With today’s blog entry, I finally complete a detailed review of the essay, “Liturgical Renewal in the Parish,” by Arthur A. Just, which is the lead essay in the book, Lutheran Worship: History and Practice. Centering the need for “renewal” on the congregation, rather than on the liturgy itself, two aspects of liturgical life were pointed out by the author, which if renewed in the congregation will impact all its other aspects. The first was discussed in Day 5 and Day 6 of this review: restoration of the theology of worship. Today, I cover the second aspect of liturgical life in which the author calls for renewal: renewal of time.
“Renewal of time” is a metaphor for a return to observance of the church year and use of the lectionary.
The church year ...gives to the congregation access to the life of Christ so that it may fully employ an understanding of the Bible in light of his real presence that forms it into the Body of Christ. ...Time has always been a critical commodity in the church, and the church has no other choice but to be good stewards of time.
Time in the Christian sense is a servant of theology, and in this time the church has taken the incarnation and the crucifixion, the two scandals of Christianity, and raised them up to be the two great festivals of the church year, Christmas and Easter. ...Within sacred time, the church has harmonized the seasons of nature with the seasons of the church year...
Just, A.A. (1993). Liturgical Renewal in the Parish. In Precht, F.L (Ed.), Lutheran Worship: History and Practice (pp. 31 - 32). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.
The author goes on to describe how the themes of judgment in the church year coincided with late autumn, when “nature is dying,” symbolizing the ultimate death of the old world, and the permanent separation of unregenerate souls from God, at the Judgment. This naturally leads to a period of expectation, of looking for new life and salvation from the certain separation from God that all mankind faces. This is the period of Advent. Then, “[w]hen the sun reaches the point of death at the winter solstice and begins to rise again, the church celebrates the birth of the new world when ‘the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings’ (Mal. 4:2)” (pg. 32). Following this, new life in Christ by His resurrection coincides with the period of spring. Pentecost – the Jewish harvest festival celebrated 50 days after the Passover – is for us Christians also a celebration of harvest, of the giving of the New Testament Church for this purpose. The season of Pentecost begins for us as the seed is sown, and comes to maturity in autumn as the fields ripen for harvest. [Note: under the Historic Lectionary, the Pentecost Season observed by most Lutheran congregations today, is, instead, the Trinity Season – whose liturgical color is green, signifying the new growth of the Christian under the teaching of our risen and ascended Lord, Jesus Christ - FF]. The author then concludes with this observation:
The church has transformed the world by its liturgy and served the Gospel’s goal. The church has raised secular time to the level of the sacred. This sacred time becomes sacramental because Christ now appears in it for the benefit of his people.
Just, A.A. (1993). Liturgical Renewal in the Parish. In Precht, F.L (Ed.), Lutheran Worship: History and Practice (pg. 32). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.
Necessary to a “renewal of time,” the author goes on to stress the importance of Sunday worship (celebrating God’s gifts to us on the Day of the Resurrection), and also insists that a renewal of language is elemental to any renewal of time and renewal of liturgy:
The role of liturgical preaching and catechesis is of vital importance in the congregation’s renewal of time. Liturgical preaching and catechesis belong under the rubrics of renewal of language, but liturgical renewal of time will take place through liturgical preaching and catechesis. In both of them, the language and metaphors of Scripture must become the language and metaphors of our sermons and our catechesis. Scriptural language must again become the primary theological language of the congregation, a language that is rich in the stories, the images, and the people of the Bible.
Just, A.A. (1993). Liturgical Renewal in the Parish. In Precht, F.L (Ed.), Lutheran Worship: History and Practice (pg. 32). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.
In this final comment, the author has hit upon a particularly troubling and irritating trend that I have noticed among Confessional Lutheran congregations (and among most Christian groups in America): an appalling degradation, even elimination in many cases, of distinctly Ecclesiastical terminology and manner of speech. Gone are the theological terms. Gone are the liturgical terms. And with them, gone is the thorough and vigorous catechesis that Lutheran layman once enjoyed, gone among the layman are the specific ideas those terms embody and communicate, gone are the important distinctions created by those specific ideas in the mind of the average layman, gone is the deep insight brought about by realizing those distinctions, and reduced is the common layman to discussion of Christian liturgical life according to subjective and personal criteria. In coming days, I intend to post more on this issue specifically, in exploration of the deplorable trend and gross catechetical error of dumbed-down and white-washed ecclesiastical language, and its tragic consequences. In anticipation of these entries, consider this fact: by dumbing-down the language we use, we are deliberately presenting ideas which we expect will be outgrown and left behind by those who hear them, rather than presenting ideas into which the average hearer will grow and mature.
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2 comments:
I just received from Ebay The Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther with explanation by Joseph Stump, (first president of the ULCA @1920) Copyright 1907. In our day when writing custom creeds has become very popular in emergent Lutheran circles here's what Luther had to say. Luther's Preface, "let the preacher take the utmost care to avoid all changes or variations in the text and wording of the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Sacraments, etc. Let him on the contrary, take each of the forms respectively, adhere to it, and repeat it anew, year after year. For young and inexperienced people cannot be successfully instructed, unless we adhere to the same text or the same forms of expression. They easily become confused, when the teacher at one time employs a certain form of words and expressions, and, at another, apparently with a view to make improvements, adopts a different form. The result of such a course will be, that al the time and labor which we have expended will be lost.
This point was well understood by our venerable fathers, who were accustomed to use the same words in teaching the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. We, too, should follow this plan when we teach these things, particularly in the case of the young and ignorant, not changing a single syllable, nor introducing any variations when, year after year, we recur to these forms and recite them anew before our hearers.
Choose, therefore, the form of words which best pleases you, and adhere to it perpetually. When you preach in the presence of intelligent and learned men, you are at liberty to exhibit your knowledge and skill, and may present and discuss these subjects in all the varied modes which are at your command. but when you are teaching the young, retain the same form and manner without change; teach them, first of all, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, etc., always presenting the same words of the text, so that those who learn can repeat them after you, and retain them in the memory."
I believe Luther agrees with A.A. Just.
Brett,
Thanks for the quote! Luther was a master catechist. Being classically trained, he knew the vital importance of establishing for the catechumen, to the point of mastery, the grammar of a given discipline. Our Catechism is the "grammar" of our theology and Confession. Likewise, the liturgy is the "grammar" of our worship life. It is impossible for the Christian to move on to the more advanced interpretation and application, or "logic" and "rhetoric," stages of his confession and worship life, without a mastery of their "grammar" -- something which is learned and retained through repeated use. Changes, whether for creative reasons or otherwise, disrupt the learning and retention of this "grammar," and thoughtless, poorly advised, and/or frivolous changes can do so irreparably.
It is very interesting that those who dabble with changes, who condescend to the "less capable" with oversimplified words, while doing so with the intention of serving their interests, are operating in reverse and actually offering them a disservice. Luther seems to indicate this directly, doesn't he? Pedagogically speaking, true Christians are the ideal student -- they naturally want to learn, and knowing, naturally want to tell. Effective teaching is to supply continuous, though gentle, pressure in the direction of greater knowledge and improved understanding, by giving them something to reach for! True Christians naturally want to reach! But instead, we increasingly have them stooping down... No wonder they seem to have little to tell...
Freddy Finkelstein
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