# Does the Bible advocate liturgy?



## Anton Bruckner (Jul 26, 2007)

I need some sermons on this. More precisely, how should corporate worship be structured?

Thanks in advance.


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## Coram Deo (Jul 26, 2007)

Yes, here is a article on Reformed Liturgy.. 

Genius of Reformed Liturgy


When the Swiss Reformers rebelled against the liturgical traditions of the Roman Catholic Church, they did so in terms of a coherent, controlling idea, a new vision. They had what we now recognize as a distinctively “Reformed” view of what we should do in liturgy and how we should understand it.
Under the leadership of John Calvin and others, these Reformers put their vision into practice and in doing so brought about the most radical liturgical reform that the Christian church has ever known. Note the word reform. The Reformers saw themselves not as beginning over but as returning to the liturgy of the early church.

The Beginnings of Christian Worship
We get a glimpse of what that early liturgy was like in the writings of Justin Martyr. “On the day named after the sun,” says Justin, “all who live in city or countryside assemble.” He then draws the following picture of a Christian liturgy in Rome around A.D. 150:
The service opened with someone reading the writings of the apostles and prophets “for as long as time permitted.” When the reading was finished, the ‘presider’ addressed the people in a sermon, exhorting them “to imitate the splendid things” they had heard.
Following this “service of the Word,” the people offered intercessory prayers, as Justin says, “for ourselves, for him who has just been enlightened [just baptized], and for all men everywhere.” In Rome, as throughout the early church, the people stood during prayers with hands raised, and responded with “Amen.”
After the prayers the people greeted each other with a kiss. Then they celebrated the Eucharist, or Lord’s Supper. Along with other offerings, the people brought bread and a cup of wine mixed with water to the presider. The presider took the gifts and offered prayer “glorifying the Father of the universe through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” uttering “a lengthy thanksgiving [Eucharist] because the Father has judged us worthy of these gifts.” After the people had assented with an “Amen,” the deacons distributed the gifts.
An important thing to note in this liturgy is that it had two main parts—the service of the Word and the service of the Lord’s Supper—and that the intercessory prayers formed a bridge between the two. The church (except for certain sects) followed this liturgical structure in all times and at all places until 1525.
Equally important in the liturgy described by Justin is the absence of division between clergy and people. The extent to which Justin refers to the people as the subject or object of the actions is striking: we pray, we eat, we greet one another, we say “Amen,” the presider exhorts us. The liturgy belonged to the people.
How did these early Christians view the Lord’s Supper? As the Greek word itself suggests (eucharisteo = give thanks), the overarching context was one of thanksgiving to God for creation and redemption. But the eucharist was more than thanksgiving. It was also an act of fellowship, an offering (in fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy of the pure offering of the Gentiles—Mai. 1:10-12), and a memorial, a remembrance of Christ’s passion.
Giving thanks, fellowshipping, presenting an offering, and doing in memorial— all these are elements of devotion we address to God. But Justin also saw the eucharist as God's gracious act toward us. We are nourished and transformed by the eating and drinking, for “through the word of prayer that comes from him, the food over which the eucharist has been spoken becomes the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus.”

