Last week we continued our series on Lutheran Doctrine by hearing what we believe about the Law as a guide in our lives. Today we continue our series by being reminded of what we believe about worship and especially about the Divine Service. Why it is divine and what makes it a service?
As we begin we need to make sure we define our words. Personally, I have found that more and more in our world today one of the first things we need to do when speaking to others, especially when speaking about our faith, is to make sure we define our words, that is to make sure the words we are using, especially if we are using the same words, is that we are using them meaning the same thing. This defining of words is especially important as we delve into our understanding of worship and Divine Service.
The very word “worship” has been defined many different ways including suggesting that worship is our worthship or our worshiping God because He is worthy of our worship, and although that statement is true, that is that God is worthy of our worship, that is not the reason for worship or at least that is not what we do on Sunday mornings. Again, very often the word “worship” is meant to suggest that our worship is something we are doing for God, as if God needs us to be doing something for Him. Thus, worship is defined as first and foremost what we are doing. Some have even fallaciously suggested that in worship God is the audience, the people are the actors and the pastor and choirs, etc., are the prompters.
When understanding that the thing we do on Sunday mornings and other days, like today is something we are doing and even need to be doing for God begs the question, “What does God need from us?” Does God really need us to come to Him to sing His praises, to give Him our offerings, to do anything for Him? Or is it rather that we need to come and be given to by God who created us to love us and gives everything to us?
When we put ourselves in the definition of worship, that our importance in worship is that we are to be doing something for God, then we are simply pointing to ourselves as the prime movers. I believe one of my best professors at Seminary said it best when he said, “We worship best when we say back to God the Words He has given us to say.” As I have said before, all words or Law words until the Lord makes them Gospel words. So, when we speak back to God the words that He has given us to say, we can be sure that we are speaking and hearing Gospel words.
On the other hand, what we do on Sunday mornings and today is what we call Divine Service, or as simply defined, God’s service, as in God comes to us to serve us, because of our need to be given to. Thus, our Divine Service is first and foremost God coming to us to serve us, to give to us, to forgive us, to strengthen us, to remind us of His choosing us, His putting His name on us, His forgiving our sins, His giving us His body and blood to eat and drink, His giving and our being given too.
Our Divine Service flows out of and reflects what we believe, teach and confess about our God and especially how He gives us the gifts He has to give, that is through what means He comes to us to give us the gifts and blessings He has to give. Our Divine Service begins reflecting our belief that God first comes to us and gives us faith and forgiveness through Holy Baptism, as we hear the words of Invocation. Our Divine Service proceeds with our confession of faith and hearing how through the mouth of the Pastor God speaks His words of forgiveness on us through Holy Absolution. A little later we hear God speak to us through His Holy Word which is read and proclaimed. Then, we are given Jesus’ body and blood, in, with, and under the bread and wine in His Holy Supper for the forgiveness of our sins. These are the very means the Lord has given to us and through which He gives us all the good gifts and blessings He has to give. So, our service is permeated with God’s Word and His Sacraments, the means of grace.
But, not only does God come to us in the Divine Service through Word and Sacrament, He also comes to us to give us our response of faith. Our response of faith is just that, a response. Our response of faith is not some obedience to some command God gives, again, as if He needs anything from us. No, our response of faith is simply that, a response, which is also moved in us by the Holy Spirit working through the very means of grace He uses to give us the gifts He has to give.
Our response of faith is to sing hymns of praise. We sing during the opening hymn, chanting the very words of Scripture in the Introit, offering a poetic rendition in the hymn of the day or the sermon hymn, hymns during the distribution and the closing hymn. All the hymns are poetic verses based on Holy Scripture such that even our responsive hymnody is a singing back to God the very words He has given us to speak.
Our response of faith is to offer prayers. In our prayers we give thanks to God for the great gifts and blessings He has seen fit to bestow on us. We offer prayers and petitions for our governing authorities that they may govern with honesty and integrity. We offer prayers and petitions for the sick and downtrodden. We offer prayers for the extending of God’s Kingdom through our going out into the world living lives as priests always being ready to give an answer for the hope we have in our faith in Jesus.
Our response of faith is that we are able to return to the Lord from that which He has first given to us, that is to offer our first fruits. Our offering is indeed a mark of our faith, recognizing that all that we have has been first given to us by God, through His giving us gifts, talents and abilities to perform a job as well as giving us a job so that we may be able to take care of ourselves and our families. Our first fruits is also a sign of our faith that God will continue to bless us with all that we need for our lives in this world.
What does this mean? When we delve into worship and Divine Service, as always we get it right when we point to Jesus. Jesus is God and as God there is nothing that He needs from us. As a matter of fact He is the One who gives everything to us. God is the prime mover. It all begins with Him. We might even go back to Genesis One, in the beginning God created all things, including us. He has given us all that we need while we live in this world. We are the ones in need and we need all that our Lord gives to us.
The words of the Apostle Paul when speaking to the Athenians on Mars Hill are quite appropriate when speaking about worship and Divine Service. Paul said, “24The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24-25). Indeed, God needs nothing from us, we need everything from Him and He gives everything to us.
We need Divine Service. We need to be given the gifts God has to give. We come to Divine Service in order to be fed so that we may go out into the world and live as priests during the week, out in the mission field. Writing to the Romans, and to us, Paul reminds us of how important is our Divine Service, where we come to be fed and filled so that we might go out and share the good news of Jesus with others. He says, “14How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ 16But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ 17So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:14-17).
Every Sunday and on other days we have opportunities to come and hear so that we might go out into the harvest field, living lives as priests, offering our lives as living sacrifices, always being ready to give an answer for the hope that we have, inviting other to our Divine Service, to Bible Class, to come and hear the Good News of Jesus so that the Holy Spirit might do His work of giving faith. Our Divine Service is that place where our doctrine is practice and taught and the place that our Lord comes to us to strengthen us in faith, giving us His good gifts and blessings, preparing us for the week ahead. And stirring in us to rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’s sake. Amen.
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