a wheel was shown to me,
wonderful to behold . . .
divinity is in its omniscience
and omnipotence
like a wheel,
a circle,
a whole,
that can neither be understood,
nor divided,
nor begun nor ended. --hildegard of bingen
Friday, February 8, 2008
getting started, or, don't try this at home
one never knows where the path will lead.
it is 6:00 in the morning on the third sunday of advent, still dark and eighteen degrees. i light a candle, pull a blanket around my shoulders, and begin morning prayer. "o lord, open thou our lips, and our mouths shall show forth thy praise." because it is advent, i start with venite (psalm 95:1-7, 96:9,13), which ends with
"for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth,
and with righteousness to judge the world
and the peoples with his truth."
next, because it is the sixteenth morning of the month, follow psalms 79, 80, 81, beginning
"o god, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple
have they defiled, and made jerusalem a heap of stones."
psalm 81 concludes
"i would have fed them also with the finest wheat-flour;
and with honey out of the stony rock would i have satisfied them."
then comes a reading from isaiah, promising the desert will bloom (ch. 35), and because it is sunday, the te deum. the new testament reading describes the birth of john the baptist (luke 1:57ff), and by the time his father zecheriah is singing that
"the dayspring from high has visited us,
to give light to them that sit in the darkness, and in the shadow of death . . ."
a cold winter sunrise is reddening the south-east horizon, showing through my frosty plastic window a hundred-acre wood dusted with snow.
i sing christina rossetti's "in the bleak mid-winter" softly.
i am very cold, and most people would think me very alone, and i am very happy.
how did i get here? did the circling path that led to this cold hermit's morning begin the early fall morning my kayak took me around a bend of the st. francis river to find a huge bald cypress becoming dozens of great blue herons in the sunrise? yes.
did it begin the morning in the season of epiphany when i walked cautiously through the red doors of all saints' episcopal church to enter the daily office? yes.
or did it begin when i moved to santa fe to watch sunsets? yes.
by the grace of god when there has been a fork in the road, at least for the past thirty years, i have taken it. gradually the curves had led me back to the place where i had begun, to find it for the first time.
i began to notice what was happening, that i was becoming an accidental hermit, during a three-year long exploration of the waters of north-west washington and south british columbia in a red folding kayak named brendan. i cautiously cast off from a dock in anacortes one may morning, weighted down with all the gear the fear-and-gear mongers want to sell paddlers, and with the expectation of seeing a lot of beautiful "nature." three septembers later, i pulled up on an afternoon beach in bellingham, wearing only shorts, carrying a single cooking pot and a century-old copy of the holy bible, authorized version.
i knew i did not want to move back into a house, or to return to a career. as francis of assissi said, we do not live in houses. and as i've been told tom robbins said, " a career is a totally inadequate response to life. asked what i had learned, i was surprised to find the answer was easy. what i had expected to be many parts of nature had proved to be one whole creation.
a neighbor in the ozarks is shocked and a bit worried that i live without what she calls creature comforts, but i find that what i have found are the comforts of the creature, that, as annie dillard wrote, we are all created.
if you decide to take the path, do not expect it to lead to my little hut in the ozarks. do not be afraid that you will end up cold and alone on a snow morning. but do pay attention. what the holy one has in store for you is more than we can hope for or imagine.
pay attention. stay awake. put an axe in your television and watch the sunsets and the sunrises instead of listening to morning edition. sing with mary in the evening and zechariah in the morning instead of listening to mp3's. read the daily office instead of the new york times.
i'm alive serious here. there is a great pearl in that field, but if you are not willing to sell everything that you hve to buy it, you will die with the stuff for a good yard sale, but you will miss living in the kingdom of heaven.
it is 6:00 in the morning on the third sunday of advent, still dark and eighteen degrees. i light a candle, pull a blanket around my shoulders, and begin morning prayer. "o lord, open thou our lips, and our mouths shall show forth thy praise." because it is advent, i start with venite (psalm 95:1-7, 96:9,13), which ends with
"for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth,
and with righteousness to judge the world
and the peoples with his truth."
next, because it is the sixteenth morning of the month, follow psalms 79, 80, 81, beginning
"o god, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple
have they defiled, and made jerusalem a heap of stones."
psalm 81 concludes
"i would have fed them also with the finest wheat-flour;
and with honey out of the stony rock would i have satisfied them."
then comes a reading from isaiah, promising the desert will bloom (ch. 35), and because it is sunday, the te deum. the new testament reading describes the birth of john the baptist (luke 1:57ff), and by the time his father zecheriah is singing that
"the dayspring from high has visited us,
to give light to them that sit in the darkness, and in the shadow of death . . ."
a cold winter sunrise is reddening the south-east horizon, showing through my frosty plastic window a hundred-acre wood dusted with snow.
i sing christina rossetti's "in the bleak mid-winter" softly.
i am very cold, and most people would think me very alone, and i am very happy.
how did i get here? did the circling path that led to this cold hermit's morning begin the early fall morning my kayak took me around a bend of the st. francis river to find a huge bald cypress becoming dozens of great blue herons in the sunrise? yes.
did it begin the morning in the season of epiphany when i walked cautiously through the red doors of all saints' episcopal church to enter the daily office? yes.
or did it begin when i moved to santa fe to watch sunsets? yes.
by the grace of god when there has been a fork in the road, at least for the past thirty years, i have taken it. gradually the curves had led me back to the place where i had begun, to find it for the first time.
i began to notice what was happening, that i was becoming an accidental hermit, during a three-year long exploration of the waters of north-west washington and south british columbia in a red folding kayak named brendan. i cautiously cast off from a dock in anacortes one may morning, weighted down with all the gear the fear-and-gear mongers want to sell paddlers, and with the expectation of seeing a lot of beautiful "nature." three septembers later, i pulled up on an afternoon beach in bellingham, wearing only shorts, carrying a single cooking pot and a century-old copy of the holy bible, authorized version.
i knew i did not want to move back into a house, or to return to a career. as francis of assissi said, we do not live in houses. and as i've been told tom robbins said, " a career is a totally inadequate response to life. asked what i had learned, i was surprised to find the answer was easy. what i had expected to be many parts of nature had proved to be one whole creation.
a neighbor in the ozarks is shocked and a bit worried that i live without what she calls creature comforts, but i find that what i have found are the comforts of the creature, that, as annie dillard wrote, we are all created.
if you decide to take the path, do not expect it to lead to my little hut in the ozarks. do not be afraid that you will end up cold and alone on a snow morning. but do pay attention. what the holy one has in store for you is more than we can hope for or imagine.
pay attention. stay awake. put an axe in your television and watch the sunsets and the sunrises instead of listening to morning edition. sing with mary in the evening and zechariah in the morning instead of listening to mp3's. read the daily office instead of the new york times.
i'm alive serious here. there is a great pearl in that field, but if you are not willing to sell everything that you hve to buy it, you will die with the stuff for a good yard sale, but you will miss living in the kingdom of heaven.
on time, life, and the recreation of the universe
for many years now i have been pondering the wonderful way the "church year" brings together the elements of the universe and of our life in christ. i am not becoming any younger, so if i want to put this together in some hopefully helpful form, the time to do it is now.
what i want to do is to try to establish the relationship between the day, the week, and the year, then to show how the same patterns are revealed in our lives in christ as part of the recreation of the universe.
your responses are welcomed.
what i want to do is to try to establish the relationship between the day, the week, and the year, then to show how the same patterns are revealed in our lives in christ as part of the recreation of the universe.
your responses are welcomed.
1. evening and morning:the holy one
"in the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth." (genesis 1:1)
thus begins the story which comprehends all stories. it is the story not only of the holy one's creation of all things, but also of his self-revelation through all things.
how could it be otherwise? if it is true for us, who are created in the image of god, that all writing is autobiography, all painting self-portraiture, should it surprise us if creation is the first way god shows himself?
the story continues:
"now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God's spirit hovered over the water.
"god said, "let there be light,' and there was light. god saw that light was good, and god divided light from darkness. god called light 'day,' and darkness he called 'night.' evening came and morning came: the first day." (genesis 1:1b-5)
thus comes about god's first creations, light andtime. with time, evening and morning, the first day, comes also a pattern we can see repeated again and again. out of darkness comes the light. here in these opening verses of genesis are predicted (in the literal sense of "spoken before") the mystery of pregnancy and birth, samson's riddle, the exodus from egyptian slavery, the season of advent, and the resurrection from the dead. here we are given a hermeneutic for understand all the scripture to follow. here eternity puts on the clothing of time, even as god in christ will put on the clothing of flesh.
thus begins the story which comprehends all stories. it is the story not only of the holy one's creation of all things, but also of his self-revelation through all things.
how could it be otherwise? if it is true for us, who are created in the image of god, that all writing is autobiography, all painting self-portraiture, should it surprise us if creation is the first way god shows himself?
the story continues:
"now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God's spirit hovered over the water.
"god said, "let there be light,' and there was light. god saw that light was good, and god divided light from darkness. god called light 'day,' and darkness he called 'night.' evening came and morning came: the first day." (genesis 1:1b-5)
thus comes about god's first creations, light andtime. with time, evening and morning, the first day, comes also a pattern we can see repeated again and again. out of darkness comes the light. here in these opening verses of genesis are predicted (in the literal sense of "spoken before") the mystery of pregnancy and birth, samson's riddle, the exodus from egyptian slavery, the season of advent, and the resurrection from the dead. here we are given a hermeneutic for understand all the scripture to follow. here eternity puts on the clothing of time, even as god in christ will put on the clothing of flesh.
2. festivals, days, years:cosmic events
"god said, 'let there be lights in the vault of heaven to divide day from night, and let them indicate festivals, days and years.'" (genesis 1:14)
many modern writers, non-christian and christian both, assume that festivals are somewhat arbitrary, being entirely human inventions, no divine revelation of them having happened or being possible. but genesis asserts, in agreement with most people everywhere who live close to nature, to the creation, that festivals are part of the same natural order as "scientifically observable" days and years. this assertion is not primarily epistemological, about how we know things, but ethical, about how we live. how we celebrate festivals is deeply important not only to our well-being, but to the well-being of the whole world.
so isaiah will report "the word of yahweh" both as
"what are your endless sacrifices to me?
. . .
i am sick of holocausts of rams,
and the fat of calves.
the blood of bulls and goats revolts me.
. . .
new moons, sabbaths, assemblies--
i cannot endure festivals and solemnities.
. . .
your hands are covered with blood,
wash, make yourself clean." (isaiah 1:10-16)
and as
"Jacob, you have not invoked me,
you have not troubled yourself on my behalf.
you have not brought me your sheep for holocausts
nor honored me with sacrifices." (isaiah 43:22-23)
many modern writers, non-christian and christian both, assume that festivals are somewhat arbitrary, being entirely human inventions, no divine revelation of them having happened or being possible. but genesis asserts, in agreement with most people everywhere who live close to nature, to the creation, that festivals are part of the same natural order as "scientifically observable" days and years. this assertion is not primarily epistemological, about how we know things, but ethical, about how we live. how we celebrate festivals is deeply important not only to our well-being, but to the well-being of the whole world.
so isaiah will report "the word of yahweh" both as
"what are your endless sacrifices to me?
. . .
i am sick of holocausts of rams,
and the fat of calves.
the blood of bulls and goats revolts me.
. . .
new moons, sabbaths, assemblies--
i cannot endure festivals and solemnities.
. . .
your hands are covered with blood,
wash, make yourself clean." (isaiah 1:10-16)
and as
"Jacob, you have not invoked me,
you have not troubled yourself on my behalf.
you have not brought me your sheep for holocausts
nor honored me with sacrifices." (isaiah 43:22-23)
3. male and female:icon of god as community
"god said, 'let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts and all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth.
"god created man in the image of himself,
in the image of god he created him,
male and female he created them.
"god blessed them . . . ." (genesis 1:26-28)
at first this passage may seem an odd choice in a reflection on time, on what we usually call the church year. but the holy one's creation is not an abstract or merely subjective act. nor is it, despite many writers' claims, perfect. it is good, indeed very good. but not perfect, not finished. jesus will say, "my father goes on working, and so do i." (john 5:17) he will also model what it really means to be a master, assuming the role of a slave and washing his disciples' feet (john 13:1-20). but that will be far in the future. for now this mancreature, male and female, is iconic and prophetic. this is the particular creature which god blesses, who is created in "our own image, in the likeness of ourselves," revealing that the creator, although one god, is also a community, whom this mancreature will come to know as a trinity of persons, coming to understand that our own personhood exists fully in community as well. and ultimately in the incarnation, the holy one will take on our very flesh. god's spirit will hover over mary the mother of jesus in a new creation. all of these things will happen in time, not as randomly strung beads of chaos, of unrelated events, but in days and months, weeks and years, that reveal the continuing work of god and that form us in his image day by day. we are created both to be the recipient of the holy one's self-revelation and the agents of that revelation. we are blessed, the only part of creation of which this is said, to be a blessing.
"god created man in the image of himself,
in the image of god he created him,
male and female he created them.
"god blessed them . . . ." (genesis 1:26-28)
at first this passage may seem an odd choice in a reflection on time, on what we usually call the church year. but the holy one's creation is not an abstract or merely subjective act. nor is it, despite many writers' claims, perfect. it is good, indeed very good. but not perfect, not finished. jesus will say, "my father goes on working, and so do i." (john 5:17) he will also model what it really means to be a master, assuming the role of a slave and washing his disciples' feet (john 13:1-20). but that will be far in the future. for now this mancreature, male and female, is iconic and prophetic. this is the particular creature which god blesses, who is created in "our own image, in the likeness of ourselves," revealing that the creator, although one god, is also a community, whom this mancreature will come to know as a trinity of persons, coming to understand that our own personhood exists fully in community as well. and ultimately in the incarnation, the holy one will take on our very flesh. god's spirit will hover over mary the mother of jesus in a new creation. all of these things will happen in time, not as randomly strung beads of chaos, of unrelated events, but in days and months, weeks and years, that reveal the continuing work of god and that form us in his image day by day. we are created both to be the recipient of the holy one's self-revelation and the agents of that revelation. we are blessed, the only part of creation of which this is said, to be a blessing.
4. the sabbath:holiness
"on the seventh day god completed the work he had been doing. he rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing. god blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he had rested from all his work of creating." (genesis 2:2-3)
simone weil had the insight that god and all creation is less than god alone. this is a clue to why holiness is spoken only of the sabbath, that part of creation in which god rested. often we hear said, whether in awe or in derision, that the world was created in seven days. but everything that was made was made in six days. yet the week has seven days, ending in the holiness of god's resting.
as the story that begins in genesis continues, rest and its connection with holiness will be a recurring theme. sometimes it is the story of holiness lost, as in psalm 95 (:10-11):
"for forty years that generation repelled me,
until i said; how unreliable these people
who refuse to grasp my ways! and so, in anger, i swore that not one
would reach the place of rest i had for them.
sometimes it is an invitation to holiness, as in isaiah (30:15):
for thus says the lord YHWH, the holy one of israel:
your salvation lies in returning and rest,
your strength in complete trust." (jb emended by the author after bcp 1979)
sometimes it is reported as an experience, as in psalm 131 (:1-2):
'YHWY, my heart has no lofty ambitions,
my eyes do not look too high.
i am not concerned with great affairs
or marvels beyond my scope.
enough for me to keep my soul tranquil and quiet
like a child in its mother's arms,s
as content as a child that has been weaned.
and finally, when the messiah had come, and the writer of the epistle to the hebrews would try to understand this awesome act of god "according to the scriptures," he or she would use the metaphor of sabbath rest to describe our great salvation. (hebrews 3:7-4:11)
simone weil had the insight that god and all creation is less than god alone. this is a clue to why holiness is spoken only of the sabbath, that part of creation in which god rested. often we hear said, whether in awe or in derision, that the world was created in seven days. but everything that was made was made in six days. yet the week has seven days, ending in the holiness of god's resting.
as the story that begins in genesis continues, rest and its connection with holiness will be a recurring theme. sometimes it is the story of holiness lost, as in psalm 95 (:10-11):
"for forty years that generation repelled me,
until i said; how unreliable these people
who refuse to grasp my ways! and so, in anger, i swore that not one
would reach the place of rest i had for them.
sometimes it is an invitation to holiness, as in isaiah (30:15):
for thus says the lord YHWH, the holy one of israel:
your salvation lies in returning and rest,
your strength in complete trust." (jb emended by the author after bcp 1979)
sometimes it is reported as an experience, as in psalm 131 (:1-2):
'YHWY, my heart has no lofty ambitions,
my eyes do not look too high.
i am not concerned with great affairs
or marvels beyond my scope.
enough for me to keep my soul tranquil and quiet
like a child in its mother's arms,s
as content as a child that has been weaned.
and finally, when the messiah had come, and the writer of the epistle to the hebrews would try to understand this awesome act of god "according to the scriptures," he or she would use the metaphor of sabbath rest to describe our great salvation. (hebrews 3:7-4:11)
5. the day:evening and morning:evening
there is a tribe, the kogi, in tropical south america, who say that when an infant begins life it knows three things: mother, night, and water.
