(This sermon was delivered at The Memorial Church, Harvard
University, on January 9, 2000)
I.
Fundamental to Christian faith and life is the expectation
of the Lord's coming again. Indeed, Saint Paul's first letter to the
Corinthians, written in the mid first century, describes the celebration of the
Eucharist which climaxes with the Aramaic exhortation Maranatha, Come Lord!
Careful linguistic analysis of this term shows that within the context of the
Lord's Supper there is the strong sense that Christ's coming again is both an
event to be anticipated as well as a present reality.
That Saint Paul and the early Christians could rejoice in
what is often referred to as "inaugurated eschatology" while looking
forward to Jesus' return in glory in no way diminishes the anticipation of the
future and the close of the age. This is certainly one of the points being made
in the parable of the Last Judgment recorded in the 25th chapter of Saint
Matthew's gospel. In this parable, Jesus speaks of himself as the Son of Man
coming again in glory surrounded by his angels and sitting on a glorious
throne. At that time he will separate the nations of the world and judge them
according to his law of mercy. In addition, there are the creedal declarations
and confessions of the early Church that stress the triumphal return of the
Lord of Glory who will judge the living and the dead and whose kingdom shall
have no end.
The concept of anticipation and presence has permeated
Christian worship and theology for two thousand years. Yet paradoxically if
there is a crucial aspect of belief that is lacking, misshaped or hidden in the
Christian psyche it is that of the Lord's coming again. And this is due in part
to a narrow understanding of the Incarnation that has prevented the Christian
from confessing in the same breath "Christ is coming/Christ is among
us!"
To reflect and speak about the Lord's coming again cannot be
separated from his Incarnation. What we have celebrated, and continue to
celebrate, in conjunction with the feast of Epiphany provides the key for
understanding Christ's coming again as an event that fulfills the eternal
providence and will of God. For this reason I have chosen the text from 1
Peter: "He [Christ] was destined before the foundation of the world but
was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake" (1:20).
Bolstering this verse are the eloquent and poignant words found at the
beginning of the letter to the Ephesians. Before the foundation of the world
God has chosen us in Christ "that we should be holy and blameless... For
he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will,
according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the
fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on
earth" (Ephesians 1:4, 9-10).
"Destined before the foundation of the world"
implies that creation exists for the very purpose of Incarnation. From this
perspective the Incarnation and the second coming of Christ are events that
have a direct impact on understanding the meaning of history and the
relationship we are to have with the triune and tripersonal God. But to grasp
this perspective means that Christians need to move from a two dimensional
understanding of existence, i.e. an existence defined within the parameters of
space and time, and recover a more complete understanding of existence that is
characterized by space, time and eschatology.
II
The Incarnation of the Son of God lies at the center of
history. We can also say that the Incarnation gives meaning to events preceding
and following it. Here however we need to be careful to avoid relegating the
"meaning" of events to easy explanations and lessons. The meaning of
history and historical events are to be understood in relationship to the
Incarnation. In other terms, history is not an autonomous process with aimless
goals, nor is it a process in which God and man act independently of each
other.
History is the unfolding of salvation. Its contours and
contents are formed by the co-operation, by the synergy, generated between God
and man. The Magnalia Dei bear witness to the divine providence and care
unfolding in the creation. History as it unfolds tells the story of the
creation, fall and redemption of the human person. Given this basic biblical
scheme we can see that there is a beginning (Genesis) and an end (i.e. an
eschatology described in the Apocalypse). Both the Beginning and the End are
bound together by the Incarnation. This means that the Incarnation is an event
that defines the very purpose and goal creation. The pre-eternal Word of God
was, in the words of 1 Peter, "destined before the foundation of the world
and was made manifest at the end of the times for our sake."
Before time and at the end of time stands the Incarnation.
Here I want to stress that the text I am using from 1 Peter should not be taken
as a curious reference to a theological opinion or theory. Rather, it expresses
a very keen insight that acknowledges the redemptive dimension of the
Incarnation, which includes the death and resurrection of Christ, while also
acknowledging the Incarnation as not being contingent upon the felix culpa, the
happy sin, of Adam. If anything the felix culpa shows us that even the fall of
God's image and likeness could not alter the divine aim or desire. And while
the divine aim is unchangeable, the unfolding of history becomes the context in
which God liberates humanity from sin and death by the incarnation, death and
resurrection of his Son.
Through the sin of Adam the tyranny of death reigned over
all creation. Yet this tyranny could not alter the divine will. For the divine providence
pre-ordained that at the fullness of time all things in heaven and on earth
would be united in Jesus Christ (Cf. Eph. 1:3-10). Created existence
culminating in the creation of man was destined before the beginning to be
incorporated into the life of the God-Man Jesus Christ. And though the reign of
sin and death divided and polarized the creation, God, without usurping human
freedom, ceaselessly sought to guide and prepare humanity for the Incarnation.
