WHAT HAPPENED TO GROWTH IN GRACE?

Back in the dark ages of 1963 b.c. (b.c.= before computers), I was confirmed at the English Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Ascension in Chicago. The Rev. Ralph Riedesel laid his paw (that’s the word he used) on my head and pronounced the blessing. “The Father in Heaven, for Jesus sake, renew and increase in thee the gift of the Holy Ghost, to thy strengthening in faith, to thy growth in grace, to thy patience in suffering, and to the blessed hope of everlasting life.” Those were the same words that had been used at the Confirmation of my father, uncle, two cousins, and would be used for my sister. When I became a pastor in 1977, I only got to use those words for one Confirmation. Then came the Lutheran Book of Worship and the words changed. Of course Holy Ghost gave way to Holy Spirit and the very personal but archaic “thee” was banished. Beyond that, however, the text as a whole was changed dramatically. “Father in heaven, for Jesus’ sake, stir up in name the gift of your Holy Spirit; confirm his/her faith guide his/her life, empower him/her in his/her serving, give him/her patience in suffering, and bring him/her to everlasting life.”

What happened to growth in grace? We still had faith and patience, but where was grace? Best as I can determine, guidance of life and empowerment of service had replaced growth in grace. Maybe there was a theological problem with growth in grace, something no one had noticed in 60 years. Whatever the reason, I sorely miss growth in grace.

I don’t interpret growth in grace as meaning getting more and more grace (that would be growth of grace). Rather growth in grace to me means a blossoming and maturing of life in grace. It would be what Luther describes in the Small Cathechism as the significance of baptism. “It signifies that the old Adam in us, together with all sins and evil lusts, should be drowned by daily sorrow and repentance, and be put to death; and that the new man should daily come forth and rise, to live before God in righteousness and holiness for ever.”

I’ve become curious about this section of the Confirmation rite. The Service Book and Hymnal reproduced this prayer from the Common Service Book: “Almighty  and everlasting God, who hast vouchsafed to regenerate these thy servants by water and the Spirit, and hast forgiven them all their sins: Strengthen them, we beseech thee, with the Holy Ghost, the Comforter; and daily increase in them thy manifold gifts of grace: the spirit of wisdom and understanding; the spirit of counsel and might;  the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, now and forever;  through Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.” The prayer was taken from the Book of Common Prayer. I can find it all the way back to the First Prayer Book of Edward VI (1549) which in turn was an adaptation of the Roman rite.

The blessing that followed this prayer, “The Father in heaven for Jesus sake,” must be unique to Lutherans. I don’t have the resources to discover if the blessing appeared for the first time in the Common Service Book or if it had been used somewhere else before that. Some liturgical scholar may please enlighten me.

In the Mid-1970s the Lutheran churches (ALC, LCA, LCMS, ELCC) began experimenting with revisions of the liturgy. In 1975 Contemporary Worship 8: Affirmation of the Baptismal Covenant was published.  Confirmation as a unique rite disappeared to be replaced with an all-purpose rite of Affirmation. In this rite the traditional prayer before the blessing and the blessing itself were substantially reworked. The subsequent Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) restored an option for Confirmation within Affirmation of Baptism that included a laying on of hands, but the “Father in heaven” blessing was reworked into prayer.

Then in 2002 came the Renewing Worship series with Holy Baptism and Related Rites. Once more any distinctive elements for Confirmation were removed along with the blessing or prayer “Father in heaven.” There must have been griping about the proposed change because the prayer from the The Lutheran Book of Worship was brought back in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), but only as an alternative to the part of the prayer that mentioned the gifts of the Spirit. There is nothing to distinguish Confirmation from any other form of Affirmation of Baptism.

Confirmation in general has been a problem for the Lutheran church. The Apology of the Augusburg Confession rightly denies it is a sacrament, although it is a rite “received from the Fathers.” Lutherans stopped doing Confirmations for a time, but the practice came back again. In his Examen of the Council of Trent Martin Chemnitz wrote: “Our theologians have often shown that the rite of confirmation, when the useless, superstitious, and unscriptural traditions respecting it have been laid aside, may be used piously and to the edification of the Church in this way: viz., that those who were baptized in infancy, when they come to years of discretion, should be diligently instructed by a clear and simple setting forth of the doctrines of the Church; and, when they seem moderately grounded in the rudiments, they should be presented before the bishop and the church . . . Public prayer should be made for these children . . . to which prayer, without superstition, the imposition of hands may be added. Nor would such prayer be fruitless, for it is supported by the promises concerning the gift of perseverance and the grace of confirmation.”

There we are back to grace again which along with Confirmation is missing from our present rite. Maybe I am just caught in nostalgia, but I am not convinced every change in liturgical texts is an improvement. Language can be fixed without being gutted. Maybe next time I do a Confirmation I’ll put my paw on the person’s head and say: “The Father in Heaven, for Jesus sake, renew and increase in you the gift of the Holy Spirit, to your strengthening in faith, to your growth in grace, to your patience in suffering, and to the blessed hope of everlasting life.”  Don’t tell anybody about this. I don’t need the liturgical police knocking on my church door with a complaint about using an illicit rite. Of course, given that some of our churches are praying to Jesus/Sophia it seems to me that there are far more serious theological errors being committed than one old pastor using the words we used for most of the 20th century tocConfirm people. However, you never can tell.

The Father in heaven for Jesus’ sake bless you on your journey that you may grow in grace, and may the Lord greet you on your arrival.

Wayne




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