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Higher History

Concord #30: Augsburg Confession (The Mass, pt. 1)

christian augsburg ceremonies mass

Article 24: The Mass, Part 1

What is The Mass?

The article on the Mass is an article on worship. Before getting to the teaching on the Mass, it’s necessary to define our terms. The Lutheran Confessions use the term “Mass” in two different ways. The first way is simply to refer to the distribution of the body and blood of Jesus. “…The Mass is such a giving of the Sacrament…” (Augsburg Confession XXIV.34). In other words, “the Mass” is simply the worship service of Holy Communion. The second way in which the word is used refers to the abuses of the medieval Church. Whenever the word is used in this way, it’s usually modified by another phrase, such as “the canon of the mass,” or, “the sacrifice of the mass.”

With the simple understanding of the Mass as a distribution of the body and blood of Christ, the confession begins:

Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence. Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved, save that the parts sung in Latin are interspersed here and there with German hymns, which have been added to teach the people. For ceremonies are needed to this end alone that the unlearned be taught [what they need to know of Christ]. And not only has Paul commanded to use in the church a language understood by the people 1 Cor. 14:2-9, but it has also been so ordained by man’s law. The people are accustomed to partake of the Sacrament together, if any be fit for it, and this also increases the reverence and devotion of public worship. For none are admitted except they be first examined. The people are also advised concerning the dignity and use of the Sacrament, how great consolation it brings anxious consciences, that they may learn to believe God, and to expect and ask of Him all that is good. [In this connection they are also instructed regarding other and false teachings on the Sacrament.] This worship pleases God; such use of the Sacrament nourishes true devotion toward God. It does not, therefore, appear that the Mass is more devoutly celebrated among our adversaries than among us. (Augsburg Confession XXIV.1-9)

 

Worship Traditions

Churches that confess the Augsburg Confession confess that the service of the Sacrament holds a central place in worship. Traditional ceremonies from the Mass are kept where they do not conflict with the Gospel. Ceremonies are necessary for teaching. Those who come to the Sacrament are not admitted until they have been examined and absolved. These practices are not only for reverence, but so that consciences that are weighed down with sin would be consoled by the Gospel of forgiveness. This is the point of worship and the Sacrament, not to glorify our works, but to glorify God and the work He has done and continues to do in the Sacrament of the Altar.

You can read the Book of Concord at http://www.bookofconcord.org

 

“Concord” is a weekly study of the Lutheran Confessions, where we will take up a topic from the Book of Concord and reflect on what we believe, teach, and confess in the Lutheran Church. The purpose of this series is to deepen readers’ knowledge and appreciation for the confessions of the Lutheran Church, and to unite them “with one heart” to confess the teachings of Holy Scripture.

Rev. Jacob Ehrhard is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in New Haven, MO.

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Lectionary Meditations

“Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven” – A Meditation on Matthew 9:2

By Rev. Eric Brown

“Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”

Ugh! Jesus, just get to the point! When people bring you a paralyzed guy, don’t waste your time talking about a bunch of forgiveness stuff; get to the point and heal him! At least this is what a part of me thinks whenever I read Matthew 9. There is a part of me that is an utterly impatient and “practical” 21st Century problem solver. The big problem is he can’t walk, so fix that!

But of course, Jesus is right. The biggest problem in this fellow’s life isn’t that he’s paralyzed. The bigger problem is the fact that he’s a sinner. Imagine all the guilt and shame that could roll around your head when you are left on your own and unable to move. Now imagine there’s no iPads or music or movies to distract you from your guilt and shame. Imagine the isolation, the thoughts that surely God must hate me. Over and against those, Jesus dives right on in to the problem. Take heart, your sins are forgiven.

Sin is still our big problem today. Oh sure, we have so many ways of trying to avoid thinking about our sin. We can be distracted away from it by the entertainment industry, or we can drink it, drug it away. We can go to our social media bubble and find our friends who will like, approve, and validate our every idea no matter how wrong or foolish it is. We have almost limitless ways to try to pretend our sin isn’t there… and yet, that guilt and shame of our sin still pops out, and all too often it hits us, leaving us numb, battered, broken, and even unable to move.

“Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” That’s still what Jesus says to you. You are baptized. You are His child. Jesus forgives you. Your sin is taken away.

When the grumblers doubted whether Jesus had the authority to forgive sins, He healed the guy to demonstrate who He was. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to see the real, full Jesus, you see Him go to the Cross. Jesus died for your sins and rose for your sake. When His disciples doubted and feared, the Crucified and Risen Lord showed them His hands and sides and said, “Peace be with you.” When we deal with our fears and doubts and hurts and shames today, we hear His appointed, called and ordained servant hold His Body and Blood before us and say, “The Peace of the Lord be with you always.” Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.

Jesus knows what you need. He knows how you are hounded by sin. He knows this even when you yourself try to pull the wool over your own eyes. And so He will continually call you to His House, and there He will forgive you your sin. That’s what Jesus does; He handles the real problem, handles the things that we can’t. Take heart, my friend – Jesus has forgiven your sin.

Rev. Eric Brown is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Herscher, Illinois and the co-host of the HT Gospeled Boldly Podcast.

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Lectionary Meditations

“And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” – A Meditation on Matthew 22:39

By Rev. Eric Brown

“And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Again! They did it again! Another Gospel lesson, and another question tossed out by people simply to test Jesus, simply to trap Jesus. Again! Another question about a point of Law, another chance to try to complain about how Jesus does this or says that. Tell us the greatest commandment, and we’ll complain how you didn’t pick a different part of the Law. It’s the same old tired game. How many of these sorts of questions will Jesus put up with before He snaps and starts bringing down divine smite upon people?

Apparently the answer is “a lot”. You might guess 77 times or 70 times 7 times, but I don’t think even those are high enough. Over and over Jesus points people to the love that He has for them, points them to the fact that He is the Messiah. This time Jesus answers that the great command is the love God, but this love of God means a second command must follow. Love your neighbor – even the neighbor who keeps on trying to trap you with annoying questions. For Jesus, loving the neighbor means coming down from heaven, being born of the Virgin Mary, being great David’s even Greater Son. It means pointing out God’s love for the world, God’s plan of salvation even to the very people who would arrange for Him to be crucified before the week is out.

You see, when Jesus sums up the law as “love God and love your neighbor”, He’s not watering down the law. He’s not turning it into mere sentimentality or anything like that. Loving the neighbor is hard, because frankly sometimes your neighbor is a jerk. Sometimes they keep pushing and prying and poking and prodding. And oftentimes we use their jerkiness as an excuse to be a jerk right back at them. Instead of loving and serving the neighbor, we so often run the opposite way. We dehumanize them and objectify them; we belittle them or ignore them. Just as they do to us. A nasty cycle of not love but hatred and disdain.

But Jesus is determined to see that His neighbor is loved. He is determined to see that you are loved. And so, He became Man to love and redeem the very people we dehumanize or who dehumanize us. He Himself became the object of scorn and ridicule to rescue the very people that we objectify or that objectify us. He emptied Himself and made Himself as a nothing to win salvation for the people we belittle and treat as nothing or who tear us down. He wins salvation upon the cross even for the sins of the people we’d rather ignore or who ignore us. In fact, He does all of this for you.

Because He loves you. Honestly. Simply. Fully. Even when you’ve done things that are annoying or foolish. He still loves you. Determinedly and doggedly. He will let nothing stop Him from loving you – not sin, not Satan, not death, not the riches of all creation. Jesus loves you. He loves you as Himself. Of course He does, for He has baptized you into Himself. Of course He does, for He gives Himself to you over and over and over again in His Supper.

There will be times when you look at yourself, some stupid petty sin that you have done, and you will think: “Again! I did it again!” And you may be tempted to think that maybe this will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back – where Jesus will call it quits. Nope. That’s not how Jesus works. Over and against all the shame and guilt and anger at yourself that you sometimes feel, Jesus will still love you and forgive you. He truly and honestly loves you as Himself.

Rev. Eric Brown is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Herscher, Illinois and the co-host of the HT Gospeled Boldly Podcast.