Listen to the words from the fourth century eucharistic canon of Saint Basil
the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia: "0 Good One ... you did
not forget the works of your hands; through the tender compassion of your
mercy, you visited man in various ways. You sent prophets; you performed mighty
works by the saints who, in every generation, were well pleasing to you, you
spoke to us by the mouths of your servants the prophets, who foretold to us the
salvation which was to come; you gave us the law to aid us; you appointed
guardian angels. And when the fullness of time was come, you spoke to us
through your Son Himself..."
III
Based on what has been said I think we can begin to see that
redemption should not be perceived as the primary cause or aim of the
Incarnation. Given this we can now raise the principal question: Cur Deus Homo?
- "Why did God become man?"
Our deliverance from the tyranny of sin and death made
possible by the pre-eternal Word of God becoming a little child who takes upon
himself our sin and death is only part of the story, part of the history. In
his article entitled "The Last Things and Last Events", which
appeared in a collection of articles examining the theology of Emil Brunner,
Father Georges Florovsky, emeritus professor of Eastern Church History at Harvard,
rightly stressed that the only history we know is salvation history. But woven
into salvation history are strands that allow us to apprehend the primary
purpose of the Incarnation.
The great divines of Christendom, coming from both the East
and West, point to these strands that draw our attention to the
transfiguration, and therefore deification, of the human person. The insights
of the Greek and Latin Fathers echo the cosmic aspect of the Incarnation summed
up in the simple but provocative acclamation: "God has become man so man
might become God" - words of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria and Saint
Augustine of Hippo. We can add the words of Saint Irenaeus of Lyons: "The
Son of God becomes the Son of Man so man might become the Son of God."
Intertwined with the strands of redemption are the strands
of metamorphosis and deification. Yet many Christians, including the Orthodox,
are unfamiliar with this basic aspect of the Incarnation. Too often the
Incarnation is restricted to an event that is locked into the past and
therefore has little if any direct impact here and now. Given this, the
Incarnation focuses exclusively on God's descent into creation. What remains
hidden or forgotten is the necessary compliment, i.e. the human ascent to God.
The ascent of the human person to God is the response, the penitential
response, to the Magnalia Dei. This ascent is an activity that is not bound to
the past but is an ongoing reality revealed and confirmed in and through us.
Consequently, the primary purpose of the Incarnation is to bring every one and
every thing into divine life. But for this participation to occur God himself
had to become what he was not. In a Christmas hymn from Vespers, dating back to
about eighth century Byzantium, we hear "the unchangeable image of the
Father, who bears the very character of his divinity, takes the form of a
servant, coming from a virgin mother while not undergoing any change in
divinity; for the one who was unchangeable - being true God - assumes what he
was not, becoming a man on account of his love for mankind."
IV.
In the history of salvation, the Son of God becoming what he
was not shows himself as the new or second Adam. As the God-Man, Jesus Christ
is the paradigm of perfected or deified humanity. Using the anthropology and cosmology
of Saint Maximus the Confessor (+680AD), one of the most creative of the
Eastern Fathers, we can see that as the center and even vortex of history the
Incarnation points to new and transfigured life. Perfecting the concept of man
as microcosm, Maximus shows that from the beginning man was responsible for
maintaining the harmony and unity of opposites existing in the universe. But
because of Adam's sin, there followed the disintegration of the cosmos. What
was created good and harmonious fell into division and, ultimately, mortality.
Maximus lists five categories of division: 1 )The created and uncreated,
2)heaven and earth, 3)paradise and the world, 4) man and woman, and 5) the
intelligible and sensible. Through the Incarnation, these divisions are healed
in the person of Jesus Christ - the new microcosm. Through the God-Man the old
creation is being made new. In this metamorphosis the purpose of creation is
being revealed. For from within the chaos ensuing from fallen creation every
one and every thing is called to draw near to the One Who is at the beginning,
the middle, and end of history. In the incarnated Christ, created and uncreated
embrace while heaven and earth, the material and immaterial, co-exist as unity
in diversity. All of creation is being transformed into paradise while man and
woman, filled with the Holy Spirit, reflect the beauty of the incarnate Word of
the Father.
Because of the Incarnation, we and the creation are beckoned
by the God-Man to draw near. We are beckoned to ascend to him and to enter the
life of the Trinity - the supreme expression of unity in diversity. Because God
became a man, because of his voluntary death and resurrection, a new day - the
Eighth Day of creation - has begun to dawn. This is the Day Without Evening,
the Day that continues to be created. It is the day that now brings us before
the One who is coming again and who is among us now and forever.
Amen.