Download DAVID: I would like to go in a slightly new direction

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LUTHERAN WORSHIP 2
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>> DAVID: I would like to go in a slightly new direction.
How do the confessional principles help us with questions
of place and furnishings for worship?
>> DR. JAMES BRAUER: Good question. Place, furnishings,
and the principles. Our central principle, as you recall,
is that Christian worship develops around this
justification by grace through faith. Since God's actions
are central in this, the place of worship often is going to
feature the places where God acts. Now, it's true,
Christians can worship most anywhere. We've had services,
at least I've been to them, out in the open in a field. We
just set up the stage and things that we need and people
gather and do the service. We know that early Christians
could worship in a house. We know that they could even
worship in the catacombs. I've worshiped in a gym that
simply had the lines removed from the floor. This doesn't
make the event.
But when we want a place to come and worship regularly, we
have certain arrangements that we want to say what's
important to us. So the central idea is this: that the
means of grace places are the places of God in the room. So
in this space, we have here an altar. We have a pulpit. We
don't happen to have a font in this room, but in a typical
congregation, there will be a font also. The word, the
preaching, can have a lectern or pulpit. The sacrament can
have a font and then the altar for a place for the Lord's
Supper to be distributed from.
Those become the central places. God is among us with his
means of grace doing his work by the power of the Holy
Spirit. This is what we want to be going on. This is
reflected in a little hymn that *Jarislad Vida wrote for
the dedication of our chapel here at Concordia Seminary St.
Louis. I'm not going to read all the stanzas, but at the
font he wrote for us, "Here at the font, we pause to mark
the start and cause of our new life in Christ. We are new
creatures now, coheirs of God's sure vow. Where God is,
there is life. Each time the sign is made, each time your
name is said when fear or pain is rife recall this child
you are that God is never far. Where God is, there is
life." So the font is our birthplace.
Now, the altar is the place of the feast. So we can have
words like this reflect what goes on there. "Come home, our
Father calls, beloved prodigals, come to the happy feast.
See everything prepared, no cost, no effort spared. Where
God is, there is peace. Once lost, now reconciled, each one
God's precious child. The blessings never cease in the
God's close family of caring unity. Where God is, there is
peace.” And so we say the peace of the Lord be with you
always as we move toward the altar and receiving.
Also the place of the word, and here we think the pulpit.
"The word who made all things whose praise creation sings
who sends the spirit dove reveals the heart and mind of God
for mankind. Where God is, there is love. God's Angels
still proclaim that one that saving name in whom we live
and move, who hears them and believes eternal life
receives. Where God is, there is love. So that the whole
house,” as he puts it in his final stanza, "This house with
all its parts reflects in faithful hearts the glory of the
Lord what memories are stirred by sight and sound and word
to glorify the Lord. "
The glory of the Lord is what he did in Jesus Christ. When
it is preached, it is the glory of the Lord. When it's
delivered in word and sacrament, it is the glory of the
Lord. When it’s praised, when it’s prayed into the lives of
people, it is the glory of the Lord. This is what he wants
done. That's what those are central places among us.
Obviously, there's going to be a place for people. There's
going to be places for music to be made and there added to
the spaces. So the central principle at work is this: that
God is justifying us by grace through faith as we hear and
receive him and his forgiveness in each occasion. And
that's what he wants to be going on. So his places are
central.