What Is Lutheran Worship? - November 28, 2021

Service Introduction: Have you ever wondered, “Why do we worship the way we do? Why is our worship service so different from anything else we do in life? Why is it even so different from the way other churches worship? What are we doing and why are we doing it?” Some may think that we worship the way we do because it’s what we’ve always done, and that Lutherans just don’t like to change. But doing something just because it’s what we’ve always done is not a good reason to do anything. That’s why on this first Sunday of the church year, our service is going to be a little different. Instead of assuming that we all know why we worship the way we do, we’re going to pause at each point in the service and understand what it is and where it came from. My prayer is that, as we better understand Lutheran worship, we can better appreciate Lutheran worship and worship our Savior and Lord in spirit and in truth, (John 4:23) as our Savior desires.

The Liturgy: The basic framework, or order of service, is called the liturgy. The word liturgy comes from two Greek words “people” and “work”. In the Bible this word is used for the formal, organized worship of both Christians and non-Christians (Philippians 2:17) – but also for the everyday lives of believers – lives that they live to the glory of God no matter what they are doing (2 Corinthians 9:12). We use the liturgy for three main reasons. First and most importantly, the liturgy keeps us focused on Jesus. (Both the cover of our bulletin and the cover of our hymnal contain two Greek letters – chi and rho – the first two letters in the name of Christ). Second, the liturgy allows everyone to participate with joy and confidence instead of merely being passive spectators – like we are at a football game or movie. (Part of being confident to participate in worship means that we use repetition – so that everyone, from the two-year-old to the 92-year-old – can join in.) Third, the liturgy honors the experience of the believers who have gone before us. Some parts of the liturgy have been used by believers for over 3000 years to worship the LORD. We use these ancient words and songs, not just because they are old, but because they have been time tested by generations of believers to be faithful to the truth of God’s Word and educates and edifies all people. While we use a different version of the liturgy almost every week for variety, the Divine Service most closely reflects the style of worship used by the earliest Christians. One more thing. Each worship service has a unifying theme. Our theme today, the first Sunday in Advent, is: Our Lord Comes to Save Us.

Invocation: This opening response is taken directly from Matthew 28:19, the passage in which Jesus gave his church its mission and instituted the sacrament of Baptism. We begin our worship by calling on the name of the Triune God, not only to clarify who we are worshipping but to remind ourselves that we are his baptized children. The word, “amen,” which you see at many parts of the service comes from a Hebrew word which means, “truth.” Whenever you say or sing this word, you mean, “that’s the truth. I agree with it.”

Confession of Sins: 1 John chapter 1 says, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…If anyone does sin, we have an Advocate before the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the whole world (1 John 1:8-9; 2:1-2). Before we can come before God to offer him our worship and praise, God must do something for us. He washes us clean of our sins and assures us that we are forgiven for Jesus’ sake. You should note that the pastor always leads the confession of sins, for he too is a sinner in need of Jesus’ forgiveness. The words of our confession come from Romans 8, James 2 and Luke 18. The words of the absolution – or release from sin and guilt – are from 1 John 2 and Matthew 28. The song, Lord, Have Mercy, “Kyrie” in Latin, is one of the oldest songs of the Christian church. It is taken from the prayer of the tax collector in Luke 18. He came to the temple of the Lord, but when he prayed, he did not look up to heaven but beat his chest and said, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13).  

Glory Be to God: This song of praise is taken from Luke 2, the words the angels sang to the shepherds announcing the birth of the Savior. Each and every Sunday we remember Christmas, that monumental moment in history when God became one of us to save us from our sins.

Prayer of the Day: It doesn’t take too long to notice that liturgical Lutheran pastors turn around quite a bit – sometimes facing the altar, sometimes facing the congregation. There’s a reason for this. When the pastor is speaking for the people or as one of the people: confessing sins, praying, praising – he faces the altar. When the pastor is speaking as God’s spokesman to the people: the absolution, the reading or preaching of God’s Word, he faces the people. The prayer of the day is formulated according to the theme of the service and presents God with a specific request in line with that theme.

Scripture Lessons: Almost every Sunday, we read three Scripture lessons: one from the Old Testament, one from the Gospels, and one from the New Testament Epistles. These lessons are carefully chosen both to emphasize one common theme and to cover all the main teachings of the Bible. When we sing a Psalm, we are using the oldest hymnal in the world – the hymnal God gave to his OT people. Some of these songs are over 3000 years old and connect us with believers who lived by faith in God’s promises hundreds of years before Jesus was born. The sermon text is usually taken from one of these three lessons.

The Creed: A creed is a statement of what a person or group of people teach and believe. The creeds we use most regularly, the Apostles’ and Nicene, have been and continue to be used by Christians of all denominations all over the world. The Nicene Creed dates back to 325 AD and was formulated as a defense of the Biblical teaching of the Trinity, emphasizing that Jesus is truly God. We begin by saying “we believe” to stress that we gather as people who have a common confession, which is especially significant when we come forward together to receive our Savior’ body and blood. The Apostles’ Creed is a simple statement of personal faith in the Triune God. In the early Christian church, adults would confess this faith before they were baptized in the name of the triune God. When children and adults are confirmed today, this creed serves as their public confession of their personal faith.

