When we gather together to consider the Lord�s work together and in our own fields of work, there are many questions we ask ourselves and each other about how things are going, about the status of our work, the church in the world, and how we can be faithful to the Lord�s calling to preach the Gospel to all nations. It is easy for us to get caught up in numbers: budget, membership, attendance. Those numbers are important and do tell us, humanly speaking, something about what we are doing and how we are doing, though Jeremiah and Elijah are good reminders for us of how we should approach such reports. "The Lord knows those who are His" (2Ti 2:19). He calls on us to be faithful. We look at reports of the work in our synods with deep humility, true gratitude to the Lord, and with prayer that the Lord will bring salvation to lost souls through us, His earthen vessels, despite our failings, and only by the power of His holy Word and His Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life. Where we have been unfaithful or not done as we should and the Lord says: "You have been foolish", there we say: "Lord, have mercy." Where the Lord sees our meager efforts through the merits of Christ and says: "Well done, good and faithful servant", then we say: "We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do" (Luke 17:10), and we thank God for the undeserved blessings He has bestowed upon us.

In our materialistic society, it is easy to turn our minds also to earthly things. In a day when "evangelical" is a term used more for law-preachers than gospel-preachers, in a day when the beloved names Lutheran and even Christian seem so empty, it is easy to become discouraged, to be distracted from our real treasures, to wonder why our churches aren�t like other churches. The Lord wants us to be faithful with what has been given to us. The Lord has given us forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, purchased by the holy blood of His only-begotten Son, and distributed to us through His precious Word and Sacraments. In our Lutheran church we have so rich a treasure for which to thank the Lord. Not only do we have the rich doctrinal heritage of the gospel, restored by Luther and sustained by the Formulators and dogmaticians, but we also have the most beautiful tapestry of liturgy and hymns, so that the Lutheran church is called the singing church. Only in the Lutheran church do the Sacraments find the central place given to them by the Lord of grace. Only in the Lutheran church is the proper distinction between Law and Gospel regarded so highly that it is an inseparable part of our dogmatics, homiletics, catechetics, and (so importantly!) our pastoral care.

When I am asked if the Lutheran church is high-church, I can�t help but tend to answer in the positive. Though among us there are what some might call "high-churchmen" and "low-churchmen", I�m sure that all of our pastors want to do the works of God in a churchly and dignified manner. In the New Testament we are free from prescribed ceremonial rituals, yet the pattern of Old Testament and New Testament worship suggests solemnity and dignity, and directs order and decency. The design of the structure and services of the Tabernacle and the Temple must strike us with awe by their beauty, glory, and refinement. An American protestant preacher would not feel comfortable in the elaborate robes of the high priest, or even presenting incense or blood before the Lord. A Lutheran clergyman understands that when he stands before the altar or in the pulpit, he is to be speaking the oracles of God, he is handling holy mysteries, he is dispensing forgiveness and eternal life. One modern "evangelistic" preacher might work his crowd to an emotional frenzy, calling them to repent and live right, giving their lives to the Lord. Another will pump up his followers to be successful and happy. What have we learned from them? Do we try to imitate them? It surely can be tempting. Have we studied them and analyzed what they are really saying? How does a Lutheran service differ? How does the task of the Lutheran preacher differ? Can "Evangelical" style (here referring to those groups who today call themselves "Evangelicals") coexist with Lutheran substance, as the title of David Luecke�s book suggests? I would say: "No." Harold Senkbeil gives the same response in his Sanctification: Christ in Action, published by Northwestern Publishing House.

