After spending more time reading Webber's "Ancient-Future Time", I ran across two pieces that would be handy to use in designing worship during advent. Both of these are from the chapter on advent.
We have gone astray; in the multitude of our sings we have been made unclean. Fallen, fallen, stricken as leaves of autumn. The storm wind carries us away, the tempest of our evil deeds. You have turned us from the face of your mercy, and our iniquity has crushed us like a potter's vessel. O Lord our God, look upon your people in their affliction; be mindful of your promises. Send us the lamb who will set up his dominion from the rock of the wilderness to Zion, enthroned on her mountain. There is no other whose power can break our chains and set us free.
Merciful God, who sent your messengers, the prophets, to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
These could be used for calls to worship and benedictions. The liturgical tradition, while confusing to some, provides some great readings that can be used congregationally without to much explanation or confusion. I have found that using classic prayers and readings during other times, by those on the pulpit, will acclimate the congregation to the style of language, so when corporate readings are done, there is a level of familiarity.
This week I have started to do some planning for our Advent services at Asbury Seminary for next month. A quick trip to the library for some resources both excited and disappointed me. While Advent has been getting press over the last few years (mainly through the great Advent Conspiracy movement), I was surprised to not see more short theological works on the holiday. I found some interesting devotionals, and great additions in books that dealt with the Christian Year, but nothing "full-length" really jumped out. Below are a few books that I did pull of the shelves and took a cursory look at. If you have any additions, please leave them in the comments.
I don't want to discourage anyone from looking more into advent, my liturgical geekery just got the best of me today.
Bock offers a wide (but quick and accesible glance) toward the topic of the Christian Year. His strengths are in explaining the devotional attitude for the seasons, as well as an interesting look at the development of the festivals, as well as some of the transitions from pagan to Christian Holiday. A sense of consecration as well as deep sacredness to many things are the books strength. It’s weakness lies in the fact that it really doesn’t say that much. Written in the late 40’s (I couldn’t find an exact date, this is the 5th edition) it seems to be in step with the unique theological situation of Protestantism coming out of Continental Liberalism. A good book, but for a practical and theological view of advent, it didn’t hit the mark.
A devotional book (dated from Nov 24th to Jan 7th) it is filled with daily readings from numerous authors. The meditations can be used in private worship, but also would serve as a great source for thoughts surrounding the holiday for teaching and preaching.
Another devotional book. Instead of offering meditations, this book prompts the reader with scripture readings (daily and weekly), directed prayer and short meditations. A good feature of this book is the integration of the advent hymns of Charles Wesley. This seems to be an involved devotional, but good for someone wanting to spend time this advent season in private worship and reflection.
The Vigil takes the reader through Advent and Christmas. It deals heavily with the Old Testament witness. I find that this resource really helps ground the prophetic theme that rests inside of advent, as well as the eschatological idea of waiting and promise. This is a theological resource, while still remaining accessible.
Dealing with the liturgical idea of Antiphon, this book draws through the “Great O’s”, some of the great advent hymns from the high church tradition. These hymns are part of the prophetic tradition and they deal with Mary’s Magnificat. Good resource for designing services for advent.
This contribution comes from Protestant worship giant Robert E. Webber. This is a short book that gives glancing worksheets on the Christian Year. It’s advent contribution is minimal, but still loaded. The book also gives a good introduction to Christian time. This would be a great read for anyone interested (or skeptical) about the Christian year and it’s importance.
While longer in form (and not a workbook), another Webber resource offers broader strokes regarding the Christian Year. This is a deeper theological resource, and like everything of Webber’s I have seen, it looks great.
Like I said, this is just the fruits of my labor this afternoon, I wouldn't call this list anywhere close to exhaustive. From previous experience, I would also welcomes Wesley's Hymns on the Nativity
Grace seems to be one of the words that we throw around alot in Christian conversation. How often do we really think about the theological significance of grace. Almost all summer I used this quote (within a quote) in sermons, papers and general conversation. It had me thinking deeper about what grace truly is.
Dons Scotus went on to teach that, even if the fall had not happened, the incarnation would have still taken place. It was his way of saying that Jesus Christ did not come only to save us from our sins, but supremely to bring to fulfillment the Trinitarian purposes of grace in creation......
.....It is in this trinitarian way we have to see worship, as the fulfillment of God's purposes in creation and redemption, to bring us into a life of communion with himself and one another. The triune God is in the business of creating community, in such a way that we are never more truly human, never more truly persons, than when we find our true being-in-communion.
