All the small things...
I don't know if I'd call it properly "mysticism." Perhaps it's more accurate to describe it as the intangible and mysterious experience of Orthodox worship. In either case, I find that it's not just important that the Orthodox have symbolic worship, but that the symbolism we practice is a dynamic and continuous symbolism, which does not manufacture symbols anew every generation, but carries on the traditional symbolism used since apostolic times. Moreover, nothing should be considered as "just a symbol." We are not perfected as of yet and are still in need of these little glimpses of the age to come.
For example, many churches have discarded the Cross and sacred images. However, the images that were once kept in their houses have been replaced with decorative Bible verses. The cross has been supplanted by the convenient bumper sticker "Jesus Fish." A few years ago I once met a man who wore 3 nails around his neck to commemorate the nailing of Jesus's hands and feet to the Cross, but not an actual Cross.
Whatever zeal there was to remove dead imagery from the Church created a void which was replaced by....other symbols.
Our priests wear vestments and we all face East when we gather together to pray. You can say that it's unnecessary and that "God hears you no matter what!" But that's not the point. The point is that the symbolism of the vested priest and facing towards the East allows for our experience of the worship to be oriented in a way befitting proper worship in the Church. Since we are part of the Church, we receive even the smallest things in a spirit and mindset forged by 2000 years of experience.
As an altar server for lo these past...oh my...18 years...I have always been curious about the rites in which we bury the Cross behind the altar on Good Friday behind the closed curtain. Much care is placed into anointing the Cross with incense and rose water and wrapping it in white. So much care is placed into something that the majority of church goers will never see. I'd like to think that the smell of the incense and the visual of the buried Cross, symbolic indeed, still carries with it a definite and powerful experience, even if for just a very few on the altar.
-Steve K
For example, many churches have discarded the Cross and sacred images. However, the images that were once kept in their houses have been replaced with decorative Bible verses. The cross has been supplanted by the convenient bumper sticker "Jesus Fish." A few years ago I once met a man who wore 3 nails around his neck to commemorate the nailing of Jesus's hands and feet to the Cross, but not an actual Cross.
Whatever zeal there was to remove dead imagery from the Church created a void which was replaced by....other symbols.
Our priests wear vestments and we all face East when we gather together to pray. You can say that it's unnecessary and that "God hears you no matter what!" But that's not the point. The point is that the symbolism of the vested priest and facing towards the East allows for our experience of the worship to be oriented in a way befitting proper worship in the Church. Since we are part of the Church, we receive even the smallest things in a spirit and mindset forged by 2000 years of experience.
As an altar server for lo these past...oh my...18 years...I have always been curious about the rites in which we bury the Cross behind the altar on Good Friday behind the closed curtain. Much care is placed into anointing the Cross with incense and rose water and wrapping it in white. So much care is placed into something that the majority of church goers will never see. I'd like to think that the smell of the incense and the visual of the buried Cross, symbolic indeed, still carries with it a definite and powerful experience, even if for just a very few on the altar.
-Steve K
posted by street theologian @ 9:03 PM
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