The Bible not only gives us the basic liturgical elements for worship, but the Bible also gives us a pattern for worship. To see my discussion on the basic liturgical elements for worship take a look here and here. Just as there are basic elements to worship are very simple, so the basic order of worship is simple.
I will argue that we are called to first call upon God, follow that with the preaching of the word, and finally, celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. This is an order which almost all churches have gravitated to overtime. Really, this is the traditional order of the church. However, various cultural biases keep churches today from fully realizing even the simple order that God has given.
The New Testament has very little to say on the order or pattern of worship. This is likely because there was an established order that was used in the synagogues and in temple life, which was integrated into the worship of the church. The New Testament churches probably combined the order of worship, which was already there, God’s teaching on temple worship in the Old Testament, and the teaching of the apostles’ about Christ’s Sacrifice. Ultimately, New Testament worshippers had to examine everything they did in worship in light of what God had done in Christ.
We might use the Hermeneutic that is found in 1 John 2 concerning the commandment to love one another. At once, John admits this is an old commandment and at the same time he says, this is a new commandment. It is new because Christ has shown what love means in a new way. Using this rubric we might say that all parts of the Old Covenant are fulfilled in the cross of Christ and through the cross of Christ are applied to us in a new way.
This means that we can look to the Old Testament for instruction on worship as well, as long as we understand that that particular Christ has abolished the ceremonial elements (such as the temple and the sacrifices) of that administration.
One of the places where we find a great deal of instruction on worship is in the book of Leviticus. Now, the great part of this instruction deals with the activity of bringing sacrifices before God. We are explicitly told in the New Testament that that institution is done away with in Christ, for he is the final and the only effective sacrifice. However, we are also often told that we are to be living sacrifices in Christ. We can think of Romans 12 and 1 Peter 2, both of which refer to the Christian as a living sacrifice. That would mean that there is something in the nature of the sacrifice that can teach us about reasonable worship.
This is a surprisingly productive turn, particularly, in terms of the amount of materiel we may reflect on. If we are to find a basic order to draw through the various sacrifices, we would see five basic parts to the order. Peter Leithart puts it catchily in his Theopolitan Liturgy.
“Lay the hands
Slay the beast
Spread the blood
Burn the flesh
Eat the meal”
These elements can be brought out in five separate elements in the service. For the sake of simplicity, we will simplify these into three elements. First, the laying on of hands. Second the slaughter of the animal and the burning of the animal. Finally, (for many sacrifices) we partake of the animal in a meal.
These three elements correlate to three different sacrifices. The purification offering emphasizes the laying on of hands. Here we have an emphasis on our need to be purified before God. The ascension offering (commonly called the burnt offering) focusses on the burning of the animal. The worshipper burned the entire animal in that offering. Finally, the peace offering focusses on the meal, for that sacrifice focussed on the worshippers eating the offered animal.
So how does that apply to the service of God? The laying on of hands implies a claiming and a transfer. If we are living sacrifices that means the service ought to begin with an acknowledgment that God lays his hands on us and claims us for his own. In responding, we also lay our hands on Jesus as the only effective sacrifice in our place. This involves a recognition that God calls us and a recognition of our sin and the need to deal with that in order to properly approach God.
Then God divides the sacrifice and burns all of it or part of it. Hebrews 4 speaks of the word accomplishing that in the service. The word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing joints from marrow. In doing so, God the Spirit raises our hearts to the right hand of God in Christ. Figuratively speaking we go up in sweet-smelling smoke before God.
Finally, we have a meal in the sacrifices. The meal symbolizes the peace we may have with God. So we see that the Lord’s Supper, the new covenant meal follows after the preaching of the word.
Jesus follows a similar order in the institution of the Lord’s Supper. He lays his hands on the bread or wine and names it (his body or blood) (the laying on of hands), he breaks the bread or pours the wine (dividing the offering), and then passes them out so that his followers may eat (the meal).
Now two elements that we discussed in our previous blog posts on the elements of worship do not automatically find their place here (find those blog posts here and here). But if we think about what these elements represent we can find their place in the worship service.
The first is the prayers. The prayers will be interspersed through the worship service. A prayer of repentance is appropriate near the beginning of the service. Here we take hold of Christ as our righteousness. A prayer for the Spirit’s work is appropriate before the sermon and a prayer of thankfulness is appropriate in response to the sermon. Of course, it is also quite appropriate to put songs in various parts of the worship service. We might sing an opening song praising God, a song praising God for choosing and calling us, and a song following the Lord’s Supper.
The other element we missed was the collection. We do have a precursor for that in the Old Testament as well: the wave offering. In the wave offering, people brought their gifts of grain and poured our wine before the Lord. God used these offerings to provide food for his priests. This suggests that the fitting place for the collection, the sign of our devotion to the fellowship of Jesus Christ, is immediately before the supper we share with Christ. For the Lord’s Supper signifies, not only what Christ gives to us, but also how we sacrifice ourselves for one another. We give of ourselves to one another under the forgiveness of sins given by Jesus Christ.
So we have a simple order for worship: A call upon God with repentant hearts, the preaching of the word, and the Lord’s Supper. Further, we intersperse this order with prayers, psalms, thanksgivings, and collections for our brothers in distress.