The so-called “Lord’s Prayer” (the “Our Father) is a prayer for the “end of the world,” or the “end of the age.”
It is a prayer for the apocalypse, the parousia of Christ.
It is a prayer for Maranatha.
“Thy Kingdom come […] on earth as it is in heaven.”
But … it isn’t a prayer about the future.
Just a brief addition to my previous post:
“And it will be proclaimed at the end of days concerning the captives, as He said, ‘To proclaim liberty to the captives.’
Its interpretation is that He will assign them to the Sons of Heaven and to the inheritance of Melchizedek; for He will cast their lot amid the portions of Melchizedek, who will return them there and will proclaim to them liberty, forgiving them of all their iniquities. And the Day of Atonement is the end of the tenth Jubilee, when all the Sons of Light and the men of the lot of Melchizedek will be atoned for. And a statute concerns them to provide them with their rewards.
For this is the moment of the Year of Grace for Melchizedek. And he will, by his strength, judge the holy ones of God, executing judgement as it is written concerning him in the Songs of David, who said, ELOHIM has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgement [...] And Melchizedek will avenge the vengeance of the judgements of God [...] and he will drag them from the hand of Belial.”
Dead Sea Scrolls, Cave 11 (11Q13), the “Melchizedek document”
As I continue to examine Second Temple apocalyptic literature, it seems more and more likely that St Paul was drawing on his vast knowledge of this work at times in order to help make illustrations or “give wings” to many of the themes and ideas he was espousing throughout his epistles in the early years of the Church.
For example, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, St Paul makes a connection between the culmination of the priesthood of Melchizedek and Jesus Christ Himself. He of course makes reference to Psalm 109:4 (LXX): “The Lord swore and will not repent, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’” Beyond this, he also intimates that the Melchizedek order was always superior to that of the Levites (e.g. 7:4-10), and that a “change in the priesthood” necessitated a “change in the law” (liturgically speaking, cf. 7:11-12) as well.
Here’s one example.
The Church or ekklesia of Christ is just as the word implies: an assembly or gathering of Christians from all places.
This necessarily implies, as well, the transcendence of the Church as an assembly/gathering of God’s people. If the Church is truly an assembly of God’s people, then that includes all of God’s people from all times (and places).
It is no wonder, then, that the Orthodox have come to believe in the “local” existence of the Church in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Not only is the Eucharist the true body and blood of Jesus Christ but also the Church itself is the body of Christ – there’s a “dual” reality of the body of Christ necessarily involved in both the Church and the Eucharist.
Read Part One: Who is a Jew?
Read Part Two: The Land of Israel
As I come to my last entry on this subject, I must admit that this is to me the simplest and most straightforward point one could make with regards to Israel. While I grew up in a tradition that wrongly saw the Jews of today as “God’s chosen people” and in a place of favor even greater than that of the Church, I now believe the truth – and it seems to be a rather plain one in the Scriptures. I find it hard to understand how people can miss this who claim such an admiration for the Scriptures, but I digress. This isn’t about pointing fingers – I was there once. Lord, have mercy on us all.
So then, the last topic to cover with regards to Israel as the “people of God” is how Israel relates to the Church.
To put it plainly, the Church is Israel; that is, the Church replaces and takes its place as Israel or God’s “chosen people,” called out from the world and set apart as His own.
Another area of pointed legalism (and even schism) within the Orthodox Church today is around the calendar – that is, the debate over whether the Church (“old”) calendar or the “New” (revised Julian) calendar is truly Orthodox and “valid.” The main issue I have – and indeed, all Orthodox Christians should have – with these contemporary debates (despite the fact that they have led to schism and an abandonment of Apostolic Succession by some) is that they are irrelevant.
That’s right – irrelevant.
How tragic and sad that a small group of otherwise Orthodox Christians have decided to separate themselves from the Church over such a meaningless issue. While the fear of Ecumenism (a heresy in the Orthodox Church) in the day the calendar was revised is a noble one, this is not an area in particular where one should split the proverbial hair. A hair that grounds the Church in the world and its constraints rather than in the transcendence of the Eucharist and the eternal kingdom of Christ.
So then, what promises did God make to the Hebrews regarding the land of Israel, and how does that correlate to the modern nation-state of Israel in the middle east today?
This is where things get really dicey, especially when considering present-day politics and the beliefs of evangelical Christians on this very point.
Considering that the “Christian vote” essentially determines an election in the U.S. and that evangelical Christians represent a large segment of American, Christian voters (dwarfed only by Roman Catholics), any candidate that doesn’t wholeheartedly support the nation-state of Israel has written for themselves a death sentence (as Obama has learned recently, with his less-than-stellar relationship with Benyamin Netanyahu and suggesting that Israel give back some land to the Palestinians).
For many Christians today, Sunday has become “the Christian Sabbath.” While not all of the restrictions and laws of the old religion have been applied to it (with the exception of some extremists), it has essentially become a day of rest for the people of Christ.
There’s nothing wrong with resting on Sunday, to be clear, but this view is rather short-sighted and doesn’t capture the full and broader meaning behind worshiping on the “Day of the Sun.”
The ancient fathers didn’t look at Sunday from the perspective of the Hebraic Sabbath; rather, they looked at it from the perspective of the “eighth day” and the “Day of the Lord” as promised and foretold by many prophetic and apocalyptic writings of Second Temple Judaism.