Categories
Higher History

Concord #29: Augsburg Confession (Marriage of Priests pt. 2)

Christian marriage helps prevent some sin

Article 23: Marriage of Priests, Part 2

The Purpose of Marriage

Marriage has a number of purposes. In the beginning, God created man and woman and gave them to each other in marriage for mutual companionship and help, and for the procreation of children (Genesis 2:18-25; Genesis 1:28). It should be noted that marriage was instituted before the fall into sin, and so these were its original purposes. But after the fall into sin, the estate of marriage takes on an additional dimension. But before we discuss marriage as a help for human weakness, we must take a look at sin.

 

Marriage and Sin

The original sin was the desire to be like God in knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:4-5). When Eve and then Adam took the fruit, they rejected the likeness that God had given them. They wanted to be like God in knowing good and evil, and they got their wish. They knew evil and they were the evil. Their sin was not just their disobedient act; it was simultaneously a corruption of their entire self. This is what theologians have traditionally called Original Sin. Original sin is not just a small defect on an otherwise good nature, but it is a total corruption of human nature. It is inherited and birth. It is the sin before we sin.

This doesn’t mean that humans are helpless to do nothing good. We can do some manner of good works in a civil sense (these are not good works before God). But at the same time, original sin means that we are always inclined to sin. And this includes sexuality. What God created as good—the estate of marriage and the gift of sex—sin has corrupted. Because of the weakness of human nature, marriage has also become after the fall into sin a help against human weakness by giving us a good outlet for sexuality.

 

Marriage as a Help against Human Weakness

“Seeing also that, as the world is aging, man’s nature is gradually growing weaker, it is well to guard that no more vices steal into Germany. Furthermore, God ordained marriage to be a help against human infirmity,” (Augsburg Confession XXIII.14-15). What was true in 16th century German is also true in 21st century America. Human nature is getting weaker from sin, and marriage is a help against human weakness. So marriage guards against lust because in marriage, sexuality is not about fulfilling your own desires (corrupted by original sin), but about giving of yourself for the sake of another.

It is good for a man not to marry, writes St. Paul, but if he cannot keep himself from sinning, he should get married (1 Corinthians 7). Forbidding marriage does not eliminate the natural sexual desire in humans. And because of the weakness of sin, forbidding marriage also leads to more sin. Marriage is good, and it is good for sinners. Therefore, we should seek to honor marriage as God’s good gift.

Marriage is a help for sinful people, but it doesn’t provide the solution for sin. That is only found in Jesus’ suffering and sacrificial death. It is found in the forgiveness of sins—and that even counts for sins committed within marriage.

You can read the Book of Concord at http://www.bookofconcord.org

 

“Concord” is a weekly study of the Lutheran Confessions, where we will take up a topic from the Book of Concord and reflect on what we believe, teach, and confess in the Lutheran Church. The purpose of this series is to deepen readers’ knowledge and appreciation for the confessions of the Lutheran Church, and to unite them “with one heart” to confess the teachings of Holy Scripture.

Rev. Jacob Ehrhard is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in New Haven, MO.

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Current Events

Wars and Rumors of War

By Pr. Eric Brown

I woke up this morning to more reports of violence. More terrorism over the weekend, another mass shooting, places still devastated by natural disasters. Seems to be what we wake up to entirely too often. And so the question seems to be how do we as Christians react, respond to these tragedies – and I don’t mean here in terms of our charity or our giving. Yes, of course, go love your neighbor and help those who are suffering – but how do we approach this violence, how to we understand it as Christians?

The world responds to violence in a horrible way. I sat watching my news feed as bits and pieces of information came in – and everyone was just waiting for the political spin. Please don’t let the shooter be one of “us” – let him be one of “them” so we can talk about how they are dangerous and need to be stopped. The vultures were hovering waiting to toss out blame, waiting to rile up anger. There’s a tragedy – so do we get to attack today or are we going to be attacked?

Of course this is the way the world works. The world loves anger, loves a “good” fight to prove that we’re “right”. That’s the way it was in Jesus’ day. When Jesus rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He weeps. He cries out, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!” (Lk 19:43) Isn’t that what we see today? Peace is far from anyone’s mind – there’s been tragedy and instead of rushing to provide peace, we end up getting prepared for the next round of spin the blame wars that are sure to come. No peace, no real longing for peace – just people waiting for the chance to use tragedy to argue about how they were right and the other person was wrong and dangerous. No peace.

