circle of prayer 14. sunday not the sabbath::baptism not rest

sunday is not the christian sabbath. as the new-born church grew, the jewish christians continued to keep the sabbath. (the nasrani church of the east continues to do so until this day.) all the church, jewish and gentile, celebrated the lord's day.

the separation of the sabbath and the lord's day became confused in the reformation, extremely so amonst the puritans. the confusion remains a legacy of the western church. liturgy, the journal of the liturgical conference, who should know better, published an issue called "the lord's day" in which one fourth of the essays were about the sabbath. almost none of the essays makes any distinction between these two days.

i belabor this point because the confusion belittles both the sabbath and the lord's day. without the acknowledgement of the sabbath as the crown of creation, the first revelation of the holy, we lost both our appreciation of the goodness of creation and any potential appreciation and celebration of the new creation, the kingdom of god into which we are initiated by our baptism. to quote porter again, "entrance into the church is a re-creation and admission into the kingdom of light." (ephesians 2:10; colossians 1:12-13; 3:10; 1 peter 2:9; i john 1:7). and we perhaps lose sight of the nature of the true and ultimate place of rest which still awaits, and which is one of the central themes of the epistle to the hebrews (3:7-4:11).

circle of prayer 13. sunday: day of the spirit.

i am convinced that for luke the evangelist, for his favorite apostle, paul, and for john, evangelist and apostle, the climax of the mighty acts of god in the coming of the messiah into the world was not the resurrection but the outpouring of the holy spirit, which happens in all accounts on a sunday.

i won't try to convice my reader of this understanding of luke, paul, and john, but i will point to the centrality of the gift of the spirit both in scripture and liturgy.

on the first day of the week, "god's spirit hovered over the water." (genesis 1:26) to quote porter, ". . . we find that the mysterious divine role of the holy ghost at the inauguration of creation prefigures divine action in other biblical events of major importance.

and so luke 24:49: "and now i am sending down on you what the father has promised." acts 2:1,4: "when pentecost day came around, they had all met in one room . . . . they were all filled with the holy spirit."

for paul, a sample from romans (5:5): "the love of god has been poured into our hearts by the holy spirit which has been given to us."

and from john (20:21-22): ". . . and he said to them, 'peace be with you.

"'as the father sent me,
so i am sending you.'

"after saying this he breathed on them and said,
'receive the holy spirit.'"

it seems certain that in the earliest church sunday was a unitive feast, by which i mean it commemorated the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of christ and the outpouring of the spirit. this is clearly shown in the the ancient eucharistic prayer, the anaphora of st. basil:

"father, we now celebrate the memorial of our redemption. recalling christ's death and his descent among the dead, proclaiming his resurrection and ascension to your right hand, awaiting his coming in glory; and offering to you, from the gifts you have given us, this bread and this cup, we praise you and we bless you.

"we praise you, we bless you,
we give thanks to you,
and we pray to you, lord our god.

"lord, we pray that in your goodness and mercy your holy spirit may descend upon us, and upon these gifts . . . .

"grant that all who share this bread and cup may become one body and one spirit, a living sacrifice in christ, to the praise of your name."

just as at his baptism in the jordan jesus was declared to be the son of god and the annointed one of the holy spirit, just as at pentecost the ascended jesus sends down the anointing of the holy spirit, baptizing his followers as john the forerunner had foretold (the gospel according to john 1:33), so the spirit comes down fresh on the body of christ each sunday as it gathers again in his name.

circle of prayer 12. sunday: day of resurrection

if sunday as the day of light might not seem obvious at first, sunday as the day of the resurrection should. all of the gospels make it very clear that the resurrection occured on the first day of the week. yet i have several times been surprised when i have asked self-defined christians, usually on a sunday afternoon, how they had celebrated the resurrection of our lord, to be met with vacant looks or some remembrance of easter.

that sunday, the first day of the week, was celebrated as the lord's day, the day of the resurrection, is very clear as early as the book of acts, when in the twentieth chapter (vv. 6-11) is described paul's sunday at troas. since he was there a week, we can assume that the choice of days was deliberate (and also that apparently they began at sunset according to the jewish marking of the day).

