|
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
There is still time. . .
Ascension sermon. . . one of them
I had forgotten to post the Ascension Sermon (this one from the morning service) and was reminded. Here is the earlier sermon (different from the evening one). I pray it will be a blessing to you.
Sermon for the Ascension of Our Lord, preached on Thursday, May 9, 2024, at the morning service.
God is gone up with a shout! The Lord with the sound of the trumpet! God IS the king of all the earth and sits upon His throne of holiness. So says Psalm 47. Far be it from an escape, the Ascension of our Lord is a sort of enthronement. No, the Lord does not need us to make Him king. We do not make Him Lord nor do we establish His reign in us or in the world. God does all these things without our help but we pray that we may behold this wonder and believe it. So the Holy Spirit establishes Christ to reign over our hearts and minds and we acknowledge this with the “amen” of faith.
We are not give the command to tame the nations and turn them into God’s Kingdom. God reigns over unbelievers as well as believers but those without faith neither know that reign nor enjoy its blessing. For Islam the job of the faithful is to be warriors on earth and command the infidel upon the pain of death to confess Allah as god. It was and always will be a militant faith with an agenda for earthly rule and rulers to compel the reign of Christ.
That is not the way of Christ, the only legitimate and authentic God. He comes not by might or force but as the incarnate God in our own flesh and blood. He comes not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him. His kingdom is in the world but not of it. It is where Christ is in the Word and the Holy Sacraments so His kingdom is not strictly spiritual but as concrete as the splash of water, the voice of His Word, the taste of bread and wine. But His kingdom is not OF nor is it FROM the world. He does not win the kingdom as a monarch who marshals his forces to battle but as the lonely soldier who gives Himself to death that we might have life.
Ascension Day is a liturgical day, a day in which the reign of Christ as King and Lord is acknowledged by His disciples then and now. The Ascension of our Lord is the triumph of the humility which laid aside what was His right in order to take up the burden of our sin. The Ascension of our Lord is the triumph of death that pays once for all the cost of sin. The Ascension of our Lord is the triumph of life that the grave cannot contain. Jesus ascends as King but He is not a different person than He is as Savior. And that is why we are here. We are participate as the people for whom He is crowned King and among whom He reigns through His Word and Sacraments.
Ascension Day is the triumph of the humanity of Christ in accomplishing all that the Father gave Him to do and with His humanity all of us are raised up to be with Him. For us, it is now by faith. For Dave Williams it is in His nearer presence on high. For all who believe in Christ and who have loved His appearing, it will be face to face, on the holy ground of God’s presence, forevermore.
He goes to prepare a place for us. He does not ascend to bask in the glory of His accomplishment for His work continues in us and through us until that day when time itself will end. He goes to prepare a place for us so that we may be eternally with Him and He with us. In that sense, the means of grace are transitional. But that is exactly how the Scriptures describe them. The Word of the Lord is forever but it is mediated to us through preaching and teaching only until we stand before the Word made flesh to hear from His own lips His voice. What the water of baptism accomplishes is eternal but here it is mediated through water, received by faith, and lived out within the tension of sins confessed, absolution granted, and the baptized sinner restored. The Table of the Lord is without end yet here it is known not in its fullness but in the foretaste – the taste of bread which is His flesh and the cup which is His blood – until He comes to usher in the full meal. This is Jesus preparing us a place.
It is not about cleaning rooms or dusting off furniture or make beds with fresh linens. It is about His work not up there but down here – through Word and Sacrament. Here Jesus is doing His preparation for us, in us, and through us. That is why we gather today. It is not to remember an absent Jesus who has gone onto to bigger and better things but to celebrate the Lord who remains with His people, bringing forth in them the fruits of His atoning work, through the Word, the water of Holy Baptism, the voice of absolution, and the Holy Communion of His body and blood.
We call Jesus King not by shouting it out to the world or among ourselves but by kneeling to confess our sins, by remembering the gift of baptismal new life, by listening to His Word preached and taught, and by eating and drinking His flesh and blood. Every Sunday and Thursday we gather to meet the King where He has promised to be, not the Savior who dies over and over again, but the dead whose death is our forgiveness and whose life is our hope. We meet the King with heads bowed in prayer, confident that our merciful High Priest hears and answers those prayers. We meet the King in grace and mercy, restored and kept to His coming.
Jew, Gentile, Gay, Straight. . .
