What does it mean to be liturgical?
Easter Vigil, Pinnaroo Lutheran Mission. Photo: Kieren Brown, used with permission.
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:12-17
In addition to identifying as biblical, confessional, and missional, Lutheran Mission – Australia also describes itself as liturgical. So what exactly does that mean?
When many people hear the word liturgical, they think primarily of adherence to certain human traditions. This may include chanting, wearing robes, singing hymns in a classical musical style, or using scripted prayers and responses, with little room for free prayer or spontaneity. While the content of such worship is usually biblical in nature, these outward forms by themselves do not guarantee that a church is biblical, confessional, or missional.
Instead of focusing on such outward forms, this article will focus on what lies at the heart of the best Christian worship practices. It will do so by defining the liturgy of Christ’s church in way that is biblical, confessional, and missional. A church that is liturgical in that sense is one that is focused on the Lord Jesus Christ, and his work of cleansing us from our sins and ushering us into the presence of God so that we can receive his gifts and blessings.
Liturgy in the New Testament: Christ is our liturgist
The word “liturgy” comes from the Greek word “leitourgia.” In ancient Greek literature, this word (together with related words from the same root) had the basic meaning of “to perform a service for the benefit of the community.” This could be any service, and did not have to be specifically religious. However, when these words were picked up by the Greek translation of the Old Testament that was in widespread use in Jesus’ day, it gave them a particular spiritual meaning. With few exceptions, the 164 references to “liturgy” in this Old Testament refer to one specific service: the work of the priests and Levites in the temple and tabernacle, through which God gave his blessings to the community of Israel.
Given this background, we might expect the New Testament to use this word group to describe Christian worship. Surprisingly, it almost never does. When it talks of leitourgia, it is usually referring to either the worship of the old covenant (1) or else to service in general (2). The only passage in the New Testament that unambiguously uses this word group to describe Christian worship is Hebrews 8 (3), which compares Christian worship to that of the Old Testament. Here we are told that Christ is our “liturgist,” (4) who has received from God a “liturgy” (5) that is much more excellent than that of the priests in the Old Testament. Hebrews then tells us that this liturgy involves Christ’s call by God (6) to offer himself as the great sacrifice for our sins, once for all (7), so that he can now cleanse us from our sins and bring us into the presence of God to receive his blessing (8). Thus, we see that from this New Testament perspective, liturgical worship is not about what we do for God, but about what he does for us through Christ to deliver his gifts to us.
Liturgy in Luther and the Confessions
This view of Christian worship is echoed by Luther and the Lutheran Confessions. Jesus tells us that no one comes to the Father except through him, but whoever has seen and known him has also seen and known the Father (9). Luther drew from this the conclusion that whenever we seek to approach God apart from Christ, we do not end up worshipping the true God but rather an idol of our own making.
Luther then asks, where is it that we find Christ? Can we climb up to heaven to be with him as he is seated at the Father’s right hand in glory? No, we cannot. Instead, we must go to where Christ has promised to be with us on earth to deliver his gracious gifts to us (10). He has promised that wherever two or three are gathered in his name, there he will be among them (11). He has promised that he will come to us in the waters of Baptism to make us his, and in, with, and under the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper to cleanse us from our sins (12). He has promised that when we confess our sins, God will forgive these sins in heaven (13); furthermore, he has authorized his servants to bring this forgiveness to us on earth (14). He has promised to speak to us through his word, and has promised that if we treasure this word and hold on to it in faith, that he and his Father and his Spirit will come to us and make their home with us (15). He has encouraged us to pray in his name to the Father and has graciously promised to hear us (16). When these things stand at the heart of our worship, then we know that it is pleasing to God and he will be present in it to bless us.
