When We Gather · Stop 2
What is the congregation doing in the first part of the service?
Many Lutheran services start by asking you to confess. Before much else happens, everyone says together that they have sinned. That sounds like a strange way to begin. It turns out to be a good one.
Start this stopGathering
The Gathering often includes a few parts: confession and forgiveness, the Kyrie, and a song of praise. Not every church uses every part every week, but each one helps people get ready to hear God's Word.
Confession clears the air. Everyone says honestly that they have not lived the way God wants. Then the one leading worship announces that God forgives them for Jesus' sake. Nobody has to earn their way in. God welcomes them.
Kyrie is Greek for Lord. The prayer says, Lord, have mercy. It is one of the oldest prayers Christians pray together. It is a way to show up with open hands instead of a full plan.
In many seasons, a song of praise comes next. It makes sense in that order. People have heard that they are forgiven, and now they have a reason to sing.
Read it in your Bible
- Psalm 51:10–12. David asks God to make a clean heart in him and put a new and right spirit inside him. He asks God not to send him away, and to give back the joy of being saved.
- Luke 18:13–14. In a story Jesus tells, a tax collector stands far back in the temple and prays: God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus says this man went home right with God.
The Third Article, from Luther's Small Catechism
In which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true.
Words to know
- Confession. Telling God honestly the ways you have fallen short. Worship begins with the truth, and then with God's answer to it.
- Absolution. A Latin word for being set free; the announcement that God forgives your sins. It is a promise spoken out loud, so you can hear it for yourself.
- Kyrie. Greek for Lord; the prayer Lord, have mercy. You don't have to have it all together to pray it. That's the point.
- Gloria. Latin for glory; a song of praise sung near the start of many services. After forgiveness, praise comes easily.
- Invocation. Calling on God's name at the start of worship, often in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These are the same words spoken at Baptism, so worship starts where your faith started.