tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post7243700634233024761..comments2024-03-27T15:47:46.091-05:00Comments on Pastoral Meanderings: Comments on a comment. . . Pastor Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10653554256101480140noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-71505393005665542522020-09-03T06:24:17.685-05:002020-09-03T06:24:17.685-05:00Do I have to go to Church? No. But you are a foo...Do I have to go to Church? No. But you are a fool if you don’t.<br /><br />What is the obedience of the Church? To receive God’s gifts. <br /><br />When Jesus healed people, he restored them to the community of faith, the Church. <br /><br />How does one prepared for their death? God to Church and receive the remission of your sins. <br /> <br />How does one prepare to for the second coming? Go to Church. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-56395724733433716452020-08-31T07:46:29.746-05:002020-08-31T07:46:29.746-05:00Pitting the Holy Supper veruses the Word is kindof...Pitting the Holy Supper veruses the Word is kindof like pitting the OT reading, Epistle versus the Gospel. We only stand for the Gospel, yet the other readings are not less, for it is all the holy Word of God.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-83908569193147852422020-08-30T18:05:59.135-05:002020-08-30T18:05:59.135-05:00Loehe's comments must be placed within the con...Loehe's comments must be placed within the context of his time, in which the sermon was everything and the Sacrament of the Altar was held infrequently. His point is not to diminish the Word but elevate the Sacrament. But this does not answer Pastor Peter's basic question. Who says that TODAY? Where is this a dispute that frames it in this way? Loehe was also addressing a time in which the pulpit was central and the altar was largely empty. Maybe this should be said today because around us in America are churches with pulpits and no altars, no sacramental theology or practice, and the belief that communion with God happens on an internal spiritual plane.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-16770325706049106582020-08-30T16:36:55.990-05:002020-08-30T16:36:55.990-05:00“Communion is greater and more powerful than the W...“Communion is greater and more powerful than the Word preached, taught, read, and trusted? Who says that?”<br /><br />“Holy Communion is the climax of the Divine Service.” - A Simple Explanation of Holy Communion, CPH<br /><br />It’s a simple divide between the Franconian/Loehe theory of worship as rooted in catholic liturgical traditions leading to mystical communion with Christ, and the Saxon/Luther liturgical theory of worship as didactic and flexible instrument for the means of grace, chief of which is the preaching of the Gospel. The latter finds support in the Apology:<br /><br />“Among the adversaries, in many regions during the entire year no sermons are delivered, except in Lent. [Here they ought to cry out and justly make grievous complaint; for this means at one blow to overthrow completely all worship. For of all acts of worship that is the greatest, most holy, most necessary, and highest, which God has required as the highest in the First and the Second Commandment, namely, to preach the Word of God. For the ministry is the highest office in the Church. Now, if this worship is omitted, how can there be knowledge of God, the doctrine of Christ, or the Gospel? But the chief service of God is to teach the Gospel. And when the adversaries do preach, they speak of human traditions, of the worship of saints [of consecrated water], and similar trifles, which the people justly loathe; therefore they are deserted immediately in the beginning, after the text of the Gospel has been recited. [This practise may have started because the people did not wish to hear the other lies.] A few better ones begin now to speak of good works; but of the righteousness of faith, of faith in Christ, of the consolation of consciences, they say nothing; yea, this most wholesome part of the Gospel they rail at with their reproaches. [This blessed doctrine, the precious holy Gospel, they call Lutheran.]“Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-3460296008677815692020-08-30T15:40:07.167-05:002020-08-30T15:40:07.167-05:00John Fenton has some relevant thoughts in a CTQ ar...John Fenton has some relevant thoughts in a CTQ article from 2000.<br /><br />“In the span of a dozen years two sigruficant Agenden, or books of liturgy, made their debut in congregations that becarne members of the Missouri Synod. Wilheh Loehe compiled and published the first in 1844, specifically for use in American Lutheran frontier congregations. He dedicated it to Pastor Friedrich Wyneken. In 1856 the Kirchen-Agende für Evangelisch-Lutherische Gemeinden ungehinderter Augsburgischer Confession, "compiled from the old orthodox Saxon Church Agendas," was published by (and for) the Missouri Synod. Published specifically by and for participants in the nineteenth-century Lutheran "Confessional Revival" movement, these Agenden represent two different streams of Lutheran liturgical theory and practice, specifically in regard to the Hauptgottesdienst (the celebration of Holy Communion).<br /><br />“For Loehe, true liturgy in the Evangelical-Lutheran confession culminates in receiving salvation in Christ not solely or exclusively or even primarily in the preaching, but in the Testament of His body and blood. For this reason, Loehe argues that the sacrament of the altar is both the kernel and foundation - the culmination, if you will - of a decidedly Lutheran Hauptgottesdienst. The chief service (Hauptgottesdienst) of the church always has as its purpose the communion or the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is certainly the core. Whatever proceeds or follows stands in relation to it. This is how it is not only in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Churches, but also in the Evangelical Lutheran Church. A chief service without the Lord's Supper is unacceptable. It is like a broken column or like a flower which has lost its bloom. . . . A liturgy whose order of worship is neither generally nor specifically centered on the holy supper is merely something incidental, lacking of thought - a pile of bones properly arranged but no body in an organic union; flesh without a skeleton, stones without a building. . . . <br /><br />“In another place, Loehe makes the same point when speaking of "sacred spaces: This is now the chief question: In the Lutheran Church, which is the primary and most important location-the altar or the pulpit? This question is easily answered. In the Lutheran service, not the sermon but the holy sacrament is the greatest ceremony. The sermon leads to the holy meal since it directs the Christians to a fervent mystical union with their Christ. . . . Therefore, the altar is and remains the most important location both for the Lutheran church building and for the appointments of our worship edifice since it gives purpose to the entire holy room.”<br /><br />https://media.ctsfw.edu/Item/GetFullText/160Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-34069024611498841282020-08-30T11:08:11.928-05:002020-08-30T11:08:11.928-05:00Do you have to go to Church? No. But you re a fo...Do you have to go to Church? No. But you re a fool if you do not. <br /><br /> <br /><br />Do you have to go to communion? No. But you are a fool if you do not. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com