What is all this Ritual?
For those unfamiliar with liturgical worship, entering an Episcopal worship service for the first time may seem like stepping back in time 1000 years. Rituals, formalities -- what may seem like unnecessary "trappings" -- strike some people as antiquated, at best. "I don't need all that outmoded falderol to worship God!" is a criticism I often hear. And that is certainly true: one can worship God in many different ways!
The ancient forms of liturgical worship which we Episcopalians choose to use speak to us on a level words alone cannot. The meanings of what we do are not readily evident, and may need explanation to be understood, and time to "sink in". Following is the text of an Instructed Eucharist which I used during the month of February, 2006 to provide an explanation (inadeduate as it is) of what we are doing in our worship. I offer it in the hopes it might be helpful in broadening and deepening your worship.
Mark Meyer
Instructed Eucharist
Prepared for use at
Christ Episcopal Church
February, 2006
Instructed Eucharist
Part I: Overview
Scripture
Chron. 16:23-34 (ESV)
1
Sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Tell of his salvation from day to day.
[24] Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
[25] For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
and he is to be held in awe above all gods.
[26] For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
[27] Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and joy are in his place.
[28] Ascribe to the Lord, O clans of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
[29] Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come before him!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
[30] tremble before him, all the earth;
yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.
[31] Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice,
and let them say among the nations, "The Lord reigns!"
[32] Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it!
[33] Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.
[34] Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
Psalm 96:1-13 (ESV)
Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
[2] Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
[3] Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
[4] For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.
[5] For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
[6] Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
[7] Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
[8] Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!
[9] Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth!
[10] Say among the nations, "The Lord reigns!
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity."
[11] Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
[12] let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
[13] before the Lord, for he comes,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
and the peoples in his faithfulness.
Hebrews 10:12-25 (ESV)
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, [13] waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. [14] For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
[15] And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
[16] "This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,"
[17] then he adds,
"I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."
[18] Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
[19] Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, [20] by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, [21] and since we have a great priest over the house of God, [22] let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. [23] Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. [24] And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, [25] not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
John 4:19-24 (ESV)
The woman said to [Jesus], "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in
Introduction:
Several of you have asked me, from time to time, to do some teaching on the meaning of our worship service, our liturgy. In some respects, to even attempt this is ludicrous – like trying to count the number of stars in the sky. Yet just because you cannot count or comprehend the stars doesn’t mean there isn’t value in studying them, learning about them, gazing at them, and being inspired by them!
Of course, there is always the problem that you may not see the stars in the same way that I see the stars, and they may not affect you in the same way they affect me. It doesn’t follow, however, that everything about stars is subjective; nor is it to say that your opinion on the matter of stars is as valid as anyone else’s – an astronomer’s, for instance. Nor is it to say that your view of the stars is as good as anyone else’s: the person who stands in a wide-open field of Montana on a cloudless night has a better view of the stars than someone who stands in Times Square in the middle of Manhattan on an overcast evening; and a person looking through the telescope at Mt. Palomar Observatory has some advantage over either of these others. There are some objective realities and perspectives which can be stated on the matter of stars; not everything about them is subjective.
The same is true of liturgy. There are some objective things that can be said about our Christian Eucharist. And even when we do speak on the rather blurry and wooly subject of symbolism, we can still call on the collective wisdom of the saints, of modern anthropologists, or psychologists such as Carl Jung, to guide us along the way.
Yet in the end, studying the Christian Eucharist is far more like studying Christian marriage than it is studying the stars. Yes, there are some things the textbooks can teach you on the subject, and even more things which couples who have been happily married for over 50 years can teach you. But in the end, marriage is about relationship, and as much as you listen to Dr. Phil, or read Dear Abby, or watch the “how-to” video, in the end you must relate to one another: physically, emotionally, spiritually. In the end, the Christian Eucharist is about relationship: relationship between you and God, between you and your neighbor, and between Jesus Christ and us as a corporate church body.
This month’s Instructed Eucharists will hopefully help enrich and strengthen these relationships.
Today I deal with an overview; next week I will deal with the first half of our Eucharist, The Word of God; the following week I will address the second half of our Eucharist, Holy Communion; and the final Sunday of the month I will address what the Eucharist means for our lives and mission in the world.
My fear regarding this study of our liturgy and worship is that we fall into the easy trap of intellectualizing, analyzing, and dissecting, and thereby looking at it as an impartial observer (true to the scientific method!) My friends, we are not impartial observers! We are worshipers of the One, True, Living God, Creator, redeemer, and sustainer of our very lives. Out liturgy is a tool that we can use to come into closer, more intimate relationship with this Triune God. We examine that tool not to marvel at the tool’s construction and function – the intricacies of its minutely-honed parts, the finely-tuned mechanics of its functioning, the history of its evolution. No; we examine the tool of our liturgy in order that we might learn to use it more effectively toward the end of loving the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and strength, and being empowered by God’s Spirit to become the Body of Christ in our world.
Origins of the Eucharist
Historically, the two major parts of the Eucharist – the Word of God and the Holy Communion – come from two major parts of the lives of the Jewish people (the earliest Christians, after all, were Jews). The first half of our Eucharist, the Word of God, comes from the Jewish synagogue service, wherein prayers are said, Scriptures read and explicated, songs sung, and faith professed. Jesus undoubtedly attended regular synagogue services, and we know that whenever
The second half of our worship, The Holy Communion, comes from the Jewish ritual meal, the type of meal which Jesus shared at his last supper with his disciples.
Celebration of Redemption
Now there is a theme which runs through both of these two major parts of worship – or perhaps better said, there is a story which runs through the whole of the Christian Eucharist: the story of God’s mighty act of salvation in Jesus Christ. We read of that story in our Scriptures readings, call upon the mercy of that salvation in our Confession, and in sacramental ways enact that mighty deed of salvation in the Holy Communion. One liturgical scholar has stated that Christian worship can be simply defined as a celebration of that act of salvation. (Robert Webber, p. 3) Since it is God’s act of salvation in Jesus Christ which is the storyline of our worship, it should be no surprise that worship begins with God, not with us. God is always more willing to come to us than we to him. Our job is to respond to that initial movement of God by being open to God’s coming, and to God’s work in us and through us. As we look at our Eucharist service this month, we will see that so much of it is an interweaving of God’s action and our response.
Our Response
Our principal response to God’s mighty act of salvation in Jesus Christ is to give thanks. The word “Eucharist” comes from the Greek word for “thanksgiving”. When we celebrate Eucharist, we are, first and foremost, giving thanks and praise, which is to say, we are worshiping – “giving worth to” God. Meister Eckhart, the great medieval mystic, said: “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is, ‘Thank you’, it would suffice.” We are fed as we offer our lives in thanksgiving to God.
It follows therefore that we are active participants in the Eucharist, not passive recipients. Indeed, the word “liturgy” literally means “the work of the people” (not “the work of the priest and the choir”).
Praying with a Book
Our Episcopal liturgy differs from that of many of the more Protestant churches in that we worship with a Book of Common Prayer. In fact, it is our common prayer which unites us Episcopalians, and in a larger context as Anglicans. We Episcopalians are not united by doctrine – we do not have a uniquely “Episcopal doctrine” – we are united by our common prayer, our common worship. Now you have undoubtedly heard the criticism which Christians of other traditions often make – that we Episcopalians have to “pray with a book, and not from the heart”, meaning that we use written prayers rather than extemporaneous, “spontaneous” prayers.