James B. Torrance Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace pg.73
How does grace enable us to truly live life? Lets stay away from the Christianese around the word,and think about the idea of fulfillment. Grace is the realization of complete shared personhood with God, an action by a divine superior towards a subordinate (but desired) being that enables us to function within the original design of the Godhead. Thats just fancy language for saying that grace allows us to be the people that we were designed to be (in relationship to the triune God).
It is easy to use the language for forgiveness in grace, and it definitely is part of the idea, but I think that we cheat ourselves when we allow grace to only have bearing in relation to negative human issues. The only reason I say that is I think many people don't actually believe in some sort of limitation, but don't know how to communicate it.
Grace is what sets us apart. Grace is what makes us beloved. We understand God in a way that no other created being, even those of heaven that guard the throne room, has the ability to. The core love of God (what Robert Mulholland calls cruciform love) is in saving and reconciling action. Thats how I am trying to think about grace.
Yeah I confess...and most of you know it. I am a Bible and Liturgy geek. I will easily start talking about either topic. One of my favorite combination of the two is using the Book of Common Prayer (or BCP). It took me a few years to get used to how to actually use it, until I actually met some Anglicans. The cycle of readings in the BCP won't get you through the Bible in a year, but it is nice to be reading scripture with people all over the world, and readings that have been done for ages.
The easiest way to jump in is to check out the ESV daily BCP. You can subscribe to it in your RSS reader and have it pop up every day. That way, when you forget what week of Ordinary Time you are on, the text is right there in front of you.
I was digging through an older notebook today, and I found this poem. I think I wrote it around a year ago, but I am not even sure of its origins (i usually mark an author if I find something interesting), but as far as I can tell-I wrote this around June of 2008. This picture is from one of the prayer rooms at Asbury, from a batch that I shot before orientation in 2007. So I guess we can call this post a re-discovery.
I vaguely remember trying to write benedictions and calls to worship during last summer, so I think this poem is from a night of working on that Project.
EDIT In the comments, my good friend Omar (and worship design team alum) notes that he found the prayer in a Lutheran liturgy (here and here). I thought it sounded too familiar and to good to be anything I came up with. A note to me (and other notebookers) to always cite things, because you never know when you will come back to it years later.
The Living Christ go with you Behind you to encourage you Beside you to befriend you Above you to watch over you Within you to give you power And before you to show you the Way....
I know I have posted this clip before, but it does such a good job of storytelling. This ill-informed group of kids attempt to tell "their" story every night, so the young ones won't forget who they are and where they came from. It is full of interpretation and prophecy, and it has a liturgical element to it.
I was spending time yesterday in the Book of Common Prayer and Psalm 78 was one of the readings. It made this clip jump out at me again and I wanted to share it. The psalmist understands the necessity of retelling, and so should we.
When we (the church) forgets who we are, we start scrambling. Just start telling the story again....
1 O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old-
3 what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.
5 He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children,
6 so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.
8 They would not be like their forefathers— a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him.
9 The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle;
10 they did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his law.
11 They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.
12 He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand firm like a wall.
14 He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night.
15 He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
16 he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.
17 But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
18 They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the desert?
20 When he struck the rock, water gushed out, and streams flowed abundantly. But can he also give us food? Can he supply meat for his people?"
21 When the LORD heard them, he was very angry; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel,
22 for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance.
23 Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens;
24 he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.
26 He let loose the east wind from the heavens and led forth the south wind by his power.
27 He rained meat down on them like dust, flying birds like sand on the seashore.
28 He made them come down inside their camp, all around their tents.
29 They ate till they had more than enough, for he had given them what they craved.
30 But before they turned from the food they craved, even while it was still in their mouths,
31 God's anger rose against them; he put to death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel.
32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
33 So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.
34 Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again.
35 They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36 But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues;
37 their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wasteland!
41 Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power— the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
43 the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers to blood; they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.
46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.
49 He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility— a band of destroying angels.
50 He prepared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave them over to the plague.
51 He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
52 But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the desert.
53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies.
54 Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken.
55 He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.
56 But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes.
57 Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58 They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
59 When God heard them, he was very angry; he rejected Israel completely.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among men.
61 He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
62 He gave his people over to the sword; he was very angry with his inheritance.
63 Fire consumed their young men, and their maidens had no wedding songs;
64 their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a man wakes from the stupor of wine.
66 He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame.
67 Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.
70 He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens;
71 from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance.
72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.
Thanks for sticking around. This will be the final post in the series.