Likewise, the Lutheran Confessions echo this same teaching. They focus our attention on Christ, and the things he has instituted as the means through which he blesses us, while turning our eyes away from those things instituted by human beings. Thus, the Augsburg Confession teaches that:
The Church is the congregation of saints in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered. For the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree about the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. It is not necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies instituted by men, should be the same everywhere. (17)
In a similar way, the Formula of Concord says:
We unanimously believe, teach, and confess that some ceremonies or Church practices are neither commanded nor forbidden in God’s Word, but have been introduced only for the sake of fitting and good order. Such rites are not in and of themselves divine worship. They are not even a part of it. Matthew 15:9 says, “In vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (18)
The Lutheran Confessions frequently warn us against thinking that following human traditions or observing other rites, works, or ceremonies invented by human beings will make us holy, bring us the forgiveness of our sins, or make us and our worship acceptable to God. Only Christ can do this, as he gives himself to us in the means of the Gospel.
Liturgy and the Mission of the Gospel
If the focus of our worship is on Christ, and the gifts he gives us through the means of grace, then our worship will be an enactment of the Gospel. The call to worship will be a call for sinners to come to Christ, to receive from him the forgiveness of their sins, and to participate through him in the life of God. As such, it will be a boon to the mission of the Gospel.
In contrast, if the focus is on what we do in worship, this will undermine the proclamation of the Gospel. This will give the impression that our God is like a petty pagan god, who needs to be buttered up with our works or adoration before he will give his blessings to us. Likewise, if our focus is on our human traditions, customs, musical tastes, etc., as if it is our offering of these things to God that makes us holy or our worship acceptable to him, then we have shifted our attention from God’s gracious promises to a subtle form of self-righteousness.
Implications: Rejoicing in the God who is among us to serve
We participate in Christ’s liturgy when our worship is filled with him: when we joyfully celebrate Christ’s coming to us in the bread and the wine, the word and the water; when we put our faith in him by bringing our needs to him in prayer; when our words to each other are gracious, and filled with the wisdom that comes from his Spirit; and when his Word dwells richly in our preaching and teaching, and in what we read and speak and sing in our time together (19). As Christians, we should celebrate all of God’s gifts to us, including his gifts of music, creative arts, architecture, clothing and other adornments, rituals and other practices that can help to beautify our worship or express our faith or joy in Christ. This is the case whether these things are old or new. Yet we must never mistake such wrappings in which the Gospel is presented for the Good News itself, nor condemn others for clothing their faith in a different way when their Lord is the same. To do so would only detract from our one liturgist, saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ.
Rev. Dr Michael Lockwood
Luke 1:23; Hebrews 9:21; 10:11.
Romans 13:6; 15:16, 27; 2 Corinthians 9:12; Philippians 2:17, 25; Hebrews 1:7, 14.
The only other passage in the New Testament that appears to be using this word group to refer to Christian worship is Acts 13:2, which tells us that the Christian leaders in Antioch were “liturgising to / by the Lord and fasting.” This is frequently translated as “worshipping the Lord and fasting.” Yet it could also be translated as “serving the Lord and fasting,” and gives us little indication of what specifically this worship or service consisted of.
Verse 2.
Verse 6.
Hebrews 5:1-6.
Hebrews 8:8 – 10:18.
Hebrews 4:11,16; 10:19-25; 12:18-24.
John 14:6-7.
LW 23:55-56, 121; 24:56-64; 36:342; 51:114; for a detailed treatment of Luther’s theology of worship, see Michael Lockwood, “The Idol of the Self and the Worship of God Incarnate, in The Unholy Trinity: Luther Against the Idol of Me, Myself, and I (St Louis: Concordia, 2016), 121-165.
Matthew 18:20.
Matthew 26:28; John 6:53-58; Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:27-29; Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 3:21.
1 John 1:9.
John 20:21-23.
John 14:15-23.
Matthew 7:7-11; John 14:13-14; 1 Timothy 2:1-6; 1 John 5:14-15.
Augsburg Confession VII, 1-3.
Epitome X, 3; See also Augsburg Confession XXVI, 21-29; XXVII, 36-37; XXVIII, 30-75, Apology VI, 45-48; V (III), 189 (310), XV, 3-5; XXVII (XIII), 69; Smalcald Articles II, ii, 2; III, xv, 1; Solid Declaration X, 8.
Colossians 3:12-17.