More on Theology

Whether you are well acquainted with Lutheran worship or not, we would be delighted to welcome you to our services.  Come as often as you like and ask any  questions you may have.  We welcome the curious as much as the committed! 

If you find we’re a community you’d like to join, we will be glad to connect you to a class for prospective members.  People of all backgrounds and traditions are welcome to visit, to participate, and, if they desire, to join.

Worship is at the heart of any Christian community.  Very soon after the resurrection, the early Christians began to develop a pattern of worship that has served well ever since. 

Our main worship is on Sunday mornings because Sunday is the day of the resurrection of Christ.   Many Christian communities offer worship at other times, too.  Some include Communion, but many are services of prayer and praise.  You can click on our calendar  (add link) to find our worship schedule for any given month.  You are very welcome to attend, even if you are not familiar with the service.  Many of us at Emanuel were not brought up Lutherans, so we will not assume that everyone simply knows the flow of the worship.  If you already receive Communion in another Christian tradition, we welcome you to receive it here.  If not, we would be very happy to share how we do it and what it means to us, so that, if you so desire, you can join us when it is offered.

Regular components of weekly worship include:

• A Greeting that focuses the entire worship event on God’s presence
• Prayers, both formal and spontaneous
• Readings from Scripture
• Hymns and/or other spiritual music
• A Sermon or homily reflecting on the life of faith
• An offering to support the ministry of the church
• The sharing of some sign of peace, which heals any rifts among the believers;
• A shared meal, which has become what we call Communion
• A benediction and/or dismissal sending the faithful out to serve the world
  
  

Many of these features were part of synagogue worship at the time of Jesus, and most of the first followers of Jesus were Jews who had grown up in the synagogue.   When the Communion Meal and reflections on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus were added to the Synagogue service, our present worship pattern emerged.

Lutherans maintain the ancient, time-tested pattern described above.  This pattern is called the Liturgy. It allows us to be connected to Christians of all times and places.  We hear again all the saving works of God, and speak our own response of faith.  We pray for the world’s needs and sing our praises.  We gather at the table to receive bread and wine.  This meal was instituted by Jesus at his last supper with his disciples before his death.  At that supper, when he broke the bread he said: “This is my body.”  When he passed the cup of wine he said: “This is my blood.”  He encouraged us to continue to share this meal as one way of participating in his redemptive sacrifice.

This can sound a bit heavy and somber.  We surely do take the act of worship seriously, as we do the whole action of God to transform the world through the love of Jesus Christ. But in practice, Lutheran worship is experienced as a celebration.  It is a festive expression of our joy that we have a God who, in the person of Jesus Christ, seeks us out to give us life, to free us from any captivity, to restore hope, and to build us into a community of grace and peace.  Here at Emanuel, our music is one of our most potent expressions of this mood of celebration.  We really enjoy our worship time together, and we believe that the experience of joy is itself a holy gift.

Lutherans believe that Christ is truly present to us “in, with, and under” the elements of bread and wine, and that they convey forgiveness to those who need God’s mercy.

We also believe that the Gospel – the promise of God to forgive sin and grant new life – has real power to change lives.  Every worship service in a Lutheran congregation will express the Gospel in some fashion.  On Sunday mornings the liturgy, with its combination of Scripture readings, sermon, and the sacrament of Communion, and other components refreshes the people with the gracious blessing of God.

But worship is not only for ourselves.  By regular worship, we are equipped to love and serve our neighbors in the name and by the authority of Christ.  We become his ambassadors and his servants for the world’s sake.

Lutherans have always encouraged serious study of Scripture, theology, liturgy, and Church history.  The leadership of worship in Lutheran congregations usually includes several members of the congregation as readers, Communion Assistants, and others.  Almost always there is a Presiding Minister who is has been educated at a Seminary and who has been ordained to serve a local congregation.  We refer to this person as the Pastor.  In our denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, both men and women are ordained.   Still, the presence of a trained Pastor does not imply that the worship service is a solo ritual that is observed by passive onlookers.  In Lutheran congregations the whole gathered body participates in the words and actions of worship.  It is an experience of unity.  The whole people of God regularly receives the whole Gospel and are prepared to serve the whole world.