Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the First Sunday in Advent

Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. (1 Thess 3:11–13)

[Paul] shows that love produces advantage to themselves, not to those who are loved. I wish, he says, that this love may abound, that there may be no blemish. ... Let us mourn and weep for those who have injured us. Let us not be angry with them. For truly they are worthy of tears, for the punishment and condemnation to which they make themselves liable. I know, how you now weep, how you rejoice, both admiring Paul, and amazed at Joseph, and pronouncing them blessed. But if any one has an enemy, let him now take him into recollection, let him bring him to his mind, that whilst his heart is yet warm with the remembrance of the Saints, he may be enabled to dissolve the stubbornness of wrath, and to soften what is harsh and callous. I know, that after your departure hence, after that I have ceased speaking, if anything of warmth and fervor should remain, it will not be so great, as it now is whilst you are hearing me. If therefore any one, if any one has become cold, let him dissolve the frost. For the remembrance of injuries is truly frost and ice. But let us invoke the Sun of Righteousness, let us entreat Him to send His beams upon us, and there will no longer be thick ice, but water to drink.

If the fire of the Sun of Righteousness has touched our souls, it will leave nothing frozen, nothing hard, nothing burning, nothing unfruitful. It will bring out all things ripe, all things sweet, all things abounding with much pleasure. If we love one another, that beam also will come. Allow me, I beseech you, to say these things with earnestness. Cause me to hear, that by these words we have produced some effect; that someone has gone and thrown both his arms about his enemy, has embraced him, has twined himself around him, has warmly kissed him, has wept. And though the other be a wild beast, a stone, or whatever he be, he will be made gentle by such affectionate kindness. For on what account is he your enemy? Has he insulted you? yet he has not injured you at all. But do you for the sake of money allow your brother to be at enmity with you? Do not so, I beseech you. Let us do away all. It is our season. Let us use it to good purpose. Let us cut asunder the cords of our sins. Before we go away to judgment, let us not ourselves judge one another. “Let not the sun” (it is said) “go down upon your wrath” (Eph 4:26). Let no one put it off. These procrastinations produce delays. If you have deferred it today, you blush the more, and if you add tomorrow, the shame is greater, and if a third day, yet worse. Let us not then put ourselves to shame, but let us forgive, that we may be forgiven. And if we be forgiven, we shall obtain all blessings, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Thessalonians 3.13

Which Way Are We Oriented?

Ask the average churchgoer who is being most honored each Sunday morning, and I dare say, one will get a response very close to this opening line of a Joshua Hedger blog post:

It’s a worship service at church, so of course it celebrates Jesus… right? Or does it?

That is the question, but what is the answer?

I have been in enough American Evangelical services to tell you they follow the same basic format: singing with varying accompaniment and a 45-minute sermon. The only differences are in general attire and stage presence. Yes, I used the word stage purposefully. Forty years ago, whomever led singing did so with the intent of ensuring the congregants and accompanist were open to the same hymn, singing in the same tune, key, and rhythm. Now, the worship leader is a performer engaging the attendees with rhetoric, song, and occasional theatrics intended to stir the soul. The congregants feed off of the energy and respond inciting more passion from the leader building a rush akin to merry-go-round riders pumping each other more and more for the excitement of the ride.

Some will object to this characterization, pointing out that the soul should be stirred when in the Lord’s presence with His people. I agree, however, contemporary church-growth and worship methodology places experience above truth as the goal for meeting. Why else would someone sing “Missouri River” songs? You know the kind: a mile wide (full of biblical-sounding phrases) and an inch deep (effusive emoting with no content). If I want to sing about someone to be close to and have arms put around me, I’ll play Michael Bublé love songs rather than Hillsong or Bethel Music.

Preachers handle the Word of God with varying success. I applaud those who are able to consistently deliver Law and Gospel in a way that delivers Jesus as the only satisfaction for my sin. However, there are others who develop a well-organized talk laced with engaging object lessons but continually end up delivering a self-help plan or a Jesus who just wants to make you feel better. In between the extremes are preachers who are able to accurately explain the Scriptures yet leave the listener with no sense of how Christ is present or what He is doing. Instead of Christ crucified, the message is style, effective delivery, and application drawing attention to the preacher rather than the Savior.

Who is actually celebrated in the above congregations? With the entire program geared to elicit a response, we must conclude that it must be the celebrants themselves. Yes, God and Jesus are mentioned using Scripture, but every aspect has been an outgrowth of the same theology of worship: I, in my own way, will tell God how I feel about Him, and those around me are welcome to join. But is that a legitimate theology of worship? Charles Finney thought so as he promoted outward measures to elicit responses in order to stir the hearts of sinners as they sat on the anxious bench. While novel at the time, 180 years later this basic form has become a Sunday morning staple. But the question remains: is it correct?

Which way are we to be oriented?

The New Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship defines worship as “the general idea of offering to God adoration and service; the concept can be extended to include offering prayers to God including petition and intercession, and it can also refer to obedient listening to God speaking.” This definition is accurate in that it is derived from the lexical definition of the Greek (to prostrate or kiss the hand toward) and neatly fits the worship described in the beginning paragraphs of this post, but comes short of a full understanding.

