Two of the biggest myths against the Historic Liturgy today are 1. Early Christians worshiped in a free-form "open mic night" sort of a thing. 2. The Historic Liturgy is the product of Roman Catholicism.
Long before the establishment of the papacy, if you read through the actual records on how the Christians were worshiping, you very easily see this order. The very first Christians were almost all Jewish. They began to worship apart from the synagogue; they took the basic synagogue liturgy and added Christian elements. This became the foundation upon which the Historic Liturgy of the church was based. 1 Corinthians 14:40 and Acts 2:42 gave the early Christians and for us today instructions on how to conduct our worship.
When we take Acts 2 apart - "they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." Some things rise to the surface. First, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship." What's the apostles' teaching? Well, it is the New Testament. We look at the idea of fellowship, "koinonia." They didn't just gather around the coffee urn or a covered dish meal; they gathered around the table that brought community, namely communion. We feel pretty confident that this is the main bread Acts is speaking of (cf. "Jesus took bread and broke it"). So the first two things they devoted themselves to were the Word of God and the Holy Supper. "The prayers," with the definite article "the" in front of prayers; it is not just that they were praying; they were prayers of the Jewish people, that is, the Psalms.
The Lutheran Reformers of the 16th century maintained the basic structure of the Liturgy as it had been celebrated. The few changes made were to have it in the people's language. Luther removed medieval devotional attachments that encouraged superstition and allowed congregants to receive the chalice. More congregational singing and greater attention to the quality and content of the preaching of the word were emphasized.
- Pr. Todd Wilken
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