Calvin Synod Herald, 1999 (99. évfolyam, 2-4. szám - 100. évfolyam, 9-12. szám)

1999-05-01 / 3. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD- A -AMERIKAI MAGYAR REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA

Abiding Memorial Service to Perpetuate the Work of a Great Historian of Our Family of Faith by the Pittsburgh Church was Held on February 7, 1999

In a combined worship service, the one-year death of Dr. Aladár Komjáthy was commemorated.

Dr. John Wilson was the Guest Minister. Dr. Wilson is Professor of Church History at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. His text was Rev. 1:4 - 6:8.

His sermon is published here.

Today, as we remember the life and work of Dr. Aladár Komjáthy, we remember also that he was an historian of the church.

History tells who we are, it is as alive as we are. But what is alive and vital in our histories is not just our family history, but the larger picture we fit into - for example, the Hungarian roots of most or many of you in this church, including the transition to America and to a new American history. But above all, this larger picture means our history in the sense of its ultimate and final meaning, our history as a people defined by our relation to God through Jesus Christ. That means our history in and with that dimension of each of our lives that transcends the mundane, which is to say: the things of our ordinary world and day-today work. This is the dimension of life to which we turn in prayer and in church, a dimension that is always there, always with us, by virtue of the fact that we are created by God and ever-destined to have our being in and through God in every moment of our lives. This too is our history, and indeed as the history of each of us, as the unique persons we all are in and before God, willed by Him to be called to be His people, the church. It is this higher dimension that is the special business of church history and the church historian.

Certainly the church historian begins with ordinary or mundane history. He must have his dates right, for example: when exactly the Hungarian Reformed Church was founded, and of course, by whom. But this in itself is not the higher dimension of church history. It does not yet begin to reach into the meaning of God's

work with this church. To do this something else is necessary - yet not just "something else," but rather something wholly different, something that requires a different kind of sight, of vision. It means in some sense just what I said before: catching sight of God's work. I say "in some sense" because God's work in and with us is such a great mystery: In some sense to catch sight of God's work - that is what the church has traditionally called prophesy. And that is just my point: the work of the church historian is most essentially prophesy. It is not only prophesy, for it always has exact dates, events, names and places - this is indispensable - but in its higher sense, history is indeed a kind of prophesy and requires, as all prosphesy, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

That is why I chose a text from the Book of Revelation, because this is, from the point of view of God's history with His people, the most important history of the ages in the New Testatment. In the passage I read, the Almighty is "Alpha and Omega," which means the first and the last. He is what was before and what will be, the highest meaning of history. The Book of Revelation has to do with the future, certainly, but at the same time it sees the future not in isolation from, but in connection with the whole of past history. Indeed it gives the meaning of the past, it puts the ages together, from Alpha to Omega,. Every prophesy about the future is also about the meaning of the past.

As I read through the works of Dr. Komjáthy in preparing for this sermon, I recognized, first of all, the careful historian: careful about getting the historical record right and complete. I also observed the circumspection of the historian, who looks at the breadth of historical significance, the interconnectedness of events and people. And finally, throughout the whole, I recognized the prophetic spirit, the concern with the Alpha and the Omega, the meaning of the ages. I think

I saw something else about him, too: Time and again in his work, Aladár Komjáthy points to the significance of speakers other than himself - in the Hungarian tradition, in the Russian tradition and in the history of the whole church. That is a genuine mark of the true church historian working in the Spirit of God: He lets the words of the past be heard, as if he were saying to the reader, "Listen..., hear..." At the end of a paper on the historical significance Chalcedonian Creed Dr. Komjáthy quotes someone else, again as if to say, "hear the Spirit speaking." In the last sentence of that quotation is an echo of our text for today: "Christ has defeated the last enemy, that which (according to Revelation 20:15) is to be cast (finally) into the lake of fire." And before that: "In Christ God has identified Himself with man so that man's future is inextricably related to God’s future. Man no longer is alienated, alone and without hope. His future is no longer in doubt."

The historian of the church points away from himself, because he listens to and for the Spirit of God in history, in others than himself, and in doing so he catches sight of the meaning of the whole, the Alpha and the Omega, and works at the prophetic task of putting the ages together

Dr. Komjáthy’s work was intimately bound together with your own history, the history of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America. He worked in the area where your personal histories fit into the wide canvas of God's work in the whole church. Today we also remember that special significance. In remembering him and his work, let us also remember our mothers and fathers and all those who have been a part of God's history with his people.

Prayer: Lord, in remembering Dr. Komjáthy, we give thanks for the prophetic witness of the historians of the church, those who put the ages together, who let us glimpse not only the meaning of our past, but also of our future. In remembering that witness, we also give thanks for all those who have gone before us and from whose lives, work and faith we descend, knowing that we too are a part of your great work with and for the whole church, and remembering that you are indeed the Alpha and the Omega. Amen.

Dr. Aladár Komjáthy