The Eucharist

The Eucharist Sacrament of the Kingdom: Sacrament of the Kingdom by Alexander Schmemann

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Although Alexander Schmemann did not live to polish this last of his works, it is still a major contribution to liturgical theology. Schmemann writes with his usual piety, knowledge, and practical insight. The work is devotional and pastoral, rather than academic and polemical. Schmemann points out many areas in which Eastern Orthodox practice has fallen away from its own rich history and legacy. He is not afraid to criticize his own tradition, and I admire him for that. At the same time, I believe we Western Protestants have much to learn from Orthodoxy. Many of the theological “problems” that we obsess over simply aren’t that big a deal for Orthodoxy. They have refreshing, and complementary, perspectives on liturgy, the eucharist, and even the meaning of salvation.

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All Saints’ Day/ Reformation Day

Here is something I wrote a few years ago on the subject. 

And here are some more developed thoughts that I didn’t have time to write then!

“Reformation Day Thoughts (09)” - a talk I plan to give to at a church gathering on Oct. 31.

The Primacy of Peter-Review

The Primacy of Peter: Essays in Ecclesiology and the Early Church by John Meyendorff

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Although this book is a collection of essays by Eastern Orthodox writers, it is useful for Protestants who are rediscovering their family history, namely the history of the Church. The Orthodox churches have preserved many ancient traditions. We should seek to understand them, at the least, and not dismiss them out of hand. There is also much valuable information for countering the claims of Roman Catholics. The Orthodox claim to be “catholic,” but not Roman. There is a plethora of misinformation about Romanc Catholicism, and the authors in this volume write in an irenic and sympathetic tone. They sincerely desire unity among all Christians, and not mere platitudes about “catholicity.” For some, “catholicity” seems to mean that we can all just affirm the Apostle’s Creed, and then go our separate ways. This is not what “catholicity” meant to the Church Fathers, nor do I believe the Apostles would be pleased with our reductionism. Lastly, for those of us in the CREC, I believe this book contains gems of insight into the importance of the “local church,” and how the primacy of the local church relates to “catholicity.” Highly recommended for the stout of heart!

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St. Basil on Worship

St. Basil – “If the ocean is beautiful and worthy of praise to God, how much more beautiful is the conduct of this Christian assembly, where the voices of men, women, and children, blended and sonorous like the waves that break upon the beach, rise amidst our prayers to the very presence of God.” (Frederick Morgan Padelford, Essays on the Study and Use of Poetry by Plutarch and Basil the Great, Yale Studies in English 15 [1902] pp. 33-43.)

Sermon – The Good News of Adoption

Sermon (Ephesians 1:1-10)

Collect for Illumination (Calvin & Bucer)

“Almighty and gracious Father, since our whole salvation stands in our knowledge of your Holy Word, strengthen us now by your Holy Spirit that our hearts may be set free from all worldly thoughts and attachments of the flesh, so that we may hear and receive that same Word, and, recognizing your gracious will for us, may love and serve you with earnest delight, praising and glorifying you in Jesus Christ our Lord.”  We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord, in the power of the Spirit, Amen.

God recently blessed our family with the addition of an adopted daughter.  As I read through Scriptures, Paul’s use of the adoption-theme jumped out at me.  The doctrine of adoption is often over-looked, but it is central to the good news that Jesus brought into this world in His Incarnation.

Exhortation – 1st Sunday After Christmas

The contemporary church is tragically schizophrenic when it comes to liturgy.  Most Christians are more consistent in their weddings than in their churches.  We all know that weddings, funerals, and anniversaries call for high liturgy.  Why is it that we get all dressed up for a wedding, but not for church?  Why is it that the Marine Corps has a higher liturgy than the army of God?  The Marine Corps exalts honor and duty.  They are highly disciplined.  Is it any coincidence that they have highly developed rituals and uniforms?  We know special occasions call for special actions and special clothes.  Why is church treated differently?  Why is gathering before the Lord of the universe treated more casually than appearing before a king or president?  Does anyone waltz up to Queen Elizabeth in a Hawaiian T-shirt?  Would you go before a human judge (wearing a robe, I might add) sporting your dingiest blue jeans?  This is most definitely a special occasion.  This is why we wear liturgical vestments.  This is why you should consider what you wear to church, and why.  I won’t lay down a dress-code for you.  But, I would challenge you to think of this as a foretaste of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  We dress up for human weddings—why not dress up for the marriage of Christ and his Church?  We are the army of God—the Church Militant.  Let us consider our uniforms.  We are appearing before the Judge and King of the world.  Let your clothing reflect that.  Of course, our finest clothing cannot cover our sins.  Only the righteous robes of Jesus Christ can do that.  The best-dressed member of the church can still go to Hell.  Let us confess our sins and call our God to clothe us in His perfect righteousness.

