In the liturgical Church, this prayer is not one said “off the cuff.” It is a prayer selected for the specific theme of that particular Sunday, often influenced by the Gospel appointed for the day. The prayer is brief, but directly to the point. Many, if not most, of these collects have been used since the AD 400 and 600s. That means they are old, but that does not mean they are worthless; in fact, just the opposite.

How can we still use prayers dating back so far? Because they are still pertinent. They still express the heartfelt needs of the Christian. (The prayers may be written and read, but that does not mean that they do not come from our hearts.) They still teach us not only to pray but even for what to pray. And just as we learn “how to” pray from others, so the Collects model for us a way to pray.

The Collect of the Day usually follows a pattern (a pattern seen in the Lord’s Prayer). The pattern is as follows:

1) an invocation (or address to God – often God the Father specifically),

2) a basis for the petition according to God’s will,

3) a petition,

4) a desired outcome or blessing, and

5) a doxological ending.

As an example, tomorrow at Our Savior Lutheran Church, we will be observing Jesus’ baptism. And so the Collect reads (the numbers correspond to those above):

1) Father in heaven,

2) as at our Lord’s baptism in the Jordan River You once proclaimed Jesus Your beloved Son and anointed Him with the Holy Spirit,

3 & 4) grant that all who are baptized in His name may faithfully keep the covenant into which they have been called, boldly confess their Savior, and with Him be heirs of life eternal;

5) through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.

The doxology (#5) rarely changes among the historic collects, so that those who have ever attended a liturgical church for any length of time will immediately recognize it. This is one of the blessings of the weekly “repetition,” not that it becomes mechanical (though because of our sinful nature, this is certainly something about which we must be vigilant), but that we will always remember that our prayers to the Father are always through His Son, Jesus Christ, who died for us and our salvation and who now lives (a declaration of His resurrection) and reigns as a person of the one Triune God who is forever caring about His children.

Rev. Gullixson is the pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church at 162 Sneden Street. The Divine Service begins at 9:30 AM every Sunday. To speak with Pastor Gullixson, please call (760) 873-6589.

]]> http://bishoplutherans.com/the-divine-service-the-collect-of-the-day/feed/ 0 http://bishoplutherans.com/the-divine-service-the-salutation/ http://bishoplutherans.com/the-divine-service-the-salutation/#comments Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:05:56 +0000 pastor http://bishoplutherans.com/?p=628  In our last consideration of the Christian liturgy, we spoke about the Gloria in Excelsis Deo. It is an expression of our joy, praise, and confidence that God has, does, and will answer our petition (request) for His divine mercy upon us prayed in the Kyrie Eleison. Today, we will consider the next part of the liturgy, the Salutation. Don’t be fooled by its brevity, there is much more going on than a simple greeting (salutation).

The Salutation:

Pastor: The Lord be with you.

Congregation: And with your spirit.

These words are reminiscent of Boaz’s greeting to the laborers who worked in his fields (Ruth 2:4). As a godly man, it was natural for him to desire the Lord’s presence with them. He desired that their work would be fruitful. He knew that the Lord’s blessing was the real reason that he was able to employ these men who were harvesting his grain. The reapers, in turn, responded to him, “The Lord bless you.” They also recognized that if the Lord had not blessed Boaz, they would not be employed by him, since there would be nothing to harvest.

Though today many pastor’s have a personal greeting before the service begins, up until now in the service proper there has been no formal greeting. It has been as though we were so involved in taking care of the very important matters first (Confession and Absolution, seek mercy, and praising God), that we only get around to acknowledging each other now.

Like with Boaz, the pastor greets the assembly by giving them a blessing. Why now? Or why at all? Because he is anticipating what will be coming next in the service: the reading of the holy Scriptures, the Creed, and the sermon. He desires that God be with them and work in them as they hear His Word and message of forgiveness through his work. And the pastor is confident that the Lord is with them because He has promised it: “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe” (1 Corinthians 2:13).

The congregation, in turn, blesses the pastor, “And with your spirit.” This is also natural since they recognize that he will be serving them by reading and preaching God’s Word to them. As the Lord blesses their minister, likewise they will receive the benefit in his gracious words and ministrations (services).

The Lord’s presence that we desire and give to one another through these words is His gracious presence. We are stating that the Lord, who was born, suffered, crucified, buried, risen and ascended is present with each other for the forgiveness of our sins as He promised in Matthew 28:20, “ ‘I am with you always, evento the end of the age.’ Amen.”

Rev. Gullixson is the pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church at 162 Sneden Street. The Divine Service begins at 9:30 AM every Sunday. To speak with Pastor Gullixson, please call (760) 873-6589.

