Posts

Many Coming into the Church Without Connection to the Riches of the Church's Worship and Song

Image
 The long-standing controversy about contemporary worship, especially within more conservative traditional church bodies, seems to have largely died down.  It feels more or less like a 'live and let live' detente.  In some denominations, such as the Episcopal or Lutheran ones, you can find the full spectrum of evangelical performance to high church, with blended variations in between.  But it appears that some are living in one realm or the other without any crossover.  It's like multiple churches coexisting within one large group but rarely interacting. When I grew up most everyone I knew in the church had some substantial exposure to the traditional liturgical forms and hymns.  People knew the words and had familiarity with the music.  That time has now long since passed.  Now you can meet people within a denomination once known for traditional liturgical forms that have no working knowledge of these.  The hymns sound foreign to them and the worship like something out of

Book Review: GOING TO CHURCH IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND by Nicholas Orme

Image
 I finally finished this book and just submitted a review of it to Amazon where I originally ordered it.  It forms the basis of my two previous blog articles, and may inspire yet more. The book was published by Yale University Press, copyrighted in 2021and put into paperback just last year in 2022. Below is my review: It took me about a half a year, picking the book up again and again, but that does not indicate lack of interest.  From forward to end the book encompasses around 400 pages, and the print is relatively small, as one reviewer noted.  This is a social history of the institution of the medieval church, and in chapter 9, "Reflections," Dr. Orme describes for the reader the honest challenges of constructing such a history.  As I read this history I was struck at times by how much of medieval practice and architecture has survived in one way or another in our modern times.  My rural American Lutheran church was built in the early 1950s in what might be loosely conside

Medieval Influences on Our Churches - Part II

Image
 Once a month my church celebrates Matins.  During Lent we also use Vespers and Compline.  All of these are from the ancient services of the canonical hours.  During the Middle Ages it was customary, at least in England, to celebrate what they called "The Office" or "The Divine Office" at least once a day, in addition to Mass.  The Office included Matins, Vespers and Compline, besides other offices we normally associate with monastic worship such as Sext, Terce, Lauds, and Nones. Now I know of no modern churches that incorporate "The Office" as did the Medievals, not even the modern Roman Catholic Church.  As a result one seldom, if ever, uses such services in the public worship of a typical congregation, at least in my observation. It may be observed in smaller communities and among clergy, but I never hear of my Catholic neighbors going to Matins. Now substituting Matins for a service of Holy Communion (the Mass) is certainly not medieval.  But the fact

Medieval Influences On Our Churches

Image
 I'm not sure how many people realize that our churches and architecture, even in America, are influenced by medieval traditions.  My congregation has a somewhat typical building reflective of the neo-Gothic revival style, or more accurately a "Collegiate Gothic" style.  Although Gothic Revival in architecture waned in popularity long before this (a revival of architectural styles in the 1800s which revived styles prevalent from 1300 to 1500), its style lingered on in churches into the mid-20th century.  My church was built in the early 1950s. The fist picture is the altar area prior to renovations we made by removing the red velvet reredo and wooden valance above it, along with the illuminated wall cross. The next picture shows the renovations. I did not realize until recently that an altar up against the wall was a development in the medieval church in the 1200s.  I know that this was changed after Vatican II (in the early to mid 1960s) when freestanding altars became m

Reflections on a Year Past, Looking to the New Year

Image
 Where do I start?  Since March 2020 nothing has been as it was. Life changed forever that month. By this point I, along with a lot of others, thought that we would be largely beyond the pandemic.  But here we are in the midst of another 'surge' with another Greek letter designation.  So much division has arisen over this crisis.  Vax or not vax. Masks or no masks.  Lock downs and quarantines.  I think that the COVID crisis has forever changed our culture and society.  On a discussion board where I am active I posted the following today: There is a predication that the Omicron "wave" will peak by the end of this month.  Although COVID has shown a proclivity toward regular mutations, I think that 2022 will see us moving in the direction of the virus become endemic.  Much of the nation has moved on from the draconian lockdowns of 2020, and although there is currently a surge across the nation, I think that it will burn itself out soon.  However, what I think it ha

JUSTIFIED BY FAITH ALONE

Image
 The following is the sermon I will preach for Reformation this year.  I don't often post my sermons, but thought this one was worth sharing.....      Five hundred years ago, on the spring day of May 4, 1521 , men disguised as robbers captured a young monk and professor and quickly whisked him away to the Wartburg Castle in Germany for safe keeping. His life was at great risk. For just a few months before, the head of the church, Pope Leo X , wrote a special order [1] , Decet Romanum Pontificem , “It Befits the Roman Pontiff,” which excommunicated Dr. Martin Luther from the church, essentially branding him a heretic who could be arrested, tried and executed.   To further protect his identity, Luther disguised himself as a knight with a beard called Junker Jörg , or Knight George.   Although now separated from all the activity outside, Luther did not simply sit around and wait.   But here, hidden away from the world and the dramatic changes he began, he started one of his most im

The Benedict Option

Image
During my youngest daughter's sophomore year at Concordia University - Chicago, she was required to read part of Rod Dreher's well-known book The Benedict Option - A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation (Sentinel Press, 2017, 2018). After she was finished using the book I told her that I would like to borrow it to read myself.  Unfortunately, I have spilled coffee on it, so I guess I'll be purchasing the book now! I had heard about the book prior to my daughter using it, but for one reason or another never got around to reading it.  I took my time working through its roughly 250 pages, but it is really not a difficult read.  One of the criticisms of his work, as it came indirectly to me, was this sense of escapism.  But that is anything but the message he hopes to convey.  Toward the end of the volume Dreher makes an effort to clarify what the Benedict Option is and what it is not:  "The Benedict Option is not a technique for reversing the losses, politi