A Lutheran service should be different and distinct. It will of necessity have elements in common with Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Protestantism; but it will be distinct from all three as well. Our ELS fathers were concerned about this, and for that reason included Chapter 1 in our Synod�s By-Laws which states:

The "genius" of Lutheran worship is in understanding how God deals with us lost sinners: through the means of grace. In the Old Testament God put His name on the people through His covenant, through the services of the Tabernacle, through the Aaronic blessing: "In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you" (Exo 20:24, Num 6:24-27). The Lord also promised to put His name in the Temple that Solomon would build, and at the Temple dedication the Lord said to Solomon: "I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have sanctified this house which you have built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually" (1Ki 9:3). Today God continues to put His name where we gather together around His Word and Sacraments, where He has promised to come to us. That is the emphasis of God�s Divine Service, not from man to God, but from God to man. It is a false view to say that the Divine Service (a better designation than "Worship Service") is the "work of the people", a mistranslation of liturgy (leitourgiva). Rather it is a "work for the people", performed by God Himself through His chosen servant. Liturgy is not a work done by the people as a service to God as in the Protestant tradition, nor a work done by the priest on behalf of the people to God as in the papist sacrifice of the mass. It is God�s Service to us: Gottesdienst, Gudstjeneste.

In a similar way, our Lutheran Catechism lays this out so plainly that we should never waver from it.

At the same time we must realize that these two elements, though distinct and separate, cannot always be easily or artificially "separated." As preachers, we must work diligently to present law and gospel, sacrifice and sacrament, in proper distinction. But in the hearts of the people this is the work of the One who searches the heart, truly to tear down and to build up at the proper time, the proper place, and the proper way. It must remain an unfathomable mystery that the cross is both stumbling block and salvation at the same time, as Paul makes so clear to the Corinthians: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1Co 1:18). But God confounds the wise and makes use of us in our faltering simplicity.

There are probably two extremes in Lutheranism regarding the Divine Service, both of which are based on a false understanding of liturgics and our Lutheran heritage. There is the spirit that says one must follow only the words printed on page 15 or 41 (or whatever page begins the liturgy) and not waver a jot or tittle. In actuality there is no one who can do this, because no one follows the text and order exactly as printed, and even if they tried, rubrics at so many turns call for the use of one of several choices (even if it is the choice of speak or chant). Thus the liturgy becomes once again almost a Roman canon, ruled by jurists schooled in their own opinions. At the other end of the spectrum one might find those who wish to throw out the Lutheran liturgy altogether as being too archaic and not speaking to today�s people. Such people would start with the premise and guiding principle that, since all this liturgical stuff is adiaphora, therefore it is unimportant or not necessary to keep at all. Their services quickly become like those of the Protestants and Pentecostals: shapeless, anthropocentric and self-flattering for their authors. I suppose Luther might have made the same claim about liturgy being "unimportant" and might have discontinued the use of the Mass for his Renaissance Saxons. But he saw that the basic text of the Mass is timeless and Scriptural, and so his reforms were informed and conservative, excising only the canon because it was false. If we were to study the liturgy and hymns of our church, we too would discover their timelessness and Scriptural source and content, and we would not want to venture off into inflexibility or uninformed informality. Though liturgy and church ceremonies fall into the category of adiaphora, that does not mean they are unimportant or that one can and should throw them away whenever we feel like it. The traditional liturgy and ceremonies of the Lutheran church are Christocentric. Most attempts to devise "new" liturgies week after week have tremendous difficulty keeping that Christocentric character. Hermann Sasse urges us to study and learn the liturgy.

What we hold before the people of God on Sunday morning is eternally important. "Favorite" hymns and "praise music" will not do. What suffices for the people of God is the pure Gospel of forgiveness through the blood of Christ, delivered to them in the means of grace. In other words, the hymnody and preaching of the Lutheran church presents not a warm and fuzzy Jesus who is buddy and friend, but Jesus, the Son of God, who shed His blood on the cross and gives us in His Sacraments and Word the salvation He won on Golgotha once for all. In this way we come as prodigals back to the Father�s welcoming arms; and in the embrace of our heavenly Father we come to long for the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit that brings forth fruits of faith in our lives.

