The First Altar Guild: The Holy Myrrh Bearers

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1 Diocese of Ft. Worth Altar Guild Retreat Good Shepherd Anglican Church Granbury, Texas March 5, 2016 The Rt. Rev. Ray R. Sutton, Ph.D. The First Altar Guild: The Holy Myrrh Bearers Introduction So as the saying goes, It can always be worse. Thank the Lord you don t have to be the altar guild at a college or seminary. I will never forget a scene at Pusey House in Oxford when I was studying there. It was a Sunday Mass. It came time for the young, seminary thurifer to cense the celebrant, who was the dean at the time. The young student looked like he had not been up all- that long, even at that point in the service. So he carelessly began to cense the dean when all of sudden he dumped all the coals onto the chancel floor and caught the carpet on fire. The dean immediately hopped up and began jumping up and down to tamp out the fire. Suddenly the young thurifer awakened from his drowsiness and joined in. Others in the chancel came over to do the same, thank God. But somehow they began jumping as though it was choreographed. For a moment it looked like a Masai warrior offering dance in an African Anglican church. As things gained some controlled a number of us couldn t help but begin to laugh. Believe me, the altar guild was not laughing... Like I said, It can always get worse. Fast forward to a seminary, where now I m the dean dealing with sleepy students in training showing up to assist the Dean at a mass. As I recall it was a cold winter day. We had the practice requiring the seminarians to serve assist the altar guild and then serve at the altar as acolytes and lay readers. So on this day a first year seminarian, showed up late, looking disheveled like he had just rolled out of bed; in fact he had. I was already a little irritated at him. He was acolyting so he was responsible to help me prepare the altar after the sermon. In our beautiful chapel, we had a freestanding credence table with full cruets, breadbox, everything to brought to me at the high altar. Unfortunately, when he picked up the breadbox, the end of his cotta caught the corner of the credence table pulling it over with everything on it. Wine, water, hosts, lavabo bowl, everything on the credence table went everywhere, as it was turned over. I thought our dear collegiate chapel altar guild directress would go into shock. She didn t though, she quickly somehow responded, helped to clean up, joined in up righting the credence table, managed in the end to keep me together... I was not happy. Scenes like this have brought me always to offer a little analogy to anyone who wants to work in the church, lay or clergy. I often compare the life of serving in the kingdom of God to a sausage factory. Everyone wants to eat sausage but you don t want to see what goes into it. We all laugh because we know that a lot more goes on behind the scenes than meets the eye. And you dear ladies are the workers behind the scene that makes order out of the chaos that goes on in the Church s altars. Frankly you make us clergy and other attendants at the altar look better than we often are. In fact, I can say it... you deal with the silly, sometimes might I add stupid mistakes 1

2 we make. Bless you dear ladies, because there is always more going on behind the scenes that faithfully you deal with. On a more serious note, it s always been that way going all the way back to what I call the first altar guild, the precious women who came on Easter morning to what they discovered was an empty tomb. More was going on behind the scenes that form the foundation biblically and theologically for your vital role. This is what I want to focus on for our study this morning. The Scriptural Information First, on the day Jesus was crucified, the holy women of the first altar guild followed with those who had taken the body of Jesus from the cross. These women joined Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and the Blessed Mother of our Lord, Mary, as they all made their way to the tomb. Luke records, the women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. 56 Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they [had] rested according to the commandment. (Luke 23:55-56) Then other Gospel writers describe what happened on that first Easter morning: When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3 They were saying to one another, "ʺWho will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?"ʺ 4 Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. 5 Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed. 6 And he said to them, "ʺDo not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him. (Mark 16:1-6) Second we are given another piece of vital information about precisely what one of these holy women saw a bit later inside the tomb after she returned: But Mary [Magdalene] was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. (John 20:11-12) Based on these Scripture lessons we learn much about the transformed role of these holy women, what the Church calls, The Holy Myrrh Bearers. In fact many churches in the East are named after them. Scripture and Holy Tradition tells us that these Holy Myrrh Bearers were: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses (also called Jacob), Mary the wife of Cleopas, Martha of Bethany the sister of Lazarus, Joanna, Salome, mother of James and John the sons of Zebedee, Susanna, and some say even the Blessed Virgin Mother of Jesus. One of the oldest manuscripts, Codex Sinaiticus, includes Jesus Mother as the other woman. From the role of these women, what I am calling the first altar guild, we learn many lessons. The Lessons First is the lesson of preparation: The Holy Myrrh Bearers, the first altar guild was defined as one of preparing for the Body of Jesus Christ. Their role was preparing so they thought the dead Body of Jesus. They brought costly holy oils for this purpose. 2

