With the last two corners, you’ve probably had your fill of worship service explainers. But give me one more. First, we’ve asserted with some examples both sacred and secular that everybody has a liturgy. That word liturgy is simply how we incarnate our beliefs. If you want to understand America observe the liturgy of pre-game football from tailgate to kickoff. Likewise, if you want to understand who is being worshipped, observe the form of the worship. This is an observation so old it has a Latin phrase – Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi – the law of Worship is the law of belief. Second, we’ve seen that the basic form of Christian worship was most likely inherited from the Jewish Synagogue of Jesus’ day adding to that Service of the Word the Lord’s Supper as Jesus commanded his disciples to do. And third, we looked at two of the changing parts of our worship service, the Introit or Entry Psalm and the Three Scripture readings.
The changeable parts of our liturgy have a specific name; they are the propers of the day. In that big book that is always on the Altar – known imaginatively as The Altar Book – you will find almost all of the propers for every service of the year. The Altar Book itself doesn’t have all the readings printed out. It assumes you have a bible or a lectionary book. Or like we do, print it out every week. But one could host our worship directly from the Altar Book. And for most of time, that is what was done. The propers formal are the Introit, the Readings and also the Prayer of the Day, a verse, a gradual and a hymn of the day. In a true “high church” place all of this would be chanted. It is one of the quirks of getting old that growing up, since we rarely chanted anything, I was considered “low church.” But, as most of American Christianity changed its liturgies to what would have been backwoods Pentecostal worship, my low church came to seem high. And please ponder for a second that old Latin phrase. If your liturgy changes, your beliefs probably did also, regardless of what you say. The incarnation is more meaningful than the spare word. That is not questioning the salvation or presence of Christ, simply recognizing that the house has many rooms. And rooms have different decoration.
Our liturgy also has unchangeable parts. These are known as the ordinaries. Specifically: the Kyrie, The Gloria, The Creed, The Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei. You can’t study the history of Western Music without knowing those parts. Every “Mass” ever written has settings of those parts. And you will find examples of all of them quite early in church history. The creed being formalized in the 300’s but predating that. All of them being present by the 700’s. But in those five ordinaries you find the purpose of the service. The Kyrie is our basic entreaty – Lord have mercy. And it is followed by the Gloria – a trinitarian song of praise. This is why we have gathered – for prayer and praise. To seek our forgiveness and to praise the God who has forgiven us. The creed is next in the order and it is the basic statement of the faith. Right in the center of the liturgy, this is the faith which is believed and which we are incarnating in the liturgy. The Sanctus – a setting of the cry of the angels around the altar in heaven – Holy, Holy, Holy – is the recognition that here on our altar in the Lord’s Supper we are part of that heavenly feast. Heaven and Earth come together in the bread and wine. The final ordinary – The Agnus Dei – is the recognition that what we are about to receive is the very body and blood of Christ. And it is a return to the prayer of the Kyrie. As we are bold to approach the altar, may what we receive there be for our good. “Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.” The Kingdom of God certain comes without our prayer, but we pray that it would come to us also, as Luther would explain the 2nd petition.
That liturgy is remarkably robust. You can strip it down for a private visit, you can blow it out for a great feast. It is made for when two or three are gathered, and for times you might have 5000 men besides the women and children. It might take a bit to learn. And since we change settings occasionally we might ask a little more. But it is the incarnation of that creedal faith at its core. Here is where Father, Son and Spirit meet us, and where they are worshipped and glorified.