Introduction
“For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 14:17
The mission to restore all things is the spirit and pattern of liturgical Eucharistic worship. Replacing the Fallen World System with the Kingdom of God is the joy of worship.
We make a great mistake if we think that what’s wrong with the Fallen World System can be ignored or fixed. We may try to ignore evil in the Fallen World System, but worldly evil is beyond ignoring. Evil has totally permeated every nook and cranny of the Fallen World System, leaving us no place to run and hide. We may attempt to fix the Fallen World System by ruling over the evil that has permeated it, but worldly evil is impossible to rule. Evil by nature is lawlessness. Thus, evil submits to no one, especially not God.
The Fallen World System sealed its fate when it rejected and murdered the One who created, sustains and rules the heavens and the earth. As a result, the restoration of the heavens and the earth from ruin requires the replacing of the Fallen World System with the Kingdom of God.
God does not condemn the created heavens and the earth; the Fallen World System condemned God. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (Jn. 3:17). “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him” (Jn. 1:10). The Fallen World System is a failed experiment on how to rule the heavens and the earth. The Fallen World System ended itself when it ended the life of the Son of Man. Crucifying the Word made flesh is the Fallen World System’s undoing. It is its utter and complete end.
On the day that the Fallen World System crucified the Son of Man, the possibility of finding lasting happiness in that world died. On that day, the hope and expectation that in the Fallen World System food should taste good, that relationships should be loving, that the sun should shine, that one’s labor should result in fruitfulness, that life should be full of joy––on that day, all this and more died. It all came to an utter bitter end.
The cross makes it impossible that any joy in the Fallen World System is possible. We make a great mistake to think otherwise. For if we do, then we spend our entire lives trying to live in the Fallen World System, only to lose our souls. The Fallen World System is bankrupt. Whatever happiness and joy it promises is an illusion, a scam, a deceit, and a lie. The Fallen World System is the land of ash, darkness, and death. It is the pigpen. Hope that it can be otherwise is a false hope, a false gospel. When the Fallen World System put to death the very One who made the heavens and the earth, the Fallen World System died. As Jesus said when He was lifted up on the cross, “It is finished” (Jn. 19:30).
But Jesus did not remain dead. Thus, there is a double meaning to “It is finished.” In Christ’s death and resurrection the Fallen World System ended, and at the same time the Kingdom of God was completed or “finished” as the new form of the heavens and the earth. In Christ’s death and resurrection, the Kingdom of God replaces the Fallen World System. Worship replaces unsanctified, elegiac mourning for the fall of Babylon with heroic enthusiasm for New Jerusalem. Replacing the Fallen World System with the Kingdom of God is the joy of worship. Thus, in worship we exchange one world (the Fallen World System) for another world (the Kingdom of God). In worship we don't aim to "change the world," but to change worlds.
The Spirit of the Liturgy
By His death and resurrection, Jesus transformed the End into a Beginning. He authored and finished a new world, the Kingdom of God. Therefore we look to Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). This joy set before Jesus is the joy that makes the Church the Church. A joyless Christianity is not Christianity. Joyless worship is not Christian worship. And a joyless Church is not Christ’s Church. The Gospel begins and ends with great joy. At the beginning of the Gospel, “the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people’" (Lk. 2:10). And at the end of the Gospel, “they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Lk. 24:52). There is great joy in replacing the Fallen World System with the Kingdom of God.
At the heart of replacing the Fallen World System with the Kingdom of God is the processing of replacing our fallen humanity in Adam with a new form of humanity in Christ. The Church is the new humanity in Christ to whom the Father says, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord” (Matt. 25:21). Joy, celebration, thanksgiving and praise mark the rulers of God’s kingdom. “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).
While we eat bread and drink wine in the Eucharist, the Eucharist is not about eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. To think otherwise is to think as Adam and Eve did. They did not take pleasure in the Giver and desire to know God, above all else. Instead, Eve “saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate” (Gen. 3:6). Adam and Eve did not enter into the joy of their Creator and righteously rule over all the earth. Instead, independently of God, they sought joy, pleasure and happiness in the creation rather than in their Creator and lost their willingness and ability to rule rightly and reign on the earth. That is how the Fallen World System originally came to be. But now in the Eucharist, our end in the First Adam becomes a beginning again in the Second Adam. We are raised up with Christ to enter into the joy of our Lord and are remade as rulers again of the earth.
