Singing With All the Saints
During the Divine Service you probably hear your pastor say or chant these words: “Therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Your glorious name, evermore praising you and saying . . . ” Have the import of those words sunk in? What follows, the Sanctus, is not just a hymn sung by your congregation, whether large or small. It is not limited to the churches spread across the globe. No, it is far more than that.
Elements of Liturgical Style
Most of us have probably heard of The Elements of Style by Strunk and White — those terse commands like “Omit needless words.” Recently I came across Elements of Rite: A Handbook of Liturgical Style by Aidan Kavanagh that had the same directness toward rite and liturgical style as Strunk and White had to writing.
And he is direct. Rule #11 of Elementary Rules of Liturgical Usage – “Churches are not carpeted.”
Children & Worship
Cantor Phil Magness was on Tuesday’s “Issues, Etc” and had a worthwhile discussion on children and worship. Basic theme: Give children something in worship they can grow into rather than grow out of. It’s a good listen.
Heaven on Earth
After Divine Service today, a friend stopped me in the narthex and mentioned that the service was like “heaven on earth”. And so it was—literally. Not because of some “feeling”, but because of what Christ was actually doing. Where Christ is, there is heaven. Christ coming to us and giving us forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation through the read and preached Word and His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.
What a blessing it is to be in the Divine Service when heaven meets earth. Literally.
The Liturgical Fruit Basket
“The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of with the least surprises . . . Today it is a liturgical fruit basket upset.” — David Scaer from the Advantage of Liturgical Ruts (Logia 6:2 pg 53-54)
At one time a typical American Lutheran church would be using the Lutheran Hymnal or Service Book and Hymnal depending on which acronym of Lutheranism it was affiliated with. The worship service each week was familiar (which to some meant repetitious). The young children learned the liturgy and hymns next to their siblings, from their parents and grandparents. New members to the church or the Lutheran faith learned from being immersed each week in the Divine Service and catechesis.
Sanctus: Singing With All the Saints
At this point in the Divine Service the curtain separating this life from the next is drawn back and we sing with those who have gone before us the glory of Christ’s victory over sin and death. Here, in the Divine Service, as nowhere else on earth, we are together as one, saints above and saints on earth. (Eyer quoted in Wieting, page 202)
The Lutheran Choir
What is the mission and responsibility of the Lutheran choir? Oftentimes we think the role of the choir is to sing choral anthems. Does the choir have some “higher” purpose?
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