Later Developments
The liturgy as the Reformers knew it in central Europe of the early sixteenth-century was profoundly different from this second-century liturgy described by Justin. The enduring structure of Word and sacrament was still there. But across the intervening centuries the liturgy as a whole had been radically altered.
The difference in how the liturgy looked, how it sounded, and how it was done would have struck one first. The people no longer spoke; priests and choir alone voiced words. The people no longer understood what the presider said; Latin had remained in the liturgy even when the people no longer understood a word of it. The prayers were no longer “of the people”; instead they were recited inaudibly by the priest. Sermons had all but disappeared. And the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper were now rarely shared with the people.
To these and many other such practices and abuses, the Reformers reacted intensely. They recognized that the liturgy, which in the early church had given equal position to Word and sacrament, now placed almost total emphasis on its eucharistic component. The first half of the liturgy (the service of the Word) had lost its independent significance and was understood merely as preparation for the eucharist.
The eucharist too was understood and experienced in a far different way than it had once been. Gradually, over the years, people began to believe that liturgy was something the clergy did on behalf of the people. And at the heart of what God had assigned the clergy to do was celebrate the sacraments—especially the sacrament of the eucharist.
By the time of the Reformation the church came to think of a sacrament as something that both symbolized and conveyed a gift of divine grace. That is to say, in the Lord’s Supper the bread and the wine effected the grace— not God by way of the bread and wine, but the bread and wine themselves. The priest was thus a dispenser of grace.
The church went on to say that once the bread and wine had been consecrated by the priest, these elements actually became the body and blood of Christ. The bread and wine were “transubstantiated.” So, gradually the sacrament came to be viewed not only as a memorial of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross but also as a “propitiatory sacrifice” in which God’s favor could be secured.
What did all this mean for the lay-person? If we keep in mind the insistence that the bread and wine are transubstantiated into Christ’s body and blood, so that Christ becomes bodily present, the answer will not be hard to guess: adoration. Adoration of the Christ who is bodily present under the appearance of bread and wine became for the laity the central worship act.
If we put all these features together, what leaps to the eye is that the medieval church had a liturgy in which, to an extraordinary degree, God’s actions were lost from view. The actions were all the people’s. The priest addresses God. The priest brings about Christ’s bodily presence, and the laypeople adore Christ under the bread-like and winelike appearances. When they receive the consecrated bread from the hands of the priest the people are infused with grace.
The Reformers rejected the sole emphasis on the Lord’s Supper, working to regain the balance between Word and sacrament…
The great liturgical scholar J. A. Jungmann puts it like this: “Hearing Mass was reduced to a matter of securing favors from God.”

The Reformation of the Liturgy
The Reformers rejected the sole emphasis on the Lord’s Supper, working to regain the balance between Word and sacrament that had been present in the liturgy of Justin Martyr’s day. In the medieval church, as we saw earlier, that balance was lost. The Scriptures were read inaudibly in an alien tongue, the sermon all but disappeared, and in theory and practice the entire service of the Word lost its significance and was treated merely as preparation for the Lord’s Supper.
Word The Reformers recovered the audible reading of Scripture, in the language of the people, followed by explanation and application in the sermon. They stressed the strong tie between the Scripture reading and sermon, and saw the sermon genuinely as “God’s Word.” God’s voice, said Calvin, resounds in “the mouths and the tongues” of preachers, so that hearing ministers preach is like hearing God himself speak. God “uses the ministry of men to declare openly his will to us by mouth as a sort of delegated work, not by transferring to them his right and honor, but only that through their mouths he may do his own work—-just as a workman uses a tool to do his work.” In short, through the sovereign action of the Spirit the minister speaks the Word of God—not in the weak sense that he now reflects on the anciently spoken Word of God, but in the radical sense that God now speaks through him. In listening to church proclamation we hear God speaking.
The Reformers also insisted that we must not hear this Word from afar—that we must receive this Word of God in humility and faith. For such reception, we need the work of the Spirit. So these Reformers introduced into their liturgies the “prayer of illumination” before Scripture and sermon, asking for the presence of the Spirit. Indeed, it can be said that it was the Swiss Reformers who brought the Spirit back into the Western liturgy.
Sacrament Already we have a good grasp of the controlling idea of Reformed liturgy. But it may help to also look at the Reformers’ views on the Lord's Supper.
Chapter xviii of Book IV of Calvin’s Institutes is a sustained attack on the Mass as it was practiced and understood in central Europe in Calvin's time. At what he calls the “crowning point” of his discussion, Calvin says that whereas “the Supper itself is a gift of God, which ought to have been received with thanksgiving, …the sacrifice of the Mass is represented as paying a price to God, which he should receive by way of satisfaction. There is as much difference between this sacrifice and the sacrament of the Supper as there is between giving and receiving.” The Lord has ”given us a Table at which to feast, not an altar upon which to offer a victim; he has not consecrated priests to offer sacrifice, but ministers to distribute the sacred banquet.“
To fully grasp what Calvin is saying here, it is important to realize that though he adamantly denies that the Lord’s Supper is a sacrifice of propitiation for sin, he repeatedly insists that it is a offering of praise and thanksgiving. “The Lord’s Supper cannot be without a offering of this kind,” he says, “in which, while we proclaim his death and give thanks, we do nothing but offer a offering of praise.”
The fundamental structure of the Lord’s Supper for Calvin is not sacrifice but sacrament: God acting and we receiving, rather than we acting and God receiving. And, just as in proclamation, God’s action must be received in faith and applied by the Spirit. The eucharistic portion of Calvin’s Strassbourg and Geneva liturgies opens with a prayer for faithful receiving.

