Kurt E. Marquart Commends Luther's Liturgical Criteria by Bryan D. Spinks

 

Central to Luther’s Reformation was the rediscovery of the Sacrament as pure gift. The Lord’s body and blood are present not to be resacrificed by us to God—this “sacrifice of the mass” is completely contrary to Heb 10:10-18—but rather to be received by us from God! The tragic reversal by which God’s gracious gift of the Holy Supper had been falsified into a work which we offer to appease Him was what made the Roman mass such an abomination for Luther (see SA II.ii). The reformation of doctrine to this point was expressed in the reformation of liturgical practice. As far as Luther was concerned, in emphasizing  the words of institution, he was replacing the canon with the gospel itself, and in the gospel it is God who does something for us, and offers it to us. Here, then, is not a remnant of the canon prayed to God, but the gospel offering Christ and his forgiveness to us [as Spinks sets forth, 1982 edition, p. 34]. And so, after centuries of secretive muttering, the consecrating Words of Institution were solemnly chanted by the celebrant as a public heralding and embodiment of the very heart of the Gospel!

Kurt E. Marquart, “‘Church Growth’ as Mission Paradigm: A Confessional Lutheran Assessment” in Church and Ministry Today: Three Confessional Lutheran Essays (St. Louis: The Luther Academy, 2001), 123.