Calvin Synod Herald, 2014 (115. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2014-07-01 / 7-8. szám
4 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD KINGDOMTIDE Reforming The Lectionary Reformation Day, the 31st of October, does not fall on the eve of All Saints Day by coincidence. The Reformers were Spirit driven to correction of the errors of the Church pertaining particularly to each person’s eternal destination. The Gospels convey the fundamental question for humankind: What must Ido to inherit eternal life? Yet, the simple but straightforward answer of Jesus had long been distorted by the addition of practices and rituals developed according to proleptic theories, new theologies without a clear foundation in scripture. These, having evolved over many years into intolerable excesses, aroused the concern and the ire of many in the Church and finally broke out in open challenges. Popular history relates Martin Luther’s 95 Theses were boldly nailed to the church door in Germany, while at the same time Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland was altering the local church’s mode of preaching and observance of rites and practices, concerning the eternal resting place for some and fear of hell’s torment for others. The Reformed churches’ observance throughout 2013 of the 450th anniversary of the publication of the Heidelberg Catechism in 1563 occasioned a new look at its answers about eternal life, built upon the insights offered in the concluding words of the Apostles’ Creed about “the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. ” (Questions 56-58) In doing so, consistent with the principle of reformed and always reforming, what contemporary reform would theology suggest to the Reformed churches today, with scripturally warranted insights, for a doctrine concerning the Last Days and its practical expression in their worship? Kingdomtide in the Church Year The season of the Church Year from All Saints Day to its conclusion on the Festival of the Saints of Christ the King, preceding Advent and the beginning of a new Church Year, should be observed separately and, I suggest, called Kingdomtide. The concept is not a new one. In 1866, the Reformed Church Publication Board in Philadelphia published a new work, “An ORDER OF WORSHIP for The REFORMED CHURCH.” The first word “An” instead of “The” is significant, reflecting Reformed resistance to prescribed forms and prayers, reflected even in Calvin’s own practice of proffering a prayer but noting that the minister might use it as a basis for Spirit-led free prayer. Its calendar for the Church Year was divided into two Semesters. The First Semester emphasized the mighty acts of God: Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Eastertide, Ascension, and Pentecost. The Second Semester emphasized our grateful response and redemption: Trinity, Trinity Season, and Sundays before Advent. Professor Allen O. Miller wrote, “the church relives the whole life of Jesus in the first half of each year, and publicly announces her role as his servant people in the second half. The two halves complement each other, in the way indicated by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:19: God was in Christ (1) reconciling the world to himself; (2) entrusting to us the ministry of reconciliation___In our time, however, the Christian calendar offers a perfect outline, both for preaching the meaning of God’s mighty acts in his Son our Lord and for teaching his people to participate in the life which God has prepared for us through him.” That preparation is not only for a life that ends at death, but also in anticipation of the life everlasting. Thus, in the four Sundays before Advent, at the end of the Church Year, the emphasis is on the Christian’s death and eternal life. Kingdomtide: When We Remember The specter of death was an omnipresent fact of life among America’s early settlers as it was in Europe. It threatened all alike, from the infant to the elderly. Without available medical treatment, and lacking basic treatment for minor infections, the large families of the time carried many loved ones to their graves. Sorrow was an ever present reality and funeral hymns were known by heart even by the youngest who lost their mothers in childbirth, fathers in the mine explosions, sisters and brothers from scarlet fever or typhoid, and new siblings just months or a few years old. Having loved them so much, who could quickly forget - or ever? We find them remembered with photos in caskets and markers in the cemetery visited often. Did not the lands of the ancients also have their places of remembrance, monumental tombs or primitive graves with things beside the body that would be needed in the next life? Oh yes, there would be a next life. Without endeavoring to cover all the bases, for our purpose here we will consider three Christian church responses to the need to remember, All Saints Day, Totenfest and the Festival of the Saints of Christ the King. Each finds its reflection in the lives of the churches’ members and the diverse worship practices of the congregations. Halloween (All Hallows Evening) precedes All Saints Day. Today's Halloween colorful traditions pretty up the original bizarre ways for observance of the eve of All Saints, when the damned of God reappear in the ugliest and garish forms of the tormented in Hell (or Purgatory). Such is the lot of the unbeliever or unfaithful! It bears a chilling reminder to discourage living in disobedience of God. All Saints Day, on the first of November, the churches celebrate the certain salvation of Christ’s followers. This Reformed view of the saints includes the “poor saints in Jerusalem” to whom the apostle Paul took the offering for their relief, and many other saints like the believing patriarchs and prophets, the martyrs of all the ages, those who left all behind to follow the Master, and also the humble believers among our churches’ members, our friends and families. Hopefully, it would also include us among the saints at the end of our days. However, Protestant churches do not observe “All Souls Day,” rejecting the proleptic-based unbiblical concept of Purgatory, inviting prayers for early release of the souls so the damned may eventually enter heaven also; nor does it concur in restricting the term "saints" to only those specially designated by the church, to whom prayers may be addressed as intercessors with God. Unfortunately, in iconoclastic American practice, All 1
