The Correlation Between Doctrine and Practice

Truisms
    “Practice what you preach.” In other words, you should do, live you life according to what you preach, believe.
    “If you’re going to talk the talk then you better walk the walk.” In other words, your talking is what you believe (your doctrine) and your walking is you practice.
    “The medium is the message.” The form of the message (its practice) forms the message (the belief, doctrine).

Definitions
Worship: 1. (verb) the act of showing profound respect, honor, and devotion to a deity, sacred power, or object of supreme worth. 2. (Noun) a form of religious practice with its creed and ritual.

Worship Service: (noun) God is the audience; we are the actors. We put on a show for God.

Divine Service: God is the one acting, doing.  We are the ones being given to and done to.

Two Parts of Divine Service: 1.) Sacramental (Passive): God gives through the called and ordained pastor; 2.) Sacrificial (Active): We respond. The Laity offers Creeds, Hymns, Prayers, Firstfruits, Tithes, Offerings.

Contemporary: belonging to or occurring in the present.

Traditional: following or belonging to long-established customs, beliefs, or ways of doing things that are passed down from generation to generation.

Theology of Glory: A theology of glory is a human-centered approach to faith that measures God’s favor through visible success, power, wealth, and moral achievement rather than through suffering.

Theology of the Cross: A theology of the cross states that God is truly known only through the suffering, weakness, and shame of Christ on the cross, rather than through human power, success, or rational speculation.

Contemporary Worship seeks to be contextual, that is it seeks to share the Gospel in the context of the people present. This context is equated with their target audience, that is the group or culture they are trying to reach. This attempt to be contextual and reach a target audience does two things. First, it fails God’s desire to reach all nations (Matt. 28:19) and second, it denies the power and efficacy of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. This type of worship flows from a teaching of a Theology of Glory and teaches a type of works righteousness and need and ability of people to offer works to God. See more below.
    Divine Service flows from an understanding that God’s Word is for all nations and further, that God’s Word fits all contexts. It also places its confidence in the power and efficacy of God’s Word, that is God’s Word has the power to do that of which is speaks, giving the gifts it offers. This type of worship begins with and moves from God (as the Author and Perfector of our faith) to people and flows from a Theology of the Cross.
 

While many people may attempt to separate doctrine, what one believes, from their practice, how one lives what one believes, these two parties cannot be separated because if you change one you inevitably change the other and visa versa. This understanding is especially true and important when it comes to worship or Divine Service as previously defined.
 

The practice of worship on Sunday morning flows out of a Theology of Glory. Herb Keistman best describes this Theology of Glory in “The Way of the Cross” (p. 76), taking about Thesis 18 of Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation, “We will also see in this chapter the Old Adam’s presumptuous attitude in his Theology of Glory, that he thinks he has the right to approach the Almighty God on his own. In fact, the adjective ‘presumptuous’ well describes the Theologian of Glory. As Forde points out, the Theologian of Glory presumes to be able to impress God with his works, or at the very least with the will to please Him, and even presumes the ability to analyze and study God and His ways.” How else can we best describe this worship of us to God than our presumptuous attitude of pleasing Him. Thus, we see that worship as previously defined shows its practice of this Theology of Glory and the mistaken belief that God needs something from us and that we have something we can offer God, besides our sins.
 

The audacity and presumptuous attitude that we actually have something good to offer to God is squelched when Isaiah reminds us, (64:6): “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” The word for polluted is iddah: [עִדָּה] n.f. menstruation (prop. time, period); pl. abs. בֶּגֶד עִדִּים i.e. stained garment (fig. of best deeds of guilty people; || טָמֵא). So, we might blatantly say that contemporary Theology of Glory worship brings presumptuous people bringing their menstrual rags of good works to present to God in order to please Him.
 

This practice of worship flowing from man to God requires something from the participants, that is their involvement in the service in one form or another. The clergy are there simply as prompters for the laity and their offering to God.
 

The Lutheran practice of Divine Service on Sunday morning flows from a Theology of the Cross. We sinners come before God with nothing to offer except our sins and so we come seeking God to pour out on us His righteous gifts and favor. The Divine Service is just that, Divine, from God to man, not from man to God. In the Divine Service the called and ordained pastor is there in the stead and by the command of God to deliver the gifts of God to the people of God. The laity are their to be given the gifts of God and respond simply with their prayers, first-fruit tithes, and hymns. The Divine Service is not an evangelistic outreach opportunity but the time and place for Christians in the Holy Christian Church to be renewed and strengthened in order to go out into the mission field, the world and face the week ahead.
 

Thus, we might understand that in the Divine Service flowing from a Theology of the Cross, sinful human beings humbly bring their sins before God and graciously are given His forgiveness and strengthening of faith.