The preface is present in
Hippolytus (ca.215 ):
Gradually sentences reflective
of the particular season or day of the church year were added. These
are known as the "proper prefaces." The large number of proper prefaces
were reduced by Pope Gregory the Great (590-604). The proper prefaces
in Divine Services I and II are based on the Latin prefaces prior to
the reforms of the Council of Trent.
SANCTUS
For Further Reading: Brunner,
94-106; Jungmann, 202-203; Precht, 294-295, 422-423; Reed, 330-333;
Torkelson, Daniel T. "Luther's Joy of the
Sanctus" Perspectives on Worship: Reflections Toward the 21st
Century (Concordia Seminary, St.Louis); Spinks, Bryan.
The Place of the Sanctus in the Eucharistic Prayer
(Cambridge).
The Sanctus is drawn from Isaiah
6:3 and Psalm 118:26a with "hosanna" being added from the Palm Sunday
narrative (see John 12:13). Kleinig notes three changes that are made
to the Isaiah text:
Kleinig makes several other
observations about the Sanctus:
PRAYER/ OUR FATHER
For Further Reading: Evanson,
Charles. "New Directions" Logia
(Epiphany 1995), 3-10; Krodel, Gottfried.
"The Great Thanksgiving of the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship:
It is the Christians' Supper and Not the Lord's Supper"-The Cresset
Occasional Paper I (Valparaiso University); Olson, Oliver. "Contemporary
Trends in Liturgy Viewed From the Perspective of Classical Lutheran
Theology" Lutheran Quarterly
(May 1974), 110-157;Precht, 295-299, 423-426; Volk, Ernst. "Evangelical
Accents in Understanding the Lord's Supper"
Lutheran Quarterly (Summer 1987), 185-204; Wisloff, Carl.
The Gift of Communion (Augsburg Publishing House).
Luther carefully distinguished
the Verba of Christ from the prayer of the congregation. Instead of
the canon of the mass, LW provides for a brief prayer of thanksgiving
that concludes with the Our Father prior to the speaking of the words
of consecration. The prayer in Divine Service II is adapted from the
Agende I of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany.
Following the Berakah form of Jewish prayer, this prayer blesses
God for His mercy in sending us His Son and gives thanks for the redemption
that we have in Him. The prayer implores God to send us His Holy Spirit
that we may be established in a living faith and so be prepared to "remember
our Redeemer and receive him who comes to us in his body and blood."
Our "table prayer" in coming
to Christ's Supper is the prayer that He has given us to pray, the Our
Father. Gregory the Great wrote "To be it seems most unseemly that we
should introduce a prayer even of the learned over the elements and
speak over the Body and the Blood of the Redeemer any prayer except
the prayer he has given us" (quoted in Evanson,
The Effects of Evangelicalism and the Liturgical Movement,
28).
For
Further Reading: Forde, Gerhard. "The Lord's Supper as the Testament
of Jesus" Word and World (Winter 1997), 5-9; Pless, John T.
"Implications of Recent Exegetical Studies for the Doctrine of the Lord's
Supper" Concordia Theological Quarterly
(April-July 1984), 203-220; Precht, 299-306, 426-429; Sasse, Hermann.
"Consecration and the Real Presence"
Scripture and Church: Selected Essays of Hermann Sasse
edited by R. Feuerhahn and Jeffrey Kloha (Concordia Seminary-St.Louis),
271-317; Sasse, Hermann. We Confess the Sacraments
(Concordia Publishing House); Schoene, Jobst. "Pastoral Letter Regarding
the Divine Service and the Sacrament of the Altar"
Logia Reformation 1998), 31-39; Teigen, Erling. "Luther and the
Consecration" Mysteria Dei: Essays in Honor of Kurt Marquart,
321-340.
In the Formula of Concord (FC-SD
VII: 83-84, the confessors argue for three essential acts:
The words of Jesus (Matthew
26:26-28 and I Corinthians 11:22-25) are at the heart of the Supper.
They effect and proclaim the real presence of Christ's body and blood.
Where they are not spoken the body and blood of Christ are not present
and there is no sacrament (FC-SD VII:73-90). The pastor may elevate
the body and blood as a visual proclamation of the testament of Jesus
Christ.