Academic Mission Opportunity

I came across an exciting mission opportunity for academics. This organization sends Christian teachers into other countries, finding positions for them in secular universities. A quote on their home-page says it all:

“The university is a clear-cut fulcrum with which to move the world. Change the university and you change the world,” declared Dr. Charles Malik, former president of the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council.

Ascension and the Lord’s Supper

The Ascension of Christ is essential to our understanding of the Lord’s Supper.  Of course, most of what happens to us at this Table remains a mystery, but we can say a few things, given what we know about Christ.  We know that Christ is in heaven, seated at the Father’s right hand.  We also know that Jesus Christ still has a resurrection body.  Many Christians have never thought about this, but it is true.  John says that we don’t know what the resurrection will be like, but we know that we will be like Jesus (1 Jn. 3:2).  And we know that Jesus had a real body that Thomas could touch and feel.  Jesus ate and drank after his resurrection.  This table prepares us for heaven.  Revelation tells us that heaven will be the wedding feast of the Lamb.  We will eat and drink with Jesus in heaven.  We are eating and drinking with him now, in the Church.  But, we often assume heaven will be less than what we know now.  We think we’ll float around, playing harps.  But, what if heaven is an eternal banquet with tastes and pleasures that would make your mind explode now?  Perhaps, when Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding at Cana, he was bringing a little bit of heaven to earth.  Whatever heaven will be, we must guard against the gnostic heresy, which says our bodies are not important to our salvation.  Christ came to save the world, including our bodies.  In the Ascension, Christ took a human body back up to heaven.  Things have changed at the center of the universe.  We can’t go back.  A grand and glorious party is coming.  Don’t be left behind.  If you’ve been baptized, and are not under church discipline, then you are already wearing the wedding garments, and you need to come to this party.

Ascension Day

Thursday was Ascension Day.  Most of American Evangelicals do not know that.  And this is quite ironic.  We just celebrated Mothers’ Day.  Woe to you if you forgot this Most Holy Day!  Memorial Day is coming up.  Most of America has some exciting plan for Memorial Day.  Maybe a few people will actually visit the graves of our fallen soldiers.  But, Ascension Day?  Isn’t that Roman Catholic?  Well, it also happens to be one of the days the Reformers celebrated.  Ascension Day celebrates the ascension of our Lord and Savior back into heaven.  Jesus Christ was the God-Man.  He was God, who became Man, in order to take mankind back into the heavenly places with him.  You see, Jesus did not ascend alone.  As the Head of the Church, our Head ascended back into heaven.  And the location of the head affects the location of the body.  If the head is under water, the body spazzes for a while, and then dies.  But if the head is above the water, the body can be totally under water.  In the same way, if our head were still submerged in this sinful world, we would soon be shark-food.  But, since our Head is at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, we are filled with life, and we kick sharks in the face.  Where our Head is makes all the difference in this world, and the next.  So, let’s reclaim this wonderful Feast Day of the Church.  Our Lord is risen, Amen!  But the glory doesn’t stop there.  Our Lord is ascended into heaven.  Glory!  Hallelujah!  Because he ascended into heaven, we, too, will ascend into heaven.  Blessed be the name of our risen and ascended Lord.  But, we are not fit for heaven while we cling to this sinful life.  So, let us confess our remaining sins to Almighty God …

