Saturday, September 15, 2007

circle of prayer 21. holy cross day

massey hamilton shepherd has given many gifts to the church in his long career. i am obviously indebted to him for his sunday: the day of light. but i want to point out particularly one line of the holy cross day collect he wrote for the 1979 american book of common prayer:

"we, who glory in mystery of our redemption, may have the grace to take up our cross and follow him . . . ."

ah. and that's what i don't find the american church encouraging: to glory in the mystery. because the opposite is also true: we who glory not in the mystery of our redemption may not have the grace to take up our cross and follow him.

circle of prayer 20. the sun stands still: two nativities

"joshua declaimed:

'sun, stand still over gibeon . . . .'
and the sun stood still, . . .
till the people had vengence on their enemies."

(joshua 10:12-13)

if we find the story of the sun's standing still for joshua hard to believe, we should remember two things: the first is that joshua is a book of prophecy, not of history, and of course joshua's name in greek is jesus; the second is that the sun "stands still" twice a year, at the solstices. the nativity of jesus the messiah is celebrated at the winter solstice, the nativity of john the baptist is celebrated at the summer solstice.

the summer solstice: the nativity of john the baptist

if i were in charge of things, i almost certainly would have arranged for the messiah's birth at midsummer, letting the brilliance of the season announce the brilliance of the salvation and the new creation. instead it is john the baptist, the forerunner, who is born at the summer solstice.

john, the full light of the old testament summer, is but a prophet of the uncreated light to come. ". . . it was toward john that all the prophecies of the prophets and of the law were leading; and he," said jesus, "if you will believe me, is the elijah who has to return." (matthew 11:13-14) so john is born at the height of days, then says "he must grow greater, i must grow smaller." (john 3:30) the sun stands still at the northmost point of its journey, then heads south.

"the child that is born to us is more than a prophet; for this is he of whom the saviour says: among those born of woman there is not greater than john the baptist."

antiphon for the nativity of john the baptist (after matthew 11:10-11)

"the great forerunner of the morn,
the herald of the word is born,
and faithful hearts shall never fail
with thanks and praise his light to hail.

"with heavenly message gabriel came,
that john should be that herald's name,
and with prophetic utterance told
his actions great and manifold.

"john, still unborn, yet gave aright
his witness to the coming light,
and christ the sun of all the earth,
fulfilled that witness at his birth."

(the veneble bede)

the winter solstice: the nativity of jesus the christ

six months pass. the sun reaches its furthest southward point, and stands still again. in the northern hemisphere, "night has fallen." (john 13:30)

"in the deep midwinter,
frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow,
snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter, long ago."

(christina rossetti)

"when all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of its swift course, your almighty word, o lord, leaped out of your throne, alleluia."

christmas antiphon (after wisdom 18:14-15)

the messiah is born when all is dark and bleak and there is little cause for hope. (one might add that this is not only true of the natural world. luke's gospel reminds us that jesus was born at a time of great political hopelessness as well: "in the days of king herod of judea . . . at the time [of] caesar august . . . " (luke 1:5, 2:1), despotism and pagan rule seemed firmly established.) but this is the time the sun stands still, and turns around, when

". . . the tender mercy of our god
. . . from on high will bring the rising sun to visit us,
to give light to those who live
in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet
into the way of peace." (luke 1:78-79)

the church gathers to proclaim this coming of the light at midnight on christmas eve. people who would never visit a church at any other time gather instinctively with the faithful to celebrate this awesome event. whatever theology we may profess the rest of the year, on this night we answer the call:

"o come, all ye faithful,
. . .
come ye, o come ye, to bethlehem.
come and adore him."

and we leave, walking out into the darkness now strangely made bright, singing

"joy to the world
. . .
let heaven and nature sing."