For
Further Reading: Elert, Werner. Eucharist and Church Fellowship in
the First Four Centuries (Concordia Publishing House); Jungmann,
209-211; Nagel, Norman. "The Kiss of Peace"
Perspectives on Worship: Reflections Toward the 21st
Century, 44-47; Precht, 307-313, 429-432; Reed, 364-377.
Augustine had declared that
the Pax Domini was a good preparation for communion and defended its
placement before the distribution. The Pax went from altar to congregation.
Where its path was blocked by unforgiven sin,it was the duty of the
pastor to go to the place where it was stopped and bring about confession,
forgiveness and reconciliation (see Matthew 5:23-24).
The
Pax Domini is a benediction that announces the gift of peace from the
risen Lord (see John 20:19-26) to the communicants. The pastor may hold
up the elements as he speaks the Pax Domini.
The Agnus Dei was an ancient
Roman canticle, based on John 1:29.
The pastor ought always to
distribute Christ's body as he has responsibility for who is admitted
to the altar. Deacons may assist in the distribution of the chalice.
The formula of bestowal proclaim what it is that the communicants receive-the
true body and blood of Christ.
POST-COMMUNION CANTICLE
AND COLLECT
For Further Reading: Grime,
Paul. The Use of the Nunc Dimittis in the Liturgy of the Eucharist
(Unpublished MDiv Thesis at Concordia Theological Seminary Library);
Precht, 314-316, 432-434; Reed, 379-383.
The Nunc Dimittis is the song
of Simeon in Luke 2:29-32. Like Simeon who held in the incarnate Savior
in his arms, we have received the body and blood of our Lord into our
mouths and so we bless Him for His redemption. The Nunc Dimittis was
used as part of the minister's concluding prayers in some ancient liturgies
like that of St. John Chrysostom. It is used in some of the German and
Swedish liturgies of the Reformation era. Loehe includes it as a post-communion
canticle in his Agende of 1844.
Divine Service II includes
a canticle based on selected verses of Psalm 105 as an alternate. As
this canticle includes "Alleluias" it is not appropriate for use in
Lent.
Divine Service II provides
two post-communion collects. The first is from Luther's
Deutsche Messe of 1526. This collect gives thanks to the Father
for the salutary gift of His Son's body and blood and petitions Him
to strengthen us through the same in faith and love. This collect captures
the dynamic of Luther's description of the Christian life in "On the
Freedom of the Christian" where he maintains that a Christian lives
outside of himself by faith in Christ and in love for the neighbor:
"We conclude, therefore that a Christian lives not in himself, but in
Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives
in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. Bu faith he is
caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself
into his neighbor" (AE 31:371).
Further, Luther's comments
in his 1526 treatise, "The Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ-Against
the Fanatics" are a fine commentary on this prayer: "For it is necessary
for each one to know that Christ has given his body, flesh, and blood
on the cross to be our treasure and to help us receive forgiveness of
sins, that is, that we may saved, redeemed from death and hell. That
is the first principle of Christian doctrine. It is presented to us
in the words, and his body and blood are given to us to be received
corporeally as a token and confirmation of this fact. To be sure, he
did it only once, carrying it out and achieving it on the cross; but
he causes it each day anew to be set before us, distributed and poured
out through preaching, and he orders us to remember him always and never
forget him. The second principle is love. It demonstrates in the first
place that he has left us an example.
As he gives himself to us with his body and blood in order to redeem
us from our misery, so ought we too give ourselves with might and main
for our neighbor" (AE 36:352).
The second collect confesses
God's goodness in sending His Son into our flesh, gives Him thanks for
the pardon and peace given us in the sacrament, and implores Him to
keep and guard us.
BENEDICTION
For Further Reading: Brunner,
Luther, "Genesis Commentary" AE 5:140-147; 134-139; Precht, 434-435;
Reed, 384-387; Westermann, Claus. Blessing in the Bible and the Life
of the Church (Fortress).
The final Aaronic Benediction
is a Lutheran innovation which was chosen because it was the only blessing
instituted by God. See Numbers 6:22-27.
-Prof. John T.Pless
Revised XII.4.2001