03 December 2012

"At least he's liturgical."


Sometime during my husband's excellent adventure/bogus journey through seminary, there was a panel discussion among a WELS pastor, an LCMS pastor, and an ELCA pastor. The WELS guy wore a sport coat and tie. The ELCA guy wore clerics with a sharp suit. The LCMS guy was the horrific hybrid of both we all know and love. I was a fly on the wall for some discussion of these telling facts and remember hearing someone say of the ELCA guy, "At least he's liturgical."

I am not so sure about this. It seems to me that a guy in clerics who chants the liturgy AND thinks it's fine for a chick to do the same because he doesn't think God really said thus and such is not on the side of the church or the liturgy or clerical dignity or any good and blessed thing. He is a burlesque of every good and blessed thing. He is not closer to being right and he is not at least a little bit on the right side. He is the lie that is so much stronger because it is mostly true.

Vestments and liturgy and ceremony originate rightly in Scripture, the holy catholic and apostolic Church, and humility; they prefigure the marriage feast of the Lamb. Where Scripture is interpreted through the whims of the world and the flesh and the devil, where the holy catholic and apostolic Church is mocked and defamed, vestments and liturgy and ceremony make a shameful parody of Jesus Christ and his holy Bride. It is a strange tradition which cherishes external forms while scrambling the substance from which they arose (cf American Christmas). In fact, scrambling the substance renders the forms merely accidental, and when the forms are accidental, phylacteries are broad and the borders of garments are enlarged and no room is too uppermost.

Please, church-resembling entities in the habit of choosing your own Bible adventure, stop being liturgical.



“If anyone saw you now, they’d think you were Aslan, the Great Lion, himself.”


7 comments:

Cheryl said...

". . . the lie that is so much stronger because it is mostly true."

Wow. That is the line of the year.

Rebekah said...

Oh, that's the one I stole. :D

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Battle-Chronicles-Narnia-Book/dp/0064409414/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354626628&sr=8-1&keywords=the+last+battle

Cheryl said...

Haha--in other words, I missed the allusion. You should have smiled and let me continue in awe. ;-)

Donna said...

But of course, if God saves women through childbearing (as your link says) then it hardly matters which church I attend or what I believe. I could be a faithful, practicing, and believing member of any synod and still be damned because I am single and childless.

Rebekah said...

Hello, Donna. :) 2 Timothy 2:15 refers to the childbearing of the blessed virgin Mary through which we received our Lord Jesus Christ. By his incarnation, death, and resurrection we all receive the forgiveness of sins and salvation regardless of the particulars of our lives. Peace be with you. Rebekah

Cathy said...

I'm sure this is all over my head, but I always like a good Narnia reference, and somehow 1 Timothy 2:11-15 always ministers to me.

read it said...

I read some blogs with lots of atheists. Anyway, they say how much they enjoy the music and ritual when they go on Christmas and Easter because they are visiting with family etc. They prefer the more beautiful traditional services, too. They just lament that the only folks who get this nice community and gathering etc are religious.