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Liturgical Catechesis: Gloria in Excelsis
By Rev. William M. Cwirla
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Glory to the Most High God! Anyone who knows the familiar Christmas story from Luke will recognize this as the song of the angels, sung to shepherds on the night Jesus was born. Early Christians sang it as a morning hymn, and then in the late 5 th century as the first hymn of the Divine Service. According to tradition, it was first sung at a pontifical mass at Christmas midnight. Christmas comes to the Divine Service every Sunday with the Gloria in Excelsis.
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The Gloria is a hymn of praise and confession. It begins with praise to the Most High God (“in excelsis Deo”), which in Hebrew is El Elyon (Genesis 14:18), the God who is “way out there,” above and beyond it all. But this God who is way out there has reached all the way down to us here in the Person of His Son born of the Virgin in Bethlehem. And the same God who is above the highest heavens still reaches down to us in the same earthy, creaturely way in the Word and the Sacrament. Truly, every Sunday is a little Christmas! Every congregation, a little Bethlehem.
Traditionally, the pastor chanted the opening line, and the choir or congregation sang the Trinitarian hymn that tagged along with it. Praise becomes confession, and a hymn of praise becomes a creed.
We worship, give thanks to, and praise the Most High God for His great glory. He is Yahweh God (of Genesis 2), the heavenly King, the Almighty Father—Monarch and Maker of all things. “I believe that God has made me and all creatures.” That alone is reason enough for praise, but it’s something short of good news. We can’t just stop with the Father nor with His being King. We need to push on to the Son and His stepping down from way up there to dwell with us down here. “The Word became Flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
Like the Creed, the bulk of the Gloria in Excelsis focuses on Jesus Christ, the only Son of the Father (John 1), the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 2). From Him we pray for mercy, for He is God’s mercy in the flesh. He took away the sin of the world by His self-sacrifice as our High Priest, and for this reason, our prayers are received by Him and delivered to His Father as He sits enthroned at the Father’s right hand.
He alone is holy; we are not holy apart from Him. He alone is holy, yet He is never alone, but is ever with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the glory of the undivided Unity.
Poor Holy Spirit! He doesn’t get much attention in the Gloria, does He? At the Council of Nicea (325 AD), they were content to simply say, “We confess the Holy Spirit,” and leave it at that. The Council of Constantinople (381 AD) added a few phrases about His being the Lord and Giver of Life, but still, the Holy Spirit always seems to be nothing more than an afterthought to the Creed. And the odd thing is, He likes it that way! He’s always turning the spotlight on Jesus, giving glory to Him, proclaiming Him, fixing our eyes on Jesus, who tells us, “He will bring glory to Me” (John 16:14).
The Gloria in Excelsis teaches us that our prayer, praise, and thanksgiving rest on the works of God: creation, redemption, and sanctification. That’s why we don’t just have “prayer and praise” services or “praise songs.” Praise and prayer rest on the firm foundation of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—centered in what Jesus has done for us by His dying and rising as the Lamb of God.
The hymnal permits omitting the Gloria in Excelsis during the seasons of Advent and Lent. While it’s perfectly fine to continue singing it, it’s also helpful to let it go quiet for a season so that it can come back with renewed joy at Christmas and Easter. It’s like a fast before a feast. In our congregation, we do the Litany in place of the Kyrie and the Gloria. You can also substitute the Te Deum for the Gloria in Excelsis as another 6 th century hymn of praise that is also a confession of the Triune Name of God.
In the Gloria in Excelsis, our voices are joined with those of centuries of Christians who have praised and confessed before us. And with them, the angelic hosts of heaven who once sang to shepherds who were in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night.
Rev. William M. Cwirla is the pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Hacienda Heights, California.
