Saturday, January 5, 2013

Chapter 3: The Time of Mission

                           Father Alexander Schmemann with Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

As the liturgy comes to a close, the liturgy does not cease to stop but rather is a continuation of our life transforming our whole being. Living liturgy is part of the calling Christians are called to live out. Living liturgy is encompassed with entering again into time. Just like the liturgy and the Sunday Eucharist is the separation of time (physical time) living out our liturgy in the world is also a re-entering of time. Time however, is paradoxical because it is the only reality of life, but also is a nonexistent reality. It constantly breaks down our life (the past) to make it no longer existent and it is also looks to the future which leads to death (physical death). Time has been an “issue” many philosophers and writers have tried to solve throughout history. However, as one is called to live out liturgy I cannot offer   a “solution” because time is to be embraced as a living sacrifice. Here then is not a “solution” to the “problem” but rather a gift. By perceiving time as a gift then one can conclude and accept it freely and joyfully as it is given. If we accept time as a gift then the solution and the problem become an irrelevant phenomenon to our understanding of what time encompasses.

In order to appreciate time the incorporation of liturgy must be established to see how one can live out there liturgy in the gift of time. The respect for time through liturgy has slowly been lost to the “spiritualization” of the believer. I hear today many people speaking non-sense like “…if I come to liturgy right before the gospel reading I will be fine…if I read the gospel reading when I come home then I can show up before communion and I do not need to come for the entire liturgy”. Father Alexander echoes this when he says that real tragedy of Christianity today is not a compromise with the world and the progressive materialism but rather it is “spiritualization” and the transformation into “religion”. We have “boxed” Christianity or as a close friend of time says “packaged” Christianity into a religion. However, if we are to understand Christianity as a religion then there is truly no hope for us. Christianity was never intended to be the new religion. Christianity is a way of life. Time, to the church then ceases to exist because the church is not bond down by time. Time is arbitrary because the church stands outside of time. Therefore, we can conclude by saying that the church and everything we do within the church governs time and not the other way around. Time was never meant to hold the church down. However, as time has crept into the church people have began asking questions in relation to time and the beauty of the church becomes diminished with such questions as “Did Christ rise on the 2nd day or the 3rd day? Did Christ die at the 6th hour or the 9th hour? Etc”. Christ was never bound to time and through his death he was able to conquer death and by conquering death he conquered time.  

In the Jewish context of understanding time, the Sabbath (the day of rest) was man’s participation and affirmation of the goodness of God’s creation (cf. Gen1.25, 2.3). The seventh day was understood as a time for relaxation and to enjoy the good of all creation within the Jewish context of understanding the Sabbath. This explains why Jews don’t do any type of work on this day because it would go against appreciating the good of creation. However, this concept breaks down because how can you enjoy the good of creation if you are not engaged in the creation itself. Father Alexander goes on to say that in the apocalyptic writing of the prophets they speak of an 8th day. The 8th stands outside of time because it is not bound by the frustration and limitation of the 7th day or the time of this world. It is out of this idea that the Christian Sunday developed. Christ a rose one day after the Sabbath. The life that shone out of the grave was not held bound by time and its physical realities leading to death. The 7th day was bound by time however; the 8th day stands outside of time. Death was not able to comprehend what was laid in the tomb and this explains why the church chants Christ is Risen from the dead trampling down death by death. This is why the church celebrates the Eucharist on the Sunday because, as mentioned previously, if we understand the church to stand outside of time and the realities of the church is what governs the heavenly realities then time has no room in the church. The celebration within the church is the reality of the heavenly banquet and our ascension into the holy of holies. This explains why the early church did not have a “fixed day” to celebrating the Eucharist. Sunday as a fixed day was not introduced until Constantine become emperor. Before then liturgy was a celebration that took place on any given day. The celebration was not bound to time and not being bound to time the celebration is truly heaven on earth. The liturgy and the Eucharist being a celebration on the eight gives all days there true meaning. It has made the time of this world a time of end, and it also has made it a time of beginning. If we understand that liturgy is a celebration of the eight day then all days become how humanity is to live out it’s liturgy to the world.

