Let us consider what our Lutheran Confessions teach us. My first course in the fall semester at Concordia Theological Seminary was on the Book of Concord. Our collection of confessional documents has quite a bit to say about “The Mass” that would serve us well to reflect on. In the Augsburg Confession, it says our churches do not abolish the Mass, but religiously keep and defend it (AC XXIV). Melanchthon goes on in the Apology to state that we retain the Mass and celebrate it with the highest reverence, and that the Mass was instituted to be a communion in which believers receive the body and blood of Christ, but warns it is not a work of ours that merits the forgiveness of sins. Also, in the Smalcald Articles, Luther confirms that the Sacrament can be used in a better way, indeed, in the only blessed way, according to Christ’s institution compared to the litany of abuses Rome had allowed to pollute the true meaning of the Mass, the meaning rooted only in Scripture and the pure gospel of Christ.

We must consider the increasing hunger that we are seeing from our guests for biblical, historic, and authentic Christianity. The Mass that is most properly expressed in the Lutheran Divine Service is a major part of feeding this hunger. Our Confessions claim that the Lutheran Church has the marks of the true catholic church, where Christ is present and giving His gifts, that is where the Gospel is rightly preached and the Sacraments properly administered according to the Gospel. Also, that we retain the proper Mass, and that the Roman adversaries will have to give an account to God for the schism that has resulted from their errors of departing from the Scripture. Perhaps next time you hear someone mention how catholic the Divine Service may feel, simply agree and share that where Christ is present and giving His gifts, there the true catholic (universal) church is found, and that includes within the walls of Mount Calvary.