What Do Lutherans Believe?

We believe that we have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, and that sin deserves nothing but present and eternal punishment. [i] God was unwilling to let condemnation be His final Word. Instead, “God demonstrated His love for us in this that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us”; therefore, as Paul says, “There is no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ.” [ii] The salvation we could never earn nor deserve God bestows freely as a gift. This is the cardinal teaching of the Lutheran Church – that we are justified (declared righteous or forgiven) by grace through faith for Christ’s sake apart from our works. Only this doctrine gives all glory to God. We have no boasting, salvation is God’s gift, completely His work in and for us. [iii] Only this doctrine gives assurance and comfort to sinners that Jesus alone has rendered the atoning sacrifice for sin. [iv]

We believe that our Triune God gathers a people for Himself around His precious and holy gifts. In Baptism, we confess that God bestows His Holy Spirit and brings us into His mystical body which is the Church. “You have been baptized by one Spirit into one body and given one Spirit to drink.” [v] As members of Christ Himself and integral parts of Christ’s body, the Church, we believe that our Gracious God continues to embody us into Himself, strengthening, forgiving, renewing, enlivening, and empowering His children. This forgiveness and strength God bestows where He has mercifully chosen to “locate” Himself. In the preaching of the Gospel, my sins are spoken away as the Holy Spirit gives me the new birth of faith. [vi] God’s Word creates and strengthens faith, because God’s Word is just that, not the opinion of man, but the Word of the Living God. [vii] The Holy Scriptures are faithful and true, and in they alone are the source and authority for all we teach and confess. All faithful preaching of that Word will drive us to confess our sinfulness and unworthiness and teach us to rejoice in the perfect, saving work of Jesus.

We believe that God forgives, renews, and strengthens us as our loving Savior comes to us again and again in the precious gift of the Lord’s Supper. Here we receive, not empty bread and wine, but as Jesus said, “This is my body…This is the New Testament in my blood for the forgiveness of sins.” [viii] Christ’s true body and blood is the heavenly food which nourishes us for the Christian walk of faith. This is the Manna from Heaven that leads us through the wilderness of this world.

We believe that God calls us to lives of holiness and service, that God has placed each of us in our position in life (vocation or calling) so that we may serve Him declaring “the praises of Him who called us out of the darkness into His marvelous light.” [ix] This is the calling of all who are in Jesus. Good works do not make us “right” with God. They are an expression of thanks in the lives of the redeemed. Even these good works (like the gift of faith itself) are not our doing, but the work of the God who “works in us both to will and to do.” [x] Furthermore, even these good works of believers are “good” in God’s eyes, because they flow from faith. [xi] Lutherans rejoice to confess with Paul: “Christ Jesus has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’” [xii]

About the Worship Service

The Lutheran Church is a liturgical and Sacramental church. We treasure the precious gift that each generation has handed down in the Divine Liturgy of the Church. While we treasure and value our guests, we recognize that if you come from a non-liturgical church our Divine Service may seem quite unfamiliar. We begin with the recognition that what God is doing in and for us in the Divine Service is always most important. He is feeding and strengthening. Having received the gifts only then are we able to offer up our prayers and thanksgiving and treasures. God must have His way with us – building us into His living body – then and only then are we empowered to respond with our praise.

Lutheran worship is centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ, as we see in Jesus the perfect expression of the Holy Trinity’s will for humankind. The liturgy and hymnody expounds our gracious God’s saving work in the Father’s sending of the Son and the Holy Spirit’s work of applying those gifts to us through the Word and Sacraments. The Lutheran Church is an Incarnational Church, in that just as God became man to save us, so God continues to work out His redemptive plan as He dwells in the midst of His people.

The vestments worn by the pastor and paraments adorning the altar are part of the ancient tradition of the Church. Their color reflects the season of the Church year. The Church year itself bears witness to the Triune God. During the Christmas season (Advent-Epiphany), we celebrate the Father sending His Son by the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish our salvation. During Easter (Lent-Easter), we celebrate the work of the Son who by the power of the Spirit was obedient to the Father’s will even to death on the cross. During Pentecost, we celebrate the work of the Spirit who goes forth from the Father and the Son to create faith and build His Church.