it seems that the pattern of christian worship which has been constant ever since was already being followed at troas. the pattern follows, and again i am indebted to h. b. porter for pointing this out, the resurrection appearances of jesus: first, he establishes that he is indeed alive. this is celebrated by the assembly of believers itself, who gather because they know that he is indeed alive. then, the scriptures are explained as they relate to the gospel. then the presence of the lord is remembered in the holy meal. finally, the followers are sent forth to proclaim everywhere the messianic kingdom.

we sometimes overlook the importance of the assembly itself. assembly is reflected in the greek name for festal celebrations, the synaxis. and the assembly is important again and again in the new testament writings, beginning with luke 24:33, when the emmaus road travelers arrive in jerusalem: "there they found the eleven assembled together with their companions." it is in this assembly that "he himself stood among them . . ." (v.36) the assembly is mentioned also, for instance in acts 12:12 and 20:8, and in the first letter to the corinthians, 5:4.

the expounding of scriptures is seldom overlooked, even in protestant worship where the meal is neglected. what is sometimes overlooked is the entirely new meaning and understanding of the scriptures that comes with the resurrection. there is now an entirely new creation. porter suggests that we see this new understanding when "new testament writers meditate upon the opening of genesis" in the following passages:
the gospel according to john, 1:1-4; the first letter to the corinthians, 15:20-49; the second letter to the corinthians 4-6; the letter to the ephesians 5:22-33; and the first chapter of the letter to the colossians.

then the meal. luke's gospel records "he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them. and their eyes were opened and they recognized him . . ." (24:30b-31a). so the church has come to know him in the lord's supper ever since.

finally we, too, are sent out. having received the body of christ we are sent to be the body of christ at work in the world, with the deacon saying "let us go forth into the world rejoicing in the power of the spirit."

circle of prayer 11. sunday: day of light

"the day of light, the day of resurrection, the day of the spirit" is the description of sunday used by h. b. porter in his slender volume the day of light: the biblical and liturgical meaning of sunday, which is one of those wonderful books that are bigger on the inside than they are on the outside.

porter bridges the light that is at the beginning of creation in genesis ("god said, 'let there be light,' and there was light." [genesis 1:3] and the light that is at the beginning of the incarnation in the gospel according to john ("the word was the true light/that enlightens all men;/and he was coming into the world." [john 1:9]), and the light of the transfiguration in the synoptic gospels (matthew 17:1-8; mark 9:2-8; luke 9:28-36). although he mentions that "pure light, independent of the sun, moon, or stars" has a special importance "as the type of god's creative activity," he does not explore the mystery with which this light is approached in both judaism and eastern christianity.

howard schwartz presents its importance for judaism:

". . . what was the light of the first day?

"in discussions scattered throughout the rabbinic, kabbalistic, and hasidic literature, the rabbis consider this question. they search for clues about this mysterious light in every book of the bible, and find the clue they need in a prophecy of isaiah. he speaks about what the world would be like in the messianic era: 'moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days.' (isaiah 30:26) . . .

"drawing on isaiah's explanation, the rabbis conclude that the two lights--that of the first day and that of the fourth--are different. the light of the first day is a primordial light, what they call the haganuz or hidden light."

in christianity the primordial light is usually called the uncreated light in the east, the uncomprehended light in the west. it is a matter of long and complicated debate whether the light is part of the very nature of god (an idea picked up in the nicene creed when we say that the son is "light from light, true god from true god") or immanates from god (an idea that finds support in the accounts of moses and elijah, who somehow see god and live (exodus 33 and 1 kings 19) and then appear again at the transfiguration of jesus.

what porter does do that is perhaps even more important is point out the very early understanding of the church, expressed in paul's letters again and again, nowhere more clearly proclaimed than in the second letter to the corinthians (4:6): "it is the same god that said 'let there be light shining out of the darkness,' who has shone in our minds to radiate the light of the knowledge of god's glory, the glory of the face of christ."

one of my favorite sunday morning activities is to rise before sun and go to a high hillside where i can watch the new-shining light recreate a valley or a lake or an arm of the ocean. sometimes i will chant the opening of psalm 104 (1-2a):

"bless YHWH my soul.
YHWH my god, how great you are!
clothed in majesty and glory, wrapped in a robe of light."

it always seems the perfect preparation for the liturgy which follows, which will begin as the people of god gather and light the candles on the holy table: "christ our light!"