About Our Liturgy

The Liturgy Points Us to Christ

The basic pattern of the Divine Service is Word and Sacrament. This pattern was instituted by Christ Himself throughout the New Testament. On Easter afternoon, Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus and, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). They drew near to the village and invited Jesus to stay with them. “When He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him” (Luke 24:30-31). Christ gives us His gifts through Word and Sacrament in the liturgy.

The Church has followed this pattern since the apostolic age. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). The earliest Christians followed this pattern of teaching (Word) and breaking bread (Sacrament) because it was given by Christ Himself. “The prayers” here refers to an ordered set of prayers, or what we might call the liturgy. There are several documents from the Early Church that describe this pattern, and even some specific parts of the liturgy, as early as the end of the first century. Christ does not lay out a specific form of the Divine Service that we must follow as a law, but from the earliest days after the resurrection, the Church began to form the liturgy that we still use today.

The purpose of every part of the liturgy is to point us to Christ. The liturgy gives expression to our sinful condition and points us to Christ as the only Savior. It provides the form and structure to deliver Word and Sacrament to us according to Christ’s institution. And it uses primarily God’s own Word to do so as we speak back to Him what He has spoken to us. Yet there are some elements of the service that are adiaphora—they are neither commanded nor forbidden by God. There is some freedom in determining what a service looks like, but with freedom comes responsibility to examine why we do what we do. The Lutheran Church has always sought to retain the liturgy and traditions that have been handed down to us, not for the sake of keeping manmade customs, but because these things teach us about Christ (Augsburg Confession XXIV). In the coming weeks, we will explore the individual parts of the Divine Service in light of these questions: “How does this practice point us to Christ?” and “What does this practice say about our doctrine?”

Image: Caravaggio, “The Supper at Emmaus,” oil and tempera on canvas, 1601.

Heaven on Earth: Reverence in the Divine Service

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all… Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:22-23, 28-29).

When we come to the Divine Service, we are coming to the city of God where Christ is truly present according to His promises. We are entering into the heavenly reality as Christ descends to us in Word and Sacrament. We partake in a foretaste of the heavenly banquet with Christ Himself as the Host and we join with the whole heavenly host singing praises to the Lamb.

Being in the presence of the holy and almighty God calls for an attitude of “reverence and awe,” as the writer of Hebrews describes. We enter God’s presence only at His invitation and on His terms, for Scripture is clear that sinful man cannot stand alone in the presence of God and live. Christ’s death has torn the veil in the Temple so that we now have boldness to enter God’s presence as the baptized, clothed with Christ’s robe of righteousness. In the Church, “the house of God and the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:17), we treat holy things with the utmost reverence because the holy God is present with us in a real, incarnate, and sacramental way.

The building itself, the materials we use, and the ceremonies we perform also confess that this is no ordinary place. The design and layout of the Church draw our attention to the places where we receive God’s gifts—the altar, pulpit, and lectern. The chancel is elevated to draw our attention upward as we “lift up our hearts” and “set our minds on things above” (Colossians 3:2). We follow an ordered calendar to mark our time according to the life and work of Christ, designated by different colors and seasonal practices.

As we enter this holy place, many people use the time before the service to pray and to meditate on the Scripture readings of the day to prepare for the service. The hymnal and bulletin provide many resources for this purpose. Additionally, the prelude is not merely background music. The prelude serves to set the stage and to assist the congregation in preparing their hearts and minds for the service. Preludes are often based on hymns, which call to mind a particular text and offer further opportunity for reflection, and they reflect the character and mood of the day and season.

What Is Worship?

Most religions define worship as something we do for God. This mentality has crept into many Christian churches as well, that we come to church to praise God. The traditional definition of the word “worship” is to ascribe honor, to adore, or to pay homage to something or someone. This is well-intended, and Scripture talks about our conduct in God’s presence being reverent and pious, but when we examine the Scriptures, they use very different language to describe the action happening in the synagogue, temple, and later, in the early Church. After all, God does not need our worship. 

One of the words that the Bible uses for the service is leitourgia, the Greek word from which we get the word “liturgy.” Liturgy is a public service offered by one person on behalf of a group of people. In Scripture, it commonly refers to the work of a priest offering sacrifices for and distributing them to the people of Israel. This is also a word used in the book of Hebrews for Christ’s high priestly office—offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the whole world and continuing to mediate the New Covenant between God and man by giving Himself to us for the forgiveness of sins.

In the Divine Service, the liturgy, Christ is performing a service for us, not we for him. He acts through His called and ordained servant, the pastor, to deliver His Word and Sacraments to His people. In the Reformation era, the Lutherans called this Gottesdienst—God’s service. God gives. We receive. His Spirit creates faith in us in the waters of Baptism. His Word does what it says. He forgives and strengthens us in the Lord’s Supper. We respond with prayer and thanksgiving and build one another up with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. The primary action is from God to us, then we respond by speaking and singing His Word back to Him.

The Divine Service has two main parts: the Service of the Word and the Service of the Sacrament. This basic pattern comes from both Old and New Testaments and has been handed down to us through all of Church history (Acts 2:41-45). Our doctrine and belief come from Scripture and inform how the service is structured. So also what we do in the service shapes our faith over time. Doctrine and practice work hand in hand to orient our faith and life toward the Word of God.

For further reading, see the introduction in the front of our hymnal, Lutheran Service Book (2006), p. viii-ix.