Now, I would be the first to encourage you to pray spontaneously – during the Prayers of the People, in your own private prayers, at Bible studies, with your friends, or in grace at meals. Yet, there is also a strength in “praying from a book”. C.S. Lewis (an Anglican himself) noted that worshiping with the Prayer Book kept him “in touch with ‘sound doctrine’”. “Left to one’s self,” Lewis wrote, “one could easily slide away from ‘the faith once given’ into a phantom called ‘my religion’”. He also noted that praying prayers from the Prayer Book reminded him “‘what things [he] ought to ask’… The crisis of the present moment,” wrote Lewis, “like the nearest telegraph post, will always loom largest. Isn’t there a danger that our great, permanent, objective necessities – often more important – may get crowded out?” (quoted from The Joyful Christian: 127 Readings from C.S. Lewis, 1977: Macmillan Publishing Company,
While not judging the worship of other Christians, Lewis said that he himself had a problem with “extemporaneous” prayer. When a minister leading worship prayed his own “extemporaneous” prayer, Lewis found himself having to carry out two distinct activities. First, he had to decide whether he could agree with the prayer which was being prayed. (I think we all have experienced someone else praying a prayer which we could not agree with, perhaps a prayer which obviously put forth the pray-er’s own agenda.) Only after Lewis had gone through this process of discerning whether he could agree with the minister’s prayer could he then join his heart and soul in that prayer. But by that time, the minister was praying something else, or the liturgy had moved on. When Lewis knew ahead of time what prayer was going to be prayed, however, this preliminary step of evaluation was eliminated, and his heart and soul could freely and unrestrainedly pour into the prayer.
Lewis wrote:
Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best...when, through familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God. (Ibid., p.80)
Preparation for Worship
Our attention is on God.
That, of course, is very hard for us to do, for our attention is always wandering. And so our liturgy attempts to facilitate the process of attending to God. We begin by preparing for worship in silence. This is not because we are unfriendly, and don’t want to visit with our neighbors, friends, and guests; it is rather because silence is a place where we can empty ourselves of our hectic thoughts and attend to God. This is one of the great gifts of our tradition – that we observe silence in preparation for worship. Let’s use that gift, and respect the silence which is our gift to others as well. There is a time and place for everything, and the time to visit is at Coffee Hour – which, by the way, is extremely important for our common fellowship! (Some have called Coffee Hour “the Eighth Sacrament”.)
After silent preparation, it is time to begin the service.
An Analogy
Now the liturgy has been likened to having dinner at the home of a friend. I invite you over for supper on an appointed day and at an appointed time. I prepare in advance, and when the time comes, you arrive and ring the doorbell. I greet you at the door, welcome you in, invite you into the living room, bring you something to drink and put a plate of hors d’oeuvres on the coffee table. We have conversation, tell stories about what is going on in our lives and in the life of our family.
Then the timer on the oven goes off, dinner is ready, and I invite you to the table. We enjoy the food, nourish our bodies, share in fellowship, and finish with pie and coffee, wrapping up what it was we having been discussing.
Finally, you say, “It’s getting late, and I’ve got to be getting home.” We then shift into another mood and mode: the thank-you, farewell, and come-again rituals. I walk you to the door, embrace you, tell you how good it was to be together, and assure you that we must do this again, soon. You go off, happy to have been with me, feeling good about the evening, and about our relationship, which has been strengthened by our sharing time and a meal together.
Now note that all of this occurred in the context of a structure that we all have played out a hundred times over. It was actually a ritual, characterized by four parts: Acts of entrance, a ritual of communication, a ritual of eating, and acts of dismissal. Each part flowed into the other, to create a meaningful whole.
When we gather together to worship, we follow a similar sequence. We meet with God at God’s house, where we enter, communicate, eat at God’s table, and go forth into the world. (This “dinner” analogy is taken – at times verbatim, from Renew Your Worship, Robert E. Webber, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997, pp.22-23)
I will speak about these parts in coming Sundays.
Now let us begin our liturgy with our Gathering, or Entrance ritual. God is inviting us into his home.
….
The Liturgy Ends
We have come to the end of our liturgy. What has happened? What have we done? What has God done?
Of course these questions are too vast to even begin to answer. And perhaps, for some of you, there is no need to answer them; the liturgy does its full work without a thought. But I suspect that for most of us 21st-Century Americans, reflecting on what we do, examining unexamined habits, and questioning our purpose and God’s purpose will draw us nearer to Him.
I end with one wise Anglican’s view of worship, in the hopes that his self-examination might spur our own. Again, C.S. Lewis:
“We are under no obligation to go to church. But… it is in the process of being worshiped that God communicates his presence to [us]. It is not, of course, the only way. But for many people at many times the ‘fair beauty of the Lord’ is revealed briefly or only while they worship Him together. Even in Judaism the essence of the sacrifice was not really that men gave bulls and goats to God, but that by their so doing God gave Himself to men…
But [in the past], the most obvious fact about praise – whether of God or anything – strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise – lovers praising their mistresses, readers praising their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game – praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains… even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfits, and malcontents praised least. The good critics found something to praise in many imperfect works… The healthy and unaffected man, even if luxuriously brought up and widely experienced in good cookery, could praise a very modest meal: the dyspeptic and the snob found fault with all. Except where intolerably adverse circumstances interfere, praise almost seems to be inner health made audible.
I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good his is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with (the perfect hearer died a year ago)…
If it were possible for a created soul fully (I mean, up to the full measure conceivable in a finite being) to “appreciate,” that is to love and delight in, the worthiest object of all, and simultaneously at every moment to give this delight perfect expression, then that soul would be in supreme beatitude. It is along these lines that I find it easiest to understand the Christian doctrine that “Heaven” is a state in which angels now, and men hereafter, are perpetually employed in praising God. This does not mean, as it can so dismally suggest, that it like “being in Church.” For our “services,” both in their conduct and in our power to participate, are merely attempts at worship; never fully successful, often 99.9 percent failures; sometimes total failures. We are not riders but pupils in the riding school; for most of us the falls and bruises, the aching muscles, and the severity of the exercise, far outweigh those few moments in which we were, to our own astonishment, actually galloping without terror and without disaster. To see what the doctrine really means, we must suppose ourselves to be in perfect love with God – drunk with, drowned in, dissolved by, that delight which, far from remaining pent up within ourselves as incommunicable, hence hardly tolerable, bliss, flows out from us incessantly again in effortless and perfect expr3ssion, our joy no more separable from the praise in which it liberates and utters itself than the brightness a mirror receives is separable from the brightness it sheds. The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him. (Ibid., pp. 117-120)
Part II: The Word of God
Scripture
Isaiah 55:6-11
Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Psalm 119
105 Your word is a lantern to my feet *
and a light upon my path.
106 I have sworn and am determined *
to keep your righteous judgments.
107 I am deeply troubled; *
preserve my life, O Lord, according to your word.
108 Accept, O Lord, the willing tribute of my lips, *
and teach me your judgments.
