Pure sacrifice for the Triune God
A brief survey of some early Christian texts shows what the Church believed about their worship, and the One whom they worshipped
What do the early Christian liturgical texts teach us about the early Church’s implicit theology of worship, and their doctrine of God? In the Eucharistic sections of the Didache, the liturgies of the Ante-Nicene Fathers1 and the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Christian worship is fundamentally understood in terms of sacrifice, which centres on participation in the Eucharistic meal. The object of their worship was the one Almighty God in the three persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who is merciful towards his people.
Offering up a living sacrifice
For these early liturgies, sacrifice is not simply an action performed by a few and observed by the many, but the entire congregation is actively engaged in the rites of sacrifice. In their very form, the Ante-Nicene Fathers’ liturgies and the Divine Liturgy of Chrysostom illustrate the principle of the congregation’s engagement with worship, as they are structured as extensive back-and-forth conversations between the Priest, Deacon and the People.
Particular features of these texts also illustrate the understanding that the entire congregation itself is what is being offered to God, and so it is necessary for the congregation to be pure. For example, the Didache presents the very purpose of the Christian gathering to be the offering of to God of a “pure” sacrifice; so it instructs individual worshippers to confess their own transgressions, and if they are “at variance” with any of their fellows, to be reconciled with each other. Along these lines, in the Liturgy of the Blessed Apostles, the Priest prays that God would assist him to stand before him with an “open countenance” in order that the congregation may “fulfil this awful and divine sacrifice with consciences free from all iniquity and bitterness”. He goes on to pray for mutual affection and peace within the congregation. In both these texts, there is an understanding that, without the moral purity of the congregation, the rites of sacrifice will not be properly performed and will not be received as pure in God’s sight.
We might also note the place of catechumens in these liturgies. The Didache, while not expressly mentioning catechumens, does show a concern that the Eucharist only be given to “holy” recipients; namely, those “baptised into the Name of the Lord”. The Ante-Nicene Fathers’ liturgies and the Divine Liturgy of Chrysostom also dismiss catechumens from the congregation prior to the eating of the Eucharist. A distinction is thus made between the congregation which is made holy and pure to be sacrificed, and those who are not (yet) of this holy status—and this distinction is centred around the Lord’s Supper.
The Eucharist as the symbol of gathering
The communal dimension of the church’s sacrifice is enacted in the sharing of the Eucharistic meal, which not only recalls the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, but symbolises the present sacrifice of the church in real-time.
In the Didache, Christians are instructed to “gather [themselves] together, and break bread”. The bread itself, which was “was gathered together and became one”, serves as a symbol for the gathering itself, and beyond this, to the eschatological gathering of the church “from the ends of the earth into Your kingdom”. This pure Eucharistic meal is also set in contrast to the pagan sacrificial meal, which is “the service of dead gods”. Participation in pagan meals ought to make believers wary; there seems to be a risk that being gathered in the service of dead gods amounts to a rejection of being gathered into the pure sacrificial community of the Lord, and ultimately, of being gathered into his kingdom.
In the Liturgy of St James, God is called upon both to “Sanctify them [the gifts of bread and wine] and make them perfect”; shortly after this, God is asked to “Sanctify also, O Lord, our souls, and bodies, and spirits… cast out from us every evil imagination”. The Eucharistic meal with its holy elements is understood as a symbol of the congregation of holy worshippers themselves.
The Divine Liturgy of Chrysostom also associates the holy gifts of bread and wine with the holy people who participate in them. However, it emphasises that the bread and cup not only symbolise the holy people, but in some way also effect their holy status. For example, the Priest declares that the apportioned bread is “sanctifying those who partake”. Again, the Priest prays that the holy elements eaten and drunk would not be for the worshipper’s judgment, but “for the purification and sanctification of both soul and body”.
The triune God
The form and content of Christian worship also demonstrate a certain understanding of who God is. The Didache demonstrates that, long before the later formulations of Trinitarian doctrine with which we might be most familiar, early Christian worshippers consciously engaged with one God who was, in some sense, also three. For example, the prayers leading to and following the Eucharistic meal are directed to the Father in particular, and “Jesus Your Servant” is named as the one through whom the Father does his various salvific works. Furthermore, the doxology “Yours is the power and the glory forever” is directed not only to the Father, but also to the “Lord”—that is, to Jesus. The Spirit does feature in the Didache also, in the Trinitarian baptismal formula, and especially as the one who inspires the speech of the prophets.
The language and categories of Nicene Trinitarian theology show their influence on the later Ante-Nicene Fathers’ liturgies:2 the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinguished from each other in their processions and operations, though identified as of one undivided substance. For example, in the Liturgy of James, the Priest calls upon the “Sovereign Lord our God” to show mercy to the penitent sinners, identifies the “only-begotten Son… our Lord Jesus Christ” as present on the Table, and calls for “Thy Spirit the Comforter” to come down upon the worshipper to fit him for service. Likewise, the Liturgy of the Blessed Apostles recalls how in redemptive history, the Lord God Omnipotent purchased the sheep of his pasture through the passion of Christ, and “from the grace of the Holy Spirit, who is indeed of one nature with Thy glorious divinity” (emphasis added). The unity of the Godhead is mentioned in the liturgies of James and Mark: the Son and the Holy Spirit are addressed as “consubstantial” with each other and the Father.
The Divine Liturgy of Chrysostom likewise affirms the deity of Christ (“For You, Christ our God, are the illumination of our souls and bodies”) and the one undivided essence in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Nicene Creed, with its clear affirmation of the substantial unity of the three divine persons, features in the Liturgy of Mark and the Divine Liturgy of Chrysostom. In this latter liturgy, the oneness-in-substance of the three persons provides a motivation and model for the Church, that she should “with oneness of mind” to confess her belief in her God and live in mutual love.
The mercy of God
In terms of God’s relation to men, it is the mercy of God which enjoys perhaps the most frequent attention in these liturgies. God’s mercy is sought by the worshippers for the cleansing from the defilement of their sins (as in the opening of the Liturgy of James), for the strengthening of the weak worshipper to “administer the holy mystery” (in the Liturgy of the Blessed Apostles) and for the enemies of the Church to be put “speedily under their feet” (as in the Liturgy of Mark).
In the Ante-Nicene Fathers’ liturgies, as well in as the Divine Liturgy of John Chrysostom, the refrain “Lord have mercy [upon us]” is recited by the people (often, three times in a row), in reply to the prayers of the Priest.
While these texts clearly have distinct emphases, and they give evidence of the Church’s theological development over history, there is also evidence of a common set of concerns: Christians are, in every place, to offer up themselves as pure sacrifices to the true and living God. The centrepiece of this sacrificial action is the Eucharistic meal, which requires and effects holiness in the worshippers. We have also seen that the Church worshipped one God in three persons, and knew him to be merciful to his people.
This essay is based on a paper I wrote for a Davenant Hall class about Early Christian Worship, instructed by Professor Matthew Hoskin.
Namely, The Divine Liturgy of James the Holy Apostle and Brother of the Lord; The Divine Liturgy of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark, The Disciple of the Holy Peter; and The Liturgy of the Blessed Apostles.
This suggests that these “Ante-Nicene” texts have, at least, been reworked since the fourth century.