Lutheran Worship

It's been a challenging week, and you're off to church. What do you need there? A friendly and caring atmosphere? Encouragement and power so you can leave behind last week's failures and move confidently into a new week? To be connected to something far bigger and better than your daily life?

Lutheran worship meets these needs because it is saturated with the gospel, the good news of God's love in Christ. This message is far more than information; it is also “the power of God.” (Romans 1:16)

Of course, God’s divine power does nothing if we think our week has been “good enough” for a perfect God. Lutheran worship does not minimize the reality of sin and its consequences. It emphasizes it. We come before God’s altar confessing our many and varied sins, our sins of habit and sins of choice. We humbly admit our sinfulness and beg for God’s forgiveness. Then God grants us the only antidote for our sin – His love and forgiveness through His Son’s sacrifice on the cross.

The dominant message is not our sin and failure, but it is God’s forgiveness and encouragment. Lutheran worship applies this transforming power and gospel focus within the framework of the historic and timeless Christian liturgy. We follow the calendar of the Christian church year for its annual review of the life, work and teachings of Jesus and then apply those events to our lives.

Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle and Gospel lessons teach us both the bad news of the failures of God’s people and the good news of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. The sermon is God’s message to His people, not the pastor’s opinion or agenda. The Lord’s Supper is the special way that God comes to His people personally with forgiveness and grace.

Our worship is filled with God’s Word and teachings. We respond with praise, prayers and songs. Lutheran worship is two-dimensional: directed to God and to each other. It is a conversation. God speaks to us in His Word and Sacraments. We speak to Him with our prayers and hymns. This worship has been time-tested for millennia. This is the worship you need as you begin another week.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Max Lucado - False Doctrine

I love the way author Max Lucado writes. He is a great storyteller and a fantastic wordsmith. I have a number of Lucado's books on my shelves and receive his daily paragraph devotions. However, as popular as he is, as many books as he has sold, as many lives as he has touched with the Gospel, he still proclaims false doctrine. I still remember being told at the Seminary that you can generally tell a pastor's theology based on the kind of books he has on his shelves. Though our WELS pastors may have a few books by Lucado, Covey or even some fiction by Peretti, they had better have the majority of their books be sound, Lutheran, biblical doctrine. Martin Luther, The People's Bible commentaries, The Book of Concord, People's Bible Teachings, C.F.W. Walther, Francis Pieper, Werner Franzmann, etc. I mention this because of the devotion I received via email from Max Lucado on Friday, June 12 entitled "Saved by Faith." In the devotion he calls communion and bapti...
Read more

Jesus has prepared a place for you - A funeral sermon for Jim Hermann

Image
John 14:1-4 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.  2  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  4  You know the way to the place where I am going.” “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” Did you catch the difference between what I read just now and what I read in the Gospel lesson? The Gospel lesson was from the NIV. The second verse I read was from the King James Version. If you’re older than 50, that’s the version of the Bible that you heard in church and learned in catechism class. But, even if you’re older younger than 50, you know about the mansions. “The mansions of heaven” is a term Christians use pretty...
Read more

Water into blood and water into wine

Image
Here are some thoughts that didn’t make it into Sunday’s sermon. The Old Testament lesson for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany is the account of Moses turning the water of the Nile River into blood. The first of the ten plagues God used to get the Israelites out of Egypt. Exodus 7:14-24 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 16 Then say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened. 17 This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not ...
Read more