Month: April 2026

Adventures in Worship

Recently, I was invited by the national women’s group of the American Association of Lutheran Churches (AALC), known as the Women of Life, to write a Bible study about the Lutheran Liturgy. Is this a shameless promotion of that study? Yes, it is. But because the study won’t be available until 2027, I thought I would give you a taste of the study. Well, not the actual study about the liturgy and its Biblical basis, but rather some short stories I included about what I called, “Adventures in Liturgy.”

These stories recount actual “adventures” I have had in worship services over the years which I thought you might find interesting. They say some things about me, obviously, but more so the power of worship in the life of a believer.

So, without further ado, here are some “Adventures in Worship!”

#1. While growing up, my family attended a Methodist church. It was a good church, but it did not have as full a liturgy as I would come to know in the Lutheran Church. That I would first come to experience during a trip to (West) Germany with my high school’s German classes. We split up and stayed with various families, who enhanced our six-week stays with family events and side trips – and church. I can’t remember the name of the church, but it was an Evangelische Kirche. Not wanting to stand out as ignorant, I learned the Lord’s Prayer from my German Bible, and when it came time in the service, I joined in praying it. I was feeling pretty good about it, until after the service, when my German host asked me why I had prayed the Katholische Version?

#2. The importance of a common Lutheran Liturgy was impressed on me when I went with a dozen or so fellow Americans to Finland to meet with counterparts in various youth service organizations. The final Sunday there we had a free day, so I looked up Lutheran services in Helsinki (duh, the whole country is Lutheran!). My main options were a large architecturally significant church, or a small English-speaking service in a rented room. By that point in the trip, I needed a real worship service and not a tourist attraction, so I joined the worshipers in my native language. The service was being conducted by a Missouri Synod pastor from South Dakota, and the congregation was from all over the world – from six continents and many countries. During the sermon, I could hear someone behind me talking along with the pastor – translating the sermon into Namibian for the mother of that country’s president. But it was obvious that no matter where we were from, we all followed the liturgy – it was an inspiring and unifying experience for Christ’s Church!

#3. I am not a good singer. I first learned that as a teenage camp counselor, when I tried to lead campfire songs. In the middle of an enthusiastic rendition of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” I passed one little girl – about nine years old – who looked at me and tugged at my pants cuff every time I passed her. After about the third time, I bent over and asked what she wanted. She frowned and said, “Mister; you’re singing off key!” Fast forward to high school, when one of the choirs at my church in Wisconsin asked me to sing one verse of a Gospel hymn. I practiced with my mother – an accomplished singer and choir member herself – and even invited a friend from high school to come and hear me. When the time came, I was so bad, the choir director stopped looking at me, and the girls in the front row started giggling. When it was over, the friend told me he wouldn’t have “had the guts” to do what I did, and my mom just said, “Well, at least you tried!”

The final blow was during my training as a Lay Assisting Minister, when my pastor changed his advice from, “Anyone can chant the liturgy,” to, “Rich, maybe it would be better if you just spoke the liturgy,” which is exactly what I have done ever since.

#4. You would think that once I retired, I would no longer have church-related nightmares – you know, of standing in front of a congregation and stumbling through a sermon or losing my place in the liturgy. You would think that, but you would be wrong. Even while writing this study, I had one of those dreams. Usually, my dreams include getting up to preach without having written a sermon, but this latest dream was about my hymnal – an old LBW – being completely in tatters. Pages were out of order, turned upside down, or even missing. As usual in my dreams, the church starts off full of worshipers, but as I fumble, they begin to exit. I leave the sanctuary and search church offices and libraries, looking for an intact hymnal, but to no avail. Finally, I try to wing the liturgy from memory to the half-dozen people still there, and fail badly. I wake up sweating, clutching my LBW tightly to my chest. (Okay that last was an exaggeration.)

#5. The first Sunday I served as a Lay Assisting Minister in my Lutheran Church in Indiana, it was an incredibly moving experience. That Sunday there was both Communion and a Baptism – and I got to participate in both. First came the Baptism, when I held a lit candle and recited the words, “Let your light so shine before others, that they see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). I could barely get through it without choking up; it was so moving. Then came Communion, in which I helped distribute the wine. Fortunately, unlike Luther, I did not spill the wine the first time I served it. Combined with speaking sections of the liturgy, the whole experience was truly an adventure, and helped prepare me for ordained ministry.

#6. Before I went to seminary, I helped with services at a local, rural Lutheran church whose pastor had died. I did everything except consecrate the Lord’s Supper. One Sunday when I was leading worship, I made it through the service – and was giving the Aaronic Blessing (“the Lord bless you and keep you,” etc.). During the blessing, I saw a church member in the back row waving his hand at me. I continued to speak, but noticed that he was holding up a dollar bill. It took me a few seconds to realize the man was the Treasurer, and he was signaling that I had forgotten the offering. I stopped the benediction, and announced it was time for the offering, which we collected and then I resumed the benediction. The congregation and I had a good laugh – but I have never forgotten the offering ever since!

