ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

Exarchate of Parishes of Russian
Tradition in Western Europe

Bishop Basil of Amphipolis: sermon 6 August 2006
Church of the Holy Trinity and the Annunciation, Oxford
1 Corinthians 1: 10.18

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I would like to say a few words this morning about the reading we have heard from the First Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians, and about the insight which it gives into the reality of life in the Early Church. Sometimes we forget just how early this is. A conventional dating of this Epistle would place it around 57 A.D., in other words just over twenty years after the Crucifixion of Christ. To get an idea of the distance we are dealing with here, it is as if Mrs Thatcher had been in office for three years at the time of the Crucifixion. There is that little difference between the writing of this letter and the Crucifixion itself.

What we are shown here – what Paul makes clear right from the start - is that there is rivalry in the community. He points to himself and Apollos and Peter, and says, ‘Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.’

It would appear that at this point he really is quite angry about the situation that has developed in Corinth, because what he observes there is division on the basis of personality. He sees leaders who draw attention to themselves, and therefore away from Christ. And from this he seeks to elicit a general principle of Church life. He tells us that this is not what we should be doing, He asks us to minimise as best we can the personal aspect and to emphasise Christ and the work of Christ. In the Liturgy, which is our common work par excellence, we see how consistently this principle is carried out in our prayer life together.

When we read in church, you will notice it is done in a fairly abstract way – the person reading does not try to give their own interpretation and to tell us just how we should understand the text: he simply reads the text and lets the text speak by itself. The same is true of liturgical chant. The chant is basically laid down by tradition. There is very little possibility of personal innovation. And this is intentional. One does not want the personal to enter in – this has to be a common work in which all can share easily.

The same is true of icon painting. The icon painter is subject to a very strict iconographic canon that determines what kind of icon one paints in relation to a certain subject. Anyone who lives in the Church and has spent time looking at icons will immediately recognise an icon which does not conform to the canon and will say ‘That is not quite right.’ If we think of that in terms of the experience of the icon painter him- or herself, we see here a kind of ascetic withdrawal in which one does not impose one’s own personal feelings onto the work in hand. It is this that enables to concentrate on what lies behind the surface, to look behind what is obvious and superficial.

In a sense the same is true of the way we are told dress in church. We are to dress in a modest way. But why is this? Not simply because it is a good thing to do, but because to dress modestly is to avoid attracting attention to oneself. The individual does not stand out from the crowd. You blend with the community as a whole.

The same thing can be said of liturgical vestments. The vestments of the celebrants are strictly prescribed. The clergy do not decide what they are going to wear in the services. They simply follow the tradition. There is no personal choice to speak of. Even the patterns and the materials are determined by the tradition. And the effect of this – the intentional effect – is to help de-personalise the Liturgy. The Liturgy is not about individuals.

One of the most striking examples of this is to be found in the Eucharistic Liturgy itself, where we repeat the words of Christ, the ‘words of institution’ as they are sometimes called, the words Christ himself uttered at the Last or Mystical Supper, before the epiklesis. There is a theory that the priest says these words himself in persona Christi – that is he who says the words. But the most convincing Orthodox interpretation that I have come across is that the words we hear are in fact an echo of Christ’s words. They are not the words of the priest at all – they are Christ’s words echoing down through the Church and through time. And if we had a physics that really understood how creation holds together, I myself believe that we would see that there is an actual material link between the words the priest says and the words Christ spoke then. The sound could be traced back through time within the created order. These words are not the words of the individual priest. They are Christ’s words magnified for our benefit by the priest during the Divine Liturgy.

Why should this be the case?

Because it is important that it not be we who are heard. It is important that Christ be heard, that his words should come through and should be echoed in the voice of the priest. Christ is the hidden reality behind the surface phenomena of our own lives and of the life of the community. He lies beneath and behind both the psychic and the social life of man. He is found among us on a deeper plane, a plane that is not always easily perceptible. We ourselves, in our fallen condition, are constantly being drawn towards the superficial. This was already true at the time of the Fall. Adam and Eve, faced with commandment of God not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, find themselves attracted by the appearance of things. Eve says, ‘That tree is pleasant to the eyes; it is good for food; it is something to be desired.’ They cease to listen to the commandment of God and attend to the superficial.

So we too are called upon by the words of the Apostle Paul, by our whole experience of life together as community, to try to avoid making of ourselves and of our passions the centre of Church life. We need to actively pull back in order that Christ may appear. So it must not be a question of ‘I am of Paul’, ‘I am of Apollos’, ‘I am of Cephas’, but ‘I am of Christ’. Saint John the Baptist and Precursor of Christ saw this so clearly he said ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ (Jn 3:30). Let us try to make these words our own. Amen