Ceremonies teach. Primarily, ceremonies teach people “what they need to know about Christ” (AC 24:4). And ceremonies teach in a mixture of verbal and nonverbal instruction. In the same way that spouses and parents communicate and express love for their families both verbally and nonverbally, the liturgy does the same by means of the words spoken (which are God’s Word) as well as our physical way of handling and reacting to God’s Word - that is, the confession of our faith in our actions. Ceremonies teach by confessing, and our teaching and confessing are received by both believers and unbelievers, by those who confess with us, as well as Christians who are not walking with us. Everyone learns from our liturgy, if only to learn what it is that we believe.

The value we place on the Word of God is conveyed by the care and reverence with which we present it. Ceremonies such as articulating the Word in a serious manner, rising for the Gospel, and perhaps in having a procession with a Gospel book - teach about Christ, and confess what we teach concerning the sanctity and primacy of Holy Scripture.

If the president or a general or a CEO comes to speak personally, this indicates that what he has to say is important. If he is invisible and always delegates communication to others, it conveys a detachment, that the things that are being said are of mere secondary importance. If the pastor is the one reading the Scriptures - especially the Gospel - this teaches that these words are like no other. They are of crucial importance, even urgency. If anyone is invited to proclaim the Word of the Lord to the congregation: men, women, children, and especially people who can’t articulate confidently and properly pronounce the words, people dressed casually, people who half-heartedly do a cursory quick-bow towards the altar on the way up - are reading the lessons, it conveys an unintended casualness that belies our Lutheran reverence for the mighty Word of God.

If we pastors decide to do away with ceremonies regarding the reading of the Gospel, if we are casually dressed, if we try to interject our own personality into the reading and treat it like a show - we convey that this might as well be a Taylor Swift lyric or a TV sitcom rather than the miraculous Word of God.

Similarly, in the celebration of the Sacrament of the Altar, the pastor’s job is not merely to say the words over the elements and get those elements into the mouths of the communicants. That is only part of the task. This must be done in a way that teaches people what they need to know about Christ, and gives them the opportunity to teach through their own confession as well. If the pastor is casual in the consecration, if he rushes through the words, if he shows no reverence in his gestures - then he is conveying that we don’t actually believe in the Real Presence.

I can’t help but think about one of my students twenty years ago - one of our very brightest and best who was brought up as a Lutheran from infancy. She was shocked to learn in my Lutheran high school class that we Lutherans confess the Real Presence. She thought we believed that the elements were only symbolic. There is no way her pastor taught her this in confirmation class. So where did she learn it? I believe her pastor unwittingly taught her this nonverbally. First of all, her congregation met in a school gym sitting in bleachers surrounded by volleyball nets and a scoreboard - along with an altar on wheels. I was told this was a virtue, for in not building a sanctuary, they showed how much they valued education. Really? The congregation also had contemporary worship, and the pastor was not inclined - even at the “traditional” service - to treat the elements with traditional reverence by means of gesture and posture - let alone by chanting the Words of Institution.

Hence the flawed confession of this young Lutheran.

Casualness in worship teaches by confession, and it confesses contrary to what we Lutherans say we confess. This is how a confirmand can be taught all the right words in the classroom, but concludes something different by what is taught by practice at the altar.

I recently wrote about three recent conversions to Lutheranism - joining LCMS parishes. And this is a cause for rejoicing. I believe we have what many people are searching for: a profound, historical confession of the faith in both Word and Sacrament, a reverent and liturgical confession that neither idolizes nor sets aside tradition - and yet maintains Biblical supremacy. We are reverent because of our confession, and yet, at the same time, we are free not to have lockstep legalistic conformity in our worship. We are indeed free to worship in a gymnasium, on the hood of a jeep, in a bombed-out church, in a beauty salon, in a hospital, etc. and we are free to have variations in how a particular celebrant presides. But how do we use this freedom? Are we confessing as best we can with what we have?

The modern incarnation of the Church Growth Movement is less hostile to the liturgy than the pioneers who are still beating the ditch-the-liturgy-for-the-sake-of-the-youth drum. But that said, they still see reverence as just one option among many. They are all for “smells and bells” if it “works,” if it means you-know-whats in the pews (or in the modular chairs). But having a stage and a bandstand and a casual pastor who yucks it up is equally fine if that draws in the crowds.

But I argue that the liturgy is evangelistic - especially in this day and age where young people are drawn to something more profound and ancient. They have enough superficiality in the shallow end of their disconnected virtual lives. They have seen the devastation of the godless culture around them - a culture of gender-bending, of shallow narcissism, of neo-Gnostic do-it-yourself religiosity. Contemporary worship is simply the accommodation and invitation of contemporary culture in the Most Holy Place.

And so, I think liturgical piety is indeed an evangelistic tool: both to proclaim the Gospel nonverbally to the faithful, and to clearly confess to those outside of our tradition: both to unbelievers, and to believers in other confessions and traditions. Our confession should be clearly and unambiguously articulated in what we teach, and in how we worship. For ceremonies teach the people.

