So far in the divine worship service the congregation has been the primary speakers, opening their lips in prayer and praise. At this point the congregation falls silent and our Lord himself speaks to us. We open our ears and hearts to his life giving words spoken through the Lessons.

The Salutation marks a new and different part of the divine service. The Collect is a brief but significant prayer related to the theme for the day, preparing the way for the reading of the lessons.

After confessing our sins and receiving assurance of our forgiveness, the Rite II liturgy in our Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary continues with the Introit, the Kyrie Eleison, and the Gloria in Excelsis. In these steps we enter in to the presence of the Lord for worship, ask for his help in earthly needs, and praise him with the song of the angels.

There is a wide gulf between God in his holiness and us in our sinfulness. We put on clean clothes in the morning to come to church, but more importantly we need a clean heart in the presence of the Lord. So at the very beginning of our worship services, we need to lay our sins on Jesus and be assured that God does not condemn us for our sins, but forgives and forgets. We need to “lay down our burdens at the doorway before entering upon the praises of God.”

The service begins with a phrase called ‘the Invocation.’
“In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

There are different styles of worship services in American churches today. None are divinely inspired. None are the only right way to worship God. But there are good reasons we worship the way we do at King of Grace. Occasionally on the blog I’ll explain one or another element of our worship service liturgy.