“Unity in the Way of Worship (Ordo): Altar & Pulpit Fellowship and Liturgical Integrity”

The Augustana confesses and identifies the Church as “the assembly of saints in which the Gospel is taught purely and the Sacraments are administered rightly” (AC VII). That is to describe and define the Church in terms of the Holy Ministry (as confessed in AC V). I have long been struck by how closely that description matches the picture of the Church that Dr. Weinrich drew for us from St. Ignatius of Antioch back in the day – that of the bishop and the people gathered around the Lord’s Altar for the giving and receiving of Christ Jesus in His Word and Sacrament. Various theologians have referred to this sort of picture as a “Eucharistic Ecclesiology,” and I have found that way of thinking (in general) to be salutary. As we all eat of the one Bread which is the Body of Christ, and as we all drink from the one Cup which is the New Testament in His Blood, so are we all together one Body in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 10:16-17).

To think and speak of the Church on the basis of “the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments” (AC V) is to identify the Church liturgically, that is, with reference to the Divine Service. Really, the Holy Ministry, the Divine Service, and the Liturgy all refer to more or less the same thing from slightly different angles; each at its heart comprises the Gospel as it is preached and administered. Or, to say it another way, as the Apology explains, “the term ‘liturgy’ squares well with the ministry.” It is an ancient word for “public service,” which coincides “with our position that a minister who consecrates shows forth the Body and Blood of the Lord to the people, just as a minister who preaches shows forth the Gospel to the people” (Apology XXIV.80-83). A liturgist cares for and/or administers public goods.

The “Liturgy,” in this respect, is narrowly defined and understood as the public reading and preaching of the Holy Scriptures, unto repentance and faith in Christ Jesus, and the administration of His Holy Supper in the Name and remembrance of Jesus, according to His Institution (1 Cor. 11:23-26). At this point we do not yet have in view any particular forms of the Liturgy, nor any of those “human traditions or rites and ceremonies, instituted by men” (AC VII), which have developed over the course of the Church’s life on earth. To begin with we are dealing with those things that are constitutive, definitive, essential, and necessary to the Church, her life, her unity and fellowship. In this respect, the Liturgy is not incidental or irrelevant but foundational and fundamental, because the preaching of the Gospel and the celebration of the Eucharist are the means whereby God “gives the Holy Spirit, who works faith, when and where He pleases, in those who hear the Gospel” (AC V). And as the Church, properly speaking, “is the assembly of saints and true believers” (AC VIII), there is no Christian Church apart from the Liturgy of the Gospel.

My point in laying out the liturgical character of the Church is to emphasize the liturgical aspects and parameters of Church Fellowship. It is the Liturgy of the Gospel that we have in common, not only as individual congregations, and not only within our respective synods and regional churches, but also in our relationships with each other in the communion of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Indeed, the Liturgy is what connects us to one another as fellow members of the one Body of Christ, across the ages and around the world; not simply in the sense that we are all doing these same things, but more profoundly, that these sacred things of Christ Jesus – the faithful preaching of His Gospel and the right administration of His Sacraments in accordance with His Word – are the very things that bind us to Him and unite us with each other in Him. It is no accident or coincidence that St. Justin Martyr’s second-century description of the Divine Service still serves as an adequate and accurate summary of the Church’s liturgical life and activity on any given Sunday (Justin Martyr, First Apology, 66-67); for the Lord in His mercy and providential care has preserved the Liturgy of His Gospel for His Church on earth, and He has preserved His Church on earth by the Liturgy of His Gospel.

Of course, heterodox, heretical, and sectarian churches also read and preach the Bible in some fashion and make use of the outward rites and ceremonies of Baptism and the Supper to some extent; yet, we do not enter into Pulpit and Altar Fellowship with those churches. We do acknowledge that heterodox Christians belong to the fellowship of the Church catholic by faith in Christ Jesus, notwithstanding their erroneous teaching and confession. But we do not condone or participate in their heterodox doctrines and practices by exchanging pulpits with their preachers, communing them, or communing with them. In many cases, unorthodox teaching will manifest itself in unorthodox liturgical practices – and by the same token, we should add, unorthodox liturgical practices will often result in unorthodox doctrines. What is more, since the preaching of the Gospel is itself a constitutive part of the Liturgy, it will always be the case that teaching and practice – doctrine and doxology – rise or fall together over time. But the point remains that even impeccable rites and ceremonies are not sufficient in themselves to establish Church Fellowship where there is no harmonious agreement in the teaching and confession of the faith.

Written confessions are obviously of significant importance in this respect, as the Lord has revealed His Word in the Holy Scriptures, and as His Church has inscribed her confession of His Word in Creeds and the like from the start. Our own Lutheran Confessions function as a means of both teaching and testing the preaching and practice of our pastors, and we rightly pledge ourselves to those objective writings in the Rites of Ordination and/or Installation to the Office of the Holy Ministry. The seriousness with which we treat the orthodoxy of our pastors is especially appropriate in view of the topic at hand, because our Church Fellowship is exercised, not in written documents, but in the actual preaching and administration of the Gospel by our pastors in the liturgical life of the Church – in fellowship with one another.

In short, Church Fellowship is pastoral fellowship, that is, a fellowship of pastoral care in all those things that pastors are called, ordained, and sent to do in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This takes us back to the Augustana’s confession of the Church in terms of the Holy Ministry, but now in consideration of the unity and fellowship of churches with each other. What does that entail, and what does it look like? As the Church is the assembly of saints and true believers gathered by, around, and for the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments in accordance with the Gospel (AC VII), churches live in true unity and enter into genuine fellowship when their pastors are preaching the same Gospel in harmony with each other and likewise administering the Sacraments in conformity with their preaching. That’s not to say or suggest that the pastors will all be preaching exactly the same sermon; neither will they all be conducting the Liturgy in a kind of lock-step uniformity that allows no discernible differences. But pastors in fellowship with each other will be recognizably consistent and similar in their preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins in the Name of Jesus; and so will their liturgical practice be consistent and resonate with their preaching and teaching of His Word.

It bears noting that the right preaching and teaching of the Word of Christ Jesus is integral and essential to the right administration of His Holy Sacraments, both Holy Baptism and the Holy Communion (as well as Holy Absolution). Holy Baptism is given and received along with the teaching and observance of all that Jesus has commanded (St. Matt. 28:18-20); and not only is the Holy Communion given to disciples of Jesus (St. Matt. 26:26-28), that is, to those who are Baptized and being catechized in His Name, but it is administered in His “remembrance,” in proclamation of His death “until His comes” (1 Cor. 11:23-26). It is precisely for these reasons that the preaching of Christ Jesus is a constitutive part of the Liturgy. And that is also why an outwardly “correct” conduct of the external rites and ceremonies of the Liturgy is not sufficient in itself for the true unity and fellowship of the Church; orthodox preaching is also necessary.

In respect to both preaching and the entire conduct of the Liturgy we are dealing with pastoral practice and pastoral care, which are the heart and soul of Church Fellowship. By “pastoral care” I have in mind preaching, baptizing, catechizing, hearing confession, speaking Holy Absolution, administering the Holy Communion, visiting the sick and homebound, and exercising the cure of souls with the Word of Christ. Admitting individual Christians to the Sacrament of the Altar, whether the first time or any other time, is itself an exercise of pastoral care, which happens within an entire context of ongoing pastoral care. This point is fundamental to the orthodox practice of Closed Communion, which is nothing else and nothing less than the expression and actual practice of Church Fellowship. That is to say, pastors commune those Christians who are under their own ongoing pastoral care, as well as those Christians who are under the ongoing pastoral care of brother pastors with whom they share the same preaching and practice. Along the same lines, orthodox pastors will not commune Christians who are under a different pastoral care; nor will they commune individuals who have no pastor, although they will certainly invite and welcome such individuals to come under their pastoral care and to become part of the Church through catechesis.

In all of this, it is not so much that Church Fellowship is the prerequisite for Pulpit and Altar Fellowship, although that is also true; but it is more to the point that the Holy Communion is the actual embodiment of Church Fellowship in the exercise of pastoral care – in the preaching and practice of the Liturgy. So, the challenge that faces the Church on earth is discerning where such pastoral fellowship is located, and how it should best be carried out and practically expressed. And that challenge is all the greater where we have also to deal with differences in language and nomenclature, history, experience, and resources.

As previously noted, there is no expectation that pastors in fellowship with each other will conduct the Liturgy with absolute uniformity in every detail. Such an expectation would not be reasonable, nor even possible; pastors are all different, congregations are all different, church buildings are different in their architecture and furnishings, and any number of other differences enter into the equation. Thankfully, absolute uniformity in liturgical practice is not necessary to the exercise of pastoral fellowship. But all the differences do beg the question, as to how our pastoral fellowship shall be manifest and recognized.

There are those foundational givens which are necessary to Church Fellowship, such as we have already discussed. There must be the right preaching of the Gospel in all its truth and purity, in accordance with the Holy Scriptures – all centered and fulfilled in Christ Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead – unto repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins. And there must be the right administration of the Holy Sacraments, in conformity with the Lord’s Institution and in harmony with the preaching of His Gospel. These are the most important and essential matters, so fundamental as to be cliché, and no Lutheran (indeed, no true Christian) would presume to argue otherwise.

But what of all the details that are not determined by the clear and explicit Word of God? It is in those areas of “adiaphora” that the Church has struggled to find the sweet spot between legalism and chaos. Within the Missouri Synod, for example, there has been increasing diversity in worship practices since the early 1980s, resulting in a decade or more of “worship wars” (throughout the 1990s), then settling into a status quo in which congregations are predominantly defined and identified by their particular “style” of worship, ranging from full-bore free-form “contemporary” practices that mimic Protestant Evangelicals, to carefully-ordered traditional “high church” practices replete with all the ceremonies. Every man appears to do whatever seems right in his own eyes; which is admittedly “biblical,” but not in a good way (Judges 17:6; 21:25)! Whether all of these styles actually maintain the fundamental integrity of the Gospel Liturgy in Word and Sacrament is debatable at best. In any case, even allowing for the sake of argument that all these things are permissible (1 Cor. 10:23), such a plethora of divergent practices is surely not edifying or beneficial to the unity of the Church or the tangible exercise of our fellowship. It is confusing and offensive to the people of God, misleading to those outside of His Church, and distracting from the One Thing truly needful. Albeit adiaphora are free in themselves, they are often so intimately connected to the preaching and administration of the Gospel that they cannot easily be distinguished in practical perception; so care must be taken that the actual Liturgy not be treated as if dispensable. If we do not wish to have “a king in Israel” (Judges 17:6; 21:25) – nor a Pope, for that matter – there must yet be some way for our pastors and bishops to manifest, measure, and recognize in practice our common confession of Christ Jesus, the unity of His Body, the Church, and our fellowship in His precious Gospel.

As Luther writes in his “Christian Exhortation to the Livonians” (1525): “For those who devise and ordain universal customs and orders get so wrapped up in them that they make them into dictatorial laws opposed to the freedom of faith. 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. Still, we must express ourselves on these matters as well as we can, even though everything will not be done as we say and teach that it should be” (Luther’s Works AE 53, p. 46).

It was around that point that Dr. Luther finally consented to work on a German Mass (Deutsche Messe), after resisting the request to do so for some time. He feared that anything he might produce along these lines would be made into “a rigid law,” binding consciences in violation of Christian liberty. Yet, he saw “the widespread demand for German Masses and Services and the general dissatisfaction and offense that [had] been caused by the great variety of new Masses,” which so many others had rushed to make. So, then, while urging the freedom of the conscience before God in respect to “differences in liturgical usage,” Luther did set forth “The German Mass and Order of Service” in 1526. It was not his intention “that all of Germany should uniformly follow our Wittenberg order,” but he wrote that “it would be well if the Service in every principality would be held in the same manner and if the order observed in a given city would also be followed by the surrounding towns and villages” (Luther’s Works AE 53, pp. 61-62). In making this observation Luther acknowledges the blessing and benefit of having free things in common.