109 My life is always in my hand, *
yet I do not forget your law.
110 The wicked have set a trap for me, *
but I have not strayed from your commandments.
111 Your decrees are my inheritance for ever; *
truly, they are the joy of my heart.
112 I have applied my heart to fulfill your statutes *
for ever and to the end.
Romans 10:5-17
Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that "the person who does these things will live by them." But the righteousness that comes from faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) "or 'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? "The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, "No one who believes in him will be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.
Matthew 13:3-8, 18-23
And Jesus told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. "Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."
Introduction
Last week I tried to give an overview of worship. I briefly mentioned that our Prayer Book Eucharist service comprises two parts: The Word of God, and The Holy Communion. Today we focus on The Word of God.
“Word of God” has many layers of meaningTo a modern Christian, the term “Word of God” is often taken to be synonymous with “the Bible”, and certainly there is a sense in which the Bible is the word of God. But the phrase “Word of God” has far more layers of meaning! In fact, defining the term “Word of God” takes up 7-1/2 pages in one modern Bible dictionary (The Anchor Bible Dictionary) – and that is only describing the Old Testament understanding of the term!
In the Old Testament, the phrase “Word of God” often refers to the direct communication of God’s will to a prophet, king, or nation. Such communication can be through speech, dreams, encounters with strangers, and directly to the human mind. “The word of the LORD came to Samuel” – the Lord communicates his will and intentions to Samuel. Similarly, when we read that “Saul did not obey the word of the Lord”, we understand that Saul did not follow the revealed will and intentions of God.
There are some Christian denominations whose worship services focus on the direct, unmediated word of God coming to individuals in the congregation. A member will stand up during worship and say, “God has told me…” Sometimes there is speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues (we know that this happened during
Our Anglican tradition
Without in any way denying the validity of such forms of worship, our own tradition focuses on the word of God as revealed in Holy Scriptures – a practice which was the norm in the synagogue services of Jesus’ day. We read in Luke where Jesus, during a synagogue service, read from the scroll of Isaiah, then sat and spoke about the reading, drawing out from the Scripture the word of God for the people. This is our practice: the reading and preaching of Scripture, through which, by God’s grace, his will and intentions for us are revealed. We said last week that the “storyline” of our worship is God’s act of salvation in his Son Jesus Christ, and we believe that that story is told through Holy Scripture, which, our Prayer Book says, “contains all things necessary for salvation”.
We also said last week that our worship begins with God, not us. We will see, then, that this first half of our Eucharist involves preparing to hear the word of God, listening for the word of God coming to us through the reading and preaching of Scripture, and then our response to that word in faith, prayer, and confession.
Word and Sacrament define the ChurchThe two great figures of the Reformation – Martin Luther and John Calvin – agreed that the Church itself was identified by the two elements of worship: wherever the word of God was read and preached, and the sacraments administered according Christ’s command, there is the Church. In our actions during worship, then, we visually give prominence to Word and Sacrament. The Altar is central, and the Gospel book – which is held high in procession – is placed prominently and visibly on the altar. Word and Sacrament.
God’s Word spoken in context of relationship
But from the time of Abraham, the word of God has been spoken in the context of a relationship God has with his people. God’s word is spoken in order that that relationship be realized more fully, and our response, or failure to respond, affects the relationship as well. This truth – that the word of God furthers relationship between God and us (and, by extension, amongst ourselves) – is, I believe, the most important statement I can make about this first half of our Eucharist. Let’s look briefly at each part of this portion of the Eucharist in light of that understanding.
Silence is preparation for the Word
We begin in silence. Richard Rohr writes: “I believe silence and words are related. Words that don’t come out of silence probably don’t say much. They probably are more an unloading than a communication. Yet words feed silence, and that’s why we have the word of God – the read word, the proclaimed word, the written word.” (Radical Grace, p. 200) We have moments of silence throughout the Eucharist: following each Scripture reading, following the sermon, between petitions in the prayers of the people, before the confession, at certain times in our Eucharistic prayer. The late Episcopal author Agnes Sanford said that at the beginning of a time of prayer, it is as if we are standing on a street corner and God is several blocks away. We could yell at God and hope he would hear us, or we could walk the few blocks toward God so that we can hear him more clearly. That is what we do when we prepare in silence.
The Liturgy begins Next comes the procession. Our acolytes, choir and clergy don’t process down the aisle because we like a parade; rather, we are representing the movement of all our hearts into the closer presence of God, into a space and time set apart from the world. This holy place, this next 60, 70, 90 minutes is completely given over to our relationship with God. Time and space are suspended, and all the faithful who have ever lived are gathered with us as the communion of saints. We don’t have clocks in our worship space: in the context of worship, there is no chronological time.
When the procession arrives at the sanctuary and our hymn ends, we greet one another with the acclamation, “Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!”. We then pray that God, who knows all our thoughts and desires, wash away all the clutter and muck in our hearts and minds that would keep us from drawing closer to him in this time of worship. This prayer, called “the Collect for Purity”, has been a part of our Anglican worship since the very first Prayer Book in 1549. We then sing a hymn of praise, usually the Gloria, which is an expansion of the song sung by the angels to the shepherds at Jesus’ birth. Finally, we prepare for the reading of Scripture by praying a prayer whose content relates to the theme of the day’s Scriptures.
Let us begin the liturgy.
………………………
Reading the Word
Having been standing to praise and pray, we now sit to hear God’s word coming to us through Scripture. This is the central part of this first half of our Eucharist. God is speaking to you and to me through Scripture! How could we possibly be bored or inattentive? The Gospel, representing the culmination of God’s saving act in Jesus, receives special attention. We stand at its reading, for a similar reason that we stand when our national anthem is sung: our standing honors the reality behind what is heard. In one case, that reality is our nation; in the other, it is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The Sermon: the Word exposed
The reading of the Gospel is followed by the preaching of the Gospel. As I mentioned, by the time of Jesus, it had become the practice in synagogue services for someone to comment on the Scriptures which were read, with the intention that the meaning of the Scripture be connected to the daily lives of the people. It is the awesome duty of the preacher to carry on this ancient practice, hopefully through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit! The sermon has been termed “the breaking open of the Word”, corresponding to the breaking of the bread in the Holy Communion.
Remember, God does not speak to a vacuum, but to us in our situation; and if we hear and receive his word, we will respond to that word.
Our response to the Word
The Nicene Creed
Our response after the reading of Scripture and the preaching of Christ is a profession of faith, using the corporate statement of faith which the Christian Church has used since the Fourth Century – the Nicene Creed.
Let us respond to God’s Word by profession our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.
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Prayer
Prayer is another fitting response to hearing Scripture read and the Gospel preached. Now, we often think of prayer as our calling upon God: asking in petition or intercession, speaking to him words of thanksgiving. But just as God does not speak into a vacuum, neither do we! Prayer is as much a listening for God’s word as it is a speaking our own words. And note that our Book of Common Prayer does not call this part of the service, “The Prayers of the Priest and Lector”; it is called “The Prayers of the People”! Let us make it so! If there is a need you have, a friend for whom you want to ask God’s healing, a gift from God for which you want to thank him, by all means, do it! And often giving voice to our prayers, speaking them out loud, gives them added meaning and power. As I mentioned last week, we are all active participants in worship, not passive recipients of worship. I also quoted C.S. Lewis as having said that written prayers reminded him of “what things [he] ought to ask”. Thus our Prayer Book requires that we include prayers for: the
Confession
The General Confession is sometimes used at the beginning of the Eucharist. Confession always begins the Lutheran liturgy, where it is seen as a necessary preparation for worship. Here at
Let us continue our response to God’s word in our prayers and confession.
