WORSHIP
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DIVINE SERVICE
In the Divine Service (also called Holy Communion, Holy Eucharist, or Holy Mass), Jesus is present for His gathered guests to teach and to feed them through the Preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. The Divine Service is the center of the life of the church and every Christian.

Mount Calvary: Sunday at 8:30 AM
Immanuel: Sunday at 10:30 AM

Seasonal Divine Service as announced: Christmas, Epiphany, Baptism of Our Lord, The Annunciation, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, Ascension Day, Reformation Day, and All Saints' Day.

The Divine Service is broadcast on Eagle Grove Cable Access Channel 12 on Thursdays at 6 PM.

DAILY OFFICE
For centuries the Church has prayed the Daily Office. Lutherans retain the Daily Office of Matins (Morning Prayer), Vespers (Evening Prayer), and Compline (Bedtime Prayer) as services centered on the Scriptures, Psalms, hymns, and prayer.

Matins is prayed at Mount Calvary on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 9:00 AM. Vespers is prayed at Mount Calvary on Tuesdays at 3:30 PM and Wednesdays at 5:30 PM. Matins and Vespers are also prayed on additional days as announced. The schedule may change based on the meetings and pastoral visits of the pastor.

Matins is prayed at Immanuel on Mondays at 9 AM.

Matins

Monday 9 AM - Immanuel
Tuesday and Wednesday 9 AM - Mount Calvary

Vespers
Tuesday 3:30 PM
Wednesday 5:30 PM.

Compline
As announced

The Daily Office is prayed according to the orders in The Lutheran Hymnal (Matins, page 32; Vespers, page 41) and Lutheran Worship (Compline, page 263). Additional liturgical material is taken from The Brotherhood Prayer Book.

CHURCH YEAR

The Christian Church worships within the structure of a special calendar known as the church year. This calendar has developed through the history of the church in order to give full expression of the teachings of the church, centering in the life and work of Jesus Christ. The church year is centered in Sunday as the day of the chief worship of the church - the Divine Service.

Many Sundays have a special Latin title based on the Introit of each Sunday and Festival, which gives the main theme of the day. These Latin titles continue to be used to show the unity of the different themes in the church year and the connection of the church today with the church of all times and places. The basic seasons and festivals of the church year are as follows:

TIME OF CHRISTMAS

Advent - 4 weeks
Ad Te Levavi
Populus Zion
Gaudete
Rorate Coeli

Christmas - 12 days
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day (December 25)
1-2 Sundays After Christmas

Epiphany
Epiphany Day (January 6)
1-5 Sundays After Epiphany
Transfiguration

TIME OF EASTER

Pre-Lent - 3 weeks
Septuagesima
Sexagesima
Quinquagesima

Lent - 40 days
Ash Wednesday
Invocabit
Reminiscere
Oculi
Laetare
Judica
Palmarum: Palm Sunday
Maundy Thursday
Good Friday
Holy Saturday/Easter Vigil

Easter - 7 weeks
Easter Day
Quasimodogeniti
Misericordias Domini
Jubilate
Cantate
Rogate
Ascension Day
Exaudi

TIME OF THE CHURCH

Pentecost
Pentecost Day
Trinity Sunday
22-27 Sundays After Trinity

CHURCH YEAR HISTORY

Early Christians began to meet on Sunday to commemorate the Lord's Resurrection. We continue to meet on Sunday as a "little Easter." Eventually, Christians began to celebrate other aspects of Christ's saving work, death, and resurrection. Celebrations centering on these other aspects caused the seasons of the church year to develop.

Holy Week and Easter are the center of the church year. All of the other seasons and festivals lead to or proceed from the Sacred Triduum - Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter.

The church year is often illustrated in a circular manner. The themes of the end of the church year - the end times - neatly flow into the themes of the beginning of the church year - the coming of Christ.

The doctrine of the Trinity is also present in the church year. Christmas Day is the Feast of God the Father, who sent His Son for the atonement and redemption of man; Easter Day is the Feast of God the Son, who rose triumphant over sin, death, and the devil; Pentecost Day is the Feast of God the Holy Spirit, who continues to work through the church today.

The church year is an important part of the church's worship that helps us to meditate on the various important events and teachings of Christ each year.

LECTIONARY
A lectionary is an order of Scripture lessons assigned to each Sunday and festival in the church year. Throughout the history of the church, these lessons became assigned with a particular Sunday. Each Sunday is assigned an Old Testament, Epistle, and Holy Gospel. Some of the pericopes, or assigned sections or readings, date back to the 600s. The basic lectionary that we use today was in use at the time of the Reformation.

The lectionary helps the church to rehearse the chief events in the life and work of Christ each year. It keeps the preaching from focusing on favorite topics and to look to different aspects of Christ's teaching instead.

Each set of lessons in the lectionary is also assigned an Introit, Collect, Gradual, Verse, and, in some cases, a Chief Hymn. All of these portions of the Divine Service, known as the propers because they are proper to each Sunday, fit together with the lessons to provide a unified theme.

The idea of a lectionary goes back to the Old Testament. In various other portions of history, there have been other lectionaries used. The lectionary that we use is known as the historic one-year lectionary.

In the 1960s, the Roman Catholic Church formulated a three-year lectionary. Various Protestant churches have produced many different variations of this lectionary over the past decades. However, our parishes continue the practice prescribed by the Lutheran Confessions in the use of the historic one-year lectionary.

Why use the historic (one-year) lectionary?