Here and Now
By now the point will be clear: the liturgy as the Reformers understood and practiced it consists of God acting and us responding in faith through the work of the Spirit. The controlling idea in Reformed worship is that God acts in worship and that we are not to hold God’s actions at arm’s length but to appropriate them into our innermost being. Worship is a meeting between God and his people, a meeting in which both parties act—God as the initiator and we as the responders.
In the Supper, said Calvin, God seals (confirms) the promises he has made to us in Jesus Christ. Here and now he says that his promises are “for real.” Calvin’s point is not that the bread and wine are signs and seals of God's promises. His point is that God himself here and now acts, by way of the bread and wine, to authenticate his promises.
But more than that. Not only does God promise in the Lord’s Supper that we shall be mystically united with the flesh and blood of his Son. Through his Spirit he also effectuates this promise. If we approach the Supper in faith, our faith will be nourished and strengthened, and thereby our unity with Christ in his humanity will be deepened. In “the sacred mystery of the Supper”, says Calvin, God “inwardly fulfills what he outwardly designates.”
Along with this emphasis on God as active in the sacrament comes Calvin’s sharp criticism of the Roman church for the infrequency of its lay communion. “What we have so far said of the sacrament,” he remarks, “abundantly shows that it was not ordained to be received only once a year … It should have been done far differently: The Lord’s Table should have been spread at least once a week for the assembly of Christians… All, like hungry men, should flock to such a bounteous repast.”
Zwingli felt differently about the matter. He saw the Lord’s Supper not as a means of grace but as a mode of thanksgiving. And so, he took the momentous step of destroying the enduring shape of the liturgy, pulling apart its two high points of Word and sacrament, disposing them into two separate services, a preaching service and a Lord’s Supper service, and specifying that the Lord’s Supper service be held four times a year. It is ironic that all the confessions of the Reformed churches should side with Calvin against Zwingli on the theology of the Lord’s Supper, while their liturgies almost always side with Zwingli against Calvin.

Finely Tuned Balance
To understand why the Reformed liturgy acquired the character it did over the centuries, we should note one additional curious feature, present there since the beginning: although the people were frequently and lengthily exhorted to receive God’s actions with praise and thanksgiving, they were given scant opportunity to do so in the liturgy. This lack violated everything that the Reformers said about the liturgy. In their liturgical documents and theology they reveal a passionate concern that our recital of God’s actions not remain “out there somewhere” but be appropriated in faith and gratitude. Surely expressions of praise and gratitude are the appropriate implementation of this vision. Yet the exhortation tone overwhelmed worshipful expression.
Of course, one of the hallmarks of the Reformed churches —from the very beginning—has been the vigorous congregational singing of psalms. And certainly such singing is rightly seen as an act of worship and praise. Yet it must in honesty be granted that over the centuries this praise function of the congregation's singing has all too often been lost from view. H. O. Old expresses the point well: The singing “is often understood as a decoration of the service of worship, a way of achieving splendor, or perhaps as the means of giving the bitter pill of religion the chocolate coating of either culture or entertainment. At other times it has been understood as a way of achieving ‘audience participation’ or as a means of getting the people to respond to the preaching or praying of the pastor. At still other times it has been understood as being primarily a means of expressing the theme of the sermon or the ‘Christian year,’ making it a pedagogical device.” Too seldom has singing been understood as the congregation’s response of praise to God's actions.
Perhaps this theme of response, along with serious reflection on the appropriate frequency of celebrating the Lord’s Supper, is the greatest challenge to us in the Reformed churches as we begin our fifth century: we should strive to enrich the response dimension of the liturgy so that it is no longer overwhelmed by the proclamation dimension, but exists with it in finely tuned balance. In most places preaching has rightly remained alive among us (though perhaps too seldom is it understood as God speaking). If now we can enliven the response dimension, then finally the genius of the liturgy as understood in the Reformed tradition will have come into its own: in the liturgy God and his people interact in the power of the Spirit.