Eucharistic Meditation – Rogation Sunday

Gathering around this Table every Lord’s Day reminds us over and over again that we are part of God’s household.  God adopts us as his children.  Though our earthly families may crumble apart and though death may separate us from those we love, we are never separate from God’s love.  Often God takes things away from us so that we learn to appreciate them more.  But, the only thing which can keep us from this Table is our own stubborn refusal to repent of our sin.  Though God may take our husband, wife, or our children, he will not cast us out of his house.  As long as we are his children, we have a place at this Table.  As long as we are his children, he will feed us.  Let’s enjoy the fellowship we have with each other now, while it lasts on this earth.  Our earthly fellowship will be disrupted by death.  We will all die.  But, even that is only temporary.  We will fellowship with each other again in heaven.  We will fellowship with those that God has already taken to himself.  Paul was torn between remaining with the Church in his body or being with the Lord in his spirit.  We may think of old age and of losing our spouse with fear and uncertainty.  How will we make it?  God will give us strength for the day.  And God gives us strength for each day through the ministry of the Church.  God gives us strength for each day through this Table. 

Exhortation – Rogation Sunday

Heidelberg Catechism (Q. 27) – What dost thou mean by the providence of God?Answer: The almighty and everywhere present power of God; (a) whereby, as it were by his hand, he upholds and governs (b) heaven, earth, and all creatures; so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, (c) fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, (d) riches and poverty, (e) yea, and all things come, not by chance, but be his fatherly hand.

The catechism next teaches us about the nature of Providence.  From one point of view, nature is Providence.  We see God’s hand in the stars, in decomposing mulch, in the flight of a bird.  There really are no natural laws.  There is no such thing as an impersonal nature, much less a Mother Nature.  God the Father has established every so-called “law” of nature.  Nature is simply God’s law in action.  But providence means more than this: providence is God’s active care over his world.  The rain keeps falling on our heads because God makes it rain.  The lightning which tears the sky is his power.  The thunder which shakes our earth is his will shaking the earth.  Providence means that God is charge of every sparrow that smashes into your sliding glass door.  Providence means that God knows exactly how many hairs fell to the ground during your last hair-cut.  But some Christians are schizophrenic about providence.  This is often seen in what we call “natural” disasters.  As hard as it is to believe, we must believe that God was guiding the tornado which destroyed Greensberg, Kansas. 

Eucharistic Meditation – 4th Sunday After Easter

Sometimes we make spiritual matters too complicated.  Salvation comes through eating and drinking Christ.  Jesus tells us this in John 6:

53:  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
54: Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
55: For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56: He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
57: As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 

This is nothing new.  God’s first negative command to the human race concerned eating.  Satan tempted Adam and Eve to eat wrongly.  They fell for it, and we all fell through that disobedient eating.  Jesus came to show us how to eat and drink correctly.  Remember that Jesus was accused to partying too much—of eating with wrong crowd, and of drinking too much.  His first miracle, after all, was to turn gallons of water into wine at a marriage feast.  Jesus wasn’t a dour health-food nut.  But, he was a spiritual super-athlete, and he calls us to the same strenuous spiritual race.  We shouldn’t relax in our spiritual quest, but the problem is that we look for Jesus in all the wrong places.  We look for him in quiet times, precious moments, T-Shirts, mega-churches, and bumper-stickers.  Although all of these things might have their proper place, the Lord’s Supper tends to be forgotten in the mad rush after the latest purpose-driven fad.  Jesus didn’t promise to meet us in a quiet time-he did promise that, if we drink his blood and eat his flesh, he would give us his eternal life.

Exhortation – 4th Sunday After Easter

Corporate Recitation (Heidelberg Catechism)

Question 26. What believest thou when thou sayest, “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth”? Answer: That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (who of nothing made heaven and earth, with all that is in them; (a) who likewise upholds and governs the same by his eternal counsel and providence) (b) is for the sake of Christ his Son, my God and my Father; (c) on whom I rely so entirely, that I have no doubt, but he will provide me with all things necessary for soul and body (d) and further, that he will make whatever evils he sends upon me, in this valley of tears turn out to my advantage; (e) for he is able to do it, being Almighty God, (f) and willing, being a faithful Father.

