ROUGHLY EDITED COPY LUTHERAN WORSHIP 2 25.LW2 Captioning provided By: Caption First, Inc. P.O. Box 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 ******** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ******** >> JOSHUA: Thank you. Now let me ask a follow-up question. What are the biblical precedents of the ordinaries, and what is their theological significance? >> DR. ARTHUR JUST: Joshua, this is one of my favorite questions because the ordinaries are so rich. They are not only rich in their biblical references, but also in the theological content of what they mean. Now, one of the things, Joshua, we see when we look at the liturgy of the church--and this, for some people, may be disturbing for them, but for me, it�s a wonderful thing--is that we don't know who brought in many of the things that we now have in our liturgy. There is a great sense of anonymity in our liturgy. We don't know how Christians decided or when they decided to bring in the Kyrie or the Gloria or this or that. And oftentimes, it's a very complex history that it's almost impossible for us to sort out because we don't have the texts. In other words, we don't have the evidence that shows us when they come in. All of a sudden, which just kind of see them there, and we know they've been there for a while, but finally somebody wrote them down. I�m going to try to be brief, but I have written extensively on this particular topic, and I would encourage you to read what I have written on this because there is a complex history, and the biblical foundations are rich and worth exploring. Each of the ordinaries has a biblical reference, and let's begin with the Kyrie. The Kyrie comes from a number of different places, and I always like to refer, because I am a Lukan scholar, from the Gospel of Luke. In Luke 17 when the lepers come to Jesus to be cleansed, they say to Jesus, Lord, have mercy on us. There is your Kyrie, Lord have mercy on us. In the next chapter, the blind beggar comes to Jesus and says the same thing, Lord, have mercy on us. The earliest Kyrie inn the church was not only this refrain, Lord, have mercy on us, but it was done in the context of petitions. Now, here you are going to see a wonderful coming together of the culture of the time of the early Christians and the scriptures itself. Because what the Roman Empire oftentimes experienced was the fact that in many of the cities and in many of the larger towns, the king would visit. The king would come in. Now, what happened when the king--and we're talking about the secular king now--what would happen when the king would come in? Well, the people would line the streets and guess what they would say. Lord, have mercy. And they would ask for things. They would petition him. And this was done in kind of a liturgical way. They would petition something and then they would say, Lord, have mercy. Then they would petition something and they would say, Lord, have mercy. Now early Christians were struck by this because they understood that in the entrance rite, as the clergy was coming in and they were about to hear the word of God, Jesus, the true king of the universe, as the Jews prayed in their prayers, was now coming to them with gifts. And this was kind of represented as the clergy came in, and so they would do this in a petitionary way. And one of the great themes of the ordinaries that we're going to see that goes through all of them is that the gift that they wanted was peace. Now, this may seem as a surprise to us, but peace is what the early Christians yearned for more than anything else because they lived in a constant state of war and persecution, and because they recognized in their own lives, spiritually, that there was this you might call apocalyptic war that was going on between God and Satan in which they were the foot soldiers on the front lines of that war. And what they were looking for is what the Jews called Shalom, peace between themselves and God, peace in this world, the peace that passes all understanding. And that is why the Kyrie is first and foremost a liturgical chant that focuses in on this petition for peace. Now, if you look at the one that is in Divine Service II in Lutheran Worship, you'll see that what we have captured there is an approximation of what the early Kyrie looked like. If you remember, it begins by saying, in peace, let us pray to the Lord. And the congregation responds, Lord, have mercy. And then it goes beyond that. For the piece from above and for our salvation, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy. For that peace of the whole world, for the well-being of the Church of God and for the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy. For this holy house, and for all who offer here their worship and praise, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy. And then help, save, comfort, and defend us, gracious Lord. And the people sing the acclamation, amen, which says, yes, let it be so for all of us. Now, you have to picture in the entrance rite of this imperial church that this would be chanted by the pastor as the clergy would enter into the church. He would chant these petitions, and the people would respond, Lord, have mercy. There's that back and forth. Now, when I teach this at our seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I also try to model it. And we have a wonderful way of doing that in our chapel because we began the liturgy in the back of the chapel around the font that�s at the entrance. We have confession and absolution at the font because we want people to see that the invocation comes from the water. In fact, some of our celebrants will dip their fingers in the water and they will say, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And