But that is the problem, isn't it. The liberal and progressive position presumes that all you need is time and the once forbidden things of yesterday will become the new normal for today and tomorrow. The problem is that they are largely correct. The sins of the fathers become the virtues of their sons and daughters (and every other gender), it would seem. Once you begin with that, it is a short hike to God blessing the sin and vindicating the sinner by placing the blame on the narrow minded judgmental folk who refuse to go where God is leading.
The state of affairs in Rome has deteriorated rapidly under Pope Francis. In his own Harper-Collins autobiography soon to be released, Pope Francis says this:
"It is right that these people who are living the gift of love can have legal coverage like everyone else. Jesus often went out to meet people who lived on the margins, and that's what the Church should do today with people from the LGBTQ+ community, who within the Church are often marginalized: make them feel at home, especially those who have received baptism and are in effect part of God's people. And those who have not received baptism and wish to receive it, or those who wish to be godparents, please let them be welcomed."
Rome offers many things appealing to Lutherans stuck between a rock and a hard place -- the liberal Lutherans for whom the faith is barely more than an excuse and justification for cultural liberalism and progressivism and the conservative forms that too often degenerate into a congregationalistic church which grows smaller by the day. What Rome does not offer is a refuge against the strides and progress of cultural and moral liberalism. Indeed, it would seem that Rome finds itself incapable of saying anything remotely close to what Jesus has to say about LGBTQ+ and its culture of desire or the fluid gender identity defined simply by feelings. If for this reason alone, Rome offers us even less than what we struggle with in the problems of our own communion.
Monday, May 13, 2024
The other Lord's Prayer. . .
When you mention the Lord’s Prayer everyone in Christendom knows exactly what you are talking about. Even many who have never been Christian and certainly those who have fallen away know the Lord’s Prayer. It is a common heritage even deeper than the creeds though with a little trifle over words like debts or sins or trespasses. We call it the Lord’s Prayer but it is not really His. He gives the prayer to us. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it the Christian’s prayer. In some liturgies that is how it is introduced. As the Lord has taught us, we are bold to pray... Even in our liturgy this prayer is introduced with its own prayer: Lord, remember us in Your kingdom and teach us to pray...
Today we heard part of another Lord’s Prayer. It is not at all as universally known or appreciated as the Our Father. But it is no less the Lord’s Prayer. The exegete calls this the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. What we heard is but a snippet of the entire 17th chapter of John in which our Lord prays alone in the Garden before He is betrayed to His voluntary sufferings, dies, and rises again. Jesus prayed for Himself in that Garden – that if possible the cup pass from Him but nevertheless the Lord’s will be done. But this farewell prayer is not only about Jesus or what is to come in the next hours or day. It is mostly about you and me.
This is a prayer of intercession. He pleads to the Father not for Himself but for those whom the Father gave Him out of the world – those who belong to Him and have kept the Word of the Lord by faith. Jesus conspicuously does not pray for the world but for the ones the Father has given Him – for God’s baptized people of faith. Jesus prays because He will no longer be in the world as they are and yet their well-being remains His burning concern. Jesus has lost only one – Judas – whose heart was overcome by the devil and who, in despair, would choose death over repentance. Jesus prays for us so that His joy may be full.
Jesus prays for our unity of faith. The Church needs this prayer because we have used all kinds of things to divide us. While division over doctrine is regrettable, it is necessary to preserve the truth. Division over other things is a scandal. Jesus knows that both divisions will come – the necessary division in order to maintain the truth and the sinful divisions caused by pride, preference, personality, and place. So He prays that we will be united – not as negotiators bring disputing parties together but as a people joined in the Word, sanctified by that Word, and living in that Word.
Jesus does not pray that God remove us from the world. This is no prayer for a safe and easy escape but for the courage, strength, conviction, and endurance to live within the tension of being in the world but of Christ, being in Christ while resisting the impulse to live as one belonging to the world and all its values. Jesus prays because it is not simply against flesh and blood but principalities and powers that we battle. Satan may be defeated but he will go down fighting to steal us from our Lord and from the future Christ has appointed.
He prays that we be sanctified in the truth. There is some history here. Jesus says He is the truth. Pilate asked Him what is truth. Our Lord insists that truth is not in the mind of the beholder nor subject to personal interpretation. Truth is not yours or mine – it just is as Christ is whether you believe in Him or not. He does not change. The Jesus who is yesterday, today, and forever the same speaks a word that is eternal. Its message is not adjusted for the times nor is its truth changed to fit the preferences of people or a culture. What Jesus prays to the Father, the Spirit brings forth as our confession of faith and our witness to the world. God’s Word is truth.
