Liturgy for Lutherans

A layman looks at the Lutheran Liturgy

 

You have read the other dozen or so liturgies on the web, and you are as confused as ever.  Now you have hit the site that will make sense out of it all.  In this site we will discover the basic simple pattern upon which liturgy is built.  We will see how this pattern evolved from the Synagogue Service, learn the “techniques” of corporate worship, and follow the development of the Communion Liturgy.  We will learn how liturgy expresses what we believe, and explore some ways to make liturgy more “interactive”.

Have you ever been asked to conduct devotions for your class or committee?   After your first moment of panic, you calmed down and began to think of a subject for your devotions.  That meant you went to your Bible for ideas.  After deciding on a Bible reading and possibly a discussion of the theme, you next thought of a closing prayer.   Did you then decide on a hymn to get the group together?  Singing unites the group and gets them focused on your devotional. This little triad of Hymn, Bible Reading, and Prayer is the basis of the liturgy.  If you are skeptical, think of it in these terms – the opening exercises, the program or presentation, and the closing remarks.  Or in ‘religious’ jargon - the Gathering, Service of the Word, and the Prayer Response.

“What?” you say.  “The liturgy is too complicated for that simple plan!”  Well, hang in there; we have some fun ahead of us.  In Genesis we find the Israelites, gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai to hear the reading of the Law, God’s Word.  When Moses confronted them with the Law the people responded by re-committing themselves to the covenant.  In the book of Joshua, we have the people called to hear the reading of the Book of the Law found in the temple.  Again, after being confronted by God’s word, the people responded by reaffirming the covenant relationship.  This is the seed of the synagogue liturgy: coming together to hear God’s Word and responding to God in prayer.  The word synagogue implies a gathering, and singing psalms became the characteristic way the group united for worship.  These actions - psalms, readings, and prayers - are the core of worship in the Judaic/Christian tradition.

Vespers

Let’s see how these three actions developed into our liturgy.  Vespers - Bible Study and Prayer for evening - is the granddaddy of the liturgy.  It is the basic synagogue service.  In monastic practice psalm singing became a principle part of the worship – the monks sang the whole book of psalms over the course of the year.  The origin of Vespers is revealed by the words which begin the prayer portion of the service.  “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense: and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”  The Jews prayed by raising their hands, and the local synagogue service was held at the same time as the evening sacrifice at the temple.

Looking at Vespers we see how the basic three fold form began to expand.  For example the service begins, not only with some psalms, but also some prayers.  Likewise the prayer portion concludes not only with prayers but also with some psalms or in this case a canticle (which is a psalm-like hymn from elsewhere in the Bible).  And so the liturgy grows at either end by alternating songs and prayers, prayers and songs.

This pattern is identical with Matins – Bible Study and Prayer for morning.  Matins opens with Psalm 95; “O Come let us sing unto the Lord”.  Matins is a plain service, conducted from the lecterns, no altar or candle ceremonies. It is straight forward a Bible study and prayer before going to work:  Vespers, on the other hand, is a ceremonial service with candle lighting at the altar for the prayers.  It is more leisurely and elaborate as the evening activities begin to wind down for the night.

                                                                          Variations of the Service of the Word

	MATINS	VESPERS	CONFESSION	BURIAL
Gathering	Versicles Psalm 98 Psalms/hymns	Versicles Psalms/Hymns	Versicles Psalm 51	(Hymn) Kyrie Psalm(s)
Bible Study	Lesson(s) Hymn Sermon	Lesson(s) Hymn Sermon	Lesson(s) Hymn Exhortation	Lesson(s) Hymn or Responsory Sermon
Prayer Response	(Offertory) Te Deum Deacon’s Litany Collects	(Offertory) Magnificat Deacon’s Litany Collects	Examination of                           Conscience Prayers of Confession Collects	Nunc Dimitis Versicles Prayers

 

 

This pattern is also the basis of the funeral service, and the service of public confession which is still found in some older hymnals.  By now you recognize the familiar three-fold pattern of introduction, body, and conclusion which our English teachers tried to instill in us.  This pattern forms the basis of the Communion Service as well, but we will have to do a little digging to understand how it developed.

Holy Communion

The Lutheran Divine Service begins with a Service of Confession.  The prefacing of the Lord’s Supper with a corporate confession dates from the second century Didache, the earliest church manual we have.  Almost no other liturgy retains the Confession as a corporate rite.  In the Confession, the congregation unites together at the foot of the cross - where the ground is level.  In other words we admit, not only to God, but to each other that we claim nothing for ourselves but depend only on Christ and his righteousness.