There is freedom and flexibility in human ceremonies. That there are many things which the Lord has neither commanded nor forbidden (adiaphora) is simply a fact, which we also teach and confess (FC X). The Lord has not specified every detailed nuance of New Testament worship; He has left most of those details to be worked out by His Church on earth and by the ministers of His Word in their pastoral care of His people in each parish. While the principles of adiaphora are often misunderstood, misconstrued, and/or misapplied, the actual freedom involved in that which God has neither required nor prohibited remains a blessing and a gift that He has granted to His Church for the sake of His Gospel, that it should have free course and be preached and administered to the joy and edification of His people in a wide variety of circumstances, across broad differences of time and place. But the freedom of adiaphora also means that the Church and her pastors are free to work toward common and consistent practices.

In asserting that “it is not necessary that human traditions or rites and ceremonies, instituted by men, should be alike everywhere,” the Augustana cites Ephesians 4 (verses 4-6) in affirming “the true unity of the Church” in the pure and right preaching and administration of the Gospel; for “there is one Body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all,” etc. (AC VII). Interestingly, although Dr. Luther does not cite the Ephesians passage in the Preface to his Deutsche Messe (1526), he offers a comparable premise as a compelling reason to seek unity and harmony in liturgical practice, not as though it were necessary, but because it is appropriate and edifying: “As far as possible,” he writes, “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” (Luther’s Works AE 53, p. 61). In other words, the very oneness of the Gospel which is entirely sufficient for the true unity of the Church is also, in its own way, the ground on which the Church is well able to establish common and consistent practices.

In fact, the Lutheran Church has generally followed Luther’s advice in seeking to adopt, adapt, and make consistent use of worship practices in common, by and large preserving the liturgical traditions, rubrics, rites, and ceremonies of the Church catholic (AC XXIV.2-3). Consider the Lutheran Church Orders of the 16th and 17th centuries, which specify to varying degrees the way that pastors and congregations within a given territory should carry out the work of the Church. Those Lutheran Church Orders give directives in matters that are theologically free before God, but which the Church in her freedom chose to arrange and govern for the sake of consistency and unity in practice. Such consistency and unity are beneficial, not only for peace and harmony between neighboring parishes, but also for the clarity and precision of the Church’s catechesis and confession of the faith within each parish and beyond. “After all, the chief purpose of all ceremonies is to teach the people what they need to know about Christ” (AC XXIV.3).

The whole world knows that actions speak louder than words, and as we use care in the words that we confess in preaching, teaching, and otherwise, so do we rightly exercise care in our liturgical practice at the heart and center of the Church’s life. Along the same lines, Luther’s recommendation that churches should ideally seek to have Services, rites, and ceremonies in common is analogous to his admonition, in his Preface to the Small Catechism, that we should choose “one fixed, permanent form and manner” of teaching the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Our Father, and make every effort “to teach the young and simple people these parts in such a way that we do not change a syllable or set them forth and repeat them one year differently than in another” (Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, CPH, 2008, pp. 247-248). While Luther did not dictate any one particular “form and manner” for everyone, he did provide his Small Catechism for the use of the Church, and the Lutheran Church in freedom and love has chosen to continue using that beautiful contribution – to the great benefit of many generations.

Similar principles of pastoral care in respect to liturgical practice are exemplified in the case of Wilhelm Löhe’s Agenda, written for the mission of the Church in the United States, based upon the forms and practices he found “in one or the other of the many old Lutheran [Church] Orders” (Liturgy for Christian Congregations of the Lutheran Faith, Third Edition, tr. By F. C. Longaker, 1902, p. xi). To prepare and produce such an Agenda is, in itself, to make decisions and offer directions in matters that are free; and to do so on the basis of past precedent demonstrates the intention to be in continuity with those who have gone before us in the faith and confession of Christ Jesus. There is a deliberate embracing and fostering of catholicity with past, present, and future generations of the Church. Similarly, Friedrich Lochner, a student of Löhe and one of the first pastors of the Missouri Synod, in his thorough study of the history, theology, and practice of the Liturgy, likewise gives careful attention to the practices of the Lutheran Church Orders (see The Chief Divine Service of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, translated by Matthew Carver, edited by Jon Vieker, Kevin Hildebrand, and Nathaniel Jensen, CPH, 2020).

Not surprisingly, the Missouri Synod took these things seriously from the beginning. A conservative hymnal and liturgical agenda were among the first things that C.F.W. Walther and the congregations under his care took the time and made the effort to prepare and produce in the early years of the Synod’s existence (the hymnal within a year, the agenda within a decade of the Synod’s beginning). What is more, the Synod’s Constitution has always stipulated, in one way or another, the necessity of “doctrinally pure agenda, hymnbooks, and catechisms in church and school” (LCMS Constitution VI.4, Handbook 2019, p. 13). As the Missouri Synod began to use the English language, they also adopted the “Common Service” of 1888, which had been developed by a joint venture of several Lutheran Synods in the Eastern United States. By deliberate intent, the “Common Service” was based upon “the common consent of the pure Lutheran Liturgies of the Sixteenth Century,” or, in those parts of the Liturgy where there was not “an entire agreement” among the Church Orders, “the consent of the largest number of greatest weight” (Luther Reed, The Lutheran Liturgy: A Study of the Common Liturgy of the Lutheran Church in America, Revised Edition, Fortress Press, 1960, p. 183).

The point here is simply to say that the Lutheran Church, from the outset and throughout her history, has recognized the benefit of common and consistent liturgical practices and the corresponding need for direction and guidance in these areas. That has been true especially among those who take doctrine and confession of the faith most seriously, precisely because liturgical practice is indicative of what we actually believe, teach, and confess, as well as a means of ongoing catechesis in God’s Word and faith. By the same token, the unity of a common confession of the faith is both embodied and substantiated by a unity of practice. It is true that Church Fellowship does not depend on a uniformity in adiaphora, but where there is fellowship in doctrine the Church will also tend to gravitate toward a common and consistent usage of adiaphora in the conduct of the Gospel Liturgy. And the beauty of it is, the Church is perfectly free to pursue that path. Indeed, it is not a violation but an exercise of faith and freedom when the pastors and congregations of a particular territory or jurisdiction of the Church mutually agree – in love – to order and conduct their liturgical life according to common rubrics, rites, and ceremonies.

The truth is that the Church cannot do those essential things that God has given her to do without some other rubrics, rites, and ceremonies to accompany them, even if those accompanying practices differ over time and from one place to another. The question is not whether to have and use such things, but how best to choose them – that is, by what criteria – and how best to think of them and use them. In fact, the use of rubrics, rites, and ceremonies is fundamental to the Ministry of the Gospel in the life of the Church. So, it is useful to unpack these things a bit and explain what they are and how they work:

Rubrics are the rules or instructions that guide and govern the conduct of the Liturgy, whether instituted by the Lord or left to the freedom of the Church to determine in love. In the Lord’s Supper, for example, the Rubrics given by the Lord are, “Do this in remembrance of Me” (and, “as often as you eat this Bread and drink this Cup, proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes”). Examples of the rubrics determined by the Church would include information on the day and time of the Divine Service (e.g., Sunday 9:00 a.m.) and basic logistical instructions for the distribution of the Holy Communion (in writing or by the ushers). Such rubrics are necessary to any sort of coordinated group activity, and so also for the Church’s life.

Rites are the words that are spoken, chanted, or sung by the pastors, cantors, choirs, or congregation, whether instituted by the Lord or left to the freedom of the Church to determine in love. In the Lord’s Supper, for example, the Rites given by the Lord are, “Take, eat. This is My Body, given for you. Drink of it, all of you. This Cup is the New Testament in My Blood, shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.” Examples of the rites developed by the Church in love include the Creed, the Preface, Proper Preface, and Sanctus, the distribution formula and distribution hymns, and the Post-Communion Collect, etc. All such rites are in keeping with the fact that we are verbal creatures, and that God Himself does and gives everything by and with His Word – which we are given to confess and pray to Him and to each other.

Ceremonies are all the actions, movements, postures, architecture, furnishings, vessels, vestments, paraments, artwork, and adornments involved in the conduct of the Liturgy, whether instituted by the Lord or left to the freedom of the Church to determine in love. In the Lord’s Supper, for example, the Ceremonies established by the Lord are taking the bread and the cup of wine, consecrating them with His Word, and distributing them to His disciples to eat and drink as His Body and Blood. Examples of the ceremonies adopted by the Church in love include the Sanctuary, the Altar, the crucifix and candles, the stole and chasuble, the Communion vessels, the Communion rail, and the work of Elders and Ushers in directing “traffic.” Some such ceremonies are inherent and inevitable to our life in the body, occupying space and time, as well as being unavoidably involved in the administration of the Holy Sacraments.

It is not possible to administer and receive the Means of Grace without ceremonies. However, not all ceremonies are created equal. Some ceremonies are better, and some are worse than others; and some ceremonies have no place in the Church, even if they would otherwise be “free.” All things are lawful in Christ Jesus, but not all things are meet, right, and salutary (1 Cor. 10:23). Any ceremony or practice that might be considered for use in the Liturgy must be measured and evaluated according to its service and support of the Word of God, and thereby determined to be more or less helpful to faith and love.

Our Lutheran hymnals and service books, and even the old Lutheran Church Orders, do not specify every detail of liturgical practice. Whereas the rites and rubrics of the Divine Service, the Daily Prayer Offices, and various other occasions, are more or less adequately provided for the use of pastors in their care for the Lord’s Church, certainly not all of the potential ceremonies are spelled out, prescribed, or described. As previously indicated, it is not necessary for all such human arrangements to be everywhere the same; nor would it be desirable for all of those details to be the same, even if that were theoretically possible. Practical matters can be dealt with pragmatically. But there are still a variety of adiaphora that may be practiced (or not) with theological significance for catechesis, confession of the faith, and pastoral care. And those choices and decisions do have some impact on the relationship of pastors with each other.

The boundaries and parameters of the Church’s freedom in worship are established and contoured, not only by explicit commands and prohibitions, but also implicitly by the constitutive rites and ceremonies of Holy Baptism, the Preaching of the Law and the Gospel unto repentance and the forgiveness of sins, and the administration of the Holy Communion in remembrance of Jesus. These divinely given Means of Grace are the foundation, the beating heart, and the central high point of the Church’s faith and life in Christ. Whatever else may be done in worship is determined in relation to these constitutive Means.

Beyond those basics, the measure of any given ceremony’s worth and benefit requires more than the avoidance of overtly false doctrine. The best ceremonies are not simply true, as opposed to false; they are positively helpful in teaching and confessing the Word of God, and they are beautiful in adorning His Liturgy of the Gospel. It is indeed appropriate and salutary to adorn the Liturgy with artistic beauty, as a confession of faith in the Word and work of Christ Jesus, and as a catechesis in the hidden Mysteries of His great Salvation. One may consider such examples as chanting, the sign of the Cross, chasubles, the elevation of the Sacrament, genuflecting at various points in the Liturgy, and the use of incense.

The broadest criteria for the consideration of any liturgical practice are faith toward God and love for the neighbor; which can also be summarized in terms of reverence and courtesy. That which is harmful to faith and love is not free but forbidden. And that which is irreverent, rude, or frivolous, is likewise not free but forbidden (FC SD X.1, 7, 9). The Second Commandment requires that God’s Name be kept holy, and that God must be sanctified by His priests and His people (Ex. 20:7; Num. 20:12; Lev. 10:3).

Courtesy and love for the neighbor do suggest a steady consistency and continuity of practice, which are so conducive to peace and rest in the Liturgy of the Gospel, because they allow for a ready participation of the entire congregation in the Church’s worship of Christ Jesus. By contrast, frequent fluctuations and diversity in practice are unsettling to the people of God and easily distract them from His Liturgy of the Gospel, because they require a level of literacy, attention, energy, and effort that tends to frustrate or prevent the participation of many members in the Church’s worship of Christ Jesus.

In considering various possible adiaphora, pastors should also take into account the larger fellowship of the Church catholic, including those who have gone before us in the faith and confession of Christ Jesus, as well as those who will follow after us (our children and our children’s children), and those with whom we are in fellowship in the present (and those with whom we are working toward Church Fellowship). This, too, is another exercise of love for the neighbor, a ready willingness to set aside our own personal proclivities and preferences for the sake of having “all things in common” (Acts 2:42-44).

