I am currently plodding through The Shape of the Liturgy by Dom Gregory Dix. Having consumed about 100 pages, my initial reaction is that our modern conception (by which I mean that of American Evangelical Protestants) of the worship of the Early Church is highly skewed. The study I have done over the past few years has convinced me that any attempt to become more Biblical or to imitate the Early Church requires one to become more, not less, liturgical. American Protestants are often mystified and/or horrified by the smells and bells of the liturgical traditions (Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, etc.), but the harsh truth is that those traditions are far closer to the worship of the Primitive Church than the concerts put on each Sunday at your local mega-church.
But I digress...
What I would like to do today is highlight one of Dix's emphases, which he in turn draws from the writings of the Pre-Nicene Fathers. This emphasis is the exclusivity of the Eucharistic rite. Non-baptized persons (visitors, catechumens, etc.) were allowed to be present for the Synaxis (roughly equivalent to what we would today consider a church service), but they were ushered away when the Eucharist was to begin. The Eucharist was only for the holy people--those set apart by virtue of their union with Christ. The Body and Blood of the Savior was (and still is) only for His Body.
The exclusivity of this rite was really indicative of how Christians viewed the Church. The New Testament presents an interesting, almost paradoxical, picture of the Church. On the one hand, the Church is far more inclusive than the Old Testament Jews had envisioned themselves. The holy people of God is no longer contained by geographical borders or ethnic markers in any way, but is called to go into the world and establish the Kingdom of God (the mission Israel had failed to accomplish).
On the other hand, the Church is still viewed in very exclusive terms. Jesus made it very clear that you are either with Him or against Him. We are holy, that is, set apart. We are called out from the world. We are called to live in a way that reflects this distinctness that we have by virtue of our vital and covenantal connection to the God-Man, Jesus Christ. The people of God are no longer marked by circumcision, but are now set apart by baptism. If you are a member of the Body of Christ, then you are not free to think, speak, or behave like the world. For the Early Church, the Eucharist served as a reminder and actualization of this separation from the world.
It would seem that the Early Church had a much more potent notion of this exclusivity than we do today. Their religion was their life. There was no being a nominal Christian. You were in or you were out of the Body, and the Body held its members accountable. Of course, we should not idealize the Early Church in an unrealistic way. We already see trouble in paradise in the New Testament with admonitions from the Apostles to churches like that in Corinth. Nevertheless, the letter to the Corinthians serves as a reminder of what it means to be a part of the Body of Christ, and Paul specifically points to the Table as the sign of our calling to be set apart from the world and united to each other. The great blasphemy of the Corinthian celebration of the Lord's Supper was that it was creating division between them instead of drawing them together in Christ.
So, what can modern Christians learn from the exclusivity of the Eucharist for the Early Church. I would offer these three suggestions:
Firstly, Christians need to live in a way that reflects their separation from the world. You could fairly summarize the ethical teaching of both the Old Testament and the New Testament in that way. The imperatives of the Bible (do this, don't do that) are consistently founded upon the indicatives (you have been created, you have been redeemed, you have been set apart). As Paul commands in Colossians 1, we must walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. As Christians living in a post-Christian era, we must recognize this calling and be prepared to suffer for it.
Secondly, Christians need the signs of our separation from the world. It would be unfair and untrue to draw too close of a connection between lukewarm worldliness and laxity in observing the Sacraments. Certainly worldly men often maintain the structures and liturgies of the Faith and otherwise holy men have occasionally been known to let them slide. Nevertheless, the Lord instituted the Sacraments as means of grace by which our faith and walk may be strengthened. Any proper pursuit of holiness, of distinction from the world, must include faithful observance of the Sacraments. It is, after all, the nature of the Sacraments to picture and to procure our separation from the world by uniting us to our Savior.
Thirdly, Christian children are holy and should be treated as such. It is significant that Paul uses the term holy to describe covenant children amidst his diatribe against the disunity of the Corinthian church. When we understand the exclusivity of the Church and the call to be a separate, it forces us to view our children in one of two ways--are they a part of the Body of Christ or are they are a part of the world? When we bifurcate humanity in this way (the way the New Testament does), we can see that our children are either members of the covenant family or outsiders looking in. The Biblical view should be clear--the children of Christians are members of the Body of Christ, and they must be raised with an awareness of this. We must impart to our children an understanding of the blessings and responsibilities that are necessary concomitants of the privilege they have received of being born into a Christian family. This includes, but is not limited to, teaching them the Word, giving them the Sacraments, and bringing them to corporate worship.
By way of conclusion, I would like to offer two clarifications. Firstly, the holiness of the Church should never be a source of pride, but of humility. Christ has separated us to Himself, not because of any merit on our part, but despite our demerit. The Church is holy, not so much in actual practice as in standing before God. As a former pastor of mine liked to say, the Christian ethic is founded upon the principle of becoming who we already are, of living out in our daily lives the reality of our separation as members of the Body of Christ. In other words, you are holy, so be holy!
Secondly, while the Bible consistently presents us with this us vs them dichotomy, it does so in a way that encourages us to make them a part of us. Our separation from the world should never discourage evangelism, or, to put it another way, our calling to be distinct does not negate our calling to advance the Kingdom into every part of the world and every aspect of our lives. The Church is an exclusive people with exclusive Sacraments, but our ultimate goal is to universalize that exclusivity.
The Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Amen.
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