The doctrinal controversies of the past and present are not simply about doctrines but about the Word of God. The Christian world has come to believe that the Scriptures are only partly God’s Word and partly man’s. When they speak of salvation, the are true, infallible, and without error. When they speak of other things, who knows? We do not contend for doctrines but ultimately every doctrinal controversy is about Scripture. Is it God’s Word? Is it without error? Is it dependable in every age and time? Is it the Word that does what it says and saves us? No Lutheran would risk dividing Christianity over anything less than the truth of God’s Word but neither would a Lutheran fail to insist that God’s Word is what God says it is and it does what God says it does.
The Lord has consecrated His life and purpose to you and me. He has become flesh and blood for you and me, lived the holy and righteous life for you and me, suffered and died upon the cross for you and me, rises and lives never to die again for you and me. This is the message of the Scriptures which in our ears becomes faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ has consecrated Himself for us in life, in death, and in the resurrection from the dead. Now He prays that we may be so consecrated in this truth as well. Most translations use sanctify – the word that means to make holy – and the word consecrate interchangeably.
So what does it mean to be sanctified or made holy or consecrated to the Lord? How sad it is that we tend always to rush to behavior. God wants us to be good. Well, sure He does. But that is not what these terms mean here. God could have accomplished good behavior with the force of the law and the threat of punishment but God’s purpose is to change your heart. To be made holy is to be made pure – with pure thoughts, pure words, and pure actions. Pure means good but it also means honest, genuine, authentic, and without deceit. Our Lord seeks to undo the hypocrisy of good works which have no heart behind them and hearts which cannot muster themselves to do the good they think. To be pure is to be of one heart, one mind, and one will – Christ’s heart of forgiveness, Christ’s mind in His Word, and Christ’s will for salvation.
You have heard Christ consecrate Himself to you and to the purpose of bringing you at last into His everlasting presence on high, wearing the new and glorious flesh He wears, and living no more with sin or suffering or disease or death. So what is it that you will consecrate yourself to? Though we talk in highfalutin words it is not so dense. Be here in the Lord’s House every Sunday. Be in the Word of God together in the Church and at home. Pray not only for yourselves but for others as our Lord intercedes for you. Serve without counting the cost and forgive without counting the cost. There is one more thing. As Christ’s consecration to you has brought Him joy, so does your consecration to Him bear the fruit of holy joy in you – joy without fear or anxiety or bitterness or envy to put a damper on things. It is not why we are sanctified but joy is the fruit of His sanctifying work. Part of that joy is the gift of a clear conscience through absolution. Part of it is our absolute confidence in the Lord’s unwavering love and will for our salvation. Amen.
No room for vices. . .
I wish we would recover such a clear and blunt rationale for these good works and devotions that usually accompany Lent. In the end, it is just the other way around. We tend to struggle to find room in our busy lives for anything godly at all. With regular church attendance now meaning once or twice a month and the choice as substitute the online versions that are more easily fit between the appointments and duties and interests of our lives, anything that might approach devotion, Bible reading, corporate worship, catechesis, prayer, and good works must compete to find either the time or the energy left to pursue such Christian virtues. God is under the gun to find room on our calendars and in our hearts. Lent draws attention to this and calls upon us to make the world schedule the appointment and give priority to the things of God.
The reality is that we run out of energy for the good and godly things that belong to faith simply because the rest of the activities of our lives (not all vices and most simply secular and ordinary) steal away all whatever oomph we have left. Truth be told we cannot tear ourselves away from our screens or stay awake long enough to pray much less to develop the Christian virtues under the Spirit to displace some of the room given to routine stuff and the places where temptations lie.
So if you are not already, give priority to the things of God this Lent. There is still time. There are still vices to resist and leave behind in pursuit of that which is true and good, godly and beautiful, noble and worthy. Just a few quick thoughts this morning. . .
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Fasting and feasting. . .
The contrast of fasting is not between a full plate of your favorite vittles and and empty plate without them. It is between the emptiness of the food of this mortal life, good as it is from God the giver, and the fullness of the food of everlasting life -- also a good gift from God the giver. Nobody is called to fast without the feast. Sure, there may be times in our lives when circumstance or geography prevents us from receiving the Eucharist regularly and we may still fast during those times as part of the obedience of faith, the clear contrast here is not between the food that makes our mouths water and none but the food of this life (as wonderful or ordinary as it might be) and the food of everlasting life (the foretaste of the eternal in the bread which is Christ's flesh and the cup of His blood).