Perhaps in the area of homiletics is where the Lutheran church has been the strongest in its understanding of the sacramental character of worship in the Holy Christian Church. The Reformation of the 16th century restored preaching to its rightful place of importance in the church. And the church today in all denominations has been affected positively by this restoration. The Roman Catholic council, Vatican II, is in some senses a 20th-century response to the Reformation, with many liturgical reforms including emphasis on better preaching. The early Lutheran reformers� emphasis on preaching and teaching the Gospel had far-reaching effects throughout Europe, and today, through the world.

At the same time, the Lutheran church has an understanding of preaching that is distinct from other denominations as well. The Lutheran church recognizes the sermon as one of the sacramental parts of the Divine Service through which God offers and gives forgiveness of sins and strengthening of faith. It is not an emotional tirade, a means to change society, nor a pronouncement of church law. We should not fall into the misuse of preaching that typifies the protestant "Evangelicals" who elevate preaching to the highest "sacrament" and yet so abuse and misuse law and gospel that their preaching does much harm to their hearers. Moving the pulpit to the center of the chancel does not reflect a Lutheran understanding of the gospel or the Divine Service, for it would give the impression that the sermon is the most important or the only important element of the Divine Service. Rather, the sermon finds its place alongside and in harmony with the Absolution, the Scripture lessons, and the Sacraments, as sacramental elements of the Service that deliver the blessings of the Gospel from God to His people. These elements fit together as means of grace. "The sacrament is the verbum visibile (visible Word); the Word is the sacramentum audibile, the audible and heard sacrament." Neither should we fall into the denigration and neglect of preaching often encountered in the Roman and Eastern Orthodox churches where the sermon becomes a list of church laws or traditions and a reminder of the obligations on the faithful in the week to come. Thanks be to God that there are exceptions to this in those communions, and that fine Christian preaching of the gospel is found in their churches at times. But in general, the distinction between Law and Gospel is not well known there.

Luther�s understanding of the distinction between Law and Gospel shines forth clearly in the preaching done in the Lutheran church. Of course, that statement is a bit idealistic because we all at times fall short in making this distinction, but we would hope that all Lutheran preachers strive to keep this distinction clear for themselves and for their hearers. The preaching in our Lutheran congregations should be neither the "dreary preaching of the Puritans" nor the legalism or mysticism of the papists, which both so easily go along with a lack of understanding concerning Law and Gospel and the means of grace. Lutheran preaching will be evangelical in that the Gospel predominates, and it will be sacramental because that Gospel emphasis proclaims "the wonderful works of God" (Act 2:11), "that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God" (2Co 5:19-20). Consider also the Augsburg Confession�s statement regarding preaching:

Just to take one example, it is easy, when preaching, to give a false description of a Christian. Walther warns against this in Thesis XVII: "God�s Word is not rightly divided when believers are pictured in a way that does not fit all believers at all times with regard both to strength of faith and to the feelings and the fruitfulness connected with it." And he gives this as part of his explanation:

A correct understanding of preaching in liturgical churches is that it is not primarily to be done for evangelism, for most of the hearers are Christians already, nor is it primarily to be a lecture in Christian theology, but it is to fit within a grand continuum of godly devotion of God�s faithful people. It is to be a part of the liturgy and proclaim the Gospel as clearly as does the Gloria in excelsis or the Te Deum laudamus. There is no finer preaching of the Gospel and the saving work of the Holy Trinity than in these two canticles of the Church.

The usual task of the Christian preacher in the Divine Service is not to proclaim the gospel for the first time, but to proclaim the gospel to people who are already Christians, who are at the same time saints and sinners. There are many opportunities for preachers and laity to introduce the gospel to others, but the Divine Service is not the usual place for this. Erik Routley, an English Congregational preacher known for his work in Christian hymnology, puts it this way:

As the Divine Service is a wonderfully-arranged presentation of Holy Scripture, the sermon should also breathe with Scriptural language and allusion in all its parts. As part of the Divine Service the sermon will also fit itself into the order of service by referring to parts of the service appropriate to the text and theme of the day. Consider the following description of Anglican Evensong and whether it is an apt description of the Divine Service as celebrated among us.

