The Missing Ordo - Divine Service 6
O magnum mysterium, et admirabile sacramentum…
Because my friends are cruel, someone sent me the latest service at King of Kings - Omaha, with some notes on the “consecration.” I would really like not to care, but since this is technically a member congregation of the LCMS, what they do reflects on all of us.
On a side note, fortunately, there is at least one stellar alternative for Lutherans seeking the authentic Lutheran Divine Service in Omaha, served, in fact, by a pastor who was a classmate of mine, who had formerly been in a praise band. I had the privilege to preach and speak at a mission festival at this wonderful parish a few years back. Thanks be to God! Since I didn’t ask him before writing this, I’m not going to mention him or his congregation. But just be aware that Lutherans in Omaha don’t have to leave the LCMS to find reverent liturgical worship.
Well, I watched the “consecration” portion of the video. I was also starting to construct a plausible conspiracy theory that Nebraska doesn’t actually have a District President, that there is no human oversight over LCMS congregations and pastors at all, that they must have an AI generated District website and a simulated District President bot. I was thinking that not only is King of Kings not walking with us, they are actually running away from us, laughing at us, and giving us the digitus impudicus.
But then something remarkable happened.
I learned that due to a clerical error at CPH, Divine Service 6 was inadvertently left out of the LSB hymnal. So it seems that King of Kings has been vindicated. They are indeed walking with us. They are indeed using the ordo. And their District President is indeed to be commended for his faithful leadership and ecclesiastical oversight. I stand corrected.
Maybe I owe everyone an apology.
While CPH was distracted, being focused on keeping an iron-fist clampdown on the copyright of the Small Catechism (which is certainly understandable, laudable, and worthy of our unflinching support), the manila folder from the sacred COW containing the ordo sextus was accidentally knocked to the floor, and slid under a barrister’s bookcase of copyright law. It was recently rediscovered when a dime apparently went missing, and the CPH Board of Directors ordered an all-hands-on-deck effort to effect its recovery. But that’s another story for another day.
Thanks be to God, Divine Service 6 was immediately sent to Gottesdienst, and we were going to create an instruction video (have you seen our videos?), but, of course, King of Kings has already done it, and you can view it here!
I wanted to focus on the portion of the Mass within the Liturgy of the Sacrament, namely the “consecration” - including the rubrics. You can cue up the video linked above to minute 14:27. And so that you can follow along, here is that portion of Divine Service 6.
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The Sacramental Invitatory
Here the band plays the hypnotic background keyboard drone and tinkly piano mood music.
You can have a seat. Cuz the amazing news is he's here to meet with you and I right now. It's this amazing meal that we call the Lord's Supper, communion.
Here the celebrant sits on the couch between two members of the praise band in the simulated living room, taking his place before the chalice prop and the loaf of bread located on the simulated coffee table, speaking emotionally into a handheld microphone.
It's a meal where God has promised to join us. This is an important meal for our church family. If you're new with us, this is a meal where we believe
Here the celebrant emits a slight laugh.
that in a miraculous and mysterious way that in ordinary bread and ordinary wine that somehow in with and under that bread and that wine is the very body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Here the guitarist reaches into the chalice prop to recover his individual wafer-and-wine convenience pack.
And that when we take this meal, we receive his very forgiveness for all of our sins.
The celebrant pronounces the word “sins” while smirking.
The Seasonal Versicle for Advent:
Which is awesome because our first song we were singing today was was called, "Oh, come all ye faithful." And as I'm singing that, I'm like, Well, that's not me.
The Uncomfortable Words
I am unfaithful. I have sinned in thought, word, and deed by what I have done, by what I have left undone. I'm not worthy of being called faithful if it were just left to me. But church, praise God, it's not just up to us. That the King of heaven would come down and meet with us in a real and tangible way. A reminder that my forgiveness is still for you. I need what's in this meal more than anything else. This is a meal for those that admit, "I've made mistakes. I've missed the mark. I've sinned. But as a baptized believer, I also know that Jesus is my savior. And as true as it as it is that I am a sinner, the greater truth is that Jesus is my savior. King of heaven, come down. If you're in agreement with that, I'd love for you to pray the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray.
The Paternoster
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory. Amen. Give us our daily bread.
The Verba
The attendees take up their individual wafer-and-wine convenience packs into their hands.
It was on the night when Jesus was betrayed that he sat around with his disciples. And as they were reclining, he took the bread.
Here the celebrant takes up the loaf of bread and holds it.
He broke it and he gave thanks and he gave it to each of his disciples just as he gives to you and I today.
Here the celebrant replaces the loaf onto the table, and reaches into the chalice prop to take his individual wafer-and-wine convenience pack.
And he says, "Take and eat the very body of Christ given for you. Take and eat now. The very body of Christ given for you.
Here all remove the wafer from their convenience packs and place them into their own mouths. The celebrant then picks up the chalice prop.
After supper, Jesus took the cup and he gave it to the 12 disciples and he said, "Take and drink. This cup is the new testament of my blood (the celebrant makes the sign of the cross over the chalice prop) which is shed (the word “shed” is said by the celebrant with a slight laugh) for the forgiveness of all your sins. As often as you drink this forgiveness, do it in remembrance of me. Take now and drink the very blood of Jesus Christ shed to forgive every single one of your sins.
Here all drink from their own individual convenience packs. After communing, the celebrant places the refuse into the chalice prop.
The Post-Eucharistic Prayer and Benediction
Thank you, King of Heaven, that you've come down and met with us here today. Brothers and sisters in Christ, you have been forgiven in the name of the Father, by the blood of the Son (here the celebrant makes the sign of the cross), and through the power of the Holy Spirit. You are not who you once were. You have been born again. You are filled with the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Let's continue to worship this God who continues to come.
The celebrant places the chalice prop and the loaf of bread on the floor by the feet of the praise-band singer.
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So we are grateful that King of Kings is, in fact, following the ordo and not just making up its own thing. For indeed, as we all confess in our walk together:
“Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence. Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved,”
and:
“We do not abolish the Mass, but religiously maintain and defend it. For among us masses are celebrated every Lord’s Day and on the other festivals, in which the Sacrament is offered to those who wish to use it, after they have been examined and absolved. And the usual public ceremonies are observed, the series of lessons, of prayers, vestments, and other like things,”
and:
“All frivolity and offense should be avoided,”
and:
“When there are useless, foolish displays, that are profitable neither for good order nor Christian discipline, nor evangelical propriety in the Church, these also are not genuine adiaphora, or matters of indifference.”
Some additional rubrical guidance for Divine Service 6 can be found here.