When asked what a church service is, most Christians will answer, “It’s when we gather together to worship God.” This is not a wrong answer for that’s what church is – a time when we worship God. It is, however, not a complete answer. Nor is it the first answer we should give. If you look at biblical theology, man’s salvation takes place only because God takes the initiative acting first to come to man in order to save him.
We see this in the account of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples on Thursday of Holy Week. Here He takes a towel and wraps it around Himself, gets a basin of water, removes the sandals of his disciples and proceeds to wash their dirty feet. When this happens, Peter is astonished! He objects! “I should be washing your feet, Jesus” he says. “You should not be washing mine!”
It’s then that Jesus teaches Him about grace. “Unless I wash you, You have no part in me.” Jesus was not only talking about Peter’s feet, but about His whole work of salvation for Peter’s body and soul! He comes to wash and forgive and redeem Him and all people through His death and resurrection! This takes place first! God takes the initiative! God must come to man and save man! Only then, after man has been rescued, forgiven, redeemed through a cross, made alive by the Holy Spirit can he respond to God in service and worship.
Because of this, we call worship “Divine Service!” God first comes to man to serve man with salvation. Only after God serves us, can we worship and serve Him. This is the biblical order of salvation and worship. To help us in this endeavor, St. Luke’s utilizes the ancient liturgies of the Christian Church. They were not designed to be entertainment but to walk the worshipper through a movement of theology from sin to grace! And yes, it’s a different form of worship than is present in many churches today but we invite you to try it! We invite you to join in with us in liturgy which unites with the ancient church as well as the present Church of heaven that also praises the Lord! And, as always, please ask questions! We’ll be happy to answer!