(Isaac watts)

Friday, September 14, 2007

circle of prayer 19. fall into winter: all saints& spring into summer: pentecost

the times half-way between the equinoxes and the solstices are called cross-quarter days. they are important events in the celtic calendar. all saints and pentecost correspond, approximately, to samhain and beltane. (since pentecost's date, fifty days after the pascha, is controlled partly by the moon, it wanders around the may first date of beltane.)

these are thin places, times when the veil separating the worlds of flesh and spirit is transparent. these are times for bonefires (bonfires), when the bodies of the dead are returned to the elements. these are times to ponder our ultimate fate. the november first date for all saints day seems to have originated in the celtic church. in older english it was called "all hallows' day," using the word for holy or sainted we are most familiar with in the our father. from that name for the feast we get the term that describes all that is left for many people of what is really a very holy time: hallowe'en--all hallow's eve--reflecting that the day properly begins with the evening. october 31st is not, for the church, hallowe'en. rather all hallows still begins on the evening.

as i mentioned above, all saints had its beginning in rome where there were so many martyrs there were not enough days for each to have his or her own date. what was celebrated was their deaths, their falling to sleep, as paul had written in the first letter to the corinthians (15:18), understood as their entry into life in the world to come. at first the celebration occured just after pentecost, as it still does in the eastern church, but gradually in the west the november first date was adopted pretty much everywhere.

it is important to know that all saints day is considered a feast of the lord: "the lord is glorious in his saints." what is celebrated is the work of god in christ jesus through the holy spirit in anyone who says to him, "yes, let it be unto me according to your word" (luke 1:30). prayer is often offered "in the communion of the blessed virgin mary and all the saints," recognizing that it is our "yes, let it be" that like mary's opens the door to the holy one in our hearts and lives. especially do we remember this as the nights are getting longer, the days are getting colder, and the world seems to be returning to the elements. we pray:

"you, o lord, have made us from the dust of the earth and to dust our bodies shall return; yet you have also breathed your spirit upon us and called us to new life in you: have mercy upon us, now and at the hour of our death; through jesus christ, our mediator and advocate. amen.

of course the big celebration of the spirit "breathed upon us" comes six months later, or came six months before, depending upon which way we look. looking forward we see that the life which seems to be ebbing on the earth on all hallows will indeed be renewed at pentecost. "the spirit of the lord renews the face of the earth." looking back we recognize that it was the gift of the spirit which empowers all the saints to triumph in death.

the gift of the spirit is the climax towards which all salvation has been headed. in the church's celebration of pentecost the ancient jewish agricultural celebration of the grain harvest becomes the harvest of the first fruits of the resurrection, the fulfillment of the parable of the sower. in the words of psalm 126,

"when YHWH brought zion's captives home,
at first it seemed like a dream;
then our mouths filled with laughter
and our lips with song.

"even the pagans started talking
about the marvels YHWH had done for us,
and how overjoyed we were!

"YHWH, bring all our captives back again
like torrents in the negeb!

"those who went sowing in tears
now sing as they reap.
they went away, went away weeping,
carrying the seed;
they come back, come back singing,
carrying their sheaves."

Monday, September 10, 2007

circle of prayer. bibliography

the apostolic tradition of hippolytus. trans. burton scott easton (archon books, 1962).

dom cuthbert butler. western mysticism. london: constable and company, ltd., 1922.

book of common prayer, 1979.

j. gordon davies. holy week: a short history . richmond, virginia, john knox press, 1963.

annie dillard. for the time being. new york: alfred a. knopf, 1999.
holy the firm. new york: harper & row, publishers, 1977.

marion j. hatchett. commentary on the american prayerbook. harpersanfrancisco, 1995.

a. g. hebert. liturgy and society. london: faber and faber, mcmlxi.

a. j. heschel. sabbath: its meaning for modern man. new york: farrar, straus and young, inc., 1951.

the jerusalem bible. garden city, new york: doubleday & company, inc., 1966.

bayard h. jones. the american lectionary. new york: morehouse-gormon co., 1988.

e. kadloubovsky and g. e. h. palmer, trans. writings from the philokalia on prayer of the heart. london. boston: faber and faber, 1957.

lesser feasts and fasts. new york: the church hyman corporation, 1980.

liturgy: the lord's day. volume 8, number 1 (summer 1989).

a. allan macarthur. the evolution of the christian year. greenwich, connecticutt: the seabury press, 1953.

juan mateos, s.j. "the origins of the divine office," worship (1967), pp. 447-85.

