The Relationship between Doctrine and Practice is more Organic than Artificial

Please read this very short, but excellent article from Pastor William Weedon.

A Thesis for Moving Beyond the Limitations of a Quia Argument

It provides a very good insight on the method LCMS Lutherans are using to negate or deconstruct the Lutheran Confessions and liberate themselves from what they would otherwise consider highly restrictive limitations.

I find it interesting because I have seen it in practice.

Lutherans in the Missouri Synod are all too quick to acknowledge and profess agreement with everything in the Book of Concord (often without spending much time reading it), but it is their supposed commitment to the doctrine of the church that (in their own minds) frees them to pursue whatever practice their heart desires. They may even recognize that there is a real connection between what a Christian believes and how a Christian worships, but that connection is considered essentially artificial -- that is to say, the worshiper (each one) determines what that connection will be. Each worshiper simply decides to connect whatever practice he or she may choose to whatever doctrine he or she may believe. Voila! There you have it... perfect freedom! But... No, this is actually unrestrained license masquerading as Christian freedom.

The connection between doctrine and practice is more organic than artificial -- it is more natural than contrived. We cannot simply make a practice suit any doctrine by fiat. For example, in the contemporary service at my former church they receive Holy Communion by walking forward toward the altar. There in front of the altar the pastor distributes the bread. Slightly behind him on his left and right, one elder holds the chalice and another the tray of individual cups (wine and grape juice). The communicant moves from pastor to elder receiving the entire meal while standing. Then he or she has the option to kneel in prayer at the altar rail, or simply return to the pew. Kneeling is a posture of prayer and humility assumed by the lesser in the presence of the greater. In this practice the kneeling does not occur at the point of contact between the worshiper and his God... or does it? Either way, this practice confesses doctrine in a manner the worshiper cannot control or contrive. There is an objective reality that is more organic than artificial.

For me, the thing that finally alienated me from my former church was not so much the bevy of contemporary practices confessing foreign doctrines; it was this notion that practice is a wax nose that can be fitted to whatever doctrine we may choose.