Worship Notes – the Kyrie
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We began this
series on God’s presence in worship in February’s Messenger. The focus in March was “The Gathering” and
April was “The Confession and Forgiveness.”
An opening hymn often follows, but we’ll speak of hymns in another
series. The next two things in our
service are the Apostolic Greeting, and the Kyrie.
The
Apostolic Greeting refers to the words of the Apostle Paul,
except that he used it at the end of one of his letters: “The grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
In the Middle Ages, the Church used these words of Paul as a doxology
(“words of glory”) to end Morning Prayer (Matins) and
Evening Prayer (Vespers). That
is where you’ll find them in the Lutheran 1891 Church Book.
Recently,
we have we gone back to the still older 4th Century tradition
that used these words to begin each of their worship services.[1]
Philip Pfatteicher described the value of this greeting: “The grace of Christ
leads to the love of the Father, which yields participation in the Spirit and
produces communion between God and his people.
It is thus a summary of the principal gifts of the Holy Trinity which
will be unfolded as the liturgy progresses.
Like an overture to an opera, this verse of apostolic greeting
introduces the themes…[and] prepares the assembly for what follows.”[2]
Then,
in both our traditional and contemporary services at Messiah Lutheran, we often
sing or speak a Kyrie. The early
Church, for a number of reasons—including persecution—had very little liturgy
to begin their services. They usually
started with a simple greeting, like the one above, and then began reading
selected scriptures. After the 4th
Century, they were allowed to hold services in more public places and were able
to elaborate and add canticles and litanies, like the Kyrie, to
their worship experience.
Kyrie
eleison means, “Lord, have mercy.” It was a widespread secular and religious
shout, much like the Hebrew hosanna.
Persians and Egyptians would use it to hail their emperor. St. John Chrysostom once wrote that it is
“the most comprehensive and expressive of all prayers…. To beg God’s mercy is
to ask for the coming of His kingdom, that kingdom which Christ promised to
give to those who seek it, assuring them that all other things will be added
(Matthew 6:33).” It is in that light
that we understand the great variety of Kyrie’s and their variety of
moods. It is a cry for mercy that
already knows that God has and will answer.
(Next
Month: The Prayer of the Day and the Lessons.)
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