our confession of sins flows out of our baptismal identity, and it starts at the font where we were first forgiven of our sins and where we continue to go and die and rise with Christ in a daily way, as Luther says. Now, what we're going to see is that the confession and absolution is a later addition to the church. It's post-reformation. It really isn't part of the liturgy. It's preparation for the liturgy, and we try to model that by not doing it, in a sense, in the church proper, but at the entrance to the church. When we have prepared ourselves through confession and absolution and are now ready, worthy, clean to now enter into the liturgy of the church. At Kramer Chapel at our Seminary in Fort Wayne, as the dean of the chapel, I follow the cross chanting the Kyrie. So as I enter the church, I am showing how the Kyrie is an entrance rite, and I will chant, in peace let us pray to the Lord. And the community sings, Lord, have mercy. And then I go on chanting it. For the peace from above and for our salvation. And they continue to respond, and I do this as I enter into the church. When I get to the altar rail is where I now intone the Gloria in Excelsis. This is where I sing, glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among men of good favor, or men of goodwill, depending on the translation. It�s there that we then enter into the altar area itself in the Gloria in Excelsis. Now, this is to show, very clearly, how the Kyrie and the Gloria were part of the entrance rite. Let's move now to the Gloria, which is one of the magnificent hymns of the liturgy. The only part that is from the Scripture are the words that I just spoke from Luke 2, verse 14, that are clearly words that acknowledge, now, the incarnation of Jesus. And notice, that the focus there is on glory in the highest and on earth, peace. There is that peace again that was first anticipated in the Kyrie. What is remarkable about Luke's gospel is the fact that he has, when he gets to the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, he has an echo of this Gloria in Excelsis that he tags on to the Benedictus that comes from the Sanctus from Psalm 118. Let me explain what I mean here. Luke frames the incarnation and the death of Jesus that begins, of course, with Jesus' entrance on Palm Sunday, with peace on earth and peace in heaven. The Angels say, at Jesus' birth, which is, of course, the hymn to Jesus' incarnation, glory in the highest to God and on earth, peace among men of his favor. When Jesus enters into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday for his death, this is what Luke records: Blessed the coming one, the king, in the name of the Lord. That's from the Sanctus. And then only Luke adds this: In Heaven, peace and glory in the highest. Now, as you can see from the chart that I have of these two things, he starts with glory in the highest. He ends with glory in the highest. And what he has in the middle there is on earth, peace and in heaven, peace. When Jesus is born, there is peace on earth. When Jesus gives up his life in that week of his death, there is now peace in heaven. Or what we might say is this: Heaven and earth are joined together in peace through the incarnation and the atonement of Jesus. Now, it's hard to know that when this Gloria in Excelsis came into this church, that it was chosen specifically to balance the Sanctus, which is Jesus' entrance to us in the Lord's Supper. But isn't it interesting that, at his incarnation which we're about to hear in his word, and then his entrance into Jerusalem which we see, in a sense, his supper, we have these two hymns that balance these two very important not only times in Jesus' life, but two important theological concepts of incarnation and atonement. But as you know, the Gloria goes on with a liturgical hymn, and it's a great Trinitarian hymn. I'm using, here, the translation from Divine Service II. But notice we begin with the father. Lord God, heavenly King, Almighty God and Father, we worship you. We give you thanks. We praise you for your glory. There's the glory of God again. But the center of the hymn is focused in Jesus. Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, there is the Lamb of God. There you can see the beginning of what we'll hear in the Agnus Dei. And notice, it's about the atonement. You take away the sin of the world. Have mercy upon us. You are seated at the right hand of the Father. You alone are the Holy One. You alone the Lord. You alone are the most high, Jesus Christ. And now here comes the spirit. With the Holy Spirit in the glory--again, the glory that we heard at the beginning of the hymn, now at the end of the hymn--in the glory of God the Father. Amen. Now, this is such a magnificent hymn. But notice, that the center of it is Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It is the atonement that we sing about before we have Jesus come to us in his word. A most remarkable thing happened in the liturgical life of our church in the 1960's and 70's. We decided, as a church body, to do something unprecedented in our history. That is to bring in a new ordinary which we call �Worthy is Christ,� which you may know as "This is a feast." This is now an alternate that we can use at certain times of the church year to replace the Gloria in Excelsis. And it, too, is a great biblical hymn. I've already referred to it when I talked about inaugurated eschatology. It is a hymn that comes from Revelation 5, Revelation 15, and Revelation 19. And it�s a hymn about Christ as the Lamb of God who was slain whose blood has set us free to be people of God. It is a hymn in which we join the hymn of all creation. There you have that hymn of heaven and