I fear we have lost this connection. The bookends of this life are not fasting and feasting from food at our tables at home but the fasting and feasting between the food that we must eat to live another day and that food that feeds us to eternal life. The food that satisfies is not simply the food that meets our appetites in the moment but that provides the food that alone satisfies our hunger and quenches our thirst. This is clearly a contrast between the earthly and the heavenly. It is not about food being good or bad. The food of this life that feeds our bodies is good and a gift from God. It is not bad because it cannot do what it was never made to do. The good of everlasting life is good and a gift from God. It is good because it does what it promises to do. Both are good. Fasting only helps us sort out the line between them and gives us perspective.
Fasting never says that we must abstain from the Eucharist when we fast from earthly food for our bodies. Indeed, this is the great mystery. While we abstain from earthly food for our bodies, we are fed the heavenly food for body and soul. Unlike those who wait until evening hours to eat, we feast upon the Body and Blood of our Lord when it is offered and our fasting is itself a preparation for the feasting upon this Eucharistic food. It is not symbolic eating and drinking but real. The food is not for the imagination but for body and soul. It is real food for real hunger in real people. Fasting serves to highlight the gift of the Eucharist, acknowledging what the ordinary food for the body can do and what the extraordinary food which is Christ's flesh and blood do for us body and soul. Maybe if we emphasized the connection, the self-denial would not have to be justified by medical benefit nor would it seem like we have given up everything. Perhaps this might explain why, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus cautions against a fasting which looks sad. Our fast is not from His feast and therefore we rejoice and are glad even in the times of self-denial.
Growing up we did not eat breakfast on Sunday. It was a fasting enforced not by rubric or rule but by hunger for the Lord's Body and Blood. It was, I learned, a way of acknowledging that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord and that the food which satisfies our every hunger was nothing less than Christ's flesh and blood in the Eucharist.
Saturday, May 11, 2024
A pastoral office. . .
Scripture is insightful in sometimes seemingly hidden ways. In the New Testament things got a bit blurred because the same people held different offices, complementary ones to be sure but different nonetheless. The first bishops of the Church were the apostles. They did not cease to be apostles when they became the bishops of the Church. Jesus ordained them as bishops on the evening of that first Easter, breathing upon them the Holy Spirit and conferring upon them the Office of the Keys. So after Judas hanged himself and the eleven found themselves with a missing man, they looked to Scripture and found not simply justification but the command to fill the office - another bishop. Luke speaks of this in Acts 1 and cites Psalm 109:8, Luke writes, "Let another one take his office." In some respects, it could and should be said that they were not electing an apostle, so to speak, as they were electing a bishop. Matthias was not called as they were by the Lord but they, as the council of bishops, filled the spot of Judas so that they were united as Christ intended in their episcopal service to the Church. Their duties (bishop/elder/pastor/teacher) were not theirs to discern or invent but were rooted in the Lord's teaching and sent forth to act in His Name to call to repentance, to baptize, to absolve, and to preside at the Lord's Table -- in addition to preaching -- this is what we read in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20, among other places. We affirm that Jesus Himself instituted this office when he sent out the apostles as the church's first bishops, pastors, elders, and presbyters.
Both in the New Testament and in common usage today, we speak of the one office using various terms. They are not different offices but different titles applied to the same office -- bishop, elder, pastor/teacher, (even evangelist). By human distinction we confer on some specific responsibilities but this is not a divine distinction. So when we give to some bishops (pastors) the responsibility of episcope over other pastors (and church workers), we are not conferring on them a different office but giving them different jurisdiction. In the same way, apostles had universal jurisdiction and even Paul had jurisdiction beyond a single parish or geographical location while the elders (pastors or bishops) he appointed in the various congregations he established along the way had local jurisdiction. The office was the same but where and how the office was carried out was different. What is odd is how Missouri has made the office of district president to be less than a bishop in some respects (without altar or pulpit) and yet conferred a larger jurisdiction for the episcope (over a district of many bishops and congregations). In effect, the district president is a bishop without pastoral authority. How strange! The repair of this lies not in more bylaws or regulations but in the simple act of restoring altar and pulpit to these men.