Eucharistic worship is how we enter into the joy of our Lord as ingodded rulers over many things. We enter by this door, or we will never enter in at all.
And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals; For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.” (Rev. 4:9-10)
Eucharistic worship is a liturgy. But a “liturgical” understanding of liturgy misses the point of the Liturgy altogether. True liturgy is not about eating and drinking, as God warned Adam and Eve. The choice between “liturgical” and “non-liturgical” worship is a false choice based on a misunderstanding of what the Liturgy is, for which Revelation 4:9-10 is the cure.
The original meaning of the Greek word leiturgia leads us to this definition of the Liturgy: The action by which a group of people are constituted to be something corporately that transcends what they were as mere individuals for the purpose of making them forerunners of the Kingdom of God on behalf of all creation and all still in darkness. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order…” (1 Cor. 15:22-23a). In the Liturgy, we are constituted as the New Humanity in Christ, liberating the heavens and the earth from ruin and restoring these realms to be the Kingdom of God.
This understanding of the Liturgy brings an end to all false dichotomies that would reduce it to something that is “sacred” and, thus, different from all else that is deemed “secular.” The Liturgy does not ignore or fix the Fallen World System; the Liturgy replaces it. The Liturgy is at the same time both the end of the Fallen World System and the beginning again of the creation as God always intended it to be. The Liturgy is our journey with Noah on the ark from the old world that perishes in water to the new heavens and the new earth. It is our journey with Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans to the land God would show him. It is our journey with Israel out of Egypt, through the waters of the Red Sea to Sinai and finally into the Promised Land across Jordan. It is our journey through the Valley of the Shadow of Death where we no longer fear evil. The Lord sets His Table for us in the midst of our enemies, and we finally come to the dwell in the house of the Lord. It is our journey out of the Fallen World System that is passing away into the Kingdom of God that shall never pass away. It is our journey from death to life. The Liturgy is our journey.
The Liturgy is the first place where we see the answer to the prayer, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth at it is heaven.” It is the first place where we see nations discipled, no less each other. Non-Eucharistic discipleship is the oxymoron of oxymorons because the Liturgy is the only first step in discipleship. It is the mustard seed without which there never will be a mustard tree. The Liturgy is the first place where we see the replacing of the Fallen World System with the Kingdom of God. The Liturgy is the power of action, not just words. “For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20).
The Liturgy is the covenant enacted, not just recited in words. We are constituted as the Church, the microcosm of the Kingdom of God, by journeying to God’s throne room in heaven (Act 1). Then, we're assembled in the Council of the Lord according to the respective order of our ruling offices (Act 2). Next, after listening to the Word (Act 3), we renew our oath and begin governing through intercession for the Church and the ruined creation (Act 4). Finally, we are sent out to serve the Church and restore the creation to bring about the visible manifestation of the blessed Kingdom (Act 5).
To journey, assemble, listen, govern and serve are all actions because the Liturgy is the work of the people, not just the words of the people. The Liturgy is the work of making the creation new again.
Act 1 and Act 5 of the Liturgy are related to each other as procession up and down the Mountain, respectively. Act 2 and Act 4 also mirror each other in that both focus on the Table. The governors of the Kingdom of God sit according to their respective offices in Act 2. Then, in Act 4 we stand as governors to renew our oath by receiving the bread and wine and then begin interceding (i.e., making judgements, that is, good decisions) for the administration of heaven on earth. In the middle of it all, we receive the Word of the King, our Emperor. This chiastic structure takes the form of a journey up and down a mountain with a transformative encounter with the Word made flesh at the top.
