How Lutherans Worship
The Athanasian Creed teaches us that true Christian worship can be recognized in two ways. First we worship the God who is triune, that is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The second way we recognize Christian worship is that it is centered on Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God. Our worship is “Divine” because it is Christ-centered.
The Lutheran Confessions teach us about the “Service” of Divine Service: “The service and worship of the Gospel is to receive good things from God” (Apology, IV, 310). In the Divine Service, God, who calls, gathers, and enlightens the whole Christian church on earth, comes with His gracious gifts to serve us.
People often think that worship is about what we do for or toward God. The reality is quite different. In the Divine Service God is providing his service for us. In the reading, the preaching, and the proclamation of his Word, in his Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, God comes to us. The work we do in worship is to receive the gift of God’s grace and respond.
Our Lord speaks and we listen. His Word bestows what it says. Faith that is born from what is heard acknowledges the gifts received with eager thankfulness and praise. Music is drawn into the thankfulness and praise, enlarging and elevating the adoration of our gracious giver God. Saying back to him what he has said to us, we repeat what is most true and sure.
Dr. Norman Nagel
from the introduction of Lutheran Worship
[still one of the best concise descriptions
of the Divine Service, bar none]
The Divine Service Tells the Story of Salvation
The structure of the Divine Service is the story of God’s work of salvation—the essence of the Bible itself. In the Divine Service, God invites us to take part in that story, to be immersed in it and find our place at the table. As we take part regularly, this story becomes our story. The Gloria begins at the beginning—the Christmas announcement of the angels—but in the process makes of us messengers bringing the news of peace on earth, reminds us that the God we worship has come in the flesh, and points forward to the Lord’s Supper that will come later. The Kyrie joins us to those lepers, the blind, the deaf, the sick, and all those who call upon the Lord for mercy and gives us the hope that as they graciously received it, so will we as we meet Christ in this service. The Readings place us within the biblical narrative at a specific time and place to hear the Word alongside its original hearers, both believers and doubters, the obedient and the disobedient. The Agnus Dei puts us alongside John the Baptizer and once again enables us to ask for mercy. The Sanctus reminds us that the Christ who is acclaimed with the Palm Sunday crowd is none other than the Messiah whom Isaiah saw high and lifted up, the one we will meet in the flesh momentarily. The Words of Institution are the purest narrative, explaining, interpreting, and offering what we have asked for all along—Kyrie eleison, Lord have mercy. The Nunc Dimittis brings the worshiper full circle to where it all began and makes of us Simeons who have held the Lord in our hands and have thus seen the promise fulfilled. We are ready to go in peace.
A brief survey of the parts of the DIVINE SERVICE, the chief worship service among Lutherans., can be found here.
INVOCATION:
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Since we are Trinitarian we call upon the Triune God to bless that which will follow and confess the true God to whom we direct our worship. The Trinitarian invocation also recalls our Baptism. We call on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in whose name we were baptized. “For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit” Ephesians 2:18.
We don’t come before him on our merits, or by our deeds. We come because he has called us by his Holy Spirit, who calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the church. The Divine Service is first and foremost an activity of a Christian congregation, members of which have been joined to the Lord by the work of the Holy Spirit in Baptism.
Romans 6:3 ff.
Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. . .
In the Invocation we call upon God to be true to his Word, for where his name is, there he has promised to be.
invocation:
Latin invocatio, “a calling upon”.
Matthew 18:20
“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
The pastor speaks the Invocation boldly and confidently as he stands before the congregation. The Invocation is addressed to God, so the pastor will face the altar. The pastor can be on the pavement outside of the chancel, or in the chancel but in any case, outside of the altar area.
The practice that is sometimes seen, of the pastor speaking the Invocation while facing the congregation and making the sign of the cross over the congregation, is historically without foundation and wrongly turns the Invocation into a blessing and bestowal of the Divine Name. The Invocation recalls our Baptism, it does not reenact it, or become a blessing in place of or in addition to it. Rather, with the pastor facing the altar speaking the Invocation, his signing of the cross is a personal signature, and it is proper that all those who are baptized may join in making the sign of the cross as a remembrance of their baptism.
Matthew 3:13-17
Matthew 28:19
2 Corinthians 13:14
How Lutherans Worship—the Project
As part of writing the book Worshiping with Angels and Archangels: An Introduction to the Divine Service, I had opportunity to do more study on this subject, and now I hope to bring forward again an exploration of not only the HOW and WHY of our worship, but also the WHAT of what we do in worship.
As always such things are a work in progress. I learn much just by the doing of it, and so I already have the greatest reward. I pray you may also benefit by my doing of it.