The very same Jesus who weeps is Himself the One who makes for peace, true and lasting peace. He is the One who goes to the Cross and dies for peace. He is the One who rises and appears to the disciples and speaks to them over and over again, “Peace be with you.” He is the one who come to you in bread and wine so that the Peace of the Lord would be with you always.

Always. Even when the news feed is full of shouts of angry shouts of blame. Even when there’s tragedy and disaster, one after another. And when they show up again, we in Christ need not try to pin the blame on our enemies. We know the root blame of tragedy and disaster. Jesus has taught us. When we see tragedies in the world, they remind us of sin – our own sin, our own need to repent (Lk 13:1-5). When we see “wars and rumors of war… famines and earthquakes” (Mt 24:6-7) and all sorts of troubles, these are reminders that Jesus will come to deliver us from this evil.

Whatever you see on the news, whatever bile you see people slinging at each other, the fact remains that Jesus has come and has made true peace. He has died and He has risen for you. He’s died for the sins of the whole world – even for the sins of the wicked, even for the sins of the suffering, even for the casters of blame. He’s died and risen even for the angry, the hurt, and the confused. He has died and risen for you, and He speaks His Word of peace to you over and over again in His Church so that you would know His peace, the peace that surpasses all human understanding.

Yes, there is darkness in the world. You’ll see that darkness as long as you live. You’ll be tempted to jump on in and toss your own darkness into the mix and throw shade at your enemies. But here is the greater truth: Christ Jesus has forgiven you all your sin and called you out of this darkness into His marvelous light. In Christ Jesus, you have life and light always – no matter what comes down the pike, no matter what people say. He is your life and your light, and He always will be for you are His and He is yours.

How do we as Christians make sense of tragedy? We remember our Lord who suffered Himself upon the Cross to rescue us from all sin and evil, who rose to give us life everlasting. This is ever our hope, no matter what we wake up to.

Rev. Eric Brown is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Herscher, Illinois and the co-host of the HT Gospeled Boldly Podcast.

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Lectionary Meditations

“They were watching [Jesus] carefully.” – A Meditation on Luke 14:1

By Rev. Eric Brown

“They were watching [Jesus] carefully.” – Luke 14:1

It was a trap. A cruel and mean trap. They had invited Jesus to Sabbath dinner, not because they wanted Him to enjoy Himself, not because they wanted to spend time with Him, but to trap Him. They were watching Him carefully to see if they could catch Him in a mistake and then crow about how terrible He was. They even went so far as to bait this trap by dangling a terribly ill man in front of Jesus.

Now, none of this bothers Jesus. Jesus does what Jesus does; He shows love and heals the man. He shows love and teaches the Pharisees, even after they go all awkwardly silent and want to ignore Him. Jesus remains the loving Lamb of God sent to take away the sins of the world, even the sins of those Pharisees were plotting against Him.

What are you looking to see when you look at Jesus? What are you hoping to find when you ponder His Word? Something to prove how you are right and the other people are wrong and bad? There are times we want to weaponize the Scriptures and use them against people – but taking the Pharisee’s approach isn’t the point. 

What the Scriptures really show is the real Jesus Christ, your Savior, who sees you at your lowest, your sin-filled-est, and yet in His mercy He would care for you and forgive you, washing you clean in Holy Baptism. He sees you in your humble estate and say to you, “Friend, come up higher” as He calls you to His feast in His own Supper. Jesus isn’t out to get you, even though we all would deserve anything He threw our way. Instead, Jesus looks upon you with favor to give you His peace.

Rev. Eric Brown is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Herscher, Illinois and the co-host of the HT Gospeled Boldly Podcast.

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Current Events

Trust in The Lord and Rely Not on Your Own Understanding

 

By Katelyn Hunt

With all of these natural disasters happening it simply seems fitting to talk about how God reveals himself in these tough times. We all want to talk about how bad the (insert natural disaster here) was, and simultaneously put on a brave face for everyone. A few weeks pass and we come to the sobering realization of what has happened and the only questions left are, “Why me?”, and, “Why would God do this?”

