You do not have to... became you do not need to... that is now you should not...

Some of the Reformation rhetoric was about the things the Church used to bind the conscience.  These things you must do, you have to do, and you cannot avoid.  The days of holy obligation, for example, were non-negotiables.  This is where we draw the line.  We may not like to characterize it in this way but it was.  It was said you do not have to enumerate all your sins in confession.  Who can know all his errors?  You cannot be forced to do what you are not able to do, etc...

But what you do not have to do, became you do not need to do this.  You can IF you wish but it is really not necessary.  So you could and probably should go to Church but you do not need to go if you don't think you need it.  You could have Holy Communion every Sunday but you do not need it and if it is not necessary it will be offered less often.  If you ask for it, it will be there but if you do not ask it will not be offered.  You could go to confession but it is not necessary and, in fact, the only folks who go are those who have trouble feeling forgiven from the generic absolution of Sunday morning. 

Then what you do not need to do, you should not do.  Since there are other vehicles through which you can obtain forgiveness and confession is kinda Roman Catholic, you should not use private confession at all.  It is confusing at best and offensive at worst.  Since you only need to go to Church and the Sacrament of the Altar if and when you feel like it, you do not need to go and probably should not go until the need is there, the attitude appropriate, and the desire fully formed.  Better to save this for a special occasion than to ruin it all by making it commonplace. 

We can say the same for vestments worn by the Pastor -- adiaphora that cannot bind becomes that which is unnecessary that becomes something distasteful and offensive.  Or kneeling.  Or chanting.  Or the use of the liturgy.  Or a thousand other things.  You fill in the blank.

The path of the Church of the Reformation has led to a false disdain for things once considered good, salutary, and beneficial.  Now we find ourselves apologetic for them when we do them and wishing we were more like our Presbyterian and Methodist and Reformed cousins -- free from all the catholic accoutrements and duties and obligations and church usages and ceremonies and rituals and rites that were the comfortable clothing of the Reformers.  And hidden in all of this is the idea that those who restore such things are legalists, formalists, and doctrinaire folks who are innovating novelty while the folks who are casting off the Reformation clothing of practice and ceremony are the true sons and daughters of the Reformation.

So, we have a situation in which missional missions in which the Eucharist is absent on Sunday morning and the Pastor robed in the polo, khaki, tee or faded jeans uniform of modernity and the preaching about people more than Jesus... well, they are role models the rest of us should follow and the ones who object are simply curmudgeonly grumps holding on to an antiquated world view and gramdpa's church (that nobody wants to go to anymore)...  [long sentence and all but I am not going to re-write it now]...

Just shows how effective a version of Neuhaus' dictim has been in gutting Lutheranism of its Lutheran soul... and not just today, either.