Sunday, May 28, 2006

Contempt of the divine service

It has become more and more apparent that people do not like what the Divine Service has to offer. That's right offer. After all it is God giving us his grace not our trying to make him feel good through our praise.

I think the thing that bothers me the most is that the reason that most people do not like the Divine Service and would prefer a contemporary one is due to the fact that they do not understand it. I recently finished the Fire and the Staff and Klemet Preus has a great description of how when one does not understand what is going on they will not appreciate it.

This begs another question though. How come we are not teaching people what the Divine Service is all about? I contend that if people did not think it was just the same old thing and actually understood the reason behind the parts of the service that they would come to know and love the grace offered in it so much more.

It's just that all of the praise songs that I have run into lately have been very empty. Not to mention that they are often in a very high key and since I have a very low voice I get left out. The hymns from the hymnals tend to be able to include me since they are focused more in the middle ranges. Could this be a reason that we do not see men singing in church? The praise songs were simply not made for them to sing. I guess that is because we know that all men hate singing and are almost never capable of it. Anyways those are my thoughts on the subject for the time being.

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