Today my Pastor stands before an audience in Austin, Texas to set forth why Emmaus Evangelical Lutheran Church, South Bend, makes use of particular forms while confessing the Faith. He was asked to present these things with an eye toward what some people call a “high church” approach to the liturgy.
Having been a parishioner at Emmaus for over 17 years, the words “high church” have never come to mind. To be sure, there is a great amount of consistency, but it is not some kind of lifeless, robotic, rote, perfunctory set of rubrics. Not that that is what people mean when they speak of “high church,” either.
There are parishes where such strict attention is given to rubrics (the red-letter instructions given to assist Pastors and Congregations in reverent conduct) that they might be considered as important as the remaining substance given to create and sustain faith. There are a good many parishes where the liturgical practice is far more elaborate than at Emmaus.
It is absolutely critical to understand that Divine Service is God’s way of dealing with you; meeting you face to face as it were, to stoop down, draw near, and tenderly forgive all your sin and iniquity, no matter how great. It is the King of the Universe Who meets you there, so that He might lavish His love upon you and teach you of the cross He endured for you and all people, so that you might be drawn to follow Him.
As soon as you introduce the notion that Divine Service is something you must do to please God, you’ve turned the whole thing into a sham. This notion is so ingrained in your old Adam, it will never go away completely until your baptism is complete and you enter into glory.
Since God, in His most bare moments of revelation in declaring Who He Is, came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Virgin Mary to suffer and die in your place, and has also declared from ancient times how He is slow to anger and abounding in mercy, you may confidently draw near to where He has promised to be, and that is in His Word.
The Divine service is characterized above all things by rich reading and hearing from the very texts given among men whereby God revels Himself. To that Word He was also attached Holy Baptism, Sacrament of the Altar, and Holy Absolution, all of which are regularly practiced in Divine Service.
Inasmuch as God could turn stones into voices giving praise, He instead has turned your heart of stone into a heart of flesh, so that you may receive the benefits of everlasting life in His presence both now and forever.
Because the sum and substance of the gifts delivered in Divine Service reach back into all of time, we treat them with reverence and awe, and yet keep in mind that these things are not a method of some kind that we have cobbled together, but a carrying-on of what has been handed down from one generation to the next.
Divine Service at Emmaus Evangelical Lutheran Church, South Bend, takes the best of what has been received, and continues to distribute the gifts of heaven in truly evangelical fashion, not making a law of liturgy, but treating it as a reverent, ordered pattern whereby the benefits of Christ may be delivered in person to all mankind in that place. Christ be praised!
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