Worship 101 Liturgy of the Eucharist

The second half of most Sunday morning services at St. John in Mars is called the "liturgy of the Eucharist," the work of the people surrounding the celebration and reception of the gift of Holy Communion. This part of the service is a mix of ancient tradition and context-based elements. Join Pastor Katie as she walks through this part of the worship service in what is likely to be the last episode of the Worship 101 series. 

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Scripture quotations from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. © Copyright 2011 COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Hello, and welcome to what I think will be our last episode of our Worship 101 series in the Facets of Faith podcast. We've been talking about all the different things that come into worship here at St. John on a Sunday morning, ranging from the history of the church to the history of Lutheran churches to the stuff in worship to how we plan worship. And then last week, if you recall, we talked about the first half of the service, which we called the liturgy of the word, which, if you recall, liturgy meaning the work of the people, the work of the people surrounding the word of God. So scripture reading, the sermons, things like that. And now today we're going to get into the second half of the service, which in churchy terms we would call the liturgy of the Eucharist. Again, liturgy being the work of the people. Eucharist being a word that means thanksgiving that surrounds the act of communion. And so we're going to talk about that today. Now we left off last week right at the end of the creed and the prayers, and then we said, stay tuned for next week. Because we had them next have an element of the service called the passing of the peace. The passing of the peace is technically part of the liturgy of the word, but it serves in our congregation as a transitional moment into the Eucharist. It comes from a couple different things in Scripture, one of which being Jesus, when he comes to his friends in the upper room after the resurrection, the first thing he says is, peace be with you. And he says, The peace that I have given, I give to you, and then you share with others. And so as we are sharing the peace, we are sharing Christ's peace that's been given to us with those with whom we are worshiping. It also connects to somewhere else in Scripture where it is said that you do not go to the altar to offer your sacrifices and bring your offerings without first reconciling with your neighbor. So in that passage of peace, not only are we sharing the peace of Christ, but we are recognizing that we have neighbors and a community with whom we are approaching the altar, and we are first saying that we are at peace with them and we want to be at peace with them before we come to the altar. So we've had that element in here at St. John, people get up and they cross all over, and it's this big community celebration of peace and community and all that good stuff. And while that is happening, I'm usually up here kind of setting things up a little bit. And so what that looks like is we have a table back there, it's off-screen for you guys, but we have the bread and the wine or the grape juice set up back there, and then I bring it up to the altar. So for the entire first half of the service, the altar is there, and then as we prepare for the liturgy of the Eucharist, we bring the elements of the Eucharist to the altar. And it saves what we call veils, but it's just means it still has its covers on it. And then we collect the offering. Now I know sometimes the offering gets a little bit of a bad rap because it's, you know, passing the plates and things like that. But the offering is meant to be a reminder that we are bringing all of ourselves into worship, that we are offering the gifts that God has first given us back to God, and back into the mission and ministry of God through the church. And so sometimes it looks like monetary offerings. We also collect what we call communion cards or connection cards at that time as we remember that we are offering not just our money, but our own selves in this act. So those elements get brought forward and then they get set aside as we then turn our attention to the altar. We call it an altar here. Some people also call it a table. There's different theological meanings behind the words. It serves the same purpose. It's the place where we celebrate communion. Altar referencing back to the sacrifices of the scriptures and things like that. But so then I come here to this table as we pray over the offering, as we give thanks for what God has given us, as we pray that God uses our gifts to serve our neighbor. And then we come here, and then I go into what's called at large the great Thanksgiving. Now I said at the very beginning that Eucharist means thanksgiving. There's a few names that we use for communion: Eucharist being one, holy communion being another, the Lord's Supper being another. And we start off by doing this little back and forth. The Lord be with you and also with you, lift up your hearts, lift them up to the Lord, things like that. And so that back and forth, even though we say it all the time, we say it all the time because it's ancient, because