Much is included in this description of our Great God.  In contrast to some people’s version of God, (more like a big Santa-in-the-sky who’s making a list and checking it twice) our God is a powerful Creator, and a loving Preserver.  God made the world out of nothing.  He made the world without our help, and he preserves it without our help.  God did not create the world and leave it alone to keep ticking by itself like a cosmic clock.  Rather, the world keeps ticking because God guides it every second.  God upholds the world and governs it actively, through his eternal plan.  That plan in action is called providence.  Through Christ’s work of redemption, God calls us his sons and daughters.  We rely on him completely, for everything.  We need to repent of our folly in thinking that we have earned anything.  Everything we have, God has given us as a gift.  This includes everything we wish we didn’t have.  All troubles and afflictions come upon us from the hands of a wise and loving Father.  There are many reasons why we must suffer hardships, but we trust in a wisdom higher than ours.  God could preserve us from all the evils things that have happened to us.  But, he chose not to.  The only question is whether we will respond in loving trust, or whether we’ll try to figure a better way.  Loving trust leads to the peace that passes all understanding.  Trusting in our own reason leads to suicidal madness and hedonistic annihilation.  Though we walk through a valley of tears, God prepares a table for us.  If we confess our stubborn pride and folly to him, he will lead us out of the valley of the shadow of death and will make us lie down in green pastures. 

Eucharistic Meditation – One Loaf

In the early Christian book of church order, the Didache, we find a beautiful prayer: “As this broken bread was scattered on top of the mountains and gathered together became one, so let your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your Kingdom: for the glory and the power is yours through Jesus Christ for ever.” 

 

The church is made up of all sorts of people, just as all sorts of grains can be made into one bread.  As farmers gather the broken kernels of wheat and fashion them into bread, so God gathers up the broken pieces of humanity and re-makes them into the image of Christ.  This is how God creates the Church.  But, the wheat must be cut down and crushed before it can be turned into bread.  So we must be broken before we are put together again.  God wants to realize we can’t do it by our own strength.  He will raise us up, but only after we stop trying to raise ourselves.  This doesn’t mean we stop trying and give ourselves up to drift with the current.  Rather, we cease from man’s works and turn to God’s works.  The work of God is that we believe on Him and His Son.  The work of God is that He feeds us around this table.  We need to come with hunger.  But we also need to come with the expectation of being filled.

Liturgy in the Corps

Liturgy is not dead … at least not in institutions which are carefully drilled, ready for action, and deadly in combat. The Church could learn a lot from the Marine Corps, according to an Episcopal priest writing in Touchstone: Rites & Wrongs of Passage.

Imagine trying to run the Marines the way some people run worship! You fight like you drill, you play like you practice, and worship is warfare.

Thawing the Frozen Chosen

At the risk of sounding too Emergent, I found this observation from Rice and Hufstuttler challenging:

“If Eucharist as giving thanks were central in our celebration of the Lord’s Supper, we might find ourselves dancing in the aisles, clapping our hands, and becoming carried away in the exuberance of the moment.  Perhaps one of the reasons Reformed Protestants are often characterized as ‘God’s frozen chosen’ is that we do not celebrate Eucharist frequently enough to be formed as a grateful people.  Without Eucharist, we put too much emphasis on what we accomplish, upon our duty and responsibility. 

Worship As Dialogue

Many folks go to church to hear a good sermon, and many folks to to church to let their spiritual emotions run wild.  I think a useful (and Biblical) view is to see worship as an ordered dialogue between God and his people.  More specifically, it is a dialogue between Jesus and his Bride.  Everyone knows a good conversation between husband and wife is not a boring, dry affair, unless there are bigger problems in the marriage.  A lively conversation involves emotions, and so should worship.

J.D. Crichton summarizes this dynamic well: “Because it is God who always takes the initiative, Christian worship is best discussed in the terms of response.  In worship man is responding to God and this is true of the whole of the liturgy, whether it be praise, thanksgiving, supplication, or repentance, whether it be Eucharist or baptism, or liturgical prayer or the celebration of the Church’s year,” (The Study of Liturgy, 7).

One application of the this dialogue/response principle is that the congregation should not be passive in worship.  The ancient church was wise to have a pattern of congregational responses to the minister.  Anglican churches have preserved this pattern, and it makes sense.  Church is not a lecture-hall.  Corporate worship should be just that: corporate, involving the whole Body of Christ. 