Slippery said:


> I need some sermons on this. More precisely, how should corporate worship be structured?
> 
> Thanks in advance.


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## Coram Deo (Jul 26, 2007)

Another article...

Calvin the Liturgist: How 'Calvinist' is Your Church's Liturgy?

If John Calvin were a member of your worship committee, what comments might he have about the shape and content of the liturgy your congregation follows on Sunday morning! Would he be impressed with your creative litanies, warmed by your pastor's folksy opening remarks! Or would he be critical of some of your more innovative practices, appalled that you celebrate the Lord's Supper only four times a year?
True worship was John Calvin's main passion. In fact, he devoted his life to helping people genuinely honor God through simple uncluttered worship. His reforms in Strassburg and neva cleared away " liturgical trappings' that got in the way of communion with the Almighty. His writings —commentaries, Institutes, tracts, letters, psalm singing, catechisms, and church regulations—all had one purpose: helping others know God that they might glorify him forever.
Calvin's approach to liturgy, described in The Form of Prayers, was biblically thoughtful and consistent with early church worship. His theological writings and his service books show that he was a sensitive, complete liturgist.
Tone of Worship
"The due worship of God" is God-directed, says Calvin in The Necessity of Reforming the Church. Believers approach God in full awareness of who he is, and together they magnify his greatness. This reverent tone pervades the service, flowing naturally into authentic prayer, praise, adoration, thanksgiving, humbling of self, and commitment to God's will; it achieves profound expression in the Lord's Supper. For Calvin, then, the spiritual quality of the worship service was more important than the shape of the liturgy. For him the spirituality of worship began in the sanctuary but carried over into daily life. He believed that people ought to live worshipfully. 
To achieve this tone of spirituality, said Calvin, simplicity is important. Liturgical practices that call attention to themselves obscure God, kill worship, and subvert the life of faith. One must understand Calvin's long passages against images, relics, veneration of the saints, sacramental ism, and all human ceremonies as his conscientious effort to restore direct, simple fellowship between God and his people. What was at stake was the renewal of spiritual life. For John Calvin, the true preaching of the Word, heartfelt prayer, congre- gational praise, and proper use of the sacraments were the liturgical means for joining the believing worshiper to the living God.
Calvin's Service
Calvin's service opened with the minister entering, positioning himself behind the communion table, and saying: "Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth" (Psalm 124:8).
A call to confession of sins and an appropriate prayer followed. In Strassburg he used an absolution at this point in the service ("To all those who thus repent and seek Jesus Christ for their salvation, I pronounce absolution in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."); in Geneva he replaced the absolution with a statement of forgiveness. The reading of the first table of the Law, followed by a prayer and the reading of the second table, concluded the service of confession.
As the people read the second table of the Law, the minister entered the pulpit (in later years Calvin conducted the entire service from the pulpit). The minister then led the congregation in a prayer for illumination, concluded with the Lord's Prayer. The singing of a psalm, a Scripture reading, and the sermon followed.
Calvin's service ended with collections for the poor, intercessions, brief pastoral encouragements, singing another psalm, and the Aaronic benediction.
Sacrament Celebration
Calvin advocated weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper, insisting that infrequent communion was an "invention of the devil." However, the Genevan magistrates voted against him on this issue. 
On those Sundays—at least once every three months—when the congregation did celebrate communion, the sacrament was the final part of the liturgy, just before the benediction. The Lord's Prayer and the creed, which the congregation usually recited earlier in the service, were included in the communion liturgy on these Sundays.
Calvin's eucharistic liturgy included the biblical words of institution, an exhortation to celebrate faithfully, the prayer of consecration, the fraction or presentation of the elements, partaking by the people, a prayer of thanksgiving, singing a Psalm, and the benediction. The congregation received the elements while standing by the table. While the two elements were distributed and taken, the worship leader read appropriate selections from Scripture. This practice continued, with modification, in other European Reformed churches.
Liturgical Practices
Calvin preached without notes. He used the original Hebrew or Greek text and worked through the passage clause by clause or section by section, making applications as he went. Using the lectio continua approach, he preached the Old Testament on weekdays and the New on Sunday mornings. For the second Sunday service he regularly chose a psalm for his text.
Calvin used plain, almost colloquial language. He employed a wide range of emotions in his delivery, sometimes choosing rhetorical techniques, like dialoguing with an opponent. And he consistently challenged people to respond in faith.
Children and their role in the service were important to Calvin. He taught children new psalms and had them lead and enrich the singing of the congregation.
Prayer, he believed, should be confident and understandable, relying heavily on God's promises. In his liturgies Calvin used a combination of written prayer (printed in the worship book) and extemporaneous prayer.
Calvin also had some definite ideas about the Lord's Supper. He believed the church should not admit members to the table until they had made profession faith. The profession included testimony to the minister that the person "wishes to live according to the Reformation of the Gospel and knows the creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the commandments of God." Elements of the Supper were not to be gazed on or idolized. Calvin opposed carrying the bread about in the service, elevating it, or otherwise showing it undue interest. He was indifferent to the color of the wine and to whether people tore the bread from a loaf handed between them or had it passed already divided. Basically he expected members to be present at the supper, to behave, and to attend from start to finish—all of which were issues often discussed in consistory.
Reliable Guides
To most of us Calvin's liturgy sounds surprisingly familiar. That's because many of his ideas and practices are evident in Reformed worship services today. His principles still are reliable guides. Many worship committees would benefit from a careful study of these principles before adding needless clutter and confusion to the Sunday morning liturgy in an attempt to be inno- vative."
Calvin's main legacy to us, and his most important contribution to the Reformation and to Christians today was his emphasis on worship. He directed all of his work toward helping people genuinely honor and reverence God.


