The Lutheran Liturgy: The Service of Preparation

Pretend that you are coming to church with me...

If you've never been in a Lutheran Church before you may notice that it looks different from what you are used to. A brief explanation about the layout of the church can be found here.

As we enter the sanctuary, you will notice that the atmosphere is somewhat subdued. Some people may be talking quietly, but others will be listening to the prelude music or have their heads down in prayer, preparing for worship. As we take our seats, I will silently pray a brief prayer of thanks to the Holy Spirit for bringing me to church and asking the Spirit to give me ears to hear the Gospel. You can pray too, if you like. There is a prayer for coming to worship in the cover of the hymnal if you would like to use it, or you can pray an appropriate prayer of your own.

By now, the church should be filling up and there will be music playing. Most often it is our beautiful organ, but sometimes there are other instruments: we have a handbell choir and quite a few musicians who lend their talents (on the clarinet, trumpet, guitar for example) and recently we've had a beautiful flute accompany the grand piano. The music helps to set the atmosphere for the coming service - somber on a Good Friday service, for example, or triumphant for Easter.

We see two acolytes enter the sanctuary to light the candles at the altar. The pastor enters and we stand to sing the opening hymn.

We will remain standing after the hymn and the pastor will face the altar and say "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" and we will respond "Amen". This is called the Invocation. The invocation is based upon Matthew 28:19a

Following the Invocation, we will kneel and confess our sinfulness and hear the pastor pronounce God's forgiveness to us. This is called Confession and Absolution. The words we use for our confession are from 1 John 1:8 "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Following our confession, the pastor will pronounce absolution according to John 20:23, Matthew 16:19 and Matthew 18:18.

With absolution pronounced, we have finished the Service of Preparation and are now ready for the actual Divine Service to begin.

Ok, I can hear you now. Huh??? So, what just happened here? Well, let me try to explain...

To understand what's going on in the liturgy in general, you need to remember that it is focussed entirely on Christ and the saving work that He did, and continues to do, for us. The liturgy is a beautiful reflection of the order between God and man: God acts, we respond.

Our sin separates us from God and prevents us from entering into his presence. On our own we can't approach him - He must come to us. The primary way that he comes to us is through his Word and Sacraments.

So when we gather to worship, the first thing we do is acknowledge that we are not here by our own strength or reason but have been brought by the Spirit. We acknowledge this in the liturgy through the Invocation. When the pastor speaks the invocation, he does so outside of the chancel area; he is still in the nave with the rest of the congregation. As he speaks the invocation, he makes the sign of the cross (we may do so also) by which we recall our baptism and the name of the Triune God into whose name we have been baptized. It is on this basis that we may now approach him. Maybe that sounds like a no-brainer, but notice how it points us firmly back to Christ? It keeps us from thinking that we're here because we have something to "offer" to God. We're not here on account of any merit or work (even the work of praise) of our own - we're "name-dropping" if you will, using God's own name to approach Him, because of what Christ did for us.

But emboldened though we are by God's promise to hear us for Christ's sake, we have some dirty business to attend to first. We are sinful and constantly in need of God's forgiveness. How can we even contemplate entering into His presence in such a state? Our sorrow for our sin causes us to go to our knees and cry out for mercy and forgiveness. God in his mercy hears our cries and assures us that we have been forgiven for Christ's sake. As the pastor pronounces God's forgiveness to us, he remains outside of the chancel, reminding us that he is just a servant and in need of forgiveness as well. What he pronounces to us, he receives himself.

The Service of Preparation establishes the rhythm of our worship: God Himself serves us with his gifts of pardon and forgiveness and we respond in joyful thanksgiving. Now we are ready to begin worship...