The pastor’s vestments intend to draw our focus from the person but to the Office of the Ministry through which God speaks His word and bestows His gifts. The Office has been given, not to glorify the pastor, but to focus us on what God bestows in His Word and Sacraments (Baptism, Holy Absolution, Holy Communion).

Invocation

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

With these words we remember that these are the words by which God incorporated us into Himself in Baptism. We are one family with God and one another, because we all bear the Triune Name. The sign of the cross reminds us of this identity, which is not of our own making, but from God. We also ask God to bless us as He re-constitutes His family around His gifts.

Confession and Absolution

No one comes to God as an equal. We come before God confessing our unworthiness, as God speaks our sins away through His Word. We believe that in the Divine Service we come into the presence of the God who bestows His blessings. No one comes before God on their own terms, but as “poor, miserable sinners.” [xiii]

Introit

The traditional beginning of the Divine Service. It is usually composed of selections from the prayer book of the Old Testament – Psalms. Thus, we confess the continuity of the faith from Abraham who was saved by faith in Jesus (Gen.15:6) through our own day. Lutheran worship is not new or innovative but confesses the treasures of God’s Church throughout all times.

Kyrie Eleison - Lord Have Mercy

The Kyrie expresses our humility and appreciation of our weakness and need, and the character of our God who not only commands us to pray but promises to hear us. [xiv]

Hymn of Praise

The hymn of praise reminds us that our worship is shared not just here on earth, but with the eternal worship of God by the saints and angels in heaven. The Gloria in Excelsis is the announcement anthem of the angels at the birth of Jesus. Singing it in our liturgy, we confess that Jesus is coming to us in the proclamation of His Word and in the Lord’s Supper. It is used on Sundays except during the Easter season and festivals celebrating the resurrection. It’s found in Luke 2:14.

“This is the Feast” is taken from the worship before the throne in heaven found in the book of Revelation. As we sing this song, we celebrate eternal life in heaven, recognizing that here on earth we join our voices with the heavenly worship before God. [xv]

The Salutation and the Collect

The Salutation is a Scriptural greeting from the book of Ruth, whereby pastor and people exchange a prayer for the Lord’s blessing upon each other. The Collect is an ancient prayer that “collects” the petitions of the congregation and summarizes the focus for the day’s worship.

The Readings:  Old Testament, Epistle, Gospel

In the Word, God gives us life, spiritual life by the power of the Holy Spirit. His Word forms us and shapes us as a community guided in a dark world by the Light of God’s Word. [xvi] The Alleluia verse is from John 6:68 where Peter confesses that God’s Words are life and salvation.

Sermon

We believe that Scriptural preaching is Law and Gospel preaching. The Law must show us our sin and drive us away from dependence on ourselves. The Law shows us God’s Holy will and how we have utterly failed to keep it. No one is saved through the Law, rather through the Law we become conscious of sin. [xvii]

After we have been driven to our knees through the Law, the Gospel raises us up and gives us the promise of God’s saving love in Jesus. The Gospel is the only way of salvation, because the Gospel unfolds for us what God has done to change our sinful situation. The Gospel alone bestows forgiveness. Only the Gospel can give proper motivation for lives of faith.

Creed

The Lutheran Church shares the confessional faith of God’s Church of all times. We confess the same saving God. We are Catholic in the sense that we confess what the Church has always confessed. Luther did not wish to start his own church but to restore the foundation of the Church as that of Jesus Christ. We are Evangelical in the sense that we proclaim the saving Gospel of Jesus.

Prayers and Offerings

Having received God’s gifts in the Word, we return to God a portion for the work of His Kingdom. We offer prayers for the work of the Church, for ministers of the Gospel, the government and all authorities, for the spread of the Gospel, for the sick and bereaved.

