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The Divine
Service follows the regular pattern of worship Christians
have used for centuries. It connects us to members of our
family of Faith who have gone before us, and members of the
body of Christ around the world. The texts are drawn from
Holy Scripture and set to music to reflect their beauty. We
sing the great hymns of faith that have echoed through the
church and we learn new songs to add our voice to this
chorus of faith.
The
introduction to Lutheran Worship puts it like
this:
“Our Lord
speaks and we listen. His Word bestows what it says. Faith
that is born from what is heard acknowledges the gifts
received with eager thankfulness and praise. Music is drawn
into this thankfulness and praise, enlarging and elevating
the adoration of God, our gracious giver.
”Saying back
to Him what He has said to us, we repeat what is most true
and sure. Most true and sure is His name, which He put upon
us with the water of our Baptism. We are His. This we
acknowledge at the beginning of the Divine Service. Where
His name is, there is He. Before Him we acknowledge that we
are sinners, and we plead for forgiveness. His forgiveness
is given us, and we, freed and forgiven, acclaim Him as our
great and gracious God as we apply to ourselves the words He
has used to make Himself known to us.
”The rhythm
of our worship is from Him to us, and then from us back to
Him. He gives His gifts, and together we receive and extol
them. We build one another up as we speak to one another in
psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Our Lord gives us His
Body to eat and His Blood to drink. Finally His blessing
moves us out into our calling, where His gifts have their
fruition. How best to do this we may learn from His Word and
from the way His Word has prompted His worship through the
centuries. We are heirs of an astonishingly rich tradition.
Each generation receives from those who went before and, in
making that tradition of the Divine Service its own, adds
what best may serve in its own day - the living heritage and
something new.” |