Tradition is generally more conducive to the Gospel than novelty (1 Cor. 11:1–2, 16–26), because what is handed over is received as a gift or inheritance from the past, rather than being fabricated for ourselves and our own purposes in the present. Lutherans have therefore been evangelically conservative when it comes to tradition, in contrast to the legalism of Rome on the right and of the Reformed on the left.

Along similar lines, catholicity in practice is generally more conducive to love than personal innovation, because it belongs by definition to the entire Church, to the household of faith and the whole family of God, rather than being the unique invention or private property of an isolated individual or small group.

What is more, the collective wisdom of the Church is usually wiser than the personal insights of any one individual. True, the nature and needs of pastoral care require the free exercise of pastoral discernment and discretion, just as the Church in each time and place is free with respect to human customs. Yet, the starting point should be what has been given and received within the life of the Church, rather than the novelty of personal ingenuity. Consider the great value and benefit of the Church Year and Lectionary, the Ordinary and Propers of the Divine Service, and the use of customary vestments and furnishings.

These are some of the key criteria that should help to guide a pastor in caring for his congregation in the freedom of faith and the service of love. The same criteria are also of help to bishops and the churches under their care in working toward harmony and unity of liturgical practice, both within their respective jurisdictions and in the exercise of Church Fellowship with one another. To whatever extent we are able to share rubrics, rites, and ceremonies in common, those practices demonstrate, express, substantiate, and support our common confession of the faith, even as they also serve and support the preaching and administration of the Gospel Liturgy. What is more, those recognizably Lutheran liturgical practices also help the laity to distinguish and identify our Church Fellowship wherever in the world it may be found. Certainly, as we share the ecumenical Creeds and our Lutheran Confessions in common, it is also meet, right, and salutary that we should share those things that govern and guide our liturgical practices.

With Great Freedom Comes Great Responsibility

Theses on the Salutary Use of Adiaphora in the Conduct of the Liturgy

I first began developing these theses back in the fall of 2009, largely because I was frustrated with the way that our doctrine of adiaphora was often misunderstood and misapplied. I published the original version on another blog, and then also had the opportunity to work through them with local colleagues over a series of winkels. Based upon feedback, discussion and debate, and further reflection, I revised the theses in 2014 for presentation at the Synod's Institute on Liturgy, Preaching, and Church Music. Since that time, I have referred to them on occasion and shared them with others, because they have been helpful in navigating some of the landmines that remain from the still unresolved "worship wars" of the 1990s. And I was very pleased by the opportunity to present them for discussion at a recent "day of theological reflection" with some of my brother pastors from the Columbus, Aurora, and Seymour Circuits of the Indiana District. As a number of people have asked to see the theses, I promised to make them available for wider consideration and discussion; and to that end, I offer them here, as follows:

Defining and Identifying Freedom in Worship

The freedom of faith in worship, as in all of Christian life, is the freedom of the Gospel. It is the freedom of divine righteousness, holiness, life and love in Christ Jesus, by grace through faith in Him, and not by human works. It stands in contrast to the bondage of legalism, by which one attempts to justify himself before God and to acquire divine life by the keeping of the Law.

There is also the freedom of adiaphora, that is, the freedom of rites and ceremonies and other practices that are neither commanded nor forbidden by God. In themselves, they are free, either to be taken up and used or set aside and let go. What is more, as man is not justified by keeping the Law of God, far less is he justified by the performance or rejection of adiaphora.

There are those things that God has commanded, and those things that He has forbidden, both in life and in worship, which are therefore not adiaphora. According to these commands, genuine good works are done, not for justification, but in obedience to God and in love for the neighbor. For though we are free from the condemnation of the Law, we are not free to disregard it.

The Right and Responsible Use of Freedom in Worship

The teaching and confession of adiaphora should not be abused (in the service of self-interest); instead, true Christian freedom is rightly used in love (in the self-sacrificing service of others). In faith toward God the Christian is free, but in love he is bound to serve his neighbor.

Love will be ready and willing to sacrifice anything and everything that is truly free (adiaphora), but love will never sacrifice anything of the Gospel; nor will love willingly contradict or disobey the Law of God. That is to say, love will readily give up whatever may be given up, but love will tenaciously insist upon that which is necessary, as determined by the Word of the Lord.

All things are lawful in Christ, but not all things are meet, right and salutary (1 Cor. 10:23). Even that which is free and clear can be measured and evaluated according to its service and support of the Word of God, and thus determined to be more or less helpful to faith and love.

Pastoral Care and Oversight in the Use of Freedom

The freedom of adiaphora allows for a flexibility in caring for the Church under a wide variety of circumstances, and across broad differences of time and place. Such practices are thus to be used with pastoral care, and as a means of pastoral care. Therefore, pastors should exercise discretion and discernment in their use of adiaphora, and they must discipline themselves in doing so, for the sake of faith and love.

In a similar way, bishops (overseers) ought to care for the pastors in their necessary exercise of discretion and discernment, and so also assist them in their fellowship with one another.

Criteria for the Right Use of Freedom in Worship

Freedom in worship is used rightly, in faith toward God and in love toward the neighbor, when it is used to serve the catechesis and confession of the Word of God.

The boundaries and parameters of freedom in worship are established and contoured, not only by explicit commands and prohibitions, but also implicitly by the constitutive rites and ceremonies of Holy Baptism, the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and the administration of the Holy Communion in remembrance of Jesus. These divinely given means of grace are the foundation, the beating heart, and the central high point of the Church’s faith and life in Christ. Whatever else may be done in worship is determined in relation to these constitutive means.

Along similar lines, but more practically speaking, the use of rubrics, rites and ceremonies is fundamental to the pastoral ministry. Rubrics are the instructions for the conduct of the Liturgy, mutually agreed upon within the fellowship of the Church. Rites are the words that are spoken in the administration of the Liturgy. Ceremonies are the bodily actions, movements, furnishing, and adornments of the Liturgy. Rubrics are needed for an orderly conduct of corporate communal life. Rites belong to the fact that God does everything by His Word. Ceremonies belong to the fact that human life is lived in the body, occupying space and time.

It is not possible to administer and receive the means of grace without ceremonies. However, not all ceremonies are created equal. Some ceremonies are better, and some are worse than others; and some ceremonies have no place in the Church, even if they would otherwise be "free."

Ceremonies powerfully support (or contradict) the confession and catechesis of the Word. One may compare the role and purpose and positive benefit of ceremonies in human relationships.

Ceremony as Beautiful Adornment of the Gospel

The measure of a ceremony’s worth and benefit requires more than the avoidance of overtly false doctrine. The best ceremonies are not only true (as opposed to false) but are positively helpful in confessing the Word of God, and they are beautiful in adorning His Liturgy. Whatever is true, lovely and of good repute, excellent and worthy of praise, dwell on those things (Philippians 4:8).

It is appropriate and salutary to adorn the Ministry of the Gospel with beauty, as a confession of faith in the Word and work of Christ, and as a catechesis in the hidden truth of the Gospel. One may consider such examples as chanting, the sign of the cross, chasubles, the elevation of the Sacrament, genuflecting at various points in the Liturgy, and the use of incense.

The Basic Rubrics of Reverence and Courtesy

Reverence toward God and courtesy toward the neighbor summarize the criteria of faith and love and so provide a foundational response to all questions pertaining to the proper use of adiaphora.

That which is harmful to faith and love is not free but forbidden. That which is irreverent or rude is likewise not free but forbidden (Formula SD X.1, 7, 9). The Second Commandment requires that God’s Name be kept holy, and that God must be sanctified by His priests and His people.

Pastors and congregations, and individual members of a congregation, should set aside their personal proclivities and preferences for the sake of faith and love (1 Cor. 10:23–33; Rom. 14). Love will care for the entire body of Christ, for the minority as much or more than the majority, not allowing either the few or the many to lord it over the Holy Communion of the Church.

Making changes in ceremony, including the introduction of new ceremonies, requires a special measure of pastoral care. It also requires the patience of pastors and parishioners for one another.

Likewise, love for the body of Christ — for the Church in all times and places, past, present, and future — calls for circumspection and great caution when it comes to changes in practice.

Here, again, the pastoral oversight of godly bishops would be of particularly salutary benefit.

Tradition and Catholicity Give Shape to the Church’s Exercise of Freedom in Worship

Tradition is generally more conducive to the Gospel than novelty (1 Corinthians 11:1–2, 16–26), because it is received as a gift from the past, rather than fabricated in the present.

In contrast to the legalism of Rome on the right and of the Reformed on the left, Lutherans have been evangelically conservative with respect to tradition.

There is always a reason for any practice in the Church, even if this reason is no longer readily apparent. These reasons need to be evaluated in order to judge the merits of the practice.

Lutherans have also recognized that traditions are interpreted and understood, at any given time, within a theological context, which adds to their significance either positively or negatively.

Catholicity in practice is generally more conducive to love than personal innovation, because it belongs to the entire body of the Church, to the household and family of God, rather than being the invention or property of any isolated individual or small group.

The collective wisdom of the Church is usually wiser than the personal insights of an individual. True, the nature and needs of pastoral care require the free exercise of pastoral discernment and discretion, just as the Church in each time and place is free with respect to human customs. Yet, the starting point should be what has been given and received within the life of the Church, rather than the novelty of personal ingenuity. Consider, for example, the tremendous value and benefit of the Church Year and the Lectionary, the Ordinary and Propers of the Divine Service, and the use of customary vestments and furnishings.

Consistency and Continuity Serve the Church’s Catechesis and Confession of Christ

Consistency and continuity of practice are beneficial to peace and rest in the Liturgy of Christ; they permit a ready participation of the entire congregation in the Church’s worship of Christ.

Frequent fluctuations and diversity in practice are unsettling to the people and easily distract from the Liturgy of Christ; they require a level of literacy, attention, energy, and effort that tends to frustrate or prevent the participation of many members in the Church’s worship of Christ.

Neither is it an appropriate use of freedom when hymns, or any other practices, are used simply to fill up space and pass the time, or when they are used to entertain emotions instead of edifying the people and glorifying God by the confession of His Word (Formula SD X.1, 7, 9). Whatever is done is to honor and adorn, serve and support the Divine Liturgy of the Word and Sacrament.

The Benefit of Good Church Order for the Responsible Use of Freedom in Worship

The unity of a common confession of the faith is both embodied and substantiated by a unity of practice. Church fellowship does not depend upon a uniformity in adiaphora, but the fellowship of the Church gravitates toward a common and consistent usage of adiaphora wherever possible. And the beauty of it is, the Church is free to do so.

It is not a violation of faith or freedom when the fellowship of the Church mutually agrees, in love, to order and conduct its liturgical life according to common rubrics, rites and ceremonies. The example of the 16th-century Church Orders is a significant case in point. Good order, polity, and the legislation, exercise, and jurisdiction of good church government should not be equated with the bondage of legalism; it rather belongs to the responsible use of freedom in love.

Especially in gatherings of the Church’s fellowship beyond that of a local congregation, the use of commonly agreed-upon rites and ceremonies is most appropriate and beneficial. In general, the same principle pertains to the practices of each congregation as a fellowship of the one Church.

The Liturgy and Life

For those who asked, and for anyone else who may be interested, here are the audio-video recordings of the presentation I gave this past month at Calvary Lutheran Church in Wray, Colorado, on the Liturgy and Life. Thanks to my friend and college, Rev. Timothy Davis, and to the members of Calvary, for their gracious hospitality and for the opportunity to consider the life that is ours together in Christ, in the Liturgy of His Gospel, as fellow members of His Church.

The Liturgy and Life: Part One of Four



The Liturgy and Life: Part Two of Four



The Liturgy and Life: Part Three of Four



The Liturgy and Life: Part Four of Four

Let Solemn Awe Possess Us

To Know Christ, and the Glory of His Cross, and the Power of His Resurrection

At the center is the Lamb upon His throne; Who was slain, and yet, behold, He lives.

He is the King of Glory, the one true God in the Flesh.  He is the almighty and eternal Son, begotten of the Father from eternity, but now also true Man, conceived and born of the Woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Under Pontius Pilate, He was crucified for our transgressions.  But His Father also raised Him from the dead for our justification, and seated Him at His right hand.  He lives and reigns to all eternity in His own glorious Body of flesh and blood.  In Him, the fullness of God is embodied: His two natures, divine and human, are perfectly and permanently united in His one indivisible Person.