Thus, the Liturgy is a threefold enactment of pilgrimage or journey. We heed the prophetic call to leave the Fallen World System behind and go to the Mountain where we have a priestly transformational encounter with the Lord. Our transformation in turn leads to our being commissioned in kingly fashion to go back down the Mountain and out to all creation to bring about its transformation into the new heavens and the new earth. The essence of pilgrimage is threefold. First, we leave the Fallen World System, our “mission field.” Second, we experience transformation on a mountaintop. Finally, we go down the Mountain to reengage in our mission of transforming the fallen creation into the Kingdom of God. This pilgrim path up and down the Mountain is the essence of the Liturgy.
By means of pilgrimage, our lives are reordered or re-covenanted according to the heavenly pattern. So let’s consider the pilgrimage of the Liturgy in light of the five actions that enact the covenant and the respective detail of each.
The Pattern of the Liturgy
The Church universally recognizes the following as the essential and simple elements of the Liturgy.
Journey to the Mountain
- Call to Worship
- Procession to Heaven
Assemble as the Church
- Ordering and structuring of the people now gathered by means of an opening salutation, prayers, confession and pardon and various sign-acts signifying that the Church is assembled and constituted as the Church with all offices present (bishop, presbyters, deacons and baptized laypersons)
Listen to the Word
- Reading of Scripture according to the lectionary as grounded in the Church Year
- Commentary on the Scripture
- Creedal Confession
- The Peace
Govern from the Table
He Took
- Offering (which includes tithes and offerings and the bread and wine)
He Blessed
- Sursum Corda (“Lift up your hearts”)
- Preface
- Sanctus (“Holy”)
- Anamnesis (“Remembrance”)
- Words of Institution
- Epiclesis (“Invocation” of the Spirit
- Intercession before receiving the bread and wine (e.g., The Lord’s Prayer and the Agnus Dei)
He Broke
- Breaking of the bread
He Gave
- Invitation and distribution of the bread and wine
- Intercession after receiving the bread and the wine, also known as “The Prayers of the People”
Serve the Church and the World
- Blessing and commissioning
In the name of Christus Victor. Amen!
While there is some variation in how this pattern is applied in terms of the exact order of these elements, the Church of both the East and West recognizes these as the essential elements of the Liturgy. In the Basileia Abbey of St. John, for example, we engage in the Prayers of the People after receiving the bread and the wine. Having an extended time of intercession after partaking of the bread and wine is more reflective of the Eastern Church's fluid way of celebrating the Liturgy.
Below we further consider the spirit and pattern of the Liturgy in relation to each of the five covenantal movements or acts that shape the Liturgy as a whole.
Journey to the Mountain: The First Act of the Liturgy
“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the LORD.’”
Psalm 122:1
We begin our liturgical journey with the joyful proclamation: “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, from age to age.” We begin with the end in mind and do so with joy. The end is the Kingdom of God. Our orientation is one of celebration. The first word, “blessed,” carries the idea of “happy.” And so we agree with David, who said, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the LORD’” (Ps. 122:1).
We indicate our willingness to begin the journey from the Fallen World System to the Kingdom of God with an “Amen.” To say “Amen,” is to embrace the cross before the crown. The first Adam did not say “Amen” to the call to eat with God in the Garden. Thus, he never entered into the joy of the Lord as a righteous ruler of the earth. But the Second Adam did say “Amen,” changing everything. Only in Christ are we able to say “Amen” to God, for Christ Himself is our Amen. On this Amen, everything pivots. Nothing good follows without it. Everything good follows after it.
Our initial “Amen” expresses our choice not to be like the angry older brother in the parable who refuses to come into the celebration his father has called after the return of his prodigal brother. Our “Amen” heartedly agrees with the father who says, “It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found” (Lk. 15:32). We are the Church, the ones who respond to the call of the Father to come to His house and celebrate. To religious minds and control freaks, this seems to be nothing more than a waste of resources on unworthy prodigals.
