The Sacraments in Space and Time

If you were ever curious about the idea of “Sacraments” check out this lecture by the good Bishop N.T. Wright:

http://worship.calvin.edu/resources/resource-library/space-time-and-sacraments-n-t-wright

 

A response to an evangelical article entitled: “Why I no longer attend a church”

The reason why evangelicals will continue to leave the Church is because they don’t understand who the Church is and what they are called to as fellow members of the Body of Christ. The same reason they leave the church is the same reason they leave their marriages, they don’t like to deal with sinful people and learn to love them like Christ. Both of those are a failure of protestantism.

They like to boast “church is people not a building,” but if that were true then they would gather in a parish with the Church. Instead that is a catchy phrase that sounds cool but is an excuse to walk away from the Church. That is why when people say that, I let them know I am holding them to it. When we have baptisms they better be there. When we do marriages they better be there. When we have burials they better be there. Because those things happen IN THE CHURCH….that is in the midst of the People of God.

We are seeing the logical result of secularism’s deconstruction of Christianity into a commodity that can be shopped around by people who have been given a false sense of competence through the transformation of individuals into a “citizens.” This has produced so called churches that are made by individual baptized people creating ex-nihilo various Bodies of Christ. The problem is that when you create another Body of Christ separate from The Body of Christ you have in essence created another Christ. And a lot of people are walking away from that Christ. Not the Christ of the Bible, not the Christ who is the head of the Church.

Alexander Schmemann says, “The Church is not an institution with sacraments, She is a sacrament with institutions.” The Catholic church is the continuing Incarnation of Jesus in the world transforming it into the Kingdom of God. That does not mean it is going to be perfect, but it is going to be better than nothing at all.

Churching of Women: The Sacredness of Childbearing

 

Within the catholic tradition the primary vocation of the Church is to make present the story of Jesus. The whole Church calendar is a journey through the life of Christ. Along that journey, year after year, the Church celebrates what is traditionally called: Candlemas. Candlemas is also called, “The feast of the purification of Mary,” or “The Feast of the presentation of Jesus.” This is  to commemorate and to remember the story, which St. Luke records in his gospel, of Mary and Jesus’ presentation in the Temple (Luke 2:22-24). According to Jewish law, two things were at work here in the Gospel story: the first was the purification of Mary. Because of childbirth, women in the Old Testament were considered unclean (a social and ritual designation) and had to wait a period of time to insure that there were no complications after childbirth. After a period of time a Jewish mother would come to the Temple to offer sacrifices upon being declared clean. Likewise, if the child was a first born son, he would be brought and offered to God as a sacrifice, however the child would not be killed himself rather a lamb would be offered in his place. This was a remembering of the sacrifice of Abraham and Isaac, where God prevented Abraham from sacrificing his son and provided for them a ram. All of this is summed up in the celebration of Candlemas. However, the church goes one step further and recognizes in this commemoration that Jesus, the firstborn son of Mary, was not only a figure of Isaac, he was also the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.

Early on in the life of the Church, not only did the church celebrate this major feast of Candlemas, she also had smaller celebrations surrounding the birth of children. Mothers, after childbirth, would come to the Church to participate in what was called the “Churching of women.” This of course was to live out the story of Mary and Jesus, just as Mary and Jesus lived out the story of Abraham and Isaac. However, there were of course differences. The Church does not have purification laws. Nor does the Church regulate this to first born males who were to be redeemed by a sacrifice. For the Church recognizes the fact that Jesus was and is the only sacrifice for redemption. In the place of purity rites, the Church blesses a woman after child birth and gives thanks to God for her safety. Purification and the blessing are not to be confused; the blessing is not purification for there is no need for that any longer. Also instead of offering children to God as a form of sacrifice, the child is simply blessed. This is for sons and daughters, of any order, not just the firstborn. And finally, instead of a blood sacrifice, the mother offers her thanks to God for the child through prayer.

This has developed over the years, and recently there have been other things that the Church has done within the greater tradition of “Churching.” One of the things that developed, which connected the Churching of women with Candlemas (people bring candles to be blessed on this day), was the bringing of a candle to be blessed on behalf of the child. The candle is the sign of the Light of God coming into the world through Jesus. The candle represents the prayers of the mother for the light of Christ to fill her child and is preserved to be used at the child’s baptism. There were other things that people would bring, for instance an Icon, a first Bible, a cross, a monetary gift to the church, or some other religious objects to be blessed. It is within this ritual of prayer and thanksgiving, that the Church demonstrates the holiness of pregnancy and childbirth. It is the celebration of humanity working with God to bring new life into world. But not just new life, new life that is closely connected to the story of God’s love reveal in Sacred Scripture. In this way it is a small sacrament.

Along with Churching of women, the Church realized that there were other times women and children needed prayer, blessings, and celebration. There are now prayers for those who are pregnant and expecting. Likewise, there is a separate blessing of a child with the whole family that takes place specifically on Sundays. In a concrete way, through these prayers and traditions not only does the church proclaim the holiness of childbearing, but blesses and sets it apart as something beautiful for God. These prayers and blessings are offered here at The Advent as we continue to grow in the knowledge and love of God. If you are expecting or recently had a baby please feel free to contact us to ask questions or to set a time for us to pray for you.

Why it is right to hate your mother and father on Christmas: A critique of churches who close their doors on Christmas

Several news organizations had stories last week describing churches closing down on Sunday because of Christmas.    Now there were a lot of reasons why churches said they were going to be suspending services, but the main one revolved around “family.”   The excuse of “family” took on a variety of forms.   Some of the larger churches simply said that people would not show up because they were going to be spending the day with their families and so the church was not going to spend all the money in cost to open the doors on Christmas day.   Another excuse was that the pastor would be pulled away from his family for a very low turnout of people, and therefore they were honoring his family by suspending services.  Finally, the most absurd excuse was that the Church needed to show that it was truly pro-family, so they canceled services to help people spend more time with their families.  Sadly, the message that this sent to the culture at large was that Christmas was about family not about Jesus.   In other words, “family” was exposed as an idol in the evangelical Church.

It is precisely this lack of Gospel authenticity that motivated me to look for another church about 10 years ago.  Though closing the doors of the Church on a Sunday because it was Christmas would not have been the specific reason.   Somewhere in my heart I knew that there was something wrong with the values and theology of most mainline evangelical churches.  There is a glaring inconsistency with what evangelical churches say they believe and what they really believe.   For years now evangelicals have been lamenting the “war on Christmas” by the secular culture.   Pithy statements such as, “Jesus is the reason for the Season” and “Keep Christ in Christmas” have been the hallmark of evangelical post Thanksgiving sentiment.   And yet this year when Christmas happen to fall on a Sunday, the worship of Christ became too much of an inconvenience for Christians who wanted to stay home and play with their new toys.   This is why the secular culture will not take evangelicals seriously, because they are all too ready to set aside their faith when it challenges them instead of the culture.

My very first service in a Catholic Church came on Christmas Eve.   I still remember thinking something seemed right about going to church to celebrate Christmas even though I did not know what was gong to happen.   After a while, my journey led me to the Catholic faith.   It is here that I found the Church doing what the Church is always suppose to do on Christmas, whether it falls on a Sunday or not:  worshiping the Christ who was born for us.   The name itself for this holiday is a call to worship: The Christ Mass.   And the Christ Mass is not one service it is THREE, one service on Christmas Eve and two on Christmas Day.   Worship of Jesus Christ our Lord is the central event of Christmas, not family time.   Time with the family is a good thing and a part of the life of Christmas for Christians, but that is why we have 12 days of Christmas not one.   Our obligation to God, the Church, and the world is to gather together every Christmas in worship of the One we claim changed the world by His birth.   Not to cancel worship but to enter into worship.

