The Gospel in Worship.

        The attacks by critics before and after Harnack against the externalism of Orthodox worship as mere ritual are well-known and still crop up in Protestant circles. They are partly justified insofar as they refer to ignorant and superficial practices by Orthodox Christians. They are largely misplaced and pernicious insofar as they express a deficient view of Christianity and the biblical way of the adoration of God. It is not our intention here to launch into a defense of the liturgical, sacramental, yes, material, aspects of Christian worship. The Book of Acts and the Letters of Paul abundantly testify that to be a Christian meant from the outset to engage an ecclesial praxis of hearing and accepting the Gospel, of repenting and being baptized, of celebrating the Lord's Supper and sharing in the entire communal life of the apostolic Church. After all the studies on early Christian worship, it is no longer possible to separate word from sacrament, the proclamation of the crucified and risen Lord from the bread and wine of the Eucharist. Rather it is now the case that a sound biblical ecclesiology must take into account the constitutive reality of the Church, the creative power and authority of tradition, the sacramental efficacy of Baptism and Eucharist, as well as the communion of the saints.

        The Gospel in the worship of the early Church is reflected in numerous hymnological passages of the New Testament itself such as the prologue of the Gospel of John, Philippians 2:6-11, and the doxologies of the Book of Revelation. To these should be added the sacramental passages of John 6, Romans 6, 1 Corinthians 10 and 11, as well as much of 1 Peter which resounds with baptismal overtones. All of these texts attest to the liturgical confessions of faith pertaining to the good news of God's saving work through Christ. The liturgical tradition in subsequent centuries developed incredible riches in the hymnological presentation of the Gospel. Most Christians may be familiar with some of these treasures of Christian antiquity still used in Orthodox worship. One of these is the Trisagion — “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal: have mercy on us” — a doxological song to the Holy Trinity with a penitential element echoing the Prophet Isaiah's experience and sentiments according to Isaiah 6. Another is the hymn entitled “Only-Begotten Son” which proclaims the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ and exalts Him as “one of the Holy Trinity.”^[45] The basic eight-week hymnological cycle according to eight musical modes which has developed over centuries in the Orthodox Church now constitutes a huge collection of hymns contained in the liturgical book called Parakletike, meaning Book of Intercession and Consolation. Especially the hymns for Saturday Vespers and Sunday Matins, called Anastasima, that is, “Resurrection Hymns,” set forth the Gospel of the death and resurrection of Christ with a certain concentration going back to the emphasis of the great Apostle Paul..

        Here is a medley of Anastasima from the Matins of the first musical mode which praise the death as well as the resurrection of Christ, the two being held together in the Orthodox tradition:^[46]

Though the tomb was sealed by a stone and soldiers guarded Your pure body,

Your arose, O Savior, on the third day, giving life to the world. Therefore,

O Giver of life, the heavenly powers praise You: glory to Your Resurrection,

O Christ, glory to Your kingdom, glory to Your plan of redemption, O loving God.

    You were nailed upon the cross willingly, O Merciful One, and were placed in a

grave as dead, O Giver of life. You trampled the power of death by Your death,

O Mighty One. The gates of hell trembled before You and You raised with You

those who were dead for ages, O loving God.

    As God You rose in glory from the grave, raising the world with You. All mortal

nature praises You as God; death is destroyed and Adam dances, O Master, while Eve,

now freed from bondage, rejoices saying: It is You, O Christ, who gives resurrection

to all.

Not infrequently these doxological hymns, evangelical in content and spirit, contain practical exhortations. The Easter service of Matins explodes with countless lyrical praises to the crucified and risen Lord. Yet even on Easter night references to the practical implications of the saving events are not lacking. The following hymns of the Easter service may serve as an illustration:

The angels in heaven praise Your resurrection, O Christ, our Savior. Make us on

earth also worthy, with pure hearts, to glorify You.

    O divine, beloved, and sweet Voice! You, O Christ, have truly promised that

You would be with us to the end of all ages. Wherefore, we, the faithful, rejoice,

holding these Your words as an anchor of hope.

    It is the day of the resurrection. Let us be glorious in splendor for the festival and

let us embrace one another. Let us speak even to those who hate us and forgive all

things in the resurrection. And so let us sing: Christ is risen from the dead, by death

trampling upon death, and granting life to those in the tombs.

This liturgical proclamation of the Gospel is not restricted, as it were, to Saint Paul’s focus on the death and resurrection of Christ. It takes into comprehensive view Jesus' whole ministry. The basic structure of the Orthodox liturgical year is anchored on twelve major feasts, most of which have to do with the key events of the ministry of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels, namely, the events of the annunciation, the birth of Jesus, His baptism, transfiguration, death and resurrection, ascension, gift of the Spirit, and second coming in glory. Thus the liturgical year itself encompasses the entire life of Christ from conception to his glorious return as Judge.