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## Coram Deo (Jul 26, 2007)

Patterns of Worship Through Scripture

Patterns of Worship in Exodus 19-24



Assembling for Worship 
Entering the Presence of God through the Sacrifice
Hearing the Word of God
Prayer of the Covenant Community
Covenant Meal



Notice the worship in Exodus 19-24 has no psalmody because it came before the time of David. Nonetheless the basic contours remain identical in all biblical worship.


Psalms fit at various points throughout the pattern. In 2 Chronicles 5-7 there are two psalms of praise.


It interesting that virtually all of Christian worship from the 1st through the 17th centuries follows this pattern (with the exception of the medieval loss of the sermon and the reformation's loss of weekly communion-which really should also be blamed on the medieval tendency to restrict communion to the priests). Both in the patristic and reformation eras there was a self-conscious understanding that the heavenly worship was the model upon which all earthly worship must be based.


Patterns of Worship in 2 Chronicles 5-7



Assembling the people in Zion (2 Chron 5:2-5)
Sacrificing the sheep and oxen (2 Chron 5:6)
Entering the Most Holy Place (2 Chron 5:7-10)
Singing the praise of God (2 Chron 5:11-14)
Hearing the Word of God, read and preached (2 Chron 6:1-11)
Praying for the covenant community (2 Chron 6:12-42)
Fire from heaven (2 Chron 7:1-2)
Singing praise in response to the fire from heaven (2 Chron 7:3)
Sacrificing the peace offerings/covenant meal (2 Chron 7:4-9)
Benediction (not stated, but possibly from Numbers 6:24-27) 


Since we must worship in the heavenly temple, we must have order to come into the presence of God, and since we must only do in worship that which God has commanded, therefore we must seek our pattern of worship from the Word of God. There are only a few worship services described in detail in Scripture (Exodus 19-24; I Chron 15-16; 28-29; 2 Chron 5-7; 29; 35; Neh 8-10), but they all follow a remarkably similar pattern.


