It’s a Matter of What You Believe

People notice how pastors conduct the ceremonies of the Divine Service, though they generally aren’t likely to put what they notice into words. One pastor tends to be folksy in his conduct, another formal. One service is conducted with great solemnity, another with more of a sense of familiarity and of a personal touch.

I think it’s all a matter of what you believe.

Put bluntly, if you really believe that the Incarnate One is present in your ceremony, you will act accordingly. Suddenly it’s no longer just a matter of talking about Jesus but of actually being in His presence, as though He were standing right next to you. And even, to venture deeper into this idea, it’s a matter of understanding just who He is who is, as it were, standing right next to you. He is loving, but He who is loving is the Almighty. He is kind, yet His kindness is not merely that of a close friend, but an expression of His eternal attribute of mercy.

He is God.

That’s not just a catechism answer; it’s a reality. And since, as God, He is indeed present in a very personal way at the altar—in the Holy Sacrament in particular—His presence ought never be denigrated in the slightest way when aspects of His humanity are emphasized.  

If we expend all our efforts in attempting to portray Him as being very personal, we will necessarily run the risk of losing sight of the fact that He is also eternal. He is a consuming fire. He is the one who appeared to Moses in the burning bush. And even now, that He has become Incarnate, He sits at the right hand of the Father in glory.

This is impossible fully to grasp, as the Apostle indicates: O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! (Romans 11:33).

I fear that when pastors expend all their liturgical energy trying to make people feel comfortable in the presence of a personally friendly Jesus, they end up planting in the minds and hearts of their people a sense that He is actually less than their Creator, the One in whom they live and move and have their being.  And they do their people a great disservice thereby. Examples of this abound, and nowhere more clearly than in this extreme case, though even the less extreme cases are problematic.

But maybe it’s because pastors who behave this way haven’t quite come to terms with the reality themselves. I for one have a very hard time believing that a liturgist whose first desire is to impress friendliness and ease upon the people, to make them laugh, feel comfortable, invited, and welcome, does not himself believe that he is actually standing next to the eternal God in the flesh.

Get on your knees, man! Don’t you know who is present here?

In the end, it’s all a matter of what you really believe. Are you or are you not standing on holy ground, in the presence of the Incarnate God?