God and Man are perfectly reconciled and permanently united in Him, the Lamb of God and the Lion of Judah in One: He is the Seed of Abraham and the Son of David.  In this one Lord Jesus Christ, in His Person and His work, the Lion and the Lamb lie down and rise up together, unto everlasting life.

The transcendence and immanence of God are thus resolved and held together in His one Body, crucified and risen.  For He is true God, exalted and glorified, and all things are put beneath His feet.  But He is also Immanuel, the God who is with us, who is the true Man, who lives and abides in the flesh forever, closer than a brother.  For He is not only like us, but He has drawn near to us, and given Himself for us, in order to save us, to make us His own Bride, to wed us to Himself as one flesh and bone, and of one blood, in such a profound and intimate way that even death shall never part us.

He is the New Adam, and we are His New Eve, given life from His wounded side, and given to Him by the Father in peace and love.  He is the Husband of one Wife, His Holy Church; and He is the Head of His Body, the household and family of God, in heaven and on earth.  He is our Strength and our Song, for He is our Life and Salvation.  In Him, the true and only God is very present and at work, revealing and giving Himself to us: in, with, and through His own human nature, His flesh and blood.

Our foremost interest, emphasis, and concern, therefore, in approaching the Divine Liturgy and true spiritual worship, is the Person and work of Christ Jesus.  Not only historically, but here and now in the Life of His Church.  For He is both the Subject and the Object of the Liturgy and of worship.

That is to say, not only is He what the Liturgy and worship are about; and not only is He the Content of the Divine Liturgy and of Christian worship; but He Himself is the Liturgist (the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament Priesthood with its liturgy), and He is the first and foremost Worshiper of the Father (the true Man, who is the very Image and Likeness of God, who lives in perfect faith and love).

Having come down from the Father in love, He is lifted up and returns to the Father in peace.  He has descended from heaven, even into the depths of our sin and death, in order to ascend with us in tow.  He is the Apostle of the Father, who is sent to us from the bosom of the Father, in order to make God known to us.  And He is the Author, Perfecter, and High Priest of the Christian faith, who has been sacrificed and slain for us, who ever lives to intercede for us before the Throne of God.  He is the one Mediator between God and Man, in whom the Father comes to us and we are brought to the Father.

Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the finish, and He loves them forever.  What He has accomplished and completed by His Cross, and manifested in His Resurrection from the dead, He now distributes and bestows by His Gospel: to the ends of the earth, even to the close of the age.  His High Priesthood and His Liturgy continue forever.  Not only before the Father in heaven, but also in His Church, wherein He is the One who speaks and acts, who does and gives all good things.

Therefore, Let Us Celebrate the Feast, for Christ our Passover Has Been Sacrificed for Us

The Lord Jesus is exceedingly rich in His grace toward us, in coming to us and giving His Gospel to us in multiple ways and means.  And He is the One who is speaking and doing and giving all of this:

He preaches repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  He baptizes, also, for the forgiveness of sins.  He absolves sinners, in order to fulfill His good and gracious will for their salvation.  He gathers nations to Himself, by His Word and Holy Spirit, in order to name them with His Name and make them His own people.  So does He establish and build His Church, on earth as it is in heaven.  And there within His House, at His own Table, He gives His Body and pours out His Blood: for the forgiveness of sins.

Everything within His Church is so arranged for the forgiving of sins and the saving of sinners.  That is the Gospel, on which everything depends, as upon the sure and certain Foundation of Christ Jesus.  His Gospel of forgiveness is the Life-Breath of His Church, which He breathes into her through all His means of grace.  And as she breathes this Holy Gospel, breathing in and breathing out His Peace, she worships Him in Spirit and in Truth by faith in His forgiveness.

As the Gospel is the breath that fills her lungs and gives her life, the Holy Communion is the beating heart of the Church, which enlivens the flesh and blood of all her members with the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, her Lord.  For the disciples who are called and gathered from all the nations by His Gospel, are given to eat and to drink the Passover Lamb in this Meal, and so to become His Israel.  Here, then, is the high point and the center of the Divine Liturgy, and of true spiritual worship.

For the Word of God has become Flesh and tabernacles among us.  Lo, He is with us always!  And the Body of this true Lamb is the Temple of God among men: His Body, crucified and risen, and now given to His people in His Supper, is the Ark of the New Covenant, and the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies made without hands, eternal in the heavens.  He is our Anchor behind the Veil, and His Chalice, now poured out for us in the Holy Communion, is the New Testament in His Blood.

The Body and Blood of Christ Jesus — on the Cross and in the Sacrament — are the pattern of the heavenly sanctuary, which God showed to Moses on the Mountain, and which served as the model for the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and so also for the Temple in Jerusalem.  No longer the type or the shadow, but now, in Christ Jesus, the reality and the substance have been established.  God abides with us in Him, not for condemnation, but for mercy, forgiveness, and life; and so do we dwell with God.

“Do This in Remembrance of Me”

It is with His own Institution of the Holy Supper that our Lord Jesus Christ establishes the Ministry of this Sacrament for the Life of His Church.  His divine command, “Do This in remembrance of Me,” is the power and authority by which the pastor acts in the place of Christ; so that each celebration of the Holy Communion, even to the close of the age, is not the pastor’s supper, but the Lord’s Supper.

Therefore, the “remembrance” of Jesus, here, is not simply (nor primarily) our recalling of the past, but it is first of all His own active remembering of us in love, and so also the Father’s remembering of Him on our behalf.  And then, for us, it is not only an intellectual and emotional “remembering,” but a bodily receiving and trusting of Christ, who gives Himself bodily to us, by and with His Word.

There, on the Altar, is the Lamb upon His Throne in the midst of His Church on earth.  And where He is, there is heaven, and all the company of heaven: The angels and archangels, the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures, the saints and martyrs of all the ages, are gathered together around Him at the Altar of His Church on earth.  For it is there that the crucified and risen Lord Jesus reveals and gives Himself to His disciples in the Breaking of the Bread.  Right there is the Gospel: in the Flesh.

So it is that everything else — in the Liturgy, in the Church’s worship, and throughout the Christian faith and life — everything else leads to and from this central high point, that is, to Christ Jesus at His Altar, to His Body and His Blood, which are given and poured out for us Christians to eat and to drink.

Catechesis aims, not only at making disciples of Jesus, but at bringing them to His Holy Sacrament, to eat and to drink His Body and His Blood in repentant faith.  It brings them to and from the waters of Holy Baptism, to the Altar of the Holy Communion.  Not only to begin with, to get them going on the way, but catechesis continues in pastoral care, whereby the Lord our Shepherd leads His lambs and sheep beside the still waters, and through the green pastures, to the Feast at His Table in His House.

The pastoral care of ongoing catechesis and discipleship, which is rooted in the ongoing significance of Holy Baptism, is also continued in the regular practice of Individual Confession and Absolution; so that the baptized faithful are regularly brought to the Holy Communion, by the Spirit through the Gospel, in the holiness, righteousness, and worthiness of faith in the forgiveness of Christ Jesus.

It ought to be noted that pastoral care is the context in which the Sacrament is administered; and that the administration of the Sacrament, itself, is a fundamental aspect and exercise of pastoral care for the Church.  The catholic practice of closed Communion also belongs to this context of pastoral care.

Preaching, likewise, always aims at bringing the disciples of Christ Jesus to and from His Supper.  Liturgically speaking, the Sermon has for its primary task the bringing of the people from the Lectern to the Altar, from the Word to the Word-made-Flesh, by proclaiming His death “until He comes.”  By the same token, the right administration of this Holy Sacrament, in accordance with the Gospel, includes and requires ongoing catechesis and the preaching of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ (which is the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in His Name).  To be specific, the pastoral care that brings people to the Supper, also belongs to the right administration of the Supper.
“Word and Sacrament” is not simply a cliché, nor a “short list” of necessary parts to be performed. Indeed, the means of grace are not “parts” and “pieces” for us to put together like some kind of puzzle, but they are the means by which the Lord Himself lays hold of us in love, and puts us back together.  His Word and Sacrament are the heart and soul of the Liturgy, as well as its flesh and blood.  For these are His good gifts, and His good works, which He gives and does for us by the Ministry of the Gospel.

As we then live and worship the Lord by faith in His Ministry of the Gospel, by receiving His good gifts at His Altar, our Christian faith and life is characterized by thanksgiving (eucharistia), which culminates in the celebration of the Holy Communion: as Christ Himself gave thanks at His Supper.  From there, His Cup of Thanksgiving “runneth over” into the Christian life of love within the world.

Love for the neighbor is the fruit of Christ’s Love for the Christian in the Holy Communion.  That is the priestly vocation of all the baptized faithful, as they live to and from the Lord’s Altar, into the world wherever God has stationed them.  In the Divine Service, they stand in faith before the Father in Christ, hearing His Word and receiving His Gifts with prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.  So do they offer up themselves, their bodies and their lives, to serve their neighbors as Christ has served them.

This Divine Service is the sacred Tradition of the Church — the seat of true catholicity — namely, Christ in His “Word and Sacrament,” as the Lord’s Supper and its administration are handed over.  For Christ is the Head of His Church, and He is actively present with all of His speaking and doing and giving, within each congregation, wherever He gathers disciples, “in His Name,” by and for the preaching of His Gospel and the administration of His Sacraments in accordance with His Gospel.

It is the Tradition that begins on the night when He is “betrayed,” or, better to say, “handed over.”  Judas betrays Him, that is true, but it is the Father, first of all, who hands over His Son to the Cross. And the Son of God hands Himself over: To His voluntary suffering and death, yes, but so also to His Church, to His disciples as the first communicants, and to His Apostles as the first ministers of His Gospel.  The Apostles, in turn, hand over the same Lord Jesus Christ to the Church that comes after them, in the preaching of His Cross and Resurrection, and in the distribution of His Body and Blood.

The Divine Service is not a malleable tool in our hands, to be “used” by us to achieve some purpose (no matter how noble, sincere, or well-intentioned the purpose may be).  It is, rather, a sacred Tradition of the Lord, to be received from Him, and to be handed over faithfully to His Church, by His grace.

That Which I Received from the Lord, I Also Handed Over to You

In harmony with the handing over of Christ in the Divine Service, there is an associated “culture” of the Church’s other traditions, many of which are truly evangelical and catholic in their character and quality.  It is not the case that “anything goes,” nor that everything which has happened in the history of the Church should continue henceforth.  Nevertheless, there are those customs, confessions, and ceremonies which have developed in connection with the administration of the Divine Service, and which have arisen in thankful response to the Gospel of Christ, which do in fact continue to serve the Church in subsequent generations, as a common heritage of faith and love, of peace and joy in Christ.

Okay, but, wait.  Since Christ is at the center doing everything, What does it matter what we do?  That is a good and compelling question.  For us Lutherans, it is perhaps the practical question.  We know that good works are necessary, and that sin is still sin, which is contrary to the Word and will of God.  But what about that which is free, which God has neither commanded nor forbidden (adiaphora)?  Does it matter, or make any difference at all, whether we do those things or not?

The truth is that we are gathered together into Christ, by the Spirit through the Gospel, to stand before God in peace: to be and to live in the presence of the Father in the righteousness and purity of His beloved Son.  In that Holy Sabbath of Christ Jesus, we are not to be “busy” with any “doing” of our own, but we are given to receive what He is doing: to hear what God the Lord is speaking, to eat and drink what He is feeding us, to rest in His forgiveness, and to bask in the presence of the Holy Triune God.  It is an active passivity, this true spiritual worship of God, which is faith in the Gospel of Christ.

By contrast, it is the religion of the Law, of fallen natural reason, and of the old man, to suppose that we will somehow worship God with our own doing and giving and sacrificing.  It’s not only that we can’t manage it, but that the one true God does not want to be worshiped in that way: He wants to be worshiped by faith in Christ Jesus, which is to say, by the Holy Spirit, in the truth of the Holy Gospel.  For the Spirit calls us by the Gospel, enlightens us with His gifts, sanctifies us through faith in Christ, and also keeps us in Christ Jesus, in union with Him as members of His Body and Bride, the Church.  So does our Bridegroom delight in us, and He adorns us, and in this He is glorified!  And so it is that, by the Holy Spirit, we worship God the Father in the beautiful righteousness and holiness of the Son.

