October 25, 2020

Divine Liturgy Series, Number 8

By Fr. Alex Miller

 

This is the eighth sermon in the series of homilies on the divine liturgy of the holy orthodox church.

 

Christian worship in its most basic form is participation in the Lord’s Supper.

 

Our Lord Jesus Christ himself laid the foundation for this on the evening before he was crucified when he gathered with his disciples in the upper room to celebrate the Passover with them.

 

In preparation for the passover Christ said to his beloved disciples “with fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for  I say to you I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

 

Notice that the Passover is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

 

When the Lord sat down for the Passover meal with his disciples, a ritual which Jews had been practicing for centuries, he laid down for them the basic rubrics or framework for the divine liturgy.

 

“And he took bread,  gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying ‘this is my body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me, likewise, he also took the cup after supper saying, ‘this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you.’ “

 

Everything that we do liturgically, beginning with Vespers,  then matins, then the various elements of the divine liturgy all prepare us for participation in the Lord’s supper.

 

This includes all of the other services of the church conducted throughout the week and prayers that we pray at home around our family altars. 

 

As orthodox Christians we live from Eucharist to Eucharist,  from the Lord’s supper to the Lord’s supper.

 

This is Christian worship,  plain and simple.

 

This is the fulfillment of the kingdom of God.

 

Saint Paul affirmed the simplicity of the liturgy and the centrality of the Lord’s supper in one of his epistles to the church of Corinth,

 

“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the same night when He was betrayed took bread and when He had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘take eat this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me’ in the same manner He also took the cup after supper saying ‘this cup is the new covenant in my blood this  do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.“

 

1 Corinthians11: 23-25

 

Saint Peter refers to the mystery of the Lord’s Supper in more theological terms in one of his letters where he makes the profound statement,

 

“Grace and peace be multiplied to you and the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

 

 “We have become partakers of the divine nature.”

 

2 Peter 1: 2-4

 

So we see from Jesus Christ himself and from his apostles that partaking of the Lord’s supper is the very heart of Christian worship, and that the Lord’s supper is the fulfillment of the Passover.

 

Therefore to truly understand what is happening in the divine liturgy we need to understand the Passover.

 

Beginning next Sunday we will be looking at the old testament beginning in the book of Genesis all the way through the book of Malachi to plumb the depths of the meaning of the Passover. 

 

We will look at how it serves as a foreshadowing of what Christ would accomplish through his life on earth, his death, his burial, his resurrection,  his ascension into heaven,  and the establishment of the Lord’s supper, the Divine Liturgy, the eucharist, as the primary means by which we participate in His divine life and the Kingdom of God.

October 18, 2020

 

Divine Liturgy Series, Number 7

 

By Fr. Alex Miller

 

This is the seventh sermon in a series of Homilies on the divine liturgy of the holy orthodox church.

 

By the way the divine liturgy is often referred to as the holy Eucharist. Eucharist is from the Greek meaning “the Thanksgiving.”

 

This is in reference to the most important moment in all of the divine services and that is the celebration of the Lord’s Supper in the partaking of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. 

Last week we completed a brief study of the foundation of the divine liturgy,  that being a discussion of who God is and who we are because of him, based on the creation narrative from the book of Genesis.

 

We saw in the creation narrative that at the end of each day the lord said there was evening and morning, the first day, the second day, the third day and so on.

 

This pattern of marking time is knit into the fabric of humanity and was adopted by the Jewish people and subsequently by the orthodox church which is the continuation or rather fulfillment of what God began in the nation of Israel.

 

Therefore when we speak about the divine liturgy we need to understand that the liturgical day begins in the evening with great vespers.

 

The opening song of great vespers is Psalm 103 the beautiful creation narrative hymn.

 

Another prominent hymn of great vespers is Gladsome light:

 

“Oh gladsome light of the holy glory that shines from the heavenly Father,  the holy , the Blessed, Jesus Christ.”

 

Could this be that light that shone on that first day of creation when God the Father said “let there be light?“

 

Some of the church fathers speculate that this is so.

 

Sunday morning the procession towards the divine liturgy continues with matins, or morning prayers.

 

When the priest comes into the church before vesting he stands before the closed royal doors and prays the usual prayers.

 

When he recites the hymn to the theotokos (birth giver of God) that begins “open to me the doors of compassion...”the royal doors are opened.

 

So it is that at the beginning of matins  it is if we are standing in the presence of God in perfect creation before the fall with no barriers and the priest swings the censor  over the altar in the form of a cross and pronounces, “glory to the holy consubstantial and life-giving and undivided Trinity now and ever and unto the ages of ages, amen.”

 

Immediately after that very beautiful and moving moment the priest closes the royal doors and the six penitential psalms are chanted.

 

This rubric is a symbol of the fall of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the garden of Eden. 

 

The penitential psalms are chanted in a subdued and quiet manner, no candles are lit, and no activity takes place within the nave at that time.

 

At the conclusion of the penitential psalms we begin to chant “God is the Lord and has revealed Himself to us, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

 

The lampadas are lit and hymns of the resurrection begin to be sung and the procession towards the joyful celebration of the Eucharist begins to ascend and continues this ascent throughout the rest of matins until the beginning of the Divine Liturgy.

 

The full celebration of the Eucharist is this: great vespers, matins, and Divine Liturgy.

 

For me this liturgical experience is much like sitting down to a three course meal.

 

Great vespers is the salad and appetizers, matins is the main course, the meat and potatoes, and the divine liturgy is the dessert.

 

Growing up in a protestant culture most orthodox Christians have adopted the one hour a week  Sunday only mentality and therefore only partake of the dessert.

 

How healthy do you expect to be spiritually if all you ever do is eat the dessert?

 

I invite all of you to partake of the entire meal.