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The PeaceThe final act of the Liturgy of the Word is the Passing of the Peace, perhaps the most misunderstood part of the whole Eucharist service. This is not a mini Coffee Hour, during which time you compliment the person next to you on her dress. “For everything there is a season, and a time for everything under heaven” – and Coffee Hour is the time to chat, not this solemn moment! It is an exchange of that peace which passes all understanding, which is Christ’s gift to us. In the late medieval Church, the priest began the passing of the peace by kissing the “paxboard” (“pax” is Latin for “peace”). The paxboard was a literal board or paddle of wood on which was painted a picture of Jesus on the cross. After kissing this paxboard, the priest would then literally pass it among the congregation. Try to think of passing the peace as passing and receiving something just as real and tangible as this between you and another person. The only words we should be saying at this time in the liturgy are “The Peace of the Lord be always with you”, “And also with you.” The only exceptions to this rule would be: 1) telling a newcomer, “We’re glad to have you with us”; or 2) going up to someone and asking forgiveness of someone whom you have wronged. It is for this latter reason that our Prayer Book locates the Peace right before the offertory in order to reflect Jesus’ teaching: “If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24)
“The Peace of the Lord be always with you!”
II: Holy Communion
Part I
Scripture
Exodus (14:10-15:1)
When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." And Moses said to the people, "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent."
The Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen."
Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians."
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen." So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying,
"I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
I Corinthians. (11:23-29)
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
Psalm 116:10-17
10 How shall I repay the Lord * for all the good things he has done for me?
11 I will lift up the cup of salvation *and call upon the Name of the Lord.
12 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord * in the presence of all his people.
13 Precious in the sight of the Lord *is the death of his servants.
14 O Lord, I am your servant; * I am your servant and the child of your
handmaid; you have freed me from my bonds.
15 I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving *and call upon the Name of the
Lord.
16 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord *in the presence of all his people,
17 In the courts of the Lord’s house, *in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!
John (6:47-58)
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever."
Sharing a meal a sign of intimacy
In every culture, down through the centuries, there seems to have been ritual and meaning attached to the eating of meals together. It is likely that a certain holiness has naturally been ascribed to eating because of the understanding that food is life-giving. In our own society of overabundance, a daily awareness of the intrinsic life-sustaining nature of food has largely been lost, and with it, some sense of the mysterious forces inherent in food. With that loss of awareness has come the loss of many rituals and unspoken meanings surrounding the eating of food.
Yet, outside of our fast-paced American culture, in most parts of the world today, eating a meal together still holds some sense of the holy – some sense that in this sharing of food, we are sharing life, and sharing community. By “breaking bread” with someone, you become, in many ways, one with that person. It is little wonder, then, that one of the major criticisms the Pharisees leveled against Jesus was that he ate with tax collectors and sinners, thereby identifying himself with them, becoming himself a tax collector and sinner, in a way. Eating with someone is an act of intimacy. The day that the leader of Hamas breaks bread with the President of Israel will be the day there will be peace in the Holy Land, for the people of the Middle East, both Jew and Arab alike, understand the intimacy inherent in breaking bread together.
Episcopal priest and professor Robert Webber was once invited with his wife and some friends to share a Sabbath meal with a Jewish rabbi. Webber writes, “…for weeks afterward, I reflected on that event. What we were involved in was more than a meal, it was… a religious ritual… that had power to unite a family, recall history, create reverential awe, shape values, and provide a focal point to which memory for both parents and children will return again and again… Eating together establishes, maintains, repairs, and always transforms relationships.” (Renew Your Worship, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997, pp. 65-66)
Eating together establishes, maintains, repairs, and always transforms relationships.
Webber says that the early Christians came to the Eucharistic meal with these expectations of relationship with the resurrected Jesus who was present at the Eucharistic feast. He reminds us that for the two disciples who met the stranger on the Road to Emmaus, Jesus was recognized in the breaking of the bread.
Origins in the Passover
So far this month, we have looked at an overview of worship, and at the first half of our Eucharist – The Word of God, which we said had its origins in the Jewish Synagogue service. We come today to that part of the Eucharist which has its origins in the Jewish ritual meal, and most significantly, in the Passover meal. (Whether we understand The Last Supper to be a Passover meal, as the first three Gospels say, or whether it occurred the night before the Passover, as John’s Gospel says, it is unquestionable that it occurred in the context of Passover.) If we would take the inherent intimacy of sharing a meal together and add to it the whole weight of meaning of the most important event in the history of the people of
The people of
This was the context of that Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples the night before he was crucified, the night before his blood was smeared on the doorposts of our hearts to save us from the death of sin.
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
Let us now begin our liturgy.
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Take, Bless, Break, Give
From the earliest records we have of Christian Eucharists down to today, the shape of the Great Thanksgiving Prayer has been formed by 4 actions of Jesus at the Last Supper: 1) He took; 2) He blessed; 3) He broke; 4) He gave. And so we have in our Holy Communion: 1) the Offertory, during which bread and wine are “taken” and placed on the altar; 2) the prayer, during which the Celebrant gives thanks to God over the bread and wine; 3) The breaking of the bread; and 4) The distribution of the bread and wine to the people. Take, bless, break, give.
Let’s look at the first action: “Take” – the Offertory.
The Offertory
We begin with God’s gifts – grapes and wheat, gifts of creation which no human manufactures. We take those God-given grapes and wheat and, adding to them our human effort, make wine and bread. So the wine and bread are the products of 1) God’s gifts, and 2) what we have done with those gifts. Similarly, our very lives are total gift from God. We take that gift of life and make something of it – magnificent or mundane – each moment of our lives. Our lives, then, are a product of 1) God’s gift, and 2) our human effort, what we have done with God’s gift of life. What we have to show for what we have done with God’s gift at the end of each week is a paycheck. And so money, also, becomes a symbol of our lives – a symbol of God’s gift and what we have done with that gift.
Wine, bread, and money, all symbols of our lives, are brought up from the congregation to be placed on the altar, where God will bless them and give them back to us. Representatives from the congregation present these gifts, but all of us stand at the presentation, as a sign that it is really all of us who are offering our lives upon the altar.
Let us begin the offertory: “Walk in love as Christ loved us, and gave himself, an offering and sacrifice to God.”
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The Great Thanksgiving
He took, and he blessed. We come now to the Great Thanksgiving prayer.
