The Divine Service (Gottesdienst)
As taught in the Lutheran tradition
Worship as primarily God's service to us through Word and Sacrament, followed by our sacrifice of praise.
At the heart of the Lutheran tradition lies a single, revolutionary question regarding the nature of corporate worship: Who is serving whom? In many traditions, worship is viewed primarily as a human activity—a sacrifice of praise, an act of devotion, or a programmed experience designed to elicit a specific emotional or cognitive response from the believer. However, for the Lutheran, the term for the weekly gathering is Gottesdienst, a German compound word that translates literally to "God’s Service." This term is intentionally ambiguous in its original linguistic form, but theologically it is weighted toward the "objective genitive": it is first and foremost God serving us through His Word and Sacraments, and only secondarily our service to Him in response.
By the end of this lesson
- **Identify** the etymological and theological significance of the term *Gottesdienst* as "God’s Service" to man.
- **Distinguish** between the "Sacramental" (God to man) and "Sacrificial" (man to God) elements within the historic liturgy.
- **Explain** how the doctrine of Justification by Grace through Faith is the "governing principle" of Lutheran liturgical practice.
- **Articulate** the biblical basis for the "Real Presence" of Christ in the Divine Service through Word and Sacrament.
- **Trace** the historical development of the Divine Service from the early church through the Lutheran Reformation.
- **Defend** the use of the historic liturgy against the critiques of "traditionalism" or "dead ritualism" using the concept of the Means of Grace.
- **Apply** the teaching of the Divine Service to the daily prayer life and ethical vocation of the individual Christian.
- **Compare** the Lutheran view of the "Eucharistic Sacrifice" with the Roman Catholic and Reformed views to highlight the distinctive Lutheran emphasis on the "Testament."
Scripture
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