I have posted on Melito some before, and find myself returning to him for a bit especially his homily on the Passover. He provides us with an accurate manner in using the Old Testament, and it is an example that is well served for the past few millenia. He does not create something that is not there, no drench the Prophets with our Hope, but stands in the good Tradition of using the New Testament to read the Old. For a New Testament example of this, we need to turn no further, dig no deeper than the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Note, if you will, the powerful images that Melito presents us with.
In celebration of this Easter, I am reposting several of my posts on Melito of Sardis. In my opinion, he doesn’t get enough attention in the early Christological debates of the 3rd and 4th centuries. The facts are collected, but the comments on Melito are mine.
Yesterday, although it was a feast-day of Satan, you preferred to keep a spiritual feast, recieving our words with great good will, and spending most of the day here in church, drinking a drunkness of self-control, and dancing in the chorus of Paul. – On Wealth and Poverty, Sermon 1
The feast day that John mentions is Saturnalia. Many have painted the corruption of the Church with the brush of conspiracy, but here we see that it was not conspiracy, but a matter of people choosing to hold a worship servicce as opposed to partaking in the feast of Saturnalia.
Here you go Church leaders everywhere; if you wish to up the donations, ensure you absolve folk of their sins:
People who recall being absolved of their sins, are more likely to donate money to the church, according to research published today in the journal Religion, Brain and Behavior.
Researchers from Royal Holloway and the University of Oxford assigned participants two memory tasks. In the first, they were asked to privately recall a sin that they had committed in the past, while in the second, they recalled attending confession for this sin or imagined doing so, if they had not confessed in reality.
Each participant was also given an opportunity to donate to a local Catholic church by placing some money in an envelope. For some participants, this donation was collected before they recalled being absolved of the sin, whereas for others the donation was collected afterward.
The results showed that recalling (or imagining) absolution strongly increased church donations, with the effect more pronounced in participants who believed in divine judgment and engaged in religious activities such as reading the bible or praying.
Dr Ryan McKay from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway said: “Recent evidence has suggested that people are more likely to behave prosocially, such as helping, sharing, donating, co-operating and volunteering, when they feel guilty. This raises the question of whether religious rituals of absolution, in which people are absolved of their sins and released from guilt, would actually make people less prosocial.
“However, the results of our study suggest the opposite – that ‘releasing’ people from their sin has a positive prosocial effect. This indicates that the Catholic ritual of confession is an effective means of promoting commitment to the church”
At one point in the desert the Israelites had no water, so Moses asked God for some water.
5 The LORD answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah[a] and Meribah[b] because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” Exodus 17:5-7 (NIV)
Paul points out that the rock that was the source of the water is Jesus.
3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:3-4 (NIV)
Jesus told Peter that He, Jesus, is the rock on which the church is built.
15“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[b] will not overcome it. Matthew 16:15-18 (NIV)
The NIV Study Bible, in reference to Matt 16:18 states:
In the Greek “Peter” is petras (“detached stone”) and “rock” is petra (“bedrock”).
Peter said that Jesus is the rock, the bedrock, the cornerstone.
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”[b] 1 Peter 2:4-6 (NIV)
Paul again says that Jesus is the rock, the cornerstone.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. Ephesians 2:19-20 (NIV)
I don’t think I’m religious. I am spiritual. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I believe that he put me in this position, and that I have to always give him the glory he deserves for putting me here. But I don’t consider myself religious. A lot of people who are religious, I feel like they get lost. They go to church just to go to church. I am not trying to disrespect them at all, you know, whatever works for you; but for me, I focus more on praying and talking to Him. I don’t have to go to church. I haven’t been to church in a long time, but I know I have a relationship with Him. People can be like, “If you don’t go to church, what do you mean, how are you a Christian?” But I am. I talk to Him, and that’s all.
Yeah, Bieber doesn’t have to go to Church. But isn’t being an active participant in a Christian community an essential part of being a Christian. And that includes going to Church at least sometimes … and because you want to go.
So for anyone that hasn’t noticed, I’ve started a personal site where I post from time to time. I posted the audio from my sermon at the First Presbyterian Church in Hammond (LA) this morning. You can give it a listen if you’d like.
Over the years I have nodded off during many tedious sermons. One of my sisters would often elbow me to wake me up when I started snoring. Even the best preachers can give long and tedious sermons, as the Apostle Paul found out when he visited Troas.
On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted. Acts 20:7-12 (NIV)
But what a way to end a sermon! Raising the dead in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Church I am part of generally tries to be all inclusive and not to frighten anyone, and be cool. Does a pretty good job at that. Today, there were a few changes, noticable to me anyway, some of which are not usually seen in this Pentecostal Church.
Randomly … in a building otherwise devoid of religious symbols, there is a 20ft+ tall wooden cross on the platform that was erected on Good Friday and is staying there until the end of June, nailed to the cross are bundles of Easter prayer requests … we had Communion on consecutive weekends … we sang ‘How Great Thou Art’ … there was the gentle aroma of insence in the air … at the end of the sermon the pastor talked about repentance, saying sorry and asking for forgiveness for sin … sin is death.
As always, everything was all about Jesus. Beautiful!
Some Protestant theologians describe the church as a body constituted by individuals who have covenanted with God and one another. The new covenant would suggest, however, that individuals do not constitute the church by their coming together. God’s covenant-creating love has brought the church into being. Individuals can decide whether to accept or reject God’s terms – whether to be included in or excluded from God’s people – but they do not establish the covenant or the church. Remembering this fact might discourage the notion we sometimes develop that the church belongs to us and exists to meet our needs. The church belongs to God and exists to do God’s will. (p62)
I love it when I read my thoughts articulated far better than I could. I am not a congregationalist in any form really as I do believe in an episcopate and in the one, holy, apostolic, universal church, which sometimes is hidden by our constant fracturing. I do not believe that we create the church, but that the Church existed before us and will after us.
I’m reading this book, for review, and have enjoyed it so far, although the first few chapters seem to be a rehash of recent reads and my only development. The next few chapters are going to be very interesting because the author is going to take the various, um, images of salvation which are found in the New Testament, and explain them in a literary fashion and I believe show modern application.
Maybe it’ll help me clarify my own viewpoint here a little. For now…
I believe that the covenant with Israel was expanded to include us Gentiles under a (re)New(ed) Covenant, but it is a covenant given by God which we can choose to be faithful to or, well, not. We don’t covenant with God; the covenant already exists. We partake of that covenant through baptism and celebrate the memorial of it through the Eucharist. We also partake of it when we celebrate the sacraments of Scripture and fellowship.
What is your image of the Church? Is it pre-formed or do we form it?