The center of our attention and celebration determines our orientation, and ultimately, our practice. During a podcast interview (The Gottesdiendst Crowd, Episode 1), Pastor Burnell Eckardt offered a poignant observation of Old Testament worship:

The priests, the Levites—those who worshiped—entered the worship of God, they entered the temple, they entered the Holy Place with a clear understanding that God was in charge, that they were not, that this was the worship of God, that they were facing Him.

The Lord gave Moses detailed instructions in Exodus and Leviticus for proper worship. An examination shows that the first purpose for gathering was not to give God something (i.e. praise and adoration) but to receive something—atonement. Whether the daily sacrifice or the Day of Atonement, before anything else occurred, blood was shed for my sin. Only then would a proper response begin. Additionally, as the people then heard God’s Word, they responded as they recounted His faithfulness. Note the sequence: receive, then respond. Our Sunday mornings should have a similar dialogical form: receive Christ through absolution, through the reading of His Word, through baptism, through the Lord’s Supper, then responding accordingly and appropriately to each.

How do we get properly oriented?

The solution to the dilemma is singular yet two-fold: orient both our personal and corporate lives in the liturgy of the Church. Placing ourselves willingly under a form designed to celebrate God above all impedes the desire we might have to take liberties and turn attention to ourselves. Luke Childs has described it this way:

A regular day and time of worship forces one out of oneself and into something greater – yes I have needs, but the needs of others are often greater and are always infinitely more important. The rhythms of daily prayer, where we begin by confessing our sins, meditate on the Scriptures, and end with prayer for all the needs of the world and church, keep me constantly a part of the great cloud of witnesses in Christ. A liturgical style of worship, meaning a set pattern of written prayers and readings to guide us, remind me that I am not the centre of the universe – God is. The prayers written by some of the most saintly Christian men to have ever existed fill me with hope in the darkest of times. The Scriptures we read on a given day are Scriptures I might never have chosen to reach for given that freedom, often encouraging, but often challenging to the core.

We reorient ourselves by willing being molded to a standard and plan outside ourselves. Instead of celebrating ourselves (whether intentional or not), and celebrate our Lord who alone is worthy.

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Last Sunday of the Year

Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning—lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch! (Mark 13:28-37)

Let no one, however, suspect that, in speaking as we do, we belong to those who are indeed called Christians, but who set aside the doctrine of the resurrection as it is taught in Scripture. For these persons cannot, so far as their principles apply, at all establish that the stalk or tree which springs up comes from the grain of wheat, or anything else (which was cast into the ground); whereas we, who believe that that which is “sown” is not “quickened” unless it die, and that there is sown not that body that shall be (for God gives it a body as it pleases Him, raising it in incorruption after it is sown in corruption; and after it is sown in dishonor, raising it in glory; and after it is sown in weakness, raising it in power; and after it is sown a natural body, raising it a spiritual),—we preserve both the doctrine of the Church of Christ and the grandeur of the divine promise, proving also the possibility of its accomplishment not by mere assertion, but by arguments; knowing that although heaven and earth, and the things that are in them, may pass away, yet His words regarding each individual thing, being, as parts of a whole, or species of a genus, the utterances of Him who was God the Word, who was in the beginning with God, shall by no means pass away. For we desire to listen to Him who said: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”

Origen, Against Celsus 5.22

Oh, what judicial sentences for gods to pronounce, as men’s recompense after death! They are more mendacious than any human judgments; they are contemptible as punishments, disgusting as rewards; such as the worst of men could never fear, nor the best desire; such indeed, as criminals will aspire to, rather than saints,—the former, that they may escape more speedily the world’s stern sentence,—the latter that they may more tardily incur it. How well, (forsooth), O you simplistic moralists do you teach us, and how usefully do you advise us, that after death rewards and punishments fall with lighter weight! whereas, if any judgment awaits souls at all, it ought rather to be supposed that it will be heavier at the conclusion of life than in the conduct thereof, since nothing is more complete than that which comes at the very last—nothing, moreover, is more complete than that which is especially divine. Accordingly, God’s judgment will be more full and complete, because it will be pronounced at the very last, in an eternal irrevocable sentence, both of punishment and of consolation, (on men whose) souls are not to transmigrate into beasts, but are to return into their own proper bodies. And all this once for all, and on “that day, too, of which the Father only knows;” in order that by her trembling expectation faith may make full trial of her anxious sincerity, keeping her gaze ever fixed on that day, in her perpetual ignorance of it, daily fearing that for which she yet daily hopes.

