I am not sure when the tradition started (although I suppose it was an extension of Ash Wednesday services), but most Lutheran churches have Midweek Lenten Services on Wednesdays. And as a Pastor I know that I should be all for this. More services should be right up my ally right?
But I have a secret to share. Not all Pastors are convinced of the benefit of these services. I know of several who while inviting everyone to attend are not sure why we even have them.
Here is the question. What purpose do they serve? As I posed in the title, do they get people more Jesus or just more services? Or are they just an increase in piety to look more religious?
The Orthodox make our schedule look lackadaisical. And yet, do they get more Jesus than us? Are they more prepared than us to celebrate Easter? Are those Lutherans who attend midweek services more prepared than those who do not?
I am not sure. Sometime I think yes, more encounters with the Word revealed and the Word Incarnate are the way to go. And other times I think, no. It is just an exercise in tradition without any real tangible benefit. That may seem awful to say, but if every service means more Jesus, why not meet several times a day. Or should we?
I guess it comes down to this question. How much our spiritual life should be played out within the walls of the church? And how much should be in the home as families or individuals? And how much time in general should we spend receiving from God, and how much time our giving what we have received in thought, word, and deed?
I am not sure. Perhaps you are…tell me.
This message was sent a little while back myself to the moderator. I post it here with some modifications so everyone else can have a chance to weigh in. Blessed Pascha to all! Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!
Do more services=more Jesus? I think that your question is very legalistic. The RCs, as you know, have days of holy obligation, which include Sundays and major Feast days like the Annunciation of the Theotokos which was celebrated yesterday. I have actually heard of some Roman Catholics who will go to Mass on a holy day of obligation and literally touch the building, claim they were there and put their consciences at ease because they fulfilled their minimum requirement. Of course, that is laughable.
Orthodoxy is not the same way. We offer these many services, not only because of the tradition behind it but because of words I quoted to you earlier from +Bishop KALLISTOS who remarked that “we fall alone but we are not saved alone.” The numerous services are opportunities for us as Christ’s chosen to gather and to pray together, praising and beseeching Him for His great goodness towards us.
Now, I have been to most of the extra services during the week, Great Compline, Pre-Sanctified Liturgy, Small Compline with the Akathist Hymn to the Mother of God and at most, there were 25 people in attendance. Last Friday, the Friday of the Akathist Hymn, there were only five including the Priest. My priest was clearly not happy with the lack of attendance this Lent, which he says, was the lowest in all the years he had been there! He further remarked that the divisions in the parish are not going to be healed if we do not even pray together. We must do that. These offices and Liturgies are gifts from the Church to us to express our love for God, but we can only do that if we love one another. In the divine Liturgy, the Priest intones, “Let us love one another so that we may confess…” to which the people and choir respond, “Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity one in Essence and undivided.” As the Trinity is a communion of love so we must love one another if we truly are to be like God! And that can come to fruition by praying together often, especially during the
Great and Holy Fast.
Now one’s attendance at these offices and liturgies does not guarantee anything. People can misuse these things. Anything can be abused. You know this! No one would dare suggest we abolish marriage because so many marriages end in divorce and are plagued with problems. No one would dare suggest we stop teaching kids reading, writing and arithmetic, because students are more concerned with mastering Playstation! But the Church keeps offering these to the Faithful, not because attendance in of itself, guarantees salvation but because we are saved in communion with one another through the mercies of our Lord! Now I am dismayed by the lack of attendance, but I will keep going and I will keep chanting and worshipping my God as poor as I am.
I will admit that the lack of observance of major Feasts of the Lord which go back to apostolic times is one of the many reasons why I could no longer be in the Lutheran Church. Too many Lutheran churchmen and theologians automatically assume (and wrongfully) that observance of feasts is for a meritorious purpose. Perhaps that was a kneejerk reaction to the abuses of Rome. But what about the converse? Namely, that these services and the faithful who come with an open heart exist to glorify our God, how little we are able to do so.
We must live the liturgical life and that life can only be lived within her Liturgies and prayer offices. Simply believing is not the answer. Again, things can be abused; I do not doubt that, but to deprive the faithful of numerous chances to worship God together in faithfulness and love is very pietistic. It assumes that we don’t need the Church. It assumes that simply believing whether we do so in a church building or in our beds at 10:00 Sunday morning are one in the same thing. Worship is a fruit of the faith. And let us not forget that it is ONLY in the Church that we can receive the life-giving Sacraments that our Lord has given to us.
Are the Orthodox necessarily more prepared simply because we have more services? No. That depends on indiviudals. Though I made nearly every office and Liturgy, I know that there are many within my own parish who are more humble and more charitable than I who maybe came to a fraction of the services offered. But the Church still offers them to us in her wisdom so that the faithful may worship and pray to God which we are called to do unceasingly, so says St. Paul.
You write very well.