There is sin everywhere. It seems as though it is swallowing the world whole. But, when God says he’ll take away sin, he doesn’t say the sin of human beings and that’s it. He says he will take away the sin of the world. These wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes are a consequence of the power of sin. Devastation is a consequence of the power of sin. Why is this important to remember? Because when we ask, “Why me?”, the devil is winning. He has distracted us from the truth of God and uses these disasters to push God into our coat closet until we have time for him again.

The Holy spirit won’t let Satan win though. For as many people that are shoving God aside, there are ones that are sent out to spread the Gospel. Christ Jesus takes these devil-tempting events and uses us as his instruments to spread the Word of God. Sin may seem to be swallowing the world whole, but not forever. So when we ask, “Why me?”, remember that we sin every day and we are daily and abundantly forgiven. Instead of pushing God to the side during those times of crisis and temptation, turn to him and depend on the Holy Spirit to bring hope and comfort through the Gospel and his gifts to those who are suffering.

In the midst of so much change, there is something that should stay constant. For example, I was sitting in bible class the week after Harvey hit and my Pastor said “I got a call today and someone asked ‘what are we going to do now?’ and I simply said, ‘the same thing we always do.’” This really opened my eyes and taught me something I didn’t know I didn’t know. Many churches in the area were closing up or changing all of their service times because of the disaster, but we don’t need to change. We are simply sharing the Word of God about Savior Jesus and his gifts that is published in the Scriptures and there is nothing stronger and more comforting than that.

So instead of thinking about what we are doing, how we are doing, or why we are going through everything, be still and wait on the Holy Spirit to do his thing, and work through us to reveal Christ Jesus to those whose faith is weak, and those who don’t believe.

Katelyn Hunt studies journalism at Sam Houston State University.

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Lectionary Meditations

“Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still.” – A Meditation on Luke 7:14

By Rev. Eric Brown

“Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still.” – Luke 7:14

There are lots of different ways to think of or to describe what Jesus came to do. However, this text in Luke 7 gives us one of the most simple and beautiful ones imaginable. Jesus came to stop death in its tracks.

You have two crowds, two parades barge into each other. Jesus has a crowd following Him, but as He comes to a town called Nain, there’s another crowd. A funeral crowd. A widow has lost her only son, and that crowd is mournfully heading out to bury him. It’s really a depiction of a battle, of two armies crashing together: Christ versus death.

And what does Jesus do, how does He stop death? Jesus walks up and He touches the bier, the thing the body was carried upon. First of all, this wasn’t done. If you were a good Jewish boy you didn’t want to touch a dead body, and you certainly didn’t put your hands on the bier. But what does Jesus do? God become Man takes His Hand, His Body, and sticks it right up in death’s face, stops death cold. And then He speaks a Word, and the dead man hears and rises alive.

This is why Jesus became Man in the first place. Jesus came to stop death in its tracks not just one day outside of Nain, but for good when He was nailed to the wood of the Cross. Jesus rushed headlong into death itself with His own death, and He destroyed death from the inside. He rose on the third day, and thus when He comes again He will say to every single last one of us, even if we have long since died, “I say to you, arise.” And you will. Because Jesus stops death, and in its place gives life.

We often see the power of sin or death at play in this world. We see all sorts of things that are just flat out wrong, and we get caught up and battered by it all. But Jesus does not let them stand. He will put and end to them all, no matter how they have hurt and wronged you, and instead He will give you life. That is His gracious promise He made to you at your baptism, the gift He freely gives you.

Rev. Eric Brown is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Herscher, Illinois and the co-host of the HT Gospeled Boldly Podcast.

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Current Events

To Help and Serve Our Neighbor

In light of recent events in South Texas (where I live), I thought this would be the perfect subject to start off with. The hurricane was devastating and destroyed countless homes and hurt more people than we could ever imagine. When we were all catching cabin fever by day four everyone was ready to get out and help. Help by making food, donating supplies, gutting houses, and so many other things. Something I noticed was all of the college-aged students showing off the way they helped and then sticking some random bible verse on it about how they were doing it for God and that since they volunteered God had their back next time.