Following the Confession an opening or entrance hymn begins the Service of the Word.  There are four actions in this service; the opening prayers, the scripture lessons, the Gospel lesson, and the Sermon.  Notice that the Gospel has been singled out for special observance.  Recent service books have restored the Deacons Litany, a list of prayer topics to which the congregation responds.  This is called a bidding prayer.   In pre-reformation liturgies the opening prayer bids were dropped; only the response “Kyrie”– (Lord have mercy) was retained.  Next, the congregation sings the ‘Glory to God in the Highest’ – a little bit of Christmas in every service.  This is followed by the Collect, the prayer of the day.  Notice the sequence: song, prayer, song, prayer.  This concludes the opening exercises – the “gathering.”

Remember our basic threefold order?  The second part is the reason we are gathered – to be confronted with the Word of God.  Usually there are three lessons: an Old Testament lesson, an Epistle lesson, and a Gospel lesson.  In ancient times these readings were the way people learned the Bible.  Not only were there additional lessons (from the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings as well as Revelation) but the readings were longer. There is a musical interlude between each lesson.  Originally this music was to cover the movement of the readers to the lectern.  Now it also serves for a choir anthem, a Psalm of the Day sung by the congregation, or special music.  (On the other hand, people will move during prayers, sermon, and silence, but will remain stationary during music when their movement would be least obtrusive.)

The Gospel, in a ceremony derived from the synagogue, is carried into the middle of the congregation.  In Christian worship this represents Christ coming into the world.  We stand for the Gospel and sing “Praise to you”, as if the Gospel were Christ himself.  Christ is the Word of God. The response to the Gospel is the Creed.  A Creed was not originally part of the worship.  It was inserted just before the communion service to keep Arians, who did not believe Christ was God, from partaking of communion.  Luther realized that a statement of faith should be a unifying factor rather than a dividing factor in the liturgy.  Therefore he placed the Creed as a response to the Gospel.  It is effective not only as a response to the Gospel lesson, but it helps to focus the Service of the Word on the Sermon.  This location for the Creed is the second unique character of the Lutheran Liturgy.

 In addition, we say  “the Holy Christian Church” rather than “ Holy Catholic Church”.  In German the word catholic did not translate clearly. The word Christian was substituted instead.  So the expression, holy Christian church, became characteristic of Lutheran usage. The expression the Communion of Saints comes after The Holy Christian Church in the Apostles Creed.  Lutherans, in printing the Creed either indent, or use punctuation, to show that communion of saints is an explanatory phrase for the Holy Christian Church and not, as usually read and understood, an additional entity to which we are expressing our faith.  I draw your attention to these things because recent service books are suppressing these customs and we are losing our identity, and what we stand for.

The Hymn of the Day is the introduction to the Sermon.  The sermon is the most important part of the Service because it explains and applies the scripture lessons.  Remember, that is the reason for our gathering to worship - to be confronted by God’s Word.  Luther said his favorite title for clergy, was not minister, priest, reverend, father, or pastor, but preacher, because that is his most important job.

 

The Service of Thanksgiving is our response to God’s Word.  As in the other services it consists predominantly of prayer.  But it is preeminently a celebration of the Lord’s Supper - the family reunion of the fellowship of believers.  Some years ago the writer was visiting a Synagogue service.  At the end of the service the Rabbi said, ”I want to celebrate the family meal here for the children.  In our modern life the family rituals are too often not observed”.  He took a loaf of bread, and a cup of wine and blessed them and passed them to the children.  My mouth came open in surprise.  This is exactly what happened in the early church, although for a different reason.  You remember where Paul admonishes the Corinthians for too much drinking in their celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  Sometime between Paul’s admonition and the writing of the Didache the Church took the blessing of the bread and wine and made them represent the whole meal, just as did the Jewish synagogue I observed.

 

Gregory Dix, in his seminal The Shape of the Liturgy, describes how the liturgy reproduces the four actions of Jesus at the last supper.  “Our Lord… took the bread (Offertory), gave thanks (Prayer of Thanksgiving), broke it (Breaking of Bread), and gave it to them (the Distribution)”. These four actions parallel the four actions in the Service of the Word, as you can see in the diagram.  Notice that it is the ceremonial reading of the gospel that creates the fourfold pattern that duplicates the four actions of the Lord’s Supper.

