I’ll never forget when I first became Lutheran and it was Reformation Sunday: I looked in the bulletin and we were singing “A mighty fortress.” I thought, “Good, finally a hymn I know.” And then they sang with a rhythm and musicality that made me feel like I was riding a broken roller coaster. My wife says it this way: The British Isles gave us Riverdance and Clannad. The Germans gave us the polka and dirge. Again, music is tribal, so if Christians are from “every tribe” so ought their music to be. (BTW, we also joke that Martin Luther was originally scheduled to be “Martin O’Malley” but that God wanted to shake up the mainland a bit so He sent him to the Luther family instead.)

Blessings
Randy

I offer this from the Lutheran Cyclopedia:

Consubstantiation.
View, falsely charged to Lutheranism, that bread and body form 1 substance (a “3d substance”) in Communion (similarly wine and blood) or that body and blood are present, like bread and wine, in a natural manner. See also Grace, Means of, IV 3.

Ref: http://www.lcms.org/ca/www/cyclopedia/02/display.asp?t1=C&word=CONSUBSTANTIATION

Huh, that’s not what they taught me. Mind, I’ve been out of the Lutheran church for near a decade now, and out of churches at all for about 5, so there might be a bit of rust in the memory, but I’m fairly certain that I learned in in Confirmation classes (and that’s all I could remember; if pressed, I might be able to remember 2 of the 95 thesis, and that “God” is always supposed to be capitalized).

On the other hand, some congregations haven’t been taught to appreciate the Lutheran hymnody, and sang like it (though a lot of them seem to have moved on to try praise music, with sometimes hilarious results!)

Lutheran hymns can’t be topped. They are written so that the tune is not too catchy, but to serve the purpose of hymns to teach and instruct.

For those interested, here are good resources:

Lutheran Hymn Blog: http://holyhymnody.blogspot.com/

Lutheran Hymn Bible Study (start in October 2008) http://www.gloryofchrist.org/Navigation_Audio.php?Type=Bible_Study&Year=2008#

On the doctrinal group, I don’t know where you stand on the Covenant Process – most of my orthodox bretheren are fed up with the whole thing, but I have hope! – but part of that includes such a group.

Thank you all Gangsta’s for your input!

This is one of my favorite things about Lutheran theology!

And thanks so much for bringing me – and the rest of us – up to speed.

This is correct. We do not use the term “consubstantiation,” since we do not engage in Aristotelian metaphysics to explain “how” the bread of the Lord’s Supper IS the Body of Christ, and the wine His blood. “Transubstantiation” is an attempt to explain the mystery of the real presence of Christ’s Body and Blood by a change in substance of the bread/wine without a change in accidents. Trans-substantia.

Lutherans do not have such an explanation but simply confess that the Body/Blood of Christ is given IN the bread/wine (indicating where these are), WITH the bread/wine (indicating no material change in the bread/wine), and UNDER the bread /wine (indicating that these are hidden beneath the forms of bread/wine (mysterion) and must be revealed by the Word of Christ.

The term “consubstantiation” is a term laid on Lutheran teaching by others, but Lutherans lay no claim to it whatsoever.

We also don’t hold to Platonic and neo-Platonic sign theories such as Augustine’s signum (sign) and res signata (thing signified) view of the sacraments. We decline to attempt to explain how the bread/wine are the Body/Blood of Christ but simply confess our Lord’s “is.”

This too may well be one of the misunderstood positive features of Lutheran theology. Lutheran sacramentology is frequently misunderstood by others, particularly Protestants.