the same simple but profound knowledge is reflected in the daily prayer of the church, who has not forgotten that the evening and the morning are the day, even if this wisdom shows up in popular culture only as christmas eve and hallowe'en.
water in the womb it is dark and we live surrounded by water, our own little sea, remembered in romance language congates such as mere and mar, mother and ocean, and celebrated in the first sacrament of the church, baptism, which in an ancient custom being more and more recovered, happens in its fullest on the eve of easter, when we are plunged into the waters of rebirth as we remember our lord's day in the womb of mother earth, sharing his death that we might share his resurrection. paul describes this image beautifully in the sixth chapter of his epistle to the romans: ". . . when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as christ was raised from the dead by the father's glory, we too might live a new life." (6:4)
night each evening, but especially saturday evening, beginning as it does the sunday, the little easter, the day of the resurrection, is an opportunity to reclaim the promises of baptism, not only those we made or which were made for us, but more importantly those the church made to us and which we as the body of christ made to one another. we confess our sins and forgive and are forgiven. we reenter the darkness of the womb of rebirth to start another, yet more glorious day.
mother and we sing the magnificat (see the appendex for this and other canticles), the great canticle of the mother of our lord. as we sing we not only to fulfill the prophetic line, "all generations will call me blessed," (luke 1:48) but also because we, too, if we say "let it be according to your word," (luke 1:38) may have the holy spirit come upon us that we, too, may become temples of the holy one in order as it says in the eucharistic liturgy, "that he may dwell in us and we in him." it is by making ourselves available to birth the kingdom of god that we are birthed into the kingdom of god.
perhaps the gospel of thomas has it right:
"if you give birth to that which is in you,
it will save you.
if you keep it within you,
it will be your death." (gospel of thomas 71, author's translation)
the same simple but profound knowledge is reflected in the daily prayer of the church, who has not forgotten that the evening and the morning are the day, even if this wisdom shows up in popular culture only as christmas eve and hallowe'en.
water in the womb it is dark and we live surrounded by water, our own little sea, remembered in romance language congates such as mere and mar, mother and ocean, and celebrated in the first sacrament of the church, baptism, which in an ancient custom being more and more recovered, happens in its fullest on the eve of easter, when we are plunged into the waters of rebirth as we remember our lord's day in the womb of mother earth, sharing his death that we might share his resurrection. paul describes this image beautifully in the sixth chapter of his epistle to the romans: ". . . when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as christ was raised from the dead by the father's glory, we too might live a new life." (6:4)
night each evening, but especially saturday evening, beginning as it does the sunday, the little easter, the day of the resurrection, is an opportunity to reclaim the promises of baptism, not only those we made or which were made for us, but more importantly those the church made to us and which we as the body of christ made to one another. we confess our sins and forgive and are forgiven. we reenter the darkness of the womb of rebirth to start another, yet more glorious day.
mother and we sing the magnificat (see the appendex for this and other canticles), the great canticle of the mother of our lord. as we sing we not only to fulfill the prophetic line, "all generations will call me blessed," (luke 1:48) but also because we, too, if we say "let it be according to your word," (luke 1:38) may have the holy spirit come upon us that we, too, may become temples of the holy one in order as it says in the eucharistic liturgy, "that he may dwell in us and we in him." it is by making ourselves available to birth the kingdom of god that we are birthed into the kingdom of god.
perhaps the gospel of thomas has it right:
"if you give birth to that which is in you,
it will save you.
if you keep it within you,
it will be your death." (gospel of thomas 71, author's translation)
6. the day:evening and morning:interlude
"the heavens declare the glory of god,
the vault of heaven proclaims his handiwork:
day discourses of it to day,
night to night hands on the knowledge." (Psalm 19:1-2)
in a section of his delightfully insightful book prayer shapes believing called "hinges of daily prayer," leonel h. mitchell more or less proves scholastically that evening and morning prayer "have a different status" from other times of prayer, quoting from the second vatican council's constitution on sacred liturgy that "[they]are the two hinges on which the daily office turns. they must be considered as the chief hours and are to be celebrated as such;" from robert taft, s.j., that "the offices at the begenning and end of day are . . . ritual moments symbolic of the whole of time . . . . they are our priest prayer as god's priestly people for our needs and those of the entire world. this is what liturgy means . . . . as a matter of fact, this is what life means;" and from the taize community, that "the liturgy of the church, the daily office, is part of the heavenly liturgy, of the office of christ and the angels, presenting before the throne of the father the prayersof the saints, toether with their own praise and intercessions."
of course, only we silly people need this proof, this reminder. the rest of the animal kingdom, knows and celebrates. at dusk and at dawn there is always a pause, a change in dance and song. i have watched, at black bass lake in arkansas, young white-tailed does dance their lauds as the sun lightens the mists of the new creation. and one midsummer, one in which the full moon and the solstice coincided, making very high tides that swallowed the beaches of hope island at the southern end of puget sound, i read vespers each evening in a madrona that overhung the water, i on one branch, and each evening for a week, a raven on another. we came, i think, to begin to understand each other's alien chants.
each of those evenings we both, man and raven, were given the amazing gifts of darkness and pregnancy, water and the mother. and each mornining, as i would boil water for the tea with which i toasted the rising son, sent to "guide our feet into the way of peace," (luke 1:79b) that raven, who came to share his oat meal with me, and i were given the amazing gifts of light and birth, warmth and the father.
the vault of heaven proclaims his handiwork:
day discourses of it to day,
night to night hands on the knowledge." (Psalm 19:1-2)
in a section of his delightfully insightful book prayer shapes believing called "hinges of daily prayer," leonel h. mitchell more or less proves scholastically that evening and morning prayer "have a different status" from other times of prayer, quoting from the second vatican council's constitution on sacred liturgy that "[they]are the two hinges on which the daily office turns. they must be considered as the chief hours and are to be celebrated as such;" from robert taft, s.j., that "the offices at the begenning and end of day are . . . ritual moments symbolic of the whole of time . . . . they are our priest prayer as god's priestly people for our needs and those of the entire world. this is what liturgy means . . . . as a matter of fact, this is what life means;" and from the taize community, that "the liturgy of the church, the daily office, is part of the heavenly liturgy, of the office of christ and the angels, presenting before the throne of the father the prayersof the saints, toether with their own praise and intercessions."
of course, only we silly people need this proof, this reminder. the rest of the animal kingdom, knows and celebrates. at dusk and at dawn there is always a pause, a change in dance and song. i have watched, at black bass lake in arkansas, young white-tailed does dance their lauds as the sun lightens the mists of the new creation. and one midsummer, one in which the full moon and the solstice coincided, making very high tides that swallowed the beaches of hope island at the southern end of puget sound, i read vespers each evening in a madrona that overhung the water, i on one branch, and each evening for a week, a raven on another. we came, i think, to begin to understand each other's alien chants.
each of those evenings we both, man and raven, were given the amazing gifts of darkness and pregnancy, water and the mother. and each mornining, as i would boil water for the tea with which i toasted the rising son, sent to "guide our feet into the way of peace," (luke 1:79b) that raven, who came to share his oat meal with me, and i were given the amazing gifts of light and birth, warmth and the father.
7. the day. evening and morning: morning
it is early in the morning. rosy-fingered dawn has yet to take off her evening gloves. but the birds know what is about to happen and, and they rejoice in it. around the world, as the eastern horizon begins to glow, comes the call and response:
v/ "o lord, open though our lips."
r/ "and our mouths shall show forth thy praise."
then swells the songs that begins our daily pilgrimage:
"come, let us sing unto the lord,
let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.
let us come before his presence with thanksgiving,
and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.
. . .
oh that today, we would harken to his voice." (from psalm 95, venite)
"oh that today, we would harken to his voice."
more psalms follow, his words given to us to be his voice, words that are prayers for us and the whole world, because we pray as the body of christ, carrying out our role as a royal priesthood.
pierre teilhard de chardin, the french jesuit and paleontologist, saw the role of the priesthood as "to divinize the new day." and so he prayed to the holy one, ". . . i shall offer you, i your priest, on the altar of the whole earth, the soil and sorrow of the world."
then there is a reading, a listening to the word of god, the mantra the holy one gives us to "harken to" today. we tend these days to read too much too silently. "to harken to" something means we hear it. and if what we hear is the voice of the beloved, each word is precious, each word full of many meanings.
we hear these words coming from
"the lord, the god of israel,
who has come to his people and set them free,
who has raised up for us a power of salvation." (emphasis added)
the evening canticle as the song of mary, the mother of the first-born of the new covenant. the morning canticle is the song of zecheriah, the father of john the baptist, the last-born of the old covenant. of john jesus would say, "of all the children born of women, there is none greater than john; yet the least of the kingcom of heaven is greater than he is." (luke 7:28)
as we sing the benedictus this very day takes its position in salvation history. the temptation is to say, "ho hum, a rainy thursday." but we sing ourselves to see this as the day the lord has made, in which his purposes are being worked out, in which we as the royal priesthood "form a process up to the horns of the altar." (psalm 118:27)
v/ "o lord, open though our lips."
r/ "and our mouths shall show forth thy praise."
then swells the songs that begins our daily pilgrimage:
"come, let us sing unto the lord,
let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.
let us come before his presence with thanksgiving,
and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.
. . .
oh that today, we would harken to his voice." (from psalm 95, venite)
"oh that today, we would harken to his voice."
more psalms follow, his words given to us to be his voice, words that are prayers for us and the whole world, because we pray as the body of christ, carrying out our role as a royal priesthood.
pierre teilhard de chardin, the french jesuit and paleontologist, saw the role of the priesthood as "to divinize the new day." and so he prayed to the holy one, ". . . i shall offer you, i your priest, on the altar of the whole earth, the soil and sorrow of the world."
then there is a reading, a listening to the word of god, the mantra the holy one gives us to "harken to" today. we tend these days to read too much too silently. "to harken to" something means we hear it. and if what we hear is the voice of the beloved, each word is precious, each word full of many meanings.
we hear these words coming from
"the lord, the god of israel,
who has come to his people and set them free,
who has raised up for us a power of salvation." (emphasis added)
the evening canticle as the song of mary, the mother of the first-born of the new covenant. the morning canticle is the song of zecheriah, the father of john the baptist, the last-born of the old covenant. of john jesus would say, "of all the children born of women, there is none greater than john; yet the least of the kingcom of heaven is greater than he is." (luke 7:28)
as we sing the benedictus this very day takes its position in salvation history. the temptation is to say, "ho hum, a rainy thursday." but we sing ourselves to see this as the day the lord has made, in which his purposes are being worked out, in which we as the royal priesthood "form a process up to the horns of the altar." (psalm 118:27)
8. the day:evening and morning:embellishments
if evening and morning are the hinges of prayer, what turns on them? what are the gates of prayer? and how did simply "observing" the times come to include such a rich liturgy as we have today?
the liturgical embellishments begins as early as the sixth chapter of deuteronomy, which with the gift of the shema, the words, "listen, israel, YHWH our god is one YHWH. you shall love YHWH with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength," (6:4-5) comes the mitzvah, the commandment: "you shall repeat [these words] . . . at your lying down and at your rising." (6:7)
by the time of daniel, "three times each day he continues to fall on his knees, praying and giving praise to god . . . ." (daniel 6:11) it is usually assumed that the third time of prayer was noon, another time of natural awe.
psalm 119 begins to make things more complex.
verse 62 ("i get up at midnight to thank you/for the righteousness of your rulings") not only provides the basis for the night office but suggests content, psalm 119 itself, 176 verses of thankfulness for the laws of YHWH.
verse 147 ("i wake up before dawn to call for help/i put my hope in your word") has led to the office of matins, as verse 148 ("i lie awake throughout the night/to meditate on your promise") has led to vigils.
finally, verse 164 ("seven times daily i praise you/for your righteous rulings") lies behind the seven hours of prayer of the rule of st. benedict, although of course benedict was not the first to build on this couplet.
but most popular, and poignant, is compline, the past prayer before sleeping. to this little office belong psalms of trust for the night, such as 4 and 91. but most importantly, to compline belongs the song of simenon, the nunc dimittis:
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, *
according to thy word;
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, *
which thou hast prepared before the face of all people,
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, *
and to be the glory of thy people Israel. (luke 2:29-32)
with this little song, sung by the aged simeon who had stayed in the temple in expectaton of seeing the messiah, and how now, having held the infant jesus, proclaims that he is ready to die. this little song begins to make explicit the parallels between the cycle of the days and the cycle of our lives.
the liturgical embellishments begins as early as the sixth chapter of deuteronomy, which with the gift of the shema, the words, "listen, israel, YHWH our god is one YHWH. you shall love YHWH with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength," (6:4-5) comes the mitzvah, the commandment: "you shall repeat [these words] . . . at your lying down and at your rising." (6:7)
by the time of daniel, "three times each day he continues to fall on his knees, praying and giving praise to god . . . ." (daniel 6:11) it is usually assumed that the third time of prayer was noon, another time of natural awe.
psalm 119 begins to make things more complex.
verse 62 ("i get up at midnight to thank you/for the righteousness of your rulings") not only provides the basis for the night office but suggests content, psalm 119 itself, 176 verses of thankfulness for the laws of YHWH.
verse 147 ("i wake up before dawn to call for help/i put my hope in your word") has led to the office of matins, as verse 148 ("i lie awake throughout the night/to meditate on your promise") has led to vigils.
finally, verse 164 ("seven times daily i praise you/for your righteous rulings") lies behind the seven hours of prayer of the rule of st. benedict, although of course benedict was not the first to build on this couplet.
but most popular, and poignant, is compline, the past prayer before sleeping. to this little office belong psalms of trust for the night, such as 4 and 91. but most importantly, to compline belongs the song of simenon, the nunc dimittis:
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, *
according to thy word;
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, *
which thou hast prepared before the face of all people,
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, *
and to be the glory of thy people Israel. (luke 2:29-32)
with this little song, sung by the aged simeon who had stayed in the temple in expectaton of seeing the messiah, and how now, having held the infant jesus, proclaims that he is ready to die. this little song begins to make explicit the parallels between the cycle of the days and the cycle of our lives.
9. the month
"god said, 'let there be light in the vault of heaven to divide day from night, and let them indicate festivals, days and years. . . .' and so it was. god made the two great lights: the greater light to govern the day, the smaller light to govern the night, and the stars. . . . god saw that it was good." (genesis 1:14-18)
we have lost the month. of course we have calendars of the twelve months of the roman year, with illustrations of any sort, from farm machinery to sacred sites of scotland, but for the most part we who live in the detritus of the roman empire have lost the month as controlled by the moon. our calendar is solar, with nice tidy months that come out even. some of them even note the phases of the moon. but the moonth, this great symbol of death and rebirth, this celestial sign of the power of the female, is mostly gone.
how thorough is this loss was revealed to me when i read amos 8:5 (". . . when will the new moon be over/so that we can sell our corn . . . ?" jb) in eugene h. peterson's translation, the message: ". . . when's my next next paycheck coming/so i can go out and live it up?"
of course the christian year continues to have its most imporant holy day controlled by the moon: the pascha, easter. but i suspect few worshipers know this is true. we don't look for the full moon after the spring equinox, we just look on the calendar.
the hebrew calendar was (is) lunar, and there are many reminders of this fact in scripture. in psalm 81 we hear,
"start the music, sound the drum,
the melodious lyre and the harp;
sound the new moon trumpet,
at the full moon, on our feast day!
"this is a statute binding on israel,
an ordinance of the god of jacob,
this decree he imposed on joseph
. . . ." (vv. 2-5)
numbers 28 contains the mitzvah of the full moon:
"at the beginning of each of your months you must offer a holocaust to YHWH . . . . this must be the monthly holocaust, year after year, month after month, every month of the year." (vv. 11, 14)
it is at the feast of the new moon that jonathan learns of his father saul's intentions towards david. (1 samuel 20)
many people who live close to creation continue to recognize the moon's symbology, and many oriental cultures have retained lunar calendars and feasts. one of the most powerful art exhibitions i have ever seen was a work by the apache artist bob housous called "13 moons" at the wheelwright museum in santa fe. the japanese continue to have "moon viewing parties to view particularly favourable moons. often called "the canticle of the sun," francis of assissi's great hymn "most high, omnipotent, good lord" includes the moon: "my lord be praised by sister moon/and all the stars that with her soon/will point the glittering heavens."
if my thesis that time and its created markers are indeed a primary self-revelation of the holy one is correct, then it would behoove us to become aware once more of the waxing and waning of "the smaller light."
perhaps we might adopt some of the jewish practices around the moon, such as this blessing:
"One must be able to see the moon at the time that one recites the blessing. After reciting the blessing over the moon, it is proper to dance joyfully and to greet three people with the worlds "shalom aleichem." It is also customary to sing the song "David melekh yisrael chai vekayam" (David the king of Israel lives forever)--because the new moon is also associated with eternal life and messianic times of perfect peace.
