Pageantry vs. Simplicity

In The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, Martin Luther discusses Catholic mass. He accuses the church of taking something that was originally simple and adding devotions to men by way of vestments, ornaments, chants, prayers, organs, and candles. He calls it the pageantry of outward things; a pageantry that helps turn our eyes away from the word of Christ.

Luther makes a good point when he says that “the more closely our mass resembles that first mass of all, which Christ performed at the Last Supper, the more Christian it will be.” By this, he means to dispense with all the worldly pageantry that takes away from the focus on Christ as our redeemer.

Luther wasn’t looking to convince people to revile the church for the embellishments, rather he simply did not want them to be deceived by the glamour of the ceremonies; thereby losing the simplicity of the mass itself.

As I read Luther’s feelings about the pageantry of the Catholic church, I pictured myself sitting in a Catholic church for my first and only time. I was in my late teens, and had had no exposure to religion, nor had I ever stepped foot in any church before. I will never forget how uncomfortable I felt because of the display of pageantry. At that moment, I confirmed with myself that I was being smart by not being a religious person.

Fast forward about four years. I finally agree to attend The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as the Mormon Church. The first thing I noticed as I entered the chapel, and for that matter, the building itself, was the lack of pageantry. There were no stained-glass windows, statues of Christ, crosses, nor men dressed in robes. I knew, right then and there, that this was the kind of church I could be a part of.

I dare say that Martin Luther paved the way for the simplicity and lack of pageantry in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I, for one, am so much more comfortable focusing only on Christ and not on outward displays of religion.