“All Christians face such attack, for the adversary never relents but continues to try to wrench us away from Christ and our baptism, by means of hunger or persecution, by worldly fame and wealth, or by heresy or false interpretation of Scriptures, so that we give way to despair and vain glory. If such tricks fail, the devil tries to get us by the throat and strangle us to death. We can learn from Christ’s encounter with Satan how to deal with and overcome this adversary, so that he’s forced to let us go. However, this happens only through true faith in God and his Word. Whoever thus arms himself properly will be able to withstand the devil; but whoever fails to do so will certainly be helpless against this deadly adversary….

“We must, therefore, gird ourselves well with God’s Word, in order to protect and sustain ourselves. May Christ, our dear Lord, who himself overcame these temptations for our good, give us also the strength through him to overcome and to be saved. Amen” (1534 Sermon for Invocavit Sunday—First Sunday in Lent).

We have hope! Jesus died to take those sins away. No one forced Him. He did it because He loves us. Because He loves you! The Father accepted Jesus’ sacrifice and proved it on Easter Sunday when Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection means that those who believe in Him will also rise on the last day, not to eternal damnation, but to eternal life with the Father.

In Christ,

Pastor Gullixson

Please join us for our Christmas celebrations. Christmas Eve beginning at 6:00 PM, we will have a devotion on Luke 2 followed by a hymn sing where anyone can choose a Christmas hymn they would like to sing. We will close when there are no more requests. On Christmas Day, we will gather for the Divine Service at 9:30 AM.

God’s richest blessings to you and yours,

Pastor Gullixson

The Gloria’s position in the Divine Service comes after absolution (forgiveness of sins) has been declared and the prayer for mercy (the Kyrie Eleison) has been sung/prayed. The exuberant Gloria is sung in response to the solemn Kyrie, as we declare to one another that God has and does answer our pleas for mercy. If He has sent His own Son into the world to die for our sins, how much more will He also have mercy upon us now that we are His children, adopted into His family through Baptism.

The Gloria continues with words of praise, “We praise You, we bless You, we worship You, we glorify You, we give thanks to You, for Your great glory.” These words of praise are not empty words of praise because immediately following them, we sing/describe who this Triune God is and what He has done for us, that is so deserving of praise.

The shepherds were also given a sign, “You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:12) When the angels had left them, after singing the Gloria, they were excited and went “in haste” “to see this thing…which the Lord had made known to [them].” (Luke 2:15-16). As we look ahead in the Divine Service, we also anticipate “seeing” the Christ-child, the Word-made-flesh who “dwelt among us” (John 1:14). We will hear this Word read to us, not only in the Old and New Testament lessons, but we will get to “see” Him as He tells us about His perfect life in our place through the reading of the Gospel lesson.

Seemingly ironic however is the fact that if you come to our church for the Divine Service this Sunday to hear the Gloria, you won’t. During this season of Advent (four weeks before Christmas), we observe a season of penitence as we reflect on our sinfulness which caused the Son of God to come down to this earth. So we refrain from singing this canticle until Christmas Day, when its familiar joyful tune will once again take its place in our celebration and its meaning will be sung full force: “Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, good will toward men” made possible through this Christ-child.

 Rev. Gullixson is the pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church at 162 Sneden Street. The Divine Service begins at 9:30 AM every Sunday. To speak with Pastor Gullixson, please call (760) 873-6589. 

The Kyrie reads:

Lord, have mercy upon us.

Christ, have mercy upon us.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

After the congregation concludes the Introit (entrance hymn) with the Gloria Patri, there is a second or two break followed immediately by the Kyrie. In the ancient Church, the Kyrie was really a formal prayer. The pastor would lead the congregation in numerous petitions, or requests, (such as for the spreading of the Gospel throughout the world, the welfare of the church, the nation, the community, the needy, etc.) ending each petition with, “Let us pray to the Lord.” Then the congregation would respond, “Lord, have mercy.” This prayer gradually became shortened to its current form. Many of these petitions are now prayed in the “Prayer of the Church” after the sermon has been delivered.

Often in the New Testament, when someone prayed to Jesus saying, “Lord, have mercy,” it was for a physical need (the ten lepers of Luke 17:13, the blind men of Matthew 20:30, the woman with the demon-possessed daughter of Matthew 15:22). This is also the reason for our praying the Kyrie at this point in time in the Divine Service. In the Confession and Absolution, we have already unloaded our spiritual problems and concerns upon God and found Him faithful in taking care of them through His Son’s perfect life, death, and resurrection. Now we desire to unload all the other worldly concerns that we have amassed over the past week and place them at the feet of our merciful God.

