Choir Notes
Before our service even truly begins, spoiler alert, the start of the communion service is the opening hymn, we usually have the brief order of confession and forgiveness. These words are so familiar to us that it can be easy to say them without giving a lot of thought to what we are saying. Our worship service comes to us from scripture, from glimpses of heavenly worship shown to man in Revelation and the prophets, and from our early church fathers. The words we hear each week in the confession, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us…” comes from 1 John 1:8-9. There is something very comforting to me in knowing that the words of our liturgy have been said by so many worshipers before me and were given to us by God.
I thought it would be interesting to see where in scripture some of the other elements of our weekly service are located. So, I challenge you to a matching game. Look up the scriptures below to match them to a few of the parts of our worship service. There are many other scriptural references for liturgies we use at different times of the year.
Joel 2:13 Sanctus- Holy, holy, holy Lord…
Matthew 6:9-13 The Blessing- The Lord bless you and keep you…
Isaiah 6:3 and Matthew 21:9 Words of Institution- In the night in which he was betrayed…
Luke 22:19-20 Lenten Gospel Acclamation- Return to the Lord your God…
John 1:29 Lord’s Prayer
Numbers 6:223-27 Agnus Dei- Lamb of God…
Thank you to all of you that have worked hard in the new year to bring our gift of song to God. Our children have been busy learning a new song on hand chimes, the choir has been hard at work preparing to help lead worship each Sunday, and a quartet of ringers has been practicing an Easter prelude. Please continue to pray for the music program of our church and as always, I invite you to share your voice and musical gifts with God and our congregation.
Thank you to Heather Gerity for getting the food donated for the Children’s Choir Lenten meal and thank you to all those who helped to prepare, serve, and clean up.
Angela