It also follows that congregational singing should be the congregation singing, and not drowned out by electric guitars and amps (or pipe organs). 

Ship of Orthodoxy

Good stuff from Jeff Meyers: “One value of a thoughtfully considered liturgy is that it enforces the idea that we are worshiping as the church, not as individuals or home groups. We are the Ship of Orthodoxy, not 350 separate rafts in a lagoon. The priesthood of all believers does not mean we don’t need the help of anyone else to worship; rather, it means that we all help one another approach the Lord through prayer, singing, hearing, and feeding at his Table.”

Trinity & Liturgical Sexuality

Lest anyone be scared off (or drawn to!) this post because of the title, let me hasten to clarify: James Jordan has argued that human gender (sexuality) is primarily a liturgical design-feature (see his challenging, but profound, articles here & here).

God has made us male and female to help us worship Him. Since worship is the center of human existence, by worshipping God as male and female, God is teaching us central truths about his own character and personality. Thus, male-pastors speak words of comfort and admonition to the Bride (the Church). The Church responds in loving submission and obedience, winning converts (seducing sinners!) by her chaste and modest life (1 Pt. 3:1-2).

This liturgical view of gender/sexuality helps square Galatians 4:28 (no longer male/female in Christ) with Paul’s prohibitions of female teaching and ruling in the Church (1 Tim. 2:11-12; 1 Cor. 14:34-35). This only makes sense if sexuality is a liturgical type (pointing to, or embodying spiritual truths), and not a permanent mold from which women can never escape (as in Islam or Mormonism, where women retain their sexuality in heaven). C.S. Lewis said (somewhere in That Hideous Strength) that we are all feminine in relation to God. Men just have the additional hardship of learning to feminine (in a Biblical sense!) on Sundays (excepting pastors).

Here, we Protestants need to learn (perhaps grudgingly) from the ruddy Roman Catholics: “The theological core of John Paul’s ‘theology of the body’ is his profoundly sacramental apprehension of reality. Our embodieness as male and female is not an accident of evolutionary biology, he insists. Rather, that embodiedness and the mutuality built into it express some of the deepest truths of the world, and teach us something about the world’s Creator. John Paul even goes so far as to propose that sexual love within the bond of marital fidelity is an icon of the interior life of God the Holy Trinity, a community of mutual self-donation and mutual receptivity. Thus, sexual love, within the bond of Christian marriage, is an act of worship,” (George Weigel, “John Paul II and the Crisis of Humanism,” in John Richard Neuhas, ed. The Second One Thousand Years: Ten People Who Defined a Millennium, 119).

So then, married sexual love is an expression of Trinitarian love & mutual indwelling. If our Christian marriages are not more attractive to the world, perhaps we’ve fallen into the Darwinian fallacy of thinking it’s all animal impulses.

Abraham Kupyer said that every inch of the universe belongs to Christ: this includes our sex-life. As Calvinists, we chant the chief end of man: “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever”. Amen … but we glorify Him and enjoy Him by glorifying our spouses, and enjoying them. There are depths here we have not begun to sound!

Christian War Songs

After the secularized Christmas rush has washed over us like a tsunami, after everyone’s heart has overflowed with good cheer, after we’ve all sung the traditional hymns of the season, perhaps we would do well to pause and gauge whether all of it really made a difference … Singing is a primary weapon of warfare for the Church, and we should expect to hear the howling of demons in the wake of our Christmas caroling. Singing expresses who we are; singing also forms us into who we will be. Singing expresses the faith of the Church; but singing also shapes the faith of the Church (“the rule of singing of the rule of faith”?). The ancient church understood this:

“Apparently is was the example of the Eastern church and a need to meet the Arian hymn-singers on their own grown that brought hymn-singing to the Western church. Hilary of Poitiers and Ambrose of Milan are credited with the introduction of hymns. Augustine records that Ambrose encouraged hymn-singing among those keeping vigil in the church premises to prevent the Arians from staging a coup, as it were,” (A Sacrifice of Praise: An Anthology of Christian Poetry in English from Caedmon to the Mid-Twentieth Century, 79).