The Prelude and the Invocation

February 16, 2024

The purpose of the prelude is 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 meditation on God’s Word, and they reflect the character and mood of the day or season.

Most services formally begin with the Invocation: “In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.” In the beginning, all three persons of the Trinity were present and active in creating the world (Genesis 1:1-3). So also all three persons of the Trinity are active in creating new life in the waters of Holy Baptism as God speaks the words of Christ through the pastor, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). In Baptism, the name of God is given to us, and we are brought into His family.

Scripture also tells us that where God’s name is, there He is present: “In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you,” (Exodus 20:24) and, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20). God’s name does not indicate an abstract presence, but that He is present and actively working to bless His people in that place. God is present everywhere, but in the Divine Service He is present in a sacramental way to bless us with His gifts.

Beginning the Divine Service with the Invocation reminds us that we are gathered together as baptized Christians and members of one family as brothers and sisters in Christ. It is also a proclamation that God is present and active in our midst working through the liturgy to deliver to us the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. It is not we who call God down to earth, but God who gathers us together to continue the work He began in our Baptism as He serves us in the Divine Service.

The Lutheran Service Book includes the rubric, “The sign of the cross + may be made by all in remembrance of their Baptism” (p. 151). The sign of the cross was first traced on us in our Baptism: “Receive the sign of the holy cross both upon your + forehead and upon your + heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified” (p. 268). Making the sign of the cross at the Invocation and at other times during the liturgy is an ancient practice that reminds us that we enter into God’s presence having been clothed with Christ’s righteousness in our Baptism to receive His holy gifts as fellow heirs with Christ.

Interested in learning more? Join us for Bible class on Sundays at 9:00 a.m. in Parker Hall taught by Pastor Schaaf and Kantor Magnuson. We are exploring the questions: What is worship? Where does the liturgy come from? Why do we do what we do in the Divine Service?

Summaries of the class will be posted here each week.

The Liturgy Points Us to Christ

February 9, 2024

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.

Summaries of the class will be posted here each week.

Heaven on Earth: Reverence in the Divine Service

February 2, 2024

“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.

Summaries of the class will be posted here each week.