The First Act

“In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”

Matthew 28:19b

I love to go to the theater.   Watching a play is one of my favorite forms of entertainment.  Now some of the plays I have seen have been good.  Some have not been good.  In my experience I can usually tell which it will be during the First Act.  The First Act sets the stage for everything else.  The first act either captures my attention or loses it.  I remember one play we were at in Norfolk, Nebraska.  The First Act had barely started when someone sitting in the audience started yelling at the actors.   We were all caught off guard.  We took a while to realize that this was part of the play.  At that moment they had our attention and never lost it.  The First Act is so very important.

Believe it or not this is also the case in our worship of God.  The First Act in worship sets the tone for everything else that happens.  So think for a moment about how our worship begins.  The First Act is the Invocation.  The Pastor begins with the words of Jesus from Matthew 28:19 – “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.”  These words set the stage for all that happens in the worship service.

This is so important because many of us come to worship with a misunderstanding.  We come to worship thinking that it is primarily a time when we give to God.   We come to offer to Him our praise, our prayers, our offerings.  Worship, we think, about giving rather than receiving.  

Yet worship does not begin with something we give to God.  The First Act of worship is God’s act!  With the words of Invocation He reminds us of our baptisms.  He reminds us of how He came looking for us, of how He washed us clean with Water and the Word, of how He adopted us into His family.  He begins with words that remind us that in our relationship with Him, He has always taken the first  step.  We come to worship because He has invited us to come.  Without God coming in Jesus to save us… without God coming to adopt us in baptism we could not and would not ever come to Him.

And so each worship service begins with God reminding us of all He has done.  By this First Act our Lord sets the tone for worship.   Worship is first and foremost about what our gracious God gives to and does for us.  We come on Sundays because we need Him to serve us, to forgive us, to work in our hearts through Word and Sacrament, to nourish and strengthen our faith! 

There is a reason that in our hymnals the worship services are called the “Divine Service” or “God’s service.”  Here God serves our needs, speaks to us through His word, feeds us with the body and blood of Jesus in bread and wine.   

Yes there a second aspect of worship where we offer to God our praise, our prayers, our offerings and our faith.  But our gifts to God are a response to His generous gifts to us.  The only reason we have praise or prayer or faith to give to Him is because He first gave to us.  He first gave Jesus to save us.  He first came to us in baptism.   “We love”, John writes, “because He first loved us.”    Think of the words of the old hymn “We give Thee but Thine own, whatever the gift may be.  All that we have is Thine alone, a gift O Lord from Thee.”  The First Act is always God’s act..  Without His action…without His gifts there would be no worship.  So in love for us God reaches out to us first “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”   Amen.