Sacraments: Liturgical Tack-ons or Life of the Church?
What do you want?
What do you want from worship? Christian worship should be more... visual, upbeat, exciting, emotional, practical, personal. Others just want worship to be over by kickoff, something a late service baptism and celebration of Holy Communion make impossible!
God anticipated these issues and has something to say (the Word) and something to give (the Sacraments). Long before mandatory immersions or ages of accountability, God spoke with water, "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Long before ministry best-sellers advised the church on what "to do" in worship, Jesus said with bread and wine, "Take and eat. Take and drink. This is my body. This is my blood. Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins." God gives. His people receive. God's approach to his people has not changed over the years. Ours dare not either.
Let's face it: we Lutherans are simply different from many of the "popular" churches in town. That's not a polemical statement. It's simply true. Confessional Lutherans are different. Our sermons, packed with objective justification, aren't welcome in Reformed pulpits. Our corporate confession of sin and pronouncement of absolution makes many churchgoers shudder. Our doctrinal hymnody brings yawns to faces that prefer "praise" without substantial proclamation. Our creeds are a horror to churches that take pride in their inclusiveness. But what really sets us apart as confessional Lutherans is our focus, use, and dependence on the Sacraments:
Our churches teach that the Sacraments were instituted to awaken and confirm faith in those who use them. Therefore, we must use the sacraments in such a way that faith, which believes the promises offered and set forth through the sacraments, is increased. (2 Thessalonians 1:3). We sit at God's feet and he serves us with his gospel in its threefold form (Word, Baptism, Supper).
