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What is Lutheran Worship?The Reverend Michael L. Keith, Pastor

Our Saviour Lutheran Church -- Fort Qu’Appelle, SK                     

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A Lutheran Icon?A kindergarten teacher gave her class the Show and Tell assignment of bringing something to represent their religion. The first little boy went to the front of the room: "My name is Benjamin. I am Jewish, and this is the star of David." The second little boy also spoke from the front of the room: "My name is Thomas. I am Catholic, and this is the Crucifix." The third little boy: "My name is Bobby. I am a Lutheran, and this is a casserole dish."

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How to Act in Lutheran WorshipSix-year-old Angie and her four-year-old brother Joel were sitting together in church. Joel giggled, sang, and talked out loud. Finally, his big sister had had enough. "You're not supposed to talk out loud in church." "Why? Who's going to stop me?" Joel asked. Angie pointed to the back of the church and said, "See those two men standing by the door? They're hushers."

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You Might Be a Lutheran If…...during the entire service you hold your hymnal open but never look down at it. ...during communion you hum the hymns so you can see who's at church that Sunday. ...when you were little you actually thought the Reverend's first name was "Pastor." ...they have to rope off the last pews in church so the front isn't empty. ...you're watching "Star Wars" in the theatre and when they say, "May the force be with you," the theatre replies, "and also with you." ...you doodle on the back of communion cards. ...you actually think the pastor's jokes are funny.

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What is Lutheran Worship?It isn’t Lutheran at all!

It is “c”ATHOLIC!

Say WHAT?!?!

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Say WHAT?!?!"kata" - according to"holay" - whole

The "according to the whole" church.

Catholic: That which has been believed everywhere, by everyone, always.

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Say WHAT?!?!“Nothing has here been said or related for the purpose of injuring anybody. Only those things have been recounted which it seemed necessary to say in order that it may be understood that nothing has been received among us, in doctrine or in ceremonies, that is contrary to Scripture or to the church catholic. For it is manifest that we have guarded diligently against the introduction into our churches of any new and ungodly doctrines.”

Tappert, Theodore G. The Augsburg Confession : Translated from the Latin. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 2000, c1959.

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Say What?!?!

“Nothing should be changed in the accustomed rites without good reason, and to foster harmony those ancient customs should be kept which can be kept without sin or without great disadvantage.” AP XV

Tappert, Theodore G. The Book of Concord : The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 2000, c1959.

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Say What?!?!“The service now in common use everywhere goes back to genuine Christian beginnings, as does the office of preaching. But as the latter has been perverted by the spiritual tyrants, so the former has been corrupted by the hypocrites. As we do not on that account abolish the office of preaching, but aim to restore it again to its right and proper place, so it is not our intention to do away with the service, but to restore it again to its rightful use”

(LW, Vol. 53, p. 11)

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Again… Say WHAT?!?!

What Does This Mean?The Reformation was not an attempt to start a new church but to reform (remove) false teachings found within it at the timeLuther did not start from “scratch”• Removed work righteous

elements from the Mass• Sought to maintain continuity

with the historic Church

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Arrogance?We do have fathers and brothers, as the book of Hebrews reminds us in its “Heroes of Faith” chapter, those who have gone before us, who have traveled the path on which we are now traveling. We have teachers of the past, whose faith and life instructs us, as again Hebrews teaches us. It would be the height of arrogance simply to throw out the past. Respect for tradition, the collective experience of the Church at worship in all its years, demonstrates the continuity of Lutheranism with all of Christendom.

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Holy, Catholic, Apostolic“Worship that is Lutheran will reflect our ties with the one, holy, catholic, apostolic church, both past and present. We are not a sect, but with our use of the historic liturgy of the church stand together with believers of all time in our worship of our God.”

-- David J. Valleskey

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We Do Not Abolish the MassAnother characteristic of Lutheran worship in the Lutheran confessions is continuity, the idea that all worship practices from the past are to be retained unless they offend against the Gospel. The Confessions forthrightly declare that “we do not abolish the Mass” but reverently keep and defend that which has been handed down. The Lutheran church has always insisted that it is one with the church of all ages, that it is not sect or a group which scorns the traditions of the past. Rather what is good and expresses the Gospel clearly is received with thanksgiving and used for the sake of the Gospel.

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It is Liturgical

The liturgy is the means by which God gives out His gifts to His children

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It is Liturgical

The Liturgy as we have it is not “Lutheran”The Liturgy is the time proven best means to feed the ChurchWHY?

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It is Historic

How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?

“CHANGE?”Thank God that is the answer!

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It is HistoricThe Christian Church changes slowly, not jumping onto trends and “band wagons”Not transient and “here today and gone tomorrow”

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It is Historic

The Church after time has passed looks back and selects that which is lasting and significant

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Counter Cultural

The Church has its own culture “Church culture”The Church will look different than the culture surrounding her because she IS different!

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It is NOT German!Sometimes we hear people conclude that because the Lutheran Reformation began in Germany, Lutheran worship must, therefore, be German.This is a very common misunderstanding. The fact of the matter is that Lutheran worship throughout history has included hymns, canticles and orders of service that find their origins in the early Christian worship of the Near East and even further back to the worship of the Jewish synagogue as it developed from ancient Jewish temple worship. Thus, Lutheran worship is rooted in thousands of years of tradition and reflects the contributions of many ethnic groups: African, Asian, Middle-Eastern, Spanish, Greek, Italian, French, German, and American as well. It is definitely not the case that Lutheran worship is German. – A. L. Barry

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It is “GOTTESDIENST”Gottesdienst = Divine Service

•President Thomas Prachar: “Who is serving whom?”