 

 Perhaps some of you remember when our churches didn’t have lecterns.  The Service of the Word was conducted from the altar.  There was a Gospel side, and an Epistle side of the altar, and a kneeling bench for the Collect.  This was a holdover from pre-reformation ritual when the Service of the Word was just a preliminary ceremony to the “Sacrifice of the Mass” and the whole thing was in a foreign language anyway.  As the chart demonstrates, the Communion is our response to the Service of the Word.  The confrontation with God’s word, builds the community which can then celebrate the Lord’s meal.

 

 

Diagram of the Lutheran Divine Service

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

 

In the Coptic and Orthodox liturgies the Offertory is called the Great Procession (the Gospel is the Little Procession). Upon reception of the gifts the General Prayer is offered.  This is led by the deacon, and includes bids and/or responses from the congregation.  It is concluded by the Pastor.  Notice the pattern – the lay leader (Deacon) calls out bids or topics, the celebrants (people) agree, and the president (Minister) concludes.  Observe the variations - In the Confession the Deacon intones some Versicles, verses from the Psalms. The pastor leads the actual prayers.  In the opening prayers, the Deacons Litany – represents the original form of bidding prayer, again followed by the pastoral ‘Collect’, or Prayer of the Day.

The Deacon does not begin the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving however.  The opening dialogue is between the president (pastor) and people.  The minister then prays the Preface for the Season.  Then a song, the Sanctus, by the people, followed by the Words of Institution.  The Lords Prayer concludes the Prayer of Thanksgiving.  In the pre-reformation service, the words of institution were encased in a prayer, the Canon, which described the elements as a sacrifice reenacted by the priest.  Lutherans understand the bread and wine (body and blood), as a gift to us from God, not our offering to him.  Therefore Luther dropped the whole canon.  The Words of Institution by themselves is the third unique feature of the Lutheran Liturgy.

The Service Book and Hymnal reinserted a brief prayer of thanksgiving around the Words of Institution.  This beautiful prayer includes the words, “We give thanks not as we ought, but as we are able.”  Only recently I discovered those are very ancient words from the Eastern Liturgies.  Newer books have longer prayers which require the people to read along in order to know when to respond.   Historically these prayers began with a recitation of God’s plan of salvation   This can be briefly a reference to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, or it may be an extended account beginning  with Genesis and continuing with God’s working through the Old Testament and into the New.

 After the Words of Institution there follows an invocation of the Holy Spirit.  This is the danger point for this can easily become a prayer for the changing of the elements into the blood and body of our Lord.  Another objectionable part for Lutherans is the invocation of the Saints.  The Celebrate Insert of the ELCA sneaks in a commemoration of saints in the General prayer.  This is to accustom us to accept the prayers of other denominations.  It seems that anything that witnesses to Lutheranism is being suppressed.

.For the conclusion of the Prayer of Thanksgiving the congregation joins in The Lords Prayer.  The reference to our daily bread is probably the reason the Prayer is used here.  Some scholars now think the statement “Give us this day our daily bread” is an anticipation of our heavenly banquet.  The Offertory Song in the Lutheran Book of Worship which states  ”Give us a foretaste of the feast to come,” expresses that idea.

The distribution of the elements has been handled in various ways through out the centuries.  The Orthodox Churches put the bread into the wine and offer a spoonful of the mixture to the communicant.  In the western church it became customary to distribute just the bread.  Are you old enough to remember when the Pastor placed a small round wafer on your tongue.  That wafer was designed to resemble a coin.  It came into use when the economy changed from a barter to a money system.  The coin shape was to remind the communicant of the connection between the offertory and the communion. Today we have gone back to ‘real’  bread for the same reason.  One of the issues of the Reformation was to “commune in both kinds”.  So Protestants have always shared both bread and wine.

Since the word Eucharist has no meaning in English, it implies a priestly action.  Lutherans are more likely to refer to The Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion, terminology which expresses the corporate character of the service. The Prayer of Thanksgiving is chanted because that is the original method humans participated in group activity.  In fact, our Lord chanted the prayers in the first ‘Lord’s Supper.’

The service ends with the Song of Simion, the Nunc Dimittis. This canticle, as well as the use of candles, tells us that originally the service was held in the evening.  In other words, the service grew out of Vespers by adding the ‘meal’ just as we saw the rabbi doing above.  The conclusion is a brief prayer, the Benediction, and the Sending, and ‘singing a hymn and going out’.  Our service, by implication, is just beginning.

