AP

The Lord’s Service[1]

By Elijah Harris

Introduction

Recently, David Burke resumed his series of articles on the PCA ministerial vows, writing on the third and fourth of these regarding Presbyterian worship and government. In this latest article David rightly stressed the Reformed distinctive of the Regulative Principle which governs the elements but permits liberty in the accidents or circumstances of worship.

Over the last century, there has been a gradual departure from historic Protestant thought and practice regarding worship. Protestant Evangelicalism has drifted from her core theological principles and has absorbed alien practices, mainly influenced by the charismatic movement and by the pragmatic philosophies of our age. What went without saying in previous ages has become foreign to us. In this article, I wish to supplement the things David has written on Reformed worship, exploring principles which historically have been essential and distinctive to Christian worship.

1. The Service of God (Servitium Dei)

Since the days of Enosh, when men began to call upon the name of Yahweh, and especially since Moses when God redeemed and made covenant with that ancient church, God’s people have gathered together on the holy day for corporate worship. So also under the New Testament, the church gathered on the Lord’s Day for what was classically called the “Divine service”. Why do we gather together in this service? Is it to render something to God or to receive something from God? Is the Lord’s Service our service to him or his service to us?

The answer is, yes. We join together in corporate worship both to receive from God and to render unto him. The whole of the Christian life, from beginning to end, is dependent upon God grace. Why should worship be any different? As one Lutheran scholar wrote: “Faith will never reach that degree of maturity where it could live without receiving. A grateful reception of God’s gracious gifts will always remain the task of Christian worship, for it is impossible to evolve a church service out of the spiritual assets of the believers.”[2] For true worship to take place we depend upon his command to beckon, sanction, and guide us, his imparted grace to purify and sanctify us, his special presence to dwell among us, and his blessing to go forth hence.

Yet we also gather to render service to God. Although God is completely sufficient within himself, and has myriads of angels ready to execute his judgements, he is pleased to receive the lisping praises and feeble sacrifices of his redeemed people. As Paul writes, “Therefore I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Romans 12:1). The sacrifices of the Old Testament (purification, ascension, tribute, and peace offerings) foreshadow and prefigure the sacrifice of ourselves and those things which we hope to receive in Christ our high priest. These things Christ obtained for us in his offering himself as the perfect sacrifice upon the cross. Yet the families come to render themselves as living sacrifices to God and to receive his grace. This is why, historically, although the service is led by the minister, the people participate in several call and response prayers and readings, not merely in the psalms and hymns. This is why the laity’s partaking in only the bread and not the wine was such an aberration to the Reformers. In the divine service, the people come to offer themselves to God in worship and to receive his grace in Christ.

2. The Law of Prayer is the Law of Faith (Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi)

This old Latin principle translates to “the law of prayer is the law of faith”. The law of prayer refers to what we do in the liturgy of corporate worship. This saying teaches that our corporate liturgy is or becomes what we believe.

The phrase comes from a comment made by Prosper of Aquitaine, a disciple of Augustine of Hippo. He, in arguing against the Pelagians, defended the antiquity of Augustine’s doctrine of original sin by appealing to the content of the traditional baptismal liturgies. Thus, he said that Augustine’s doctrinal formulations were the fruit of the church’s historical habit of prayer. So Prosper urged, “let the law of prayer establish the law of belief”.

Therefore, it is important not only to consider the elements of worship (Bible reading, singing of psalms and hymns, prayer, preaching, collection of offerings, and the sacraments) but also to give careful thought to the circumstances (order, posture, demeanour, ritual prayers, architecture and design, etc.).

All things speak. The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps. 19:1). Creation echoes back the word by which it was formed (Gen. 1). God showed great concern for the design of the tabernacle and its instruments that they might foreshadow and teach the people of what was to be fulfilled (Ex. 26–30, Heb. 9:1–10). The things we repeatedly do, and the manner and circumstances in which we habitually do them, are powerful to form our beliefs, affections, and will. We may remember this more than we do any sermon.

What then shall we say? We ought to say back what God has said and shown to us in order that we might think God’s thoughts after him. We have patterns of worship presented to us throughout Scripture. Historically, Christian worship has been patterned on the temple worship of the church of the Old Testament and the heavenly worship unveiled to John in Revelation. This is what the early Jewish Christians knew, and it was what God had revealed. G. K. Beale writes in his commentary on Revelation: “John intended the readers to see what is told of in the vision [Rev. 4–5] as a heavenly pattern that the Church is to reflect in its worship rather than the other way around (just as the heavenly pattern of the tabernacle shown to Moses on the mountain was to be copied by Israel in the construction of their own tabernacle).”[3]

Jeffrey Meyers argues for such a liturgy, ordered according to five stages of call, confession, consecration, communion, and commission. These stages are five divine acts of service God renders to us which are reflected throughout Scripture and prefigured in the elements of the Old Covenant sacrifices. He defines liturgy as “the orderly, biblical way in which the congregation is drawn into God’s majestic, life-giving presence.”[4] Through this form of service, the congregation is called by God, by way of sacrifice, to renew his covenant with them and to respond appropriately by gratefully rendering up the worship and praise that is pleasing to him. I have included a distilled copy of an example service outline Meyers offers as a model in his book at the end of the article.