leonel mitchell. the meaning of ritual. new york: paulist press, 1977.
prayer shapes believing: a theological commentary on the book of common prayer. harrisburg, pa/wilton, ct: morehouse publishing, 1985.

sayyed hossein nasr. knowledge and the sacred. new york: crossroad, 1981.

gertrude mueller nelson. to dance with god. new york/mahway: paulist press, 1986.

philip newall. the book of creation: an introduction to celtic spirituality. new york/mahweh: paulist press, 1999.

raimundo panikar. worship and secular man. london: dalton, longman & todd, 1973.

joseph pieper. in tune with the world. chicago: franciscan herald press, 1973.

h. b. porter. day of light: the biblical and theological meaning of sunday. greenwich, conn.: the seabury press, 1960.
a song of creation. cambridge: cowley publications, 1986.

prayer book studies 22: the daily office. new york: church hymnal corporation, 1970.

prayer book studies xii: propers for the minor holidays. new york: the church pension fund, 1958.

the rule of st. benedict in english. ed. timothy fry, o.s.b. collegeville, minnessota: the liturgical press, 1982.

alexander schmemann. for the life of the world. new york: st. vladimir seminary press, 1973.

howard schwartz. "on the first day." parabola. volume 26, no. 2. (summer 2001), pp. 15-18.

massey h. shepherd. oxford american prayerbook commentary. new york: oxford university press, 1950.


thomas spidlik. drinking from the hidden fountain: a patristic breviary (kalamazoo, michigan-spenser, massachusetts: cistercian publications, 199.

daniel b. stevick. baptismal moments, baptismal meanings. new york: the church hymnal corporation, 1987.

alan watts. myth and ritual in christianity. boston: beacon press, 1968.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

circle of prayer 18. fall and spring: holy cross and pascha

i am of the first generation to grow up under the curse of television, the last generation in the united states, canada or western europe to grow up experiencing reality rather than virtual reality, or as its critics tend to say, hyper reality. an advantage of having lived in this transitional period is a stock of stories and characters from television that my whole generation remembers. one of my favourites is from howdy doody: an indian princess named summerspringwinterfall. her name was a two-edged sword: it looked back to the time when american children knew the seasons from direct experience; but it also suggested the silliness, the primitivity, of people who took the procession of the seasons seriously, whose wheat came from the earth rather than being shot from guns, as it was in another popular image from my tv-insired. random access memories.

the ancient israelites of course were one of the primitive groups for whom the seasons were intensely important. a people who had settled into an uneasy agrarianism with an ancestry of herding nomadism ("my father was a wandering aramaen. he went down into egypt to find refuge there . . . " says the confession at deuteronomy 26:5), their transition had not been without conflict, a conflict first recorded in the legend of cain and abel (genesis 4:1-16). their lives depended upon timely "sowing and reaping, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night . . ." (genesis 8:22).

their earliest festivals had been agriculural. it is sometimes said that they came to be understood as having religious meaning as well, but for people who live close to the natural world, such a distinction seldom occurs. what did happen is that the meaning, the contents, of the feasts developed as the law was revealed, as they came into the land, and as worship came to be centered in the temple. the "festivals solemn to YHWH" are described in the twenty-third chapter of leviticus.

in the fall, in the seventh month, came rosh ha-shonah, the new year and annual remembrance of the creation of adam, man, yom kippur, the day of atonement, and the feast so important it was sometimes simply called the hag, the festival, the seven days of sukkot, the feast of tabernacles.

in the spring, in the first month, came pesach, passover and unleavened bread (and fifty days later, in the third month, shavuot, pentecost).

the church immediately picked up pascha and pentecost, called in england easter and whitsunday. their importance in the life of the church as the days of resurrection and the gift of the holy spirit are attested in the four gospels and in the acts of the apostles. but even though jesus as the fulfillment of the day of atonement is the major theme of the epistle to the hebrews, it would be three hundred years before the church developed a ritual occuring on the fall equinox to replace the jewish celebrations she did not continue to observe.