The Church Year

Now the liturgy isn’t all that complicated, is it?  Before we explore some ways to have the congregation more involved in worship, there is one another aspect to the liturgy to consider.  The Psalms, hymns, lessons, and prayers change from service to service. These are called the Propers for the day.  The propers relate to a theme that is determined by the church calendar.  Here is an easy way of thinking of the Church Year.  The church calendar is divided into three parts: the Life of Christ, the Life of the Christian, and the Life of the Church, the Christian Community.

.           The first half of the year, the Life of Christ, is made up of two cycles.  The Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany cycle occurs at the same time every year.  The cycle of Lent, Easter, and Ascension varies every year depending upon the date of Easter. (Epiphany and Pentecost are the accordion seasons, expanding or contracting in relation to the start of Lent.)  The Pentecost season, the second half of the year, is concerned with our living the Life of the Christian.

 The Life of the Church, on the other hand, is celebrated on specific occasions, all year long.  Lutherans traditionally assign memorial days to biblical “Saints ”.  But other days remind us of great events in the history of the Church.  Some of these days do double duty.  For example, Pentecost, the birthday of the church also recalls the coming of the Holy Spirit into the life of the Christian.  Christmas, as well as recalling the coming of God to earth as man, also affirms the two natures of Christ, wholly God and wholly man, as defined at the Council of Chalcedon.  Trinity Sunday recalls the Christian understanding of God as defined at the Council of Nicea.  Reformation Day, reminds us of the recovery of the Gospel at the pivot point between feudalism and the modern era.  Reformation Day and Trinity Sunday are under attack by modern day Gnostics, who, having special knowledge, want a Christianity without Christ. 

Bringing Liturgy to Life

Do you think of liturgy as the pastor’s work?  But the word liturgy means  people’s work or service.  Looking at ways to involve the worshiper more in the liturgy, we will examine two approaches.  First, we must restore the lay leadership role – the Deacons.  Secondly we will look at ways to ‘unfreeze’ the words of the liturgy and bring the action to life.  We will see if the people can do the liturgy instead of just reading it.

Christian worship is an outgrowth of Synagogue precedents.  There are three principle services, Matins (morning bible study and prayer), Vespers (evening bible study and prayer), and  Holy Communion (Bible study with Lord’s Supper.)  Divine Service, and Service of Thanksgiving are other names for Holy  Communion.  Service of the Word sounds formal and remote.  Remember our purpose for gathering together is to learn God’s Word, so Bible Study.  Good Lutheran principle – put things in the language of the people.  For a while we called the pastor the ‘celebrant’, and someone who led the service the ‘liturgist’.  As we can see, the people are the actual celebrants and liturgists.  Lay leaders who conduct the service are called deacons. The minister is the president of the feast.  In fact, the word president was coined for the role of the pastor in the liturgy.

In the old Norwegian Synod a layman (klokker) opened and closed the service with a prayer.  They felt it important to involve the laity in the worship, not realizing that the liturgy all ready had lay leaders as integral part of the worship.  Since Vatican Council II we have had lay readers, but that is not quite the same thing.  Also, service books describe an assistant minister.  But Deacons are not assistants to the minister, they are the lay leaders of the worship.  It is the Deacon who has an assistant.

In the New Testament the Diaconate is a congregational office.  As the church developed, the deacons became a lower order of clergy.  In this system the Deacon is a first ordination for seminarians.  This is a titular role – it has no function.   The Lutheran Confessions reject the concept of a hierarchy of ordained orders of ministry.  Deacons are the congregational leaders of worship.  As we have seen, they start the prayers with bids.  Just as synagogue sextons had responsibility for the scrolls, deacons assumed a similar function in the church, and so became the readers of the lessons.  The word deacon means waiter, the job they were elected for in Acts.  That is the origin of their role in the distribution of communion.  As we go through the service we will see how the restoration of the lay leaders can change the whole atmosphere of the liturgy.

The Divine Liturgy of the Lutheran Church consists of three services.  The first service is Confession and Forgiveness.  The mood is set by a dialogue of some Psalm verses between the deacon and the congregation.  The Lutheran Book of Worship unfortunately has dropped these ‘versicles’.  Liturgically prayers are introduced by the deacon.  In any kind of program where the audience is expected to participate, you must get them involved as soon as possible.  For the leader to open with long dissertations without congregational involvement is to lose the people before you even begin.  The context of confession as well as the brevity of the action demands that they become participants immediately.  These versicles are logical for the deacons to conduct as they compare to the bidding prayers elsewhere in the liturgy which precede and lead into the pastoral prayers.