It's historic.
The historic lectionary is just that: historic. It unites us to the liturgical tradition of the church. It causes us to remember our history, where we came from, and where we now are. It compels us to see our place in the history of the church.
It's catholic.
The historic lectionary is catholic in the true sense of the term. It is universal. It crosses denominational barriers and connects us with all of western Christendom. In the historic lectionary, we are united with the lessons heard by the saints of the church of the past and into the future.
It's Lutheran.
The Lutheran Confessions continue the traditional use of the historic lectionary in their parishes. Article XXIV of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession states: "We also keep traditional liturgical forms, such as the order of readings, prayers, vestments, and other similar things."
It's unified.
The pericopes of the historic lectionary correspond well with each other, so that the Old Testament and the Epistle fit with the Holy Gospel, the theme for the day. Accordingly, the Introits, Collects, Graduals, and Verses all fit together with the lessons of the day.
It's repetitive.
Year after year, Christians hear the central events in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ through the historic lectionary. In this way, these themes and passages are committed to memory for life. In this way, the lectionary is also catechetical. The historic lectionary teaches the basics of Christianity.
It's supported by quality resources.
For pastoral theologians and church musicians, there are many good resources available to help with planning for the Divine Service and for preaching on the historic Gospel lessons, such as Lindemann's "The Sermon and the Propers" or the seven volume set of Luther's Sermons.
It's not driven by quantity.
The purpose of the historic lectionary is to faithfully rehearse the key events and teachings in the life, ministry, and work of Jesus Christ. A lectionary for the Divine Services of the Sundays and Feasts of the Church Year is not to cover massive amounts of texts, but rather the central themes.
It's supported by Lutheran music and hymnody.
J. G. Walther, J.S. Bach, and the other kantors of the Lutheran Church wrote endless pieces of choral, instrumental, and organ music based on the chief hymns of the historic lectionary.
It's included in the Lutheran Service Book.
The compilers of the Missouri Synod's new hymnal included the historic lectionary, noting that "we are a historic church and acknowledge the value of what has been handed down to us." Additionally, in our biblically illiterate society, it will be best for congregations in the future to return to the use of the historic lectionary.

What are some issues with the three-year lectionary?

It's separated from the history of the church.
The three-year lectionary does not correspond with Christendom prior to the 1960s. Contrary to popular theory, the three-year lectionary did not evolve out of the historic lectionary, other than that the Church Year is still followed.
It's Catholic.
The three-year lectionary is Catholic in the denominational sense of the term. It was an innovation of the Roman Church and other denominations quickly adopted variations of it. It does not reflect the true catholicity of the church.
It's disintegrated.
The Epistles in the three-year series are done in a continuous reading fashion, prohibiting most connections to the Old Testament and the Gospel. The Introits and Collects are forced to serve for three different cycles of readings, so that many times there is little to no connection between the Introit, Collect, and the pericopes. This is a huge obstacle to unified, meaningful liturgy.
It's divided.
There really is no such thing as the three-year lectionary. Each denomination adapts it for its own purposes and agendas. The Vatican II original was modified by various Protestants as the "Revised Common Lectionary." The Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship made up its own version of this revision, which appears in Lutheran Worship (1982).
It's confusing.
Pastors and laity alike will find it difficult to remember the key themes of each Sunday in the three-year lectionary because the lessons are only presented every three years. It provides problems for future planning, because pastors must constantly think about which year (A, B, C) it now is and which year it will be on a particular church festival in the future. The new process used in Lutheran Service Book (2006) for determining the numbering of Sundays is confusing at best.
It's driven by quantity.
The common argument given as a benefit for the three-year lectionary is that it covers more of Scripture. No one can deny that this is true. However, contrary to the common thought, the three-year lectionary comes no where close to covering all of the Bible (for this is not a lectionary's purpose). The more Scripture argument is really one of the three-year lectionary's greatest disadvantages. A lectionary's purpose is to cover main themes, not the most passages.
It doesn't fit with historic Lutheran music and hymnody.
Pastors, kantors, and musicians of the Lutheran church until the 1960s all worked with the historic lectionary. The hymnody and sacred music of the church has been designed to fit around those themes in the liturgical year. Attempting to fit the historic chief hymns and their corresponding service music with the three-year lectionary will, on many Sundays, result in frustration and disconnected liturgy.

RESOURCES FOR THE LECTIONARY

Worship Planning

Gerike, Ralph. Planning the Service: A Workbook for Pastors, Organists, and Choirmasters. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1961. (out of print) Reprinted by Concordia Theological Seminary.

Lang, Paul H. D. Ceremony and Celebration. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1965. (out of print) Reprinted by Redeemer Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, IN

Lindemann, Fred H. The Sermon and the Propers (4 vols.) St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958. (out of print)

Reed, Luther D. The Lutheran Liturgy. Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1947. (out of print)

Preaching

Lindemann, Fred H. The Sermon and the Propers (4 vols.) St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958. (out of print)

Complete Sermons of Martin Luther (7 vols) Available from Christian Book Distributors.

Kantors/Choir Directors

Bunjes, Paul. The Service Propers Noted. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1960. (CPH 97-7598) - Notice that this comes in separate accompaniment and melody-only editions.

Buszin, Walter E. The Introits for the Church Year. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1942. (in the "Concordia Liturgical Series for Church Choirs")

---. The Graduals for the Church Year. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1944. (CPH 97-7508) (in the "Concordia Liturgical Series for Church Choirs")

Christensen, Albert O. and Haroled E. Schuneman. Propers of the Service. New York: The H. W. Gray Co., Inc., 1947.

Lindemann, Herbert. The Sunday Psalter. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1961. (CPH 97-6342)

Miner, J. G. The Propers of the Service. St. Louis: Concordia Seminary Print Shop, 1965.

Petrich, Roger. Introits and Graduals for the Paschal Season. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1966. (CPH 97-4722)

Willan, Healey. Introits for the Church Year. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1957. (CPH 97-7611)

A blog on the historic lectionary: 

HYMNODY

Singing the Faith

SACRED MUSIC

Bach Cantatas Website