I think sometimes when we discuss the liturgy, we can give the impression that the eschatological reality that is the Church "happens" only in the liturgical assembly around the Words of God read and preached and the Holy Eucharist celebrated. But this is a very grave misunderstanding.
The Church as eschatological reality does not exist solely in the Eucharistic Assembly. Rather, her particular mode of existence in Eucharistic assembly is the source of her strength for her perpetual task in this world: the invasion. We are part of an alien invasion, make no bones about it. We are here to rescue as many "earthlings" as we can for the joys of that heavenly life that we certainly taste in Eucharistic assembly - our secret "visit home" each week. Strengthened to orient our lives toward the unseen realities that our Master Invader has revealed to us, He sends us out to BE His Church in this world.
A friend of mine used to speak of Church gathered and Church scattered. Perhaps we should say: Church assembled and Church deployed. Deployed by the Master Invader, pulsing with His divine life, and dispatched into this world to BE to the praise of His glory, to show in this world a way of life that is utterly freed from the terror of death, from the power of hatred, fueled by a love so astonishing, by a life so indestructible, that it shines and draws the mere earthlings to itself.
Each time Pre-Lent and Lent swing around, it is the Church's corporate confession that we haven't very well lived that way. It's not that the new life has not been richly dumped on us in the Divine Service, but that we've failed in the deployment. We've failed to orient our lives toward that Easter life that Baptism made our own and that the Eucharist weekly renews in us. And each year, it is the opportunity to become in this world, who He has both declared and made us to be when He brought our lives under His sway. So that Church isn't a point. It's not what happens merely when assembled, but becomes who we are when we're taking out the trash, working out at the Y, dining out, finishing the project, sawing the beam or writing the contract. We do all the stuff of this world as Church, as those who have been brought back from death to life and whose sins are simply buried under the blood of the Cross.
"You shall be my witnesses." It's not a command. It's a promise.
13 comments:
In Holy Baptism, it's not so much that the Church "happens" as it is that she is born, right?
In Holy Absolution specifically, and generally in the pure preaching of the Word and the right administration of the Sacraments (which Luther likes to call an absolution), we're being fed but we can also call that being reborn too, right?
So I would take issue with people who say that Church "happens" in the liturgical ekklesia (here they're making the ontological reality into an event in time), but it's that this actual, real Church is being fed, that is, reborn (the event that both brings into being that ontological reality and continues to sustain its existence).
"It's not a command, it's a promise."
Is this the essence of the Third Use: Law looked at again from the vantage point of the Gospel, Law fulfilled (yet not abolished) by Christ? "You shall have no other gods"--it's true, we shall not have any when Christ comes in glory!
This is not only a fine meditation, Pr Weedon, it is also very helpful. In the course of a discussion on CAVII recently, a mutual cyber-acquaintance of ours wrote that Lutheran ecclesiology is an "event ecclesiology". Such a view, of course, fails to take account of the very first phrase of CAVII, but nevertheless I think I understand how he reached that conclusion, and I believe a lack of familiarity with classical Lutheran reflection on the subject and an over familiarity with 2oth century German Lutheran thought has a lot to do with it. So, the tack you have taken in this post provides a very concrete way of thinking about the church from a Biblical/Lutheran perspective that I'm sure many will find helpful. One might also consider Temple/Presence extension in the world as an even more resonantly Biblical way of looking at it. Thanks!
These are extremely necessary words. I fear that in a certain zeal to encourage good and useful liturgical rites and ceremonies there is a tendency to speak of Gottesdienst in such a way as to do precisely what you warn against in this post.
Well said.
Why are people so obsessed with trying to wriggle out of the reality that the Law is a guide for Christians to know what pleases God when they actually live out their lives as His people and do those works prepared in advance for them to do?
It is an odd thing indeed to see this happening among the so-called "confessional Lutheran" crowd.
And quite sad.
What a great homily on the traditional concluding words of the mass, Ite missa est.
Most of the work on the phrase is about the missa est part -- is missa a verb (perfect passive participle actually) and therefore it means "Go it (the mass) is sent", or a noun as it has been derived to become in later languages including the English "mass" and therefore "Go the mass is over", or a noun derived from missio and therefore meaning "Go the dismissal is done".
You know what, it doesn't matter, because regardless, the action is in the Ite, not the missa est. Go. Just like the Transfiguration we just celebrated.
Which is confirmed by the concluding words of every other ancient liturgy -- all have the sense of going forth, a carrying forward of the gifts whose celebration we have just concluded into the rest of life and the world.
