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August 3 - August 26, 2019
By contrast, early Christian worship appeared to pagan spectators as “rather ‘low tech,”’ “simple,” and “less impressive” than most pagan worship.4 Against the backdrop of the pagan mystery religions, earliest Christian worship, like Jewish synagogue worship, stood out in stark contrast, making Christian worship unique.5
Most of the liturgical change in the fourth century resulted from pagan influences on the church, both secular and religious. Pagan society had less impact on Christian worship and practice prior to the fourth century, owing to the resolve of the early Christians to mark themselves off as distinct from the pagan world around them.
Instead, he argued, the church should set itself apart from the world's music, singing the “new song,” which Clement believed reflects the “melodious order” and “harmonious arrangement” of the universe and is “sober, pure, decorous, modest, temperate, grave, and soothing.”17
An example of this movement is the increasing tendency for Christian initiation practices to imitate those of the pagan mystery cults. Baptismal services “became highly elaborate, much more dramatic—one might even say theatrical—in character.”23 Baptismal homilies began to speak of these ceremonies as “awe-inspiring” and “hair-raising” to characterize their sensationalism.24 One sees a similar shift in the celebration of the Eucharist, which became more formalized, incorporating elements such as “ceremonial actions, vesture, processions, and music to an extent previously unknown.”25 However,
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Yet all scholars agree that the developments of the fourth century set the stage for the classic liturgy of the church that would hold sway in the East and the West throughout late antiquity and the Middle Ages.
This is why Reformation-era defenders of icons and other liturgical images called them “books for the unlearned.”38
The Puritans were largely a product of low church Anglicans whose exile during the reign of Queen Mary in the sixteenth century strengthened their Reformed commitments.42
As Horton Davies has shown in The Worship of the English Puritans, the basic difference between the Reformed movements on one hand and the Lutheran and Anglican movements on the other is the difference between the normative principle of worship and the regulative principle of worship.
Thus they believed the people should be involved in singing, for example.
Both Luther and Calvin wanted to return preaching to a central place in Christian worship. They wanted the Word of God (its concepts—not just its public reading) to be at the center of every aspect of worship.
Despite their areas of agreement, Luther and Calvin differed in the following way: Luther believed that anything is permitted in worship as long as Scripture does not condemn it. Calvin believed that nothing is permitted in worship if Scripture does not commend it, by precept or example.
More influential eighteenth- and nineteenth-century evangelical-pietist movements such as John Wesley's Methodists were essentially emblematic of the moderate Puritan strain of the Reformed and Free Church traditions.53
Contemporary evangelical worship emerged from the Pentecostal-charismatic end of the post-Reformation worship spectrum. For example, the vast majority of publishers of the contemporary praise-and-worship genre from the last two decades of the twentieth century had charismatic roots.
Each of these contributors is struggling at some level with the tension between the need to remain faithful to the gospel and the Christian tradition while at the same time faithfully communicating that Evangel in a changing and complex cultural milieu that presents mammoth challenges to the continued witness of the Christian church.
The Liturgy includes aesthetic elements such as music, art, architecture, vestments, and ceremony, but elements of style always come second. Worship forms are based on doctrine. Worship practice reflects and communicates the beliefs of the church. Liturgy articulates doctrine.
The variety of forms making up the historic Liturgy share a common biblical and theological understanding of how man acts in God's presence and, more importantly, how God has chosen to be present and how God acts toward those gathered in His name.
The way you worship effects and determines what you believe. Islamic worship makes Muslims. Buddhist worship makes Buddhists. Roman Catholic worship makes Roman Catholics. Pentecostal worship makes Pentecostals. American neo-evangelical contemporary worship makes generic, Arminian, Protestant Christians. Lutheran liturgy makes Lutherans and keeps them Lutheran.
Liturgy is catechesis in action.
I could only attempt to measure the results on the basis of the level of enthusiasm we could generate. Did we generate a deeper passion and love for Jesus?
There is also the assumption with this way of thinking that Jesus is to be found somewhere in the heart, and that the way to find Him is to feel His presence. Worship experiences based on feeling God's presence and being moved to commit one's entire heart and life to His will and law always come up short and easily lead to despair or to arrogance and hypocrisy. This is law worship.
Gospel worship works the other way. The liturgy is first of all what God is doing. In law worship, we bring our obedience and praise to God. In gospel worship, we bring our sin and sinfulness, and God brings His gifts to us.
The Liturgy is important, for it is here that the Holy Spirit is present, sustaining our faith. Where the Spirit slips away from the Word, confidence in the efficacious Word is replaced with internal, emotional experiences of the heart (enthusiasm)8 or with the bare mind (rationalism).