The Fallen World System either ignores prodigals or imprisons them; it has no power to restore them. Such an attitude is nothing more than the spiritual socialism of Jonah, who feared that there was only so much “salvation” to go around. This closed universe approach to salvation requires that some mediatorial hierarchy meter it out (who, in the process, keep most of it for themselves, ignoring and imprisoning prodigals in the process). However, to go to the celebration at the Father’s house makes us the ecclesia, the Church, the called out ones. We have accepted the call to leave the Fallen World System and enter the Kingdom of God. We are glad to go, knowing that there’s enough salvation for everyone in the Kingdom of God. Everyone can come. “Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours” (Lk. 15:31).
From the start of the Liturgy, we obey the Lord’s command to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33). So in our first action of worship, we heed the call to worship by embarking on the journey in the form of a procession to our final goal, the Kingdom. We no longer “go to church” in Babylon in order to take care of our “religious” obligations for the week. Likewise, we no longer “go to work,” or “go to school,” or “go to the store” in Babylon in order to fulfill our “non-religious” obligations. That kind of “going” is just activity that is “of this world,” not a journey into being made into a new community marked by a new life that is “from above.” We are leaving Babylon altogether. Our days of going to church, work, school or the store in Babylon are over.
Our procession to the Kingdom of God transcends nonsensical distinctions like “religious” and “non-religious” as if those ever did anyone any good. Our Kingdom goal is for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven in every area of thought and life. “Joy to the world. The Lord has come. Let earth receive her king.” Rejecting the secular-sacred split is essential if we are to be Kingdom agents who properly realign the earth with heaven. We need a new world from which to go to church, to work, to school and the store. For this reason, we ascend to heaven where Christ has ascended. We don't seek to escape from the earth to heaven, but to become agents who heavenize earth. After we have laid ourselves and our offerings before the throne, we receive it all back again. We are transformed by resurrection power so that we may then be sent back to the earth from heaven as agents of transformation to knit together both the earth and heaven into a new world. We are saved to replace the Fallen World System with the Kingdom of God, not to flee from the Fallen World System or attempt to fix it.
In addition, as the Liturgy of Heaven (Rev. 4-5) affirms, God’s will is most fully done by redeeming individuals out of every tribe, language, people, and nation. Constituting such a diverse multitude to be the Church incorporates a body that is greater than the sum of its parts. We “come together in one place” as the congregation or assembly (ecclesia) called by God. The Church is the microcosm of the new heavens and the new earth. We are the first to gather in response to the Lord's invitation to enter into His joy and rule and reign on the earth. We go from the Mountain to the north, south, east and west to invite still others to journey in Christ’s way, truth and life who have yet to respond to the call. However, for now, we assemble with all who are the firstfruits coming from the north, south, east and west. In the last days, we know that all nations will join us on this journey to the Mountain (Is. 2:2-4). For now, we lead the way.
Assemble as the Church: The Second Act of the Liturgy
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:19-22
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Ephesians 5:32
The second act of the Liturgy is the equivalent to that moment at a wedding when, after the procession of the bride, her father gives his daughter away. The giving away of the bride is the moment when she publicly leaves her old life behind to begin a new order of life with her husband. Likewise, we make this new order explicit in the second act of the Liturgy, of which a wedding ceremony is an expression. “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church,” says Paul (Eph. 5:32). The Church is the embodiment of the new and redeemed order of humanity in Christ as represented by her bishops, presbyters, deacons and baptized members, each in their respective governing offices.
What God has joined together, let no man separate. It is the Lord who initiates this joining, first in our baptism and after that in each Eucharist. He calls and whole Church, as represented in her four governing offices, to respond to His call and join as one. Now, because the Church in the Liturgy leads the way, whenever the Lord providentially joins husband and wife in marriage, business partners in commerce, civil magistrates of local to global jurisdictions in various political alliances, and so forth, no man has the authority to unlawfully separate what God joins together. The constituting and joining together of the New Humanity of Christ in the Liturgy reverses the unlawful separation of covenant relationships set in motion by Adam’s sin. In this way, the New Creation begins.