Another benefit of the traditional lectionary is that it provides for proclaiming the whole counsel of God and avoiding the pastor�s pet topics. Very rarely have I preached on free texts. Very rarely have I had to preach on free texts. Even when asked to preach for special occasions or under special circumstances, the Church Year has provided an astounding source of material appropriate to the occasion. Remember that Walther said our preaching should fit all believers at all times.

Sacramental preaching also emphasizes the Means of Grace. Lutheran sermons will have frequent reference to our state as baptized Christians, who constantly receive the Lord�s absolution, and who are regularly refreshed with the Heavenly Feast of Christ�s Holy Table. We will preach about prayer (Rogate, Easter 6) and about good works in their proper understanding (Trinity 25), as well as evangelism and mission work (Epiphany season), Christian education (Epiphany 1), and many other topics. The Church Year itself provides ample opportunity and direction for this. But the sermon will always direct God�s people to the source of their comfort and strength for this life and the life to come: the Gospel in Word and Sacraments. Truly sacramental preaching declares the wonderful works of God, creates in us clean hearts, and prepares for Christian life on earth and eternal glory in heaven. Walther states this also in Thesis IX:

Our preaching should also be in accord with the one Holy Christian Church. The Reformation of the 16th century has had an enormous impact on the preaching done in the church since that time, but we make a grave error if we think that there was no true preaching before 1517 or before 1850 or 1971. The early church had remarkable preachers as well, whose works and reputation are still preserved and honored: Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine, Cyril of Jerusalem, and John of Damascus. There were also Bernard of Clairvaux, Savonarola, Wycliffe, and Hus. We do well to study their works and learn from their words and their style. This does not mean that our preaching should be exactly like theirs, but we can learn from their work how to understand the doctrines of Scripture and how to draw on the whole of Scripture to proclaim the whole counsel of God. In the Middle Ages there were preaching monks who went around proclaiming and teaching the Word of God, especially as summarized in early Catechisms. Besides the monastic office services, like Matins and Vespers, there was also a preaching office called Prone. If the hymns Jesus, The Very Thought of Thee and Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts, ascribed to Bernard of Clairvaux, is an indication of his preaching, then the Gospel was proclaimed clearly by some even in the Middle Ages. Concerning Bernard of Clairvaux, Luther says: "If there ever has lived a truly God-fearing and pious monk, then St. Bernard was such a one, whom I rank higher than all monks and popes in all the world, and I have never heard or read of anyone that can be compared with him."

Besides learning from the early church fathers and the preachers and hymn-writers of the Middle Ages, certainly every Lutheran preacher should frequently and regularly read sermons by sound Lutheran teachers: Luther, Gerhard, Laache, Walther, Koren, etc. And especially a regular reading of Walther�s Proper Distinction Of Law and Gospel will keep our preaching focused on Law and Gospel, and keep it sacramental in nature, not legalistic, but truly evangelical, genuine preaching of the Gospel as Christ has sent us to do.

We must avoid all mingling of Law and Gospel. We cannot delude ourselves into thinking that we are preaching the Gospel if we simply use the word "Gospel" or "Savior" in our sermon. If we preach only about how we have the Gospel and are to share it with others, but do not clearly expound what the Gospel is and apply its sweet medicine to our hearers, then we have preached about the Gospel, but we have not preached the Gospel. The Gospel points the believer to Christ as Savior who takes away all our sins. Preachers of the Gospel direct people to the means of grace to receive the blessings of the Gospel: forgiveness, spiritual strength, and eternal life. The Gospel is all promise, all blessing, all giving from God­offering and delivering life and salvation­making no demands at all. Walther�s Thesis V states:

Above all, Walther�s final thesis (XXV) must be kept in mind when writing every single sermon: "God�s Word is not rightly divided when the preacher does not let the Gospel predominate." Here Walther draws from sermons in Scripture itself:

Here I must proceed with the greatest caution, for, as we all know, prayer is not "sacramental" and must not be confused as or considered a "means of grace." And yet, our Lutheran theology and approach to worship will also direct our use of prayer in the Divine Service. Prayer is an important aspect of worship in the Christian Church, as we learn from 1 Timothy 2:1-2: "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence." It is even more striking when we remember that Paul�s encouragement here, and also Peter�s in his epistles, were made under Roman emperors who were already beginning to persecute Christians.

