In popular culture, the term “Easter Egg” means something that is hidden or only observable to someone who is diligently looking for it. This can be like the fact that you can find the Star Wars characters R2D2 and C3PO in the hieroglyphs in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Stuff that is there that often gets over looked.

There are actually probably several “Easter Eggs” in our liturgical style of worship – oftentimes in terms of Bible verses being quoted. One of those Easter Eggs is something that we say every Sunday here at University Lutheran that you may not have realized changes. It’s something like a sandwich that gets something different in the middle every now and then. It’s called “The Proper Preface,” and it is the part that follows the “Lift up your hearts! We lift them to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God….”

Now you may not have realized it changes because it starts and generally ends the same. It starts off, “It is indeed good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places offer thanks….” 

We just finished a Sunday morning study on the liturgy, and the people in the study admitted that they didn’t realize how this changed. It changes according to the season, or according to the day if the day is a big enough celebration (like Trinity Sunday, Baptism of our Lord, etc). Back in Lent we were saying:

“You bid Your people cleanse their hearts and prepare with joy for the paschal (Easter) feast. Renew our zeal in faith and life, and bring us to the fullness of grace that belongs to the children of God….”

Now that it is Easter season, we are saying:

“Chiefly we are bound to praise you for the glorious resurrection of our Lord; for He is the true Passover Lamb who gave Himself to take away our sin. Who, by His death, has destroyed death, and by His rising has brought us to eternal life. And so with all the witnesses of the Resurrection, with earth and sea, and all their creatures, with angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim (kinds of angels mentioned in the Bible,” we praise Your Name….”

Like I said, when we hit Trinity Sunday and Pentecost Sunday it will be different, and then “Big Green” (the Sundays after Pentecost) will be another “proper preface”.

At the end of our study on the liturgy, we talked about the challenges that the liturgy presents. They are different than the challenges of other worship styles, but every style has its challenges. The liturgy presents the challenge of wording becoming so familiar, we don’t think deeply about what is being said sometimes. And when we do that, we miss out on what God is providing us.

So this Sunday, I hope you notice the “Proper Preface,” and I also hope that you can join us for our “Stump the Pastor” session for the Sunday study. We do this at the end of each of our studies and we vote on the next thing that we will study together. Consider joining us!