Thus, it is here, in the second movement of the Liturgy, that the Celebrant, representing the whole bride of Christ, approaches the Table. He does so as a representative of the New Humanity re-made and re-ordered in Christ. No longer are any of us strangers or foreigners, but we are all fellow citizens together of the new society. We’re all being fitted together in Christ, the chief cornerstone, being built together as a dwelling place for God in the Spirit. Thus comes the opening salutation from the Celebrant, “The Lord be with you.” In these words, he announces grace and peace from God to His people, affirming the new order of fellowship and friendship that now exists between Christ and His Church and through the Church to all creation. Christ, who alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life, now has a bride equal in purity to Himself. She now publically embraces His way and His truth and His life as her own. She makes confession and receives a declaration of pardon, not only for herself, but for all who the Church represents who have yet to repent and receive forgiveness. For the Church represents humanity as it ought to be and now is.
The opening salutation, opening prayer, the action of taking our seats in the assembly according to the respective order of our office, and then confessing sins and receiving pardon––all these are expressions of the joyful praise of those gathering to meet the risen Lord. We enter into his courts with thanksgiving and praise and take our place in the festival assembly of the Church. This assembly is the celebration of the marriage of the Lamb and His bride. Singing, incense, colorful vestments, light and more light, banners, trumpets, and dancing are all needed. These only begin to express what is the radical truth about this gathering––that it is the joyful celebration of Christ’s love for His Church, and of the Church's love for Christ. Who could imagine a wedding without beauty, music, vestments and ritual? It is ridiculously prudish to think of such things as unnecessary or even sinful. Sure it is “unnecessary” for the bride to come to the marriage ceremony in a wedding dress, but she does it out of love. The Kingdom of God is not something merely to talk about but to re-present in the Liturgy in art and beauty.
Now, in the beauty of holiness, the Church is seated with Christ in heavenly realms and is ready to receive the Word of God. After having received the Word, the Church will then stand with Christ at the altar and take vows of obedience and mutual submission (Act 4). But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Listen to the Word: The Third Act of the Liturgy
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14
If we create a false dichotomy between Word and sacrament, then we will miss the transforming power of the Word altogether. The Word is sacramental, and sacrament is the Word manifest. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14). God manifests His Word in and through humanity restored in Christ. God’s Word doesn’t come to us like a bolt out of the blue. The Word of God comes to us as the Babe in a manger, the Man on the Cross, the Man in resurrection glory, and now as the New Humanity in the Church. The Word of God comes to us in the divine-human words of Scripture, which is a great mystery. But now it is our turn for Word to be made flesh in us and written on our hearts. Now it is our turn to receive a new spirit that we might embody the Word for the new world. And so when the deacon reads the Gospel, we stand because Christ is among us. All Scripture in addition to the Gospel is more than a record of history past; it is the announcement and manifestation of Christ among us now, in the power and joy of the resurrection.
We cannot receive the Word in a transformational way except in the Liturgy, which constitutes the Church as the pillar and the ground of the truth. The Church is not a source of truth, but the court of truth in which the Word becomes flesh. The Word received outside of the Liturgy and thus outside of the Church is not transformational. Receiving the Word in the Church makes the Word flesh in our lives. In the Liturgy, the Church responds even as Mary did to the mystery of Word made flesh, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Lk. 1:38).
We enter into the life of the new age by receiving the Word. “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (Jn. 6:51). No longer are we spectators of what the “historical Jesus” did, but now we are participants is what the resurrected Jesus is doing in and through His Church. Thanks be to God!
Now in unity we affirm the faith once for all delivered to the saints by saying a creed together. We do not recite mere disembodied truths but testify to the ever-present historical action of the Word made flesh. We confess the truth in the form of the acts of God the Father in creating heavens and the earth. We confess the acts of God the Son, who came down from heaven. We confess that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, and crucified under Pontius Pilate. We confess that He suffered, was buried, rose again on the third day, and who now sits at the right hand. Then, we declare the acts of God the Holy Spirit who gives life, proceeds from the Father and the Son, and who speaks by the prophets. A creed on its own is nothing more than a museum piece. But in the context of the Liturgy the creedal confession of the Church is a symbol of the unity of Christ and His Church. Faithful confession of the Creed is a sign of the Kingdom, a sacramental means of embracing and extending the transforming power of Word made flesh for the life of the world.
