Understanding the Liturgical Worship Service: Introduction

The definition of liturgy is an interesting topic. It can mean, 'traditional,' 'ceremony,' 'work of the people,' or who-knows-what.

I'm going to choose to define liturgy as the traditional order of the Church. Thus a liturgical calendar would include the traditional holy-days, seasons, etc. and a liturgical worship service would include the traditional elements of the Divine Service/ Mass.

There is also the issue of how historical the worship liturgy really is. Some believe it originated in the 3rd-5th centuries, others in the 16th century, still others the early 20th century. All these beliefs have elements of truth.

A brief history: the order of service originated as a Christianisation of the Old Testament worship liturgy. Over time various responses (mostly from Scripture) were added. By the mid 1st millenium A.D., the liturgy would have looked semi-familiar. However, the order to continued to evolve and expand and.by the time the 16th century rolled around, the mass was jam-packed with frivolities; so Luther and his co-horts translated the service into the vernacular and stripped down the liturgy to what they believed were original and essential. As the Lutheran church got older, however, more and more elements of the liturgy were being dropped. In the mid 19th century C.F.W. Walther and other confessional Lutherans once again "restored" the elements of the liturgy to what they believed were historically Lutheran. The early 20th century saw the service translated into English and new tunes to accompany the text.

In reality, the basic outline is from the 3rd-5th centuries, a few elements are from the 16th century, and the final product as we know it is largely from the early 20th century. David Luecke doesn't necessarily agree, but that's another story.

Anyway, many Lutherans are questioning the value of liturgical worship today. Questions are being raised as to its enjoyability, understandability, and relevance. While I don't pretend be an expert, I do believe the liturgy is enjoyable and relevant- especially if one understands what's going on. Therefore, I'm going to make my pitch for the liturgical worship service in future posts.