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Liturgical Worship
We hope these words will help you to understand our worship and to participate in a service without communion:
The Invocation and Confession of Sins
Following an opening prelude and hymn, we invoke the presence of the Triune God in whose name we are assembled for worship. Our worship is directed to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Ghost.
In order to have fellowship and communion with God, however, we must have pure hearts and clean hands. And so we join in the Confession of Sins. This is a preparatory office of spiritual purification. By it we are made clean to enter into the service proper which begins with the Introit.
The Introit, Gloria Patri, Kyrie, and Gloria in Excelsis
The Introit, with includes the Gloria Patri (Latin for 'Glory be to the Father'), used to be chanted by the choir while the minister approached the altar. It is the entrance song of the service. Like the overture of a great opera, it sets the tone and expresses the theme of the Sunday or holy day.
In the Kyrie ('Kyrie eleison' is Greek for 'Lord, have mercy') we greet God as the people of old greeted their king when he came to them. The people welcomed him and cried to him for help. Likewise, the Kyrie is the unceasing cry for mercy of a people suffering from the curse of sin. It embraces not only our own but without exception all the misery, suffering, and affliction of humanity.
God's answer to the Kyrie is the redemptive work of Christ. For this we adore and praise Him in the Gloria in Excelsis (Latin for 'Glory in the highest'), an ancient and beautiful canticle which begins with the angels' Christmas carol, swells into a profound adoration of the Holy Trinity, and centres in the theme of 'The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.'
The Salutation and Collect for the Day
In Lutheran worship pastor and people worship God together. This is expressed in the Salutation where pastor and people exchange the wish that Christ may dwell in each other's heart.
Then we pray the Collect for the Day in which we feel ourselves united with all our fellow-believers and gather together in one short sentence what it is that we pray for on the particular day. There is a different Collect for each Sunday or feast day in the year.
The Old Testament Lesson, Epistle, Gradual and Gospel
Up to this point we have been speaking to God, but our invocation, hymns, canticles and prayer have all looked forward to hearing God speak to us. Reverently and silently we now listen to God as He speaks to us: first in the Old Testament Lesson through one of his prophets, and then in the Epistle through one of His apostles.
Between the Epistle and Gospel the Gradual (verses from the Psalms) gives us time for meditation. And then we rise to hear the Gospel. In the liturgical sense, Christ Himself here speaks to us. We honour Him by standing, and we praise Him with the two versicles: 'Glory be to Thee, O Lord' and 'Praise be to Thee, O Christ.'
The Creed, Hymn and Sermon
We respond to the Gospel by confessing our faith in the Creed which is an outline of the main convent of the entire Gospel. Then we prepare ourselves for the Sermon by singing the Hymn which fits the theme of the day.
In the Sermon a part of the Word of God already read or a similar passage is explained and applied to our daily life. Like other parts of the service, the Sermon is an act of worship. In it, God speaks to us through the pastor. He is a living witness of the Gospel who applies the Word of God to our own times and circumstances.
The Offertory and Offerings
The Offertory chant is our response to the Word of God. Connected with it is the gathering of our Offerings which we give as a token of our self-oblation and as an expression of our stewardship.
The General Prayer and the Lord's Prayer
Now we offer our prayers for all men. The general prayer is our united supplication and intercession for the Church, our government, all people in their vocations and needs, and for the special request of our own congregation and its members. Then we sum it all up in the Lord's Prayer which Jesus Himself taught us.
The Collect and Benediction
Before we leave the house of God, we sing another hymn and pray, in a collect, for the progress of the Word in our hearts and in our church. We bow our heads to receive the benediction. With this we go forth to live our lives in unity with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, knowing that His face will shine upon us and that He will bless and keep us.
This, very briefly, is Lutheran church worship. It centres in the Cross of Christ. In it God speaks and gives to us, and we speak and give to God. In it we use the forms of worship which the believers of all ages employed. Lutheran worship is both dynamic and dramatic.
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Sacraments
Sacramental - One thing that separates Lutherans from many other "protestants" is our view of the sacraments:
The Eucharist/Holy Communion: We believe that all who commune at the altar receive the very Body and Blood of Christ. Those who eat of it faithfully receive forgiveness of sins and grace while those who do not eat and drink judgment upon themselves (1 Cor. 11:29). Because of this belief, we also practice the loving and historic practice of closed communion.
Holy Baptism: Christ directs all people are to be made disciples through Baptism and teaching (Matt. 28:18-20). We teach the infants and adults who receive Holy Baptism receive the forgiveness of sins and are reborn into God's family. As put by Luther in the Small Catechism, "[Baptism] works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe, as the words and promises of God declare."
Also of great importance to Lutherans is the rite of Confssion and Absolution. Confession/Absolution: As Lutherans we also believe that a Pastor serves as Christ's representative and can absolve or forgive penitent sinners in his stead (Jn. 20:22-23; Matt. 16:19-20). As stated in the Augsburg Confession, "Our people are taught that they should highly prize the absolution, as being the voice of God, and pronounced by God's command."
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Holy Communion Policy
Holy Communion Policy: "In keeping with the principle that the celebration and reception of the Lord's Supper is a confession of the unity of faith, while at the same time recognizing that there will be instances when sensitive pastoral care needs to be exercised, the Synod has established an official practice requiring that `pastors and congregations of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, except in situations of emergency and in special cases of pastoral care, commune individuals of only those synods which are now in fellowship with us.'" Because those who eat and drink our Lord's body and blood unworthily do so to their great harm and because Holy Communion is a confession of the faith which is confessed at this altar, any who are not yet instructed, in doubt, or who hold a confession differing from that of this congregation and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and yet desire to receive the Sacrament, are asked first to speak with the Pastor or an usher. Cornell College students in regular attendance please speak with the pastor if you wish to make special arrangements to commune with us on a regular basis. For further study, see Matt. 5:23-24; 10:32-33; 18:15-35; 26:26-29; 1 Cor. 11:17-34. To find out more about specific worship practices of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, visit the LCMS Commission on Worship web site.
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