After confessing the Creed, we bless each other with the authentic peace of the Kingdom of God that Jesus gives, not the counterfeit peace of the Fallen World System. We bless each other, saying, “The peace of Christ.” The people of God have now experienced the very reality that Jesus spoke of when He said to His disciples, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you…These things I command you, that you love one another” (Jn. 15:15, 17). The revelation of “all things” to the Church is evidence that we are indeed the friends of God, in relationship with God and one another. The only appropriate response is to express this love for one another in the “kiss of peace.” We greet one another as equals of the Round Table, regardless of social standing, sex or skin color. We are the New Humanity in Christ, now separated from the old humanity in Adam, but not from one another. And so we publically “love one another,” extending the sign of peace to one another, for of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.
Extending the peace to one another is the transition point in the Liturgy, leading to the next great act in which the peace and government of God are made manifest to and through the Church to the creation.
Govern from the Table: The Fourth Act of the Liturgy
“Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to Myself.”
John 12:31-32
“But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Luke 22:28-30
At this point in the Liturgy, we have processed (Act 1), sat at the Table in an orderly fashion (Act 2) in preparation to receive the Word (Act 3). Now, in the Act 4 of the Liturgy we come to the Table again, but this time in response to the Word to give thanks to the Father. There is only one response imaginable: the total offering of ourselves, our works and wealth, our wisdom, and the whole of creation. “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev. 5:12). We’re beyond merely affirming that this is true in some non-fleshly sense. For this reason, we express our thanksgiving in action by conforming our actions to those of the Lamb of God who said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” What He did was 1) take bread and wine, 2) give thanks for the bread and wine, 3) break the bread and take the cup and 4) distribute the bread and wine for all invited to partake.
Jesus took bread and wine
To take and offer bread and wine, the first of the four actions that comprise the whole of Act 4 of the Liturgy, is the essence of what it means to be truly and fully human. We are created to be priest-kings. The Father invites to take and eat from every tree of the Garden but one. The Father established the whole of creation as food for Mankind, but food consumed without thanksgiving to God does not nourish, it kills. We know that Mankind doesn’t live by bread alone as Christ demonstrated positively, and Adam negatively. We know that none of us live by the size of his paycheck alone or the size of our IQ alone or the size of our house alone. And so we offer it all back to the Father in thanksgiving from where it all originally came. “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36). God is our life. We are creatures who must eat to live, work to earn a paycheck, use our brains to think and build houses in which we live. But why? For what end? By offering all that we are and have back to God we make God the very meaning of our life. He becomes the meaning of our paycheck and all our hard thinking. He becomes the meaning that makes sense of why we build houses, cities and civilizations. We do this in Christ who has led the way by offering Himself fully. We bring the bread and the wine covered because “our life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).
Jesus gave thanks for the bread and wine
Giving thanks to the Father for the bread and wine is the second of Jesus' four actions at the Table here in Act 4 of the Liturgy. Even as Christ was lifted up on the cross, so the celebrant invites the worshipers to lift up their hearts, a call to action known as the Sursum Corda. For in doing so we offer ourselves to God for the life of the world, even as Jesus did. We lift all that we are and have to the throne of God where Christ has ascended and now also we as His Church with Him. We have already processed to heaven, confessed and been forgiven and received the Word of God. Now there is nothing else to do, but give thanks. “Let us give thanks to the Lord,” says the celebrant. Thanksgiving is the end of all “religion” that attempts to get something from the gods to fill a void in our bellies. The Kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit because we lack nothing. The Father has already given us everything He has. Thus, there’s only one right response: “It is right to give our thanks and praise.”
Then, as shaped by the Jewish form of table prayers Jesus would have prayed with His disciples, the Celebrant then begins the Great Thanksgiving (Eucharist) Prayer with a preface. The preface affirms that thanksgiving is the essential nature of life in the Kingdom. Eucharist (thanksgiving) is the lifestyle of God’s people that flows out of who God is and what He has done. Our thanksgiving reaches a crescendo in the Sanctus in which we join with worshiping angels and mankind, from every place and time, in thanksgiving and praise.
