Turning the Liturgy into the Law Luther's Bear Story

Most people have not heard of Ulrich Leupold, my worship professor at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. He was a musical genius, earned a Ph.D. at the University of Berlin at the age of 23. He became a pastor after that. Persecuted for being part-Jewish, he escaped and settled in Canada.

My bride and I moved to Waterloo, Ontario, in December of 1969. Leupold only taught one more class before he began dying of a degenerative disorder. I was glad to have been one of his students.

Leupold spent the semester calming the students down about "must." Some thought the liturgy must be chanted. A few thought it must not be. Leupold admonished us not to make preferences into Law. About chanting, he said: "Chanting is fine as long it is does no harm to the throat of the pastor or the ears of the congregation."

The papalists were beginning their Long March (like Mao's) through the church. Soon everything was Law, especially in reaction to Fuller Seminary dogma. Some LCA pastors divided their congregations over such things as heaving themselves onto the altar and telling them they had never worship properly before. Their worship professor at Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, was fired for producing such divisive, Roman legalists.

Luther's bear story is instructive. He wrote about a bear who attacked two brothers. One got out a knife to stab the bear and killed his brother instead. Luther used the story, probably true (knowing German efficiency), to illustrate how the Anabaptists killed infant baptism in order to slay the pope. Ironically, Wayne Mueller used that story in an official letter to defend the use of Baptist sources, manipulating his quotation from Luther. When I answered his deception in Christian News, President-in-Waiting Mueller said to a group of pastors, "If I ever get my hands on the guy who gave Jackson that letter..." I was already free of WELS at that time, so someone obviously leaked. The name is on the tip of my tongue. Nope, I forgot.

Back to the live bear and dead brother. The more contagious the Fuller people have become, the worse the papalist party among the Lutherans. Proof is the number of Lutheran pastors who have poped to become priests or semi-poped to become Eastern Orthodox.

I favor dignified worship over Baptist entertainment seeker services. Below are some opinions in harmony with the Leupold warnings:
1. The purpose of worship is to convey Christ to the congregation through the efficacious Word, not to recruit new members through seeker services, entertainment, gimmicks, being ashamed of the liturgy, Creeds, sermons, and Lutheran hymns.
2. If pastors and congregations do not trust the Word, they should stop using the name Lutheran, which fills them with shame, and find a new affiliation.
3. Holy Communion might be offered every Sunday, as it was during the Reformation, but no one should make that the Law, as if a congregation is less than Lutheran for having the Lord's Supper once a month.
4. Closed communion--not close communion, not demi-semi-open communion--is the only appropriate expression of the sacrament. Liberals love open communion, but boy can they excommunicate when they are crossed. And they excommunicate for life. Therefore, I favor excommunication for all false teachers.
5. Since the congregation chants, it is logical for the minister to chant. However, two things distract from worship - a horrible singer like me, and a performer like Opera Man.
6. Romanizing tendencies are just as contagious as Fuller addictions. The Lutheran Church should not make Rome the final word on anything, yet Lutheran pastors are following the three-year reading cycle of Rome, the new color schemes, and other mistakes. Would a straight ministerium change the colors? Ask yourselves that. The priests changed the colors. Why should Lutherans follow?
7. The Eucharistic Prayer (ELCA, Missouri) takes away from the simplicity of the Consecration. Can anyone deny that the idea is to create more of a performance and focus on the minister? Liberals can hide behind Romanizing trends because they can worship the concept of worship without trusting in the Object of worship, Christ. No one despises the Gospel more than a faithful priest of Rome while diligently mastering the art of the Mass. High church can turn into as much of a performance as a Fuller-Willow Creek Seeker Service.
8. Lutherans should avoid terms associated with the Church of Rome. Perhaps "Father" might be seen as neutral, but the word suggests Roman doctrine or Anglican tendencies today. The same is true of Mass and other terms. Insisting on these distincitive words in the name of Reformation-Fundamentalism is just another form of legalism. Luther wore the robes of an Augustinian monk for the first eight years of the Reformation. Must I as well?
9. I like incense, always have. I have never used incense and probably never will. I doubt whether most Lutherans associate incense with Lutheran worship. One ELS pastor said he knelt during the Consecration (like a priest) "to annoy the WELS pastors." That strikes me as a poor reason to ape Rome. A better way to annoy some WELS pastors is to quote Luther.
10. The sermon should never be neglected, no matter what the excuse. Most laity arrive at the Sunday service in need of the Gospel, not tarted-up pep talks, coaching, Law harangues, and begging for more money for the synod or other worthless causes. The congregation can only be built on the Word, not on social activities. The Law bears no fruit and offers no comfort.