++++ Revelation 19:1-4 as applied text
19:1 After these things I heard a tremendous voice, like of a crowd of many people speaking; Hallelujah! Salvation has come and glory and power belong to God alone; 19:2-Because of his true and righteous judgment He has weighed the great idolatress, who destroyed the earth with her idolatry, He rescued the blood of the servants out of her hand. 19:3 And a second time they said; Hallelujah! The smoke from her city ascends into the eternity of eternity 19:4 And the twenty four elders and four living creatures fell and worshipped God who sits on the throne sing; Amen. Hallelujah (6)
Entering into the heavenly vision of St. Johns Apocalypse in chapter 19, we come into the story late. The characters have already been long introduced and many of the cryptic elements have already taken place. We see an interaction between the redeemed church and the creatures of heaven that speaks to the eternal placement of those who are found in Christ. This is a great text for us to look at, because it allows us to think of heavenly worship, eschaton and an envisioned sacramental reality of participation in the throne of God.
A brief description of the heavenly creatures is needed. They are introduced in chapter 4 of Revelation and are woven throughout the narrative. Books have been written identifying these characters, but most agree that the four creatures represent the totality of creation wrapped inside the existence of the Father. Their role that has been played out since the beginning of time is one that identifies and protects the holiness of the Father. The twenty four elders have put themselves is a posture of constant submission towards who God is. They represent those who have passed through the salvific efforts of God into a new reality. These are heavenly creatures, full of the knowledge of the divine, but do not have an earthly home.
The interesting part of this reading is found in vs. 4, with the antiphonal response of the heavenly creatures; Amen, Hallelujah. Glossed, this is con temporarily translated as "we agree, Praise the Lord". These are two words that are heard in church often, and are part of the Christian vocabulary that many people might take for granted. But there is deep meaning in this response. G.K. Beale notes this response as a “formal expression of ratification”(7) by the creatures. These words are the endorsements of the truth spoken by Christ’s church. The creatures of heaven and operating in agreement with the redeemed church. The creatures, since they are holy beings, understand the function of the incarnation as rescue, and the activity of God recovering His world. It is a “reckless indiscrimination”(8), salvation as the action and the very make-up of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
God is also doing this with us, enlisting us in the saving action, by our entry into the kingdom through the sacraments.(9) We understand our Eucharist as a “Transporting Feast”, as Charles Wesley wrote, bringing us into a timeless reality of action with God.(10) The sacraments are the best vehicle of participation, a vehicle that God provided.
But what does this antiphon have to do with us today? Does it hold some sort of secret regarding our salvation? Gleaning contemporary meanings out of Revelation without diverting off into crackpot prophecy is a skill that is not practiced well by many church leaders. I think that our answer lies in the liturgical and textual analysis of v.4. Why are the heavenly creatures agreeing with the words of the redeemed? To think that the church holds more understanding of God than the creatures that have surrounded him in heaven for eons is bold. But to reference Dons Scotus again, the incarnation is a fundamental action that would have happened regardless of the fall. Christ came not because of sin, but because God desired a complete union with humanity that could only be finally realized by grace. This does not discount what Christ did regarding sin, or say that Adam and Eve were not truly perfect, but that the fundamental attribute of God is salvific. The creatures that have been responsible for naming and protecting the holiness of God are agreeing because as a saved people, we understand the things of God better than they do. The heavenly creatures can understand the idea of grace, but they can never understand it as an action because they haven’t received it.
This makes salvation not about perfection, but a deep holy love and desire for relationship. Sacrifice for the sake of salvation is in the very being of God. The twenty four elders and living creatures were saying to the redeemed, “This is now your song to sing, because of grace and that you now know God in a way we cannot. While me may understand the complexities of his holiness, you understand him through the radical, sacramental power of grace.” This provides a very Wesleyan way to look at the eschaton, as fulfillment that is couched in the marriage supper of the lamb. As humans we look towards this privilege with expectation.
Sacramental Vision today At the heart of our sacramental vision is memory, the anamnesis, the constant active memory of the Church. We use our memory to locate ourselves not in the plight of postmodernity, but in the story of God. It orients us towards a narrative that is built out of rescue, renaming, and bringing the lowly to places of Holy prestige. It gives us coherence, meaning and a frame of reference that is built in the creator of the world. Because of this we “are not trapped and confined in the present moment but can locate it as the invention of temporal processes and actions, which gives us the wherewithal to transcend the limitations to which the here and now restrict us”.(11) We do know what has happened before us and we know the design of the world. In participation with anamnesis is prolepsis, the active engaging of the future. We know that our world is on a timeline, and that it is originated with the divine. Placing our worship in the language of eschaton allows us to give service to this idea that is able to stay away from the language of revenge and judgement. We know that these things will happen, but that more is written regarding how humanity will be eternally positioned in relation to God. The liturgical Sanctus of the church is a recognition of how creation and end are in relation towards one another, and that end does not mean a final point, but a reconfiguration. Schmemann says “This is the ultimate purpose of all that exists, the end, the goal and the fulfillment,because this is the beginning, the principle of Creation.”(12)
When we worship, we place ourselves on this timeline. We shift back towards renewal, and again think that our sacramental actions are a reality and sign of our communion with God. The baptismal waters and the Lords table re-members us back into humanities proper place with God. But unlike Adam and Eve, we live knowing the radical sacramental powers of grace. Worship ceases to become a spiritual filling station and returns to the chief story of the Church. An ancient-future practice both grounds us and thrusts us towards the Trinity.