If we were to really ask God for forgiveness, we would actually fall on our knees before Him.  How can we get a physical posture that reflects and reinforces what we are saying?  Most Lutheran Churches don’t have kneeling benches – quite rightly, I think, for kneelers are too comfortable to induce a feeling of humility.  If we were to face the entrance, we would be in position to lean over on the back of the pew and bow deeply.  Some worshipers may even be moved to kneel with their face in the pew.  Then, as the pastor pronounces forgiveness, the people would straighten up and turn around, enacting the meaning of repentance.

Now the Entrance Hymn covers the procession of the minister and deacons to the lectern and pulpit area of the church.  And we begin the second service, The Bible Study.  This is the original Synagogue Service of the Word out of which has grown all our liturgy.  Our opening prayers consist of bids by the deacon to which the people respond “Lord have mercy.”  The Latin West, with its desire for concise clarity, conflicted with the Greek East, which loves lengthy elaborateness.  The Western Church dropped the deacon’s bids, retaining only the response “Kyrie”, Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy. This was repeated nine times.  Luther reduced the repetitions to three.  The compilers of the Service Book and Hymnal restored a shortened Deacon’s Litany.  Short sightedly they did not restore the deacon to lead it, and thereby missed an opportunity to take the lead in worship renewal.

The Deacon’s Litany is the basic form of call and response. Time passed slowly on a troopship during the Korean War. We were entertained, while lolling about on deck, by singing - a leading voice answered back by a group.  President Truman had recently integrated the armed services and for most of us white boys, this was our first acquaintance with black culture.  Peace Corp workers report that back in the hinterlands of Africa and South America you can still find people working together to the rhymes and rhythms of call and response singing.  In our culture this form of group singing exists only in one place.  If you are on a military base in the early morning hours, you will find troops doing their conditioning run singing responses to the calls of their singing sergeants.  But this kind of singing could become characteristic of Lutheran liturgy- pastors and worship leaders are you hearing?  What a way to reach out, especially to minority populations.

The expression “Lord have mercy,” doesn’t carry the same meaning today that it did to early Christians.   Without its context as response to prayer bids, it has a confessional tone to it.  In popular usage it is a minor expletive.  It will be worth finding an alternative response.   ”Hear our prayer, O Lord” is probably the original intent of the expression.  In many hymnals there is a  responsory:                                                                

                               Hear our prayer, O Lord;  

                               Hear our prayer, O Lord;                                                                                                                                                  

                               Incline thine ear to us;

                               And grant us thy peace;

                               Amen.                                                                                                                                                                                                These five responses match up with the five bids of the litany and present a different type of interaction.  The Deacon chants the bids, and the people assent with song.  (The organist will have to transpose them into complimentary keys.)

After the minister says the Prayer of the Day (Collect) we have completed the ‘opening exercises’.  Now would be a logical place for the announcements, just before the lessons.  We tend to see announcements as intrusions on the worship experience, but announcements are a very important part of any group meetings.  Depending on the layout of the church and/or where the pastor and deacons are standing or seated, there may need to be some music to cover the time it takes for the assistant deacon to get to the lectern.  This is the original place for the ‘theme psalm’, (Introit), a choir piece that has been dropped in recent hymnals.  (Another place for the Introit psalm could be as a Call to Worship, sung from the narthex before the Confessional Service.)

After the first lesson the congregation sings a responsory psalm.  Every book I have read on liturgy suggests that this psalm should be sung antiphonally, the right side of the congregation vs the left side.  I have never seen this done, but it would surely bring the psalm to life. The Deacon would sing the antiphon line followed by the congregation, before dividing into the antiphonal singing.

It is important that the Gospel lesson is read by the deacon from the middle of the congregation.  It is important that the assistant deacon holds the book while the deacon reads.  Why are these things important?  This ceremony draws attention to Christ as the Word of God, which is why we stand and sing “Praise to thee O Christ.’  It also draws attention to the centrality of the Bible as the Word of God.  In addition Research has shown that when people are beyond the twelfth row in a group setting, they no longer feel participants but are spectators at the event.  Most of our churches are long and narrow putting most of the congregation beyond the area of participation.  By bringing the Gospel into the center of the congregation, you involve the whole church in the action of the liturgy.  (When you conduct the Confession from the entrance of the church, those who hide in the back find themselves right in the midst of the action.)

