The Lutheran Liturgy, Pt. 4

Posted on April 3, 2009 by admin

As indicated in the title, this is my 4th in a series on the old Lutheran Liturgy, from the 1958 Service Book & Hymnal that I grew up with.   As I explained in the first post in the series, I’ve been away from the Lutheran church since the mid 70’s, but recently obtained a recording of the 2nd Setting of that liturgy.   Even before getting the recording, I had begun to recall parts of the liturgy.  I dug out my old hymnal and began using the liturgy on occasion for meditation.   I now find that I’ll have parts of the liturgy running through my mind at various parts of the day; or, more accurately, it’s playing somewhere internally… at time it just seems to resonate.

I have visited a couple of local Lutheran churches over the past couple of years, and have not been impressed at all with what they are currently using as liturgy (every week it seems to be different, like they’re afraid of actually memorizing one… or, perhaps they don’t like any of them, either).  I do really appreciate the Episcopal liturgy, however; in spite of the problems in the EC, I can relate to the Book of Common Prayer. I hope in the near future to analyze and compare the liturgies, and would appreciate any input you’d care to give.

Now, on to the Liturgy. Following the sermon, is the Offertory.  There are 2 optional offertories; this is what our church used:

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit
a broken and a contrite heart O God, thou would not despise.
Do good in thy good pleasure onto Zion
build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness
with burn offering and whole burnt offering.

The alternate is

What shall I render unto the Lord
for all his benefits toward me?
I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and will callupon the Name of the Lord.
I will take the cup of salvation
and call upon the Name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his peoiple
in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of thee O Jerusalem.

As the offering is brought forward, we sing:

Create in me a clean heart O God
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence
and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of they salvation
an uphold me with thy free spirit.

I question using Psalm 51, as it doesn’t seem applicable in the context of the New Covenant, especially as I under Lutheran theology.  Possibly this crept in during the pietistic movement, which also seemed to ignore the core of Luther’s (and Paul’s) theology.

After the offering comes the Prayer of the Church, which I won’t include here due to length.  The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod site has a good explanation of the Prayer of the Church.  Essentially, it is corporate prayer for the needs of the church, the country, the sick, and so on, and is typically followed by The Lord’s Prayer (we used the “trespasses” language).

At this point, the service could close with a hymn and the Benediction, unless it was Communion Sunday.  Our church had Communion once a month, so it always seemed odd to me when churches would do it every Sunday.  I’ve come to appreciate the Lord’s Supper – Eucharist – in a more profound way, so now I look forward to it every Sunday.  As with the Orthodox, RCC and Anglican churches, Communion now seems to be the high point of the service, rather than something tacked on to the end to extend the time (which I always hated as a kid).

I’ll conclude with one more post on the Lord’s Supper, as the old liturgy was a bit more involved than anything I’ve experienced recently in either the Lutheran or Episcopalian churches.

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I forgot the Kyrie! Lutheran Liturgy pt. 3

Posted on March 30, 2009 by admin

I realized the other day that in my haste to get to the Gloria in Excelsis, I skipped right over the Kyrie!    In the 1958 SB&H, they kept the old titles, and I find it interesting that they are a mixture of Latin and Greek.  One of these days I’m going to pull out my copy of St. John Chrysostom’s Divine Liturgy and see how closely they align.

Kyrie is a Greek word meaning, “O Lord,” from the phrase “Kýrie, eléison,” or “O Lord, have mercy.” You might recall the phrase from the 1985 Mr. Mister song.  Here’s the 1958 Lutheran version (congregation’s response in italics), which is generally sung:

In peace let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have mercy.

For the peace that is from above, and for the salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have mercy.

For the peace of the whole worlds, for the well-being of the churches of God, and for the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have mercy.

For this holy house, and for them that in faith, piety and fear of God offer here their worship and praise, let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have mercy.

Help, save, pity and defend us, O God, by thy grace.

Amen.

I should mention that the music for the liturgy was adapted by Regina Fryxell from various sources, including older Lutheran liturgies and 10th Century plainsongs.  In my opinion, it has much more character than any of the recent Lutheran liturgies I have heard, which in my opinion are really quite horrible.  This past Sunday I attended a Lutheran church who sung the 5th setting from the new, 2006 hymnal.   It was actually unnatural to sing; for example, they used a familiar tune to “Create in Me,” but changed the phrasing so that it actually interrupted the natural rhythm of the lyrics.  Strange.  I don’t think I’ll go back any time soon.

