The Lord be with you
The following was found on the LC-MS site. The address is: http://www.lcms.org/page.aspx?pid=1067
Liturgy
What do the parts of the liturgy mean? This is a frequently asked question; maybe you have asked that question yourself. The following descriptions of worship and the parts of liturgy were first published in an article by the former Commission on Worship for the Reporter Insert entitled “Taking a Tour of Heaven.”Worship is like no place else in this world.
But there is one place that it does resemble, and that is heaven
The story is told of how Christianity was
introduced to Russia. More than 1,000 years ago Grand Duke Vladimir of
Kiev was interested in selecting an appropriate religion for his new
nation. His emissaries investigated the main religions of the day,
including Roman Catholicism and Islam. But it was only after visiting
the chief site of the Orthodox Church in Constantinople that they found
what they were looking for. In their report to their duke, the
emissaries noted that in Orthodox worship there was such solemn splendor
that they had a hard time knowing whether they were in heaven or on
earth.
Worship is like that: one foot in heaven with the other here on earth. What brings heaven into our earthly worship is not dependent on the elaborateness of the service or the sincerity of our devotion. Rather, it is because of the One who is present in our worship that we experience heaven on earth.
If worship is "heaven on earth," then it stands to reason that what we do and say in worship should in some sense give us a foretaste of that great feast to come. In the following tour of the Divine Service we will see how the ancient texts of the liturgy give us that glimpse of heaven and, more importantly, how they deliver to us, here and now, the eternal benefits of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
Learn more about the parts of the liturgy here.
Worship is like that: one foot in heaven with the other here on earth. What brings heaven into our earthly worship is not dependent on the elaborateness of the service or the sincerity of our devotion. Rather, it is because of the One who is present in our worship that we experience heaven on earth.
If worship is "heaven on earth," then it stands to reason that what we do and say in worship should in some sense give us a foretaste of that great feast to come. In the following tour of the Divine Service we will see how the ancient texts of the liturgy give us that glimpse of heaven and, more importantly, how they deliver to us, here and now, the eternal benefits of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
Learn more about the parts of the liturgy here.
Resources
- Liturgical Glossary
- The Liturgy Serves Us
- Divine Service and Reverence
- Lutheran Worship and Emotions
- Priesthood of All Believers and Divine Service
- Lutheran Worship 2000 and Beyond
- Reflections on Contemporary Worship
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