Trinity Sunday
Each Sunday in the Divine Service we make confession of our common faith in the words of either the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed. Once a year, on Trinity Sunday, we say the Athanasian Creed. If you are not familiar with this one, you may read it here. It's a long one, so I'm not typing it out. It is used on Trinity Sunday because it is a really good summary of the Trinity as we understand it from the Scriptures.
The Psalm for the day is Psalm 150. I love this Psalm - so full of joy!
Praise the LORD!Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens!
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!
Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD!
9 comments:
Would you mind explaining what "Divine Service" is? Thanks. I'm off to read the creed.
Sure. "Divine Service" is what is commonly called the "worship service". It comes from the German "Gottesdienst" which means literally "service from God". This reflects the Lutheran understanding that worship is the gathering of God's people to receive God's gifts. That's why the liturgy that we use in the service is composed entirely from Bible passages - we speak God's own Word, which He first gave to us, back to Him.
Here's what it says in Wikipedia:
The term "Divine Service" is somewhat unique to Lutheranism, and it reflects the theology of justification held by Lutherans. The term comes from the German word Gottesdienst (God service), and is significant because it reflects the Lutheran belief that the main actor in the Divine Service is God himself and not man. The connotation of the term is that the Word and Sacrament (the two parts of the Divine Service) are gifts that God gives to his people, and therefore Lutherans emphasize God's work rather than that of man. The term Mass was used by early Lutherans [1] but such use has dwindled since then. Also, Lutherans have historically used the term to distinguish the Divine Service with Protestant Worship, where often the focus is on the worshipper bringing praise and thanksgiving to God. [2]
Capice?
I love this psalm.
Awesome! :)
Aren't there times when you can just imagine us parading into the presence God in heaven with banners flying and music blaring as we come into His presence prasing Him? This is one of the verses that gives me that image.
Another tradition I miss...while my pastors assure me that we agree whole-heartedly with the Apostles' and Nicenean creeds, it's not part of our regular services. That once a year recitation of the Athanasian Creed is a good "refresher" for a whole congregation to say together! LOL
Yes, but once a year is plenty, lol!
So do Lutherans have worship services in addition to Divine Service?
That's a good question. Yes and no, I guess. I mean we have different orders of service - like the Matins service (a morning service that you can use for any day of the week), and Vespers (ditto, but in the evening) but as long as Word and Sacrament are present in the service, it is considered the Divine Service.
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