Prayer is a sacrificial part of the service, but properly-worded prayers also reflect the sacramental emphasis of the Lutheran theology of worship. The perfect prayer, of course, is the one taught by our Lord. The Lord�s Prayer has been called the greatest martyr, because it is often said so routinely and without thought. Perhaps we might consider the second-greatest martyr then to be the General Prayer. The larger problem here is not that it is said without thought, but that it is not said at all. Too often it is omitted for the sake of time or other various reasons. The General Prayer is, or is based on, the Litany. This is surely a time in the church and in the world when prayer is very much needed.

By skipping the General Prayer, we may also be giving the impression that prayer really isn�t all that important. The old Church Orders and Church Ritual used prayers frequently in the Divine Service, even using the Lord�s Prayer repeated at several places in the same service: with the opening prayer, before the sermon text, after the General Prayer, during the Communion liturgy, and with the closing prayer. Now it is considered best not to pray the Lord�s Prayer more than once in a service. It is not vain repetition; it is not done "thinking that they are heard for their many words," but it is invoking God�s blessings on all parts of our worship. It is ritual properly used, but not ritualistic.

Some have tried to devise a series of General Prayers for the Church Year. This can be done as long as they contain the same thoughts and thrust of the General Prayer. If they become another collect or Prayer of the Day, then they defeat the purpose of the General Prayer, which is to pray for our congregation, the whole Church, and all people. In this prayer we "pray for the Church and for all people according to their needs." One pastor comments:

The Lutheran church has been truly blessed by God with a rich treasury of liturgy, hymnody, preaching, and praying. We are not a sect, but we understand and recognize ourselves as part of the Church catholic, the one Holy Christian and Apostolic Church. At the same time we realize that there is a difference between our theology and that of other denominations in many ways. Our treasures are in the understanding of sacramental and sacrificial elements in the Divine Service, in understanding the Word and Sacraments as powerful and efficacious means of grace, and in the proper distinction between Law and Gospel. And we look forward to the marriage feast of heaven when the Bride will be joined to Christ Himself and will enjoy the great sacramentum of the marriage feast of the Lamb.

Honored Sir,

This morning I received your worthy letter, written on the 19th of the month. In your letter you ask for my opinion on whether it is advisable to introduce the singing of Methodist songs in a Lutheran Sunday School. May what follows serve as a helpful reply to your questions:

No, this is not advisable, rather very incorrect and pernicious.

1. Our church is so rich in hymns that you could justifiably state that if one were to introduce Methodist hymns in a Lutheran school this would be like carrying coals to Newcastle. The singing of such hymns would make the rich Lutheran Church into a beggar which is forced to beg from a miserable sect. Thirty or forty years ago a Lutheran preacher might well have been forgiven this. For at that time the Lutheran Church in our country was in as poor as beggar when it comes to song books for Lutheran children. A preacher scarcely knew where he might obtain such little hymn books. Now, however, since our church itself has everything it needs, it is unpardonable when a preacher of our church causes little ones to suffer the shame of eating a foreign bread.

2. A preacher of our church also has the holy duty to give souls entrusted to his care pure spiritual food, indeed, the very best which he can possibly obtain. In Methodist songs there is much which is false, and which contains spiritual poison for the soul. Therefore, it is soul-murder to set before children such poisonous food. If the preacher claims, that he allows only "correct" hymns to be sung, this does not excuse him. For, first of all, the true Lutheran spirit is found in none of them; second, our hymns are more powerful, more substantive, and more prosaic; third, those hymns which deal with the Holy Sacraments are completely in error; fourth, when these little sectarian hymnbooks come into the hands of our children, they openly read and sing false hymns.