The blessing is as follows: Blessed are you, God, ruler of the universe,whose word created the heavens and whose breath created the heavenly hosts, who gave them ordinances that they not change their orbits. Joyful and happy are they to do the will of their creator, a worker of truth whose work is truth! To the moon God said; renew yourself, crown of glory for those borne in the womb, for they like you, are destined to renew themselves,and to give glory to their creator for the sake of God's holy honored sovereignty (malkhut/Shekhinah). Blessed are you, God, renewer of months." (http://telshemesh.org/water/jewish_cycles_of_the_moon_jill_hammer.html)
i of course know of paul's warning to the colossians: ". . . never let anyone else decide . . . whether you are to observe annual festivals, new moons or sabbaths. these were only pale reflections of what was coming: the reality is christ." (colossians 2:16-17) but i am also aware of how limited is much contemporary understanding of christ, and suspect that looking at some of the pale reflections might help us recognize the reality when we see him.
we have lost the month. of course we have calendars of the twelve months of the roman year, with illustrations of any sort, from farm machinery to sacred sites of scotland, but for the most part we who live in the detritus of the roman empire have lost the month as controlled by the moon. our calendar is solar, with nice tidy months that come out even. some of them even note the phases of the moon. but the moonth, this great symbol of death and rebirth, this celestial sign of the power of the female, is mostly gone.
how thorough is this loss was revealed to me when i read amos 8:5 (". . . when will the new moon be over/so that we can sell our corn . . . ?" jb) in eugene h. peterson's translation, the message: ". . . when's my next next paycheck coming/so i can go out and live it up?"
of course the christian year continues to have its most imporant holy day controlled by the moon: the pascha, easter. but i suspect few worshipers know this is true. we don't look for the full moon after the spring equinox, we just look on the calendar.
the hebrew calendar was (is) lunar, and there are many reminders of this fact in scripture. in psalm 81 we hear,
"start the music, sound the drum,
the melodious lyre and the harp;
sound the new moon trumpet,
at the full moon, on our feast day!
"this is a statute binding on israel,
an ordinance of the god of jacob,
this decree he imposed on joseph
. . . ." (vv. 2-5)
numbers 28 contains the mitzvah of the full moon:
"at the beginning of each of your months you must offer a holocaust to YHWH . . . . this must be the monthly holocaust, year after year, month after month, every month of the year." (vv. 11, 14)
it is at the feast of the new moon that jonathan learns of his father saul's intentions towards david. (1 samuel 20)
many people who live close to creation continue to recognize the moon's symbology, and many oriental cultures have retained lunar calendars and feasts. one of the most powerful art exhibitions i have ever seen was a work by the apache artist bob housous called "13 moons" at the wheelwright museum in santa fe. the japanese continue to have "moon viewing parties to view particularly favourable moons. often called "the canticle of the sun," francis of assissi's great hymn "most high, omnipotent, good lord" includes the moon: "my lord be praised by sister moon/and all the stars that with her soon/will point the glittering heavens."
if my thesis that time and its created markers are indeed a primary self-revelation of the holy one is correct, then it would behoove us to become aware once more of the waxing and waning of "the smaller light."
perhaps we might adopt some of the jewish practices around the moon, such as this blessing:
"One must be able to see the moon at the time that one recites the blessing. After reciting the blessing over the moon, it is proper to dance joyfully and to greet three people with the worlds "shalom aleichem." It is also customary to sing the song "David melekh yisrael chai vekayam" (David the king of Israel lives forever)--because the new moon is also associated with eternal life and messianic times of perfect peace.
The blessing is as follows: Blessed are you, God, ruler of the universe,whose word created the heavens and whose breath created the heavenly hosts, who gave them ordinances that they not change their orbits. Joyful and happy are they to do the will of their creator, a worker of truth whose work is truth! To the moon God said; renew yourself, crown of glory for those borne in the womb, for they like you, are destined to renew themselves,and to give glory to their creator for the sake of God's holy honored sovereignty (malkhut/Shekhinah). Blessed are you, God, renewer of months." (http://telshemesh.org/water/jewish_cycles_of_the_moon_jill_hammer.html)
i of course know of paul's warning to the colossians: ". . . never let anyone else decide . . . whether you are to observe annual festivals, new moons or sabbaths. these were only pale reflections of what was coming: the reality is christ." (colossians 2:16-17) but i am also aware of how limited is much contemporary understanding of christ, and suspect that looking at some of the pale reflections might help us recognize the reality when we see him.
10. the week. one
i am putting the week after the month because it is "discoverable," i think, only as a derivitve, a sub-division of the month. yet of all the divisions of time, with the possible exception of a human life, it is the one most loaded wtih meaning. i have mentioned the background for the week's density of metaphor when i looked at the day, evening and morning, as the basic unit of creation and therefore of revelation.
six days of creation plus the one holy day of the sabbath is the week. although it is an understanding that is largely lost in the modern industrial world of work week and "week end," except by observant jews, it is this week that is fulfilled in the christian week of the new creation: six days of creation, plus the one holy day of the sabbath, plus the eighth day, the first day of the new creation which is not just holy, but the day of the lord.
it was the sabbath that first brought the jews the understanding that the holy one dwells, and is revealed, and is worshipped, in time as well as space. (abraham j. heschel discusses this understanding beautifully in sabbath: its meanings for modern man.) the week becomes a spiritual bracelet, a setting for this holy and glorious jewel, the sabbath.
of course it was possible to misuse this bracelet, to turn something spiritual and glorious into something legalistic and pedantic, and the gospels provide us ample of illustrations of how that happens. but we would be in grave error if we let ourselves mistake misunderstanding for reality.
the most glorious thing about the week adorned by the sabbath is that it was only a prophecy of the more wonderfully bejewelled week to come. the week that remembers the holy one's creation of all things is a foreshadowing of the holy one's recreation of all things in christ jesus. (see, for example, the gospel according to matthew 19:28, and 2 corinthians 5:17.) the seventh day of the week, the day the holy one rested from all the work of creation, becomes the day christ jesus rests in the earth, having finished (see the gospel according to john 19:30) the work of the new creation.
then comes the most amazing event. early in the morning of the first day of the week, jesus' disciples find that his tomb is empty, that he is risen. the first day of the week becomes the first day of the new creation, a day so wondrous it is called by the early church the eighth day.
the first day becomes the lord's day, the day of christian rejoicing and worship. (see revelation 1:10; the bible begins and ends on the first day of the week.) the church in the east will continue to mark the sabbath in addition to the lord's day; the greek church will remember the connection between creation and the week by assigning psalm 104 to saturday vespers; the western church will keep that connection in her worship by assigning the canticle of the three young men, benedicte, omnia opera, to saturday morning. but with the resurrection comes a new spiritual bracelet, the week as the setting for the lord's day, the eighth day, the day of light, the day of the resurrection, the day of the spirit.
six days of creation plus the one holy day of the sabbath is the week. although it is an understanding that is largely lost in the modern industrial world of work week and "week end," except by observant jews, it is this week that is fulfilled in the christian week of the new creation: six days of creation, plus the one holy day of the sabbath, plus the eighth day, the first day of the new creation which is not just holy, but the day of the lord.
it was the sabbath that first brought the jews the understanding that the holy one dwells, and is revealed, and is worshipped, in time as well as space. (abraham j. heschel discusses this understanding beautifully in sabbath: its meanings for modern man.) the week becomes a spiritual bracelet, a setting for this holy and glorious jewel, the sabbath.
of course it was possible to misuse this bracelet, to turn something spiritual and glorious into something legalistic and pedantic, and the gospels provide us ample of illustrations of how that happens. but we would be in grave error if we let ourselves mistake misunderstanding for reality.
the most glorious thing about the week adorned by the sabbath is that it was only a prophecy of the more wonderfully bejewelled week to come. the week that remembers the holy one's creation of all things is a foreshadowing of the holy one's recreation of all things in christ jesus. (see, for example, the gospel according to matthew 19:28, and 2 corinthians 5:17.) the seventh day of the week, the day the holy one rested from all the work of creation, becomes the day christ jesus rests in the earth, having finished (see the gospel according to john 19:30) the work of the new creation.
then comes the most amazing event. early in the morning of the first day of the week, jesus' disciples find that his tomb is empty, that he is risen. the first day of the week becomes the first day of the new creation, a day so wondrous it is called by the early church the eighth day.
the first day becomes the lord's day, the day of christian rejoicing and worship. (see revelation 1:10; the bible begins and ends on the first day of the week.) the church in the east will continue to mark the sabbath in addition to the lord's day; the greek church will remember the connection between creation and the week by assigning psalm 104 to saturday vespers; the western church will keep that connection in her worship by assigning the canticle of the three young men, benedicte, omnia opera, to saturday morning. but with the resurrection comes a new spiritual bracelet, the week as the setting for the lord's day, the eighth day, the day of light, the day of the resurrection, the day of the spirit.
11. sunday:day of light
"the day of light, the day of resurrection, the day of the spirit" is the description of sunday used by h. b. porter in his slender volume the day of light: the biblical and liturgical meaning of sunday, which is one of those wonderful books that are bigger on the inside than they are on the outside.
porter bridges the light that is at the beginning of creation in genesis ("god said, 'let there be light,' and there was light." [genesis 1:3] and the light that is at the beginning of the incarnation in the gospel according to john ("the word was the true light/that enlightens all men;/and he was coming into the world." [john 1:9]), and the light of the transfiguration in the synoptic gospels (matthew 17:1-8; mark 9:2-8; luke 9:28-36). although he mentions that "pure light, independent of the sun, moon, or stars" has a special importance "as the type of god's creative activity," he does not explore the mystery with which this light is approached in both judaism and eastern christianity.
howard schwartz presents its importance for judaism:
". . . what was the light of the first day?
"in discussions scattered throughout the rabbinic, kabbalistic, and hasidic literature, the rabbis consider this question. they search for clues about this mysterious light in every book of the bible, and find the clue they need in a prophecy of isaiah. he speaks about what the world would be like in the messianic era: 'moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days.' (isaiah 30:26) . . .
"drawing on isaiah's explanation, the rabbis conclude that the two lights--that of the first day and that of the fourth--are different. the light of the first day is a primordial light, what they call the haganuz or hidden light."
in christianity the primordial light is usually called the uncreated light in the east, the uncomprehended light in the west. it is a matter of long and complicated debate whether the light is part of the very nature of god (an idea picked up in the nicene creed when we say that the son is "light from light, true god from true god") or immanates from god (an idea that finds support in the accounts of moses and elijah, who somehow see god and live (exodus 33 and 1 kings 19) and then appear again at the transfiguration of jesus.
what porter does do that is perhaps even more important is point out the very early understanding of the church, expressed in paul's letters again and again, nowhere more clearly proclaimed than in the second letter to the corinthians (4:6): "it is the same god that said 'let there be light shining out of the darkness,' who has shone in our minds to radiate the light of the knowledge of god's glory, the glory of the face of christ."
one of my favorite sunday morning activities is to rise before sun and go to a high hillside where i can watch the new-shining light recreate a valley or a lake or an arm of the ocean. sometimes i will chant the opening of psalm 104 (1-2a):
"bless YHWH my soul.
YHWH my god, how great you are!
clothed in majesty and glory, wrapped in a robe of light."
it always seems the perfect preparation for the liturgy which follows, which will begin as the people of god gather and light the candles on the holy table: "christ our light!"
porter bridges the light that is at the beginning of creation in genesis ("god said, 'let there be light,' and there was light." [genesis 1:3] and the light that is at the beginning of the incarnation in the gospel according to john ("the word was the true light/that enlightens all men;/and he was coming into the world." [john 1:9]), and the light of the transfiguration in the synoptic gospels (matthew 17:1-8; mark 9:2-8; luke 9:28-36). although he mentions that "pure light, independent of the sun, moon, or stars" has a special importance "as the type of god's creative activity," he does not explore the mystery with which this light is approached in both judaism and eastern christianity.
howard schwartz presents its importance for judaism:
". . . what was the light of the first day?
"in discussions scattered throughout the rabbinic, kabbalistic, and hasidic literature, the rabbis consider this question. they search for clues about this mysterious light in every book of the bible, and find the clue they need in a prophecy of isaiah. he speaks about what the world would be like in the messianic era: 'moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days.' (isaiah 30:26) . . .
"drawing on isaiah's explanation, the rabbis conclude that the two lights--that of the first day and that of the fourth--are different. the light of the first day is a primordial light, what they call the haganuz or hidden light."
in christianity the primordial light is usually called the uncreated light in the east, the uncomprehended light in the west. it is a matter of long and complicated debate whether the light is part of the very nature of god (an idea picked up in the nicene creed when we say that the son is "light from light, true god from true god") or immanates from god (an idea that finds support in the accounts of moses and elijah, who somehow see god and live (exodus 33 and 1 kings 19) and then appear again at the transfiguration of jesus.
what porter does do that is perhaps even more important is point out the very early understanding of the church, expressed in paul's letters again and again, nowhere more clearly proclaimed than in the second letter to the corinthians (4:6): "it is the same god that said 'let there be light shining out of the darkness,' who has shone in our minds to radiate the light of the knowledge of god's glory, the glory of the face of christ."
one of my favorite sunday morning activities is to rise before sun and go to a high hillside where i can watch the new-shining light recreate a valley or a lake or an arm of the ocean. sometimes i will chant the opening of psalm 104 (1-2a):
"bless YHWH my soul.
YHWH my god, how great you are!
clothed in majesty and glory, wrapped in a robe of light."
it always seems the perfect preparation for the liturgy which follows, which will begin as the people of god gather and light the candles on the holy table: "christ our light!"
12. sunday:day of resurrection
if sunday as the day of light might not seem obvious at first, sunday as the day of the resurrection should. all of the gospels make it very clear that the resurrection occured on the first day of the week. yet i have several times been surprised when i have asked self-defined christians, usually on a sunday afternoon, how they had celebrated the resurrection of our lord, to be met with vacant looks or some remembrance of easter.
that sunday, the first day of the week, was celebrated as the lord's day, the day of the resurrection, is very clear as early as the book of acts, when in the twentieth chapter (vv. 6-11) is described paul's sunday at troas. since he was there a week, we can assume that the choice of days was deliberate (and also that apparently they began at sunset according to the jewish marking of the day).
it seems that the pattern of christian worship which has been constant ever since was already being followed at troas. the pattern follows, and again i am indebted to h. b. porter for pointing this out, the resurrection appearances of jesus: first, he establishes that he is indeed alive. this is celebrated by the assembly of believers itself, who gather because they know that he is indeed alive. then, the scriptures are explained as they relate to the gospel. then the presence of the lord is remembered in the holy meal. finally, the followers are sent forth to proclaim everywhere the messianic kingdom.
we sometimes overlook the importance of the assembly itself. assembly is reflected in the greek name for festal celebrations, the synaxis. and the assembly is important again and again in the new testament writings, beginning with luke 24:33, when the emmaus road travelers arrive in jerusalem: "there they found the eleven assembled together with their companions." it is in this assembly that "he himself stood among them . . ." (v.36) the assembly is mentioned also, for instance in acts 12:12 and 20:8, and in the first letter to the corinthians, 5:4.
the expounding of scriptures is seldom overlooked, even in protestant worship where the meal is neglected. what is sometimes overlooked is the entirely new meaning and understanding of the scriptures that comes with the resurrection. there is now an entirely new creation. porter suggests that we see this new understanding when "new testament writers meditate upon the opening of genesis" in the following passages:
the gospel according to john, 1:1-4; the first letter to the corinthians, 15:20-49; the second letter to the corinthians 4-6; the letter to the ephesians 5:22-33; and the first chapter of the letter to the colossians.
then the meal. luke's gospel records "he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them. and their eyes were opened and they recognized him . . ." (24:30b-31a). so the church has come to know him in the lord's supper ever since.
finally we, too, are sent out. having received the body of christ we are sent to be the body of christ at work in the world, with the deacon saying "let us go forth into the world rejoicing in the power of the spirit."
that sunday, the first day of the week, was celebrated as the lord's day, the day of the resurrection, is very clear as early as the book of acts, when in the twentieth chapter (vv. 6-11) is described paul's sunday at troas. since he was there a week, we can assume that the choice of days was deliberate (and also that apparently they began at sunset according to the jewish marking of the day).
it seems that the pattern of christian worship which has been constant ever since was already being followed at troas. the pattern follows, and again i am indebted to h. b. porter for pointing this out, the resurrection appearances of jesus: first, he establishes that he is indeed alive. this is celebrated by the assembly of believers itself, who gather because they know that he is indeed alive. then, the scriptures are explained as they relate to the gospel. then the presence of the lord is remembered in the holy meal. finally, the followers are sent forth to proclaim everywhere the messianic kingdom.
we sometimes overlook the importance of the assembly itself. assembly is reflected in the greek name for festal celebrations, the synaxis. and the assembly is important again and again in the new testament writings, beginning with luke 24:33, when the emmaus road travelers arrive in jerusalem: "there they found the eleven assembled together with their companions." it is in this assembly that "he himself stood among them . . ." (v.36) the assembly is mentioned also, for instance in acts 12:12 and 20:8, and in the first letter to the corinthians, 5:4.
the expounding of scriptures is seldom overlooked, even in protestant worship where the meal is neglected. what is sometimes overlooked is the entirely new meaning and understanding of the scriptures that comes with the resurrection. there is now an entirely new creation. porter suggests that we see this new understanding when "new testament writers meditate upon the opening of genesis" in the following passages:
the gospel according to john, 1:1-4; the first letter to the corinthians, 15:20-49; the second letter to the corinthians 4-6; the letter to the ephesians 5:22-33; and the first chapter of the letter to the colossians.
then the meal. luke's gospel records "he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them. and their eyes were opened and they recognized him . . ." (24:30b-31a). so the church has come to know him in the lord's supper ever since.
finally we, too, are sent out. having received the body of christ we are sent to be the body of christ at work in the world, with the deacon saying "let us go forth into the world rejoicing in the power of the spirit."