By the Gospel, our Lord has taken us up into His worship of the Father.  That is to say, He takes us up into His own doing, as our merciful and great High Priest in all things pertaining to God.  Not into His Sacrifice for sin, which is finished and complete, once for all, by which He has reconciled the world to God in Himself.  It is a grievous error to suppose that we must take part in that sacrifice, which belongs solely to the God-Man, Jesus Christ.  Not only because it is already accomplished, never to be repeated; but especially because only God, the Lord, could remove our sin and reconcile us to Himself.  It is His divine prerogative, and His divine glory, that He has redeemed and rescued us, and saved us for Himself, by His grace.  So we do not participate in His sacrifice for sin, except by receiving and benefitting from the fruits of His Cross and Passion.  That does indeed involve the suffering of repentance, whereby the Lord, by His Word and Spirit, crucifies the old man in us, in order to raise us up with Himself in His Resurrection; and so do we begin to live a new life in Him.

It is thus, by repentant faith in this Gospel of Christ Jesus, that we are taken up into His piety, into His priestly intercessions for the Church and for the world, and into His ongoing sacrifice of thanksgiving.  In all of this, we are received by the Father as a sweet-smelling incense, pleasing to God in Christ.  “We are caught up in the rapture of Him,” if I may risk such turn of phrase.  It is in Christ Jesus that true Man, now also with His holy Bride, really lives in the presence of God, in peace and joy forever.  Our Sabbath Rest is not one of inactivity, but an active resting of our hearts and minds, of our bodies and our souls, in the Love of God, which is the very Being of the Holy Trinity: We live and abide in the Spirit of the Father, in His Love for the Son, and in the Love of the Son for His God and Father.

In Christ Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, we worship and adore the Father: with hearts and hands and voices, with our minds, and with our bodies.  We “take up the Cup of Salvation and call on the Name of the Lord,” which is to receive and rely upon His good gifts of the Gospel, and to do so with thanksgiving.  We pray, praise, and give thanks, by confessing and proclaiming who God is, and what He has said and done.  We speak and we sing, in His presence, not only to Him, but also to one another in His Name.  We do all of these things in the joyful confidence of Christ, the beloved and well-pleasing Son, in whom we now stand: in whom we have already died by our Baptism into His Cross, and by whose Resurrection we are raised, and our lives are hidden with Him in God.  For He remains our merciful and great High Priest, by whose ongoing priestly service we are pleasing and acceptable to God.

Now, then, as members of His Body and His Bride, we love and serve each other, and our neighbors in the world, with the gifts that we have from Him.  We forgive, as we are forgiven.  We speak and we sing, as our Lord speaks and sings to us by His Spirit through the Gospel.  We hand over the faith.

Which brings us back to what we do with the freedom God has given us, in our relationships with one another, not only as individual Christians within our own stations in life, but also as congregations of one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  Here, for the sake of mutual love and respect, and for the sake of practical logistics, we limit our freedom in order to live and work together in common cause.

So, too, in order to worship together in the faith of the Gospel, in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, we make use of Rubrics, Rites, and Ceremonies, of some kind or another.  “Rubrics” are the agreed-upon “rules of conduct,” which are necessary to corporate activity, so that everyone knows what is going on, and everyone knows what to do.  “Rites” are the words that are prayed and confessed, whether spoken, chanted, or sung, by the pastor or the congregation, by the choir or the assisting minister.  And “Ceremonies” are the movements that are made, the actions that are carried out, the postures that are taken, and the positions that are held, in the course of the Liturgy.  Collectively, such Rubrics, Rites, and Ceremonies guide the Church in her coming together before the Lord to worship Him by faith.

We don’t start from scratch, nor operate with a blank slate, nor proceed in a vacuum, with respect to Rubrics, Rites, and Ceremonies.  There is no need, nor should we desire, to reinvent the “alphabet” and “language,” the “grammar” and “vocabulary” of the Liturgy.  We speak with the pattern of sound words, and we follow the patterns of sound practice, which we have heard and received, observed and learned, from our fathers and mothers in the household and family of faith.  We practice the traditions of the churches, since the Gospel did not originate with us.

Some broad and basic examples would include the gathering of the Church on Sunday; the use of a common lectionary; and the following of the Church Year with its Sundays and Seasons, its Festivals and Feasts of Christ.  Martin Chemnitz likewise cites the customary ceremonies of Holy Baptism.

Regarding these and other evangelical traditions, which Lutherans have historically retained and practiced, it has sometimes been argued that our Confessions identify these things only as descriptions of what they were doing then, but not as prescriptions for what we Lutherans should be doing now. There is obviously some truth in that observation, as the Confessions specifically state that human rites and ceremonies do not have to be the same in all times and places; and, in fact, the Lutheran practice was not identical from one territory to the next, although there was much that was held in common, even across territories, and neighboring territories did make an effort to be in harmony with each other. In any case, what our Confessions describe as the practice of “our churches” belongs to our family heritage and culture, which should not be despised, nor lightly cast aside; just as those same godly Christian customs were not despised or cast aside by our Lutheran fathers and mothers, but were in fact gladly received from the Church catholic, and continued in their day, and handed over to us.  It is generally more in keeping with the nature of the Gospel to receive what has been handed over in this way, than to invent and perform some brand new thing for ourselves.  Not always, but generally.

I’ve already mentioned Martin Chemnitz, the great “Second Martin” of the Lutheran Reformation, who deals with the question of traditional rites and ceremonies in several different places, especially within his magisterial Examination of the Council of Trent.  It is instructive to consider his points.

Against the abuses of Rome, Chemnitz certainly insists that adiaphorous traditions are free, and not to be imposed upon anyone’s conscience, since they are neither commanded nor forbidden by God.  Such things have no absolute or necessary value.  They may be modified, or set aside; though they should not be despised or manipulated by individuals in isolation from the fellowship of the Church.  Positively, they may be received and used to reinforce teaching, and as a confession of divine gifts.

Like Luther before him, Chemnitz notes the dangers and temptations involved in the use of impressive traditions, because people are so easily led astray from the Gospel and attracted to their own works.  Nevertheless, the dangers of idolatry, legalism, and works righteousness are not to be found in that which is free, but in the sinful heart of fallen man, which tends either to idolize or to demonize God’s good gifts of creation: Addressing that sinful heart is where care and correction must be focused.

The temptations and the dangers involved in the use of ceremonies are therefore to be guarded against and resisted and avoided, not by a disavowal of ceremonies (as Zwingli and other radicals had done), but by the preaching and teaching and catechesis of the Word of Christ.  Once it is clearly expressed and established that human works and ceremonies do not justify before God, they can be used freely in good and positive ways: to confess the faith, to praise God, and to love the neighbor in the world.

Chemnitz notes, in particular, that, within a context of catechesis and pastoral care, traditional rites and ceremonies may also be a kind of catechesis and confession, which honor and highlight the means of grace, and call attention to the gifts of the Gospel.  Ceremonies may thus be used for the edification of the Church, by expressing that serious and weighty matters are under way, and that God the Lord is present and active.  In this way, Chemnitz summarizes, these adiaphorous traditions can actually help to encourage piety and reverence, decorum and devotion, in the people of God.

For Freedom Christ Has Set You Free: Therefore, Stand Fast in Your Freedom

The right understanding and use of “adiaphora” goes hand-in-hand with the orthodox teaching and confession of the Gospel.  That which God has not commanded cannot be required, nor should it be recommended for righteousness before Him.  Neither should that which God has not forbidden be decried or rejected, as though it were sinful or contrary to the righteousness of faith in Christ.  One sins against this glorious freedom of the children of God, as Luther writes against Karlstadt, either by demanding what God has not demanded, or else by denying and destroying what God has graciously provided and permitted to faith and love.  Either way, legalism violates the liberty of the Gospel.

Luther writes eloquently, and from early on, about the correct use of freedom in love for the “weak” and unlearned, also with specific reference to the use of rites and ceremonies.  By the “weak,” he has in mind those who are accustomed to think of such outward rites and ceremonies as necessary.  They should be accommodated and dealt with gently, and outward things not abruptly changed on them.

The recognition of freedom is not a flattening of all adiaphora into an undifferentiated mess of neither here nor there.  It is broad and evangelically gentle, because it affirms two clearly defined parameters on the basis of the Holy Scriptures: On the one side, what God has commanded, and on the other side, what God has forbidden.  Everything in between is “free,” in itself, with respect to God the Lord.  That does not make adiaphora suspect, but ordinary, belonging not to the Law but to the grace and mercy of God.  Across that broad terrain, there are hills and valleys, deserts and gardens, sunshine and rain, evenings and mornings.  To everything there is its own season.  Context and occasion call for different sorts of behavior and discourse, and freedom allows such “life and conversation” to follow pace.

In faith before God, all things are free, and all things are lawful, for Christ is our righteousness and peace.  To deny that freedom is demonic.  However, in the world, in relation to the neighbor, all things are not equally beneficial, edifying, or salutary to all times, places, and situations.  So, for example, when it comes to the Liturgy, it is not the case that anything goes, even aside from explicit prohibitions in the Holy Scriptures.  Excluded from liturgical “adiaphora” are irreverent and frivolous practices.

Various rites and ceremonies may contribute to the catechesis and confession of Christ, when they are received and practiced in continuity with the catholic consensus of the Church, and when they are exercised with care and concern for the contemporary context, conditions, and circumstances.  Other practices may distract from and deny the chief and central thing.  Freedom thus requires pastoral discernment, discretion, and care.  The same freedom likewise allows for and facilitates such care.

Adiaphora ought to be received and used in faith and love, in the confession of Christ and His Gospel, in the service and support of continuity with the past and consistency from one week to the next.  For the entire life of the Church, also in the Divine Liturgy, is lived in the faith and love of Christ Jesus.

Above all, faith in Christ will adhere to, and insist upon, that which the Lord has commanded and given by His Word: both the Law and the Gospel, but with the Gospel predominating.

Faith will also rejoice and give thanks for those things which the Lord has given and allowed to His people in the freedom of His good creation.  For we proceed with confidence in the authority, power, and sufficiency of Christ and His Gospel; and His Gospel does not confine or restrain us, but sets us free to live before the Lord our God in peace, and to love both God and our neighbor without fear.

It should perhaps be noted, in this connection, that love for the neighbor is especially concerned with the gift of the Gospel for the neighbor.  It is in continuity with the grace, mercy, and peace of the Gospel, that Christians also love and serve the neighbor in the needs of this body and life: feeding, clothing, sheltering, and visiting, as opportunity arises.  Again, freedom allows room for a lively faith in Christ to express itself, to be embodied and exercised, in love for God and for the neighbor, through the numerous abilities and gifts, time, treasures, and talents, that He has generously distributed among His people in a wide variety of ways.  For all the gifts of God’s creation are good, and they are not to be despised or demonized, but received with thanksgiving, and sanctified by His Word and prayer.

Let Us Offer the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving: The Fruit of Lips that Praise His Holy Name

At this point, in speaking of love, we have moved from the sacramental to the sacrificial aspect of Christian worship, which is offered in the Spirit and in Truth, inasmuch it is offered by faith in Christ.

Christian sacrifice rises up in repentance and culminates in thanksgiving (eucharistia), as previously mentioned; because, when everything is done for us and given to us, by the Lord, as a free gift of His grace, there is nothing else for us to do for Him, or give to Him, but to return thanks.  So, too, it is with thanks to God that we love and serve our neighbor in His Name, with His Word, and with good works.

The meet, right, and salutary eucharistic sacrifice comprises faith itself, and the fruits of faith, which is collectively the true spiritual worship of the Holy Triune God.  For the worship of faith in the heart is also confessed with the lips, and it is shown forth in our lives.  With words and signs and actions, thus, we show forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous Light.

Indeed, the true worship of God by faith in the Gospel will necessarily manifest itself in Christian conduct and conversation.  By faith, we offer up ourselves in heart and mind, in spirit, soul, and body, as a living sacrifice, to the glory of God in Christ.