it was necessary that such a festival be developed. the fall equinox is too big an event in people's experience not to be explained as finding fulfillment in christ jesus. as a. g. hebert so perceptively comments, "above all, christ is the fulfiller." the difficulty of course is that easter had swallowed up the need for rosh ha-shonah, since the resurrection marked the first day of the new creation, the emergence from the earthen tomb of the new adam, and for yom kippur, jesus christ having accomplished once and for all the atonement towards which the yearly rites of the jews could only point (hebrews 10:12-14).

three hundred years after the crucifixion and resurrection of christ jesus, helena, mother of constantine, would visit the site to build a shrine. To do so required quite a lot of excavation, because previous emperors had erected a temple to jupiter there in an effort to make the place unavailable for christian devotion. during the work she found a piece of wood she decided must be from the very cross of our lord, and which would become the major relic of the shrine.

constantine's shrine was quite elaborate, as was suitable for such a venerable location. it consisted of two principal buildings: a basilica for the liturgy of the word, and a circular church called the resurrection--in greek anastasis--whose altar was placed on the very site of the tomb. it was used for the liturgy of the table and the singing of the daily office. the two buildings were separated by a courtyard through which the faithful passed on their way from word to table, and from which the exposed top of cavalry's hill was visible. there on good friday took place the solemn veneration of the cross, and there the congregation gathered after vespers for a final prayer and dismissal.

the shrine was dedicated in a. d. 335 on the 14th of september, the seventh month of the roman calendar, a date chosen to echo the dedication of solomon's temple on the same day of the seventh month of the jewish calendar (2 chronicles 7:8-10).

thus the time of year when, in the northern hemisphere, the darkness of the night begins to exceed the light of the day and the vegetable world begins to die, that time became the moment of exalting the cross, the ultimate symbol of the power of darkness, which would become the penultimate symbol of the power of light and life (the ultimate expression being the resurrection itself). it would look forward in the growing darkness to the unquenchable life of the one who is himself light.

but the feast also gathers up another fulfillment, another revelation, of christ jesus: his body's replacing the jerusalem temple, being destroyed and being raised up in three days (john 2:10-22). in an example of probably unintentional irony, on yom kippur, the day of atonement which coincides more or less with holy cross day (the jewish calendar is lunar and wanders a bit in relation to the solar calendar), modern jews read the book of jonah, the story about which jesus said, when "some of the scribes and pharisees . . . said 'we would like to see a sign from you,' . . . replied, 'it is an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a sign! the only sign it will be given is the sign of the prophet jonah. for as jonah was in the sea-monster for three days and three nights, so will the son of man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.'" (matthew 12:38-40).

just as fall, with so much of the world seeming to die, would not be a time for festival if there were no hope of the spring to follow, so holy cross day gets its hope, and its power, from the pasca, easter, which follows six months later. about the resurrection anything i write will fall short. one can only rejoice at crocus leaves and blossoms rising from the snow of winter. one can only most greatly rejoice at jesus rising from the heart of the earth. it is a truly cosmic event, a fact the church recognizes by celebrating on the first sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. all our measures of time are included, for what we are celebrating, as we mentioned in the chapters about sunday, especially chapter 13, is nothing less than the recreation of the cosmos: ". . . for anyone who is in christ, there is a new creation; the old creation is gone, and now the new one is here" (2 corinthians 5:17).

the fact and the meaning and our proper response to the resurrection few of us can grasp in a moment. matthew records that after the resurrection, when the eleven disciples met jesus at the arranged place, "some hesitated" (matthew 28:17).

one enters into life in christ through baptism: ". . . when we were baptized in christ jesus we were baptized in his death; in other words, when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as christ was raised from the dead by the father's glory, we too might live a new life" (romans 6:3-4).

the immensity of this event led the church to require up to three years of catechesis before baptism, not at all unreasonably when considers christ jesus spent three years with his disciples before his crucifixion. all the faithful have come to approach this awesome day of death and resurrection through a forty-day lent. but none of our words about the resurrection seem to express its meaning any better or more powerfully than spring itself, that great outburst of life fulfilled in the great outburst of the living jesus from the rocky tomb. but we try, as in this hymn by j. m. c. crum:

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

In the grave they laid him, love whom men had slain,
Thinking that never he would wake again.
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green,

Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain.
Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.