I would, however, maybe characterise this phenomenon not as an alien invasion, but a participation in going forth into the world God made and loves and still is fully his, as he is lifted up and draws all men unto himself, a convergence in which he has overcome the rebellion on our part which made us aliens from what we were created to be.
Pastor Weedon, I view your blog when I can and I appreciate your sharing this post. Thanks.
Pastor McCain, just a word of thanks for your comments. Like most people, the time I have to comment on all the blogs I view is limited, so thank you for saying so well in your 2 comments above, what I was even tempted to try to express here myself. What you said is important.
Terry,
Definitely an improvement on the analogy. I like.
Karyn,
Thanks.
Phil,
Right. On third use, I don't think this particular word of the Lord is any use of the Law; I think it is Gospel promise.
Mark,
Yes, I had our mutual friend's criticisms in mind...
Thoughtful and precise words. They hit the spot at the right moment for me. The encouragement is invaluable.
Just a question, Pastor Weedon: The CA defines the Church as a "gathering" at a particular event, ie. the Liturgy (around Word and Sacrament). I have always had difficulty understanding how this definition to be understood when the Church is "scattered". Some thoughts?
David,
The AC defines the Church as THE GATHERING or CONGREGATIO of the Saints. It's eschatological first. There is only one gathering of the saints - as described in Hebrews 12. And the liturgical assemblies (plural) manifest and participate in this reality. But even when I am "church scattered" I remain a part of that one eschatological assembly.
Which is to say that as I live "in" the world, I am always to live in it as a part of the eschatological assembly of all believers whose life is everlasting because our life is the Lamb. Think Tolkien and the Eldar living at once on both shores.
Your words here, Fr. Weedon, are very worthy of note. I would only add (and this is not against your comments) that we ought not judge too harshly a writer's or speaker's phraseology, depending on context or intention. When, eg., one says things to the effect that it is in the Mass that the Church most clearly manifests itself, this sort of talk in some sense might seem improper to some who read your post, but is in fact a profound truth, I think. After all, this is not to say that at the altar the Church becomes what she was not before, just that her nature there is most uniquely manifest. Her royal identity, and her marital union with her Lord, which is always hers, is celebrated in a special way when she is united with Him in the Sacrament, a way not comparable to any other moment in this life.
Perhaps also helpful in this discussion is to bear in mind that in the celebration of the most blessed Sacrament, while it is a moment in time within the week, or day, we are involved with something that defies chronology. We are stepping into a reality which is eternal. Far from a reality that is only an hour & fifteen minutes long, it is an experience of the Church's never-ending union with her Lord.
In the living of our various vocations in the world, we remain the Church; and in fact one's vocation is in a different sense a manifestation of the Church. This is hard to see, though, both because the world cannot recognize the true nature of the Church, and because the life of the Christian, as Christian, is all too often obscured by the sinful flesh.
Like the Children of Israel, though, our wandering in this world needs to be sustained in an ongoing manner, by the bread from heaven. And the Church's receptive passivity in that feast is where I think she most shows herself to be the eucharistic and holy Bride of Christ.
To the Rev. McCain, I would ask for specific examples of those zealous of liturgical ritual who speak of Gottesdienst in the way Fr. Weedon is warning against. Specific examples are more helpful in a matter such as this.
One final thought: Terry, while you are right, the world is God's, and is essentially good, and is therefore our home as well, it is also true that we are not of this world. For it has become a wasteland, occupied and controlled by the enemy. We wander here, in a very real sense, as strangers. And as we do, every aspect of our lives should bear witness to these truths. So I agree with you and Fr. Weedon simultaneously on this. Sorry for all the words, spilled here by a hotel clerk on a slow night. not sure if it has furthered the conversation at all. sorry if it hasn't.
Yes Deacon I do not disagree with you, I think we are emphasising differently aspects of the same thing.
Our sin is fatal to us, but not to God. It has killed in us what we were created to be, but even though we are unfaithful God is not, not has he changed, even as it says For God so LOVED the world that he sent etc.
Certainly as we proceed from our assembly into the world, we will be at odds, sometimes and even often, severely at odds, with it.
But just as the Alpha is not some impersonal happening setting in motion impersonal laws according to which Man, as the Marxists suggest, or Nature, as the Darwinians suggest, proceed, neither is the Omega a final result of this procession through inherent law, a push, but a pull from from a living God who created all and in spite of its self-inflicted rebellion and brokenness, still draws it unto himself as a pull of his unconquered and unchanging love.
Er sagt dann Ich mache ALLES neu.
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