Worship

The "Divine Service" link to the left includes this Sunday's sermon, in addition to prayers, readings, hymns, and collects.

Links to a years worth of sermons can be found at "Sermons."  Our stain glass windows may be found under "Our Windows."  And information on the choir may be found under "Music at St. John."

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Worship at St. John and in the historic Lutheran Church is typically called by another name: Divine Service.  The reason for this is that Lutheran’s understand what happens on Sunday morning not primarily as what we do, but as what God first does for us.  Our worship is merely a response to God first coming to us by means of His Holy Word and Sacraments to declare to us Who He is, what He has done for us in Jesus Christ, and what His attitude is toward us on account of Christ's work and merit.  Therefore, the Divine One – God – serves us.  As Christ our Lord says:  the Son of Man came not be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many [St. Matthew 20:28].

So it is that Christ the Lamb of God Who has taken away the sin of the world comes to us in the Divine Service through His Word and Sacraments to deliver to us – in the here and now – what He has already won for us and for the whole world by His incarnation as an Infant, His life, death, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.  And what is it that Christ has won for us?  The forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, peace with the Father, everlasting life (that begins already now), and eternal salvation.

The Divine serves us – Divine Service.  This is the most important aspect of our Lutheran ‘worship.’  For God does not really need our worship.  All things are His already.  Still, it is the very nature of faith – faith given and sustained by God the Holy Spirit through the Gospel – to give thanks and praise to God for His gracious gifts.  Therefore, in response to God’s first work in serving us His creatures in the Divine Service, we in turn serve God, the Divine One, by repeating what He has already said about Himself, about us, and about the blessed work of Christ on our behalf – in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs [Ephesians 5:19] – what the Church calls the liturgy.

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