The Service of the Sacrament begins with the same salutation that began the Service of the Word as the pastor announces that the Lord is present to bring blessings to His people. He calls on the people to “lift up your hearts,” that is, to set aside worldly matters and seek the things of Christ (Colossians 3:1). With cleansed hearts, the pastor invites us to give thanks, just as Christ Himself gave thanks over the bread and wine as He instituted the Lord’s Supper. One name for the Sacrament is “Eucharist,” from the Greek word eucharisteo, meaning, “to give thanks.”
The Proper Preface has three parts. The opening section expands on our thanksgiving with a threefold ascription of praise to the Father. “At all times and in all places,” in our entire life, our relationship with the Father is one of giving thanks for the mercy He has shown to us in His Son. The middle section is based on a particular facet of the person and work of Christ, through whom we have access to the Father. This section describes the implications of Christ’s work for us with rich theological language related to the focus of each season of the Church year. The conclusion of the Proper Preface is a transition to the Sanctus, reminding us that Christ’s work is not limited by time and space. We join together “with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven” in singing our hymn of praise to the Father.
The first part of the Sanctus (Latin for “holy”) comes from Isaiah’s vision of the heavenly throne room and the eternal song of praise (Isaiah 6:3), which is echoed in the book of Revelation. There is evidence that this song was part of the communion liturgy as early as the first century. Although we cannot see with our eyes, we confess with our voices that heaven and earth are full of the glory of God as heaven descends to earth in the Sacrament, a foretaste of the feast to come. The second half of the Sanctus is called the Benedictus (“blessed”) and comes from Psalm 118, the plea for salvation sung as the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem, and later as the people ascended to the temple for worship. This was the same cry of the people as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9). This song is a confession of the bodily presence of Christ in the Sacrament as it calls to mind Christ’s work of salvation in the events of Holy Week. He comes to us now not on a donkey riding into Jerusalem, but under the bread and wine which is His very Body and Blood given for us to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of sins. This is the confidence by which we approach the throne and altar of God—only through Christ who comes to give Himself for us.