In an assent to Dawn K’s award-winning post on contemporary worship, here are some reasons the LCMS should keep liturgical worship.
First, an object lesson from Mr. Miyagi:
The point, of course, was that Daniel-san was learning karate through practice, even before he knew he was learning karate.
Liturgical worship is the practice of the recitation of the faith, by confessing and singing.
We recite:
“I, a poor miserable sinner…justly deserved your eternal punishment…”,
(The pastor responds) “…by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins…”,
The Creed,
The Lord’s Prayer,
(Pastor says but we still hear) The Words of Institution,
et cetera.
We sing:
“Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit…” (acknowledgment of the Triune God),
The Kyrie (“Lord Have Mercy…”, Mark 10:47),
Gloria in Excelsis (“Glory to God in the Highest…”, Luke 2:14, John 1:29)
Offertory, (“Create in me a clean heart, O God…”, Psalm 51:10-12)
Sanctus, (“Holy, holy, holy…” Isaiah 6:3, Matthew 21:9)
Agnus Dei, (Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, John 1:29)
Nunc Dimittis, (“Lord, lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace…”, Luke 2:29-32),
et cetera.
And that’s not even getting into the hymns.
The point?
Through the practice of the liturgy, my six-year-old twin girls, one with autism, learn the dogma that saves their souls. Before they can read words like salvation, forgiveness, resurrection, and mercy, they are reciting them and singing them in our worship. My older (by 20 minutes) daughter will tell you that salvation is a gift from God, and my younger daughter belts out the Agnus Dei louder than the rest of us. This is because Zion consistently uses Divine Service 3 out of the Lutheran Service Book. When Zion does Matins on occasion, we’re ready, because we do Matins at home when we can’t make it to church. They were singing Matins at age 4. 
The piano looks good in sangria.
It’s a privilege that my kids at age 6 are singing the same (more or less) worship setting I did when I was 6. There is security in knowing the delivered faith does not change through the generations. Philosophy, metaphysics, error, and heterodoxy have to find some other way into our worship. How far off would we be from what Christ actually taught, if we were allowed to change the doctrine for 2000 years?
It helps my younger daughter that there are some things that do not change. With autism diagnoses coming 1 for every 91 children, there are hundreds of thousands of kids, parents, and siblings that need the comfort of solid, uniform, and consistent liturgy. Sounds like a mission field to me.
Should I ever lose the ability to read or to hold a hymnal, there will be certain parts of the service that I can yet participate in with my children and my children’s children. I pray that the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer never leave our services. I hope that I will always be able to hear the pastor proclaim forgiveness for the foul things I have done. I hope that we will always keep singing to the Triune God, rather than a generic God about whom we have to fill in the blanks.
Great post! Hope everyone is feeling better.
My grandmother had Alzheimer’s Disease. She was totally unresponsive. She couldn’t speak and there was no evidence she even knew when someone else was present, but she could still pray the Lord’s Prayer out loud when someone else said it as well. The Liturgy is unending. We will continue to say it and sing it in heaven as well.
Great post!
I had the same experience as Scott with my grandmother. In addition to that and the benefit it has been for my children, I was seriously ill with Guillain-Barre syndrome a number of years ago. I couldn’t hold a book for months, and the liturgy–long cemented in my head–was a huge comfort. Those words , and the words of beloved hymns, comforted me through that dark time.
Recently, my brother’s large LC-MS church decided that they needed to change up the words of the Lord’s Prayer each week. It had been the only thing left alone. Now my youngest niece–who can’t read the words on the big screen–has lost even that part of the service.