13. sunday:day of the spirit
i am convinced that for luke the evangelist, for his favorite apostle, paul, and for john, evangelist and apostle, the climax of the mighty acts of god in the coming of the messiah into the world was not the resurrection but the outpouring of the holy spirit, which happens in all accounts on a sunday.
i won't try to convice my reader of this understanding of luke, paul, and john, but i will point to the centrality of the gift of the spirit both in scripture and liturgy.
on the first day of the week, "god's spirit hovered over the water." (genesis 1:26) to quote porter, ". . . we find that the mysterious divine role of the holy ghost at the inauguration of creation prefigures divine action in other biblical events of major importance.
and so luke 24:49: "and now i am sending down on you what the father has promised." acts 2:1,4: "when pentecost day came around, they had all met in one room . . . . they were all filled with the holy spirit."
for paul, a sample from romans (5:5): "the love of god has been poured into our hearts by the holy spirit which has been given to us."
and from john (20:21-22): ". . . and he said to them, 'peace be with you.
"'as the father sent me,
so i am sending you.'
"after saying this he breathed on them and said,
'receive the holy spirit.'"
it seems certain that in the earliest church sunday was a unitive feast, by which i mean it commemorated the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of christ and the outpouring of the spirit. this is clearly shown in the the ancient eucharistic prayer, the anaphora of st. basil:
"father, we now celebrate the memorial of our redemption. recalling christ's death and his descent among the dead, proclaiming his resurrection and ascension to your right hand, awaiting his coming in glory; and offering to you, from the gifts you have given us, this bread and this cup, we praise you and we bless you.
"we praise you, we bless you,
we give thanks to you,
and we pray to you, lord our god.
"lord, we pray that in your goodness and mercy your holy spirit may descend upon us, and upon these gifts . . . .
"grant that all who share this bread and cup may become one body and one spirit, a living sacrifice in christ, to the praise of your name."
just as at his baptism in the jordan jesus was declared to be the son of god and the annointed one of the holy spirit, just as at pentecost the ascended jesus sends down the anointing of the holy spirit, baptizing his followers as john the forerunner had foretold (the gospel according to john 1:33), so the spirit comes down fresh on the body of christ each sunday as it gathers again in his name.
i won't try to convice my reader of this understanding of luke, paul, and john, but i will point to the centrality of the gift of the spirit both in scripture and liturgy.
on the first day of the week, "god's spirit hovered over the water." (genesis 1:26) to quote porter, ". . . we find that the mysterious divine role of the holy ghost at the inauguration of creation prefigures divine action in other biblical events of major importance.
and so luke 24:49: "and now i am sending down on you what the father has promised." acts 2:1,4: "when pentecost day came around, they had all met in one room . . . . they were all filled with the holy spirit."
for paul, a sample from romans (5:5): "the love of god has been poured into our hearts by the holy spirit which has been given to us."
and from john (20:21-22): ". . . and he said to them, 'peace be with you.
"'as the father sent me,
so i am sending you.'
"after saying this he breathed on them and said,
'receive the holy spirit.'"
it seems certain that in the earliest church sunday was a unitive feast, by which i mean it commemorated the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of christ and the outpouring of the spirit. this is clearly shown in the the ancient eucharistic prayer, the anaphora of st. basil:
"father, we now celebrate the memorial of our redemption. recalling christ's death and his descent among the dead, proclaiming his resurrection and ascension to your right hand, awaiting his coming in glory; and offering to you, from the gifts you have given us, this bread and this cup, we praise you and we bless you.
"we praise you, we bless you,
we give thanks to you,
and we pray to you, lord our god.
"lord, we pray that in your goodness and mercy your holy spirit may descend upon us, and upon these gifts . . . .
"grant that all who share this bread and cup may become one body and one spirit, a living sacrifice in christ, to the praise of your name."
just as at his baptism in the jordan jesus was declared to be the son of god and the annointed one of the holy spirit, just as at pentecost the ascended jesus sends down the anointing of the holy spirit, baptizing his followers as john the forerunner had foretold (the gospel according to john 1:33), so the spirit comes down fresh on the body of christ each sunday as it gathers again in his name.
14. sunday not sabbath::baptism not rest
sunday is not the christian sabbath. as the new-born church grew, the jewish christians continued to keep the sabbath. (the nasrani church of the east continues to do so until this day.) all the church, jewish and gentile, celebrated the lord's day.
the separation of the sabbath and the lord's day became confused in the reformation, extremely so amonst the puritans. the confusion remains a legacy of the western church. liturgy, the journal of the liturgical conference, who should know better, published an issue called "the lord's day" in which one fourth of the essays were about the sabbath. almost none of the essays makes any distinction between these two days.
i belabor this point because the confusion belittles both the sabbath and the lord's day. without the acknowledgement of the sabbath as the crown of creation, the first revelation of the holy, we lost both our appreciation of the goodness of creation and any potential appreciation and celebration of the new creation, the kingdom of god into which we are initiated by our baptism. to quote porter again, "entrance into the church is a re-creation and admission into the kingdom of light." (ephesians 2:10; colossians 1:12-13; 3:10; 1 peter 2:9; i john 1:7). and we perhaps lose sight of the nature of the true and ultimate place of rest which still awaits, and which is one of the central themes of the epistle to the hebrews (3:7-4:11).
the separation of the sabbath and the lord's day became confused in the reformation, extremely so amonst the puritans. the confusion remains a legacy of the western church. liturgy, the journal of the liturgical conference, who should know better, published an issue called "the lord's day" in which one fourth of the essays were about the sabbath. almost none of the essays makes any distinction between these two days.
i belabor this point because the confusion belittles both the sabbath and the lord's day. without the acknowledgement of the sabbath as the crown of creation, the first revelation of the holy, we lost both our appreciation of the goodness of creation and any potential appreciation and celebration of the new creation, the kingdom of god into which we are initiated by our baptism. to quote porter again, "entrance into the church is a re-creation and admission into the kingdom of light." (ephesians 2:10; colossians 1:12-13; 3:10; 1 peter 2:9; i john 1:7). and we perhaps lose sight of the nature of the true and ultimate place of rest which still awaits, and which is one of the central themes of the epistle to the hebrews (3:7-4:11).
15. the week two: a christian remembering
for christians, the redemption of the world in jesus' death, descent among the dead, resurrection and ascension is irrepeatable, described in the words of the anglican book of common prayer as "his one oblation of himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficiant sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world." one might expect the weekly, sunday, celebration of the eucharist, of the lord's supper, to suffice as the ". . . perpetual memory of that his precious death and sacrifice, until his coming again." but the human mind does not easily take in every meaning of this "one once" event, so the liturgy soon began to expand on the sunday's celebration.
easter gave meaning to every sunday. "holy week," the last week jesus spent in jerusalem before his resurrection, gave meaning to every week. by the second century the "station"days of wednesday and friday were related to our lord's betrayal and crucifixion, often as fast days. somewhat later thursdays came to be understood as recalling the last supper and institution of the holy eucharist. although the observance of the days of the week throughout the year has seldom been a major part of christian devotion, except for friday fasting, in many parts of the church the celebration of holy week overshadows, if not easter sunday, than certainly the great fifty days.
easter gave meaning to every sunday. "holy week," the last week jesus spent in jerusalem before his resurrection, gave meaning to every week. by the second century the "station"days of wednesday and friday were related to our lord's betrayal and crucifixion, often as fast days. somewhat later thursdays came to be understood as recalling the last supper and institution of the holy eucharist. although the observance of the days of the week throughout the year has seldom been a major part of christian devotion, except for friday fasting, in many parts of the church the celebration of holy week overshadows, if not easter sunday, than certainly the great fifty days.
16. the year: sunday burst its spiced tomb
in the fifth century augustine of hippo wrote in one of his sermons words that could be the source of the words in the english prayer book i quoted in the previous chapter:
"we firmly believe, brethren, that the lord has died for our sins, the just for the unjust, the master for the slaves, the shepherd for the sheep and, still more astonishingly, the creator for the creatures. . . .
"all of that happened once and for all, as you know well enough. and yet we have the liturgical solemnities which we celebrate as, during the course of the year, we come to the date of particular events. . . .
"the historical truth is what happened once and for all, but the liturgy makes these events always new for the hearts that celebrate them with faith." (sermons, 220)
the problem with the resurrection, you see, is that it expresses itself at all times and in all places. as simeon the new theologian wrote, "faith means being willing to die for christ." there were almost immediately after the feast of pentecost "witnesses," for that is what "martyrs" means, followers of our lord ready to die for him. the seventh chapter of acts tells the story of stephen, the first martyr-witness, significantly not an apostle but a deacon, one chosen to serve, and therefore a prime illustration of what it might mean to serve christ the servant king.
very early the anniversary of the death, the falling to sleep, of the martyrs came to be remembered and celebrated, if possible with a eucharist at the place of martyrdom or at the tomb. soon there had been so many martyrs that in rome the church began to celebrate them all one day, all saints' day. this custom gradually came to be adopted throughout the western church.
although the death and resurrection events were central to the christian faith, other events in jesus' life were also considered important enough for annual remembrance. his birth obviously was one of those events.
often these were events which the disciples had not understood as they were happening. how often it must have been true, as the gospel according to john relates about the cleansing of the temple, that ". . . when jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed the scriptures and the words he had said." (john 2:22) among the most important of this category of remembrances were the the presentation, forty days after jesus' birth, and the transfiguration, in early august.
a third source of annual remembrances were the jewish festivals, the festivals of torah, which the church began to understand as messianic prophecies. some of them were intimately related to the life of our lord and his church. pesach, the passover, was the time of his death and resurrection, and shavuot, the feast of weeks, pentecost, was the time of the giving of the holy spirit. hannakah occured at the time of his birth.
over time other great jewish feasts, too, would be "baptised." the great fall holy days of rosh ha-shonah, yom kippur, sukkot and simchat torah yielded the new year of the eastern church, holy cross day, and the beginning of the new lectionary cycle. (although in the western church the new lectionary cycle is now seen as beginning with advent.)
besides jesus, only two people are remembered on the days of their birth: mary his virgin mother, on december eighth, and john the baptiser, the foreruner, on june twenty-fourth. the date of john's nativity would become a major feast of the church, occuring as it does just six months before the nativity of christ. the celebration of john's birth at the height of the solar year, marks the culmination of the old testament.
slowly there emerged a procession of eight great feasts at the major turning points of the year, proclaiming that all of time was both prophetic of the life and work of jesus christ, and fulfilled by that same life and work:
1. near the autumanal equinox, holy cross day, the fourteenth of september.
2. on the first of november, all saints' day.
3. on december twenty-fifth, the nativity of our lord jesus christ.
4. forty days after the nativity, the second of february, the presentation.
5. approximately six months after holy cross day, on the first sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox, is pascha, the feast of the resurrection.
6. fifty days later (and approximately six months after all saints' day), the day of pentecost is "fully come."
7. at midsummer, six months after christmas, the church remembers the birth of john, the forerunner.
8. finally, on the sixth of august, six months after the presentation, comes the feast of the transfiguration of our lord.
these eight great festivals comprise a circle of prayer that not only proclaims and explains the life of our lord but, if understood correctly, is a key to understanding our own lives, day by day, year by year, lifespan by lifespan.
"we firmly believe, brethren, that the lord has died for our sins, the just for the unjust, the master for the slaves, the shepherd for the sheep and, still more astonishingly, the creator for the creatures. . . .
"all of that happened once and for all, as you know well enough. and yet we have the liturgical solemnities which we celebrate as, during the course of the year, we come to the date of particular events. . . .
"the historical truth is what happened once and for all, but the liturgy makes these events always new for the hearts that celebrate them with faith." (sermons, 220)
the problem with the resurrection, you see, is that it expresses itself at all times and in all places. as simeon the new theologian wrote, "faith means being willing to die for christ." there were almost immediately after the feast of pentecost "witnesses," for that is what "martyrs" means, followers of our lord ready to die for him. the seventh chapter of acts tells the story of stephen, the first martyr-witness, significantly not an apostle but a deacon, one chosen to serve, and therefore a prime illustration of what it might mean to serve christ the servant king.
very early the anniversary of the death, the falling to sleep, of the martyrs came to be remembered and celebrated, if possible with a eucharist at the place of martyrdom or at the tomb. soon there had been so many martyrs that in rome the church began to celebrate them all one day, all saints' day. this custom gradually came to be adopted throughout the western church.
although the death and resurrection events were central to the christian faith, other events in jesus' life were also considered important enough for annual remembrance. his birth obviously was one of those events.
often these were events which the disciples had not understood as they were happening. how often it must have been true, as the gospel according to john relates about the cleansing of the temple, that ". . . when jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed the scriptures and the words he had said." (john 2:22) among the most important of this category of remembrances were the the presentation, forty days after jesus' birth, and the transfiguration, in early august.
a third source of annual remembrances were the jewish festivals, the festivals of torah, which the church began to understand as messianic prophecies. some of them were intimately related to the life of our lord and his church. pesach, the passover, was the time of his death and resurrection, and shavuot, the feast of weeks, pentecost, was the time of the giving of the holy spirit. hannakah occured at the time of his birth.
over time other great jewish feasts, too, would be "baptised." the great fall holy days of rosh ha-shonah, yom kippur, sukkot and simchat torah yielded the new year of the eastern church, holy cross day, and the beginning of the new lectionary cycle. (although in the western church the new lectionary cycle is now seen as beginning with advent.)
besides jesus, only two people are remembered on the days of their birth: mary his virgin mother, on december eighth, and john the baptiser, the foreruner, on june twenty-fourth. the date of john's nativity would become a major feast of the church, occuring as it does just six months before the nativity of christ. the celebration of john's birth at the height of the solar year, marks the culmination of the old testament.
slowly there emerged a procession of eight great feasts at the major turning points of the year, proclaiming that all of time was both prophetic of the life and work of jesus christ, and fulfilled by that same life and work:
1. near the autumanal equinox, holy cross day, the fourteenth of september.
2. on the first of november, all saints' day.
3. on december twenty-fifth, the nativity of our lord jesus christ.
4. forty days after the nativity, the second of february, the presentation.
5. approximately six months after holy cross day, on the first sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox, is pascha, the feast of the resurrection.
6. fifty days later (and approximately six months after all saints' day), the day of pentecost is "fully come."
7. at midsummer, six months after christmas, the church remembers the birth of john, the forerunner.
8. finally, on the sixth of august, six months after the presentation, comes the feast of the transfiguration of our lord.
these eight great festivals comprise a circle of prayer that not only proclaims and explains the life of our lord but, if understood correctly, is a key to understanding our own lives, day by day, year by year, lifespan by lifespan.
17. contrasts and correspondences
as i have lived and prayed with these festivals over the years, i have come to notice significant correspondences between the pairs of celebrations that fall six months apart from each other. the pairs present the same themes, the same elements, in ways that show potential and fulfillment.
at candlemass, the feast of the presentation, for instance, we hear simeon call jesus "a light to enlighten the gentiles," (luke (luke 2:21) and six months later at the transfiguration we find jesus to be the uncreated light, "light from light, very god from very god." the potential seen by simeon is fulfilled in the sight of peter, james, and john.
the other corresponding pairs are similarly related:
holy cross day and the pascha, easter.
all saints' day and pentecost
the nativity of john the forerunner and the nativity of jesus the christ.
they will be discussed, therefore, in these pairings.
at candlemass, the feast of the presentation, for instance, we hear simeon call jesus "a light to enlighten the gentiles," (luke (luke 2:21) and six months later at the transfiguration we find jesus to be the uncreated light, "light from light, very god from very god." the potential seen by simeon is fulfilled in the sight of peter, james, and john.
the other corresponding pairs are similarly related:
holy cross day and the pascha, easter.
all saints' day and pentecost
the nativity of john the forerunner and the nativity of jesus the christ.
they will be discussed, therefore, in these pairings.