A major step in the realm of time is the Christian year. What I mean by this is the Christian calendar. Christians have specific holidays they celebrate throughout a calendar year such as Pascha, the Nativity and Pentecost to name a few. Many see these as a time to rest. Others might see them as a time to develop their business. Unfortunately, the joy of the feast is slowly being forgotten in our modern times. Feast on the pedestrian level means joy. But as critical thinking people we never think of feast as being joyful. How can we be joyful when so many people suffer? The responses back is why has society made something to be enjoyed and lived out by its beauty and joy so serious? People have associated the feast of joy with the “serious problems” of society and by doing this have reduced what the feasts of the Lord truly mean. What happens next is scary because the celebrations now cease to be our greatest source for generating power and is viewed as no more than a less antiquated decoration of religion. As Father Alexander says: “It is used as a kind of "audio-visual” aid in religious education, but it is neither a root of Christian life and action, nor a "goal” toward which they are oriented. Page 53”. To understand the function of a feast within time we must know how they were brought into being. They were first preached and taught at a time when cultures celebrated feast organically and were an essential part to their world view and way of life. A feast for the man of the past was not a break but rather it was life for the human individual and the entire community. The culture accepted the feast and all its joys which became freedom for the community. Sadly, we have forgotten this true joy because Christianity has turned everything based on labor and rest. Father Alexander sums this idea up when he says: “Christianity made it impossible simply to rejoice in the natural cycles—in harvests and new moons. Because it relegated the perfection of joy to the inaccessible future—as the goal and end of all work—it made all human life an "effort,” a "work.” Page 54-55”. However, Christianity was the revelation of true joy and thus the gift of a genuine feast. This joy is real simply because it does not depend on anything from the world. This joy is pure because it is not the reward of anything within us. This joy then becomes the greatest gift the church can offer to anyone who comes to the church. Father Alexander says its best: And being pure gift, this joy has a transforming power, the only really transforming power in this world. It is the "seal” of the Holy Spirit on the life of the Church—on its faith, hope and love. Page 55”.  

Through the cross joy came into the world. Joy was then given to the church that the church might be a witness to the world and transform it by this joy. This is the main function of the feats within the church and their meaning belonging to time. To look at two feasts, Pasha and Pentecost, we see how they developed through time. The historical commemoration is of the resurrection and bestowing of the Holy Spirit in both feasts. Is that all we remember them for? The early church adopted the Jewish feasts of Passover and Pentecost not to remind us of the resurrection and the bestowing of the Holy Spirit (because the resurrection and bestowing of the Holy Spirit are constantly to be lived out within the church and are not held down by one day of the year) but rather they were the announcement of the experience of time and of life in time, in which the church is the fulfillment. We know that these feasts are celebrated at a time when the first fruits of nature are grown out (spring). This shows how the feasts are the coming back to life from the death of winter. The feats are the expressions of joy about life. Thus Easter is not a commemoration of an event but rather the fulfillment of time, of real time itself. Easter is the celebration and fulfillment of time through history, expectation and the natural order. All of these factors that make time culminate in the Pascha celebration of the resurrection of our Lord. On Easter night the explanation is given as the procession (in an Orthodox Church) proceeds through the church as the chanters chant Christ is Risen. They true joy of time culminates in the gathered community chanting Christ is Risen which is more beautiful than any other “joy” the world fools us with. This is why Easter is called the sacrament of time. The joy given, the light that transforms, is to become the ultimate meaning of all time, thus transforming the year into a Christian year not based on dates and celebrations but rather on entering the fullness of time.

The daily cycles of services has been abandoned however, it is not the restoration of the services that must unite us in Christ but rather what is meant to be rediscovered is the relation of the church and of the individual Christian to the time of the day the relation which was the theme, the content of the daily service. Contrary to when the day starts for society in the church the daily cycle of prayers begins with vespers in the evening. This goes back to how the church through the end is the new beginning and out of death we have been restored to life. Time is growth but it is only at the end can we discern the direction of the growth to see its fruits. It was at the “end of the day” that God saw his creation and creation was good. This is why liturgy on major feat days would begin late in the evening and go into the new day. The way vespers begins in the church serves a very important role to all of us. Our day is shaped either by good or bad, happy or sad or any other emotion. Our day will either determine the mood we are in or will be in the next few days. However, the vesperal service does not begin with an examination of the day. It begins at the beginning, the rediscovery of the thanksgiving of God’s creation to us. The church takes us to that evening in which man was created by God and in seeing his eyes creating us we saw God’s love begin given to his creation. Hence why not only the vesperal service begins with the “thanksgiving prayer” but any service within the Orthodox Church begins with the thanksgiving prayer. (Let us give thanks to the beneficent and merciful God…). If this is how we are to understanding the start of the service we must also see that it was Christ who restored the broken image of Adam. This is why Christ is given the name the New Adam. I the old Adam was rejected and lost but am made new in the Eucharistic life in Jesus Christ. Lastly, if the church is in Christ, its act is to always given in thanksgiving, returning the world to God. (Your own of your own we offer to you, on behalf of all and for all-St. John Chrysostom Liturgy taken from the Anaphora prayer). Through the realization of our broken nature and being sinners in front of God the climax of the vesperal service is chanted by the chanters (O Gladsome light of the holy glory of the immortal father). The one coming into the world has come and revealed the true light which shines and comprehends the darkness (cf. John 1.1-5). If everything know is transformed in Christ we must begin to transform our lives in the image and likeness of Christ. We must now become the icons of Christ and see Christ in everyone.

