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03/26/2008
INTRODUCTION TO
LUTHERAN WORSHIP
Worshiper, welcome to your worship!
Worshiper, welcome to our worship!
Worshiper, welcome to God’s work!
You
are a worshiper, you are not a spectator. Lutheran worship invites the active, full
conscious participation of each worshiper. As a worshiper, you will be invited to listen
to God’s word and to receive Holy Communion. You will have opportunity to confess you
faith, to praise God, to pray, to offer yourself for God’s mission, and to share the
peace of the Lord. You will hear a sermon that sets the meaning of salvation through
Christ in the context of present hopes, fears, and needs.
The pattern for Lutheran worship as a
congregation is called the liturgy. Liturgy is working with words and
actions to honor God. And we honor God by listening even more than by speaking. As the
word of God is proclaimed and the sacraments are enacted among us, the spirit touches our
lives.
The LUTHERAN
BOOK OF WORSHIP (LBW) provides a liturgy, a step-by-step sequence for corporate
worship, which established continuity with the apostolic faith and communication with the
contemporary world. Be open to the Holy
Spirit who will draw you into a congregation at worship as an active participant. Then
liturgy will not be in a book only, but also in you. In the worship event you can
encounter God and his people as you listen, pray, praise, and share in the sacraments.
GOD AT WORK
Whenever we gather to hear the Word
and to receive the sacraments, Jesus is there in our midst. So our worship glories not in
what we offer to God, but in what God gives to us. The entire liturgy—particularly
the sermon—seeks to give a clear, focused vision of the significance of Jesus Christ
for our lives today. Therefore, we can say that we follow a gospel liturgy That liturgy
reflects God’s work for us and in us to which we respond with thanksgiving and
commitment.
At the heart of the liturgy are two
principal parts which hold everything together the word and the Lord’s supper. They
stand like two snowcapped mountain peaks giving perspective to everything else. This
ancient duo has guided Christian worship since the time of the apostles. While this
structure allows variable parts, the simple twofold skeleton consistently gives the
liturgy its basis shape.
The word section in LBW includes four
portions of the Scriptures; First Lesson, a Psalm, Second Lesson, and the Gospel. The
sermon proclaims Christ, the living word, and applies the word to our contemporary world.
The hymn of the day, the creed, and the prayers also proclaim the word, but they serve too
as our grateful and believing response to hearing the gospel.
The Lord’s Supper (the Eucharist
or Holy Communion), The second central part of the liturgy’s structure, includes the
Offering, the Great Thanksgiving, Communion, and a Post Communion song and prayer. In the
simple food of bread and wine used in the Lord’s Supper, our Lord Jesus has promised
to be truly present. To all who trust him are given the benefits of forgiveness, life, and
salvation. Again, it is God who is at work for us and among us.
THE SERVICE IS FLEXIBLE
The simple, two-part liturgical
structure, which Christians have used for centuries, provides much room for variety. For
instance, lay leaders and seasonal variations in the liturgy are common. Around the word
and sacrament section, a beginning, middle, and end act like “accordion pleats”;
the liturgy can be expanded or contracted according to the needs of the season or Sunday.
At the center of the Holy Communion
giving equal emphasis to both word and meal, is a “hinge” which moves us from
one section to the other. It is the sharing of the Peace of the Lord. Even in the word
section is flexibility and change each week. A schedule of bible readings, called the
lectionary, designates the passages to be read each Sunday. Christian churches in North
America other than Lutheran also follow the lectionary’s bible readings. Each week,
then, the sermon has different content and application, confronting, comforting, and
exhorting people from the word of God. Designated laypersons may read the lessons each
Sunday, a practice which also adds variety to the service.
After the meal of Holy Communion, the
service quickly moves to its conclusion with a brief blessing, a song of thanksgiving, a
prayer, and a benediction. The dismissal sends us out
to witness in word and action to what God has done for us and for the world.
NEVER THE SAME OLD THING
While there can be much flexibility,
some people still say the Lutheran liturgy is a routine doing of the “same old thing.”
But think of the liturgy as lovers who keep saying, “I Love You.” It is the same
old thing too, the same words, but because the love relationship is active and growing
those same old words are constantly filled with new messages. The liturgy rehearses God’s
“ I love you” to us and expresses our “I love you” to God.
Again, if that relationship is vital,
the same old words and actions of the liturgy can never be the same old thing! They will
reflect another encounter with the living God. The familiar words and actions are vehicles
for new meaning arising out of changing life circumstances lived in the conscious presence
of God. Then, too, the same old words and actions keep us near the center of our faith,
dependent on the faithfulness of God. The liturgy keeps us in contact with that
once-for-all revelation in Jesus Christ, which has been celebrated in the Christian church
for centuries.
The content of worship liturgy is
actual a summary of the gospel. We could even say it is the Bible message set to music and
liturgical text. The biblical message is sung, prayed, proclaimed, and enacted. Following is a list of some of the parts of the
Lutheran liturgy and the biblical basis for each. Other parts of the liturgy, such as the
Creed or the prayer at Holy Communion, summarize the great themes of the bible.
Confession
1
John 1:8-9
Apostolic
Greeting
2Cor. 13:14
Kyrie
Luke 17:13,18:38-39, Ps.23:2-3
Hymn of
Praise
Glory to God
Luke 2:14
Worthy is Christ
Rev.
5:9-13, 19:4-9
Salvation
Ruth
2:4, Luke 12:8
Verse Lord
to whom shall
John 6:68
We
go
Return to the
lord
Deut. 30:2, Num. 14:18
Peace Matt. 5:23-24
Rom. 16:16
John. 20:21
Offertory
Let the vineyards
1 Cor. 10:16
John 6:35
What shall I render
Ps. 116:12-19
Sanctus
Isaiah 6:3
Matt. 21:9
Prayer of
Thanksgiving
1
Cor. 11:23-26
Lords Prayer
Matt 6:9-13
Luke 11:2-4
Lamb of God
John 1:29
Post-Communion
Canticle
Lord,
now let
Luke 2:29-32
Benediction
Num. 6:24-26
Dismissal
Luke
7:50
Hymn texts also bring great variety
of insight and expression. Men and women who lived before the birth of Christ or at other
times up to the present wrote them. There are hymns or Oriental, Scandinavian, African,
German, Polish, French, Indian, American, and English origins.
Hymns are included by Methodists, Baptists, Roman Catholics and Episcopalians, as well as by Lutherans. Included are old favorites, as well as contemporary songs which help us” sing to the Lord a new song” The differing musical styles remind us that God’s praise can be sung in many and varied ways. Many marvelous discoveries await the adventurous worship through Lutheran liturgical worship. When we have encountered God at work among us in our worship and in our daily lives, our proper response is a life-long alleluia and a shout at the end of our worship, “Thanks be to God!” We place our “Amen” over all that the liturgy celebrates. We say “Yes, it shall be so!”