The depths of meaning in Holy Communion can never be fully put into words; the layers of meaning can never be fully enumerated. In composing any Eucharistic Prayer, therefore, decisions have to be made regarding which layers of meaning to mention, which layers to place emphasis upon. The editors of our 1979 Book of Common Prayer wanted to be faithful both to the historical practices of the Christian Eucharist down through the centuries and to the distinctively Anglican traditions of the early Prayer Books of England and the United States. In trying to be as comprehensive as possible, they offered in our Prayer Book eight separate forms of Eucharistic Prayer: In Rite I, we have two forms of the Great Thanksgiving; in Rite II, we have four forms; and in that section of the Prayer Book called “An Order for Celebrating the Holy Eucharist” we have two forms.
In each of these forms, ancient elements are included which may have been left out in others. Prayer I of Rite I, for instance, focuses narrowly on the atonement, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our sins. Totally left out of that prayer are any mention of creation or the redemptive history of God through the period of the Old Testament. Prayer II of Rite I only briefly mentions God’s creation of heaven and earth, and his creation of us in his own image, whereas Prayers C and D put great emphasis on creation. Neither of the prayers of Rite I, nor Prayer A of Rite II, mentions the saving work of God in the Old Testament; Prayers B, C, and D do.
Some of the Eucharistic prayers have ancient roots. Prayer B is loosely based on the Third Century document, The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus; Prayer D is from the Liturgy of St. Basil, dated to the Fourth Century. Both of these ancient prayers not only mention Christ’s death on the cross, but emphasize also emphasize God’s creation of the world, and the Incarnation – the Word becoming flesh in Jesus. It was during the medieval period that the sacrificial death of Jesus took on such singular emphasis that God’s creation and Jesus’ incarnation were lost in the Eucharistic prayers.
I would encourage you to take a Prayer Book home and read through these prayers, noting the different layers of meaning which each prayer mentions or emphasizes.
The Great Thanksgiving prayer begins with a dialogue between the Celebrant and the people, patterned after the Jewish berakoth, or blessing, prayer. The part of this dialogue called the sursum corda, or “lift up your hearts”, comes from this Jewish prayer, which the early Jewish Christians carried over into their worship. It is an invitation to the people of God to raise their minds (to quote Paul’s letter to the Colossians) toward “things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (3:1-3). In the 4th Century, St. Cyril of
For at that most awesome moment we must indeed raise our hearts high to God, not keep them intent on earth and on earthly matters. So the priest is virtually commanding you at that moment to lay aside the cares of this life, your domestic worries, and to keep your heart in heaven on God who loves men. (Mystagogical Catecheses 5.4)
We lift our hearts up into heaven, where “with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven” we praise God, using words from Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4: “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord…” Eucharistic Prayer D tells us that in this hymn we are “giving voice to every creature under heaven” – we human beings are representing the whole of the voiceless creation with our praise!
Let us begin The Great Thanksgiving. I would like us to use Form B, found on p. 367.
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After this dialogue between Celebrant and people comes the thanksgiving for redemption. As I have already mentioned, the Eucharistic Prayers which were added in our 1979 Prayer Book make it clear, in a way that the 1928 Prayer Book did not, that we are not only thanking God for his redemptive work in Christ’s death, but we also thank God for creation, and for God’s continual acts of redemption down through history. God’s response to human sin has always been redemptive love. And God’s redemptive work in Christ is not limited to Christ’s death. Prayer D mentions God sending his Son to be born among us: “Incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, he lived as one of us, yet without sin”. Prayer B recounts Christ’s preaching: “To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation; to prisoners, freedom; to the sorrowful, joy.” Not just Christ’s death, but his birth, his life, his teaching – these are all part of God’s redemptive work in Christ.
I will now pray, on behalf of us all, the Thanksgiving for Redemption.
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The two great figures of the Reformation – Martin Luther and John Calvin – agreed that the Church itself was identified by the two elements of worship: wherever the word of God was read and preached, and the sacraments administered according Christ’s command, there is the Church. In our actions during worship, then, we visually give prominence to Word and Sacrament. The Altar is central, and the Gospel book – which is held high in procession – is placed prominently and visibly on the altar. Word and Sacrament.
God’s Word spoken in context of relationship
But from the time of Abraham, the word of God has been spoken in the context of a relationship God has with his people. God’s word is spoken in order that that relationship be realized more fully, and our response, or failure to respond, affects the relationship as well. This truth – that the word of God furthers relationship between God and us (and, by extension, amongst ourselves) – is, I believe, the most important statement I can make about this first half of our Eucharist. Let’s look briefly at each part of this portion of the Eucharist in light of that understanding.
Silence is preparation for the Word
We begin in silence. Richard Rohr writes: “I believe silence and words are related. Words that don’t come out of silence probably don’t say much. They probably are more an unloading than a communication. Yet words feed silence, and that’s why we have the word of God – the read word, the proclaimed word, the written word.” (Radical Grace, p. 200) We have moments of silence throughout the Eucharist: following each Scripture reading, following the sermon, between petitions in the prayers of the people, before the confession, at certain times in our Eucharistic prayer. The late Episcopal author Agnes Sanford said that at the beginning of a time of prayer, it is as if we are standing on a street corner and God is several blocks away. We could yell at God and hope he would hear us, or we could walk the few blocks toward God so that we can hear him more clearly. That is what we do when we prepare in silence.
The Liturgy begins Next comes the procession. Our acolytes, choir and clergy don’t process down the aisle because we like a parade; rather, we are representing the movement of all our hearts into the closer presence of God, into a space and time set apart from the world. This holy place, this next 60, 70, 90 minutes is completely given over to our relationship with God. Time and space are suspended, and all the faithful who have ever lived are gathered with us as the communion of saints. We don’t have clocks in our worship space: in the context of worship, there is no chronological time.
When the procession arrives at the sanctuary and our hymn ends, we greet one another with the acclamation, “Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!”. We then pray that God, who knows all our thoughts and desires, wash away all the clutter and muck in our hearts and minds that would keep us from drawing closer to him in this time of worship. This prayer, called “the Collect for Purity”, has been a part of our Anglican worship since the very first Prayer Book in 1549. We then sing a hymn of praise, usually the Gloria, which is an expansion of the song sung by the angels to the shepherds at Jesus’ birth. Finally, we prepare for the reading of Scripture by praying a prayer whose content relates to the theme of the day’s Scriptures.
Let us begin the liturgy.
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Reading the Word
Having been standing to praise and pray, we now sit to hear God’s word coming to us through Scripture. This is the central part of this first half of our Eucharist. God is speaking to you and to me through Scripture! How could we possibly be bored or inattentive? The Gospel, representing the culmination of God’s saving act in Jesus, receives special attention. We stand at its reading, for a similar reason that we stand when our national anthem is sung: our standing honors the reality behind what is heard. In one case, that reality is our nation; in the other, it is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The Sermon: the Word exposed
The reading of the Gospel is followed by the preaching of the Gospel. As I mentioned, by the time of Jesus, it had become the practice in synagogue services for someone to comment on the Scriptures which were read, with the intention that the meaning of the Scripture be connected to the daily lives of the people. It is the awesome duty of the preacher to carry on this ancient practice, hopefully through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit! The sermon has been termed “the breaking open of the Word”, corresponding to the breaking of the bread in the Holy Communion.
Remember, God does not speak to a vacuum, but to us in our situation; and if we hear and receive his word, we will respond to that word.