Now as the next day approaches the church sets up for us the meaning of the light having to come into the world to comprehend all darkness. Unlike vespers which speaks of the creation matins looks at the fall. In the joy of the fullness of time the church declares her joy that God is the Lord, and she begins to organize life around God. As the sun begins to rise in the morning we recite the prologue of John which reminds us of the light which comprehends the darkness of the world. For centuries we have preached to the people who are always in a rush that the rush as no meaning, yet accept it-and your reward will be eternal rest. But God revealed and does not offer eternal rest but eternal life. God reveals this eternal life in the midst of time and the meaning and goal of its secret. Thus, time and our work in it is the sacrament of the world to come, culminating in liturgy and the fulfillment of the ascension. It is when we have reached the end of the worlds self sufficiency that it begins again for us as the material of the sacrament that we are to fulfill in Christ (page 65). This is how and why Christ is the beginning and the end (alpha and omega cf. Rev 21.5-6).                            

A few quotes from chapter three: 
 
Before we gain the right to dispose of the old "symbols” we must understand that the real tragedy of Christianity is not its "compromise” with the world and progressive "materialism,” but on the contrary, its "spiritualization” and transformation into "religion.” Page 48 

In the Jewish religious experience Sabbath, the seventh day, has a tremendous importance: it is the participation by man in, and his affirmation of, the goodness of God’s creation. "And God saw it was good. . . . And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Gn. 1:25, 2 :3). Page 50.

Christ rose from the dead on the first day after Sabbath. The life that shone forth from the grave was beyond the inescapable limitations of "seven,” of time that leads to death. It was thus the beginning of a new life and of a new time. It was truly the eighth and the first day and it became the day of the Church. The risen Christ, according to the fourth Gospel, appeared to His disciples on the first day (Jn. 20:19) and then "after eight days” (20:26). Page 51.

It did not interrupt time with a "timeless” mystical ecstasy. It was not a "break” in an otherwise meaningless sequence of days and nights. By remaining one of the ordinary days, and yet by revealing itself through the Eucharist as the eighth and first day, it gave all days their true meaning. It made the time of this world a time of the end, and it made it also the time of the beginning. Page 52.

Consciously or subconsciously Christians have accepted the whole ethos of our joyless and business-minded culture. They believe that the only way to be taken "seriously” by the "serious”—that is, by modern man—is to be serious, and, therefore, to reduce to a symbolic "minimum” what in the past was so tremendously central in the life of the Church—the joy of a feast. The modern world has relegated joy to the category of "fun” and "relaxation.” It is justified and permissible on our "time off” ; it is a concession, a compromise. Page 53.

Time always points to a feast, to a joy, which by itself it cannot give or realize. So needful of meaning, time becomes the very form and image of meaninglessness. Page 57.

Time itself is now measured by the rhythm of the end and the beginning, of the end transformed into beginning, of the beginning announcing the fulfillment. The Church is in time and its life in this world is fasting, that is, a life of effort, sacrifice, self-denial and dying. The Church’s very mission is to become all things to all men. But how could the Church fulfill this mission, how could it be the salvation of the world, if it were not, first of all and above everything else, the divine gift of Joy, the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, the presence here in time of the feast of the Kingdom? Page 59.

For centuries we have preached to the hurrying people: your daily rush has no meaning, yet accept it—and you will be rewarded in another world by an eternal rest. But God revealed and offers us eternal Life and not eternal rest. And God revealed this eternal Life in the midst of time—and of its rush—as its secret meaning and goal. And thus he made time, and our work in it, into the sacrament of the world to come, the liturgy of fulfillment and ascension. It is when we have reached the very end of the world’s self-sufficiency that it begins again for us as the material of the sacrament that we are to fulfill in Christ. Page 65.

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