What is it that we wish to convey?

As my wife and I were driving along, we listened to an LCMS congregation on the radio.  We figured it would be an uplifting choice against the constant struggle to find something decent while traveling.  It was not what we had expected.  The liturgy, what there was of it, was clearly written from start to finish and, although it could have been worse, it was a paraphrase of Bible passages strung together to form a substitute for the ordinary.  There were women's voices reading the lessons and the music left much to be desired.  Some of the hymns were generic hymns from the fundamentalist hymnal and others seemed to have little to do with either the lectionary or their place in the "liturgy".  The sermon was hard to follow since English was clearly a second language to the preacher.  The prayers were decently written but delivered as if the audience was not God but the people listening.

It does not matter which congregation this was or where they were located.  What matters is this.  Do we put our best foot forward in presenting ourselves to the world or do we present the average or even less?  Do we put out there the best face of the LCMS or the typical that passes for Lutheran but does not seem to want to be Lutheran?  Let me be clear.  I was not expecting a cathedral choir, Gregorian chant, or perfectly produced liturgy but I was expecting something that looked and sounded more like our official hymnal -- especially with respect to the hymns.  I was not expecting the world's best of anything but I did expect that those being showcased on air would be working harder to be the best at what they do than what we heard that day.  I was not expecting high liturgy or low but I did expect to recognize that this congregation was part of the fellowship to which I belong.  My wife told me to turn it off.  I insisted upon listening until the whole thing was over.  We were both expecting something that reflected the labor of hands and voices trying to do our best for His glory and as representatives of the LCMS.  What we got was embarrassing.

Lord knows things can and do go wrong on Sunday morning.  Where I have served we have had the heat or AC quit, birds dive bombing the nave, wasps looking for someone to sting, a choir anthem come undone while being sung, cell phone rings go off at the worst possible moment, emergency vehicles scream by, children scream, and a motorcycle break the sound barrier.  I get it.  Things happen.  But even these cannot undo all the planning and preparation that is designed to put our best foot forward and to strive to be and do our best for the Lord's glory.  The service was an example of how we fail by settling for that muddy middle in which we are neither good nor worse.  I suppose I should settle for that.  I am not sure God has to, though.  If you want to have a microphone, at least have something to say and practice it a bit before the red light goes on and the countdown is finished.  Even something designed solely for our entertainment should show evidence that they were trying.  If that is true for us, it is even more true of God.