This month we will consider the question, “What is the purpose of Christian Worship?” The Sunday morning Worship Service is referred to in the Lutheran Church as the “Divine Service.” This title is an English translation of the German word, Gottesdienst. The title communicates a great deal. Above all else, it communicates that Worship is first and foremost about God serving us. It is about God meeting our daily need for a sure word and promise of his forgiveness, life, and salvation. It is about God continuing to provide, preserve, protect, and defend us now, even in the midst of the struggle which is the Christian life. The struggle, which the Apostle Paul aptly described, as one in which “the desires of the flesh” war against “the desires of the Spirit” (Romans 8:4-8). A struggle to resist doing “the very thing I do not want to do” (Romans 7:15-16). If the Christian is to daily receive the help and service of God’s grace then Christian Worship must start with God. The preface of the hymnal, Lutheran Worship, says it well:
“In the Divine Service 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 to this thankfulness and praise, enlarging and elevating the adoration of our gracious giver God.
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 on 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 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.”1
In the Divine Service God serves us by rooting us firmly in his grace, forgiveness, and peace that we then carry with us in our vocations and stations of life. In the Divine Service God reaffirms our true and lasting identity as the “bought back” children of God so that we can more firmly embrace that identity as we confront the daily challenges that await us within our vocations. In the Divine Service God is at work to reassure us of the true meaning and purpose of our lives in Christ so that we can live out the responsibilities of our vocations with renewed meaning and purpose. Finally, in the Divine Service God is at work to keep us secure—safe and secure in the gracious presence of Christ. When Christian Worship begins with God and is, through and through, about God serving us in Christ so that we are equipped to serve others with his love, then the purposes of God in this world and the purposes of Christian Worship become happily joined!
In Christ,
Pastor Josh
1Lutheran Worship, “Introduction” (St. Louis: CPH, 1986), 6.
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 on 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 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.”1
In the Divine Service God serves us by rooting us firmly in his grace, forgiveness, and peace that we then carry with us in our vocations and stations of life. In the Divine Service God reaffirms our true and lasting identity as the “bought back” children of God so that we can more firmly embrace that identity as we confront the daily challenges that await us within our vocations. In the Divine Service God is at work to reassure us of the true meaning and purpose of our lives in Christ so that we can live out the responsibilities of our vocations with renewed meaning and purpose. Finally, in the Divine Service God is at work to keep us secure—safe and secure in the gracious presence of Christ. When Christian Worship begins with God and is, through and through, about God serving us in Christ so that we are equipped to serve others with his love, then the purposes of God in this world and the purposes of Christian Worship become happily joined!
In Christ,
Pastor Josh
1Lutheran Worship, “Introduction” (St. Louis: CPH, 1986), 6.
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