The Divine Service and the Mission of Christ’s Church

The following is an article written by my pastor, the Rev. Neil Ray of Grace Lutheran Church in Warminster, PA.  It appeared in our church's newsletter and I got permission to post it here, as I thought it was well worth sharing with you all:

The Divine Service and the Mission of Christ’s Church

There are three fundamental questions in looking at the mission of Christ’s Church and the relationship to the Divine Service.  The first question is:  How is the liturgy understood theologically?  The second question:  Are we attentive to the religious culture of North America?  The third question:  What is the character of the community into which we seek to evangelize unbelievers?

In addressing the first question, the Augsburg Confession, Article VII provides our starting point:  “For it is sufficient for the true unity of the Christian Church that the Gospel be preached in conformity with a pure understanding of it and that the sacraments be administered in accordance with the divine Word.”  Preaching and sacraments require form.  Freedom from rites and ceremonies instituted by men does not imply that the question of form is neutral.  Lutherans are concerned with the form of the liturgy from the perspective of the confession of the Means of Grace.  Lutherans see liturgy as God’s work, Gottesdienst, His divine service to us.  Thus Article XXIV of the Apology to the Augsburg Confession insists that the liturgy is the Lord’s public service to His people.  Essentially, liturgy is what the Lord does.  Luther captures this in his sermon on John 14:  “Thus the apostles and pastors are nothing but channels through which Christ leads and transmits His Gospel from the Father to us.  Therefore wherever you hear the Gospel properly taught or see a person baptized, wherever you see someone administer or receive the Sacrament, or wherever you witness someone absolving another, there you may say without hesitation:  ‘Today, I beheld God’s Word and work.  Yes, I saw and heard God Himself preaching and baptizing.’  To be sure, the tongue, the voice, the hands etc. are those of a human being; but the Word and the ministry are really those of the divine majesty Himself.  Hence it must be viewed and believed as though we were seeing Him administer Baptism or the Sacrament with His own hands.  Thus we do not separate, or differentiate between God and His Word or ministry, not do we seek God in another way or view Him in a different light” (Luther’s Works, vol. 24, p. 67).

If the liturgy is the Lord’s work, it cannot be made into an adiaphoron (indifferent things; those things not commanded by God nor forbidden by Him), for the pure preaching of the Gospel and the evangelical administration of the sacraments are required (see Article X of the Formula of Concord for further examination of a distinction between that which is commanded by God and those items which are neither commanded nor forbidden by the Word of God).  Our concern for the liturgy is not fueled by romanticism for the past but for the sake of the Gospel which is given by external means (extra nos), the Word rightly preached and the sacraments administered in accordance with our Lord’s mandate.

In response to the second question, we need to recognize that the religious culture of North America is Evangelicalism.  This culture has its roots first in Puritanism, which is basically Calvinistic, and secondarily in the great revival movements of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  Evangelicalism puts the emphasis on conversion as a personal decision and the church as a spiritual democracy.  Evangelicalism’s stress on the autonomy of the believer and the immediacy of spiritual experience apart from sacramental means has shaped a religious culture that accents an individualistic faith over churchly life and tends to characterize Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper as peripheral to the Christian life.  This subjectivity, coupled with a suspicion of the intellect, has produced a religious culture that elevates heart over head, and emotion over intellect.  Wherever biblical authority is lost, Christ is displaced, and the Gospel is distorted, then our interests have displaced God’s, and we are doing His work in our own way.  The loss of the centrality of Christ in the life of today’s church in North America is becoming more and more common.  It is this loss that allows us to transform worship into entertainment, Gospel preaching into marketing, believing into technique, and living a sanctified life into feeling good about ourselves.  God does not exist to satisfy human ambitions, cravings, the appetite for consumption, or our own private spiritual interests.  We must continue to focus on Christ in our worship, rather than the satisfaction of our personal needs.  Our concern must be for God’s kingdom, not our own popularity or success.

Thirdly, what is the character of the community into which we are evangelizing unbelievers?  Our mission is to evangelize unbelievers into the Church, the body of Christ.  The Church lives in many cultures, but is at home in none, as our citizenship is in heaven.  In Revelation 7, John writes:  “After these things I looked and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying:  ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”  This is the culture of God’s doing.

We may not drive a wedge between heaven and earth.  The Lord Jesus Christ “has ascended far above all heavens in order to fill all things,” say the apostle Paul.  Our Lord has crossed over from eternity into time in His incarnation.  He has given us the new birth from above, the rebirth of Holy Baptism by which we are made heirs of His heavenly kingdom.  Baptism gives us birth into a new culture, the culture of heaven.  We do not have to wait until we die to have a share in heaven.

The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is “heaven on earth.”  That is why we sing the Sanctus with “angels and archangels, and the whole company of heaven.”  That is why our liturgy is not and cannot be an echo of the pop culture with its sound bites and its exchange of edification for entertainment.  No, the liturgy is the repetition of the heavenly song.  Like Moses before the burning bush, we are on holy ground when we gather in the Lord’s name around font, pulpit, and altar.  These are holy places, for here God is distributing His gracious gifts to us.  Apart from these gifts, the Church has no mission.  Far from being detrimental to the Church’s mission, the liturgy is the source and goal of all missionary activity.

To God be the Glory.

In Christ,

Pastor Ray