Encore Post: The Lutheran Service Book has the heading of “The Words of our Lord” but I imagine many of you also have heard them called either “The Words of Institution” or “The Words of Consecration,” or just the “Verba”. In all cases they the titles refer to the same thing: The words our Lord said on the night when He was betrayed, concerning the bread and then the cup. With this we have reached the climax of the Service of the Sacrament.
The pastor has removed the veil from over the chalice and moved the hosts to the paten (liturgical name for the plate which holds the bread), if they were not there already and either will speak the Words or will chant them. Unfortunately, fewer congregations hear the Words chanted. During the time of the Reformation, chanting the Verba was the way many people distinguished the Lutheran Church from the Catholic Church. In my congregation, the altar is set up and attached to the wall, so the words of our Lord are chanted over the elements facing away from the congregation. In some churches, you will see a free standing table/altar, where the pastor can go to the other side and say the words toward the people.
Every Sunday, we rehearse the night of Jesus “being handed over.” That word for being handed over or betrayed is παραδιδωμι which also means tradition/hand down. Jesus says to do these things in remembrance of Him, so the Church has always done it and continues to “hand it down to the next generation of the faithful” just as Paul says when he gives his account of the night in 1 Corinthians 11. By participating in the Sacrament, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
But who do we hear when those words are spoken? You hear Christ’s living voice. Just like the Gospel reading being the “high point” of the Service of the Word, so also the Words of Christ concerning His Supper are the high point of the Service of the Sacrament. So you actually hear the living voice of Jesus in these words, for they are not the Pastor’s words but Christ’s words.
Next time, we will dive into the words themselves but we can know for certain that they are Christ’s words for us, bidding us to come to eat and drink the very things through which He redeemed us and now through gives us life everlasting.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, Indiana
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Excellent.
Thank you for the kind review. May it be a blessing to you.