FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2008
The Kerygmatic Moment
The Third in a series of
Catechetical Talks
Now when
they heard [his words] his they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of
the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them,
"Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the
promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the
Lord our God calls to him." And he testified with many other words and exhorted
them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." So those who
received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of
bread and the prayers. And fear came upon every soul; and many wonders and signs were done
through the apostles.
--Acts
2:37-43
But how are
men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of
whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?
--Romans
10:14
Kerygma
means "proclamation" in Greek. For our purposes we use it today to talk about a
pivotal moment in time--not time in the chronological sense, but in the very fullness of a
moment beyond measurement of hours, minutes or seconds--what the Apostles and the Fathers
called, kairos. It is the moment when we receive the Good News of Jesus Christ,
believe it and respond to it in faith. For some in the Evangelical world this may
represent the moment when a person is "saved" and can be marked by a specific
date and time. But here we are talking about a moment that is both the first cause and the
recurrent sustenance for our pilgrimage of faith in this world.
In
the Orthodox Church the proclamation of Christ is not limited to the essential reading of
the Holy Gospel or the homily delivered by the priest on any given Sunday morning; it also
includes the Divine Liturgy and services of the Church, the Creed, the teachings of the
fathers, and the lives of the saints. Each of these point the way to Christ and
more: they reveal Christ Who "is in our midst" and through Him the
opportunity for communion with God. For example, in the language of the Divine Liturgy we
hear these words on the feast of a saint:
Come,
let us worship and fall down before Christ, Who is wonderful in His saints.
O Son of God, save us who sing to You: Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! [Emphasis mine.]
The
saints are remembered, venerated and petitioned precisely because Christ is made manifest
through their lives. We can use the present tense because these saints are alive in Him
and speak to us still by their lives, teachings, icons, intercessions and intervention.
Jesus Himself speaks of this in the Gospel of Saint John:
All
this goes to the discussion of Christ's work and teachings. In the Western world, this
question is focused purely in the past where the authenticity of the words of Christ
themselves are hotly debated, the search for the "historical " Jesus
unsuccessfully continues and each is left to his own devices in understanding Christ, the
gospels and the New Testament. In this sphere the very image of Christ becomes a
historical chimera of opinions based not upon the lived and living tradition of the
Apostolic Church, but upon the suppositions of the age in which these various opinions
were proffered. In addition, inasmuch as these opinions discount the Apostolic teaching
and tradition of the Church, they also deny the power and presence of the Holy Spirit to
sustain her through the ages.
The
reality of the Orthodox Church is that Christ is still present working and teaching in the
her through the means outlined above. The very history of the Church--one, holy,
Catholic and apostolic--while it is the history of recounting and retelling the words of
Jesus is also keeping His commandments and worshiping Him "in the flesh" as we
continue the Eucharist begun so long ago and continuing forever. The Church is the
living Body of Christ. It is nourished by Him through the grace and power of the Holy
Spirit who sustains, empowers and unites her.
This
living kerygma or proclamation is what we are talking about when we discussed the
"gravity" that many feel in the Orthodox Church. For in the Church we are drawn
to the living God in our midst--Father, Son and Holy Spirit--together with all His saints
"who have been well-pleasing to Him throughout the ages."
Next:
The Peripatetic Pilgrimage
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