Liturgical
Christian Worship in the Bible
Pastor Mathew Magera –
2/14/16 – Sermon 143
St. Thomas Lutheran Church,
Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Last week we considered the
trends and purpose to worship. We come here to receive gifts from God, that is,
grace and forgiveness in many different ways. And we come here to give thanks
to God for those very gifts. Now, if we step back from our worship service for
a moment you might consider our worship to be traditional and liturgical. For
the most part, when Lutherans say traditional, we mean "old style"
because it competes right up against contemporary or modern worship. Actually,
if you think about it all worship is modern worship because we're doing it now.
It is impossible for us to have purely traditional worship given the
advancements of our society over time. When we say our worship is liturgical,
all we are saying is that we are following a certain form or order of worship.
It may not be the same order in every circumstance but for the most part there
is an formula to Lutheran worship. Many modern churches that don't offer
liturgical worship like this might still have a loose order of service. They
might sing for 30 minutes, hear a message, sing some more and leave. There is
always a form that is followed. But if someone were to say that liturgical
worship needs to be done away with either a) doesn't know what liturgical
worship actually is or b) doesn't realize that the Bible shows us evidence of
liturgical Christian worship in the New Testament. If you reject liturgical
worship, then you are in a way rejecting the authority of Scripture.
Still, what most people will
say about worship in liturgical chruches or denominations is that it is
outdated, old and archaic. In fact, some of us in this congregation may even
think the same thing. When we think something along these lines it makes us
less interested in worship and potentially less likely to attend as it is in
our nature to avoid things that cause us disinterest or displeasure. This is
dangerous for Lutheran congregations because if we are disinterested in worship
because it seems old and outdated then there is a good chance our worship will
die. So, we have two options. Do we change our worship or do we educate about
our worship? Well, as you probably have figured out I believe, and so does the
NALC, that we should educate about our worship. There are reasons our worship
takes on the form that it does and just like everything that we do or believe,
it come from the Bible. It even goes further than that but we will get to that
a bit later.
To understand a little
better on where our worship practices come from I want to use this example.
Many young kids say that wish they were an adult. Many adults say they wish
they could be kids again. I wonder, at what age, does a child stop wishing to
be an adult and at what age does an adult start wishing they could be a child
again? The reason I ask this is because I was thinking this week about kids
wanting to be grown-ups and how they imitate grown-ups in many things that they
do. Kids will play with Barbie dolls and action figures, which for the most
part, are adult figures, with the exception of some. Kids will play house. They
will play mommy or daddy or doctor or teacher. When I was growing up I remember
playing with my friends and we had all sorts of fun pretending to be adults.
We'd ride our bikes around the neighborhood pretending to be garbage trucks,
UPS trucks, trains, planes, school buses, almost any kind of adult job. I
remember this one time my friends and I got together and we wanted to be mail
carriers. We also wanted to make it a bit more real. My older sister had a
school bag that, to me, looked like a mail bag. We filled it up with old
magazines and ads and newspapers and we started down the street and we took
some out and put it into a mailbox. Then we walked to the next house, took some
out, and put it in a mailbox. We did this for the whole block. We were so satisfied
with what we did. After awhile I went home and my mom asked where the big pile
of old newspapers and magazines ended up and so I told her. Oh, you couldn't
believe the look on her face when I said that. I didn't know it was illegal to
put something into someone's mailbox. So, my mom and I went out and went door
to door gathering the mail back, some of which had already been taken inside by
some neighbors. All I was trying to do was be a mail carrier. I was trying to
be a grownup.
Lutherans are known to fall
into the trap of doing things because we've always done them that way.
Sometimes this is a bad thing and we should think of new ways of doing things.
However, there is still some good to it, especially in regards to worship. Many
of the things we do in worship we do because someone has done them before us.
We are imitating the worship of early Christians.
Like a child imitating an
adult in the role of a parent or doctor or even a mail carrier, when we worship
we are imitating Christian worship that has been done ever since its beginning.
Think of some of the areas in your life that were shaped by your parents or
your grandparents or even your teachers. Did you grow up liking red tractors
because they're better or because your parents did? I can tell you exactly how
I became a White Sox fan in a house in which my parents were Cub fans. It was
because of my oldest sister. She was a White Sox fan, married a White Sox fan
and they were role models for me. We are influenced by our past. Our worship is
no different and is influenced by our Christian past.
