musically by our beautiful Werner Bosch pip organ that was installed in the sanctuary in 1962 and is played by our accomplished organists.So I was just discussing with my parents my recent post on liturgical preferences and we made the connection to another recent post on a gentleman who returned to the Lutheran faith after leaving as a youth and returning as an adult. It made me consider a further element to the discussion which was absent previously. First, I concluded that too often worship style becomes anthropocentric rather than God-giving-gifts-to-us. Second, our anthropocentric focus then becomes inherently selfish and not focused on our neighbor. I slipped in a mention in that first post that the argument of "the young kids like rock and roll and so we should be using it to get them here" doesn't hold much water in my book either. This is not being considerate, loving, or caring of neighbor.... no, its seeking to fill his itching ears with what he wants to hear... not necessarily what he NEEDS to hear. With the second post, we see the consequence of our haste to discard historical practice and adopt "new" practice (which might include those who have been in the "contemporary" vein for some time and are rapidly attempting a restoration of the "historical" rite.) Luther spoke in a different context about not changing the language of the catechism as it makes the memorization useless. I remember the switch from the old RSV to new NIV catechism in sixth grade. I still haven't worked the kinks out of the new edition (and will have to for Parish Ed class in the winter.) It seems too often this (and other church polity) issues fall back on discussions of self-interest. If by some miracle that have focus on others, they often are focused on the neighbors self interest. In both cases little thought is given to historical continuity, previous precedent, and most of all, future consequence. What will the future generations think of our actions today? Will they see the preservation of the apostolic tradition, instituted by Christ himself? Will they rather see ego-maniacal men wrestling the church out of its authenticity? Taking action with expectation of specific results without consideration consequence are dangerous. Andrew at "God is the Pilot" had an similar reaction in looking for God to produce a particular result to his prayers. It is not hard to see that the liturgical discussions revolve around the immediate with a perceived expectation. This takes God's hidden action and his providence and makes it subject to your own. In the interest of time and sleep, I will conclude and leave you with Andrew's post: God is the Pilot: Everyone says I can get it right now! Even God?
Through reading Is God Listening- making prayer a part of your life by Andrew E. Steinman a strange idea struck me. Our modern society is extremely focused on obtaining instant results. I must say that I myself am guilty of this all too common demand. I read my news online, I bank online and a various number of other tasks I handle online. The reasoning of this is that I want my results quickly. For instance today realizing that I needed a cable to connect my GPS to my computer on jumped on eBay and purchased in a matter of minutes. It will be shipped to me tomorrow. Even as little as a few years ago this simple online transaction would have taken some time to be played out if I needed to actually leave the house to make a purchase. I have known that this has been something that plagues the world for some time but it has never really occurred to me as to what it may affect. The book as you may suspect raises the idea that our immediate results do not normally happen with our prayer lives. God does not care if we want to know right away he will answer us when he feels that the time is right and he will answer however he wants in our best interest. Maybe something that deserves to be looked at is the immediacy with which some expect God to answer them. It important for all of us to remember that God will always act in our best interest whether we can see it happening or not. To me it seems that I often want that immediate result but it was interesting to have a different look on the way that God deals with and uses the prayers that we bring to him on our behalf.