it actually goes all the way back to the first century writings on worship. And so we are carrying that ancient tradition in that kind of greeting and dialogue, preparing ourselves for the Eucharist. After that, I go into a little paragraph, if you will, where we talk, where I talk about rather, um, kind of reminding us of why we're gathering here today. We're gathering to celebrate that this is not only our right, but our duty and our joy to celebrate this gift that we have in communion. And then we remember that this is a gift that has been celebrated across the ages, and we are joining with the song of the angels of all times in what's called the holy, holy, holy. And the words to that piece of liturgical music is actually from Revelation, the book of Revelation. So we sing that kind of bringing our hearts into the space of worship of the Eucharist. And then, as I always like to tell our first comedian kids, you remember that part where I talked for a really long time at the altar? Um there's, I think on my page it's typically five paragraphs or something like that. And that's what we officially call the Great Thanksgiving, and in that we sometimes change some of the words to talk about maybe themes that are being pulled from across the season of worship in the Bible text. Um, sometimes I use that time to kind of remember that we are gathering not only with the people here today, but with the whole church at this table. Um, we remember also then the words of institution. Now, the words of institution is again a fancy church word. The fancy church term for uh in the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, gave it to his disciples. Dot dot dot. Those two paragraphs where we lift up the bread, this might pretend bread, we lift up the bread and we show it to the people, and then when we say again after supper, he took the cup, we take the cup, we lift it up in front of the people. Um, those words of institution are mostly taken out of scripture. They're adjusted a little bit to fit, you know, to the particular setting, but those words are directed from scripture, so those words stay the same. And those are the words that in the Lutheran tradition are reserved for an ordained minister of what we call word and sacrament, word and baptism and communion, for them to say as we consecrate the elements. And in that moment we recognize that this is not just bread and wine, but this is the real presence of Jesus, the body and blood of Jesus here among us as a gift of grace and also as an invitation to communion, to community with God and with Jesus. And then one of my favorite things to do is to ask our first communion kids or our second graders, um, why do we believe that this bread and this wine are truly the body and blood of Jesus? Or do we believe that? And they always look at me a little bit confused, um, partially because they don't know the answer, but they feel like they should. And so I say, Do you know why we believe that? And they're like, No. And I basically just say, because Jesus said so. And then we end it at that. Because when Jesus in the scriptures gathers at the Last Supper with his friends, he takes the bread and he says, This bread is my body given for you. He doesn't explain how that happens, he doesn't explain the metaphysics of that or the chemistry of that or anything like that. He just says, This is my body broken for you. And so we say, Okay. And then he does the same thing with the cup. He says, This cup is my blood shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin. He doesn't explain it more than that. And so we as Lutherans just say, Well, Jesus, okay. And so we say, the bread is Jesus' real body, the wine and or the grape juice is Jesus' real blood, they don't stop being bread and wine, they are simultaneously all the things. And we say that because Jesus told us so, and we believe it, and it's not ours to understand, it's ours to accept as a gift. So once we have consecrated the elements, once we have recognized Jesus' real presence in these elements with us and for us, then we all gather together and we say the Lord's Prayer. We say this Lord's Prayer is a unifying prayer across so many denominations. Yes, the words do change sometimes just a little bit. There are some translation choices, or some traditions ended a little earlier than other traditions, but the gist of it is always the same. We say that prayer, partially because, again, Jesus told us to, but also because in that prayer we remember that God has given us our daily bread, and here is daily bread. We remember that we are praying for God's will here on earth as it is in heaven, and as we come forth, we are being strengthened by these gifts of bread and wine, body and blood to do God's will as we've been called to do and live it in the world. And we also pray for forgiveness and all those things. All those things that kind of help bring us into the space of communing with God in this very real, very earthy, very physical way through the bread and the wine, the body and the blood. After we say the Lord's Prayer, then we once again break out into song as we sing what we call the Lamb of God. This is another song rooted in Scripture, but it helps us then remember that these gifts are not just bread and wine, but the body and blood of Jesus, and that Jesus gave himself for us and offers forgiveness in all of that. So then people come forward. There's so many ways that people distribute communion. Um it's always helpful when churches have blurb and their bulletin explaining how this particular congregation does it, because so many times it's different. Here at this congregation, people come forward to receive the elements, they bring themselves into the space of the altar, they're given a piece of bread, a piece of the body of Christ, and then they receive that, and then they're offered wine or grape juice, and then they return, we've got the little cups, they return the empty little cups, and then they go after the seed. Some people have a full table setting where there's a row of people, some people have elements brought back to people, um some people do in tension where you get the bread into the wine. There's a whole bunch of different ways, but the point is that in this time we receive the bread and the wine, the body and blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin. Recognizing that God's grace is here among us in these elements. So then, really, after that, that's kind of the highlight of that second half of the service, and everything after that starts to celebrate what just happened. So people go back to their seats, we say a prayer after communion, basically thanking God for what God has given us in these elements. I pray that these elements might strengthen people and keep them in God's grace until we meet again and celebrate this meal again. And then we go, we offer a blessing to the people, the blessing or the benediction is the good word that sends people out. Those words change seasonally here, mostly because that way we can keep it fresh in the ears, but also highlight different themes that are coming across the seasons. So we bless people, we have that benediction, that good word. We sing a sending song, as you heard in kind of that worship-overarching service, or podcast, sorry, that sending song. We try to have more upbeat because we are celebrating everything that God has done for us even through this worship and the way that God carries us out into the world, and that sending song kind of then emboldens, enlivens, and energizes us for the work ahead as we go out into the week. And at the end of that song, I just simply basically say something to the effect of go in peace to love and serve the Lord. Everyone responds, Thanks be to God, pray the post-lude, and people head up into the rest of their week. That sending also changes sometimes, depending on how we want to emphasize things, as kind of like a last bow tie on the service, a last reminder of remember these themes that we celebrated this season or in this worship service, just to kind of hopefully help people remember as they go out into the week what the service can take with them to that week. So that's pretty much the basics of the liturgy of the Eucharist. Um, it all centers around this table or this altar, it all centers around the bread and the wine or the body and blood, and that's what we got. So, in the Lutheran tradition, like I said, we believe that Christ is truly present in the bread and wine. Don't ask us how. Jesus said so, and we just take Jesus' word for it. At this particular congregation in the ELCA, we practice what's considered an open table. All baptized believers are welcome to come and receive the real presence of Jesus Christ. And so what that means is if you come forward and you put your hands out asking for a bit of Jesus at communion, I'm going to simply take a piece of bread and hand you and say, This is the body of Christ given for you. And Luther always said that that for you was the most important part of that moment. Because we remember that these gifts are not just gifts in general, but gifts that are given to us as individuals, welcoming us, feeding us, forgiving us, bringing God's grace into that space, into our hearts, quite literally, into our stomachs. So we have that here. I know not every tradition celebrates that way, but that's the way we do it. And yeah, that's what I've got on the Eucharist. I mentioned at the very beginning of this that I think this is the last episode of this worship 101, mostly because I think we've covered all the basics. That being said, I have to be honest, I don't necessarily remember absolutely every word I've said across all these episodes. So if I said something and if you have questions, feel free to reach out to us. I know in the podcast descriptions, um, on our audio versions, there's a way to send a message to us. You can also find us at st.johnchurchmars.org and connect with us that way. I'd love to hear if you have more questions or if you have other ways that we can help kind of demystify what happens here on Sunday mornings. Next up in our Facets of Faith podcast, before we get back to the lectionary, is we're going to continue our 101 theme. And we're going to take the 101 idea to the Bible. Because the Bible is this massive book. There are 66 books within this one book, and we're going to kind of break it down into genres, the themes across it, the overarching story of it. So if you have questions about the Bible, stay tuned for our next series. Or better yet, send us your questions. Until next time.