•God serves us through Word and Sacrament!

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Lutheran Worship IntroductionOur 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. . . .Saying back to Him what He has said to us, we repeat what is most true and sure. . . .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. The Rev. Dr. Norman Nagel

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Praise Service vs. Divine Service“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” (Luke 18:10) In this famous parable of Jesus, the Pharisee attends a praise service at which he thanks God for “gifting” him and thus making him better than his fellows. The tax collector attends the Divine Service. He cries out for mercy. The tax collector went home justified, Jesus tells us. That is, he went home forgiven of his sins. He received the mercy for which he pleaded. This plea for mercy is the presupposition of the Divine Service. If you cannot or will not sing the Kyrie, you cannot be served by God nor can you be saved.” – Rolf Preus

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Forgiveness of SinsSeveral years ago a Lutheran pastor from Michigan did his own study of religious tracts that dealt with the topic of my talk today: Why go to church? He ordered about fifty such tracts from various groups, Reformed and Lutheran. The tracts gave any number of good reasons to go to church including to learn God’s word, to be spiritually enriched and strengthened, to enjoy Christian fellowship, to offer praise to God, etc. The primary reason for going to church, however, was entirely ignored by the Reformed tracts and barely mentioned by the Lutheran ones. I refer, of course, to the forgiveness of sins. We go to church for the forgiveness of sins. We go to church to get saved. We go to church so that we may find Jesus the Savior who gives us eternal life. – Rolf Preus

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It is (should be) Reverent and AwfulWe think that if we make “church” more comfortable it will attract more peopleLet’s make “church” so comfortable that we can come in, kick off our shoes, and put our feet up.WHAT ARE WE TEACHING?

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Reverent?The cartoon showed a stylishly-dressed man shaking a pastor's hand after the service and saying, "Well, that was fun. We'll have to do that again sometime." Do you rate worship the same way you rate a golf game or going to lunch with a friend? Or do you evaluate worship by different criteria? Americans are redefining worship. Creating an enjoyable experience, a spiritually fun time, is often part of the redefinition. Whatever worship is, it must be pleasant--even entertaining. Under that definition, liturgical worship is usually judged to be inadequate.

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It is (should be) Reverent and AwfulREAL Presence

Almighty God is present in His Word and Sacraments

If Jesus was standing before you, would you kick off your shoes and put your feet up?

What are we teaching our children and visitors if we act that way in Divine Service?

Habakkuk 2:20 “But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.”

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It is ObjectiveWe must not judge by what we feel or by what we see before us. The Word must be followed, and we must firmly hold that these truths are to be believed, not experienced; for to believe is not to experience. Not indeed that what we believe is never to be experienced but that faith is to precede experience. And the Word must be believed even when we feel and experience what differs entirely from the Word.

Ewald Plass, What Luther Says, (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), Vol. 1, p. 513.

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Get anything?We can never say “I just never got anything out of church today”Never, never, never!Why?

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It is “Gift”

The highest act of worship is to receive by faith the gifts of God

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It is NOT Entertainment!!!!!!!!The primary purpose of Divine Service is not entertainment!It is the “giving out of the goods”Do you go to church to be entertained?

Evaluate our motives

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Lex Orandi, Lex CredendiHow a church conducts its worship is a reflection of what it believes, teaches and confesses. It is difficult, therefore, to retain the substance of Lutheran theology while at the same time embracing non-Lutheran styles of worship. It is important to remember that Martin Luther sought to reform—not to reinvent— the church and its worship. Luther knew that the Gospel was the heart and center of the Divine Service. He changed only what contradicted or diminished the Gospel. Luther never did away with faithful, Gospel-centered and historic worship practices and ceremonies of the church. – A. L. Barry

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Consumer Driven Worship

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It is NOT Evangelism/OutreachThe Divine Service is not meant to be the “evangelism” program of the churchThe primary focus is feeding the children of GodThis influences what happens in Divine Service!Evangelism takes place in and through the lives of the children of God fed and strengthened by the Divine Service

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“Let’s get the good works out of the church and into the world where they belong!” – David P. Scaer

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Cyber-Worship?

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The Gathering of the Faithful

“The conversation and consolation of the brethren”When we attend Divine Service we receive the gifts of God and support our neighbour

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It is Heaven on EarthThe story is told of how Christianity was introduced to Russia. More than 1,000 years ago Grand Duke Vladimir of Kiev was interested in selecting an appropriate religion for his new nation. His emissaries investigated the main religions of the day, including Roman Catholicism and Islam. But it was only after visiting the chief site of the Orthodox Church in Constantinople that they found what they were looking for. In their report to their duke, the emissaries noted that in Orthodox worship there was such solemn splendor that they had a hard time knowing whether they were in heaven or on earth. Worship is like that: one foot in heaven with the other here on earth.

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It is Heaven on Earth

Divine Service is like no place else in this world.But there is one place that it does resemble,

and that is heaven