Our readings this morning
highlight some aspects of Christian worship that we have pulled into our
worship today. When we worship, the things we do are not done just because
someone made them up and decided to do them this way. No, aspects of our
worship are what I call God-breathed. The New Testament Christians performed
certain tasks during their worship that has been carried to us today. I'm going
to tell you up front that these parts of worship are important to us because
they connect us with the early Christians, some of which may have known Jesus
himself when he walked this earth. These parts of worship are important because
they are really their own language. This is what people did to connect with Christ
after the resurrection and this is also what we do for the same reason. So,
let's take a minute and look at worship as it took place in the New Testament
after Jesus' resurrection.
WORSHIP IN THE
NEW TESTAMENT
Looking at our Acts reading
this morning we see a few areas of worship that are still with us today.
Starting at the beginning in verse 42, "They devoted themselves to the
apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to
prayer." I want to start with that last one, prayer. Literally in the
Greek it is written as "the prayers". Luke, the writer of Acts, is
telling us that this part of worship is something they do not only frequently
but it is as if they are either memorized prayers or on certain topics. When we
have the prayers in worship we often lift up the theme for the day, the poor
and need, the sick and suffering. It's something we know and something we come
to expect. These Christians were practicing prayer in their worship life just
as we do, praying for the same restoration to the world that we pray for today.
When it tells us they were
breaking bread, we can understand this as more than just eating bread together.
They are practicing the sacrament of Holy Communion, living into Jesus' words
of "do this as often as you do, in remembrance of me." Last week in
our reading from Acts where Paul was preaching on and on and on that a young
boy fell asleep and fell out of a window, in addition to Paul preaching, they
broke bread together. They shared Holy Communion. Christians were sharing the
Lord's Supper as often as they could as a testimony of their faith in the
saving power of Jesus Christ. We are doing the same thing when we gather
together. You can't ever say we have Communion too much. In fact, this past
Monday at our council meeting, we had Communion. It was probably very close to
how early Christians shared Communion too as it was in a private home. We're
lucky that we can have Communion in our church building and not have to worry
about being persecuted or killed. But we share the Lord's Supper together just
as they do in the New Testament as a response to Jesus' words to do so and as a
continuation of Christian worship practices way back at the beginning of the
church.
Those are just two aspects
of our worship found in this Acts reading but there are several others
throughout the New Testament. For instance, in Acts 10 we get allusions to
prayer at certain hours of the day. Christians have taken this and continue
this practice. In our green hymnals you'll see starting on page 131 the three
hours of prayer starting with morning prayer or Matins. Then after that comes
evening prayer or Vespers. This is the prayer service we are doing on Wednesday
nights here during Lent. Then after that comes night prayer or Compline.
In Acts 20 we see that
Christians met together on the first day of the week just as we do today and
they celebrated Holy Communion each time they gathered. In 1 Corinthians there
are a few passages that have become very important in the creeds we use to confess
our faith. 1 Corinthians 15:4 says this about Jesus, "that he was buried,
that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." If this
sounds similar to the words we use in the Nicene Creed, they are. The
benediction at the end of the service is also Scriptural. In fact, one we use
goes even back to the Old Testament. "The Lord bless you and keep you. The
Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you
with favor and give you peace." Those words are God's words to Moses when
he was instructing Aaron on how to bless people in the book of Numbers. Another
one we use comes from Romans 15, "may the God of hope fill you with all
joy and peace in believing so that you may about in hope by the power of the Holy
Spirit." Even the words spoken in Holy Baptism are from the Bible. In
fact, they are from our Gospel reading this morning where we hear Jesus'
instructions to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit. The reason we say those words are because Jesus told us to. In our
Holy Communion, the Words of Institution, when I say "In the night in
which he was betrayed our Lord Jesus took bread..." those words come
straight out of 1 Corinthians 11. So, goodness, our worship is absolutely full
history and tradition and depth. Our liturgical worship is not made up, it
reflects quite accurately as best it can the earliest forms of Christian
worship. Our worship remains faithful to biblical witness. Our worship should
be structured. It should be reverent and liturgical.
WORSHIP IN
HEAVEN
So, worship in the New
Testament has great value to us but, you know what, it doesn't stop there. I
feel like paid programming on TV. Wait, there's more. Our worship does not only
bring in elements from Christian worship in the New Testament but it goes even
beyond that and uses elements of worship straight from Heaven itself. When we
worship together like we are now, we are worshipping with everyone around the
world and in heaven regardless of the amount of people in worship right here.
