The basic pattern of the Divine Service is Word and Sacrament. This pattern was instituted by Christ Himself throughout the New Testament. On Easter afternoon, Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus and, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). They drew near to the village and invited Jesus to stay with them. “When He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him” (Luke 24:30-31). Christ gives us His gifts through Word and Sacrament in the liturgy.
The Church has followed this pattern since the apostolic age. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). The earliest Christians followed this pattern of teaching (Word) and breaking bread (Sacrament) because it was given by Christ Himself. “The prayers” here refers to an ordered set of prayers, or what we might call the liturgy. There are several documents from the Early Church that describe this pattern, and even some specific parts of the liturgy, as early as the end of the first century. Christ does not lay out a specific form of the Divine Service that we must follow as a law, but from the earliest days after the resurrection, the Church began to form the liturgy that we still use today.
The purpose of every part of the liturgy is to point us to Christ. The liturgy gives expression to our sinful condition and points us to Christ as the only Savior. It provides the form and structure to deliver Word and Sacrament to us according to Christ’s institution. And it uses primarily God’s own Word to do so as we speak back to Him what He has spoken to us. Yet there are some elements of the service that are adiaphora—they are neither commanded nor forbidden by God. There is some freedom in determining what a service looks like, but with freedom comes responsibility to examine why we do what we do. The Lutheran Church has always sought to retain the liturgy and traditions that have been handed down to us, not for the sake of keeping manmade customs, but because these things teach us about Christ (Augsburg Confession XXIV). In the coming weeks, we will explore the individual parts of the Divine Service in light of these questions: “How does this practice point us to Christ?” and “What does this practice say about our doctrine?”
Image: Caravaggio, “The Supper at Emmaus,” oil and tempera on canvas, 1601.