Thoughts on the Divine Service
1. The Invocation
Dear friends,
I’ve spent the last couple of years writing about various hymns, and I thought I would take a detour for the next few months and write about the liturgy. There’s always the danger of making use of liturgy week after week and not knowing why we do it, while each part is carefully placed for an important reason.
Every Divine Service (a service of Word and Sacrament) begins with the Invocation, so we might as well start at the beginning.
As careful as we are with how we worship, I find it amusing that we start each Divine Service with an incomplete sentence. There’s no subject, verb or direct object. It’s merely a dependent clause: “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
What, then, is the subject and the verb? Is there a direct object? Why do we begin with the Invocation?
Some pastors solve the problem by adding, “We begin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” That’s not wrong: the service is beginning and it’s good to identify that God is triune, but there’s much more to be said.
It would also be true if we said, “This service is conducted in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” That says more: something that is done in the name of God is done on His authority, and our worship ought to be in keeping with His Word.
I’m told, however, that the best resolution to this incomplete sentence is, “I baptize you.” As in, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
That may sound funny at first since you’re not getting baptized every week, and plenty of Sundays go by without anyone being baptized at Good Shepherd. Think of it this way, though: when a baby is born, the life that it has must be fed and nurtured. Each time parents feed or speak to the child, they’re sustaining and cultivating—continuing—the life that the baby already has. Likewise, God gives us new life in Holy Baptism: we’re born again by water and the Spirit. Each time we hear His Word and receive His Supper, the Lord is sustaining and cultivating the life He has given at the font.
In this sense, every Divine Service is a continuation of the life that is given in Baptism. In Holy Baptism, that life is begun with water and the sentence “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” At each Divine Service for you, there’s no need to begin that life again, and so we don’t begin the sentence again. However, we keep completing the sentence (“…in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”) because the triune God continues to preserve the faith He gave when He put His name on us in Holy Baptism.
As a side note, this also implies that the Divine Service is foremost intended for the baptized people of God. Some mission philosophies argue that the service should be designed for the unchurched visitor, which means that you’re designing the service for people who may never come. However, the Divine Service is the family dinner of the people of God, where the Lord nourishes His people. This doesn’t mean that visitors or unbaptized individuals are excluded: we welcome them to visit and learn of Christ so that they become baptized members of His body, too. It’s like dinner at home: it’s prepared and conducted for members of the household, but guests are welcome, too.
Down to brass tacks, then: why do we begin the service with, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”? Because this is where the Lord feeds His people whom He’s made alive in Holy Baptism. This is where His life-giving work continues. What joy!