18. fall and spring: holy cross and pascha
i am of the first generation to grow up under the curse of television, the last generation in the united states, canada or western europe to grow up experiencing reality rather than virtual reality, or as its critics tend to say, hyper reality. an advantage of having lived in this transitional period is a stock of stories and characters from television that my whole generation remembers. one of my favourites is from howdy doody: an indian princess named summerspringwinterfall. her name was a two-edged sword: it looked back to the time when american children knew the seasons from direct experience; but it also suggested the silliness, the primitivity, of people who took the procession of the seasons seriously, whose wheat came from the earth rather than being shot from guns, as it was in another popular image from my tv-insired. random access memories.
the ancient israelites of course were one of the primitive groups for whom the seasons were intensely important. a people who had settled into an uneasy agrarianism with an ancestry of herding nomadism ("my father was a wandering aramaen. he went down into egypt to find refuge there . . . " says the confession at deuteronomy 26:5), their transition had not been without conflict, a conflict first recorded in the legend of cain and abel (genesis 4:1-16). their lives depended upon timely "sowing and reaping, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night . . ." (genesis 8:22).
their earliest festivals had been agriculural. it is sometimes said that they came to be understood as having religious meaning as well, but for people who live close to the natural world, such a distinction seldom occurs. what did happen is that the meaning, the contents, of the feasts developed as the law was revealed, as they came into the land, and as worship came to be centered in the temple. the "festivals solemn to YHWH" are described in the twenty-third chapter of leviticus.
in the fall, in the seventh month, came rosh ha-shonah, the new year and annual remembrance of the creation of adam, man, yom kippur, the day of atonement, and the feast so important it was sometimes simply called the hag, the festival, the seven days of sukkot, the feast of tabernacles.
in the spring, in the first month, came pesach, passover and unleavened bread (and fifty days later, in the third month, shavuot, pentecost).
the church immediately picked up pascha and pentecost, called in england easter and whitsunday. their importance in the life of the church as the days of resurrection and the gift of the holy spirit are attested in the four gospels and in the acts of the apostles. but even though jesus as the fulfillment of the day of atonement is the major theme of the epistle to the hebrews, it would be three hundred years before the church developed a ritual occuring on the fall equinox to replace the jewish celebrations she did not continue to observe.
it was necessary that such a festival be developed. the fall equinox is too big an event in people's experience not to be explained as finding fulfillment in christ jesus. as a. g. hebert so perceptively comments, "above all, christ is the fulfiller." the difficulty of course is that easter had swallowed up the need for rosh ha-shonah, since the resurrection marked the first day of the new creation, the emergence from the earthen tomb of the new adam, and for yom kippur, jesus christ having accomplished once and for all the atonement towards which the yearly rites of the jews could only point (hebrews 10:12-14).
three hundred years after the crucifixion and resurrection of christ jesus, helena, mother of constantine, would visit the site to build a shrine. To do so required quite a lot of excavation, because previous emperors had erected a temple to jupiter there in an effort to make the place unavailable for christian devotion. during the work she found a piece of wood she decided must be from the very cross of our lord, and which would become the major relic of the shrine.
constantine's shrine was quite elaborate, as was suitable for such a venerable location. it consisted of two principal buildings: a basilica for the liturgy of the word, and a circular church called the resurrection--in greek anastasis--whose altar was placed on the very site of the tomb. it was used for the liturgy of the table and the singing of the daily office. the two buildings were separated by a courtyard through which the faithful passed on their way from word to table, and from which the exposed top of cavalry's hill was visible. there on good friday took place the solemn veneration of the cross, and there the congregation gathered after vespers for a final prayer and dismissal.
the shrine was dedicated in a. d. 335 on the 14th of september, the seventh month of the roman calendar, a date chosen to echo the dedication of solomon's temple on the same day of the seventh month of the jewish calendar (2 chronicles 7:8-10).
thus the time of year when, in the northern hemisphere, the darkness of the night begins to exceed the light of the day and the vegetable world begins to die, that time became the moment of exalting the cross, the ultimate symbol of the power of darkness, which would become the penultimate symbol of the power of light and life (the ultimate expression being the resurrection itself). it would look forward in the growing darkness to the unquenchable life of the one who is himself light.
but the feast also gathers up another fulfillment, another revelation, of christ jesus: his body's replacing the jerusalem temple, being destroyed and being raised up in three days (john 2:10-22). in an example of probably unintentional irony, on yom kippur, the day of atonement which coincides more or less with holy cross day (the jewish calendar is lunar and wanders a bit in relation to the solar calendar), modern jews read the book of jonah, the story about which jesus said, when "some of the scribes and pharisees . . . said 'we would like to see a sign from you,' . . . replied, 'it is an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a sign! the only sign it will be given is the sign of the prophet jonah. for as jonah was in the sea-monster for three days and three nights, so will the son of man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.'" (matthew 12:38-40).
just as fall, with so much of the world seeming to die, would not be a time for festival if there were no hope of the spring to follow, so holy cross day gets its hope, and its power, from the pasca, easter, which follows six months later. about the resurrection anything i write will fall short. one can only rejoice at crocus leaves and blossoms rising from the snow of winter. one can only most greatly rejoice at jesus rising from the heart of the earth. it is a truly cosmic event, a fact the church recognizes by celebrating on the first sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. all our measures of time are included, for what we are celebrating, as we mentioned in the chapters about sunday, especially chapter 13, is nothing less than the recreation of the cosmos: ". . . for anyone who is in christ, there is a new creation; the old creation is gone, and now the new one is here" (2 corinthians 5:17).
the fact and the meaning and our proper response to the resurrection few of us can grasp in a moment. matthew records that after the resurrection, when the eleven disciples met jesus at the arranged place, "some hesitated" (matthew 28:17).
one enters into life in christ through baptism: ". . . when we were baptized in christ jesus we were baptized in his death; in other words, when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as christ was raised from the dead by the father's glory, we too might live a new life" (romans 6:3-4).
the immensity of this event led the church to require up to three years of catechesis before baptism, not at all unreasonably when considers christ jesus spent three years with his disciples before his crucifixion. all the faithful have come to approach this awesome day of death and resurrection through a forty-day lent. but none of our words about the resurrection seem to express its meaning any better or more powerfully than spring itself, that great outburst of life fulfilled in the great outburst of the living jesus from the rocky tomb. but we try, as in this hymn by j. m. c. crum:
Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
In the grave they laid him, love whom men had slain,
Thinking that never he would wake again.
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green,
Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain.
Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
the ancient israelites of course were one of the primitive groups for whom the seasons were intensely important. a people who had settled into an uneasy agrarianism with an ancestry of herding nomadism ("my father was a wandering aramaen. he went down into egypt to find refuge there . . . " says the confession at deuteronomy 26:5), their transition had not been without conflict, a conflict first recorded in the legend of cain and abel (genesis 4:1-16). their lives depended upon timely "sowing and reaping, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night . . ." (genesis 8:22).
their earliest festivals had been agriculural. it is sometimes said that they came to be understood as having religious meaning as well, but for people who live close to the natural world, such a distinction seldom occurs. what did happen is that the meaning, the contents, of the feasts developed as the law was revealed, as they came into the land, and as worship came to be centered in the temple. the "festivals solemn to YHWH" are described in the twenty-third chapter of leviticus.
in the fall, in the seventh month, came rosh ha-shonah, the new year and annual remembrance of the creation of adam, man, yom kippur, the day of atonement, and the feast so important it was sometimes simply called the hag, the festival, the seven days of sukkot, the feast of tabernacles.
in the spring, in the first month, came pesach, passover and unleavened bread (and fifty days later, in the third month, shavuot, pentecost).
the church immediately picked up pascha and pentecost, called in england easter and whitsunday. their importance in the life of the church as the days of resurrection and the gift of the holy spirit are attested in the four gospels and in the acts of the apostles. but even though jesus as the fulfillment of the day of atonement is the major theme of the epistle to the hebrews, it would be three hundred years before the church developed a ritual occuring on the fall equinox to replace the jewish celebrations she did not continue to observe.
it was necessary that such a festival be developed. the fall equinox is too big an event in people's experience not to be explained as finding fulfillment in christ jesus. as a. g. hebert so perceptively comments, "above all, christ is the fulfiller." the difficulty of course is that easter had swallowed up the need for rosh ha-shonah, since the resurrection marked the first day of the new creation, the emergence from the earthen tomb of the new adam, and for yom kippur, jesus christ having accomplished once and for all the atonement towards which the yearly rites of the jews could only point (hebrews 10:12-14).
three hundred years after the crucifixion and resurrection of christ jesus, helena, mother of constantine, would visit the site to build a shrine. To do so required quite a lot of excavation, because previous emperors had erected a temple to jupiter there in an effort to make the place unavailable for christian devotion. during the work she found a piece of wood she decided must be from the very cross of our lord, and which would become the major relic of the shrine.
constantine's shrine was quite elaborate, as was suitable for such a venerable location. it consisted of two principal buildings: a basilica for the liturgy of the word, and a circular church called the resurrection--in greek anastasis--whose altar was placed on the very site of the tomb. it was used for the liturgy of the table and the singing of the daily office. the two buildings were separated by a courtyard through which the faithful passed on their way from word to table, and from which the exposed top of cavalry's hill was visible. there on good friday took place the solemn veneration of the cross, and there the congregation gathered after vespers for a final prayer and dismissal.
the shrine was dedicated in a. d. 335 on the 14th of september, the seventh month of the roman calendar, a date chosen to echo the dedication of solomon's temple on the same day of the seventh month of the jewish calendar (2 chronicles 7:8-10).
thus the time of year when, in the northern hemisphere, the darkness of the night begins to exceed the light of the day and the vegetable world begins to die, that time became the moment of exalting the cross, the ultimate symbol of the power of darkness, which would become the penultimate symbol of the power of light and life (the ultimate expression being the resurrection itself). it would look forward in the growing darkness to the unquenchable life of the one who is himself light.
but the feast also gathers up another fulfillment, another revelation, of christ jesus: his body's replacing the jerusalem temple, being destroyed and being raised up in three days (john 2:10-22). in an example of probably unintentional irony, on yom kippur, the day of atonement which coincides more or less with holy cross day (the jewish calendar is lunar and wanders a bit in relation to the solar calendar), modern jews read the book of jonah, the story about which jesus said, when "some of the scribes and pharisees . . . said 'we would like to see a sign from you,' . . . replied, 'it is an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a sign! the only sign it will be given is the sign of the prophet jonah. for as jonah was in the sea-monster for three days and three nights, so will the son of man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.'" (matthew 12:38-40).
just as fall, with so much of the world seeming to die, would not be a time for festival if there were no hope of the spring to follow, so holy cross day gets its hope, and its power, from the pasca, easter, which follows six months later. about the resurrection anything i write will fall short. one can only rejoice at crocus leaves and blossoms rising from the snow of winter. one can only most greatly rejoice at jesus rising from the heart of the earth. it is a truly cosmic event, a fact the church recognizes by celebrating on the first sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. all our measures of time are included, for what we are celebrating, as we mentioned in the chapters about sunday, especially chapter 13, is nothing less than the recreation of the cosmos: ". . . for anyone who is in christ, there is a new creation; the old creation is gone, and now the new one is here" (2 corinthians 5:17).
the fact and the meaning and our proper response to the resurrection few of us can grasp in a moment. matthew records that after the resurrection, when the eleven disciples met jesus at the arranged place, "some hesitated" (matthew 28:17).
one enters into life in christ through baptism: ". . . when we were baptized in christ jesus we were baptized in his death; in other words, when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as christ was raised from the dead by the father's glory, we too might live a new life" (romans 6:3-4).
the immensity of this event led the church to require up to three years of catechesis before baptism, not at all unreasonably when considers christ jesus spent three years with his disciples before his crucifixion. all the faithful have come to approach this awesome day of death and resurrection through a forty-day lent. but none of our words about the resurrection seem to express its meaning any better or more powerfully than spring itself, that great outburst of life fulfilled in the great outburst of the living jesus from the rocky tomb. but we try, as in this hymn by j. m. c. crum:
Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
In the grave they laid him, love whom men had slain,
Thinking that never he would wake again.
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green,
Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain.
Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
19. fall into winter: all saints& spring into summer: pentecost
the times half-way between the equinoxes and the solstices are called cross-quarter days. they are important events in the celtic calendar. all saints and pentecost correspond, approximately, to samhain and beltane. (since pentecost's date, fifty days after the pascha, is controlled partly by the moon, it wanders around the may first date of beltane.)
these are thin places, times when the veil separating the worlds of flesh and spirit is transparent. these are times for bonefires (bonfires), when the bodies of the dead are returned to the elements. these are times to ponder our ultimate fate. the november first date for all saints day seems to have originated in the celtic church. in older english it was called "all hallows' day," using the word for holy or sainted we are most familiar with in the our father. from that name for the feast we get the term that describes all that is left for many people of what is really a very holy time: hallowe'en--all hallow's eve--reflecting that the day properly begins with the evening. october 31st is not, for the church, hallowe'en. rather all hallows still begins on the evening.
as i mentioned above, all saints had its beginning in rome where there were so many martyrs there were not enough days for each to have his or her own date. what was celebrated was their deaths, their falling to sleep, as paul had written in the first letter to the corinthians (15:18), understood as their entry into life in the world to come. at first the celebration occured just after pentecost, as it still does in the eastern church, but gradually in the west the november first date was adopted pretty much everywhere.
it is important to know that all saints day is considered a feast of the lord: "the lord is glorious in his saints." what is celebrated is the work of god in christ jesus through the holy spirit in anyone who says to him, "yes, let it be unto me according to your word" (luke 1:30). prayer is often offered "in the communion of the blessed virgin mary and all the saints," recognizing that it is our "yes, let it be" that like mary's opens the door to the holy one in our hearts and lives. especially do we remember this as the nights are getting longer, the days are getting colder, and the world seems to be returning to the elements. we pray:
"you, o lord, have made us from the dust of the earth and to dust our bodies shall return; yet you have also breathed your spirit upon us and called us to new life in you: have mercy upon us, now and at the hour of our death; through jesus christ, our mediator and advocate. amen.
of course the big celebration of the spirit "breathed upon us" comes six months later, or came six months before, depending upon which way we look. looking forward we see that the life which seems to be ebbing on the earth on all hallows will indeed be renewed at pentecost. "the spirit of the lord renews the face of the earth." looking back we recognize that it was the gift of the spirit which empowers all the saints to triumph in death.
the gift of the spirit is the climax towards which all salvation has been headed. in the church's celebration of pentecost the ancient jewish agricultural celebration of the grain harvest becomes the harvest of the first fruits of the resurrection, the fulfillment of the parable of the sower. in the words of psalm 126,
"when YHWH brought zion's captives home,
at first it seemed like a dream;
then our mouths filled with laughter
and our lips with song.
"even the pagans started talking
about the marvels YHWH had done for us,
and how overjoyed we were!
"YHWH, bring all our captives back again
like torrents in the negeb!
"those who went sowing in tears
now sing as they reap.
they went away, went away weeping,
carrying the seed;
they come back, come back singing,
carrying their sheaves."
these are thin places, times when the veil separating the worlds of flesh and spirit is transparent. these are times for bonefires (bonfires), when the bodies of the dead are returned to the elements. these are times to ponder our ultimate fate. the november first date for all saints day seems to have originated in the celtic church. in older english it was called "all hallows' day," using the word for holy or sainted we are most familiar with in the our father. from that name for the feast we get the term that describes all that is left for many people of what is really a very holy time: hallowe'en--all hallow's eve--reflecting that the day properly begins with the evening. october 31st is not, for the church, hallowe'en. rather all hallows still begins on the evening.
as i mentioned above, all saints had its beginning in rome where there were so many martyrs there were not enough days for each to have his or her own date. what was celebrated was their deaths, their falling to sleep, as paul had written in the first letter to the corinthians (15:18), understood as their entry into life in the world to come. at first the celebration occured just after pentecost, as it still does in the eastern church, but gradually in the west the november first date was adopted pretty much everywhere.
it is important to know that all saints day is considered a feast of the lord: "the lord is glorious in his saints." what is celebrated is the work of god in christ jesus through the holy spirit in anyone who says to him, "yes, let it be unto me according to your word" (luke 1:30). prayer is often offered "in the communion of the blessed virgin mary and all the saints," recognizing that it is our "yes, let it be" that like mary's opens the door to the holy one in our hearts and lives. especially do we remember this as the nights are getting longer, the days are getting colder, and the world seems to be returning to the elements. we pray:
"you, o lord, have made us from the dust of the earth and to dust our bodies shall return; yet you have also breathed your spirit upon us and called us to new life in you: have mercy upon us, now and at the hour of our death; through jesus christ, our mediator and advocate. amen.
of course the big celebration of the spirit "breathed upon us" comes six months later, or came six months before, depending upon which way we look. looking forward we see that the life which seems to be ebbing on the earth on all hallows will indeed be renewed at pentecost. "the spirit of the lord renews the face of the earth." looking back we recognize that it was the gift of the spirit which empowers all the saints to triumph in death.
the gift of the spirit is the climax towards which all salvation has been headed. in the church's celebration of pentecost the ancient jewish agricultural celebration of the grain harvest becomes the harvest of the first fruits of the resurrection, the fulfillment of the parable of the sower. in the words of psalm 126,
"when YHWH brought zion's captives home,
at first it seemed like a dream;
then our mouths filled with laughter
and our lips with song.
"even the pagans started talking
about the marvels YHWH had done for us,
and how overjoyed we were!
"YHWH, bring all our captives back again
like torrents in the negeb!
"those who went sowing in tears
now sing as they reap.
they went away, went away weeping,
carrying the seed;
they come back, come back singing,
carrying their sheaves."
20. the sun stands still: two nativities
"joshua declaimed:
'sun, stand still over gibeon . . . .'
and the sun stood still, . . .
till the people had vengence on their enemies."
(joshua 10:12-13)
if we find the story of the sun's standing still for joshua hard to believe, we should remember two things: the first is that joshua is a book of prophecy, not of history, and of course joshua's name in greek is jesus; the second is that the sun "stands still" twice a year, at the solstices. the nativity of jesus the messiah is celebrated at the winter solstice, the nativity of john the baptist is celebrated at the summer solstice.
the summer solstice: the nativity of john the baptist
if i were in charge of things, i almost certainly would have arranged for the messiah's birth at midsummer, letting the brilliance of the season announce the brilliance of the salvation and the new creation. instead it is john the baptist, the forerunner, who is born at the summer solstice.
john, the full light of the old testament summer, is but a prophet of the uncreated light to come. ". . . it was toward john that all the prophecies of the prophets and of the law were leading; and he," said jesus, "if you will believe me, is the elijah who has to return." (matthew 11:13-14) so john is born at the height of days, then says "he must grow greater, i must grow smaller." (john 3:30) the sun stands still at the northmost point of its journey, then heads south.
"the child that is born to us is more than a prophet; for this is he of whom the saviour says: among those born of woman there is not greater than john the baptist."
antiphon for the nativity of john the baptist (after matthew 11:10-11)
"the great forerunner of the morn,
the herald of the word is born,
and faithful hearts shall never fail
with thanks and praise his light to hail.
"with heavenly message gabriel came,
that john should be that herald's name,
and with prophetic utterance told
his actions great and manifold.
"john, still unborn, yet gave aright
his witness to the coming light,
and christ the sun of all the earth,
fulfilled that witness at his birth."
(the veneble bede)
the winter solstice: the nativity of jesus the christ
six months pass. the sun reaches its furthest southward point, and stands still again. in the northern hemisphere, "night has fallen." (john 13:30)
"in the deep midwinter,
frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow,
snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter, long ago."
(christina rossetti)
"when all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of its swift course, your almighty word, o lord, leaped out of your throne, alleluia."
christmas antiphon (after wisdom 18:14-15)
the messiah is born when all is dark and bleak and there is little cause for hope. (one might add that this is not only true of the natural world. luke's gospel reminds us that jesus was born at a time of great political hopelessness as well: "in the days of king herod of judea . . . at the time [of] caesar august . . . " (luke 1:5, 2:1), despotism and pagan rule seemed firmly established.) but this is the time the sun stands still, and turns around, when
". . . the tender mercy of our god
. . . from on high will bring the rising sun to visit us,
to give light to those who live
in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet
into the way of peace." (luke 1:78-79)
the church gathers to proclaim this coming of the light at midnight on christmas eve. people who would never visit a church at any other time gather instinctively with the faithful to celebrate this awesome event. whatever theology we may profess the rest of the year, on this night we answer the call:
"o come, all ye faithful,
. . .
come ye, o come ye, to bethlehem.
come and adore him."
and we leave, walking out into the darkness now strangely made bright, singing
"joy to the world
. . .
let heaven and nature sing."
'sun, stand still over gibeon . . . .'
and the sun stood still, . . .
till the people had vengence on their enemies."
(joshua 10:12-13)
if we find the story of the sun's standing still for joshua hard to believe, we should remember two things: the first is that joshua is a book of prophecy, not of history, and of course joshua's name in greek is jesus; the second is that the sun "stands still" twice a year, at the solstices. the nativity of jesus the messiah is celebrated at the winter solstice, the nativity of john the baptist is celebrated at the summer solstice.
the summer solstice: the nativity of john the baptist
if i were in charge of things, i almost certainly would have arranged for the messiah's birth at midsummer, letting the brilliance of the season announce the brilliance of the salvation and the new creation. instead it is john the baptist, the forerunner, who is born at the summer solstice.
john, the full light of the old testament summer, is but a prophet of the uncreated light to come. ". . . it was toward john that all the prophecies of the prophets and of the law were leading; and he," said jesus, "if you will believe me, is the elijah who has to return." (matthew 11:13-14) so john is born at the height of days, then says "he must grow greater, i must grow smaller." (john 3:30) the sun stands still at the northmost point of its journey, then heads south.
"the child that is born to us is more than a prophet; for this is he of whom the saviour says: among those born of woman there is not greater than john the baptist."
antiphon for the nativity of john the baptist (after matthew 11:10-11)
"the great forerunner of the morn,
the herald of the word is born,
and faithful hearts shall never fail
with thanks and praise his light to hail.
"with heavenly message gabriel came,
that john should be that herald's name,
and with prophetic utterance told
his actions great and manifold.
"john, still unborn, yet gave aright
his witness to the coming light,
and christ the sun of all the earth,
fulfilled that witness at his birth."
(the veneble bede)
the winter solstice: the nativity of jesus the christ
six months pass. the sun reaches its furthest southward point, and stands still again. in the northern hemisphere, "night has fallen." (john 13:30)
"in the deep midwinter,
frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow,
snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter, long ago."
(christina rossetti)
"when all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of its swift course, your almighty word, o lord, leaped out of your throne, alleluia."
christmas antiphon (after wisdom 18:14-15)
the messiah is born when all is dark and bleak and there is little cause for hope. (one might add that this is not only true of the natural world. luke's gospel reminds us that jesus was born at a time of great political hopelessness as well: "in the days of king herod of judea . . . at the time [of] caesar august . . . " (luke 1:5, 2:1), despotism and pagan rule seemed firmly established.) but this is the time the sun stands still, and turns around, when
". . . the tender mercy of our god
. . . from on high will bring the rising sun to visit us,
to give light to those who live
in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet
into the way of peace." (luke 1:78-79)
the church gathers to proclaim this coming of the light at midnight on christmas eve. people who would never visit a church at any other time gather instinctively with the faithful to celebrate this awesome event. whatever theology we may profess the rest of the year, on this night we answer the call:
"o come, all ye faithful,
. . .
come ye, o come ye, to bethlehem.
come and adore him."
and we leave, walking out into the darkness now strangely made bright, singing
"joy to the world
. . .
let heaven and nature sing."
21. holy cross day
massey hamilton shepherd has given many gifts to the church in his long career. i am obviously indebted to him for his sunday: the day of light. but i want to point out particularly one line of the holy cross day collect he wrote for the 1979 american book of common prayer:
"we, who glory in mystery of our redemption, may have the grace to take up our cross and follow him . . . ."
ah. and that's what i don't find: the american church encouraging: to glory in the mystery. because the opposite is also true: we who glory not in the mystery of our redemption may not have the grace to take up our cross and follow him.
22. second thoughts: what child is this?
the twelve days of christmas have passed. you have celebrated the nativity of our lord until the epiphany, rather than letting the department stores control your holiday, and it still feels bleak midwinter. earth still stands hard as iron, water is still like a stone. what was it that christmas was all about?
"what child is this, who laid to rest,
on mary's lap is sleeping?
. . .
why lies he in such mean estate . . . ?"
(w.c. dix)
what really is this child of mary? what, really, is this child of god? candlemass (the celtic imbolc) and the transfiguration (celtic lughnasadh), falling on the cross-quarter days in early february and august, respond to those questions, in ways that are at the same time glorious and disturbing.
here is the story of the presentation:
"and when the day came for them to be purified as laid down by the law of moses, they took him up to jerusalem to present him to the lord--observing what stands written in the law of the lord: every firt-born male must be consecrated to the lord--and also to offer in sacrifice, in accordance with what is said in the law of the lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. now in jerusalem there was a man named simeon. he was an upright and devout man; he looked forward to israel's comforting and the holy spirit rested on him. it had been revealed to him by the holy spirit that he would not see death until he had set eyes on the christ of the lord. prompted by the spirit he came to the temple; and when the parents brought in the child jesus to do for him what the law required, he took him into his arms and blessed god; and he said:
'now master, you can let your servant go in peace,
just as you promised;
because my eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared for all the nations to see,
a light to enlighten the pagans
and the glory of your people israel."
as the child's father and mother stood there wondering at the things that were being said about him, simeon blessed them and said to mary his mother, 'you see this child: he is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected--and a sword will pierce your own soul too--so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.'"
(luke 2:22-35)
it starts innocently enough. mary and joseph take the child to jerusalem "to present him to the lord." their poverty, if there had even been any doubt of it, is announced by their sacrifice: "a pair of turtle doves or two young pidgeons." nevertheless simeon, "an upright and devout man," reminds them of and confirms the message of the angels and dreams and shepherds. but to the joyful message that has come before, after proclaiming jesus "a light to enlighten the pagans and the glory . . . of israel," he introduces a shadow. to mary he says "and a sword will pierce your own soul, too." as john's gospel reports, "the light . . . shines in the dark," (john 1:5) and the dark would do everything it could to overpower the light.
so far one can see this light that is jesus as ordinary light, metaphorical light, domesticated light, as we do when the church blesses candles on this day, candlemass. the light is growing as winter moves into spring, and the light of the world is jesus, even if the light does come with a sword.
but there is more. and there is more. let us continue to hear luke's account:
"now about eight days after this had been said [--this being peter's profession that jesus is the messiah--] he took with him peter and john and james and went up the mountain to pray. as he prayed, the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as lightning. suddenly there were two men there talking to him; they were moses and elijah appearing in glory, and they were speaking of his passing which he was to accomplish in jerusalem. peter and his companions were heavy with sleep, but they kept awake and saw his glory and the two men standing with him. as they were leaving him, peter said to jesus, 'master, it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three tents, one for you, one for moses and one for elijah.'--he did not know what he was saying. as he spoke, a cloud came and covered them with shadow; and when they went into the cloud the disciples were afraid. and a voice came from the cloud saying, 'this is my son, the chosen one. listen to him.' and after the voice had spoken, jesus was found alone. the disciples kept silence and, at that time, told no one what they had seen.
. . .
"at a time when everyone was full of admiration for all he did, he said to his disciples, 'for your part, you must have these words constantly in your mind: the son of man is going to be handed over into the power of men.' but they did not understand him when he said this; it was hidden from them so that they should not see the meaning of it, and they were afraid to ask him about what he had just said."
(luke 9: 28-36, 44-45)
this time the light's true nature is seen, light the church would come to call "uncreated light," "light from light," as she would call peter's "christ of god" (luke 9:20) "true god of true god." but the nature of the heart-piercing sword begins to be revealed as well. "you must keep these words constantly in your mind: the son of man is going to be handed over to the power of men." (luke 9:44)
this statement, difficult as it was and is for jesus' disciples to accept, is the very heart of our redemption. it is the corrective to original sin. remember the circumstances that are called the fall:
". . . YHWH god gave man this admonition, 'you may eat of all the trees in the garden. nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall surely die.' . . . then the serpent said to the woman, 'no! you will not die! god knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods.'" (genesis 2:16-17; 3:4-5)
what we often forget reading this passage is that the serpent is the deceiver. (revelation 20:10) adam does die, but spiritually. nor do he and eve know the difference between good and evil. we fear the one who can kill the body, and have no fear of the one who can kill the soul. (matthew 10:28) we ignore the revelation of each sunrise, of each new moon, of each springtime:
"a light . . . shines in the dark,
a light that darkness could not overpower." (john 1:51)
"what child is this, who laid to rest,
on mary's lap is sleeping?
. . .
why lies he in such mean estate . . . ?"
(w.c. dix)
what really is this child of mary? what, really, is this child of god? candlemass (the celtic imbolc) and the transfiguration (celtic lughnasadh), falling on the cross-quarter days in early february and august, respond to those questions, in ways that are at the same time glorious and disturbing.
here is the story of the presentation:
"and when the day came for them to be purified as laid down by the law of moses, they took him up to jerusalem to present him to the lord--observing what stands written in the law of the lord: every firt-born male must be consecrated to the lord--and also to offer in sacrifice, in accordance with what is said in the law of the lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. now in jerusalem there was a man named simeon. he was an upright and devout man; he looked forward to israel's comforting and the holy spirit rested on him. it had been revealed to him by the holy spirit that he would not see death until he had set eyes on the christ of the lord. prompted by the spirit he came to the temple; and when the parents brought in the child jesus to do for him what the law required, he took him into his arms and blessed god; and he said:
'now master, you can let your servant go in peace,
just as you promised;
because my eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared for all the nations to see,
a light to enlighten the pagans
and the glory of your people israel."
as the child's father and mother stood there wondering at the things that were being said about him, simeon blessed them and said to mary his mother, 'you see this child: he is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected--and a sword will pierce your own soul too--so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.'"
(luke 2:22-35)
it starts innocently enough. mary and joseph take the child to jerusalem "to present him to the lord." their poverty, if there had even been any doubt of it, is announced by their sacrifice: "a pair of turtle doves or two young pidgeons." nevertheless simeon, "an upright and devout man," reminds them of and confirms the message of the angels and dreams and shepherds. but to the joyful message that has come before, after proclaiming jesus "a light to enlighten the pagans and the glory . . . of israel," he introduces a shadow. to mary he says "and a sword will pierce your own soul, too." as john's gospel reports, "the light . . . shines in the dark," (john 1:5) and the dark would do everything it could to overpower the light.
so far one can see this light that is jesus as ordinary light, metaphorical light, domesticated light, as we do when the church blesses candles on this day, candlemass. the light is growing as winter moves into spring, and the light of the world is jesus, even if the light does come with a sword.
but there is more. and there is more. let us continue to hear luke's account:
"now about eight days after this had been said [--this being peter's profession that jesus is the messiah--] he took with him peter and john and james and went up the mountain to pray. as he prayed, the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as lightning. suddenly there were two men there talking to him; they were moses and elijah appearing in glory, and they were speaking of his passing which he was to accomplish in jerusalem. peter and his companions were heavy with sleep, but they kept awake and saw his glory and the two men standing with him. as they were leaving him, peter said to jesus, 'master, it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three tents, one for you, one for moses and one for elijah.'--he did not know what he was saying. as he spoke, a cloud came and covered them with shadow; and when they went into the cloud the disciples were afraid. and a voice came from the cloud saying, 'this is my son, the chosen one. listen to him.' and after the voice had spoken, jesus was found alone. the disciples kept silence and, at that time, told no one what they had seen.
. . .
"at a time when everyone was full of admiration for all he did, he said to his disciples, 'for your part, you must have these words constantly in your mind: the son of man is going to be handed over into the power of men.' but they did not understand him when he said this; it was hidden from them so that they should not see the meaning of it, and they were afraid to ask him about what he had just said."
(luke 9: 28-36, 44-45)
this time the light's true nature is seen, light the church would come to call "uncreated light," "light from light," as she would call peter's "christ of god" (luke 9:20) "true god of true god." but the nature of the heart-piercing sword begins to be revealed as well. "you must keep these words constantly in your mind: the son of man is going to be handed over to the power of men." (luke 9:44)
this statement, difficult as it was and is for jesus' disciples to accept, is the very heart of our redemption. it is the corrective to original sin. remember the circumstances that are called the fall:
". . . YHWH god gave man this admonition, 'you may eat of all the trees in the garden. nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall surely die.' . . . then the serpent said to the woman, 'no! you will not die! god knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods.'" (genesis 2:16-17; 3:4-5)
what we often forget reading this passage is that the serpent is the deceiver. (revelation 20:10) adam does die, but spiritually. nor do he and eve know the difference between good and evil. we fear the one who can kill the body, and have no fear of the one who can kill the soul. (matthew 10:28) we ignore the revelation of each sunrise, of each new moon, of each springtime:
"a light . . . shines in the dark,
a light that darkness could not overpower." (john 1:51)
23. day:week:month:year::life
the song of simeon provides the step on which to move from the rhythm of time as it plays in the cycles of earth and moon, sun and stars, to the beat of each life:
"lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
according to thy promise,
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."
nunc dimmitis, book of common prayer translation
each of us is born, each of us dies. whether this happens in peace depends not on the occurances of our lives, but on our understanding, our comprehension, of them. we depart in peace if we have seen the lord's salvation.
the wonder, the mystery, is that the lord's salvation is always bigger than our understanding or comprehension. the church has over her long history founds ways of understanding the mighty acts of christ jesus, which is the fullness, the pleroma, of that salvation, not only through scriptures and tradition, but through our experience of time in the natural world. this has been the topic of this extended essay so far.
insofar as we are made in the image of god, so is christ the image of what our lives are to become, and the natural year becomes a revelation of our lives as well.
because our units of time, from a day to a year, repeat themselves in cycles, we can start our journey of understanding at any point on the wheel, trusting the returning to give us deeper faith and comprehension. what does not make sense today, this year, may be understood tomorrow, next year. but because there is always more, tomorrow and next year will bring new questions.
even though we can enter the cycle at any time, the entry most often occurs with what john wesley called the ordinary means of grace, the sacraments, which are related often to particular times of the year. the next few chapters consider those particular relationships.
"lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
according to thy promise,
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."
nunc dimmitis, book of common prayer translation
each of us is born, each of us dies. whether this happens in peace depends not on the occurances of our lives, but on our understanding, our comprehension, of them. we depart in peace if we have seen the lord's salvation.
the wonder, the mystery, is that the lord's salvation is always bigger than our understanding or comprehension. the church has over her long history founds ways of understanding the mighty acts of christ jesus, which is the fullness, the pleroma, of that salvation, not only through scriptures and tradition, but through our experience of time in the natural world. this has been the topic of this extended essay so far.
insofar as we are made in the image of god, so is christ the image of what our lives are to become, and the natural year becomes a revelation of our lives as well.
because our units of time, from a day to a year, repeat themselves in cycles, we can start our journey of understanding at any point on the wheel, trusting the returning to give us deeper faith and comprehension. what does not make sense today, this year, may be understood tomorrow, next year. but because there is always more, tomorrow and next year will bring new questions.
even though we can enter the cycle at any time, the entry most often occurs with what john wesley called the ordinary means of grace, the sacraments, which are related often to particular times of the year. the next few chapters consider those particular relationships.
24. rebirth: baptism and confirmation
one can be born anytime, but statistically one is most likely to be born very early in the morning on a new moon, the second most popular time being very early in the morning on a full moon.
likewise one may be reborn--that is, baptized and chrismated-at any time, but the church has long--1800 years long--considered the great fifty days of easter the best time, particularly during the easter vigil. the image of our baptism's partaking of the passover of the lord is even older. to the romans paul wrote, in a passage used as the epistle in the easter vigil,
"you have been taught that when we were baptised in christ jesus we were baptized in his death; in other words, when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as christ was raised from the dead by the father's glory, we too might live a new life.
"if in union with christ we have imitated his death, we shall imitate him in his resurrection." (romans 6:3-5)
that "we too might live a new life," that we might have the power to "imitate him in his resurrectin," christ jesus gave us the gift of "another comforter, the holy spirit." (john 14:26) this gift is in the new testament an inseparable part of the paschal event, either as happening on one day, as in john's gospel (john 20:19-22), or as the climactic event of the fifty days, as in the writings of luke (acts 2:1-4).
unfortunately the church in the west for the most part lost or abandoned, but by the grace of god is recovering and reclaiming, the power of the great fifty days, and the interconnectedness of the resurrectin of christ and the gift of the holy spirit. i believe the intimate relationship between christian initiation and christian understanding of the mighty acts of god in restoring jesus to life and sending the holy spirit is proven by the parallel ways we have separated and reunited them. rather than go into a detailed history of that understanding, let me refer the reader to the works of daniel stevnick in the bibliography, and remind one that the eastern church has never separated baptism--the immersion of the penitent in water three times as he or she confesses her belief in the father and the son and the holy spirit--from chrismation--the anointing of the newly baptised christian with oil--nor has she ever abandoned the keeping of the great gifty days.
the church in the west is recovering the understanding of that unity, if in bits and pieces. both united methodists and episcopalians, for instance, have restored to the baptismal liturgy the laying-on-of-hands that had been understood as part of confirmation, the west's development of chrismation. the episcopal church has restored at least the option of chrismation. the church of south india, that remarkable reunion of many fragments of the great church, has restored the putting on of a white garment, the ancient action referring to the description of the church in the revelation to john that gave pentecost sunday the name whitsunday in england when people waited as late in the fifty days as possible for baptism so the rivers would be less cold. no one, so far as i know, has returned to the ancient practice of requiring the baptismal candidate to put aside all garments, even jewelry, as a sign of renouncing the old life. but all of the church which acknowledges even the slightest importance of apostolic tradition is recovering easter, the pascha, as fifty days, the great week of weeks, the time to celebrate the mighty acts of god in which we are graced to participate through baptism in water and in fire.
likewise one may be reborn--that is, baptized and chrismated-at any time, but the church has long--1800 years long--considered the great fifty days of easter the best time, particularly during the easter vigil. the image of our baptism's partaking of the passover of the lord is even older. to the romans paul wrote, in a passage used as the epistle in the easter vigil,
"you have been taught that when we were baptised in christ jesus we were baptized in his death; in other words, when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as christ was raised from the dead by the father's glory, we too might live a new life.
"if in union with christ we have imitated his death, we shall imitate him in his resurrection." (romans 6:3-5)
that "we too might live a new life," that we might have the power to "imitate him in his resurrectin," christ jesus gave us the gift of "another comforter, the holy spirit." (john 14:26) this gift is in the new testament an inseparable part of the paschal event, either as happening on one day, as in john's gospel (john 20:19-22), or as the climactic event of the fifty days, as in the writings of luke (acts 2:1-4).
unfortunately the church in the west for the most part lost or abandoned, but by the grace of god is recovering and reclaiming, the power of the great fifty days, and the interconnectedness of the resurrectin of christ and the gift of the holy spirit. i believe the intimate relationship between christian initiation and christian understanding of the mighty acts of god in restoring jesus to life and sending the holy spirit is proven by the parallel ways we have separated and reunited them. rather than go into a detailed history of that understanding, let me refer the reader to the works of daniel stevnick in the bibliography, and remind one that the eastern church has never separated baptism--the immersion of the penitent in water three times as he or she confesses her belief in the father and the son and the holy spirit--from chrismation--the anointing of the newly baptised christian with oil--nor has she ever abandoned the keeping of the great gifty days.
the church in the west is recovering the understanding of that unity, if in bits and pieces. both united methodists and episcopalians, for instance, have restored to the baptismal liturgy the laying-on-of-hands that had been understood as part of confirmation, the west's development of chrismation. the episcopal church has restored at least the option of chrismation. the church of south india, that remarkable reunion of many fragments of the great church, has restored the putting on of a white garment, the ancient action referring to the description of the church in the revelation to john that gave pentecost sunday the name whitsunday in england when people waited as late in the fifty days as possible for baptism so the rivers would be less cold. no one, so far as i know, has returned to the ancient practice of requiring the baptismal candidate to put aside all garments, even jewelry, as a sign of renouncing the old life. but all of the church which acknowledges even the slightest importance of apostolic tradition is recovering easter, the pascha, as fifty days, the great week of weeks, the time to celebrate the mighty acts of god in which we are graced to participate through baptism in water and in fire.
24a. a discursus
at first the church baptised immediately on profession of faith (see acts). but it was not long before a two or three year period of catechesis came to be norma. it is not entirely known why this happened. a common explaination is that as christianity became the official religion of the empire, people were coming to conversion with little or no idea of what that meant. karl rahner makes a passing remark in on heresy that the new emphasis on teaching was a response to heresies, especially gnosticism. when one considers that jesus spent three years with the disciples and they were often very slow to understand, the catechesis makes good sense. during this second period, baptism came under the close supervision of the bishops, who were in charge of a local church. deacons and priests had their role in the actual ceremony, as hipppolytus of rome described in the apostolic tradition, but the bishop did the actual annointing, the "chrismation" that underlies the words "christ" and "christian." hippolytus' description of the practice in this second period is worth considering at length:
"At the hour in which the cock crows, they shall first pray over the water. When
they come to the water, the water shall be pure and flowing, that is, the water of a spring
or a flowing body of water. Then they shall take off all their clothes. The children shall be
baptized first. All of the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there
are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, or
someone else from their family. After this, the men will be baptized. Finally, the women,
after they have unbound their hair, and removed their jewelry. No one shall take any
foreign object with themselves down into the water.
"At the time determined for baptism, the bishop shall give thanks over some oil, which he
puts in a vessel. It is called the Oil of Thanksgiving. He shall take some more oil and
exorcise it. It is called the Oil of Exorcism. A deacon shall hold the Oil of Exorcism and
stand on the left. Another deacon shall hold the Oil of Thanksgiving and stand on the right.
"When the elder takes hold of each of them who are to receive baptism, he shall tell each
of them to renounce, saying, "I renounce you Satan, all your servicea, and all your works."
After he has said this, he shall anoint each with the Oil of Exorcism, saying, "Let every
evil spirit depart from you." Then, after these things, the bishop passes each of them on
nude to the elder who stands at the water. They shall stand in the water naked. A deacon,
likewise, will go down with them into the water. When each of them to be baptized has
gone down into the water, the one baptizing shall lay hands on each of them, asking, "Do
you believe in God the Father Almighty?" And the one being baptized shall answer, "I
believe." He shall then baptize each of them once, laying his hand upon each of their
heads. Then he shall ask, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was
born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and
died, and rose on the third day living from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sat
down at the right hand of the Father, the one coming to judge the living and the dead?"
When each has answered, "I believe," he shall baptize a second time. Then he shall
ask, "Do you believe in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Church and the resurrection of the
flesh?" Then each being baptized shall answer, "I believe." And thus let him baptize the
third time.
"Afterward, when they have come up out of the water, they shall be anointed by the
elder with the Oil of Thanksgiving, saying, "I anoint you with holy oil in the name of Jesus
Christ." Then, drying themselves, they shall dress and afterwards gather in the church.
"The bishop will then lay his hand upon them, invoking, saying,
'Lord God, you who have made these worthy
of the removal of sins through the bath of regeneration,
make them worthy to be filled with your Holy Spirit,
grant to them your grace,
that they might serve you according to your will,
for to you is the glory,
Father and Son
with the Holy Spirit,
in the Holy Church,
now and throughout the ages of the ages.
Amen.'
"After this he pours the oil into his hand, and laying his hand on each of their heads, says,
'I anoint you with holy oil
in God the Father Almighty,
and Christ Jesus,
and the Holy Spirit.'
"Then, after sealing each of them on the forehead, he shall give them the kiss of peace
and say,
'The Lord be with you.'
And the one who has been baptized shall say,
'And with your spirit.'"
as the church grew, the powerful expressions of the nature of baptism as initiation into the one, undivided church of christ, represented by the bishop, consisting of those who had died and risen with christ, began to change, both in how it was performed and in what it meant. bishops no longer present at each baptism.
in the west the annointing by the bishop continued to be a necessary part of christian initiation, but separated in time from baptism, sometimes by many years, and called confirmation. in the east the entire ritual came to be performed by priests.
the meaning of the rise, especially in the west, came to be less about initiation into the community of those "who were being saved" and more about individual salvation. with each schism and division that tore the Church into different "churches," the image of community became less clear and that of individual salvation more prominent.
"At the hour in which the cock crows, they shall first pray over the water. When
they come to the water, the water shall be pure and flowing, that is, the water of a spring
or a flowing body of water. Then they shall take off all their clothes. The children shall be
baptized first. All of the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there
are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, or
someone else from their family. After this, the men will be baptized. Finally, the women,
after they have unbound their hair, and removed their jewelry. No one shall take any
foreign object with themselves down into the water.
"At the time determined for baptism, the bishop shall give thanks over some oil, which he
puts in a vessel. It is called the Oil of Thanksgiving. He shall take some more oil and
exorcise it. It is called the Oil of Exorcism. A deacon shall hold the Oil of Exorcism and
stand on the left. Another deacon shall hold the Oil of Thanksgiving and stand on the right.
"When the elder takes hold of each of them who are to receive baptism, he shall tell each
of them to renounce, saying, "I renounce you Satan, all your servicea, and all your works."
After he has said this, he shall anoint each with the Oil of Exorcism, saying, "Let every
evil spirit depart from you." Then, after these things, the bishop passes each of them on
nude to the elder who stands at the water. They shall stand in the water naked. A deacon,
likewise, will go down with them into the water. When each of them to be baptized has
gone down into the water, the one baptizing shall lay hands on each of them, asking, "Do
you believe in God the Father Almighty?" And the one being baptized shall answer, "I
believe." He shall then baptize each of them once, laying his hand upon each of their
heads. Then he shall ask, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was
born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and
died, and rose on the third day living from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sat
down at the right hand of the Father, the one coming to judge the living and the dead?"
When each has answered, "I believe," he shall baptize a second time. Then he shall
ask, "Do you believe in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Church and the resurrection of the
flesh?" Then each being baptized shall answer, "I believe." And thus let him baptize the
third time.
"Afterward, when they have come up out of the water, they shall be anointed by the
elder with the Oil of Thanksgiving, saying, "I anoint you with holy oil in the name of Jesus
Christ." Then, drying themselves, they shall dress and afterwards gather in the church.
"The bishop will then lay his hand upon them, invoking, saying,
'Lord God, you who have made these worthy
of the removal of sins through the bath of regeneration,
make them worthy to be filled with your Holy Spirit,
grant to them your grace,
that they might serve you according to your will,
for to you is the glory,
Father and Son
with the Holy Spirit,
in the Holy Church,
now and throughout the ages of the ages.
Amen.'
"After this he pours the oil into his hand, and laying his hand on each of their heads, says,
'I anoint you with holy oil
in God the Father Almighty,
and Christ Jesus,
and the Holy Spirit.'
"Then, after sealing each of them on the forehead, he shall give them the kiss of peace
and say,
'The Lord be with you.'
And the one who has been baptized shall say,
'And with your spirit.'"
as the church grew, the powerful expressions of the nature of baptism as initiation into the one, undivided church of christ, represented by the bishop, consisting of those who had died and risen with christ, began to change, both in how it was performed and in what it meant. bishops no longer present at each baptism.
in the west the annointing by the bishop continued to be a necessary part of christian initiation, but separated in time from baptism, sometimes by many years, and called confirmation. in the east the entire ritual came to be performed by priests.
the meaning of the rise, especially in the west, came to be less about initiation into the community of those "who were being saved" and more about individual salvation. with each schism and division that tore the Church into different "churches," the image of community became less clear and that of individual salvation more prominent.
25. the day: the daily office
"Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears" (sheldon harnick)
"our physical, emotional, and social systems follow a twenty-four hour cycle. this cycle normally provides an alteration of fatigue and rest, hunger and eating, work and leisure, which becomes basic to our consciousness of ourselves and our world. man must relate himself to the day and accept the discipline of it. we must begin every day with the will to make it a meaningful and useful day; but we must also be content to accep the close of the day in spite of the awareness that we may have accomplished little we must be able to sleep with reasonable confidence that we will not be attacked by enemies, beats, dreams, or demons--yet we must be wise enough to take reasonable preacautions for ourselves and others. finally, we must not be surprised that a day will come when do do not awake. a balanced and fully human life thus demands that we accept the discipline of living day by day, while not forgetting the necessity of long-range planning in many particular matters. we must have the faith that the day is good, and thankfully receive the daily bread that our heavenly father gives." (from prayer book studies 22)
"will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?
"i will, with god's help." (the baptismal covenant, bcp, 1979)
the daily cycle of prayer is so simple, so repititious, that it is easy to dismiss it as merely a rote act, or "unspiritual." all sunsets are the same, too. the daily prayer of the church, the "daily office," is not telling god what we want god to do or what we want to do, asking for a blessing for what we have already decided whether it is god's will or not. it is prayer with the words given by the holy spirit, the psalms, and listening to god's speaking to us in holy scripture.
the invariable rhythm of the canticles and intercessions, the longer rhythm of the psalms, the annual rhythm of the lessons from the scripture, weave us together in a pattern as simple as our inevitable death, as complex as our unspeakable life. this rhythm provides the context in which everything else in life takes place, and underlies its comprehensibility.
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears" (sheldon harnick)
"our physical, emotional, and social systems follow a twenty-four hour cycle. this cycle normally provides an alteration of fatigue and rest, hunger and eating, work and leisure, which becomes basic to our consciousness of ourselves and our world. man must relate himself to the day and accept the discipline of it. we must begin every day with the will to make it a meaningful and useful day; but we must also be content to accep the close of the day in spite of the awareness that we may have accomplished little we must be able to sleep with reasonable confidence that we will not be attacked by enemies, beats, dreams, or demons--yet we must be wise enough to take reasonable preacautions for ourselves and others. finally, we must not be surprised that a day will come when do do not awake. a balanced and fully human life thus demands that we accept the discipline of living day by day, while not forgetting the necessity of long-range planning in many particular matters. we must have the faith that the day is good, and thankfully receive the daily bread that our heavenly father gives." (from prayer book studies 22)
"will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?
"i will, with god's help." (the baptismal covenant, bcp, 1979)
the daily cycle of prayer is so simple, so repititious, that it is easy to dismiss it as merely a rote act, or "unspiritual." all sunsets are the same, too. the daily prayer of the church, the "daily office," is not telling god what we want god to do or what we want to do, asking for a blessing for what we have already decided whether it is god's will or not. it is prayer with the words given by the holy spirit, the psalms, and listening to god's speaking to us in holy scripture.
the invariable rhythm of the canticles and intercessions, the longer rhythm of the psalms, the annual rhythm of the lessons from the scripture, weave us together in a pattern as simple as our inevitable death, as complex as our unspeakable life. this rhythm provides the context in which everything else in life takes place, and underlies its comprehensibility.
26. the ember days: ordination
as many people, christian and otherwise, have moved to the cities and adopted their commercian calendars, and as even those who live in "rural" areas have come to get their holy times from the television, ember days have mostly fallen to the wayside. this should not surprise us.
"the ember days constitute a very interesting feature of the christian year, possessing one characteristic which is entirely unique. they are the only component of our annual observances in the church whose ultimate origins lay only in the 'natural' or solar year, which gave form to most primitive religions. . . . 'the ember days of the four seasons' began by being exactly what that name implies. they were in latin the quattuor tempora, a term fused into the teutonic quatember and curtailed into the english ember. they were derived from pagan agricultural observances which originally were three in number, devoted to the winter sowing in december,the summer reaping in june, and the autumn vintage in september. it was leo the great who added the lenten days to bring the number up to the four annual fasts of the jews." so wrote the standing liturgical commission of the episcopal church in prayer book studies xii: the propers for the minor holy days (new york: church pension fund, 1958)(, pp. 84-85.)
in the church year the ember days have been times of fasting and prayer before ordinations, and time for the priesthood, both ordained priests and the royal priesthood that is the whole body of christ, to reflect on how well we are carrying out our commission.
so it is as a complaint that the standing liturgical commission wrote, "the agricultural origin of the days is still discernible in some of the lections . . . prescribed in the roman missal. it also accounts for the fact that not one single lection therein has the slightest bearing upon the holy ministry." (p. )
their complaint misses the understanding that is the basis of this whole essay, which is that the holy one uses time, and the events specific to particular times, as a prophetic self-revelation, even though, "in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his son." (hebrews 1:2)
no parable is more central to the gospels that the parable of the sower. one might even argue that in the relative parable-poor gospel according to mark, it and the discussion around it has a role similar to mattthew's sermon on the mount or luke's sermon on the plain:
""listen! imagine a sower going out to sow. now it happened that, as he sowed, some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it up. some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and sprang up straightaway, because it had no depth of earth; and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it withered away. some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop. and some seeds fell into rich soil and, growing tall and strong, produced rich crop; and yielded thirty, sixty, even a hundred fold.' and he said, 'listen, anyone who has ears to hear.'" (mark 4:3-9)
add to this parable john's description of the harvest, and an agricultural typology for ministry is quite fully evoked:
"have you not a saying:
four months and then the harvest?
well, i tell you:
look around you, look at the fields;
already they are white, ready for harvest." (john 4:35)
"the ember days constitute a very interesting feature of the christian year, possessing one characteristic which is entirely unique. they are the only component of our annual observances in the church whose ultimate origins lay only in the 'natural' or solar year, which gave form to most primitive religions. . . . 'the ember days of the four seasons' began by being exactly what that name implies. they were in latin the quattuor tempora, a term fused into the teutonic quatember and curtailed into the english ember. they were derived from pagan agricultural observances which originally were three in number, devoted to the winter sowing in december,the summer reaping in june, and the autumn vintage in september. it was leo the great who added the lenten days to bring the number up to the four annual fasts of the jews." so wrote the standing liturgical commission of the episcopal church in prayer book studies xii: the propers for the minor holy days (new york: church pension fund, 1958)(, pp. 84-85.)
in the church year the ember days have been times of fasting and prayer before ordinations, and time for the priesthood, both ordained priests and the royal priesthood that is the whole body of christ, to reflect on how well we are carrying out our commission.
so it is as a complaint that the standing liturgical commission wrote, "the agricultural origin of the days is still discernible in some of the lections . . . prescribed in the roman missal. it also accounts for the fact that not one single lection therein has the slightest bearing upon the holy ministry." (p. )
their complaint misses the understanding that is the basis of this whole essay, which is that the holy one uses time, and the events specific to particular times, as a prophetic self-revelation, even though, "in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his son." (hebrews 1:2)
no parable is more central to the gospels that the parable of the sower. one might even argue that in the relative parable-poor gospel according to mark, it and the discussion around it has a role similar to mattthew's sermon on the mount or luke's sermon on the plain:
""listen! imagine a sower going out to sow. now it happened that, as he sowed, some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it up. some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and sprang up straightaway, because it had no depth of earth; and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it withered away. some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop. and some seeds fell into rich soil and, growing tall and strong, produced rich crop; and yielded thirty, sixty, even a hundred fold.' and he said, 'listen, anyone who has ears to hear.'" (mark 4:3-9)
add to this parable john's description of the harvest, and an agricultural typology for ministry is quite fully evoked:
"have you not a saying:
four months and then the harvest?
well, i tell you:
look around you, look at the fields;
already they are white, ready for harvest." (john 4:35)
27. may: marriage
"o father, all creating,
whose wisdom, love and power,
first bound two lives together
in eden's primal hour,
to-day in these thy children
thine earliest gifts renew . . . ." (j. ellerton)
there was a time in england when all of may was kept to onour the virgin mother of our lord. since she is seen as the model of the church, the bridge of christ, may was the most popular time for marriages.
marriage became attatched to may for other, perhaps more mysterious if related reasons as well. the feast of pentecost most often falls in may, when the holy spirit comes upon the whole church, making her a christ-bearer, just as the spirit had come upon mary. paul explored the imagery of the church as the bride of christ and what that image suggests for christian marriage in his letter to the church at ephesus:
". . . christ loved the church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy. he made her clean by washing her in water with a form of words, so that when he took her to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. in the same way husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies . . . . that is the way christ treats the church, because it is his body . . . . this mystery has many implications; but i am saying it applies to christ and the church. to sum up, you too, each of you, just love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband." (ephesians 5:25-33)
there were additionally some pre-christian reasons for the popularity of may as the marriage month. one of the most popular beltane celebrations was the maypole, around which men and women wound strips of cloth, walking in opposite directions. after it was wound they might go into the fields to make love, encouraging the sun and earth to follow their example and be fertile. (beltane is the beginning of summer in the celtic calendar.)
in all of these examples, marriage is seen as a re-uniting or uniting of opposites, either restoring the original bliss of creation, as suggested by j. ellerton's hymn from the english hymnal, or leading to the desired bliss of creation, as in the maypole activities. it is no wonder then that the most powerful image of the relationship of christ and the church is that of marriage. the reading that most powerfully illustrates this is the song of songs, which is read at passover in the jewish liturgy.
for many such a physical depiction of love and life is shocking to find in the bible. but it has been called in the midrash (the ancient oral commentary on the jewish scriptures) the most holy of books. as such, it's association with marriage and the period following easter is another indication of the power of the seasons of the year as revelation of the love of the holy one, and of the holiness of all creation. rather than suggesting that pagan activities surrounding the beginning of summer are mis-placed, it becomes apparent that the desire for reunion is also fulfilled in the mystery of the christ.
whose wisdom, love and power,
first bound two lives together
in eden's primal hour,
to-day in these thy children
thine earliest gifts renew . . . ." (j. ellerton)
there was a time in england when all of may was kept to onour the virgin mother of our lord. since she is seen as the model of the church, the bridge of christ, may was the most popular time for marriages.
marriage became attatched to may for other, perhaps more mysterious if related reasons as well. the feast of pentecost most often falls in may, when the holy spirit comes upon the whole church, making her a christ-bearer, just as the spirit had come upon mary. paul explored the imagery of the church as the bride of christ and what that image suggests for christian marriage in his letter to the church at ephesus:
". . . christ loved the church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy. he made her clean by washing her in water with a form of words, so that when he took her to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. in the same way husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies . . . . that is the way christ treats the church, because it is his body . . . . this mystery has many implications; but i am saying it applies to christ and the church. to sum up, you too, each of you, just love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband." (ephesians 5:25-33)
there were additionally some pre-christian reasons for the popularity of may as the marriage month. one of the most popular beltane celebrations was the maypole, around which men and women wound strips of cloth, walking in opposite directions. after it was wound they might go into the fields to make love, encouraging the sun and earth to follow their example and be fertile. (beltane is the beginning of summer in the celtic calendar.)
in all of these examples, marriage is seen as a re-uniting or uniting of opposites, either restoring the original bliss of creation, as suggested by j. ellerton's hymn from the english hymnal, or leading to the desired bliss of creation, as in the maypole activities. it is no wonder then that the most powerful image of the relationship of christ and the church is that of marriage. the reading that most powerfully illustrates this is the song of songs, which is read at passover in the jewish liturgy.
for many such a physical depiction of love and life is shocking to find in the bible. but it has been called in the midrash (the ancient oral commentary on the jewish scriptures) the most holy of books. as such, it's association with marriage and the period following easter is another indication of the power of the seasons of the year as revelation of the love of the holy one, and of the holiness of all creation. rather than suggesting that pagan activities surrounding the beginning of summer are mis-placed, it becomes apparent that the desire for reunion is also fulfilled in the mystery of the christ.
28. death and the world to come: advent
sunset of the eve of the last day of november: st. andrew's day. for the western church this is the beginning of the advent season. the hills all around are dark, cloaked in winter blue, the blue-black of ink. yet they are outlined with a golden dark glow that makes winter vespers the most hopeful times of the year, what the eastern church calls the bright darkness.
of this time gertrude mueller nelson has written, "it is advent, and the whole world is pregnant." we tend easily to assume we know who will be born: the baby jesus, the christ child. we seldom seriously reflect on "what child is this?" but herod knew. this child is the death of the old world, the old regime, the old self. for many of us this is more than we want to bear, so we, like herod, try to deny the birth, to kill the child. (matthew 2:1-18) we cover the bright darkness with watts and watts of "christmas lights." rather than recognize that "light . . . shines in the darkness"(john 1:5), rather than "casting off the works of darkness" (collect for the first sunday of advent), we put on a cloak of pretended joy, as if death did not await each of us.
"yet in the dark street shineth the everlasting light." (phillips brooks)
the death that we would avoid is the only way to eternal life:
"unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies,
it remains only a single grain;
but if it dies,
it yields a rich harvest.
any one who loves his life loses it . . . ." (john 12:24-25)
in the worlds of the mayan creation myth of the first father, "death is the door to awe." in advent we are allowed pass through the darkness of all that is old, of all that is dead, of all that no longer serves our true self, into the light of new and eternal life. this is a great and beautiful mystery. alas, many of us pass through the mystery without ever noticing it.
the eastern church honors and says farewell to the old dispensation by commemorating the old testament prophets at the beginning of december. for all the church the most significant advent saints are john, the great forerunner of the light, the greatest and last of the prophets of the old covenant, and mary the virgin mother, the first to enter the new kingdom, who took the word of god into her very body, giving birth to god the son.
all too often we react to the good news of the coming of the true king, who
". . . comes to judge the earth,
to judge the world with justice
and the nations with his truth: (psalm 96:13)
as did herod. rather than letting go our "carved images and . . . vain gods" (psalm 98:7), our understandings and pretentions and projections, we are willing to kill the innocent. we limit advent to preparing for the birth of the christ child, but we allow no room in our hearts for the child to grow.
but equally available is the way chosen by simeon, who had spent his life seeking not self-aggrandizement but "the consolation of israel" (luke 2:25), and whose song has ever since been the prayer of christians at the end of their days and at the end of their lives:
"now, master, you can let your servant go peace,
just as you promised;
because my eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared for all the nations to see,
a light to enlighten the pagans
and the glory of your people israel.: (luke 2:29-32)
of this time gertrude mueller nelson has written, "it is advent, and the whole world is pregnant." we tend easily to assume we know who will be born: the baby jesus, the christ child. we seldom seriously reflect on "what child is this?" but herod knew. this child is the death of the old world, the old regime, the old self. for many of us this is more than we want to bear, so we, like herod, try to deny the birth, to kill the child. (matthew 2:1-18) we cover the bright darkness with watts and watts of "christmas lights." rather than recognize that "light . . . shines in the darkness"(john 1:5), rather than "casting off the works of darkness" (collect for the first sunday of advent), we put on a cloak of pretended joy, as if death did not await each of us.
"yet in the dark street shineth the everlasting light." (phillips brooks)
the death that we would avoid is the only way to eternal life:
"unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies,
it remains only a single grain;
but if it dies,
it yields a rich harvest.
any one who loves his life loses it . . . ." (john 12:24-25)
in the worlds of the mayan creation myth of the first father, "death is the door to awe." in advent we are allowed pass through the darkness of all that is old, of all that is dead, of all that no longer serves our true self, into the light of new and eternal life. this is a great and beautiful mystery. alas, many of us pass through the mystery without ever noticing it.
the eastern church honors and says farewell to the old dispensation by commemorating the old testament prophets at the beginning of december. for all the church the most significant advent saints are john, the great forerunner of the light, the greatest and last of the prophets of the old covenant, and mary the virgin mother, the first to enter the new kingdom, who took the word of god into her very body, giving birth to god the son.
all too often we react to the good news of the coming of the true king, who
". . . comes to judge the earth,
to judge the world with justice
and the nations with his truth: (psalm 96:13)
as did herod. rather than letting go our "carved images and . . . vain gods" (psalm 98:7), our understandings and pretentions and projections, we are willing to kill the innocent. we limit advent to preparing for the birth of the christ child, but we allow no room in our hearts for the child to grow.
but equally available is the way chosen by simeon, who had spent his life seeking not self-aggrandizement but "the consolation of israel" (luke 2:25), and whose song has ever since been the prayer of christians at the end of their days and at the end of their lives:
"now, master, you can let your servant go peace,
just as you promised;
because my eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared for all the nations to see,
a light to enlighten the pagans
and the glory of your people israel.: (luke 2:29-32)
29. christmas: healing
"mild he lays his glory by,
born that man no more may die,
born to raise the sons of earth,
born to give them second birth.
risen with healing in his wings,
life and light to all he brings,
hail, the sun of righteousness!
hail, the heaven-born prince of peace!" (charles wesley)
nothing said above about advent should be understood as acceptance of death as "normal."
"christianity is not reconciliation with death. it is the revelation of death, and it reveals death because it is the revelation of life. christ is this life. and only if christ is life is death what christianity proclaims it to be, namely the enemy to be destroyed and not a 'mystery' to be explained. religion and secularism, by explaining death, give it a 'status,' a rationale, make it 'normal.' only christianity proclaims it to be abnormal and, therefore, truly horrible."
(alexander schmemann)
in christ is fulfilled the prophecy that death will be swallowed up in victory. (isaiah 25:8; romans 15:54). often we think of that victory's being won only at calvary, by the crucifixion. but all of human life is transformed by the incarnation. everything that god the son assumes in his humanity is healed, which is the usual meaning of the greek word often translated "saved." eternal life is possible for human beings because the eternally begotten son of the father entered time as the son of mary.
"o that birth for ever blesssed,
when the virgin, full of grace,
by the holy ghost conceiving,
bare the saviour of our race;
and the babe, the world's redeemer,
first revealed his sacred face . . . ." (a.c. prudentius)
"what child is this . . .?
this, this is christ the king,
. . .
the babe, the son of mary." (w.c. dix)
"for he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet, and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death." (1 corinthians 15:24-25)
born that man no more may die,
born to raise the sons of earth,
born to give them second birth.
risen with healing in his wings,
life and light to all he brings,
hail, the sun of righteousness!
hail, the heaven-born prince of peace!" (charles wesley)
nothing said above about advent should be understood as acceptance of death as "normal."
"christianity is not reconciliation with death. it is the revelation of death, and it reveals death because it is the revelation of life. christ is this life. and only if christ is life is death what christianity proclaims it to be, namely the enemy to be destroyed and not a 'mystery' to be explained. religion and secularism, by explaining death, give it a 'status,' a rationale, make it 'normal.' only christianity proclaims it to be abnormal and, therefore, truly horrible."
(alexander schmemann)
in christ is fulfilled the prophecy that death will be swallowed up in victory. (isaiah 25:8; romans 15:54). often we think of that victory's being won only at calvary, by the crucifixion. but all of human life is transformed by the incarnation. everything that god the son assumes in his humanity is healed, which is the usual meaning of the greek word often translated "saved." eternal life is possible for human beings because the eternally begotten son of the father entered time as the son of mary.
"o that birth for ever blesssed,
when the virgin, full of grace,
by the holy ghost conceiving,
bare the saviour of our race;
and the babe, the world's redeemer,
first revealed his sacred face . . . ." (a.c. prudentius)
"what child is this . . .?
this, this is christ the king,
. . .
the babe, the son of mary." (w.c. dix)
"for he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet, and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death." (1 corinthians 15:24-25)
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