Patterns of Worship in Revelation



Assembling for Worship (Rev. 4:1-11)--John is called to witness the worship of the heavenly hosts
The Sin Offering (Rev. 5:1-7)--John weeps because no one is worthy to open the scroll. Only the Lamb of God who was slain is worthy to proclaim the purposes of God for his people. John is assured that Jesus has triumphed!
Enter God's Presence (Rev. 5:6-7)--Because Jesus has taken the scroll, we may now stand before God with hope. 
Psalm of Praise (Rev. 5:8-14)--The response to what Jesus has done!
The Word of God read and preached, 
The Prayer of the Covenant Community, 
Fire consuming the sacrifices/glory filling the temple, and 
The Psalm of Praise,
The Peace Offering--Rev. 19:6-10 and 17-21 record the two invitations to the two Suppers--the Wedding Supper of the Lamb (for the saints) and the "great supper of God" (for the vultures). One is a supper of blessing; the other is a supper of cursing. 
Benediction--Rev. 20 offers the curse upon the devil and those who follow him, while Rev. 21-22 offers the blessing upon Christ's people.



The book of Revelation portrays us as living in the midst of the heavenly worship. The heavenly worship service began when Jesus (the great High Priest) entered the Holy of Holies, and will not end until the final Judgment, when we will enter the blessedness of eternal life in Christ. This is why Jesus said at the Last Supper: "This is my blood of the covenant, which is shed for many. Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God" (Mark 14:24-26). Jesus will not drink the cup again until the Wedding Supper of the Lamb because that is the conclusion of the heavenly worship.


Patterns of Worship in Nehemiah 8-10



Assembling for Worship/Entering God’s Presence 
Reading of the Law
Confession of Sin and Lamenting
The Word of God read and preached, 
The Prayer of the Covenant Community, 
The Psalm of Praise,
Covenant Meal. 


Patterns of Worship in 1 Chronicles 15-16



Assembling for Worship
Psalm of Praise
Entering God’s Presence through the Sacrifice 
The Prayer of the Covenant Community, 
Covenant Meal. 
Benediction


Patterns of Worship in Leviticus 9



Assembling for Worship/Call to Worship
Sin Offering
Burnt Offering 
Peace Offering /Covenant Meal 
Benediction


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## Coram Deo (Jul 26, 2007)

Finally a example of a Reformed Liturgy that I find the best expression of worship...


Example of a Reformed Liturgy consisting of the Regulative Principle and the Dialogical Principle of Worship


•	Prelude of Silence and Holy Contemplation
We have the opportunity to quiet ourselves before our Creator and Lord, showing Him and His people that we revere Him. We may quietly revel in this time to refrain from distractions and cares as we bow low before Him and trust aside all other intruding thoughts, focusing clearly and intently on preparing to worship Him. He declares this to be our duty. He alone is worthy of all honor, praise, and glory. Prepare to seek him here, now.

•	Call to Worship
Psalm 95
Reader: Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice: “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work.

•	Psalm
Reader: Please turn to Psalm 95 in your Psalter and please stand to sing.

•	Exhortation of The Reading of the Law
Reader: Why do we read the Law of God? We read the law of God because “through the law comes the knowledge of sin (Romans3:20).” Paul testifies, “I would not have come to know sin except through the law (Romans 7:7).” Thus the law shows us our sin and consequently our need of Christ. Again Paul says, “The law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith (Galatians 3:24)”. The Law of God as found in the Ten Commandments shows us our peril and our need of Christ for salvation.

•	Reading of the Law with Kyrie Eleison
Reader: And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Congregation: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shall not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord they God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Honor thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt not murder.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.

Congregation: The Kyrie: Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee.