Though the words and actions will obviously differ, to varying degrees, from one person, pastor, and place, to others, there will also be commonalities rooted in the common “pool” of the Gospel itself.  We all drink from the same spiritual Rock, and so it is that the same River of living water that flows from His innermost being also springs up in us, and pours forth the same Spirit in what we say and do.

As we are catechized by Christ, by the preaching and teaching of His Word, so do we pray and confess His Word, speaking back to God, and speaking to each other, as God has spoken to us.  In confessing what the Father has spoken to us by His Son, therefore, we call upon His Name with prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.  This confession of Christ, the fruit of lips that praise His Name, is the foremost fruit of faith, which worships and adores the Father with His own Word, by His own Holy Spirit.

Yet, again, faith and love and thanksgiving are expressed and exercised, not only with holy words, but also with holy bodies.  In this paper we are especially concerned with the ways that we comport and move our bodies in the Liturgy, in the presence of God and our neighbor, by which we honor and adore, worship and glorify Christ, and, in so doing, we confess Him to our neighbor.  What we do with our bodies belongs to the witness of faith that shows forth His praise.  Even the fact that we go up to the House of the Lord, to seek Him in the Temple of His Church, testifies to our faith in Christ Jesus.

Good works of love and the fruits of faith do belong to life in the body.  For you are a new creation in Christ Jesus, recreated in the Image of God, and your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you.  To affirm that newness, that righteousness and holiness, is not to deny the fallenness and frailties of your flesh, but it is to confess that your body has been redeemed and sanctified by the Lord.

As your body has been baptized; and as your ears have heard the Gospel; and as your lips confess the Gospel; and as you eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus with your mouth, and so receive Him into your body of flesh and blood; so does your body participate in your Christian faith and life, even as it shall be raised up in the glory of Christ in the Resurrection of all flesh.  In each and all of these means of grace, your body receives and rejoices in the good gifts of the Gospel, and therefore responds in thanksgiving and praise, in faith and love, in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

In the crucified and risen Body of Christ Jesus, all things are made brand new, including your body and all of creation.  For the curse of sin and death has been defeated by His sacrifice upon the Cross, and His own resurrected Body is the Firstfruits of the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Everything has already been accomplished, completed, and established forever in Christ Jesus, and it is already given and pledged to you in the Gospel–Word and Sacraments.  But, of course, it is not yet seen, nor fully sensed and experienced in this fallen world.  Here you bear the Cross, and you live under the Cross.  Nevertheless, although it seems to stand in utter contradiction of the Resurrection, and it appears to be the very opposite of who and what God is, yet, the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the mysterious revealing of the hidden Glory of God.  We have this treasure in earthen vessels.

When it comes to the Liturgy, outward adornment does not save anyone, nor does it constitute divine glory or life.  Even so, it is able to acknowledge, confess, and give thanks for what is hidden from the eyes under the humility of the Cross.  So do we craft beautiful crosses, and we make chalices a work of art.  I have noticed that a crucifix, in particular, holds a powerful attraction for young children.

What you see is not all that you get, but what you see may speak more than a thousand words could say or express.  In other words, there is a place for “the Mystery of the faith,” for the great “Mystery of godliness,” in the celebration of the sacred “Mysteries of God.”  Not “mysticism,” mind you, but the genuine Mystery of the Incarnate God, the Crucified and Risen God, who reveals and gives Himself to His people, both body and soul, by the external ways and means of His Cross.  This Mystery of Christ is humble and hidden, and yet, it is truly divine and life-giving.

That which Christ our Lord did not assume, He did not redeem.  So said the early fathers in confessing the Incarnation of the Son of God.  But, in point of fact, the same fathers rightly insisted, the Lord our God has become one with us, of one blood and flesh with us, of the same human nature as we are, with both body and soul.  Not only that, but He has also lived through all the stages of human life, from conception in the womb, even to His death upon the Cross.  For He became, not simply human, but mortal: He came in the likeness of our fallen flesh, although He had no sins of His own.  He was also tempted in every way that we are tempted, save only without sin.  Though He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered.  He grew up as true Man.

Therefore, having assumed the entirety of human nature, human flesh, and human life in both body and soul, and having redeemed humanity in Himself, by His Cross and in His Resurrection from the dead, He also fully engages all of the senses of man, and the body and emotions, as well as the mind and intellect.  So it is that, in the celebration of the “Mysteries of God” in the Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper, there is also an ambiance, if you will, an almost intuitive interaction with the means of grace.  By that I mean to say that, along with the preaching and hearing of the Lord’s Word, there is also a non-verbal, non-academic, bodily and emotional participation in the holistic and comprehensive scope of the Gospel of Christ.  Not as the source of faith and life, but as an aspect of the faith and life that derive from the Spiritual Food and Drink of Christ, who embraces us in full.

The Place on Which You Stand Is Holy Ground

The Mystery of the Incarnation is the point at which ceremonies are taken up in faith and love, in the freedom of the Gospel, but also with humility in the presence of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus.  For ceremonies, too, are integral to human life in the body, located in (and moving through) time and space, in relation to other bodies in the world around you.

It is not only the “weak” who live and worship in the body with ceremonies.  As human beings, of body and soul, redeemed and sanctified by the Body of Christ, by the external Word and Sacraments, Christians live before God and engage one another with ceremonies.  To expand upon the simple definition previously given, “Ceremonies” here include the postures and movements of the body, as well as furnishings and vessels, architecture, artwork, and other outward adornments, paraments and vestments, music of all sorts, candles, and all such tangible accouterments.

To begin with, the Lord has commanded a few simple ceremonies that are constitutive of the Divine Service: These divine ceremonies are the gathering of the Church in the Name of Jesus, by and for the preaching of the Gospel; as well as the washing of water with His Word in Holy Baptism; and of course, the celebration of the Holy Communion, which includes the setting apart of bread and wine, blessing and consecrating these elements with the Word of Christ, distributing the same, the Body and Blood of Christ, to His disciples, and the actual eating and drinking of this Meat and Drink indeed.

This handful of ceremonies instituted by God are the requisite givens of the Liturgy.  Beyond these, other ceremonies are needed, already from a practical standpoint, simply because it is not possible to do what the Lord has commanded without determining other specifics, such as the particular place and time of the Divine Service, and so on and so forth.  Although such matters are incidental to the Gospel itself, they do point to the intersection of the Gospel with bodily human life in the world.

In addition to such housekeeping practicalities, the freedom of the Gospel allows for other ceremonies to be used in thanksgiving to God and in caring for His Church.  These human ceremonies have no part in justification; they neither constitute nor contribute to righteousness and holiness with God.  They may, however, be taken up into the life and love of the redeemed and sanctified body of the Christian, in order to serve the confession and piety of a strong and steadfast faith in the Gospel.

We have similar freedom in all of our human relationships and interactions, as within marriage and family.  In these contexts, we use a wide variety of ceremonies, some for very practical and pragmatic reasons, and others for the sake of affection and celebration, as ways of rejoicing together in God’s good gifts.  Marriage itself is established by and depends upon God’s Word.  And in the confidence of that strong foundation, a husband loves and serves his wife, not only in his heart, but with his words and actions, with big and little gifts and other signs of affection.  Customary ceremonies are likewise involved in the celebration of anniversaries and birthdays.  Such adiaphora do not make the marriage, but they do contribute to it.  So, too, a father doesn’t have to hold his babies or hug his older children, but he does so because he loves them, and it means something and makes a difference when he does.

Because ceremonies are integral to human life, and because they are so powerful in their appearance and affect (even if quite simple in themselves), they have often been a point of controversy within the life of the Church on earth.  It is nothing new that such things are difficult to discuss dispassionately.  Contending over the place and purpose of ceremonies was part of the Reformation from the beginning, vis-á-vis the legalism of Rome on the right and of the Reformed on the left.  While Lutherans taught evangelical freedom in human ceremonies, they also recognized the significance of adiaphora, not only for personal piety, but also for public confession.  When the fanatics resorted to iconoclasm, Lutherans deliberately chose to preserve the catholic traditions in the freedom of the Gospel.  When the papists insisted on the use of certain ceremonies, the Lutherans refused to comply, as a matter of conscience.

At stake in these matters was the Gospel itself, and the freedom of faith in the Gospel, by which alone we are righteous and holy before God.  Therefore, Luther’s warnings against any reliance on human works and ceremonies must ever be taken seriously.  That is the case, in fact, irrespective of which or what kind of ceremonies are used.  “High church,” “low church,” “traditional,” or “contemporary,” none of us is justified or saved by our particular brand or style of ceremony.  Period.

There is more to be said, however, than simply, “Be careful and cautious, and don’t attempt to stand before God on ceremony.”  One can also move beyond the historic context of past controversies, in order to consider the goodness and benefit of ceremonies where consciences are not being bound or twisted about.  A case in point is found in Luther’s theology of music, which he recognized and received as a good gift of God, as a most excellent part of the Lord’s good creation.

Luther’s frequent laudatory comments on the beauty and benefits of music provide a fruitful paradigm for a positive use and value of free outward ceremonies.  As he wrote, for example, in his preface to the Wittenberg hymnal of 1524, that he “would like to see all the arts, especially music, used in the service of Him who gave and made them” (LW 53:316).  Elsewhere, referring to the Renaissance composer, Josquin des Prez (who died in 1521), Luther asserted that “God has preached the Gospel through music, too, as may be seen in Josquin, all of whose compositions flow freely, gently, and cheerfully, are not cramped by rules, and are like the song of the finch” (LW 54:129).

Significantly, Luther embraced music as a blessing in itself, because it belongs to and exemplifies the divine grace and godly good order of Creation, especially in contrast to the chaos and confusion of the devil, sin, and death.  From this perspective, Luther perceived that music itself, even apart from any particular text, is able to convey the Gospel, to chase away the devil, and to lift the sorrowing spirit.  These are rather remarkable claims, but they are consistent in Luther’s writings, and they were put into practice in the way that his followers approached the making and enjoyment of music in the Church.

As Luther appreciated and encouraged artistic excellence in musical composition and performance, he also knew, and took advantage of the fact, that music offers a tremendous benefit to the Christian faith and life, and to theology.  For when it is coupled with the Word of the Gospel, it is a handmaid to the Word, which serves the Word, and supports its proclamation, and carries it to the people, into their hearts and minds.  Luther’s own German Mass (Deutsche Messe) is an especially good example, in which he went to great lengths to match the music to the texts, and to emphasize and underscore the meaning and significance of the texts via the musical intonation.  His friend and collaborator, the great Lutheran Kantor, Johann Walter, attests to the great care that Luther took with these matters.

Music not only catechizes Christians with the Word that it bears; it also gives them a vehicle for confessing the Word of the Gospel, to and for each other in the Church, and to and for their neighbors in the world.  Parents and children, spouses and siblings, also serve and strengthen one another with the Holy Spirit, by the singing of the Gospel in “Psalms, hymns, and Spiritual songs.”

In contrast to Calvin and his followers, who allowed only for the singing of the Scriptures verbatim, Luther advocated the writing of hymns that confess the Holy Scriptures homiletically, that is, in much the same way that a sermon proclaims a text by unfolding it for the congregation.  He and others also wrote hymns that carefully set forth and explain the chief parts of the Catechism.  Lutheran hymnody is therefore kerygmatic and catechetical: It preaches and teaches the Word of the Lord to the people.

Along with its similarities to preaching, Lutheran hymnody is closely connected to the Liturgy in a numerous variety of ways.  It serves and contributes to the ritual and ceremony of the Divine Service, and it is also liturgical in its own character and quality.  Precisely in its confession and proclamation of the Word and work of God, it not only serves the people, but it praises and worships the Lord.   For Luther, hymnody in particular, and music in general, is chiefly doxological: It glorifies its Maker.

Every Knee Shall Bow, and Every Tongue Confess, that Jesus Christ Is Lord

Similar to music, other ceremonies may also be employed to praise and glorify God, to affirm His grace and goodness, to confess Christ Jesus, crucified and risen, and to give thanks for His Gospel of forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Ceremonies are capable of doxology, not because we make them so by our own works or good intentions, but because they belong to the Lord’s creation and redemption of our bodies.  The very fact that ceremonies, including music, can be used hypocritically — as words, too, can be spoken disingenuously — demonstrates the objective meaning and significance of these external expressions.  For there is no hypocrisy or falsehood to be found in doing or saying things that mean nothing, but hypocrisy is present when outwards actions express something contrary to what lies hidden within the heart and mind.  The goal, of course, is that we should believe the Word of God with heart and mind, sincerely, and that we should then confess the same in our speaking and ceremonials.

