“We continue by singing ‘Simeon’s song‘” has been how I have introduced the Nunc Dimittis for the past couple of weeks now (Latin for the first line’s of Simeon’s song in Luke, “Now, You dimiss [me]”). This was because someone was talking to me about how we help people, especially students, understand what is going on in worship, and I thought it was a worthwhile thing to introduce it like that. 
University Lutheran’s website says that we are “low-church liturgical“. I made that term up. I hope it communicates that we worship using the historic liturgy, but that we don’t get…well…weird about it. (“Low Church” is a term from the divide in the Church of England between people that are more Roman Catholic in worship or “high church” and people that are more Protestant or “low church”). Getting “weird about it” is probably a Lutheran concept – and not even one shared by all Lutherans. I have described the Lutheran use of the liturgy as “blue collar liturgy” (blue collar meaning ‘working class’). It is a liturgical style that for the most part refuses to put on airs – this fluctuates through the years, but generally speaking it means that Lutherans are liturgy-positive, but we draw the line at too-fancy-robes and an overabundance of well…just fancy-pants stuff. That’s fine for Episcopalians and Roman Catholics and others in our “liturgical tribe”, but we’re going to keep it basic, thanks. In fact, even I, a self-proclaimed leader of a “low-church-liturgical” worship experience on Sundays have been told that maybe I’m getting a little too fancy for Lutheranism with certain practices (for the record, I’ve also been accused of the opposite).
But here is the thing – even our “low church liturgical” style is incomprehensible to some people. More than that, even for people that worship with us on most Sundays are probably missing out of some of what is supposed to be understood and engaged with in our worship services….like that we sing the Nunc Dimittis (Simeon’s Song) because we’re saying to God “Like Simeon, we have just seen Jesus in the flesh (in the Sacrament of the Altar), and now we are asking you to let us depart in peace and rejoicing having seen our Savior.”
So for the next little bit, we’re going to do a newsletter series about the liturgy. It’s going to be from our “low church liturgical” point of view, which means that we’ll try to make it as plain as possible so that the “fancy” can be not in the practice itself, but rather in the connection that it has with Jesus. The hope is that every week you will be able to see something new and special about your connection with the Triune God in worship. So next time you sing Simeon’s Song, notice the words and sing them like they’re your own after having seen your Savior in the flesh, because that is what happened. And it doesn’t need to be fancy for that to be meaningful.
And hopefully, the next Sunday that someone new sits next to you and pages through the bulletin, looking at it like it’s a Chinese bicycle assembly manual, you’ll be able to help them out – to show them what worship is all about, and how it is meaningful even when it isn’t fancy.