The Church’s mission as an eschatological oriented people is one that understands we do have a storyteller. We tell of what happens when we will all know more about the story than ever imagined. Our Eucharist is the time in which we taste an appetizer of the anticipated heavenly reality. We are in between memory and hope, and we look forward to the time in which we will be able to do the things of heaven best; because we have a savior standing like a slain lamb that has brought us a redemption steeped with the grace that God gives his restored people.
+++ 6 Authors own translation 7 G.K.Beale The Book of Revelation (Eerdmans,1999) pg 929 8 Eugene Peterson Reversed Thunder (Harper & Row, 1988) pg 153 9 Ibid 166 10 Daniel B Stevick The Altar’s Fire (Epworth, 2004) pg 129 11 Barry Harvey Can These Bones Live? (Brazos Press, 2008) pg. 47 12 Alexander Schmemann For the Life of the World (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1973) pg.40
Sacramental Imagination Defining sacramental imagination is the first step towards leading people to a participatory view of the relationships that exist inside worship. Having a sacramental imagination allows a picture to be painted of a world that exists inside the liminality of the kingdom of God. Viewing the world as being in constant interaction with the divine can be a stretch for those whose sacramental theology is based in passive remembrance. The Pastoral task is to find ways to teach this to congregations which might be clamoring for a grasp relevant to current society.
Some of our best teachers of sacramental imagination are the Patristic Mystagogical sermons. These sermons were used to teach the baptismal candidates about the mysteries of faith, guarded secrets in their time. During the time preceding baptism, sermons would be preached that explained every piece of the churches liturgical action. A marker of mystagogy was its playfulness. It was not out of disrespect or irreverence, but the desire to really explain the intricacies of the faith by using examples from everyday life. The catechumens had spent month being taught the scriptures, so they understood the strands the fathers were trying to bring together by a narrative journeying through the story of God. Craig A. Satterlee and Lester Ruth’s text ‘Creative Preaching on the Sacraments”(3) is a great blend of mystagogical thought and contemporary praxis. What bearing does eschatology have on my faith? Another initial issue that will take pastoral leadership is bringing eschatology back to forefront of Christian experience. The historical events surrounding eschatology only make sense by us realizing a view of the future that revolves around God completely unifying himself back with humanity and through this the redeemed humanity understanding the full extent of who the Triune God is. A second tier to this task would be also stating that eschatology is in the context of promise and not threat.
Through the sacraments engaging with eschatology we are thrust into a new imagination, our baptism is our entrance and our Eucharistic celebration is our expectation. We understand the foreign nature of our earthly citizenship, existing in St. Augustine’s dual City of God and City of Man. We remember the kingdoms place in eschatology, and the fact that we live inside a timeline thats end is actually eternal. While there is a bracketing around human time, time doesn’t exist within the divine and the framework after the bracket is directly governed by the eternality of God. Salvation has an ultimate end of recovery and understanding the relational nature of the Father. An evangelical experience is not the final point of a journey towards God, and to think that our Enlightenment idea of “saving faith” is the preeminent explanation for the actions of Jesus Christ would be a grave mistake. Dons Scotus (via James Torrance) thought “even if the Fall had not happened, the incarnation still would have taken place.”(4) For our eschatology, this has an extreme bearing. The Triune actions of grace through the sacrifice of the cross bring us to the fullest understanding of God that can a created being (earthly or heavenly) can possess. Salvation is tied up in eschaton because of the proleptic vision that the church has towards Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our worship dually celebrates and is the fulfillment of Christ's coming. The definition of σωτηρία is linked with the idea of restoration. The church has an eschatological character, a participation in the admittance of both the reality of the kingdom now and the coming eschatological kingdom.
Worship and the Sacraments Growing up inside the free church tradition, sacramental understanding was minimal at best. Worship was primarily understood as something that the church participates in because of what God has done for us. It was an individual action separated from any sort of participation, human or divine. Worship was confusing, because it was never named, defined or fleshed out; it instead just functioned as another line item to prop up the sermon.
