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Today's Scripture ~ Spiritual Exercise
Read slowly and meditate on or do Lectio Divina on the follow passage before proceeding:
26 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread and thanked God for it and broke it. Then he gave it to his followers and said, "Take this bread and eat it; this is my body."
27 Then Jesus took a cup and thanked God for it and gave it to the followers. He said, "Every one of you drink this. 28 This is my blood which is the new[a] agreement that God makes with his people. This blood is poured out for many to forgive their sins. 29 I tell you this: I will not drink of this fruit of the vine again until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."
*Matthew 26.26-29, NCV
Wisdom Saying
Of these four different stages of man, the first is before the law, the second is under the law, the third is under grace, and the fourth is in full and perfect peace.
*St. Augustine (354-430). Enchiridion: On Faith, Hope, and Love. Trans. and Ed. Albert C. Outler.
Wisdom Story
January 2001 marked the opening of Canada’s first Ice Hotel. The hotel was made of 4,500 tons of snow and 250 tons of ice and to build cost $750,000. The structure had beds made of ice, an ice bar, two ice art galleries, and an ice cinema. Before it opened one thousand people had already booked rooms. Those wanting to stay needed to get in quickly, for the Ice Hotel was to melt within three months.
*oxsermonillustrations.com
Comments
According to the teachings of the Buddha, life is comparable to a river. It is a progressive moment, a successive series of different moments, joining together to give the impression of one continuous flow. It moves from cause to cause, effect to effect, one point to another, one state of existence to another, giving an outward impression that it is one continuous and unified movement, where as in reality it is not. The river of yesterday is not the same as the river of today. The river of this moment is not going to be the same as the river of the next moment. So does life. It changes continuously, becomes something or the other from moment to moment.
*www.hinduwebsite.com
The creeds of the Church address impermanence in more historical terms, unlike Eastern faiths in more philosophical ways.
St. Irenaeus (b. 2nd Century) wrote: "...his future appearing from heaven in the glory of the Father to sum up all things and to raise anew all flesh of the whole human race...".
*www.creeds.net
Hippolytus, early 3rd Century, gives an account of early baptism, wherein the baptizee confesses eschatological hope:
When the person being baptized goes down into the water, he who baptizes him, putting his hand on him, shall say: "Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty?" And the person being baptized shall say: "I believe." Then holding his hand on his head, he shall baptize him once. And then he shall say: "Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was dead and buried, and rose again the third day, alive from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead?" And when he says: "I believe," he is baptized again. And again he shall say: "Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, in the holy church, and the resurrection of the body?" The person being baptized shall say: "I believe," and then he is baptized a third time.
*www.creeds.net
The earliest written version of The Apostle's Creed is perhaps the Interrogatory Creed, of Hippolytus (ca. AD 215). The present form first appears in the writings of Caesarius of Arles (d. ca. 542).
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. AMEN.
*Modern Version
We could trace this eschatological affirmation, grounded in the Hebrew-Christian Scripture, from the apostolic era to the present. Therefore, we can affirm: The Church is an eschatological communion. This means the Church is as much gathered in the future consummation of history as in the past and the present.
What ramifications does this have for us? Does the Christian, then, simply wait for the future, wait for Heaven? Here is the affirmation of The Orthodox Church, in a Catechism:
HEAVEN is the place of God's throne, beyond time and space. It is the abode of God's angels, as well as of the saints who have passed from this life. We pray, "Our Father, who art in heaven..." Though Christians live in this world, they belong to the kingdom of heaven, and that kingdom is their true home. But heaven is not only for the future. Neither is it some distant place billions of light years away in a nebulous "great beyond". For the Orthodox, heaven is part of Christian life and worship. The very architecture of an Orthodox Church building is designed so that the building itself participates in the reality of heaven. The Eucharist is heavenly worship, heaven on earth. St. Paul teaches that we are raised up with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6), "fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (Ephesians 2:19). At the end of the age, a new heaven and a new earth will be revealed (Revelation 21:1).
The Church, as taught from the early centuries of Christianity, is a Eucharistic communion, and entailed is the Church gathered at the Lord's Table being a sign, even mystical realization in the present, of the final ~ eschatological ~ consummation, or fullness, of all in Christ: "I will not drink of this fruit of the vine again until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." In the Eucharistic we gather embracing the impermanence of all present and the eternity of Heaven living in our hearts individually and with the Church, as Body of Christ. We, as Body of Christ, are now in Heaven, in which we anticipate a full fruition through the Grace of God. Eschatology takes on flesh in the Mystical Christ, of which we participate in Love.
Therefore, Christian liturgy, morality, service, private devotion, and working for justice is linked to a detachment from the worship and addiction to all things temporal. To be Eucharistic is to hold all creatures temporally in timeless Love: this is, really, Christic Mysticism, which is Eucharistic Contemplation. Entailed in this is that all impermanent is a "Ice Hotel"; in the words of St. Augustine, we are invited to grow into "full and perfect peace."
Reflections
How might your life be affected by taking fully your part in the Church being a Eucharistic communion?
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For Brian's on-line audio sermons, go to www.wherethelightshines.org and select Pastor's Corner; on the following page is his weekly sermons given at Christ United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL.
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For replies and biographical information, and submission to "The Light Shines" daily devotionals ~ a ministry of Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL, see next page:
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