Why Do We Stand for the Gospel at the Divine Service?
All the manuals on rubrics, even the General Rubrics for TLH, simply state that the congregation stands at the announcement for the Gospel. So, why do we stand for the Gospel lesson and not for the others? And why in the Divine Service and not in the prayer offices? Luther Reed gives us the answer.
The reading in public worship of selections from the Gospels was early accompanied by appropriate liturgical action. Special honor was accorded the liturgical Gospel as revealing the divine nature of our Lord as the living Word ever present in the written Word. Veneration of the Word of God in this double sense expressed itself in significant customs and ceremonies, which, like a garden of fragrant flowers, surrounded the actual reading and indicated both the supremacy of the liturgical Gospel in the Service and the homage rendered the person of Christ in this Word.
In addition to giving vital significance to the readings from Holy Scripture by providing them in the vernacular, Lutheran services retained at least three of the most ancient and universal ceremonies: the standing of the people in reverence and willing obedience; the ascription of praise at the announcements; and less generally, the reading from the liturgical ‘north side’ of the altar.
The brief congregational responses are full of meaning. ‘Thanks be to God’ as a terse profession of faith, was a watchword or sign used by the early Christians and accepted by the doorkeepers as worshipers sought admission to the assemblies of the faithful in days of persecution. These words soon found a place alongside readings from the Gospel.
Together with the response after the Gospel, ‘Praise be to thee, O Christ,’ they express our recognition of the real presence of Christ in our worship. We address him as once actually present. We acknowledge the fact that the Christ of the Gospels and the Christ of the Sacrament are one and the same. Like Thomas of old we believe and cry, ‘My Lord and my God.’ The Scottish Book of Common Prayer (1764 and later) sacrifices broader poetic association by the precise and more prosaic, ‘Thanks be to thee, O Lord, for thy glorious Gospel.’
In medieval times the ‘Book of the Gospels was often written in letters of gold on purple vellum, sumptuously bound and encrusted with jewels. It was borne in formal procession to the ambo, later to the north side of the altar from which it was to be read (the lesser entrance in the Greek Liturgy). Incense and lighted tapers added fragrance and splendor to the action. The lights recalled his word: ‘I am the Light of the world.’ Silence and attention were proclaimed. Clergy and people rose respectfully as servants rise to receive the words of their Lord, and stood bareheaded. Bishops removed their mites, kings took off their crowns, and soldiers laid down their weapons.
Luther D. Reed, The Lutheran Liturgy, 299–300.
Why? Because “we acknowledge the fact that the Christ of the Gospels and the Christ of the Sacrament are one and the same.” Christ is the one speaking to us in our very midst.