The Salutation is both the most ancient recorded part of the service and the most consistently used in the history of the Western mass. First appearing in the Apostolic Tradition in the late second/early third century, this greeting between the pastor and congregation has persisted for nearly two millennia and is preserved in Lutheran Service Book (V: “The Lord be with you.” R: “And with thy spirit”). However, though the text has been preserved, its meaning and function has often been forgotten or lost upon those who recite it. Nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than in the liturgical reforms of the late 20th century.

In view of this biblical background, the function of these words in the Divine Service is to proclaim the incarnation of God once more in the present. By these words we confess that Jesus is our Savior, God, and King, and that he is born among us this day. As then, so now, Jesus does not come in strength, glory, or majesty, but in humility, meekness, and lowliness. He comes hidden behind the swaddling cloths of the man in the Office of the Holy Ministry who proclaims Christ’s own words. He comes hidden under water and the triune name as it is splashed and sprinkled on the ungodly. He comes hidden in the manger of bread and wine with his true Body and Blood which is present, distributed, and received here. And yet despite the weakness and humility of his means of grace, here is Christ giving his peace to those with whom he is well pleased just as the angels promised. 

 In the famous last words of Luther, “We are beggars! This is true!” With these words we recognize that we are beggars who rely on the goodness of God for every need of body and soul, for “peace from above and for our salvation,” “peace of the whole world, for the wellbeing of the church of God,” “for this holy house, and for all who offer here their worship and praise,” and for God to “help, save, comfort, and defend us…” With the biblical background of our plea, we can understand our Kyrie as a confession of sin, a confession of the misery that presses upon us, and a plea to a present God and Lord to act on our behalf.

As people began their journey to the temple they’d do so confessing, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth!” (Ps 121:1-2). As they entered Jerusalem they’d sing, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’” (Ps 122:1). As they prepared to offer their gifts they’d proclaim, “Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Ps 124:8) and likewise, “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared” (Ps 130:3-4). And though we stand almost three millenia removed from these singers and worshippers, in our divine service we stand side by side with them as we say the same words and sing the same psalms.

God is the one who speaks, we are the ones spoken into existence, who listen and receive his address, and who live in response to this address. God is the author of my life story and my life story is lived in response to him. This response is what the church identifies as “confession” which occurs liturgically in the Divine Service and is, indeed, the sum and substance of our speech in the Divine Service. Confession, according to the grammar of the New Testament, means to “speak back to God what he has said to us.” Depending on what God has said confession can take on a number of different forms— confession of faith, confession of praise— but the first form is the confession of sins.

Our church service is not truly “worship,” but “liturgy,” a “Divine Service.” It is not a sacrificial service, but a sacramental one. It is not chiefly an active work, but a passive reception of God’s gifts. 

“ In faith we go to the Lord’s Supper as to death, so that when we go to death, we go as to the Lord’s Supper—without fear and forgiven. The Christian who dies thus dies well.”

So if we were to try to summarize some of these shades from the negative space around holiness, receiving God’s holiness (sanctification) is about receiving from God his life, righteousness, wholeness, and presence. By sharing his holiness, God shares himself and all that he is and has with us.

By this faith we are freed from the world’s pointless and meaningless project of serving ourselves and living for ourselves; instead we are opened up to live outside ourselves for others.

“For us lost and condemned sinners what has Jesus done? He has redeemed us, which is to say, he has rescued us from those invincible lords who held us captive— sin, death, and the devil. How has he done this? Not with the usual means of redemption this world knows according to the Law such as silver or gold, an economic exchange of like valued things, but rather with his holy, precious blood and his innocent suffering and death.”