•	Prayer of Confession
Reader: (All who are able, please kneel in humility before the LORD)
Prayerbook page number 132
Congregation: We, your people, come to You, the living God, the Judge of all the earth knowing that to come before You acceptably we must be as holy as You are holy. But in ourselves we are not holy. In fact, we only begin to see how unholy we are as we see ourselves with eyes informed by Your Word, empowered by Your Spirit and measured by Your law. When we realize what is in our hearts and in our minds and assess the words and behaviors that flow from our hearts and minds, we see that we fall far short of your perfections.
Though created for Your glory, we center our attention on ourselves and give less than proper though to You and Your ways. You have told us to love the brethren and submit to one another, but we grasp at superiority. We are told to love our neighbor as we love ourselves and we are told to love our enemies. Yet in our own personal rebellion we loudly or quietly decide for ourselves whom we will love and whom we will not. We are guilty of not loving those who are needy, lonely, helpless, and outcasts. We avoid those who consume time and energy, and we fail to assist those who are without – even when they qualify biblically for help. We persuade ourselves that we are better than others and hide our pride and vanity under a thin veneer of pretended godliness as though You will not see the in beneath. Lord, You would be only just to punish us here and now and throughout eternity because of our sin. But your infinite grace and mercy has made a way for us in Christ, who took our punishment upon himself and saved us from the wages of sin. His perfection is credited to us and our punishment is visited upon Him. O Merciful Lord, it is You who mercifully brings us to acknowledge our sin and grants us the grace of repentance. We ask you now to turn us from our sin. Purify our hearts and minds. Strengthen us, and give us zeal to be the people You want us to be. Make us wise so we can live for Your glory. Cause us to be a blessing to Your bride, the Church. Make us love one another in our hearts and minds, and actions. Make us faithful to study Your Word, reflect upon it, faithfully proclaim Your truth, and live it out. We rejoice in what You have done for us as our heavenly Triune and Triumphant God. Amen 

•	Absolution
Reader: To all those who thus repent and seek Jesus Christ for their salvation, I declare that the absolution of sins is effected, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

•	Psalm
Reader: Please turn in your Psalter to Psalm 40. Please stand to sing.

•	Lection
Reader: Now here the Words of the Lord.
Reader: Reads 1 Peter 4
Reader: The grass withers, and the flower fades, But the word of our Lord endures forever.

•	Psalm
Reader: Please turn in your Psalter to Psalm 6. Please stand to sing.

•	Prayer for Illimination
Reader: (All who are able, please stand before the Lord)
Free prayer composed by Minister

•	Homily
Reader: Now here the Words of the Lord.
Reader: Reads John 6
Reader: The grass withers, and the flower fades, but the words of our Lord endures forever.
Reader: Homily Preached

•	Prayer of Intercession and of Thanksgiving
Reader: (All who are able, please bow in humility before the Lord)
Free Prayer by the Minister

•	Fencing the Table of the Eucharist
Reader: The Lord’s Supper is a sign of the benefits of Christ’s death communicated to the believer, and a seal of the believer’s continuance in the grace of god. Therefore, the Lord’s Supper is only to be received by those who have been baptized and are members in good standing is some true and evangelical branch of the visible Church. Those who wish to receive the sacrament are asked to give a brief profession of faith to the elders of the church prior to partaking the supper in the future. No person should come to the Lord’s Table whose manner of life is inconsistent with his or her Christian profession, or who is harboring known sin in their life, or who is unknown to the elders administering the sacrament. 

•	Exhortation to congregation

•	Prayer of Consecration
Reader: (all who are able, please bow in humility before the Lord)
Precomposed or Free Prayer by the Minister

•	Words of Institution for the Eucharist
Reader: Reads 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
Reader: For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: 
And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 
After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

•	Receiving and Partaking of the Eucharistic Elements

•	Psalm
Reader: Please turn in your Psalter to Psalm 100. Please stand to sing.

•	Benediction
Reader: Reads the Aaronic Blessing from Numbers 6:24-26
Reader: The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jul 27, 2007)

Brian Schwertley, _Are Liturgies Authorized by Scripture?_

Westminster Directory of Public Worship


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## Anton Bruckner (Jul 27, 2007)

thanks for the info guys


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