Church as Microcosm: Where Heaven and Earth Meet Prt. 2

Emmaus Icon

After writing the first part of this several months back, I finally present its conclusion (I’m sure you were waiting on the edge of your seat). Previously, I was talking about how the church is quite literally structured as the “created order” set right with God. If you don’t have time read it (here) I did this by initially looking at how the Church (especially Orthodox and old Catholic) are structured similar to the tabernacle, architecturally and otherwise, revealing the togetherness of God’s present Kingdom and Earth. But now I want to fill out this microcosmic picture by looking at what it means for the church to be liturgical and sacramental in this context.

To put it succinctly the Church is the icon of the Kingdom of God and we are participating in the life of God reconciling humankind to Himself. Thus we further reflect that through confession, participating in the Eucharist/Communion and finally reconciling with each other. In doing this we return to bearing God’s image.

As God’s image bearers we occupy a unique space at the intersection of Heaven and Earth. Anyone who has been really captivated by Divine Liturgy perceives this as the true reality because Liturgy itself is an embarking on this journey back towards this destination. The doxology opens by announcing our destination toward the blessed “Kingdom of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit now and ever and unto the ages of ages” and the people affirm it with “Amen”. While we mostly talk about this in “symbolic” terms, there is a real movement happening with the Church moving from the “old creation” into the “new creation” within the prayer service. Think of liturgy, matins and vespers as Divine performance art and then some.

As Alexander Schmemann said, “In ‘this world’ there is no alter and the temple has been destroyed.  For the only altar is Christ Himself, His humanity which He has assumed and deified and made the temple of God, the altar of His presence. And Christ ascended into heaven. The altar thus is the sign that in Christ we have been given access to heaven, that the Church is the passage to heaven, the entrance to the heavenly sanctuary, and that only by entering, by ascending to heaven does the Church fulfill herself, become what she is.”[1] This entrance into the new creation, (while it begins in our Baptism) is the Eucharist, not in “physical symbols of spiritual realities”, but in coexistence of Spirit and matter. Now her members become re-membered in what they eat, the Eucharist, and the consubstantiation of God in us is where the healing process begins and where the vertical reconnects with the horizontal. Without going through every part of church and service, the eternal and present presence of God, hidden and manifest, is central to everything happening in the services.

Thus, Church as the microcosm of creation is not really a hard concept, but its meaning and transformative nature is found in the substance of liturgy. Why do I go to the work of saying all this? Because our attentiveness to this participation is also important since we are remembering and living in the story of our journey into Chrstlikeness as-well-as experiencing and becoming God’s grace and forgiveness in the earth as we too become the bread broken and wine poured out. Becoming a people of this rhythm happens here. Church is the starting point of participating in the concrete reality of the Kingdom of God with us.

[1] Alexander Schmemann. For the Life of the World (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir Press) p. 31.