So, then, on the premise that ceremonies do convey meaning and have something to say, let me offer a few basic examples:

To begin with, the Sign of the Cross is a very ancient Christian ceremony, which is also quite simple and straightforward.  It was in use as far back as the first century, and it is commended by Luther in both of his Catechisms.  It is easily understood, and easily practiced, even by very young children.  The Cross, as always, is readily identified with Jesus and His saving work; and the Sign of the Cross is especially connected to Holy Baptism, whereby the Christian has been crucified with Christ.

To make the Sign of the Cross is to call upon the Lord with a silent prayer and confession of the faith.  The fact that it is traced upon the body, from the head to the heart, and from side to side, helpfully affirms the Lord’s rescue and salvation of the Christian’s entire body.  It also serves notice to Satan that the baptized child of God belongs to the Seed of the Woman, who by His Cross has crushed the ancient serpent’s head.  It, too, belongs to that “one little Word” which fells the devil and his minions.

Another very basic, very simple and straightforward ceremony, mentioned throughout Holy Scripture, is bowing, bending the knee, or full bodily prostration.  In fact, the very terminology that is taken up and used for “worship,” in both Hebrew and Greek, refers to the bending and lowering of the body before the Lord.  Thus, for example, when Satan tempts Jesus to bow down and worship him, the Lord Jesus replies with reference to the First Commandment: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.”  Frequently, several of these terms are combined, thereby emphasizing the point: “Let us worship and bow down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker.”  Such admonitions are strikingly similar to those that call upon God’s people to sing and make music to the Lord.

To bow down and kneel, or to prostrate oneself, is not only the common practice of worshipers on earth, but is the posture of worship in heaven, such as St. John describes in the Book of the Revelation.  And, as St. Paul records in his Epistle to the Philippians, so shall every knee in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, bow before the Lord Jesus Christ.  That is what worship looks like outwardly, in the body; and that is how the Holy Scriptures depict and describe the inward attitude of fear, love, and trust in the one true God.

Not only in the Bible, but all across the cultures of the world, bowing, kneeling, and prostration are recognized and practiced as significant indications of humility, of honor for a superior, of supplication for mercy, and of adoration, especially for the divine.  So it was that Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den for kneeling in prayer to the Lord three times a day, whereas Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the blazing fiery furnace for refusing to bow down and worship the golden image.  Many of the early Christians, too, were martyred for their similar refusal to bow down and worship, or to offer incense, before the images of Caesar and the gods of Rome.

The First Commandment remains, which permits no other gods before the Lord.  He alone is to be worshiped and adored, with all the heart, all the soul, all the mind, and all the strength of man.  What, then, of the body?  Granted that bowing, kneeling, and prostration are not specifically commanded of the Christian — there is genuine freedom here.  Yet, in view of the pervasiveness with which this sort of posture and ceremony is set forth in the Holy Scriptures, one might be inclined to ask: Where is the Word of God to suggest that we should not worship and bow down, and kneel before the Lord?

Moving in the other direction, so to speak, there is the lifting up of the heart, the head, and the hands, unto Christ our Savior, as in the ancient “orans” position (which is the historic posture of prayer).  So, for example, the eucharistic rite exhorts you to “lift up your hearts” (Sursum Corda).  The Lord Jesus bids you to “lift up your heads,” as your Redemption is drawing near.  And St. Paul calls upon the men in every place to “lift up holy hands” in prayer.  In each of these ways, we look up to Christ Jesus in faith and hope, especially as we look to Him for mercy and forgiveness in His means of grace.

It is also to be noted that this ancient posture of prayer, with hands uplifted to either side, is not only a bodily indication of petition, receptivity, and hopeful expectation; it is also a form of the Cross, in which the one who prays identifies himself with the great High Priest, who was crucified for us, and yes, who was raised up by God to life again, who ever lives to make intercession for us.

There are also those ceremonies by which the Church and Ministry seek to lift up Christ the Crucified in His means of grace, in the administration of His Gospel.  In this, doxology and proclamation again belong together, as we glorify Christ Jesus by setting Him before the world, calling attention to Him, and commending Him to all the nations.  Here a high Christology goes hand in hand with a theology of the Cross, as we acknowledge and adore the Son of the Living God, who is hidden in humility.

Broadly speaking, what we have in view in this case are pastoral vestments, church paraments and furnishings, sacred art and iconography, fine vessels of crafted metal for the Holy Communion, altar candles and chancel flowers, bells and choirs and other musical adornments, and also incense.  Almost all of these ceremonies are exemplified in Exodus, in the instructions for the Tabernacle, which God revealed to Moses on the holy mountain.  They are also referenced, either specifically or in general, among the traditional ceremonies that our Lutheran churches have retained in the Divine Service.

We gladly receive and make use of these customary practices, because they are meet, right, and salutary ways of demonstrating and encouraging reverence and awe in the presence of God.  To be sure, the Tabernacle with all of its furnishings, rites, and ceremonies, the priesthood and all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, are now fulfilled in Christ Jesus: The substance has come!  But precisely because these things faithfully pointed to Him, and depicted what He would be like, and foretold what He would do and accomplish for the salvation of the world, by grace, so do they helpfully inform the theology and practice of Christian worship.  They are appropriate examples, by which the Lord  prepared His people in the past to receive the Christ who was to come.  Now that He has come, and all things are made brand new, the spiritual life of His Church is not “less” but “more.”  Not as the Law, yet to be fulfilled, but as the Gospel already accomplished, for us and for all people, in His own Body of flesh and blood.

There is an edifying place for aesthetics of this kind, and for beauty, not “for its own sake,” but in the joy of faith in God, the Maker and Redeemer of Creation, and in the hope and gladness of His Resurrection from the dead.  Not everything has to be practical, pragmatic, productive, or pedagogical, but may simply adorn the good things of God with loveliness.  The Lord Himself arrays the flowers of the field with great beauty, though they are here today and gone tomorrow.  Like music, the flowers also glorify God and praise their Maker with the beauty that He has given them.  So, too, within His Holy Church, beauty and adornment are appropriate; not for the sake of achieving or accomplishing some purpose or some work, but for the sake of honoring God and His gifts and rejoicing in them.

The place where you are standing in the Divine Service is holy ground, because it is sanctified by the preaching and administration of Christ Jesus.  Therefore, let His priests be clothed with righteousness, and let His saints sing for joy; even as His saints and martyrs have washed their robes and made them white in His holy and precious Blood.  By the washing of water with His Word, He adorns His Bride with Himself and His own holy vesture, as He is vested in the garments of His great High Priesthood.  Likewise, similar vestments cover the men who preach His Word and administer His good gifts of the Gospel, while at the same time adorning the Office which they serve (which is the Office of Christ).

The same rationale can also be applied to each and all of these ceremonies, without denying that all of them are free (adiaphora), and that none of them are necessary to faith and life, to righteousness or worship.  They are simply good examples of fine practices, which, in many cases, may yet be helpful to our confession of the Gospel, by acknowledging and honoring Christ in His means of grace.  Some of these have been too lightly let go or laid aside without ample consideration.  Whereas others, such as incense (which is so deeply biblical), have frankly not been given adequate attention among us.

None of these adiaphorous human ceremonies are of chief importance or concern.  They are neither the foundation, nor the heart and center of the Liturgy.  They are not decisive, nor are they a goal unto themselves.  They do not make us “better Christians.”  They rather emerge in glad response to what the Lord is doing and giving by His Ministry of the Gospel.  They cast no doubt upon the Gospel, but they delight with joyful confidence in the complete sufficiency and absolute certainty of the Gospel.

The Word of Christ has its own autonomous authority.  We add nothing to it, nor can we; neither is it contingent upon us.  The Word of Christ does not depend upon our faith and love, but we depend on it.  We rely upon the Word, and so we honor it in all that we say and do.  By the way that we speak and handle it, by the way that we make use of it, and by the way we act in the presence of the Word, we confess what we believe and thereby catechize the Church with Christ, the Word-made-Flesh.

As Moses Lifted Up the Serpent in the Wilderness, So Must the Son of Man Be Lifted Up

One more particular ceremony, or pair of ceremonies, needs to be considered, because it touches upon a decisive theological point.  Here I refer to the Elevation and the Adoration of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar.  Actually, more time and attention should be given to this topic than this paper can afford, but for now, if nothing else, let us have it on the table for discussion.

The Elevation of the Sacrament occurs after each of the elements is consecrated with the Word of the Lord.  Thus, after Christ has spoken, “This Is My Body,” His Body is lifted up by the celebrant at the Altar, in and with the consecrated Bread, in order that all may see it; and all are thus invited to adore the Lord in His Body.  In the same way also, after Christ has spoken, “This Is the New Testament in My Blood,” the Chalice is lifted up for all to see, that all may adore the Lord in His Blood.

Luther dealt with questions concerning the Elevation and the Adoration of Christ in the Sacrament throughout his lifetime as a reformer.  His attitude and criteria remained consistent, but were applied somewhat differently in the advice that he gave, depending on the particulars of each situation and its immediate context.  Bear in mind that he had to confront competing challenges on either side: Roman sacrificial notions, and the adoration of the Host apart from the Holy Communion, on the one hand; and Zwinglian denials of the Sacrament altogether, on the other hand.

Because of its associations with the Roman sacrificial Mass, Luther was at first inclined to do away with the Elevation.  However, several considerations led him to preserve the practice, and to defend it against critics and detractors: First, he wanted to exercise patience and care for the piety of the people, lest they be scandalized by such a dramatic change at the highest point of the Divine Service.  Second, he recognized that the Elevation could be understood evangelically, as a commending of the Body of the Christ to the communicants.  For this very reason, Luther notably retained the Elevation in both his Latin and German Masses, describing it as a proclamation of Christ in the Sacrament, and as a gracious invitation to eat and to drink His Body and His Blood for the forgiveness of sins.

As a third and final reason for retaining the Elevation, Luther set himself in opposition to Karlstadt and others, who insisted that the practice was contrary to the Gospel and to the Holy Scriptures, and that it therefore had to be abolished.  Here, as previously mentioned, Luther insisted on its freedom.

It was not Luther, but his own pastor, Johnannes Bugenhagen, who finally did away with the Elevation in Wittenberg (in the late 1530s).  He did so while Luther was away, and there are some indications that Luther was unhappy with this change in practice, especially because there were many people who then perceived it to be a capitulation to Zwinglianism.  In any case, Luther consistently supported Pastor Bugenhagen, and he did not publicly object to the change in ceremony.  Although he mentioned on occasion the possibility of restoring the Elevation to the Liturgy in Wittenberg, that did not happen.

Toward the end of his life, Luther indicated that it would be just as well for the Elevation to be let go from the practice of the churches; not because he was opposed to it, but for the sake of unity among the Lutheran territories, since many of them had already done away with this ceremonial practice.

In considering the Elevation of the Sacrament, it has to be taken into account what a prominent and visible part of the Roman Mass this practice was, and what a volatile issue it became in the context of the Reformation.  In that light, it is actually remarkable that the Lutherans kept it at all, and for so long.  That this continuation of the practice was not solely as a consolation for the weak, nor simply a matter of polemics against the Zwinglians, is demonstrated by a similar but slightly different practice that developed in some of the Lutheran territories of the Sixteenth Century.  In those places, the Body and Blood of Christ were elevated before the people at the Pax Domini, the pastor facing the people with the Host and the Chalice in his hands.  Evidently there was also a rite that would sometimes accompany this new ceremony, drawing upon the words of Luther from one of his writings against Karlstadt: “Look, dear Christian, here are the Body and Blood of your Lord Jesus, which He gives to you for the forgiveness of sins.”  In some cases, this new ceremony was used in addition to the historic Elevation.  Both practices were understood as a strong confession of the Body and Blood of Christ.