Worship must be pointed towards something. The central place of how the Trinity operates as “By the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit” provides a rubric that allows humanity to interact with the divine. Instead of worship being an action that is just us directing action towards God, or us worship with some type of divine grace being given to us, we understand (through sacramental imagination) that our worship is a constant dance with the Trinity and the Saints. The place of baptism and the table are markers in the Christian life, and means of grace that are a process of divination. Our approach to the Father is only possible because of the perpetual offering of Jesus Christ. We also give up the pretenses of confusion and fear of Pentecostalism to admit to the Holy Spirits place in our worship and His (5) role as Paraclete.
++++ 3 Craig A. Satterlee and Lester Ruth Creative Preaching on the Sacraments (Discipleship Resources, 2001)
4 James B Torrance Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace. (InterVarsity Press, 1997) pg.73
5 The nature of God is asexual, and referring to God as male or female is problematic. This reference is used in the spirit of classic orthodoxy, and not out of misogynistic desires.
I have never posted that many school papers here, because I felt that many of them didn't fit in the overall theme of this blog, but my recent work is a good marriage between academic pursuits and my calling regarding the local church. There will be several posts to get through this paper, but I hope you enjoy it.
This series will also serve as an introduction for some news that I will be rolling out in the coming weeks.
++++++++++
Attempting to write a thorough response to our intensive class on sacraments gives a wide range of application towards topic. The last year of my life has been spent in deep times of prayer and reflection towards how my two favorite theological topics, worship and eschatology, go together. This has been more of a pastoral task instead of an academic endeavor, and I believe I found some finality through our week together studying Sacramental Celebration. On the first day of class, we were prompted to express a desire about the class to someone next to us. I told my classmate that I wanted to learn to express sacraments in a more cohesive and less academic manner, in a way that shows how they are the joining glue of the Christian life. What I found through my reflections and readings was how the sacraments interact with my two favorite topics and a wonderful answer to my desire expressed on the first day. My aim below is to show how the three topics (worship, eschatology, and the sacraments) dance together to provide a fuller understanding of Christian devotion. After outlining a few concerns and directives, I will use Revelation 19:1-4 as a case study towards applying my topic.
Eschatology Versus Apocalypse Modern Western popular culture is fascinated with the idea of an apocalypse. Through the task of modernity, the idea of a divine originator has been taken out of the universal story of the world. Instead, the belief is that the world started by chance (through the various theories of creation and evolution) and that the only way it will end is by apocalyptic chance. The church has bought into this movement as well, especially since the mid 1850’s, with the development and popularity of pre-millennial dispensationalism. Whereas the church used to have a view focused on fulfillment, it has shifted to theories of judgement and escapism.
This can also be traced to modernity and the rise of the individual. With the idea of “individual” comes the philosophy of “individual religion”. The Church shifted from the Patristic teaching regarding communal fulfillment to a concern with the individual after death bringing a preoccupation with “the multiplicity of affections and appetites that mark the spiritual progress of the individual believer.”(1) The community of God has lost its focus on the sacramental nature of community and how it serves as a beacon to the relationship that exists within the Godhead. Our eschatology bears this fact, and underpins our entire soteriology. Reclaiming an eschatological view focused on the eschaton, instead of an apocalyptic theology that bypasses a sacramental view of the end will be a primary task for the historical Christian church in the 21st century.
Understanding Sacramental Vision Forming a postmodern eschatology is different from merely critiquing what has been done in recent evangelicalism. It would be easy to fall on modern liberal historical criticism to draw a new exegesis, and to simply interpret the apocalyptic texts of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation as fables and take a liberal preterist stance, denying prophetic realization. But this does not allow for an engagement with the Biblical text as a living breathing sacramental object. Secondly, it takes the biblical story and divorces it from an embodied, communal Christian lifestyle.
M. Robert Mulholland writes on the idea of vision in his book “Holy Living in an Unholy World”, a commentary on St. John’s Revelation. He begins the book with a lengthy section on how vision interacts within Revelation and christian life in general. Vision is a holistic experience that take up the entire human psyche and “impact the totality of the human being and go beyond the limits of human beingness. Such experiences appear to be holistic and unitive immersions of the person involved in the larger matrix of reality of which human existence is part.”(2) Admitting to the Christian life and the mystical teachings regarding the sacraments allows this type of experience, and builds an environment of worship that recognizes this aspect of the Holy Spirit in sacramental practice.
++ 1 Colin Morris, The Discovery of the Individual, 1050-1200 (Harper and Row, 1972) pgs 139-152 2 M. Robert Mulholland Jr. Holy living in an Unholy World (Francis Asbury/Zondervan, 1990) pg 18
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