Friday, May 10, 2024
Buzzwords. . .
The buzzwords common to most Christians are words like ministry, mission and evangelism (or evangelization, to use the current form of it). These are the happy buzzwords of a Church not simply surviving but engaging and working to fulfill the Lord's own bidding. Conveniently, however, they are suitably vague -- vague enough to sound more useful than they are. These terms are vague precisely because the theological underpinnings of these concepts are also vague or, more likely, left unexplained. It is, after all, much easier to use a term which can mean whatever you want it to mean than to be forced to abide with the meaning assigned to them.
There was a time in which ministry referred more specifically to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, a ministry which is an office and which has a charism. Now everyone worth their salt has a ministry and everything one might do is ordinarily called a ministry. We have food ministries and healing ministries and teaching ministries and administrative ministries and, well, just about every kind of ministry you could ever imagine. It is fun to take what we do and call it a ministry but that does little to inform or describe or mark the boundaries of it. It just makes it sound better -- more noble!
The same could be said of the term mission. We have missions, we are in mission, we are missional, and we have mission statements. It is glorious. The term means whatever we choose it to mean and applies however we choose it to apply. In the end, it is a rather noble and profound way we describe what is our work for God. Most of the time these missions exist to improve things, to make things better, and to make us better. What kind of mission would do the opposite? We have missions for the poor, for victims of injustice, for racism, for misogyny, for gender identity, and just about everything else under the sun -- except missions to speak the Gospel of Christ crucified and risen to those who have not heard, so that they might believe, and to bring them from outside into the family of God that is the Church. It is almost offensive to think that our missions would be bound to be God's mission.
The same could be said for evangelism or evangelization. It is less about God's Word than our words, less about the truth that endures forever than it is what we currently think (or feel), and less about bringing people to Jesus (in Word and Sacrament) than it is about bringing Jesus to them (so that they have a good feeling about Him). Buzzwords are so popular precisely because they mean whatever we want them to mean and most of all they make the ordinary and routine sound like it is special and significant. This is, in many ways, a mask we wear to make our part of the work of the Kingdom seem bigger than even God's. Why, we can make the Kingdom of God happen by what we do and we can stymie God by what we don't. It is almost like God needs us more than we need Him.
The mission of the church is helping people, the ministry is how we carry out the help, and the evangelism is what we say or do to help them (our version of the Gospel). Do you see how easy it is to more the barometer of such buzzwords away from God and nearer to us? Do you see how easy this degenerates into political issues, causes, and processes? Do you see how little it all ends up having to do with such things as being Christ's witnesses, speaking His Word faithfully, and drawing the people of the world to know Christ where He makes Himself known in the Word and Sacraments? Or, maybe, that is the whole point of these words we love to speak but seldom want to define or clarify.
Thursday, May 9, 2024
It was a banner day in the ELCA. . .
church and as a parent in a transracial family have equipped her for nimble leadership even though she is a white bodied person. I am not making this stuff up.
The elections are rather a joke since neither has a wealth of pastoral experience unconnected to their stance on sexuality and gender and it is clear that both were elected in part because they are LGBTQ+ of some form or another. In fact, it has become an asset for advancement in the ELCA where diversity has come to be exclusively associated with sexual preference and gender identity but conveniently prevents someone from disagreeing with the ELCA on just about any political or sexuality issue. In fact, there is no room within the ELCA for anyone who holds to the position of that church body as recent as 1993 (when the ELCA Council of Bishops formally refused to provide a rite for same sex marriage). In little more than a generation the ELCA has become a church body captive to culture. This is no less true of the current student demonstrations in support of the Palestinian cause against Israel and the overt ELCA support for such students and their demonstrations.
Just in case you missed it, this is not your grandfather's ELCA and proudly so. Also, in case you missed it, there is little room in the ELCA for a gospel of death and resurrection, sin and forgiveness. Just so you know, the ELCA youth gathering is all about this stuff. In fact, today the ELCA is officially kicking off their pride bracelet project. I am sure it will become official wear for all ELCA bishops and pastors -- coming to a church near you.
And we think Missouri has problems. Oh, my.
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
What opens up the text. . .