 The Gospel reader should not face either the entrance or the altar for that keeps the front to back orientation of the congregation.  He must face either to the left or to the right to create the sense of being in the middle of a group.  By tradition the deacon faces to the right.  When churches were built with the chancel in the East, facing right was to face North, the direction from which great evil was to come.  The Gospel needs a response.  This is the logical place to have the Creed.  Since the people are standing in circles around the Gospel Procession, they can join hands as they share their faith in Christ.  In this context, the Creed becomes an acknowledgement of the person of Christ, rather than a statement of faith in a doctrine or an institution.

The Hymn of the Service, sung at this point, also provides a cover for the return of the deacons to the chancel.  (If candle bearers and a cross bearer have led the procession, they retire to the rear of the church in order to lead the Offertory Procession.  If these are teenagers, be sure that ushers are there to keep the kids quiet and centered on the worship.  Perhaps this will also keep the ushers attention focused on the sermon.)

If we compare the Lutheran order of service with non-Lutheran orders, we see how Luther brought coherence to disparate actions.  There seems to be logic to the Lutheran order: the Creed as response to the Gospel, leading into the Hymn, which sets the stage for the Sermon.  There is a building towards a climax.  In the alternative orders there is an awkward lull in the transition from the Gospel to the Sermon.  The Hymn and the Creed are out there by themselves, with no logical connection to each other or to the service as a whole.  The Liturgy drags through here with no apparent direction or goal.

There are two different Creeds.  Which one should we use?  The Nicene Creed is a ‘theological’ statement, while The Apostles Creed is more of a “folk” creed.  On Reformation Day we can use the meaning of the Second Article of the Creed from Luther’s Small Catechism.  We all know that by heart, don’t we?

When the Church of South India restored the Passing of the Peace they set off a wildfire that spread across the world.  Even non-liturgical churches now have a passing of the peace.  It is this idea, that the congregation should actually do what the liturgy says that has inspired this exploration of liturgical renewal.  The Passing of the Peace is performed two ways.  More formally it is passed by the pastor to the deacons and from them to the people.  More commonly it is just passed by everybody at the same time.  It may be performed at the beginning of the offertory, which is like the greeting at the beginning of the dinner or it can be after the Lord’s Prayer, which is just before the distribution of communion.  Lutheran liturgies have ‘the ‘Peace’ at either place.  (Another place it might be fitting is after the Confession as the people stand and turn around.  This would create a sense of bonding after the Confession and Absolution.)

The Offertory is the beginning of the third service of the Liturgy.  It is also the third procession in the liturgy.  Since the congregation stands for this, why not remain standing and even begin to come out of the pews and go forward, filling the aisle.

Recently it has become customary to have laymen bring the bread and wine forward.  Usually they stay at the altar and help in the distribution.  Would it be more logical if the Deacons assisted in the distribution and the persons who brought the gifts forward rotated among the congregation?   If families or groups of singletons brought forward the gifts it would be more representative of what we are trying to express.  If the gifts were wine and bread, purchased or made by the family or group presenting them it would be actually, not just symbolically, what the sacrament is doing – God making sacred the everyday stuff of life.  And everyone in the congregation would have in due course, the responsibility to provide for the communion celebration.

Rather then placing a table nearer the people, most Lutheran congregations have pulled the altar out from the wall.  This has seemed to separate the pastor from the people instead of bringing them together.  So – let the deacons stand at either end of the altar thus completing the gathering around the Holy Table.  During the offertory the Deacons can “set” the table.  If they spread the white ‘table cloth’, and place articles needed for the communion it will again actualize rather than ‘symbolize’ what is going on.

If more than one pastor has taken part in the service they should stand together for the Prayer of Thanksgiving – but only the presiding pastor sings the prayer.  You notice how the pastor raises his hands during the prayer?  Remember we said that raising the hands was the Jewish posture for prayer?  Paintings from the catacombs show the congregation praying with their hands raised.  So let the people join in the prayer with their hands raised also.  At the Lord’s Prayer the people can cross their arms on their breasts, in a traditional action from the Armenian Church.  At this point the congregation should remain standing until they have returned from the altar.  The prayer has been building towards a climax, and to sit down when the context is to get involved contradicts the spirit and intention of the liturgy at this point.