In unity with all creatures in heaven and on earth, in our thanksgiving we remember Christ. “Remembrance” in the Liturgy is called the anamnesis, which is a Greek word that communicates an experiential kind of remembering. Liturgical “remembrance” does not just mentally recall God’s past actions like some history lesson. Instead, in anamnesis we enter into the reality of God’s acts in our present experience, regardless of when God first performed them. It is only because of God’s acts in Christ that we are joined together in this universal thanksgiving. We give thanks to the Father because of Him and what He has done and is doing. “And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain…” (Rev. 5:6). We are now looking at the very heart of why thanksgiving and praise mark the people of God. It is Christ. “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29).
Our remembrance now focuses down even further. We focus not just on the one Man, but even further. We see the one night when He remained faithful to go through with one action, His death on the cross, to trample down death by His death. We are now at the Table of the King in His Kingdom where He instituted the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15. “This is my body.” “This is my blood.” We are there, at the heart of the mystery, the place that Jesus commands us to come back to again and again and “do this” in remembrance of Him. This part of the Liturgy is called the Words of Institution. It is not an empty “sacramental” act that Christ instructs Christians to perform in a mindset divorced from the “real world.” The Fallen World System is not the “real world.” It never was. It has always been the world that is passing away. In the Words of Institution, Christ institutes the authentic, lasting, and real world––the Kingdom of God. The Words of Institution are the restitution of all things, the beginning again of the ruined creation. By these words, Christ reopens the gateway into the new age He inaugurates by His death, resurrection and ascension. Thus, we say together, “This is the mystery of faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” In these few words, we confess the whole of the story from Genesis to Revelation. By these words, we wrap our arms around everything from the excommunication of Adam and Eve from the Garden to the coming of the Garden-City out of heaven, which reestablishes total communication between God and Mankind.
Now we invoke the Spirit in what is called the Epiclesis (“invocation”). At the creation of the first heavens and the first earth, “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2). And so in the Liturgy it happens again. We now invoke the Spirit to make manifest and reveal the sons of God, to unleash the Kingdom. Every Eucharist is a little Pentecost, or it is not the Eucharist. Every Eucharist is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, or it is not the Eucharist. The bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ are now, by the Spirit, made manifest as the Church. The Church is now made manifest as the body of Christ! The bread and the wine and the Church, by the Spirit, are both the body of Christ! The Spirit makes our communion with the body and blood of Christ visible as the Kingdom of God. New Jerusalem replaces Babylon as the capital of creation. Thanks be to God! The Church now becomes the Eucharist even as Christ is the Eucharist, and the bread and the wine are the Eucharist.
Now, just before we partake of the bread and wine, begins intercession. Intercession does not end here, but starts here and will continue on later, after we partake. The essential expression of our identification and new life in Christ is the ministry of intercession for “He always lives to make intercession” (Heb. 7:25). His life is to be our life. Thus, when we receive the bread, the servers offer the bread with words such as “the bread of heaven.” Why? We remember why immediately before receiving the bread and wine by an initial act of intercession “for the life of the world.” This intercession often takes the form of the congregation praying the Lord’s Prayer together and singing the Agnus Dei. As Jesus said, “This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (Jn. 6:50-51). We join Christ in His mission as we receive the bread and wine. Intercession is the necessary preparation for communion because it is the lifestyle we pledge ourselves to fulfill after receiving communion.
Jesus broke the bread and poured the wine
Now, Adam is restored to Paradise. The gateway back into the Garden and back to the Tree of Life is open once again to Mankind. In the great Passover, Mankind and creation now pass from death to life. Every Eucharist is a Passover. And so the Celebrant declares after the bread is lifted up and torn in two from top to bottom, “Alleluia! It is finished! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast” (Jn. 19:30; 1 Cor. 5:7b-8a). “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:19-22).
Jesus shared the bread and wine
To feast with Christ at His table in His Kingdom, sharing in the bread and wine with one another is the essential image of the restoration of all things. No one is worthy to come, but by the gift of God in Christ all are invited. “All are welcome to the table…” “These are the gifts of God for the people of God.”