If this is true, how would I answer those various reasons for churches closing their doors?   Well to the first issue of the lack of attendance, I would simply say that the lack of attendance was an indication of a failure on the part of the clergy to properly teach their people something other than bumper sticker Christianity.   If their people were going around being rude to store employees for saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” and then did not show up for worship on Sunday because it was Christmas there is a clear indication of the breakdown of discipleship (not to mention compassion and just plain logic).  Either the clergy of those churches need to begin to properly teach their people devotion and love and not bitter slogans; or they just need to close their door permanently because clearly with their doors open they are not doing a service to their people, the world, or to the Glory of God.   Secondly, if there is a concern about the family of the Pastor not having a “proper Christmas,” do not worry because the proper Christmas is gathering together with the people of God in worship not gathering around a tree.  If you are making the case that a clergy’s family is put out by having to worship on Christmas, then you might be making a good argument for the celibacy of clergy,  but you are sure not making a good argument on why worship should be canceled on Christmas.  Finally, to those who argue that they want to demonstrate family values to the culture by not obligating people to go to church on Christmas Sunday, I would remind them that the ideal of Christianity is not the “biological” family.  This has been lost in the evangelical church which prides itself in political discourse as being about all about family values.   The life of Christians is in the Church, which is the family of God united in baptism.   Baptism calls into question all allegiances to biology.  It was Jesus himself who challenged the family values of his day when he said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters …. he cannot be my disciple.”   This is clearly a warning to not make an idol of our families.  For Christians, God should come first and it is the responsibility of the shepherds of God’s people to preach and model that in our communities.  This year several high profile evangelical churches dropped the ball.  Unfortunately, this has tainted Christianity as a whole because the media only reports negativity so they did not write stories on the overwhelming majority of Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and mainline Protestant churches who opened their doors, as they do every year, to worship God on Christmas.   Those churches that closed their doors have six years to get their act together, let us hope they do so for the cause of Gospel in the United States.   After all we are not asking them to worship every Christmas, though that would be the best thing to do, we are simply asking them to not cancel celebrating the very reason the churches exists to begin with.

Just as an aside this of course does not mean that if you failed to go to church this past Christmas you are a bad Christian.   It is simply my response to a theologically flawed excuse for why Churches would close their doors on Christmas and a critique of the continued mix message that evangelicals send to the culture at large.

The Christ Mass

Mass is not a word that we think a lot about these days.  It is often associated with Roman Catholicism.  However, every year around December 25^th everyone uses the word without really thinking about it.  It is the word that the majority of the world associates with the celebration of the Birth of Jesus: Christmas or Christ Mass. A little history and theology might be helpful in understanding what it actually means.

The word “mass” is a shorten form of “dismissal.” At the end of Sunday Service in churches around the world Christians, after receiving Communion, are dismissed to be on mission.  In traditional churches the service does not end with a blessing, but with a commissioning where someone says to all the people: “Go in Peace to love and serve the Lord.”    These are not antiquated words, but a real sending out of God’s people; to be His Hands and Feet to the world.  The question then is what makes December 25^th different that churches celebrate Mass together on that date, even if it is not Sunday?

Historically, the date December 25^th marks the end and the beginning of something on the Church Calendar.  It is the end of the Season of Advent and the beginning of the celebration of Christmastide (12 days of celebrations).  Like Lent is to Easter, Advent is a time of fasting in preparation of the great Feast of Christmas that lasts for 12 days.  December 25^th is the breaking of the Advent fast and it is done with a Mass in honor of the Birth of Christ.   And since every mass is considered a feast it is the first great feast of Christmastide.  It is a feast that is shared by Christians around the world.  That is why Christians keep vigil on Christmas Eve, for they have been waiting in expectation together for several weeks and now they share a great feast together.

Therefore, the Church waits through Advent, knowing that come Christmas Eve night the wait will be over and it will be time to celebrate the Birth of the Christ.  We will break our fast and expectation with the Christ Mass.  We will celebrate together the scandal of that faithful night when the Word Who created all things took His first breath and whimpered in His Mother’s arms.  It is right then for Christians to gather to pray, to worship, to celebrate, and to feast together that Holy Night.  Then when all of the festivities of that night are over we go into the world with a message of hope.  Like the shepherds we must not keep quiet, we must spread the Good News to the entire World that Christ has been born.  It is through this that the Church not only celebrates the Christ Mass, but also becomes the Christ Mass.