3. In the presence of God and in the Trinity (Coram Deo et in Trinitate)

Finally, Christian worship is worship of the Triune God. Many Christians struggle to articulate the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. They see it as an abstract doctrine beyond the reach of ordinary people. Dorothy Sayers expressed the sentiment of many church-goers as a parody of the Athanasian Creed, “The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the whole thing incomprehensible. Something put in by theologians to make it more difficult—nothing to do with daily life or ethics.”[5] The Trinity is rightly a mystery beyond the comprehension of man. However, the Trinity is not primarily a doctrine to be learnt, the Trinity is the Covenant God we worship. Therefore, all true Christian worship is Trinitarian.

Is this manifested in our corporate worship services? If the doctrine of the Trinity were outlawed this week, how would it affect our services? Would an outsider attending our worship service leave with the impression of the Trinitarian nature of God?

When we come together to worship in the Divine service, we assemble Coram Deo (“in the presence of” or “before the face of God”) and in Trinitate (‘in’ both instrumentally [“by means of”] as well as spatially ‘in’ the Trinity [c.f. Col. 3:1–3]). This ought to be reflected in our worship. Do we praise Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by name in our hymns? Do we pray to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit? Do we together confess our belief and trust in the Father, Son, and Spirit in the words of the creeds? Trinitarian phrases must permeate Christian worship. We do not worship a generic God, but the true and living God revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

In many areas the contemporary Protestant and Evangelical Church is in dire need of reformation. Our Lord’s Day services have long rightly emphasised the preaching of the word, though many have drifted into erroneous innovations. Yet the Divine Service is much more than the instruction of the God’s people or evangelisation of the lost, it is an eschatological intrusion wherein the Triune God meets with his people to renew his covenant with them. Let us “enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise” (Ps. 100:4).

Meyers’ Example Service Outline[6]

Call

• Call to worship from Scripture
• Hymn
• Prayer of praise
• Preface (“The Lord be with you! And also with you!” [Ruth 2:4])

Confession

The Sin Offering: For purification and forgiveness (Lev. 4, 16; c.f. Ps. 51:17, Is. 57:15, Mk 1:15)

• Confession of sin: the congregation are called and together prayer with time for silent personal confession
• Assurance of pardon: the minister proclaims hope, declaring forgiveness by Christ’s authority on the basis of his word.

Consecration

The Ascension (or ‘Burnt’) Offering: the sacrifice is cut and arranged upon the altar before ascending into God’s presence – corresponding to sanctification by his word and spirit (Lev. 1, 6, 16; c.f. Zech. 3, Rom. 12:2, Heb. 4:12).[7]

• Sursum Corda (“lift up your hearts; we lift them up to the Lord…”)
• Hymn
• OT Reading
• Epistle Reading
• Psalm (responsively recited)
• Gospel Reading
• Nicene Creed (corporately recited)
• Sermon

The Tribute Offering: gifts of gratitude, the sanctified response to God’s grace, offered with the ascension offering (Lev. 2:1–3; 22:29; 27:30–32, Num. 15; c.f. 2 Chr. 31:5–6, Mal. 3:10, Matt. 23:23, 2 Cor. 8:2–4)

• Hymn
• Collection of Offerings
• Prayer of dedication
• Prayers for the church, missionaries, authorities (corporate)
• Lord’s Prayer
• Gloria Patri (“Glory be…”

Communion

The Peace/Fellowship Offering: the climax of the service in the fellowship meal wherein we partake in Christ and one another (Lev. 3, Num. 7; c.f. Ex. 24:9–10, 2 Sam. 6:17–18, 1 Cor. 11:17–34, Rev. 19:7–9)

• The Lord’s Supper: Prayer of thanksgiving, words of institution, distribution of and communion in the bread, communion hymn, then the cup.
• Nunc Dimittis (Song of Simeon: Luke 2:30–32)
• Prayer of thanksgiving

Commission

• Hymn
• Benediction (c.f. Num. 6:22–27, 1 Chr. 16:2)
• Doxology (e.g. ‘Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow’ or Psalm 72:18–19)
• Postlude
• Greet one another

[1] The ideas and quotations presented in this article are a distillation of Jeffrey J. Meyers, The Lord’s Service: The Grace of Covenant Renewal Worship (Canon Press, 2003).

[2] Vilmos Vajta, Luther on Worship (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1958), 129

[3]G.K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids/Cambridge: Eerdmans/Paternoster Press, 1999), 312.

[4] Meyers, The Lord’s Service, p. 154

[5] Dorothy Sayers, “The Dogma is the Drama,” in The Whimsical Christian: 18 Essays by Dorothy L. Sayers (New York: Collier Books, 1987), p. 25.

[6] Ibid., pp. 154–161. A similar liturgy is practiced by Church of the Redeemer whose exceptionally beautiful service recordings can be viewed on their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ChurchoftheRedeemerTwinCities/videos