I'm still slogging through 3 Revelation commentaries (I'm up to chap 19!) but since Lent began I have also been reading Luther's Sermons again. I have an eight volume set I bought back in 1988 that read all the way through once over a summer (I had a sedentary job as a security guard) and I began to read these in earnest again. I most recently read Luther's sermon for Easter on the Sacrament of Holy Communion. If Luther's Sermon is any measure of good practice - then I feel none of the Synods are following it.
Back in the day, people were compelled to make a confession to a priest and then take communion on Easter. Luther was opposed to the practice because these people were going right back to the sinful lives they led beforehand often with no effort to better themselves. Also Luther distinguishes between 'historical faith' - head knowledge that Christ had indeed existed -vs- 'real faith' of the heart as well. Today some fellow Lutherans (who can be 'Left Brain' to a fault) would yell PIETISM! But here they have to argue with Luther himself so I think that claim falls flat. I think Luther was worried about people living in open sin, habitually drunk, etc. Also Luther wanted people to have a faith that was bicameral - more in keeping with the Scriptures:
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. - Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30 & Luke 10:27.
Luther was also on guard against the 'herd mentality' which was to have everyone take communion. He wanted people to be asked one-by-one if they wanted it and not to rely on the faith or piety of family members but an individual desire to receive it. I have not been asked that for years. Congregations I was a member of who were conscientious usually collected communion cards at the altar and elders were required to know who everyone was. Also even long time members were supposed to register for communion in a register prior to worship and that was as good as it ever got.
So the WELS and ELS churches I once attended were holding fast to the Galesburg Rule but not Luther's. Luther wanted to be sure the communicant actually desired forgiveness from Christ and was not just 'going up' as a matter of law, custom or peer pressure. I'm not going to go into my current LCMS congregation for now because I am not fully informed on it's practice but I will say they have no statement regarding participation in their bulletins.
The bottom line is we live in such a materialistic society these days that few approach the sacrament with the same fear, wonder and awe that Luther had in his day. Some might say that was because Luther was a victim of medieval theology and magical thinking and to a degree that is true but yet - as Christians who confess the Creeds, do we not believe in all things both seen and unseen? I think our lips move and our hearts lie. If we did believe as we should, we would have no open communion and we would see people get turned away from the altar once in a while. I haven't seen anyone turned back from any synodical altar since the early 1990s.
Another thing that really takes me back is Luther's language. Luther had a lawyers gift for rhetorical flourish. Today he would be so politically incorrect and offensive he would require his own team of ACLU attorneys to keep him out of jail just for being himself. Luther would have a hard time with today's idolatrous worship of pluralism, tolerance and diversity. Luther was a warrior for truth and let the chips fall where they may. Since I read him in English translation, I wonder just how bowdlerized the English speaking pastors who translated these sermons rendered some of what he said. As Nicolas Cage's character Ben Gates said in National Treasure, "People don't talk that way anymore."
They certainly don't and that is most certainly true.
In Christ,
Jim
Back in the day, people were compelled to make a confession to a priest and then take communion on Easter. Luther was opposed to the practice because these people were going right back to the sinful lives they led beforehand often with no effort to better themselves. Also Luther distinguishes between 'historical faith' - head knowledge that Christ had indeed existed -vs- 'real faith' of the heart as well. Today some fellow Lutherans (who can be 'Left Brain' to a fault) would yell PIETISM! But here they have to argue with Luther himself so I think that claim falls flat. I think Luther was worried about people living in open sin, habitually drunk, etc. Also Luther wanted people to have a faith that was bicameral - more in keeping with the Scriptures:
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. - Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30 & Luke 10:27.
Luther was also on guard against the 'herd mentality' which was to have everyone take communion. He wanted people to be asked one-by-one if they wanted it and not to rely on the faith or piety of family members but an individual desire to receive it. I have not been asked that for years. Congregations I was a member of who were conscientious usually collected communion cards at the altar and elders were required to know who everyone was. Also even long time members were supposed to register for communion in a register prior to worship and that was as good as it ever got.
So the WELS and ELS churches I once attended were holding fast to the Galesburg Rule but not Luther's. Luther wanted to be sure the communicant actually desired forgiveness from Christ and was not just 'going up' as a matter of law, custom or peer pressure. I'm not going to go into my current LCMS congregation for now because I am not fully informed on it's practice but I will say they have no statement regarding participation in their bulletins.
The bottom line is we live in such a materialistic society these days that few approach the sacrament with the same fear, wonder and awe that Luther had in his day. Some might say that was because Luther was a victim of medieval theology and magical thinking and to a degree that is true but yet - as Christians who confess the Creeds, do we not believe in all things both seen and unseen? I think our lips move and our hearts lie. If we did believe as we should, we would have no open communion and we would see people get turned away from the altar once in a while. I haven't seen anyone turned back from any synodical altar since the early 1990s.
Another thing that really takes me back is Luther's language. Luther had a lawyers gift for rhetorical flourish. Today he would be so politically incorrect and offensive he would require his own team of ACLU attorneys to keep him out of jail just for being himself. Luther would have a hard time with today's idolatrous worship of pluralism, tolerance and diversity. Luther was a warrior for truth and let the chips fall where they may. Since I read him in English translation, I wonder just how bowdlerized the English speaking pastors who translated these sermons rendered some of what he said. As Nicolas Cage's character Ben Gates said in National Treasure, "People don't talk that way anymore."
They certainly don't and that is most certainly true.
In Christ,
Jim
No comments:
Post a Comment