The Liturgy is truly a divine, heavenly, inspired conversation between God and man.
However, if one's prayer life is limited to personally composed prayers, it is susceptible to subjective and selfish impulses. It is also limited (impoverished) by the imagination and horizons of the individual person. With liturgical prayers we pray with the whole church (past, present, future) and thus expand our prayer life. Furthermore, liturgical prayer shapes the structure, language, content, and theology of private prayer.
The current debate amid the contemporary worship wars over appropriate decorum is not new. Every generation has had to deal with disorder, irreverence, and frivolity unbecoming of worshipers.
Soccer games and Disney World are fun. The Divine Service is a place beyond fun. The Liturgy is a serious, life-and-death reality.
In non-liturgical churches the traditional invitation to prayer, “oremus” (Let us pray), is replaced with “Please pray with me,” or “Shall we pray,” which soon become standard “liturgical” practice.
One of the most common words for worship in the Greek New Testament is proskunē which means “to worship,” “do obeisance to,” “prostrate oneself,” “do reverence to.”
Sometimes habits are done thoughtlessly. But good habits usually produce good results.
Repetition ingrains the Word of God deep into our minds and hearts.
Pastors are not businessmen, politicians, or laypersons, but gifts from Christ to His bride the church (Eph 4:8–11).
The need for order does not demand absolute uniformity from region to region, church to church, or even congregation to congregation. Nevertheless, it is for the sake of good order, peace, and unity that church bodies share a common hymnbook that contains common liturgies, hymns, and ceremonies.
The Augsburg Confession answers this clearly and succinctly: The [church] “is the assembly of believers [Latin: holy ones] among whom the Gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administered according to the Gospel.”38
One major criticism of the so-called contemporary Christian music being adopted by many churches today is the anthropocentric nature of the texts and music.
The Incarnation without the cross would leave us lost in our sins and with nothing to sing about.
Without the Holy Spirit, neither the pastor nor the people are able to pray.
The Liturgy and sermon are where the Lord gives out His gifts, which are received through faith with thanksgiving. Thus one must properly distinguish between law and gospel. Liturgy and sermon include both law and gospel, repentance and forgiveness, but they do not exist for repentance, but for Holy Absolution—that forgiveness of sins might be given out.
Evangelical preaching is law and gospel preaching, but not in the sense of a lecture on law and gospel. Nor is the sermon a lecture on apologetics in which the preacher expounds his opinion and learning. Rather, the sermon is “Thus saith the Lord.” “Repent and believe in Jesus Christ.”
We are gathered to hear His voice, not hear about His voice as if God were far away in heaven.
In the sermon, the pastor applies the divinely inspired revelation from the Holy Scripture to the congregation. He does not merely apply moral and ethical principles; he preaches God's law and gospel—which kills and gives life.
The pastor is a servant of Christ and a manager of God's mysteries (1 Cor 4:1), not a CEO, business administrator, entertainer, or authoritarian bureaucrat.
But the preacher is commissioned to preach the Mighty Word. He has no license to expect that when his mouth is opened as the oracle of heaven and he begins somber intonation of the magic phrases from the upper story of the universe crowds will throng the temple gates. Nor is there any reason rooted in the history of his faith to think that when he mounts the pulpit, stripped of his humanity and decked in deity, his sonorous tones will gather the nations at the judgment seat or the mercy seat. He is called to speak the Word … that God forgives, and that in his forgiveness we can live.… He will
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Only God knows how long He will allow a pastor to preach. Every time the pastor steps into the pulpit, it might be for the last time.
Heresy cannot live long without hymnody.85 Neither can orthodoxy.
The Nicene Creed (adopted by approximately three hundred bishops at the ecumenical council held in Nicea in 325) was an important step in combating this heresy. However, it would be orthodox, Trinitarian hymns that reached the laity.
Luther's hymns were meant not to create a mood, but to convey a message. They were a confession of faith, not of personal feelings. This is why, in the manner of folk songs, they present their subject vividly and dramatically, but without the benefit of ornate language and other poetic refinements. They were written not to be read but to be sung by the whole congregation.
A simple way to test the appropriateness of a hymn for Christian worship is to ask questions such as, “Could a deist, ‘new-ager,’ Mormon, Buddhist, or Hindu sing these words?”
Does the text express our total inability to believe in Christ or come to Him, or is some ability concerning our conversion attributed to us, perhaps suggesting that we are able to decide to follow Jesus?
Is Christ proclaimed as having kept the law perfectly for us, or is He merely held up as an example that we should follow?
Lex orandi—lex credendi. The way one worships shapes the way one believes.