Okay. I am not all that familiar with The Message. It might be fine. But the idea that sermon prep begins with a read of the pericopes from The Message -- itself a read from the original languages -- only makes this odder than odd. It may not be The Living Bible but it is still a very personal perspective designed to bring the spirit of the words into a contemporary idiom. It could be one of the things you read but is it the first place where you begin? I find this ever so curious and concerning. If we Lutheran preachers need help from a readers version of the Scriptures to get a fresh look into the text, something has gone wrong. I am not even aware of a Lutheran review of The Message but any cursory look will tell you that word substitutions used in that version are concerning. Imagine any version of the Bible that has largely eliminated the word Lord and replaced it with Master or some other substitute? Perhaps our problem is that we are no longer comfortable with the vocabulary God uses and so we have as many problems with its message as we do with its syntax and language.
Lutheran preachers ought to be equipped to bypass the middle man and go directly to the Greek and Hebrew. Even then, Lutheran preachers ought to know which commentaries are not simply digging into the text but useful for the preacher. Even more, Lutheran preachers ought to be hearing and reading sermons on those texts (from the fathers to those exemplary preachers of today). There was a time in which Lutherans were generally viewed as more than competent preachers. I fear that this is a reputation which is no longer reflective of who we are today. Part of that concern is built upon what I hear from my people when they travel, from some of those tasked with pastoral formation, and from pastors who visit other congregations. Now I know that pastors are harder critics then they probably should be but the criticism is telling.
In order to pick hymns for a Sunday, you should not rely on the hymn guides available from a variety of sources. As helpful as they might be, there is no substitute for knowing the hymns in the hymnal, reading them, and praying them until they become a part of you. If that is true of hymnody, it is no less true of the Scriptures. We need to rely less on mediated commentary and know the Word directly to aid us in our preaching task. We need to know how the faithful preachers who have gone before us handled these texts when applying them to the lives of their people. Even if The Message were the best translation out there and one we always consult, part of the preacher's task and growth is building the knowledge of the text within himself, through his own study, and by his familiarity with the preachers who handled those texts before him. Fresh ideas are not in and of themselves bad but they are not a substitute for faithfulness. I suspect the real reason we look for short cuts is that we think we either do not have the time or we do not have the desire to put that work in for ourselves. This may be what is really wrong with Lutheran preaching today.
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Both are wrong. . .
It is possible for the Novus Ordo to be celebrated in a reverent manner that both honors its predecessor and accomplishes some of the goals and purpose for a liturgical renewal envisioned by the canons of Vatican II. That happens all the time and many parishes and priests should receive the credit for doing just that week after week. It was not simply the change to the mass that caused Rome's problems and that may not have been even a primary factor. Instead, the liturgical abberations that have plagued Rome are inventions neither contemplated nor called for by the framers of Vatican II. Furthermore, you cannot simply blame the language or reverence of the mass for the decline in mass attendance, the decline in priestly ordinations, and the gulf between what Rome teaches and Roman Catholics in the pews believe. A pretty big component here has got to be the cultural and familial changes in American society and ultimately the failure of catechesis. That does not mean to let off the hook the leadership failures in Rome that have climaxed in the confusion surrounding Pope Benedict's resignation and Pope Francis' exercise of the office.
Many in Missouri seem to feel the same way about The Lutheran Hymnal as Roman traditionals feel about the Latin Mass and equate the decline of Missouri with liturgical experimentation and change in the same way. It is a convenient target but hardly the real reason behind our own failings as a church body. We also suffered with the decline of the family (in size alone!) and the growing gulf between what we say we believe and what the folks in the pews actually believe. It is also a crisis of catechesis and of leadership (here thinking the debacle in Missouri which happened long before the actual explosion of a seminary). We did not have our hands on the tiller as we should and Missouri woke up one morning to find out we did not know what our seminaries were teaching but we at least knew it was a change from what had been taught. We need a bit of honesty here.
Not to mention the fact that the liturgical movement for Missouri has brought great blessings. One of the most important is the restoration of a more intentionally sacramental piety and practice. We have the Eucharist more often now than ever in our history! We see baptisms on Sunday morning more than we ever did in the past. We talk more about private confession than we ever did in the decades and centuries prior to the liturgical movement. If you want to blame the liturgical movement for the problems, at least you must begrudgingly admit those blessings. Christianity lost its way in a maze of issues led by a lack of catechesis and it was this that allowed both liturgical aberration and accommodation to the culture at the expense of the integrity of the faith. Rome could have kept the Vetus Ordo and Missouri her page 15 and all that went wrong would have still gone wrong. It was our fault and not simply the fault of our rites. While it is certainly true that we are our rites, we are not only our rites.