Is This God?

Most Protestant denominations have elevated the sermon to the primary position and climax of the Sunday service. Everything builds up to it. The sermon is the thing to look forward to, the drawing card, especially if the pastor is especially skilled at oratory and homiletics. It is the means by which one gets “fired up,” exhorted, and charged to go out and make a difference in the world, as a Christian disciple.



Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying those things are bad. I still appreciate a good sermon — even many non-Catholic ones. But much of Protestantism has transformed church almost exclusively into a prolonged liturgy of the Word: only one-half of the Catholic Mass. The Protestant version usually features far less actual Bible reading than Mass, and a sermon many times longer than the average Catholic homily.


Groups like the Anglicans, Methodists and Lutherans retain the weekly Eucharist as the central aspect of their worship service; but other denominations — such as Presbyterians, Baptists, Pentecostals, and the many non-denominational groups — tend to have Communion only once a month. Most Mennonites observe Holy Communion only twice a year. Quakers and the Salvation Army, not at all. The latter two groups don’t practice any sacraments, or “ordinances,” or “rites” — not even baptism. Behind this sort of thinking, lies an antipathy toward sacramentalism, the belief in the ability of matter to convey grace. Accordingly, Protestants who place less emphasis on the Eucharist tend to also regard baptism as basically a symbolic ritual, with none of the regenerating power Catholics believe it possesses.

How can vast portions of Christianity, today, deny what was accepted without question by virtually all Christians right up to the time of Martin Luther? Indeed, even Luther retained the doctrines of the Real Presence (in the slightly-diluted form of consubstantiation) and baptismal regeneration.

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