Tertullian, On the Soul 33

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Preserve me, O God, because I hope in You.
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord,
You have no need of my good things.”
To the saints on His earth,
In them He magnified all His will.
Their diseases were multiplied;
They hastened after these things;
I will not join in their assemblies of blood,
Nor will I remember their names with my lips.
The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You are He who who restores my inheritance to me.
Portions fell to me among the best,
And my inheritance is the very finest.
I will bless the Lord who caused me to understand;
Moreover, until night my reins also instruct me.
I saw the Lord always before me;
Because He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
Therefore my heart was glad,
And my tongue rejoiced exceedingly;
My flesh also shall dwell in hope.
For You will not abandon my soul to Hades
Nor allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You made known to me the ways of life;
You will fill me with gladness in Your presence;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:1–11)

Who has ever given Him anything, since “from Him, and through Him and in Him” are all things? The fount of life is that highest Good that bestows the substance of life on all, because it has life abiding in itself. It receives from no one as though it were needy; it lavishes goods on all and borrows from others nothing for itself, for it has no need of us. It says, too, in the person of humankind: “You do not need my goods.” What is more lovely than to approach Him and cling to Him? What pleasure can be greater? What else can he desire who sees and tastes freely of this fount of living water? what realms? what powers? what riches? when He sees how pitiable are the conditions of kings, how changeable the status of their power, how short the span of this life, in how great bondage even sovereigns must live, since they live at the will of others and not their own.

Ambrose, Letter 29

Since He had said approaching His Passion, “My soul is sorrowful to the point of death,” it was right for Him to use these words to recall the Resurrection, teaching that in place of that discouragement He will be in unceasing joy, having become immune to suffering, to change, to death, even in His human nature. As God, you see, this was always the case, and of course even in His human nature once formed in the womb it was easy to provide Him with this. But He allowed the nature He had assumed to travel through the sufferings so as by these means to loose the sway of sin, put a stop to the tyranny of the Devil, undo the power of death, and proved all people with the basis of a new life. So as man He assumes both incorruption and immortality.

Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms 16.8

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.” (Mark 12:41–44)

We have been entrusted with the administration and use of temporal wealth for the common good, not with the everlasting ownership of private property. If you accept the fact that ownership on earth is only for a time, you can earn eternal possessions in heaven. Call to mind the widow who forgot herself in her concern for the poor and, thinking only of the life to come, gave away all her means of subsistence, as the Judge Himself bears witness. Others, He says, have given of their superfluous wealth; but she, possessed of only two small coins and more needy perhaps than many of the poor—though in spiritual riches she surpassed all the wealthy—she thought only of the world to come, and had such a longing for heavenly treasure that she gave away, all at once, whatever she had that was derived from the earth and destined to return there. Let us then invest with the Lord what He has given us, for we have nothing that does not come from Him: we are dependent upon Him for our very existence.

Paulinus of Nola, Letters 34

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to All Saints' Sunday

Alleluia.

Sing to the Lord a new song,
His praise in the assembly of His holy ones.
Let Israel be glad in Him who made him,
And let the children of Zion greatly rejoice in their King.
Let them praise His name with dance;
With tambourine and harp let them sing to Him;
For the Lord is pleased with His people,
And He shall exalt the gentle with salvation.

The holy ones shall boast in glory,
And they shall greatly rejoice on their beds;
The high praise of God shall be in their mouth
And a two-edged sword in their hand,
To deal retribution to the nations,
Reproving among the peoples,
To shackle their kings with chains
And their nobles with fetters of iron,
To fulfill among them the written judgment:
This glory have all His holy ones. (Psalm 149:1-9)

What greater strength is there than to bestow such great power on His saints that by His gift they gain victories over their enemies? But when he says: The saints shall rejoice in glory: they shall be joyful in their beds, they now attain the happy status which embraces the joys of the saints and the power of those who believe in Christ. But let us now observe how the saints’ rejoicing is described. Glory denotes repeated praise consisting of good deeds; the just rejoice in it in their beds, that is, in the depths of their hearts. As Paul puts it: For our glory is this: the testimony of our conscience; for they rejoice in the region accessible only to the knowledge of Him who deigned to bestow it. They rejoice particularly since they weigh the fact that they have a Lord whose goodness finds expression in bestowing pardon on the guilty, grace on sinners, enduring glory on the undeserving. By contrast the foolish person in this world departs from himself, rejoices in people’s gossip, and imagines that he deserves the praise with which lying words exalt him. So the saints have a doctrine of glorying, and put limits to their joy, ascribing to Him all the blessings which He bestows. If there is no limit put on happiness, there is no joy, but destruction.

We must observe how beautiful, how useful these differing expressions are. Earlier he said that the saints rejoice in their beds; now he says that the Lord’s rejoicings are set in their throats, the sense being that they never cease to praise whether in thought or in tongue Him from whom they obtain eternal gifts. He also moves on to explain the power that they wield, with the words: And two-edged swords in their hands. The two-edged sword is the word of the Lord Savior, of which Christ Himself says in the gospel: I have come not to send peace to the earth, but a sword. It is two-edged because it contains the two Testaments. First it separated Jews from Gentiles; subsequently it segregated and cut off only the Christians from the enticements of the whole world. There is one sword, but two ways of cutting which He grants to the chosen peoples at various selected moments of time. So the prophet says that these swords are in their hands, in other words, in the power of the saints; as Scripture has it: The word of the Lord came to the hand of Haggai the prophet. So the blessed ones will assume this power and pass judgment in company with the Lord; as Scripture says: You shall sit on twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. For note what follows: To execute vengeance upon the nations, chastisements among the people. This truly takes place when they shall judge in company with the Lord.

Cassiodorus, Commentary on the Psalms 149.5–7