This is the fourth installment in a series on the sections of our weekly worship service. (See the June, July, and August editions of the Pastor’s Corner for the previous installments.) My intention for this series is to help you better understand not only what we do in our worship service, but also why we do it.

            In the past 50 years or so, Lutherans have reclaimed the ancient practice of weekly Communion. Luther himself encouraged that practice, because it was consistent with his insistence that God is truly present in this sacrament, working in us by the power of the Holy Spirit to forgive our sins, to strengthen us in faith and hope, and to empower us for faithful living.

            Having shared the peace of Christ with one another and collected the offering for the support of the congregation and our mission in the world, we move now into the “Meal” or Communion portion of the service. The major components of the Meal are the Great Thanksgiving – a series of prayers of thanks for all that God has done for us – and the distribution of the sacrament itself. This follows an ancient pattern which is present in Jesus’ own actions with his original disciples: he “took bread, and gave thanks; broke it, and gave it to his disciples…” This “gave thanks” would have been more than a simple “rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub.” It would have been an extended prayer recognizing God as the source of all our blessings. This is important stuff, and so we give it some time and some thought.

            The Great Thanksgiving begins with a dialogue between the presider and the assembly, which sets the tone for the prayers that follow. You could think of it like the preflight exchange between a pilot and ground control. “The Lord be with you.” (Here the presider invokes God’s help in the coming prayer.) “And also with you.” (“Back atcha!”) “Lift up your hearts,” (i.e. “bring your whole self into these prayers.”) “We lift them to the Lord.” (“Check!”) “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God,” (another way of saying, “Let us pray,” or “cleared for takeoff” in the above analogy.) “It is right to give our thanks and praise.” (“Roger, here we go…”)

            This opening dialogue is then followed by a prayer, chanted or spoken by the presider, which places our particular, local worship into a larger context. First, our prayer here is part of our ongoing prayer throughout our life; second it is tied in time to the particular focus of liturgical season; and third it is part of the worship of the whole church on earth, together with that of “the hosts of heaven.” And so we then move immediately to the song of the heavenly host, “Holy, holy, holy…” as recorded in the prophet’s vision of God’s heavenly court in Isaiah 6:3. It is customary for worshipers to bow at these opening words in recognition that, like Isaiah, we are coming into the presence of God in a special way in our celebration of Holy Communion. The words then quickly transition to verses of Psalm 118, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosannah!” (literally, “save us!) In Judaism, this was the entrance liturgy used at the temple during the festival of Passover, praising God for saving the Israelites. The early church applied it to Jesus freeing us from the power of sin and death through his crucifixion and resurrection. In the Gospels, this is what the crowd chants as Jesus enters Jerusalem, so it makes sense that now as Jesus comes to us in the sacrament we sing those very same words. A little later in the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus says this to the religious authorities of Jerusalem: “For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’” This is why it has become customary to make the sign of the cross when singing these words in the Communion liturgy. It’s a way of saying, “Look, Jesus, I’m saying those words. I want to see you again. I want to meet you here in this meal.”

            The Great Thanksgiving continues with the Eucharistic prayer, which recounts God’s saving work throughout history, culminating in Jesus’ incarnation, life, death, and resurrection, and remembering his instituting this sacrament with his disciples. It concludes by once again giving thanks to God, and praying for the forgiveness, life, and salvation that God has promised us through Jesus Christ.

            The distribution then follows. I’ll say more about that and what follows next month.

+ Pastor Repp

            This is the third installment in what was originally intended to be a four-part series on the four sections of our weekly worship service. As of this month it has now turned into at least five parts because I had so much to say about the Peace. My intention for this series is to help you better understand not only what we do in our worship service, but also why we do it.

            If you have an ELW hymnal handy, you can find a detailed list of everything I’m discussing in these articles on pages 92-93. Last Month I ended by saying that I would wait to talk about the sharing of the Peace until this month, even though it appears in the “Word” section in the hymnal and our bulletins. That because I think it really belongs in the “Meal” section of the liturgy. Likewise, I think the offering should be seen as a part the “Word” section (as a response to the gospel) even though it appears in the “Meal” section of our liturgy, and that’s why I covered it last month.

            The sharing of the Peace as we do it now made its way back into our liturgy in the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW – the green hymnal). Before this it was simply a verbal greeting between the pastor and the congregation that came after the Words of Institution, so that it was scarcely noticeable as a discrete part of the service. But in the early church this was a greeting shared among all those gathered. And it was a kiss, not a handshake! In spite of the fact that we have been sharing the Peace now for 40 years in North American Lutheran circles, not all of us are quite sure about what’s going on here.

            First let me say what the sharing of the Peace is not. It is not the seventh-inning stretch. It is not a preview of the coffee hour. It is not the time socialize, to welcome visitors, or to strike up a conversation. I’m not trying to be a grouch here, and I love that the people of Grace are so friendly. But I do want you to appreciate what is supposed to be going on here. Sharing the Peace has a very specific function in the service. It is a sharing of God’s peace with one another for the important purpose of being reconciled and at peace with one another before receiving Christ’s body and blood in the sacrament of Holy Communion. It expresses the profound commitment that our relationship with God is deeply entwined with our relationships with one another. In the 5^th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, soon after the Beatitudes, Jesus says this to his disciples: “When you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.” (Mt. 5:23-24). This is why the Peace comes before the offering in our order of service. But it is also a recognition of the communal nature of our worship as we draw near to what is for many people the most deeply personal part of the service. We are reminded that the Christian faith does not allow for an exclusively private relationship with God that ignores other people.

            One last thing on the Peace. I emphasized above that we are first and foremost sharing God’s peace in this part of the service, and only secondarily our own peace. It’s important to know that our ability to forgive one another is rooted in God’s forgiveness of us. On a given Sunday you might not be pals with everyone in the room. In fact you might be having difficulties with someone there. Share the Peace of the Lord no matter how you are feeling about them. In doing so you are proclaiming the gospel to yourself and to them, declaring that God’s reconciling love is at work in the church and in each of us. You are making the claim that though we might not be able or inclined to forgive and care for one another if it were left up to us alone, it is God’s intention that we do so, and God can make it happen.

            Did you know that the Peace was such a profoundly meaningful part of the service? You do now! Stay tuned next month for more on the Meal section of our weekly worship service.

This is the second installment in a series on the four different parts of our weekly worship service. My intention for this series is to help you better understand not only what we do, but also why we do it.

So, what is meant by “Word”? The constitution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, our national church body, sets forth a three-fold understanding of the Word of God. First and foremost, Jesus Christ is the Word of God by which God both creates and redeems the world. Second, the proclamation of the message about Jesus, a message of both God’s judgment and God’s mercy in Jesus, is the Word of God. Third, the Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments (a.k.a. the Bible) are collectively the Word of God. The order is important. Jesus is God’s Word-made-flesh (John 1:14). From the Christian perspective, anything that claims to be the Word of God must be related to Jesus. Our proclamation of Jesus – God’s promises of forgiveness, reconciliation, and abundant life because of Jesus’ death and resurrection – is the central and essential task of the church. It is the instrument that God the Holy Spirit uses to create faith in us and connect us to Jesus’ saving work. The Scriptures, finally, serve as the source and guiding principle of our proclamation. All three of these aspects of God’s Word are present in our weekly worship: Jesus is there (where two or three are gathered…), the Scriptures are read, and the Good News is proclaimed.

Our readings from the Scriptures follow the Revised Common Lectionary, prepared by an international, ecumenical group representing many mainline Christian churches. These include Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians/Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Disciples of Christ, UCC, and even the American Baptists. The text study I attend every Monday morning regularly includes participants from four of those church bodies.
The lectionary is organized on a three-year cycle of readings that takes us through each of the first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Readings from the Gospel of John are included every year, especially during the seasons of Lent and Easter, but also during the non-festival half of the year of Mark, since Mark is so much shorter than Matthew and Luke.

The church year has much to do with what is read on a given Sunday. In the first half of the year, the half in which all of the major festivals of the church year occur, the readings are chosen thematically. So, for example, in Advent we get readings about John the Baptist announcing the coming Messiah, as well as the stories of Jesus’ conception. In the twelve-day Christmas season we get the stories of Jesus’ birth, of course, but also of its cosmic significance (e.g. John 1:1-14). Christmas ends with Epiphany, followed by the post-Epiphany green season, known particularly in the Anglican tradition as “ordinary time.” It is in this green season that we begin reading through the Gospel of the year. That is then interrupted by the Lenten and Easter seasons, but picked up again in the long green season that follows Pentecost and Trinity Sundays, which constitutes the second, non-festival half of the church year.

The sermon is meant to be the primary moment of proclamation in the service, connecting the Word of God with lives of those present in the assembly. As we will see next month, though, proclamation in the liturgy is not confined to the sermon. What follows the sermon are several opportunities to respond to God’s Word. First, the hymn of the day usually picks up on the theme of the day or season. Hymn take several different forms. They can be prayers to God of praise, thanksgiving, lament, or supplication, but they can also be continued proclamation of the Gospel, or mutual encouragement and statements of faith. Second, one of the creeds is said in response to the God’s Word. The creeds are reminders of the essentials of our faith, but can also be seen as continuing proclamation of the gospel, because everything in the creeds is good news.

Third, as a response to God’s Word we turn to God in prayer in the Prayers of Intercession. These prayers traditionally include the following five parts: 1. Prayer for the church, especially the universal church, 2. Prayer for the nations of the world, including our own, 3. Prayers for the sick and those in any need, 4. Prayer for the local community of faith, and 5. Prayer remembering those who have gone before us in the faith and looking forward in hope to the culmination of God’s creative and redeeming work in the world. To these five elements has been added in recent years a sixth prayer for God’s creation, which is placed following the first prayer for the church.

Finally comes the offering, another response to God’s gracious Word, by which the ministry of the local, synodical, and national church is supported. In our order of service, the offering is preceded by the sharing of the peace. But that really belongs to the liturgy of the Meal, to which we will turn next month.

+ Pastor Chris Repp