With or without the Elevation, as far as Luther himself was concerned, and for other Lutherans after him, there still remained the Adoration of Christ in the Sacrament; although this practice became controversial among the Lutherans, mainly after Luther’s death, in connection with a receptionist trend in Melanchthon and his followers.

The “Adoration,” here, refers specifically to bending the knee (or genuflecting) at the consecration of the Sacrament.  That is to say, it is the bodily worship of Christ, the Lord our God, in His Sacrament.

“Receptionism” is the view that Christ is not present in the bread and wine, except in the actual eating and drinking of the elements.  This view developed with Melanchthon, and continued after him, on the basis of Aristotelian philosophy (or, rather, on a misunderstanding of Aristotle’s “four cause”).  Especially as Melanchthon grew closer to John Calvin, in the years after Luther had died, he and others would make disparaging remarks about “bread worshipers,” referring to those (such as Luther!) who adored the Lord Jesus Christ in His Sacrament.

Luther, in his lifetime, explicitly answered the receptionist position, along with its implications for the celebration of the Sacrament, especially in a couple of letters that he wrote to a Pastor Wolferinus.  Therein he indicated that the proper “use” of the Sacrament, in accordance with the Lord’s Institution, begins with the consecration of the elements (with the Verba Domini) and continues until everything has been consumed.  Within that breadth of “use,” as Luther describes, the bread is the Body of Christ Jesus, and the wine is the Blood of Christ Jesus, exactly as the same Lord Jesus Christ has spoken in the consecration: “This Is My Body,” and “This Is My Blood.”  Therefore, we eat and drink because the Holy Supper is the Body given and the Blood poured out for us.  Likewise, everything is consumed, in keeping with the Word of Christ: “Eat,” and “Drink.”  None of the elements that He has consecrated with His Word should be returned to common usage, nor simply “disposed of.”

The Lutherans of the Sixteenth Century (and well beyond) followed Luther’s lead in this regard, and took these matters quite seriously, as the various Lutheran Church Orders (and several controversies) make plain.  In fact, church practices emulated Luther’s “consecrationist” position, in spite of the growing entrenchment of Melanchthon’s “receptionism” in subsequent generations.  Regrettably, the Formula of Concord, in its article on the Lord’s Supper, has frequently been interpreted through the filters of those later developments, and has therefore been misunderstood in a “receptionist” manner.

As regards the Adoration, in particular, the Formula of Concord has likewise been misunderstood.  On the surface, it would seem as though the Formula rejects this ceremony, when it explicitly disavows the adoration of the bread and wine.  However, that particular “antithesis” is actually confessed in response to those (including Melanchthon) who had accused the Lutherans of “bread worship,” as mentioned earlier.  The point is made, precisely because Luther himself, and many others, did adore the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament, while yet distinguishing His sacred flesh and blood from the creaturely elements of bread and wine, which do of course remain in the Holy Communion.

It is especially clear that the Adoration is actually defended and affirmed, when one compares the Formula of Concord on this point with the corresponding section of the Examination of the Council of Trent, by Martin Chemnitz (a primary author of the Formula).  For “no one except an Arian heretic can or will deny that Christ Himself, true God and Man, who is truly and essentially present in the Supper when it is rightly used, should be adored in Spirit and in Truth in all places but especially where His community is assembled” (FC/SD VII.126).  As Luther had also written in 1544: “In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which is deserving of honor and adoration, the body and blood of Christ are truly and substantially present, proffered, and received both by the worthy and by the unworthy” (LW 34: 355).

When the Son of Man Is Lifted Up, He Will Draw All People to Himself

Now, then, what does this mean for us?  Since the Sixteenth Century, “Receptionism” has become an entrenched problem, and a kind of “commonplace” among many Lutherans, including the Missouri Synod to a large degree; whereas the temptations of the Roman sacrificial Mass are hardly a prevalent danger in modern Lutheran circles.  Consequently, not the sacrifice of the Mass, nor Corpus Christi processions, but “Consecrationism” vs. “Receptionism” is a defining issue in our own day.  And it is a deeper crisis than one might realize or even imagine.  Consecrationism is chiefly a case of reliance on the Word of Christ, whereas Receptionism introduces a human synergism into the Sacrament, and calls into question the objective integrity of the Sacrament prior to and apart from the faith and activity of the recipient.  In doing so, Receptionism dethrones the Lord and undermines His Gospel.

Against these developments, as against the Karlstadts and Zwinglians of Luther’s day, the Elevation and the Adoration of Christ in the Sacrament offer a strong affirmation of Christ and His Word: That, when Christ says, “This Is My Body,” and “This Is My Blood,” it is actually so.

The Elevation marks and identifies the high point of the Divine Service, and visually lifts up Christ before the people; whereas the Adoration confesses Him to be the Lord our God.  Taken together, these two ceremonies express with the body what St. John the Baptist declared: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”  Beloved, “He must increase,” and “we must decrease.”

Lutherans gladly “Lift high the Cross, the love of Christ proclaim.”  Why should they hesitate to lift high the Christ in His Body and His Blood, to the praise and glory of His holy Name?  They know of kneeling for confession and for prayer, and for the distribution of the Holy Communion.  Why then  balk at the Adoration of Christ in the Consecration of His Sacrament?  Acolytes “reverence the Altar,” which is meet, right, and salutary, since it is from the Altar that Christ, the Son of God, gives to us His Body and His Blood.  So, why not “reverence” the Body and Blood by which the Altar is sanctified?

Aside from the Elevation and the Adoration of Christ in the Sacrament, in any case, it is even more basic to the faithful confession of Christ and His Word, that the elements be handled appropriately, before, during, and after the Consecration.  The Lutheran Church Orders of the Sixteenth Century are practically unanimous in specifying these several practices, in particular: Only as many elements should be prepared and set upon the Altar as are reasonably expected to be needed for the distribution.  From the Consecration onward, and throughout the distribution, the elements should be handled with utmost care, and the ministers should conduct themselves with devout reverence in the presence of the Lord.  If additional elements are required to complete the distribution, they must first be consecrated by the Words of the Lord (Verba Domini).  And, finally, everything that has been consecrated should also be consumed; or, at the very least, it should reverently be set apart until the next Holy Communion.

All Who Believed Were Together and Had All Things in Common

The Lutherans of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries regulated the practices of the churches within each territory, in the interest of a unified confession of the faith they held in common.  We in our day could, and should, learn something from them.

There does not need to be, nor could there be, a “lock-step uniformity” in all ceremonies.  However, a unity and harmony and consistency of practice, as belonging to our confession of fellowship in the Gospel, is desirable and would be edifying.  That was true at the time of the Reformation, and it is not less so in this modern age of internet communications and rapid mobility!

As Luther and others often cited, it is appropriate that we Christians should have common rites and ceremonies for the administration of the Sacraments, since we have the Sacraments themselves in common.  Indeed, we have one Lord, one faith, one Holy Baptism, one God and Father of all.  We are called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified by one and the same Holy Spirit, and we all partake of one Holy Communion.  We are all one Body in Christ Jesus, because we all eat of the one Bread, which is His Body; so do we all drink of the one Cup, which is the New Testament in His Blood.  As our fellowship is found in the Sacrament, it is appropriate that our celebration of the Supper be similar.

The regulating of adiaphorous rubrics, rites, and ceremonies within the good order of the Church’s fellowship, within a particular jurisdiction of the Church’s life on earth, is not contrary to the Gospel, but serves the confession and catechesis of the Gospel within the Church’s catholicity of faith and love.  Such commonly agreed-upon rubrics, coupled with the supervision of an overseer, or “bishop,” provides for a common practice from place to place, and from week to week, while it also allows room for genuine pastoral care of the Church in each time and place.

This approach to the life of the Church, as a fellowship of congregations in the unity of the faith, is beneficial, not only to the mutual relationships of the congregations with one another, but also to the life of each congregation, and to the relationship of pastors and people within each congregation.

Pastors benefit from the use of what has been received and adopted in common.  Especially because  it is the case that pastoral piety, in both large and small ways, is never simply personal or private, but is public, “political,” and pedagogical.  The people learn from their pastor’s practice.  They also pick up on discrepancies between his preaching and his practice (as in his handling of the Sacrament).

Parishioners benefit, too, when pastors use the common rites and ceremonies of the Church, rather than inventing their own practices, or else importing practices from outside of the Lutheran Church.  Wilhelm Löhe advised, for example, that a layperson should be able to discern where there is Lutheran doctrine and Lutheran worship, by comparing what the pastor preaches and teaches with the Small Catechism, and by comparing what the pastor says and does in the Divine Service with the rubrics, rites, and ceremonies of the Lutheran Liturgy.  In any event, the people of God should not be asked or expected to pray and confess words which they have never seen before, and which they will most likely never see again.  How shall they give their “Amen” to such things, without even knowing where they came from?  Of course, they listen attentively to the sermon, which they haven’t heard ahead of time; but they are not asked to pray and confess the sermon, nor to give their “Amen” to it, without first being given an adequate opportunity to follow it through and to consider it against the Scriptures.

Worthy is Christ, the Lamb Who Was Slain, to Receive All the Worship and Honor and Glory

In dealing with each other, among and within our congregations, and in approaching the Liturgy, we get our bearings, and chart our course, and take our cues from Christ at the Center: He is the Lamb upon His Throne, the One who was slain, and yet, behold, He lives; Who calls and gathers us to Himself, by the Spirit through the Gospel, in order to make us His own priestly people, and to share with us His own divine, eternal Life in body and in soul.  He is the Preacher, the Celebrant, and the Liturgist of the Divine Service; and He is the Husband and Head of His Body and Bride, the Church

As we think very highly of Him, our Savior, so do we think highly of His Church and honor her in word and deed.  She is, after all, the Bride of Christ, and she ought to be treated like a Lady.  Not only that, but we (especially we pastors) should not take liberties with her, but ought to conduct ourselves with the Church in a manner becoming of gentleman with another Man’s Wife.

Make no mistake, the King’s royal Bride is truly a Queen, even when she may be outwardly dressed in beggar’s rags.  But for that very reason, as we are so given the privilege and the opportunity to care for her, to wait upon her needs in this life under the Cross, and to serve and honor her dignity, we shall not deliberately clothe her in rags, but would surely delight to adorn her as the royal Bride that she is.

If we are thus restrained by appropriate decorum and propriety, it is for the sake of the Gospel, which retains its pre-eminence, priority, and predominance.  It is for us a matter of self-discipline, in order to give pride of place to the Gospel.  It is the Gospel that does and gives everything; because it is the Word and work of Christ, who freely and fully forgives the sins of the world, and who reconciles sinners to the Father.  Therefore, the Gospel does not bind or constrain us, but glorifies Christ as our Savior and our God, and comforts terrified consciences with the gift of His Righteousness and Peace.

This Gospel is, and ever shall be, the true adornment and the real beauty of the Church, with which our dear Lord Jesus Christ, our heavenly Bridegroom, graciously covers and clothes us, day by day: within and without, in heart and mind, in spirit, soul, and body.

It is by this grace of God in Christ, by the life that is given to us freely in the Gospel, that we in turn adore Him, confess Him, rejoice in Him, give thanks to Him, and worship Him in faith and love.

As we are called and gathered by the Gospel unto Christ, unto the Lamb upon His Throne, “Let Solemn Awe Possess Us.”  For we are brought into His presence in the humility of repentance, but so also do we enter His courts with praise, in the joyful confidence of faith.  We kneel in awe of His Majesty, and yet, we find that His almighty power is chiefly shown in His tender compassion toward us poor sinners: “The Lord, the Lord, merciful and gracious, patient and long-suffering, abounding in steadfast love, forgiving sin, and not counting trespasses.”

Here He has come to us: to open our ears, our hearts and our minds, our eyes by faith, and finally our mouths; to reveal Himself in the Breaking of the Bread, to feed us with Himself, His Body and His Blood, and to abide in us forever and ever.  So do we abide in Him, and with the Father and the Spirit in His Flesh, in that Peace of the Lord which the world cannot give, and we could never have imagined, but He bestows by His Gospel.  To Him who loves us, who has freed us from our sins by His Blood, and made us a kingdom of priests to His God and Father: to Him be the glory forever and ever.  Amen.

(Paper presented at the ACELC Conference, Austin, Texas, April 2013)