        Moreover, the periods of the Great Lent and Easter season have their separate hymn books which are thoroughly biblical and evangelical. The Lenten hymn book called Triodion (literally, “Book of the Three Odes”) features the following topics and themes from the Gospels: The Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Prodigal Son, the Last Judgment, Jesus's call to mutual forgiveness, the confession of Jesus as the Christ and Son of God, the veneration of the cross, and the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The Pentecostal hymn book called Pentecostarion  (“Book of Pentecost”) embraces the period from Easter to Pentecost and celebrates, in addition to Easter, the following events: the confession of Thomas, the women myrrh-bearers coming to the empty tomb, the healing of the paralytic of John 5, Jesus's meeting with the Samaritan woman, the healing of the blind man of John 9, the ascension of the Lord, and Pentecost itself. Each of these biblical events and topics become the center of liturgical attention and are proclaimed as part of the saving work of Christ by means of virtually hundreds of hymns which both recount and expand on the meaning of these salvific events. The above liturgical books, together with the daily lectionary, provide a comprehensive account of Jesus’ ministry, reflecting a time when, without the benefit of printing and general education, the people of God depended primarily on worship for their knowledge and celebration of the good news of Christ.

        In addition, the liturgical presentation of the Gospel is not limited to the New Testament but comprehends the saving message of the Bible as a whole. Rich liturgical traditions have developed around numerous biblical witnesses of the Old and New Testaments who served God's purposes in the history of salvation. These include not only the major figures such as Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Moses, King David, the Prophets, the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, Peter and Paul, and the Twelve Apostles, but also lesser known figures such as Job, the Patriarch Joseph, the seven Maccabean martyrs, the co-workers of Paul such as Timothy and Silas, and the seventy apostles. All these are esteemed as saints by the Orthodox tradition which affirms the active presence of grace in the Old Testament, and not only the New. Hymns and prayers bring before the worshipers the total scope of God's dealings with human beings exalting especially God's great acts of deliverance which Scripture calls the marvelous deeds of God. In this sense the liturgical proclamation of the good news is linked with the larger saving message of the Bible as the word of God and prompts the worshipers to engage the entire horizon of the biblical tradition.

        For the Orthodox, the most profound liturgical presentation of the Gospel is the Holy Eucharist or Divine Liturgy itself, the central act of worship in the Orthodox Church. The Liturgy is understood as a continuation of the Last Supper in which Jesus by means of solemn words and actions anticipated His redemptive death and resurrection. The Apostle Paul is a firm witness of the eucharistic tradition deriving “from the Lord” who commanded: “Do this in remembrance of me.” And Saint Paul adds: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes” (See 1 Cor 11:23-26).

        Whatever the historical and exegetical complexities of the New Testament eucharistic texts, these texts must be taken as they stand in their canonical context. The innocent reader perceives that they relate to the heart of the Gospel and that they presuppose a realistic view of the efficacy of the eucharistic celebration. Biblical scholarship has long taught us that the essential meaning of biblical remembrance (anamnesis) has to do with making present the reality of the saving events in the context of communal prayer and worship. In antiquity the ritual acts among Jews and Christians were not taken as merely figurative, a palpably modern notion, but rather they were seen as bearing divine powers and having decisive consequences according to the words of Saint Paul. Just as the inspired preaching of the word of God bears efficacious power and transformative impact on receptive hearers, so also, and indeed more so, the ritual acts of Baptism and the Eucharist, in the context of the Church's living faith and the power of the Holy Spirit, make present the saving reality and blessings of the death and resurrection of the Lord. Surely the Apostle Paul did not view the Lord's Supper as merely metaphorical in 1 Cor 11, any more than he viewed Baptism as figurative in Rom 6. The Gospel of John which declares that true worship is “in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:24) also contains references to Baptism and the Eucharist as determining one's entry into the kingdom (Jn 3:5) and one's sharing in the divine life of the Incarnate Lord (Jn 6:52-58).

        Seen from this perspective the Orthodox Eucharist is not only a proclamation but also an actualization of the good news of Christ and his saving work. An inspired preacher can proclaim the Gospel with words, voice inflections and gestures, impacting the congregation with the power of God's word. A prayerful liturgist not only proclaims but acts out the contents of the Gospel actualizing its blessings amidst God's people. The Liturgy constitutes the most profound anamnesis of the events of the Gospel and their efficacious power. The Liturgy is the enactment of the Gospel through sacramental action.

        The word “sacramental” in the Orthodox tradition means something different from the legal notions of sacrament in the Western medieval tradition. The very word “sacrament” does not sit well within Orthodox vocabulary which employs the biblical term “mystery” (mysterion) to refer to the central liturgical acts. According to the Orthodox understanding, the efficacy of the sacred mysteries is entirely the work of the Holy Spirit in the context of living faith, and is not dependent on the precision of a particular formula of words and actions. The invocation of the Holy Spirit (epiklesis) in the consecration prayer of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, a prayer directed to the Father, reads as follows:

Once again we offer to You (God the Father) this rational (logiken) worship

without the shedding of blood, and we ask, pray, and entreat You: Send down

Your Holy Spirit upon us and upon these gifts here presented. And make this bread

the precious Body of Your Christ. Amen. And that which is in this cup the precious

Blood of Your Christ. Amen. Changing (metabalon) them by Your Holy Spirit.

Amen. Amen. Amen.^[47]

The same prayer offers thanks to God the Father for all the work of salvation but especially for the redemptive work of Christ. The centerpiece is the Gospel according to John 3:16, which is recited in the consecration prayer as a prayer to the Father: “You so loved Your world that you gave Your only-begotten Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom).