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CHAPTER III

The "Liturgical Renewal" and Adventism

IN OUR historical survey of Christian worship, we saw the pendulum swing from the spontaneity of early church worship to the formalism of medieval worship and back to the spontaneity of reformed worship. We shall watch that pendulum as it swings part way back in the direction of formalism.

In the Time magazine of December 22, 1961, appeared an article entitled "Liturgical Renaissance" describing in part the same phenomena that the title of our chapter includes under "Liturgical Renewal." Another name given to this movement is Liturgical Revival. By whichever name we call it, we are describing a trend of the past century toward more liturgy in Protestant worship.

The Time article begins by describing a Christmas service held at the St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Chicago. This service included "four choral Eucharists, at which all the prayers and responses will be sung in plain chant." The pastor was to dress "in full Eucharistic vestments—alb, stole, maniple and chasuble, all in white." "Candles, as well as a Cross, will be carried in processions that begin and end the services." This same Lutheran church, the article states, "has instituted daily morning prayer, Communion service on Sundays and saints' days, an evening vigil at Easter; private confession is available to any parishioner who wants it."

And lest the reader might think this Lutheran church an exception, the article goes on to say:

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"Across the country among Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Lutherans, a radical reform in both the form and content of religious services is now under way. It is a liturgical revival that both goes back to primitive Christianity in its emphasis on the Communion service as the central sacrament of worship and, at the same time, is immensely sophisticated in welcoming back much of the traditional richness of the church."

The article recalls how "the Protestant Reformation emphasized the preaching of God's word in sermons at the expense of sacramental worship." "In church architecture, the pulpit replaced the altar as the focus of congregational interest. But U.S. Protestantism, notably since World War II, has begun to turn sharply away from this kind of religious individualism." The characteristics of this so-called "Renaissance" are listed in some detail:

First, the Communion service is replacing the sermon as the central item in the order of worship. Second, the ecclesiastical calendar is being restored. Third, vestments are being worn by a growing percentage of the clergy. Fourth, the pulpit is being moved "from a central position to one side, placing the new focus on the Communion table."

Thus we see the accomplishments of the Protestant Reformation being nullified, one after another. In describing this trend Dr. Robert S. Michaelsen, dean of the School of Religion, Iowa University, says:

"An examination of such factors as church architecture, the organization of the service, the curricula of the seminaries, and the books read by the minister would indicate some of the changes taking place in the conception and practice of the Protestant ministry in this century. Very few churches are building mammoth auditoriums with pulpits at the center of the chancel. The chancel is likely to be divided with pulpit on one side, lectern on the other, and altar in the center. Sermons are shorter than they were a generation or two ago. More of the service is given over to prayers, confessions, responsive readings, Scripture readings, and singing."—R. Niebuhr, ed., The Ministry in Historical Perspective, p. 285. 

Jones closes his chapter in which he discusses this liturgical 

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revival by pointing out that it was about 350 years from the days of Jesus until the early church departed radically "from the simple, spiritual, evangelical worship which was originally used." Then he recalls that it was about 350 years from the time the Protestant Reformation reached its climax until the beginning of the liturgical reforms here described. He asks, "Is history . . . repeating itself? . . . Must liturgical worship again replace evangelical worship?"

Why have the Protestant churches of today departed from the ways of worship of the Reformation and reverted to the forms of earlier centuries? The answer is a complex one, but an effort must be made to discover some of the reasons.

Part of the explanation lies in the realm of psychology. Massey Shepherd, the most prolific modern writer pushing the liturgical renewal, takes the position that free, spontaneous devotion is for "spiritual athletes who keep themselves in condition, so to speak, by intense cultivation of the interior life of prayer" (The Chaplain, April, 1961). "Yet," he continues, "we know that to sustain such free worship at a level of excellence, over extended periods of time, demands an almost superhuman genius of spiritual leadership. In fact, it cannot be done except amongst the most intimate and disciplined groups."

In other words, highly liturgical worship demands less spiritual stature on the part of the worshiper than evangelical worship. The "props" of liturgy appeal to man's sensual side. Evangelical worship is mature and spiritual. It is, as Jones defines it, "what a thinking man does as he approaches another thinking being called God." It demands the full use of the mental faculties. It is intended to change people's minds through the processes of persuasion.

One of the basic principles of Protestantism is the priesthood of all believers. This means that a man may make direct, unmediated approach to God. This in itself is a challenge to man's mind. Man is a responsible person. When he worships, he is not merely enjoying the aura of psychologically induced sensations. He is approaching God as a thinking person. Is this concept to be replaced by the idea of liturgy as a crutch for the minister? Must he use prepared prayers? Must the service be prescribed, requiring little 

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originality on his part? In response to the argument that evangelical worship expects too much of the minister, Jones says:

"And it should be said quite frankly that there is no reason whatever for entrusting preaching, pastoral care, and other forms of leadership to Protestant ministers who cannot be entrusted with worship.... If Protestant ministers are not qualified to be ministers in the full Protestant sense or are unwilling to qualify themselves by proper training and discipline, then Protestantism might as well be abandoned for a form of religion that is easier and less exacting."—P. 293.

So there are psychological reasons for the liturgical revival. The old Calvinistic and Puritan individualism became galling to the spirit of many people. Vestments, jeweled altars, incense, enchanting music, appealed to the senses and required less personal, intellectual, and spiritual involvement. The restored worship of medieval times has an aesthetic quality hallowed by a long tradition. It can reach all classes of people on a common emotional level with very little intellectual stimulus or ethical demand. Its mass appeal is greater because it requires less of the worshiper. As Americans have grown soft, they have adopted a less demanding way of worship. The liturgists have culture on their side because they are adapting to the climate of the age.

Liturgical worship, we have noted, also demands less of the minister. Shepherd admits that "the minister is relieved of carrying the whole burden of making the service `meaningful.' In fact, the minister's talents, personality, and ability to `put it across' become very secondary."

Thus the psychological cards are stacked in favor of the liturgical renewal. Congregations and pastors alike find highly liturgical worship less demanding, more aesthetically attractive, more con genial to the culture of an affluent society. This psychological factor is commented on in The Great Controversy:

"Many Protestants suppose that the Catholic religion is unattractive and that its worship is a dull, meaningless round of ceremony. Here they mistake. While Romanism is based upon deception, it is not a coarse and clumsy imposture. The religious service of the 

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Roman Church is a most impressive ceremonial. Its gorgeous display and solemn rites fascinate the senses of the people and silence the voice of reason and of conscience. The eye is charmed. Magnificent churches, imposing processions, golden altars, jeweled shrines, choice paintings, and exquisite sculpture appeal to the love of beauty. The ear also is captivated. The music is unsurpassed. The rich notes of the deep-toned organ, blending with the melody of many voices as it swells through the lofty domes and pillared aisles of her grand cathedrals, cannot fail to impress the mind with awe and reverence.

"This outward splendor, pomp, and ceremony, that only mocks the longings of the sin-sick soul, is an evidence of inward corruption. The religion of Christ needs not such attractions to recommend it. In the light shining from the cross, the true Christianity appears so pure and lovely that no external decorations can enhance its true worth. It is the beauty of holiness, a meek and quiet spirit, which is of value with God.

"Brilliancy of style is not necessarily an index of pure, elevated thought. High conceptions of art, delicate refinement of taste, often exist in minds that are earthly and sensual. They are often employed by Satan to lead men to forget the necessities of the soul, to lose sight of the future, immortal life, to turn away from their infinite Helper, and to live for this world alone.

"A religion of externals is attractive to the unrenewed heart. The pomp and ceremony of the Catholic worship has a seductive, bewitching power, by which many are deceived; and they come to look upon the Roman Church as the very gate of heaven. None but those who have planted their feet firmly upon the foundation of truth, and whose hearts are renewed by the Spirit of God, are proof against her influence. Thousands who have not an experimental knowledge of Christ will be led to accept the forms of godliness without the power. Such a religion is just what the multitudes desire.".—Pp, 566, 567.

This evaluation is equally applicable to Protestant worship whenever Protestant worship departs from its original spontaneity and becomes like Catholic worship.

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The psychological factor is not the only reason for the liturgical revival. Another equally potent influence is to be found in theological change. Worship reflects the theology of the worshipers. When the Protestant Reformation declared itself regarding the three great theological principles of salvation by faith alone, of the priesthood of all believers, and of the Bible as the rule of faith and conduct, it thereby determined to some extent its mode of worship. No priesthood could arise in a Communion that believed in the priesthood of all believers. Therefore, there would not be a priestly, sacrificial, temple worship.

When the Bible became the rule of theology, it also became the pattern for worship. The apostolic patterns were far different from those of the third and fourth centuries. This type of worship challenged man's personal responsibility and imparted an intellectual quality to his relation to God. It tended to reduce liturgy to a minimum and to increase the importance of the spoken word. This type of theology reached its fullest development in the free atmosphere of the United States during the early nineteenth century.

But changes in theology were in the making. German theologians were raising questions regarding the Bible. The supernatural was being challenged. Such basic principles of Reformation Christianity as the incarnation of Christ, the miracles, the atonement, and the bodily resurrection of Christ were being questioned. A blatant liberalism thrived for a time; this has now largely given way to a veiled liberalism sometimes known as neoorthodoxy.

But under whatever banner modem Christianity holds forth, it has lost its evangelicism, it has sacrificed its supernatural nature, it has reduced Christ from God in the flesh to a Spirit-filled man, it has made the Bible merely the story of man's effort to find God, and it has taken the reality out of the future life.

These far-reaching changes in theology, I am firmly convinced, are partly responsible for the liturgical revival. Paul Tillich in his Dynamics of Faith makes this statement:

"But faith cannot remain alive without expressions of faith and the personal participation in them. This insight has driven Protestantism to a new evaluation of cult and sacrament in our period. 

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Without symbols in which the holy is experienced as present, the experience of the holy vanishes." —P. 121.

Why does Tillich say this? He and those who agree with him reduce creation, miracles, resurrection—everything that offends the modern mind-to myth. The worshiper who holds his view point can no longer consider the Sabbath as a memorial of a real creation; he can no longer worship a Christ who died for his sins and who intercedes for him in heaven; he can no longer worship a Christ who came forth from the tomb on Easter morning; he can no longer worship a "living God" in the sense that the Bible describes God.

What then must the Christian do? He must have symbols to represent the holy, for the holy has no objectivity of itself. Cult and sacrament then become essential to a church that has been stripped of much which it once possessed. The evangelical Christian can worship a God who creates and sustains; he can worship an incarnate, resurrected, everlasting, soon-coming Christ. He requires only the basic symbols of communication to engage in such worship, for he is worshiping objective realities and not subjective philosophical concepts. When the resurrection of Christ becomes merely a notion of the early Christian church, there is no resurrected Christ to worship. When creation becomes myth, there is no Creator to worship.

Another motivation for the liturgical revival has been the ecumenical movement. During recent years, the services of Protestant churches have been slowly approximating uniformity. The average Protestant may feel quite at home in the service of most denominations. Nor has this trend been limited to Protestantism. Rome has also been experiencing a liturgical renewal. The recent Vatican Council dealt with matters of liturgy and went so far as to authorize the development of a liturgy in the vernacular. We are watching Catholicism and Protestantism as they move closer and closer together in matters of liturgy. Shepherd says:

"There is now available an agreement among scholars of both the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions about the meaning of Christian worship that can only be attributed to the miraculous 

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working of the Holy Spirit. The liturgical reforms now taking place in the Roman Catholic Church are more extensive and far-reaching than anything witnessed in a thousand years and more. ... Protestant churches which hitherto have spurned or have lost interest in liturgical usages are now exploring and experimenting." —The Chaplain, April, 1961.

The title of this chapter is "The `Liturgical Renewal' and Adventism." To this point we have reviewed some of the developments of our day, and we have seen that recent years have been marked by radical changes in Protestant worship and by some modifications in Roman Catholic worship. What does this trend mean to us as Adventists?

We have not been greatly influenced by the liturgical revival. In scattered instances, no doubt, we have allowed aesthetic considerations to cause us to do things that are out of harmony with our Adventist theology. These occasional deviations, I am sure, were well intentioned and resulted from lack of understanding rather than from ulterior motives. Our basic worship problems cannot be traced to an acceptance of the liturgical renewal.

I do not mean to imply that we can be satisfied with the standards of worship in our churches. We are aware of crying needs for improvement, but this improvement must not be sought by following the lead of the liturgical revivalists. We need to look in an entirely different direction. We need to remember that worship can be spontaneous, Spirit-filled, Protestant, simple, Biblical, and still possess beauty, order, and reverence.

We especially need to remember this great truth in these days of the liturgical renewal, because whatever shortcomings modem Christian worship may have, it does have beauty, order, and a type of reverence. In many cases the people whom we attempt to reach in our evangelistic services are accustomed to carefully planned worship services, although they may not be evangelical. If we neglect beauty, order, and reverence in an endeavor to avoid formalism and sacerdotalism, we miss a vital part of Christian worship. We need a liturgical revival, but not the kind that is going on in the Christian world around us.

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Why do I imply that reforms are in order in our churches? I base my contention on a familiar chapter in Volume 5 of Testimonies for the Church entitled "Behavior in the House of God." I quote the following selections from this chapter:

"To the humble, believing soul, the house of God on earth is the gate of heaven. The song of praise, the prayer, the words spoken by Christ's representatives, are God's appointed agencies to prepare a people for the church above, for that loftier worship into which there can enter nothing that defileth. . . .

"There has been a great change, not for the better, but for the worse, in the habits and customs of the people in reference to religious worship. The precious, the sacred, things which connect us with God are fast losing their hold upon our minds and hearts, and are being brought down to the level of common things. The reverence which the people had anciently for the sanctuary where they met with God in sacred service has largely passed away. Nevertheless, God Himself gave the order of His service, exalting it high above everything of a temporal nature....

"There should be rules in regard to the time, the place, and the manner of worshiping. Nothing that is sacred, nothing that pertains to the worship of God, should be treated with carelessness or indifference."—P. 491.

"When the worshipers enter the place of meeting, they should do so with decorum, passing quietly to their seats. . . . Common talking, whispering, and laughing should not be permitted in the house of worship, either before or after the service....

"If when the people come into the house of worship, they have genuine reverence for the Lord and bear in mind that they are in His presence, there will be a sweet eloquence in silence."—P. 492.

"All the service should be conducted with solemnity and awe, as if in the visible presence of the Master of assemblies.... 

"Sometimes young men and women have so little reverence for the house and worship of God that they keep up a continual communication with each other during the sermon."—P. 493.

"No wonder our churches are feeble and do not have that deep, earnest piety in their borders that they should have. Our present 

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habits and customs, which dishonor God and bring the sacred and heavenly down to the level of the common, are against us. . . . 

"It is too true that reverence for the house of God has become almost extinct. Sacred things and places are not discerned; the holy and exalted are not appreciated. Is there not a cause for the want of fervent piety in our families? Is it not because the high standard of religion is left to trail in the dust? God gave rules of order, perfect and exact, to His ancient people. Has His character changed? Is He not the great and mighty God who rules in the heaven of heavens? Would it not be well for us often to read the directions given by God Himself to the Hebrews, that we who have the light of the glorious truth shining upon us may imitate their reverence for the house of God? We have abundant reason to maintain a fervent, devoted spirit in the worship of God. We have reason even to be more thoughtful and reverential in our worship than had the Jews. But an enemy has been at work to destroy our faith in the sacredness of Christian worship....

"Nearly all need to be taught how to conduct themselves in the house of God."—Pp. 495, 496.

"Because of the irreverence in attitude, dress, and deportment, and lack of a worshipful frame of mind, God has often turned His face away from those assembled for His worship."—P. 499.

"When a church has been raised up and left uninstructed on these points, the minister has neglected his duty and will have to give an account to God for the impressions he allowed to prevail."—P. 500.

Those of us who travel about among the churches know that only an occasional church gives evidence of a full appreciation of these high standards. Even some of our larger churches have confusion, lack of order, and unnecessary noise. We hear perfunctory prayers, poorly chosen hymns, inappropriate announcements, punctuated by audience restlessness and crying babies.

There are both ministers and laymen who are trying to change these conditions. May God bless them. The remaining three chapters suggest practical means for achieving our own "liturgical revival" without drifting into formalism.