Our response to the Word
The Nicene Creed
Our response after the reading of Scripture and the preaching of Christ is a profession of faith, using the corporate statement of faith which the Christian Church has used since the Fourth Century – the Nicene Creed.
Let us respond to God’s Word by profession our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.
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Prayer
Prayer is another fitting response to hearing Scripture read and the Gospel preached. Now, we often think of prayer as our calling upon God: asking in petition or intercession, speaking to him words of thanksgiving. But just as God does not speak into a vacuum, neither do we! Prayer is as much a listening for God’s word as it is a speaking our own words. And note that our Book of Common Prayer does not call this part of the service, “The Prayers of the Priest and Lector”; it is called “The Prayers of the People”! Let us make it so! If there is a need you have, a friend for whom you want to ask God’s healing, a gift from God for which you want to thank him, by all means, do it! And often giving voice to our prayers, speaking them out loud, gives them added meaning and power. As I mentioned last week, we are all active participants in worship, not passive recipients of worship. I also quoted C.S. Lewis as having said that written prayers reminded him of “what things [he] ought to ask”. Thus our Prayer Book requires that we include prayers for: the
Confession
The General Confession is sometimes used at the beginning of the Eucharist. Confession always begins the Lutheran liturgy, where it is seen as a necessary preparation for worship. Here at
Let us continue our response to God’s word in our prayers and confession.
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The PeaceThe final act of the Liturgy of the Word is the Passing of the Peace, perhaps the most misunderstood part of the whole Eucharist service. This is not a mini Coffee Hour, during which time you compliment the person next to you on her dress. “For everything there is a season, and a time for everything under heaven” – and Coffee Hour is the time to chat, not this solemn moment! It is an exchange of that peace which passes all understanding, which is Christ’s gift to us. In the late medieval Church, the priest began the passing of the peace by kissing the “paxboard” (“pax” is Latin for “peace”). The paxboard was a literal board or paddle of wood on which was painted a picture of Jesus on the cross. After kissing this paxboard, the priest would then literally pass it among the congregation. Try to think of passing the peace as passing and receiving something just as real and tangible as this between you and another person. The only words we should be saying at this time in the liturgy are “The Peace of the Lord be always with you”, “And also with you.” The only exceptions to this rule would be: 1) telling a newcomer, “We’re glad to have you with us”; or 2) going up to someone and asking forgiveness of someone whom you have wronged. It is for this latter reason that our Prayer Book locates the Peace right before the offertory in order to reflect Jesus’ teaching: “If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24)
“The Peace of the Lord be always with you!”
II: Holy Communion
Part I
Scripture
Exodus (14:10-15:1)
When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." And Moses said to the people, "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent."
The Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen."
Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians."
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen." So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying,
"I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
I Corinthians. (11:23-29)
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
Psalm 116:10-17
10 How shall I repay the Lord * for all the good things he has done for me?
11 I will lift up the cup of salvation *and call upon the Name of the Lord.
12 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord * in the presence of all his people.
13 Precious in the sight of the Lord *is the death of his servants.
14 O Lord, I am your servant; * I am your servant and the child of your
handmaid; you have freed me from my bonds.
15 I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving *and call upon the Name of the
Lord.
16 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord *in the presence of all his people,
17 In the courts of the Lord’s house, *in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!
John (6:47-58)
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever."
Sharing a meal a sign of intimacy
In every culture, down through the centuries, there seems to have been ritual and meaning attached to the eating of meals together. It is likely that a certain holiness has naturally been ascribed to eating because of the understanding that food is life-giving. In our own society of overabundance, a daily awareness of the intrinsic life-sustaining nature of food has largely been lost, and with it, some sense of the mysterious forces inherent in food. With that loss of awareness has come the loss of many rituals and unspoken meanings surrounding the eating of food.
Yet, outside of our fast-paced American culture, in most parts of the world today, eating a meal together still holds some sense of the holy – some sense that in this sharing of food, we are sharing life, and sharing community. By “breaking bread” with someone, you become, in many ways, one with that person. It is little wonder, then, that one of the major criticisms the Pharisees leveled against Jesus was that he ate with tax collectors and sinners, thereby identifying himself with them, becoming himself a tax collector and sinner, in a way. Eating with someone is an act of intimacy. The day that the leader of Hamas breaks bread with the President of Israel will be the day there will be peace in the Holy Land, for the people of the Middle East, both Jew and Arab alike, understand the intimacy inherent in breaking bread together.
Episcopal priest and professor Robert Webber was once invited with his wife and some friends to share a Sabbath meal with a Jewish rabbi. Webber writes, “…for weeks afterward, I reflected on that event. What we were involved in was more than a meal, it was… a religious ritual… that had power to unite a family, recall history, create reverential awe, shape values, and provide a focal point to which memory for both parents and children will return again and again… Eating together establishes, maintains, repairs, and always transforms relationships.” (Renew Your Worship, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997, pp. 65-66)
Eating together establishes, maintains, repairs, and always transforms relationships.
Webber says that the early Christians came to the Eucharistic meal with these expectations of relationship with the resurrected Jesus who was present at the Eucharistic feast. He reminds us that for the two disciples who met the stranger on the Road to Emmaus, Jesus was recognized in the breaking of the bread.
Origins in the Passover
So far this month, we have looked at an overview of worship, and at the first half of our Eucharist – The Word of God, which we said had its origins in the Jewish Synagogue service. We come today to that part of the Eucharist which has its origins in the Jewish ritual meal, and most significantly, in the Passover meal. (Whether we understand The Last Supper to be a Passover meal, as the first three Gospels say, or whether it occurred the night before the Passover, as John’s Gospel says, it is unquestionable that it occurred in the context of Passover.) If we would take the inherent intimacy of sharing a meal together and add to it the whole weight of meaning of the most important event in the history of the people of
The people of
This was the context of that Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples the night before he was crucified, the night before his blood was smeared on the doorposts of our hearts to save us from the death of sin.
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
Let us now begin our liturgy.
………………
Take, Bless, Break, Give
From the earliest records we have of Christian Eucharists down to today, the shape of the Great Thanksgiving Prayer has been formed by 4 actions of Jesus at the Last Supper: 1) He took; 2) He blessed; 3) He broke; 4) He gave. And so we have in our Holy Communion: 1) the Offertory, during which bread and wine are “taken” and placed on the altar; 2) the prayer, during which the Celebrant gives thanks to God over the bread and wine; 3) The breaking of the bread; and 4) The distribution of the bread and wine to the people. Take, bless, break, give.
Let’s look at the first action: “Take” – the Offertory.
The Offertory
We begin with God’s gifts – grapes and wheat, gifts of creation which no human manufactures. We take those God-given grapes and wheat and, adding to them our human effort, make wine and bread. So the wine and bread are the products of 1) God’s gifts, and 2) what we have done with those gifts. Similarly, our very lives are total gift from God. We take that gift of life and make something of it – magnificent or mundane – each moment of our lives. Our lives, then, are a product of 1) God’s gift, and 2) our human effort, what we have done with God’s gift of life. What we have to show for what we have done with God’s gift at the end of each week is a paycheck. And so money, also, becomes a symbol of our lives – a symbol of God’s gift and what we have done with that gift.