One of the three conversions in my recent article was a young woman named Megan. She is half of the duo of a podcast called Let’s Talk About It. Her friend and cohostess is named Jacque: a devout and committed Roman Catholic. And following Megan’s joining an LCMS congregation, Jacque visited Megan’s parish for a Sunday Mass, and they did a program about it here.

I found Jacque’s impressions interesting. She concluded that Lutherans don’t see the Eucharist as a climax in the service, and that we don’t emphasize the consecration as much as Roman Catholics do. She connected the dots between the ceremony of the celebration of the Divine Service and the theology it confesses. She noticed that the church did not have kneelers, and unlike the traditionalists in her communion (including herself), she came away with the impression that Lutherans only commune in the hand and not on the tongue. The word she continued to use in describing the Lutheran liturgy that she experienced was “casual,” while admitting that this was not quite the word she was looking for. But it was the word that continually popped up.

Should “casual” ever be someone’s impression of the miraculous Presence of God Incarnate in our midst in Word and Sacrament? Lutherans should be embarrassed by this. And since their YouTube podcast is available to anyone on the planet, I think this was a lost opportunity for evangelism.

A couple of disclaimers: first, I don’t know what congregation Megan and her husband joined, and second, I don’t know who their pastor is. And I’m not blaming either one. I think the issue is bigger. I think it is a cultural problem that has many causes dating back decades in American culture, if not centuries (if we consider the ravages of Pietism and Rationalism). We all deal with the limitations that we have. If our churches don’t have kneelers (as my congregation’s 1950 building doesn’t), that is a limitation on our ability to confess liturgical piety. So we have to make up for this limitation elsewhere. If churches don’t have a communion rail, that is also a challenge. And the pastor himself may well wish to implement more ceremony, but simply cannot do so pastorally at this time. I get it. My congregation has used "individual cups” for communion since the 1980s. As much as I would like to abolish them, it would be unwise for me to do so - even though I have been in this call for twenty years.

So again, I’m not blaming any individual pastor or congregation. This is a far bigger and deeper problem. Our forbears adopted practices that we are often stuck with, and it may take generations to change. So again, I’m not busting on Megan’s pastor or parish. But what a sad state of affairs!

I would call upon pastors and lay leaders to think of how to push the envelope a bit in the ceremonial confession of what we believe, and how to take advantage of what is in the hymnal to do so.

For example, Divine Service 3 in LSB is essentially the Common Service from TLH. And this service includes the chant tones for the Words of Institution.

Jacque’s impression that the consecration is downplayed in Lutheranism is actually the opposite. For the Lutheran confessors emphasized the consecration over and against the Roman Church, as it is the Word - the verba Christi - which consecrates the elements, with the priest’s voice simply repeating the words of Jesus. Prior to the Reformation (which we still see in the Tridentine Mass), the Words of Institution were inaudible. The Lutherans restored the verba - not only in the vernacular language, but to be heard distinctly by the people. Luther urged the celebrant to speak - or better yet, chant - the verba with clarity and reverence. The chant tone in DS3 was composed by Luther himself, and is thus an authentic Lutheran tradition, motivated by practical theology, that is five centuries old. Ironically, when Lutherans “of a certain age” who have “been a Lutheran all my life” protest that this is “too Catholic,” they could not be more mistaken. For this was a liturgical adjustment contra Rome that emphasized, rather than downplayed, the consecration.

Moreover, LSB includes the rubric of the sign of the cross twice during the consecration - once for the consecration of the bread, and once for the wine. Those rubrics appear where they do in the verba not because we downplay the consecration, but rather the opposite. These rubrics are a nonverbal enhancement of the verba. They are pastoral deeds that confirm the Dominical words.

My practice as a celebrant is to both genuflect and elevate during the consecration. I have never celebrated otherwise in twenty years (contrary to the assertions of some that such liturgical piety is something new, weird, innovative, or something that only a fringe of new seminary graduates are doing). In recent years, my congregation has added hand-bells to the consecration ceremony as well. I chant the Words of Institution, and I’m in no hurry. I deliberately emphasize the word “is,” and slow down for the confession of what the “is” is. We also make use of incense in our parish celebration - not every week, but the thurible is always on the alter near an icon with a votive candle.

Had Jacque visited my congregation, I would hope that she would not have concluded that we Lutherans are casual regarding the Eucharist and don’t emphasize the consecration. I would hope that her impression would have been - as have other Roman Catholic visitors - that we have preserved the pre-Vatican II Mass, and that we are reverent in our celebration. Visitors will not mistake our theology as being Zwinglian.

Again, bearing limitations in mind - both architectural and pastoral - we pastors should be intentional about nonverbally evangelizing and confessing. And lay leaders should support their pastors when the inevitable criticisms arise. Our theology should undergird our practice, and our practice should confess our theology.

And when visitors to come into our sanctuaries, it should be clear what we believe, teach, and confess - whether the visitor is interested in joining us or not.

For an example and an explanation of the traditional Lutheran celebration, we at Gottesdienst have a few videos - including this one.