The Kyrie, being so general, makes anything weighing you down or distracting you appropriate to consider at this time. There is nothing too big or too small for God to handle. This is the same God who promises us, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me” (Psalm 50:15). With God’s promise to deliver us, our concerns are no longer ours, but His. We are freed then from the distractions we have brought and are ready to listen attentively to our Lord as He speaks to us through the Scripture lessons and the pastor.

Another blessing of the Kyrie is that it is not designated only for use in the Divine Service, but is useful throughout our daily lives. Its depth and simplicity make it extremely versatile and appropriate, and its weekly repetition keeps it fresh in our minds, on our hearts, and on our lips.   

Rev. Gullixson is the pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church at 162 Sneden Street. The Divine Service begins at 9:30 AM every Sunday. To speak with Pastor Gullixson, please call (760) 873-6589. 

]]> http://bishoplutherans.com/the-divine-service-the-kyrie-elieson/feed/ 0 http://bishoplutherans.com/the-divine-service-confession-and-absolution/ http://bishoplutherans.com/the-divine-service-confession-and-absolution/#comments Wed, 10 Oct 2012 21:13:58 +0000 admin http://bishoplutherans.com/?p=592 Following the Invocation, where we call upon the name of the Triune God and remember our Baptism where our sins were washed away (Acts 22:16), the Divine Service continues with the Confession and Absolution. Here, at the very start of the Service, we accept Jesus’ invitation when He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). We lay our burdens of sin and guilt upon Him and hear from the pastor the comforting rest Jesus gives to us.

One form of our Confession starts, “O almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor miserable sinner, confess to You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment.” Here we humbly confess along with St. Paul, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature” (Romans 7:18). This sinful nature is completely corrupt and so we find that what Jesus said is true: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness” (Mark 7:21-22). Notice, that God is not only concerned about the sins others can see or hear, but even the ones we think. After a whole week or even one hour of pride and selfishness, we have much to confess and of which to be ashamed. And so we continue “But I am heartily sorry for them, and sincerely repent of them…”

We would have no right to come before God and ask Him for anything – except for this: “…and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.” It is only on account of Jesus’ life and sacrificial death that we can come before God and seek forgiveness. This also is part of our confession, though not of our sins but of God’s salvation. It is a confession of trust in what He has told us about Himself, that He “is merciful and gracious.” (Psalm 103:8).

Having confessed our sins as well as our faith (or trust) in Jesus’ as our Savior, God declares His forgiveness and peace to us through the pastor, “Upon this your confession, I, by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God to all of you, and in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”We receive this absolution (this declaration that our sins are absolved/forgiven) from the pastor as if from God Himself, just as Jesus told His apostles, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them” (John 20:23).

Having Christ’s forgiveness, we now stand before God holy and blameless, at rest, and ready to hear more about this forgiveness and to pray, praise, and give thanks.

Rev. Gullixson is the pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church at 162 Sneden Street. The Divine Service begins at 9:30 AM every Sunday. To speak with Pastor Gullixson, please call (760) 873-6589.

The invocation is simple and short, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” to which the congregation declares its, “Amen.” Though simple and short, it is profound. The Divine Service begins with the invocation because we desire to invoke (meaning “to call upon”) the Triune God to be present with His grace and mercy as we set apart a time to devote to hearing and meditating on God’s Word. We know this prayer is heard and answered by God because He promises us in His Word, “where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).

Within these few words, the Church is already teaching and reminding those present about the nature of our God. He is tri-une, three distinct persons, yet one divine being (or essence). Notice that we do not say, “in the names of…”, but “in the name of…”; one name = one God, three names = three Persons. This is not a distinction made by the Church on her own, but by Jesus Himself when He said to His apostles, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). Our God is the God of our salvation, as we will hear more explicitly in the Creed later in the service. Therefore, we call upon Him to save us once again from our sin and guilt by teaching us what He did and still does for our salvation.

It is no coincidence that the words of the invocation are those connected with Jesus’ command to baptize, as quoted above. The invocation also serves another purpose, it reminds us of our baptism, the factual event in our lives that we can point to where God adopted us into His family by putting His name upon us, just as adoptive parents do to their adopted children. At the baptismal font, He washed away our sins (Acts 22:16), and declared us His children. Here in the Divine Service we have a very intimate family reunion with all the promises of forgiveness attached to our brother and God, Jesus Christ.

While the invocation and its use is in question in our society, we have and make use of the full freedom granted us to use it in God’s house of prayer.

Rev. Gullixson is the pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church at 162 Sneden Street. The Divine Service begins at 9:30 AM every Sunday. To speak with Pastor Gullixson, please call (760) 873-6589.