earth. All of creation is now singing, blessing, honor and glory and might be to God and the Lamb forever. And this is where we have that wonderful statement of inaugurated eschatology that I referred to before. For the Lamb who was slain has begun his reign. Alleluia. No, it is important for us to recognize that the feast of victory is not just referring to the Lord's Supper. It's referring to table fellowship with God, and we have said over and over again, the table fellowship with God is teaching and eating. The feast of victory of our God is the fact that we see that God's word is broken open, and we feast upon that word like the Jews did where God�s word is our food. And then the bread is broken, and we feast upon his body and blood in bread and wine. The feast is both word and sacrament. This is the feast of victory. This is the feast that we sing about, and what a wonderful hymn to sing primarily during the Easter season. It would be wonderful if our congregations could go back to that instruction in the altar book that "This is the Feast" should only be song during Easter and some select feasts like All Saints Day. That would make it the kind of hymn it was intended to be, a hymn that is specially appointed for the magnificent celebration of the resurrection that we do during Easter. And so that all Lent long, we are anticipating the opportunity to sing this glorious hymn on Easter morning, and then to sing it for those fifty days, those Great Fifty Days of Easter Later on, when I talk about the church year, I think you'll see why it's so important to recognize that instruction. Let me move, now, to the Sanctus which I've said much about. The Sanctus, now, is associated with the liturgy of the Lord's Supper, and I've already mentioned its biblical precedents come from Isaiah 6 and Psalm 118. The Isaiah 6 part is this: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. It's interesting that if you go back to Isaiah 6, earth is not mentioned there. It's the church that added earth to show that what is happening in the church is the coming together of heaven and earth, and God's glory filling both of them by the presence of Christ. In a way, the Sanctus balances the Gloria in Excelsis, as I mentioned before, not only because of the Lukan references, but we sing the Sanctus because the king is now coming to us in the Lord's Supper, just as we sang the Kyrie and the Gloria in Excelsis because the king was coming to us in his holy word. It is Psalm 118 that reflects this coming of the king. Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And it's not a coincidence that these words are sung by the people as Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday for his death. Because what do we do, says St. Paul when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we proclaim his death until he comes. We are in Holy Week now. We are traveling to Jerusalem. We are traveling to the altar. That's one of the reasons why churches were built the way they were with this long aisle because we begin in baptism and we travel the road to Jerusalem which we enter into when we come to the altar, to the holy of holies, where we now enter into the very presence of God. Early Christians, when they sang blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord, would make the sign of the cross. Luther encouraged his people to do that as well because here we are acknowledging now that the Lord is coming to us in this most miraculous way. This is a magnificent hymn, perhaps of all the ordinaries, the one that has the most extraordinary history going back to Jesus himself. I always tell my students, be very careful not to omit the Sanctus, because you certainly want to be able to sing a hymn that perhaps even Jesus himself sang. This brings us to our final ordinary, the Agnus Dei, Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. As I said, it comes from John Chapter 1, verse 29, the words of John the Baptist concerning Jesus. But Jesus is called the Lamb of God over 30 times in Revelation. Many of those reflect the language of Jesus as the Lamb of God from the great suffering servant hymn of Isaiah 53. Here, after the sacrament has now been consecrated, and we prepare to receive it in the distribution, which began the distribution rite by acknowledging the reality of what is happening. Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world. Have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world. Have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world. Grant us peace. This is a summary of all the ordinaries. We heard the Lamb of God in the Gloria in Excelsis where we spoke of Jesus as that lamb. The have mercy on us is a reflection of the Kyrie and the Gloria where we ask God to be merciful to us. When we ask God to be merciful in the Kyrie and here in the Lamb of God, this isn't a sign of our repentance, although that certainly is there. This isn't a confession of our sins. It is a sign that God is going to be merciful to us with gifts. And that ultimate gift is the gift of peace. We begin with peace in the Kyrie in the last word of the last ordinary is grant us peace. That's what the pastor says to us after we receive the sacrament. Go in peace. And when we sing the post-communion canticle, we sing the song of peace of Simeon, Lord, now letest thou thy servant depart in peace according to your word. What we have received in this feast of victory, when we have received the gifts of Christ in word and sacrament, is we have received Christ�s peace. And that is why Kyrie, Gloria in Excelsis, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei are acknowledgements by us to God that these guests give us that peace which passes all understanding.