The four actions that comprise Act 4 of the Liturgy parallel the same four actions of Jesus at the feeding of the five thousand. He 1) took the loaves and fish, 2) blessed them, and 3) broke them, and finally 4) “gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes” (Matt. 14:19). Likewise, in the Liturgy, Christ feeds the world through His Church. The very act of receiving the bread and the wine is not just for us, but also for the life of the world. We are humanity restored as priest-kings of creation. The creation longs for our liberation so that it may also be liberated from bondage to decay.
Before Jesus took, blessed, broke and gave to His disciples, they were limited, small and fallen in their thinking saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food” (Matt. 14:14). But in calling His Church to act as the Church, Jesus says, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat” (Matt. 14:16). Thus, we began this fourth movement of the Liturgy by bringing what we have that we might receive it back transformed and multiplied, not just for ourselves, but for the life of the world. “So they all ate and were filled” (Matt. 14:20).
In the Liturgy, Christ shares the bread and wine of His life with the world through His Church. The invitation to come to the Table in the Liturgy is thus intensely missional.
“Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me.
Hear, and your soul shall live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you—
The sure mercies of David.
Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people,
A leader and commander for the people.
Surely you shall call a nation you do not know,
And nations who do not know you shall run to you,
Because of the LORD your God,
And the Holy One of Israel;
For He has glorified you.”
Seek the LORD while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the LORD,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:1-7)
Just as immediately before receiving the bread and wine we entered into intercession, now having received the bread and wine we begin the fulfillment of the Great Commission in intercession for the Church and the world. In the Liturgy, we fulfill Isaiah 55. The beginning of our mission to the world begins at the Table in The Prayers of the People. Before we set one foot out the door of the courts of the Lord down the Mountain, we stand in the Council of the Lord. In the Council, we see and perceive His word as friends of God in intercession (Jer. 23:18).
In the Liturgy so far, we have endured the cross, despising its shame for the joy set before us. And so the Lord says to us, “But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Lk. 22:28-30). Thus we agree with Paul, “To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him” (Eph. 3:8-12).
Serve the Church and the World: The Fifth Act of the Liturgy
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:28
In Act 5 of the Liturgy, we are blessed and commissioned out by the deacon. This blessing and commissioning are the recasting of the original blessing God gave to Mankind in the beginning––to rule over all the earth as kings and queens of creation. We began the Liturgy by processing to the Mountain of the Lord to eat with Him at His table in His Kingdom. By so doing, we were restored to our ruling offices as those who judge “the twelve tribes.” Now we are commissioned out to extend His government and peace to all creation. The Lord says to us, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled” (Lk. 14:23).
“For you shall go out with joy,
And be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills
Shall break forth into singing before you,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. (Isaiah 55:12)
Our captivity in Babylon has ended. Now it is time for mission. We go forth to terminate the exile of all who yet remain in Babylon. It is time to build Jerusalem. It is time to form colonies of heaven on earth. And so we go we do so in anticipation of returning yet again with a great harvest in our hands, a harvest to offer the next time we come to the Table.
The LORD has done great things for us,...
And we are glad.
Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him. (Psalm 126:3, 5-6)
We go, knowing,
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)
We go, knowing in anticipation of returning yet again,
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will return to the house of the LORD
Forever. (Psalm 23:5-6)
Conclusion
The identity, beliefs and mission of the Church begin and end in the Liturgy. Let us, for this reason, identify with the ebb and flow of life as celebrated by the ancient Celtic Church as engagement and withdrawal. We withdraw from Fallen World System in our procession to the Mountain of the Lord, renewed in our life and power as the Church. After our transforming encounter with the risen Christ at the top of the Mountain, we go back down the Mountain for another round of engagement with the Fallen World System. Our mission is nothing less than to replace the Fallen World System with the Kingdom of God.
The mission to restore all things is the spirit and pattern of liturgical Eucharistic worship. Replacing the Fallen World System with the Kingdom of God is the joy of worship.