Wine, bread, and money, all symbols of our lives, are brought up from the congregation to be placed on the altar, where God will bless them and give them back to us. Representatives from the congregation present these gifts, but all of us stand at the presentation, as a sign that it is really all of us who are offering our lives upon the altar.
Let us begin the offertory: “Walk in love as Christ loved us, and gave himself, an offering and sacrifice to God.”
…………
The Great Thanksgiving
He took, and he blessed. We come now to the Great Thanksgiving prayer.
The depths of meaning in Holy Communion can never be fully put into words; the layers of meaning can never be fully enumerated. In composing any Eucharistic Prayer, therefore, decisions have to be made regarding which layers of meaning to mention, which layers to place emphasis upon. The editors of our 1979 Book of Common Prayer wanted to be faithful both to the historical practices of the Christian Eucharist down through the centuries and to the distinctively Anglican traditions of the early Prayer Books of England and the United States. In trying to be as comprehensive as possible, they offered in our Prayer Book eight separate forms of Eucharistic Prayer: In Rite I, we have two forms of the Great Thanksgiving; in Rite II, we have four forms; and in that section of the Prayer Book called “An Order for Celebrating the Holy Eucharist” we have two forms.
In each of these forms, ancient elements are included which may have been left out in others. Prayer I of Rite I, for instance, focuses narrowly on the atonement, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our sins. Totally left out of that prayer are any mention of creation or the redemptive history of God through the period of the Old Testament. Prayer II of Rite I only briefly mentions God’s creation of heaven and earth, and his creation of us in his own image, whereas Prayers C and D put great emphasis on creation. Neither of the prayers of Rite I, nor Prayer A of Rite II, mentions the saving work of God in the Old Testament; Prayers B, C, and D do.
Some of the Eucharistic prayers have ancient roots. Prayer B is loosely based on the Third Century document, The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus; Prayer D is from the Liturgy of St. Basil, dated to the Fourth Century. Both of these ancient prayers not only mention Christ’s death on the cross, but emphasize also emphasize God’s creation of the world, and the Incarnation – the Word becoming flesh in Jesus. It was during the medieval period that the sacrificial death of Jesus took on such singular emphasis that God’s creation and Jesus’ incarnation were lost in the Eucharistic prayers.
I would encourage you to take a Prayer Book home and read through these prayers, noting the different layers of meaning which each prayer mentions or emphasizes.
The Great Thanksgiving prayer begins with a dialogue between the Celebrant and the people, patterned after the Jewish berakoth, or blessing, prayer. The part of this dialogue called the sursum corda, or “lift up your hearts”, comes from this Jewish prayer, which the early Jewish Christians carried over into their worship. It is an invitation to the people of God to raise their minds (to quote Paul’s letter to the Colossians) toward “things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (3:1-3). In the 4th Century, St. Cyril of
For at that most awesome moment we must indeed raise our hearts high to God, not keep them intent on earth and on earthly matters. So the priest is virtually commanding you at that moment to lay aside the cares of this life, your domestic worries, and to keep your heart in heaven on God who loves men. (Mystagogical Catecheses 5.4)
We lift our hearts up into heaven, where “with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven” we praise God, using words from Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4: “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord…” Eucharistic Prayer D tells us that in this hymn we are “giving voice to every creature under heaven” – we human beings are representing the whole of the voiceless creation with our praise!
Let us begin The Great Thanksgiving. I would like us to use Form B, found on p. 367.
…………………
After this dialogue between Celebrant and people comes the thanksgiving for redemption. As I have already mentioned, the Eucharistic Prayers which were added in our 1979 Prayer Book make it clear, in a way that the 1928 Prayer Book did not, that we are not only thanking God for his redemptive work in Christ’s death, but we also thank God for creation, and for God’s continual acts of redemption down through history. God’s response to human sin has always been redemptive love. And God’s redemptive work in Christ is not limited to Christ’s death. Prayer D mentions God sending his Son to be born among us: “Incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, he lived as one of us, yet without sin”. Prayer B recounts Christ’s preaching: “To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation; to prisoners, freedom; to the sorrowful, joy.” Not just Christ’s death, but his birth, his life, his teaching – these are all part of God’s redemptive work in Christ.
I will now pray, on behalf of us all, the Thanksgiving for Redemption.
………………..
The final act of the Liturgy of the Word is the Passing of the Peace, perhaps the most misunderstood part of the whole Eucharist service. This is not a mini Coffee Hour, during which time you compliment the person next to you on her dress. “For everything there is a season, and a time for everything under heaven” – and Coffee Hour is the time to chat, not this solemn moment! It is an exchange of that peace which passes all understanding, which is Christ’s gift to us. In the late medieval Church, the priest began the passing of the peace by kissing the “paxboard” (“pax” is Latin for “peace”). The paxboard was a literal board or paddle of wood on which was painted a picture of Jesus on the cross. After kissing this paxboard, the priest would then literally pass it among the congregation. Try to think of passing the peace as passing and receiving something just as real and tangible as this between you and another person. The only words we should be saying at this time in the liturgy are “The Peace of the Lord be always with you”, “And also with you.” The only exceptions to this rule would be: 1) telling a newcomer, “We’re glad to have you with us”; or 2) going up to someone and asking forgiveness of someone whom you have wronged. It is for this latter reason that our Prayer Book locates the Peace right before the offertory in order to reflect Jesus’ teaching: “If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24)
“The Peace of the Lord be always with you!”
II: Holy Communion
Part I
Scripture
Exodus (14:10-15:1)
When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." And Moses said to the people, "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent."
The Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen."
Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians."
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen." So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying,
"I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
I Corinthians. (11:23-29)
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
Psalm 116:10-17
10 How shall I repay the Lord * for all the good things he has done for me?
11 I will lift up the cup of salvation *and call upon the Name of the Lord.
12 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord * in the presence of all his people.
13 Precious in the sight of the Lord *is the death of his servants.
14 O Lord, I am your servant; * I am your servant and the child of your
handmaid; you have freed me from my bonds.
15 I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving *and call upon the Name of the
Lord.
16 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord *in the presence of all his people,
17 In the courts of the Lord’s house, *in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!
John (6:47-58)
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever."
Sharing a meal a sign of intimacy
In every culture, down through the centuries, there seems to have been ritual and meaning attached to the eating of meals together. It is likely that a certain holiness has naturally been ascribed to eating because of the understanding that food is life-giving. In our own society of overabundance, a daily awareness of the intrinsic life-sustaining nature of food has largely been lost, and with it, some sense of the mysterious forces inherent in food. With that loss of awareness has come the loss of many rituals and unspoken meanings surrounding the eating of food.
Yet, outside of our fast-paced American culture, in most parts of the world today, eating a meal together still holds some sense of the holy – some sense that in this sharing of food, we are sharing life, and sharing community. By “breaking bread” with someone, you become, in many ways, one with that person. It is little wonder, then, that one of the major criticisms the Pharisees leveled against Jesus was that he ate with tax collectors and sinners, thereby identifying himself with them, becoming himself a tax collector and sinner, in a way. Eating with someone is an act of intimacy. The day that the leader of Hamas breaks bread with the President of Israel will be the day there will be peace in the Holy Land, for the people of the Middle East, both Jew and Arab alike, understand the intimacy inherent in breaking bread together.