Offertory

The Offertory signals a shift from the Service of the Word to the Service of the Sacrament. As we prepare to receive Christ’s body and blood, we receive a “foretaste of the feast to come” as we know that even now God gathers departed believers for the Wedding Feast of the Lamb in heaven. This side of heaven we participate in the eternal worship of God, as Jesus gives what only He can give – His true body and blood – “the cup of salvation.”

Preface and Proper Preface

Here we remember God’s great redemptive work, as it informs the particular season of the church year. By remembering the Church Year we remember the many facets to God’s redemptive work. Here we also confess that this worship of the Church in humility and lowliness here on earth is the very same as that in heaven. We join voice with “angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven.” How do we know this anthem is being sung in heaven? Isaiah 6 tells us this is the song of the angels. “Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord” is the Palm Sunday song as Jesus triumphantly entered into Jerusalem. In the Church’s Liturgy, the whole drama of Holy Week is played out. Under bread and wine, Jesus again is truly coming to us.

The Sacrament of the Altar

The Lord’s Supper is not about what we do to save ourselves. The Lord’s Supper belongs to the Lord. Jesus is doing and giving Himself, as only He can do. Under bread and wine we receive, not empty promises, but Jesus’ very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins – and where there is forgiveness of sins there is also life and salvation. The Lord’s Supper is not our sacrifice or our work. God in His mercy condescends to strengthen and cleanse poor sinners. Here we find the perfect expression of God’s love and the heart of the Christian Gospel as what Jesus did for the world at Calvary becomes what He gives to me in the Sacrament.

Because this gift is so precious and we desire everyone to receive its blessings, we ask those who are visitors who do not share the confession and are not members of a congregation of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod to forego receiving the Sacrament until we have had time to instruct in this most holy and precious gift. In confessing the same thing about the Savior’s Sacrament we are most truly of one mind with one another, as we are being knit into the family of Christ.

Benediction

This ancient dismissal formula from Numbers 6 was given by God to Aaron for the dismissal of the assembly. It’s tripartite formula reminds us again of the Holy Trinity in whom we have been redeemed and sanctified by God’s gracious work. In Christ, God looks upon us with favor for we bear the Triune Name. May this gracious God bless you and keep you always!

If you are looking for a church home that is truly Catholic in the sense of confessing what the Church of all times has confessed on the basis of God’s Word... Sacramental in that we rejoice in the God who still works in us in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper... Incarnational in that we confess the Christ who still lives and acts to redeem His family... Liturgical in that we rejoice in the holy heritage of those confessors who have gone before us, and... Evangelical in that we believe salvation is God’s free gift to us through Christ our Lord, contact us or stop by for a visit.

We hope you can join us soon and pray that you may joyfully confess for eternity God’s all-sufficient sacrifice for your soul’s salvation.

Scriptural References

[1] Rom.3:23; 6:23 [ii] Rom.5:8; 8:1 [iii] Eph.2:8-9; Rom.3:27-28 [iv] Rom.4:16; Heb.11:1; Isa.1:17-18; Ps.32:1 [v] 1 Cor.12:13; Gal.3:27; Acts 2:38; Mk.16:16; Eph.5:26; John 3:5; Rom.6:3-7 [vi] Rom.1:16; 1 Peter 1:23. [vii] Rom.10:17 [viii] Matt.26:26ff; Mark 14:22ff; Luke 22:17ff; John 6:52ff; 1 Cor.10:16ff; 1 Cor.11:23ff [ix] 1 Peter 2:9 [x] Phil.2:13; Phil.1:6; Gal.2:20; 1 Cor.12:3 [xi] Heb.11:6 [xii] 1 Cor.1:30 [xiii] 1 John 1:8-9; Isaiah 6 [xiv] 1 Peter 5:7; Matt.11:28; Heb.4:16; Matt.9:27; 15:22. [xv] Rev.5:9-13; 7:10-12; 19:1ff. [xvi] Psalm 119:105 [xvii] Gal.2:15-21, 3:24-25; Rom.3:20.