#7. BONUS. The first time I preached at that little rural church, I preached a sermon that I thought was horrendous. I packed everything I knew about our faith into that one sermon, so I was surprised when they asked me to come back and preach a second time. As I sat pondering what I could possibly say that I hadn’t already said in the first terrible sermon, I mentioned to my sister (who was living with us at the time), that I had already said it all, and didn’t know what to add. She then said to me a rebuke that I am sure was inspired, “What gives you the audacity to think you have exhausted the riches of God’s grace in one sermon?!?” She was right; after nine months of preaching there, and 22 years as a pastor, (plus over nine years as a blogger), I still haven’t exhausted the riches of God’s grace in Jesus Christ!

So there you have it – seven of my adventures in worship. Have you had any such experiences? Who knows how God will use worship to teach you, comfort you, and inspire you to serve him!

May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Acts 2:42-47, Hebrews 10:25.

 

What’s So Good About It?

When I was just a young boy, I remember going to Good Friday services at a local church. My dad picked us up, and we attended one of the series of services held between 12 noon and 3pm – the hours Jesus was on the cross (not adjusted for time zone differences). Usually, the sermon-ettes were drawn from one of the final words of Jesus on the cross, such as “Father forgive them. . .” and “Into thy hands I commit my spirit. . .” The other memory I have is that businesses shut down during those three hours (as they did every Sunday) so everybody could attend Good Friday services.

I also remember asking the question, “Why do they call it Good Friday? What’s so good about it?” Pardon the naive questions of a child (and of many adults as well!). It just didn’t seem right to call it “Good” when so many bad things happened to Jesus that day: he was arrested by armed soldiers, dragged to a kangaroo court, lied about, beaten, mocked, flogged, mocked, nailed to a cross, hung up, mocked some more, died, jabbed in the heart by a spear, and buried in a borrowed tomb. If that were applied to my last day, I would hardly say I was having a “good” day!

Maybe we could trade the name of the day after Thanksgiving with it, you know call the greatest shopping day, “Good Friday,” for the good deals stores offer, and call Jesus’ most horrible day, “Black Friday,” for the horror he went through. So again I ask, “What’s so good about it?”

Actually, the name “Good Friday” is absolutely appropriate. Consider the following:

1. Good: All Jesus went through that day was fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, types, and promises concerning the Messiah. The odds that any other man’s death could fulfill them were astronomical.

a. Psalm 22 is a description of Jesus’ crucifixion. In particular, the Psalm’s predictions include:  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, “All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”, “they have pierced my hands and feet”, “they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots”,”my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;” and, “my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.”

b. Zechariah  12:10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”

c. Isaiah 50:6 “I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.”

d. Just one more from among many: Psalm 69:21 (NKJV) prophesied, “They also gave me gall for my food; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Fulfilled: “They gave Him vinegar mingled with gall to drink; but after tasting it, He would not drink” (Matt. 27:34 NKJV).

2. Good. By his death, Jesus redeemed sinful mankind, which was the purpose of his incarnation. Without the crucifixion, Christmas is just a cute story of an ancient family. With it, the entire life of Christ is full of meaning and purpose.

a. “And after sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off but not for Himself” (Daniel 9:26). Caiaphas told the religious leaders, “Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad (John 11:50-52).

b. “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14).

c. Isaiah 53:5-6 says, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray;  we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

d. 1 Peter 2:4 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

e.  Ephesians 1:7 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”

3. Good. Without the Cross, there’s no Resurrection. Jesus showed his victory over death by defeating death and rising from the dead. It was not a symbolic or a potential victory – it was a literal, physical event that forms the basis of our own future resurrections.

a. Romans 6:5 says, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

b. Hebrews 2:14-15 “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”

4. Good. By his death, Christ redeemed all creation from the curse God pronounced in Genesis 3:17 following Adam and Eve’s sin. The curse was not just on people, but affected everything. Maybe this is why Jesus said “even the rocks would cry out” if he silenced his disciples (Luke 19:40).

a. Revelation 22:3 says, “No longer will there be anything accursed.”

b. Romans 8:20-22 “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”

5. Good. By Christ’s death on the cross, God proved his love for us. This was apart from any worth in us, or by any good thing we did to earn his love. It is proof of the nature of God, who is love (1 John 4:8).

a. Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

b. John 15:13. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

6. Good. Finally, Jesus’ death on the Cross was the means to Christ’s exaltation and glorification. By fulfilling God’s plan, Jesus was raised to glory.

a. Philippians 2:8-11. “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

b. Luke 24:26. The post-resurrection Jesus asked the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

c. John 12:23  Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” And, 12:27, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.”

These were six Good reasons to call the day of Christ’s death, “Good Friday.” In fact, the only greater days in all history was Easter, and the day when Christ returns in glory for his Church to bring us into eternal life. On that day, we will celebrate Christ for redeeming the world on the Cross. Revelation 5:12 says that we will proclaim, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” In the meantime, we have the opportunity to mark his victory over sin, death, and the devil on that day we call . . . Good Friday. May you mark that day with the honor it deserves!

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Psalm 22:1-18; Mark 15.