 You see how these latter actions bring the people into the liturgy, rather than being just spectators?  The verbal responses during the prayer have the disadvantage of requiring the worshiper to follow along in the book.  Having to read the liturgy means that one can’t really worship.  For congregational participation it may be more important to have the people sing the known responses rather than having to read new material.

As the service ends, the Deacon says “Go in peace, serve the Lord.”  The response is” Thanks be to God.”  Would it be more effective to use contemporary language and get a commitment from the people?  How about, “Go therefore into all the world”; the people responding, “We will love others, as the Lord has loved us.”

Vespers Renewed

This brings us back to where we started, with Vespers.  The Communion Service is a service for members, after all.  Vespers provides us a service to reach out to visitors as well as providing a more informal worship experience for the fellowship.  How?  The first part of vespers is the psalmody - hymns and psalms.  This part of the service can be handled in a variety of ways:  let the congregation choose the hymns, have special music, let people share their religious experiences, show bible songs on screens, or have the whole ‘gathering’ portion  of the worship become a “Praise” service.  With the reading of the lessons and the sermon, the service moves into a more traditional form.  (We’re discussing the ‘classical’ Vespers, not the Lutheran Book of Worship version.)  After the Sermon, the prayer portion continues with the candle lighting ceremony during the canticle followed by the closing collects.  As the versicle suggests the congregation should raise their hands for the prayers.  The Kyrie at this point was originally the Deacon’s Litany.  Restoring the Litany returns lay leadership to this concluding action of the service.

 Discovering the original place of the Deacon’s Litany completes our understanding of the development of the communion liturgy.  When the Communion Service was attached to Vespers, the Offertory Prayer and Prayer of Thanksgiving displaced the Litany. The litany was then moved to the beginning of the service where it became part of the ‘gathering’ before the Service of the Word.

Epilogue

In the diagram of the liturgy, you notice that the prophetic or Service of the Word portion is balanced by the sacramental or Service of Thanksgiving portion.  However, as we have just seen, the Lord’s Supper was originally almost an afterthought to the Service of the Word.  The development of the sacramental role of the priest in the ‘Sacrifice of the Mass’, however, minimized the ‘preaching’ and Bible Study aspect of worship.  The Mass, conducted by the priest, even without a congregation, became the typical worship service or ‘low mass.’  The ancient congregational sung service led by (priests acting as) deacons became the ‘high mass’, used only for special occasions.  In the medieval church this development grew out of the understanding of church, not as a fellowship of believers, but as the institutional administrator of God’s grace under divinely ordained Bishops.

  The history of the church has become, like the history of religion in biblical Israel, the story of the conflict and tension between the power and authority of the institutional religion over/against the prophetic voice proclaiming God’s desiring a change of heart in the individual believer.  We are going through another period when the institutional church is exerting its authority over the congregational communion of saints.  The prophetic Service of the Word is being de-emphasized while the sacramental/institutional has become the focus of worship. 

Years ago a flat tire caused me to be late for church.  Passing by other churches about sermon time, I was struck by the fact that at all these churches, the men were standing outside the door, smoking and talking.  Some how it would seem that the service should be so alive that the layleaders would be involved in the worship experience rather than escaping from the central activity of the fellowship.  Restoring the deacon’s role as leaders of worship will fill that void.  Whether the service is Matins, Vespers, or Holy Communion, the tendency is to conduct them all alike.  The same choir processional, the same candles on the altar, the same standing for the gospel.  Even though the format is the same, each service is different in its goals and purpose and the ceremonies should reflect the characteristics of that service. 

The worship of the church must be expressed not only in words but in lay leadership of, and congregational participation in, the action of worship. In Beyond the Written Word, William A. Graham reminds us that scripture and liturgy were originally oral and aural experiences.  As our culture slides back into a non-reading society, perhaps a recovery of the oral/aural heritage can recapture the immediacy of liturgical worship for today’s believers.  The ideas expressed in this article intend to bring the congregation into the service so that they ‘own’ the service, and not feel that the worship belongs to the minister and the choir.  In other words we are recovering primitive Christian worship: the proclamation of God’s Word.  

Effective worship is to be confronted by God’s Word.  A response to that word is called for. These actions grow out of the gathering.  These three actions prepare us for the day at Matins, cement the fellowship in Holy Communion, and close our day with Vespers.

 

Copyright, Roger Blegen, August 2004