We are like a small satellite outlet for worship tuning in to the worship that
is presently going on in heaven right now this very moment. There is a
connection with our worship and heaven's worship and it makes our time here
together matter more knowing that others in many other places in this world and
in heaven are doing the exact same thing.
In our reading from
Revelation, we may start to see elements of heavenly worship. In verse eight we
are told the worshippers in heaven were saying, "Holy, holy holy is the
Lord God Almighty" and they were saying it over and over and over again.
It was memorized liturgy for them. In verses ten and eleven we see physical
movements in worship. They fall down before the throne. They may be bowing,
kneeling or prostrating themselves on the floors. We have physical movements in
our worship too including sitting, standing and kneeling. The hymn we are going
to sing as soon as I'm finished is based on the events in this chapter of
Revelation. There is wonderful imagery here of the worshippers in heaven
casting their crowns before the throne. It seems kind of strange but this is
them showing reverence to God, submitting to his authority. They are saying God
is king. Though we are made perfect in heaven, receiving a crown of glory, we
cast it before God our Father and we submit to God's ability to save and not
our own. We might even think of it another way. We wear certain crowns in our
lives. Perhaps our work position or our family roles. When we worship we cast
these crowns before the throne, submitting to God and to his authority. We may
have CEOs in this world but we give those crowns to God.
Again, that is just a
reference from our reading thoday. In Revelation 5 there are references to
incense in worship. Very traditional Lutheran worship will include incense like
some Roman Catholic churches do where the minister or assistant will sway a
thurible back and forth that has burning incense within it. This comes from
images of heavenly worship here in Revelation.
One last point about worship
in heaven that comes from Revelation 8. We get an image of an angel standing
before the altar with incense and prayers to offer. Isn't this interesting.
There is an altar in heaven. If you've ever been to a less traditional or
perhaps a non-denominational church you may notice the lack of an altar. These
churches will make their case by saying that an altar was meant for animal
sacrifice in the Bible. Yes, they are right about that. They will also say that
Jesus' sacrifice on the cross put an end to animal sacrifice and thus puts an
end to the necessity of an altar in worship since there will be no sacrifice.
And again, yes, the non-denominational churches are right in saying this. There
is no need for any more sacrifice because Jesus was our sacrifice and put an
end to sacrifice. But, the Bible tells us that the altar in heaven was not used
for sacrifice. It wasn't. It was used for prayer.
* * *
So, as you can see, there
are many areas of our worship that are not simply made up but in reality are
taken straight from early forms of Christian worship as well as heavenly
worship. Just as we use the Bible to teach us how to live out our Christian
faith we can also use the Bible to teach us how to worship. Our strongest desire
should be to have a deeper connection with Christ. When we gather for worship
we are learning to imitate our Christian brothers and sisters who have come
before us as well as imitate the very worship that takes place in heaven.
Worship is a heavenly experience for us. It brings us out of the world that we
are in and invites us into the life we will one day experience in heaven. It
reminds us that God is with us, that God is watching over us and that what we
do here is not worthless, that what we do here is not outdated, that what we do
here is not weird. What we do here truly points us to Christ because the early
worship in the New Testament and the worship in heaven is directed toward him
and him only. So, what we do here is Christ centered.
So, if you know people who
think liturgical worship is old or outdated and even if you are one who thinks
that, these are only a few examples of how our worship is structured and where
the deeper meaning comes from. I'm not in any way saying that non-liturgical
worship is a false form of worship. It is not up to me to decide if worship is
pleasing to God. I'm only providing reasoning behind the worship structure we
have because in a world that is evolving daily, there are likely to be many
questions as to why the language of the church remains mostly static. If we are
not educated about our worship and can't communicate the meaning to others, our
worship may be in jeopardy of dying. However, on the converse side, we are
lucky to have Christ and the Word of God that can encourage us and uphold us
amidst a dying church and widen our understanding of why we do what we do in
our worship services. Our mission is to bring people into the family of God,
not to scare them away. Just like children who use their playtime to imitate
adults, we as Christians take our worship time to imitate the Kingdom of God.
It's a language, a sacred language, one that will hopefully continue to
encourage us weekly and be inviting to an unbelieving world and one that never
lets us forget about the love of God shown to us in Christ, pointing us
directly to him, the forgiveness he offers us on the cross, and the heavenly
life that awaits us in heaven on the day he returns or calls us home. To God be
the glory, now and always. Amen.