From Iowa District President Rev. Gary Arp

(Source: IDE TODAY, Volume 19, January-February 2005, p. 3)

WORSHIP. It is one of the burning issues in The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) today. Our pastors are under a great deal of pressure to depart from the traditional liturgical service and use an American Evangelical (Baptist) or a reformed (works centered) style of worship.

The questions being asked are, What is appropriate for the Divine Service? Does it truly matter what kind of service we have as long as we have one?

Recently, I spent time studying the book of the Bible called Leviticus. Simply put, it is a book of instructions for the offering of sacrifices to God. These sacrifices point forward to the once-for- all sacrifice, the bloody death of the Son of God, Jesus the Christ. When that great and final sacrifice was made on the cross of Calvary, there was no more need for the
sacrifices prescribed in Leviticus.

However, we can still learn from Leviticus the answer to the question, Does it truly matter what kind of service we have as long as we have one? In Leviticus, it is clear that God indeed cares about the content of worship, as shown by the extensive detail God proscribed for the offering of the sacrifices. If it mattered to God what was done then, is it not safe to say that it still matters to God today what is done in the Divine Service? After all, God does not change, He is "the same yesterday, today and forever."

As Lutherans, we believe that the Divine Service is first of all God's service to us. This is what "Divine Service" means, "God Serving." In the Service, it is God who does the acting. He comes to us in Word and Sacrament. He calls us to repentance. He for- gives our sins. In the Service, He gives us both the direction and the strength to carry out His will in our lives. Having listened and received, we then respond to all that He does with our prayers and hymns of praise. This servicing by God is, after all, what separates Christianity from all man- made religions.

The LCMS recognizes that what is done in the Service does matter to God. The following is from the bylaws of the LCMS:

3.928 Functions and Duties [of Commission on Worship] The commission shall:
a. make literature available to congregations of the Synod, to develop and deepen an understanding and love for the Lutheran heritage in Christian worship and for the various media of expression needed for our worship;
b. clear all literature related to corporate Christian worship in liturgy and hymnody made available through the Synod's various boards, commissions, auxiliaries, and recognized service organizations and through Concordia Publishing House;
c. recommend worship materials to the church and advise and warn against the use of worship materials that are unworthy of use in the corporate worship of the Lutheran Church;
d. represent the Synod in the preparation of service books and hymnals in which the Synod may engage in cooperation with other synods;
e. consult with the practical theology and the music departments of synodical schools to establish and affirm principles and practices in liturgy, church music, and church art which best express the true confessional theology of worship in Word and Sacrament of the Lutheran Church.

3.929 Official Service Books and Hymnals
a. All service books and hymnals that are to be accepted as official service books and hymnals of the Synod shall be given such status only by a convention of the Synod after a process of exposure and testing decided upon by the Synod in convention.
b. Revisions in such books shall be made only by a convention of the Synod after requesting the Commission on Worship for an evaluation and recommendations.

As members of the LCMS, our pastors and our congregations voluntarily subscribe themselves to the constitution and bylaws of Synod. As a church body, we take seriously what happens in the Divine Services in all of our congregations. After all, we ourselves have mandated that  any change in the Service Books or Hymnals requires synodical convention approval. This is done to guard against that which is not consistent with God's Word.

Throughout its history, the Lutheran Church has been a liturgical church. These roots, however, go back far beyond the Reformation to the early church. Consider these parts of the Divine Service: The Invocation, "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," is from Jesus' own instruction to baptize. The Kyrie, "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy," echoes the ancient cry of God's people who were in need.
The Gloria in Excelsis, "Glory to God in the highest and on the earth peace, good will toward men," is that wonderful song of the angels to the shepherds on the night of Jesus' birth. With the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed, we are confessing the faith of Christians for nearly 2000 years.

And, my personal favorite part comes in The Preface before Holy Communion, when we hear the pastor say "With angels and archangels and all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Thy glorious name, evermore praising Thee and saying," and then we join in that ancient song of the cherubim and seraphim in Isaiah's great temple vision, "Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, heaven and earth are full of Thy glory." And then we proceed to the hymn of the children on Palm Sunday, Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest, blessed
is He that comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest.

I am thankful beyond words that I grew up in a congregation with a pastor who faithfully followed the Order of Service. As a child, I was able to commit the service to memory. Later, as a parish pastor, I served many elderly shut-ins whose memories were failing, but who were able to participate in the service with me because they too had the liturgy
embedded in their memories from childhood. If we abandon the liturgy for something different every Sunday - or fail to teach its meaning where it is used - our children and grandchildren will not have this precious treasure. Look at Leviticus, see how important this is to God.

The question before us, Is it a sin to use something other than one of the services from one of our hymnals, is a vital one. The answer to this question is important to our worship with God and our relationships with one another. How should we handle this? In all of this, I am guided by what the Apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians, reminding them that, "All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up" 1 Cor. 10:23   ESV.