3. A preacher who introduces Methodist hymns, let alone Methodist hymnals, raises the suspicion that he is no true Lutheran at heart, and that he believes one religion is as good as the other, and that he thus a unionistic-man, a mingler of religion and churches.

4. Through the introduction of Methodist hymn singing he also makes those children entrusted to his care of unionistic sentiment, and he himself leads them to leave the Lutheran Church and join the Methodists.

5. By the purchase of Methodist hymn books he subsidizes the false church and strengthens the Methodist fanatics in their horrible errors. For the Methodists will think, and quite correctly so, that if the Lutheran preachers did not regard our religion as good as, or indeed, even better than their own, they would not introduce Methodist hymn books in their Sunday schools, but rather would use Lutheran hymn books.

6. By introducing Methodist hymn books, the entire Lutheran congregation is given great offense, and the members of the same are lead to think that Methodists, the Albright people, and all such people have a better faith than we do.

This may be a sufficient answer regarding this dismal matter. May God keep you in the true and genuine Lutheran faith, and help you not to be misled from the same, either to the right or to the left.

Your unfamiliar, yet known friend, in the Lord Jesus Christ,

C. F. W. Walther

St. Louis, Missouri

January 23, 1883

Translated by M. Harrison

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Reprinted by permission

While it is true that preaching was not often part of the medieval mass, it is not true that there was little preaching in the medieval Church. But the preaching was seldom done by the parochial clergy. Many of whom were trained only to say mass. It was done by monks, some of whom gained sizable reputations as itinerant preachers; an obvious example is St. Bernard of Clairvaux. These men would deliver series of sermons in a local church much in the style of a present-day preaching mission.

Preaching services were part of the Gallican tradition from the sixth century; their roots are uncertain. They were from the pulpit, which in pre-Reformation churches, was in the nave, where people could gather around. Their form was freer than the eucharistic liturgy, and usually they were vernacular services. Latin sermons were preached, of course, where schools or universities offered a learned congregation.

Part of the liturgical reform under Charlemagne was an emphasis on preaching. He ordered sermons to be preached within the eucharistic liturgy, where they were to exert a strong educational influence. For pedagogical reasons the sermon was followed by the Creed, the Our Father, and the Decalog.

Out of these elements a paraliturgy called the Prone (Pronaus) developed within the mass itself. Into its orbit came also the public confession (as preparation for Communion), the Ave Maria, and hymns that were at first Leisen attached to the Kyries of the Intercessions. A highly evolved form of the Prone is reflected in this outline from Basel: (1) Latin "In nomine�," (2) Sermon text in Latin, (3) German Votum with congregational "Amen," (4) Text in German, (5) Invocation of the Holy Spirit, (6) Sermon, (7) Parish notices, (8) Prayer of the Church, (9) Our Father and Ave Maria, (10) Apostles� Creed, (11) Decalog, (12) Public Confession, (13) Closing Votum. A simpler structure is this form from Biberach: (1) Bells rung, (2) Ave Maria, (3) Reading of the Holy Gospel, (4) Sermon on the Gospel, (5) Parish notices, (6) Public Confession, (7) Giving Holy Water, (8) Hymn, if feast day. [This part is quoted from Leiturgia, III, pp. 23-24: Eberhard Weismann, "Der Predigtgottesdient und die verwandten Formen."]

It is not surprising that such a developed service separated itself from the mass. The Prone was often done before the mass; sometimes it was altogether independent. By the 15th century the importance of the preaching service is reflected in the establishment in large churches and foundations of the office of preacher (Praedikaturen). Preachers had only minor liturgical responsibilities and were comparatively well trained theologically. In the 16th century, it was through these preachers that the Reformation often made its first appearance.