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The Limitations of Reason

Posted on March 26, 2009 by me

As I’ve reported once before, Jeff Carter at Sophie’s Ladder has recently published a series of posts summarizing the history of philosophy as it relates to the limitations of reason. As he states in the opening of his “summation” post,

This series has demonstrated the limitations – and therefore the inadequacy and failure – of reason not only in dealing with metaphysical / spiritual matters, but also in securing a foundation for reason itself. Every attempt to justify reason as a power superior to or even adequate for comprehending the metaphysical / spiritual has failed.

Now, I freely admit that I am not an expert, having bailed on my philosophy major fairly early on in my education.  However, I think a lot, so that counts for something.  One thing I did excel in was logic.  As I’ve spent the last twenty-something years analyzing and countering arguments, I do a pretty good job at it.  However, I have always been intrigued by the knowledge that not only are there limitations to reason, there are other logical systems. As Russell Shorto quotes Jonathan Ree in Descartes Bones – A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason:

“… the theory of knowledge and the theory of human nature which with it; the concepts of an idea, of mathematical laws of nature … are so fundamental to modern consciousness that it is hard no to regard them as part of the natural property of the human mind. But, in fact, they are a product of the seventeenth century, and above all in the work of Descartes.”

I am also aware that built into modernism – our current Western worldview that resulted from the Cartesian revolution – is the concept of progress, so we asume that our system of logic is necessarily better than anyone else’s; in fact, we cannot conceive of any other system of logic as having any merit whatsoever.

What the series at Sophie’s Ladder does is demonstrate that all attempts to prove the superiority of reason have failed; we believe our concept of reason has to be true, but we really have to accept it on faith.  As Jeff commented on my earlier post, this series is foundational to a response he is writing of John Loftus’ approach to atheism.  Recently John has been touting his “Outsider Test of Faith” (OTF), where he challenges Christians to give up their presuppositions in order to view Christianity as an outsider would.  However, his whole system is nothing more than a house built on sand, as he does not apply the same test to his own presuppositions, which he calls “control beliefs.”  I pointed this out to John, and one of his followers thought it ridiculous that I suggest such a thing.

Of course, his OTF is really just selective application of Godel’s Theorem, which in essence is that no logical (mathematical) system can prove itself – you have to prove it from outside the system.  I am really looking forward to Jeff’s response to Loftus (actually, I’m more interested in Loftus’ response to Jeff).

On the other hand, I believe that it is possible to disprove a system from within the system, in this case, using reason and logic to show the limitations of reason and logic.  The only reason that the New Atheists (I’ll include Loftus in that group, although he distinguishes himself) can continue is that they don’t understand the philosophical mess they are in; or else they do, but are in denial.

While I cannot prove this, at least yet, I am back to thinking that the real issue with most of the atheist apologists is not philosophy or lack of evidence or logic; rather, it is a moral issue, and a faith issue.  In other words, they have chosen to believe what they believe, so that they do not have to believe something else.

Again, I highly recommend the series at Sophie’s Ladder.  It’s very well-done, and concise enough to really provide a big-picture view of the issues related to faith and reason.

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The Lutheran Liturgy, Pt 2

Posted on March 23, 2009 by me

Glory be to God on high!

So continues Setting Two of the Lutheran Liturgy from the 1958 Service Book and Hymnal. This is my favorite section of the liturgy, I think, and what most often has been playing in the background of my mind these past couple of weeks. This is the Gloria in Excelsis, adapted by Regina Fryxell:

Glory be to God on high!

And on earth peace, goodwill toward men.
We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee,
We glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory,
O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty.
O Lord, the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ;
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
That takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us.
Thou that takest away the sin of the world, receive our prayer.
Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father, have mercy upon us.
For thou only art holy;
Thou only art the Lord;
Thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost,
Art most high… in the glory of God the Father. Amen

The Lord be with you.

And with thy spirit.

This is followed by the Collect for the day and the Old Testament and Epistle readings, after which is sung the Alleluia (“Alleluia” sung 3 times). During Lent, instead of the Alleluia we would sing

Christ hath humbled himself,
and become obedient unto death,
even the death of the Cross.

Then, the Gospel lesson is read, prefaced by singing “Glory be to thee, O Lord,” and followed by “Praise be to thee, O Christ.”

At this point either the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed is recited, followed by the sermon.  After the sermon, the Pastor closes with,

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

I think you’d be hard-pressed to find many contemporary worship sets that could match the truth contained in the Liturgy. And the good news is, there’s even more! We’ll discuss that, soon.

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