A stranger coming into our church might be forgiven for mistaking our liturgy for an Anglican or Lutheran one. Yet I’m not afraid of becoming Episcopalian because our liturgy is not “essentially the same” as an “Episcopalian” (that is, a squishy, Scripture-avoidant mainline) liturgy, any more than Luther’s Deutsche Masse was the “same” as the Catholic Mass because they shared structural similarities. For Luther and for us, this isn’t merely a matter of fresh wine in old wineskins, fresh “content” that leaves old “forms” intact. The new “content” of the Lutheran divine service made the liturgy a different event. As Catholics recognized at the time, something different was being done in the Lutheran Mass: What was being done was Word and Table, God speaking to His people and the Father feeding His people His Son by the Spirit. So, if he sticks around, that stranger who mistakes us for Episcopalians will soon enough learn otherwise, and if he never actually recognizes the differences it won’t matter. God will be speaking to Him and God will be feeding Him whether he understands what’s happening or not. And soon enough he will lose all his fears of becoming “Episcopalian.”
Read the full article here.
No comments:
Post a Comment