Hymn of the Day: The hymn of the day is specially chosen to reflect the theme of the sermon. Even though it isn’t always the most familiar or easiest to sing, the text usually corresponds well to the sermon text. Most of our hymns have words and phrases taken directly from Scripture. Many of them have also been sung by Christians for centuries. Their age doesn’t make them stale or irrelevant, instead, their age means that they have been tested and proven to clearly proclaim the truths of God’s Word. When new hymns are written that proclaim the Gospel clearly, we incorporate them as well. The Lutheran Church has been called the singing church because it encourages everyone to participate in songs, hymns, and spiritual songs – as Paul encourages in Colossians 3. You may never walk out of church reciting a line of the sermon, but you just might leave humming a line from a hymn. That is why hymns are such a great tool for preaching and teaching the Gospel.

Gospel: We stand for the reading of the Gospel to show our honor and respect for the words and works of Jesus. The word Gospel means “good news.” The hearing of the good news that Jesus has come to reveal God to us and to live and die as our substitute is one of the high points of our worship.

The sermon: In most other areas of life, if someone is “preaching” at you, it’s not a good thing. But here in God’s house, the sermon is a special opportunity to proclaim Christ crucified and to build up the faith of people for whom Christ has died. We won’t have a full sermon this morning, but rather an explanation of what makes Christians of all ages treasure preaching. Every sermon has a different emphasis, but in general the sermon has three main parts: it should contain specific law (which shows us our sins and our need for a Savior), it should contain specific gospel (which tells us what Jesus has done to save us from our sins), and it contains a specific application of how we can put the law and gospel into practice in our own lives.

How does Luke’s account of Palm Sunday provide the basis for this kind of sermon? Well, why were these crowds of people there in Jerusalem in the first place? They were there to celebrate the Passover – the annual reminder that God had freed his people from their slavery in Egypt hundreds of years before. We are also slaves – whether we care to admit it or not: slaves to sin, death and the devil. The evidence litters our lives in the sins we commit with our thoughts, words and actions. That’s specific law. But that’s why Jesus came both to Bethlehem and to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday – to free us from our enslavement. But doing so required him to die on a cross, to suffer hell, and to be buried in a tomb. That’s the specific Gospel. How does this apply to our daily lives? Well, it may seem odd to read about Palm Sunday on the first Sunday in Advent (as we’re preparing for Christmas) – but I think the Church did this intentionally. It did us to knock the Christmas spirit out of us, to disrupt our focus on worldly things this time of year. This lesson reminds us that Christmas isn’t really about lights or gifts or cookies or even family and friends. Christmas is about Christ. And Christ didn’t come to give us an excuse to exchange gifts or gather with family – but to die on a cross for our sins. And when you remember that, then not only will the stress of these weeks be lifted from your shoulders (because Christmas is not really about anything you do or buy) but you will truly be filled with joy and peace when December 25 arrives because you will know that Jesus came for you, to die for you, to save you.

Create In Me: This response is taken from Psalm 51. We ask God to purify our hearts so that we may empowered and energized to believe what he has promised and do what he has commanded in his Word.

Offering: We gather the offering at this point in the service, not merely to pay the bills (we could just send out invoices if that were the only reason), but to show our gratitude to God, to exercise our faith in his power to provide, to support the preaching of the Gospel here and around the world and to have a few quiet moments to reflect on the truths of the sermon. The offering is also a good time to turn to page 156 in the front of the hymnal to examine yourself in preparation for the reception of Holy Communion.

The Prayer of the Church: The church is not a building, not a synod, not even a printed list of people. The church is everyone, everywhere who believes in Jesus as their Savior from sin, so in the prayer of the Church we join to pray for people in various circumstances of life. We conclude with the Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus himself taught the church almost 2000 years ago. The Lord’s prayer can be found in Matthew 6 and Luke 11.

Holy, Holy, Holy: The Santcus is taken from Isaiah 6. Isaiah saw a vision of angels and a glimpse of the glory of the LORD. He was terrified and felt ruined because of his sin. But an angel took a coal from the altar, touched his lips, and said look, this has touched your lips, so your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven (Isaiah 6:7). Isaiah’s song is the perfect song for us to sing as we are preparing to meet our Savior face to face. We approach God as sinners, deserving only death and damnation because of our sins. But receiving Jesus’ body and blood with our lips with penitent hearts, we are cleansed so that as we depart this table the pastor assures us: “Go in peace, your sins are forgiven.”

The Words of Institution: You have probably noticed that this is the only time the pastor stands on the other side of the altar. This is intentional. As a called servant of Christ, the pastor humbly stands in the place of Christ at this holy meal and is able to speak the very words of Christ face to face with God’s people.

O Christ, Lamb of God: Agnus Dei is Latin for “Lamb of God.” This song comes from John 1:29, where John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In the OT, lambs and other animals were sacrificed for the sins of the people. Christ is our perfect lamb, sacrificed one time for the sins of the world, including yours and mine, and is now given to us, in, with, and under the bread and the wine.

Prayer and Blessing: We close with prayer to thank God for his plan and his work for our salvation. Everything that Jesus has done for us has been delivered to us personally through Word and Sacrament. We came here as broken sinners. We leave as healed, holy, and blameless saints. And as we leave, we go with God’s blessing. These words are taken from Numbers 6. They are over 3500 years old. God himself told Moses tell Aaron and his sons, ‘this is how you are to bless the [people]…so they will put my name on the [people], and I will bless them. (Numbers 6:22, 27) We sing three amens because of the three-part blessing and to remember the Triune God in whose name we began our worship.

Post Worship: This service may have felt like trying to take a drink from a fire hose with all the information that has been thrown at you. But I pray that this service helps you to see that Jesus is at the center of every part of our worship service, that you feel like an active participant when you come to worship, and that this new church year, another year of God’s grace, might be another year of blessing as you journey through this world on your way to heaven. As we begin another church year, let us remember to thank God for the blessing of Bible-based, Christ-centered, Lutheran Worship.