That’s just not how it works, folks. Who are we really trying to impress? God or our friends? Our friends are the ones commenting on our Instagram post and replying to our Snapchat story. Of course, it’s great to get out and help our neighbor. I mean, “Love thy neighbor as thy self” and what not. However, when that’s the case, we probably are not doing it to help our neighbor, especially if we are searching for praise afterward. The only thing we are doing then is trying to convince everyone else we are better than them. This is more than just the whole Harvey Fiasco this is something we as sinners do daily.

It’s fun to get involved in an organization, and obviously advertising things we do is a way to get others to join whatever it is your organization does. However, if we are simply joining an organization to try to show everyone how awesome we are, and how great all of these things we are doing are, we’re not doing it as a work of the Holy Spirit, but to boost the way we appear to others. Maybe we think if we go out and join an organization dedicated to serving others God will help us out. But, God does not have our back here and there, He has our back every moment of every day. It’s simple, look at the word, God does not say, “Do good things and then I’ll help you.” No. Our sanctification is done. We are on a path that God leads us down. His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. [Psalm 119:105] We as sinners constantly veer off this path and God as our Shepherd guides us back. He is ever-present and unfailing. He sent His Son to die for us and rise again. He is our Salvation. We are baptized and it is done because of the death and resurrection of Christ on the cross.

Our works are done by the Holy Spirit within us. We do good things because we are guided to good works by God, not because it saves us a little more. Christ will do the work within and through us. We do not boast then in the good we do but we are humbled and lead forward continuously by our Heavenly Father so that we may help and love our neighbor.

 

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Catechesis

Why Should We Sing?

By Monica Berndt

Since the beginning of the Reformation, the Lutheran Church around the world has consistently allotted a portion of time during the Divine Service to the singing of hymns. Why? What is the reason for singing hymns as a congregation instead of letting a choir sing all the music, or why not just take hymns out altogether? After all, people can be self-conscience about singing in public, and, it takes time out of the service where we should be listening to a pastor speak the Word of God, right? Hymns do take up a large portion of our services, and we should understand why it is good for us to sing them.

When most of you were in grade school, you had to memorize the 50 U.S states and/or the names of all the U.S Presidents. To help you, your teachers probably had you memorize a song that included these names which you could sing with a CD, and have running through your head during the day. This helped you easily remember all the information the teacher wanted you to memorize by singing that song. Combining words with music helps our brains remember important facts and information better than just reciting them, which is why schools use music to teach us the presidents, and VBS and Sunday School use tunes to help us memorize Bible passages. But learning information this way is not just a tool for children, it is also one of the reasons we sing hymns.

Hymns are not just praise songs. Like the rest of the Divine Service, hymns remind us about Jesus, the redemption He won for us on the cross, and the gifts He continues to give us. Before church, look at the words to the hymns you will sing. Almost all of them will mention something about Jesus’ death, resurrection, and the gift of the Holy Spirit to create faith. Communion hymns tend to talk about the forgiveness of sins given to us in the Lord’s Supper. Hymns sung at during a baptism not only speak of the baptism taking place that day, but also remind all of us of our own baptisms and the assurance of forgiveness we received there. Hymns sung before the sermon have words that tie into the points your pastors want to emphasize during their sermons. Hymns always tie into what is said during the Divine Service and point us to Christ.

In this capacity, hymns are a bit like memory songs for the church. Many people have difficulty remembering long Bible passages and parts of the catechism, but most people can sing their favorite hymn from memory. They can then quote those hymns, recalling all the promises of Jesus who died and rose for them. The more often you sing a hymn in church, the more likely you are to remember it outside of church where you can sing it at home or while you go about your daily tasks. This will remind you of the words and works of God that are spoken every Sunday during the rest of the service. So why should we sing hymns? Because they help us remember what Jesus has done for us!

Monica Berndt is a member at Messiah Lutheran Church in Seattle, WA and serves as the music director there. She is studying music and history at the University of Washington and loves to talk about Medieval History and why she loves hymnals. She can be reached at acinomtdnreb@gmail.com.