Gottesblog

Note: This sermon was preached by a pastor of a “Contemporary Worship” LCMS congregation. I’ve redacted anything that would identify the pastor or the congregation. I have only made slight edits regarding punctuation and repeated words (this is a transcript pulled from YouTube). Any such errors are mine. This is the entire sermon.

We who conduct traditional liturgical services have certain advantages. In many ways, our task is far easier than those who choose a different path.

The tagline of Gottesdienst, namely, “The Journal of Lutheran Liturgy,” can be a little misleading. For when we say “liturgy,” some people believe that the entire journal (and by extension, the blog, the podcast, and the conferences) is, or should only be, related to things like rubrics.

“No one is saying that the Lutheran liturgy is not a treasure. Just don't make consciences burdened to think that salvation is notsecure unless every rite of the liturgy is done just right…. Also, don't make the liturgy legalistically narrow, making it into a type of work to make satisfaction for sins.

Anyone can take the King of Kings spiritual gifts assessment that is offered here: www.kingofkings.org/serve. It’s a series of 78 questions. They will then e-mail you your assessment, and even see if you’re interested in various kinds of church work based on your gifts.

Two questions were of particular interest. One involved “speaking in tongues,” and the other involved women “preachers.” Here is the transcript of those questions.

I’ve now seen several “modern worship” (meaning, “non-liturgical”) LCMS congregations offering a unique opportunity to remember one’s baptism: joining in with the immersion baptisms in a baptism-like ceremony.

Unite Leadership Collective is an organization that seeks change within the LCMS. They are open about it. Through their communications - mainly their podcasts Lead Time and The Tim Ahlman Podcast - they have identified several areas where they believe the LCMS should - if not must - change.

This was published April 9, 2014. Interestingly, this "Impact Church” is dead. The link is dead. The local franchise is dead. — Ed.

This postcard just arrived from Impact Church. On the back it says:

"At Impact Church, we don't want to add religious duty to your 'list' of stuff that occupies your time. In fact, we dislike religion as much as you do."

This section where he talks about how the Roman Catholic Church imported “Protestant” (meaning “Neo-Evangelical”) style contemporary and praise music is applicable to us as well. And he presents it in a way that is respectful of the Protestant tradition. I think his analysis is spot on.

Of course, we Lutherans are named after perhaps the most well-known whistleblower in Christendom. While people had complained about corruption in the church for centuries, the church’s thuggery and intimidation made whistleblowing a deadly endeavor. The pre-Reformation era was filled with whistleblower-martyrs, as well as those would-be whistleblowers who backed off rather than be burned at the stake.

Herman Otten was a whistleblower, as was Martin Luther. And we see the same forces at work: politics being employed not to protect the flock but to protect the duplicitous from the one blowing the whistle, operating under the cover of darkness, . And the same complaints that are made against Otten were earlier made against Luther as well: they both used the printing press, they both named names, they both wrote bombastically, and made a lot of powerful enemies.