Episcopal priest and professor Robert Webber was once invited with his wife and some friends to share a Sabbath meal with a Jewish rabbi. Webber writes, “…for weeks afterward, I reflected on that event. What we were involved in was more than a meal, it was… a religious ritual… that had power to unite a family, recall history, create reverential awe, shape values, and provide a focal point to which memory for both parents and children will return again and again… Eating together establishes, maintains, repairs, and always transforms relationships.” (Renew Your Worship, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997, pp. 65-66)
Eating together establishes, maintains, repairs, and always transforms relationships.
Webber says that the early Christians came to the Eucharistic meal with these expectations of relationship with the resurrected Jesus who was present at the Eucharistic feast. He reminds us that for the two disciples who met the stranger on the Road to Emmaus, Jesus was recognized in the breaking of the bread.
Origins in the Passover
So far this month, we have looked at an overview of worship, and at the first half of our Eucharist – The Word of God, which we said had its origins in the Jewish Synagogue service. We come today to that part of the Eucharist which has its origins in the Jewish ritual meal, and most significantly, in the Passover meal. (Whether we understand The Last Supper to be a Passover meal, as the first three Gospels say, or whether it occurred the night before the Passover, as John’s Gospel says, it is unquestionable that it occurred in the context of Passover.) If we would take the inherent intimacy of sharing a meal together and add to it the whole weight of meaning of the most important event in the history of the people of
The people of
This was the context of that Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples the night before he was crucified, the night before his blood was smeared on the doorposts of our hearts to save us from the death of sin.
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
Let us now begin our liturgy.
………………
Take, Bless, Break, Give
From the earliest records we have of Christian Eucharists down to today, the shape of the Great Thanksgiving Prayer has been formed by 4 actions of Jesus at the Last Supper: 1) He took; 2) He blessed; 3) He broke; 4) He gave. And so we have in our Holy Communion: 1) the Offertory, during which bread and wine are “taken” and placed on the altar; 2) the prayer, during which the Celebrant gives thanks to God over the bread and wine; 3) The breaking of the bread; and 4) The distribution of the bread and wine to the people. Take, bless, break, give.
Let’s look at the first action: “Take” – the Offertory.
The Offertory
We begin with God’s gifts – grapes and wheat, gifts of creation which no human manufactures. We take those God-given grapes and wheat and, adding to them our human effort, make wine and bread. So the wine and bread are the products of 1) God’s gifts, and 2) what we have done with those gifts. Similarly, our very lives are total gift from God. We take that gift of life and make something of it – magnificent or mundane – each moment of our lives. Our lives, then, are a product of 1) God’s gift, and 2) our human effort, what we have done with God’s gift of life. What we have to show for what we have done with God’s gift at the end of each week is a paycheck. And so money, also, becomes a symbol of our lives – a symbol of God’s gift and what we have done with that gift.
Wine, bread, and money, all symbols of our lives, are brought up from the congregation to be placed on the altar, where God will bless them and give them back to us. Representatives from the congregation present these gifts, but all of us stand at the presentation, as a sign that it is really all of us who are offering our lives upon the altar.
Let us begin the offertory: “Walk in love as Christ loved us, and gave himself, an offering and sacrifice to God.”
…………
The Great Thanksgiving
He took, and he blessed. We come now to the Great Thanksgiving prayer.
The depths of meaning in Holy Communion can never be fully put into words; the layers of meaning can never be fully enumerated. In composing any Eucharistic Prayer, therefore, decisions have to be made regarding which layers of meaning to mention, which layers to place emphasis upon. The editors of our 1979 Book of Common Prayer wanted to be faithful both to the historical practices of the Christian Eucharist down through the centuries and to the distinctively Anglican traditions of the early Prayer Books of England and the United States. In trying to be as comprehensive as possible, they offered in our Prayer Book eight separate forms of Eucharistic Prayer: In Rite I, we have two forms of the Great Thanksgiving; in Rite II, we have four forms; and in that section of the Prayer Book called “An Order for Celebrating the Holy Eucharist” we have two forms.
In each of these forms, ancient elements are included which may have been left out in others. Prayer I of Rite I, for instance, focuses narrowly on the atonement, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our sins. Totally left out of that prayer are any mention of creation or the redemptive history of God through the period of the Old Testament. Prayer II of Rite I only briefly mentions God’s creation of heaven and earth, and his creation of us in his own image, whereas Prayers C and D put great emphasis on creation. Neither of the prayers of Rite I, nor Prayer A of Rite II, mentions the saving work of God in the Old Testament; Prayers B, C, and D do.
Some of the Eucharistic prayers have ancient roots. Prayer B is loosely based on the Third Century document, The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus; Prayer D is from the Liturgy of St. Basil, dated to the Fourth Century. Both of these ancient prayers not only mention Christ’s death on the cross, but emphasize also emphasize God’s creation of the world, and the Incarnation – the Word becoming flesh in Jesus. It was during the medieval period that the sacrificial death of Jesus took on such singular emphasis that God’s creation and Jesus’ incarnation were lost in the Eucharistic prayers.
I would encourage you to take a Prayer Book home and read through these prayers, noting the different layers of meaning which each prayer mentions or emphasizes.
The Great Thanksgiving prayer begins with a dialogue between the Celebrant and the people, patterned after the Jewish berakoth, or blessing, prayer. The part of this dialogue called the sursum corda, or “lift up your hearts”, comes from this Jewish prayer, which the early Jewish Christians carried over into their worship. It is an invitation to the people of God to raise their minds (to quote Paul’s letter to the Colossians) toward “things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (3:1-3). In the 4th Century, St. Cyril of
For at that most awesome moment we must indeed raise our hearts high to God, not keep them intent on earth and on earthly matters. So the priest is virtually commanding you at that moment to lay aside the cares of this life, your domestic worries, and to keep your heart in heaven on God who loves men. (Mystagogical Catecheses 5.4)
We lift our hearts up into heaven, where “with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven” we praise God, using words from Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4: “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord…” Eucharistic Prayer D tells us that in this hymn we are “giving voice to every creature under heaven” – we human beings are representing the whole of the voiceless creation with our praise!
Let us begin The Great Thanksgiving. I would like us to use Form B, found on p. 367.
…………………
After this dialogue between Celebrant and people comes the thanksgiving for redemption. As I have already mentioned, the Eucharistic Prayers which were added in our 1979 Prayer Book make it clear, in a way that the 1928 Prayer Book did not, that we are not only thanking God for his redemptive work in Christ’s death, but we also thank God for creation, and for God’s continual acts of redemption down through history. God’s response to human sin has always been redemptive love. And God’s redemptive work in Christ is not limited to Christ’s death. Prayer D mentions God sending his Son to be born among us: “Incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, he lived as one of us, yet without sin”. Prayer B recounts Christ’s preaching: “To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation; to prisoners, freedom; to the sorrowful, joy.” Not just Christ’s death, but his birth, his life, his teaching – these are all part of God’s redemptive work in Christ.
I will now pray, on behalf of us all, the Thanksgiving for Redemption.
………………..