What Is the Liturgy?
What Does This (or That) Mean? A series on how we worship.
It is important to explain why we do things in the church, especially with worship. Why do we say or sing the Kyrie (Lord, have mercy)? Why do we follow the church year? How did a fish come to symbolize Christianity? What is a Chi Rho? These are all questions I have been asked about at one time or another (or even had myself when I started attending a Lutheran church) and it gave me the idea to write a series of articles about the liturgy. For, if we do not know why we do things they become just empty things that have no meaning. Meaningless traditions that are done because they have always been done and we have always done it that way. This series, “What Does This (or That) Mean?” seeks to give answer as to why we do the things that we do. The title is a little play on words from that famous question in Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. Each month I hope to explain the history and/or reasoning of why we do something as Lutherans.
What Is the Liturgy?
Why do we worship the way we do? This question has also been posed to me as: “Why do we follow a liturgy?” Liturgy is an ancient word. It comes from a Greek word that means “public service.” As such, this word gets to the very heart of our worship. The entire life of a Christian is to be one of service. God serves us in worship, we serve our neighbors in response. We see this in Jesus who told us in his own words that He came not to be served but to serve.
“People often think that worship is about what we do for or toward God. The reality is quite different. In the Divine Service [the name for the main service that offers Holy Communion], God is providing His service for us. In the reading, the preaching, and the proclamation of His Word and in His Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, God comes to us. In worship, God gives His grace and then we respond with thanks and praise.”[1] In other words, because it is God who does the service in our corporate worship, we call it a Divine Service since God is doing the service to us.
Our worship pattern is called a liturgy because it tells the story of God’s service to us. We then leave church and live a liturgy to God and others throughout the week being refreshed in the gifts of God. So why this liturgy pattern in our worship instead of another?
It is not because we believe it is the only right or correct way to worship God. Rather, we recognize that this historic order of worship that has been handed down literally through thousands of years (some parts trace their way back to Moses and Aaron) “most clearly and beautifully serves the purpose of the Divine Service, which is to deliver the gracious gifts of God.”[2]
Our liturgy can be broken into two elements: the Ordinary and the Propers. The Ordinary are those things that remain the same week-after-week, season-to-season. They are the parts in the hymnal that are printed: i.e. the Kyrie, Confession and Absolution, the Benediction, etc. The Propers are those parts that change week-to-week or season-to-season. Examples would be the Introit, the Collect of the Day, the Readings, the Hymn of Praise, etc. The Propers reflect the theme of the day or season.
If you look in the hymnal you will also see writing in red. This is neither an Ordinary or Proper. It is simply the “rubric” which is Latin for red (the church never got very inventive when it came to giving things names and labels). The rubric gives directions for different parts of the service. They let us know when to sit, kneel, stand, and even take time for silent reflection.
This is our introduction to the series, and I hope the series answers any questions you might have as to what does this (or that) mean?
I look forward to this series, and I hope you enjoy it also.
Pastor Ross
[1] Kinnaman, Scot A., and Art Kirchhoff. Worshiping with Angels and Archangels: An Introduction to the Divine Service. Saint Louis: Concordia Pub. House, 2006.
[2] Ibid.