3 Importantly though, their role of preparation was transformed from preparing for the dead Body of Jesus to preparation for the Living, Resurrected Body of Jesus who would come to meet them. Thus your role is defined in one powerful word: preparation for the coming of the Living, Body of Jesus to the altars of God. Second, in the empty tomb the Holy Myrrh Bearer Altar Guild came to a new altar. Remember what St. John tells us Mary Magdalene found inside the empty tomb. The text says, and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. (John 20:12) Two great angels were at the head and the feet of the sarcophagus. They were sitting, actually kneeling. Commentators note that in the world of second temple Judaism a tomb would often have a shelf on which the body was placed. The angels posture implies a shelf of some sort on which a body would have been in repose. The angels being positioned at the head and the feet, however, imply an altar configuration. The scene is reminiscent of the Ark of the Covenant in the Temple. Remember the Old Testament teaches that angels were stationed at the corners or ends of the altar. Their great wings extended over the altar forming a canopy. This is why some churches have a canopy over the altar. Others portray this with a dome or high vault over the altar, such as is often the case in the Anglican tradition. Significantly, the angels remained in the tomb in an altar posture, making the place where Jesus Body had been an altar. Thus, the women who come to the empty tomb ipso facto become the first altar guild. The Director if you will became Mary Magdalene. These Holy Myrrh Bearers, entered holy space and place, and saw their role transformed to keepers of the place where the once- for- all- crucified Christ appears. Note importantly that the space and place where Jesus body laid was holy even when He was not there. It still is today. Many of you may have been to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. As you enter, there is a sense of the holiness and sacredness of place and space. For the ancient catholic faith and church, space that has been consecrated unto God by Holy Angels or the Body of Christ, remains holy until deconsecrated. Space is not just holy while God s people are gathered there, only to return to the profane world after it is left. This is where we differ with many of our Protestant brothers and sisters who take a functional view of consecration/de- consecration. What I m referring to is the Protestant idea that a place or substance is holy only while in use. We believe that what is consecrated, remains set apart, until as in the case of the Blessed Sacrament it is consumed or returned to the earth. Rather, we hold to an Incarnational view that what is set apart, where holy angels, and the Body of Christ has been and will be, is not common. It is sacred holy ground, place and space. It is to be reverenced at all times and above all when Christ comes in the Blessed Sacrament. Indeed, even where the holy remains of saints lie in repose, the place is sacred. We recently experienced such on our trip to the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow where the remains of the Blessed St. Tikhon are kept in repose. Some of us were best to venerate this Holy Saint on our recent trip to Russia. You may know that the Soviets desperately tried to denounce sacred space. They turned this ancient Donskoy Monastery into a penitentiary for teenaged girls for many 3

4 years. After the wall came down and the monastery was returned to its consecrated purpose, the body of Blessed St. Tikhon was found. In an irreverent world where nothing is kept sacred, God s altar and holy space and place remind a cynical culture that God is still here. He meets His people at the altars set apart unto Him. Thus, Altar Guilds, you dear ladies, are keepers of holy space and place. You maintain sacred space, vessels, and all that is holy. An altar guild therefore has a holy task, which is why God has called you to be holy as you preserve the place where His Holy Presence comes and resides. Third and perhaps most important of all, the holy altar in the empty tomb teaches precisely the profound basis for realizing the meaning of the coverings of the holy vessels, like grave clothes, awaiting a Resurrection appearance of the Living, Body of Jesus Christ on the altar. Consider the significance of how the holy vessels and altar are prepared for the Blessed Sacrament. The cloths under and over the paten and the chalice are burial clothing reminding of a body. The cloth under the vessels is called a corporal. The mortarboard on top of the chalice is properly called a pall. The coverings over all are called a burse and veil. Importantly though, why is the altar set up this way is like the empty tomb? When the Bread and Wine are consecrated to become the Body and Blood of Jesus, the Resurrected Christ appears to us. The Living, resurrected Christ comes to the altar. He resides on it to be given to us for the Life of the world. This is partially why the ancient Medieval Western theology that on the altar the crucifixion is recapitulated. Our liturgy makes it clear that Scripture teaches Jesus was crucified once for all. What is recapitulated and happens again and again, however, is the Resurrection appearance of the Living Christ on the altar, to us, and in us when received. Applications First, in your sacred role as an extension of the Holy Myrrh Bearers, you every week and every mass participate in the empty tomb, preparing and waiting for the coming of the Resurrected Christ in a new, fresh appearance to all of us. You prepare the way for the priest to do his consecration that we all might receive the Living God anew. Second, in one sense you embody and remind all of us as to what rest of the people of God should be about. Although we don t do exactly what you do, we too are to prepare for the coming of the Resurrected Body of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. We come to you at the empty tomb to meet Jesus. We are able to meet Jesus there because of the work of the Holy Myrrh Bearers, the altar guilds of this life. Finally, you are the keepers of the holy space and place where Jesus has been and continues to come. You are the invisible servants, without whom God s priests cannot do what they do, re- presenting the Sacrifice God s once for all sacrifice that He might be given to us. It s kind of like that old story of the keeper of the spring.... The late Peter Marshall was an eloquent speaker and for several years served as the chaplain of the US Senate. He used to love to tell the story of the "ʺKeeper of the Spring,"ʺ a quiet forest dweller who lived high above an Austrian village along the eastern slope of the Alps. 4

5 The old gentleman had been hired many years earlier by a young town councilman to clear away the debris from the pools of water up in the mountain crevices that fed the lovely spring flowing through their town. With faithful, silent regularity, he patrolled the hills, removed the leaves and branches, and wiped away the silt that would otherwise have choked and contaminated the fresh flow of water. The village soon became a popular attraction for vacationers. Graceful swans floated along the crystal clear spring, the mill wheels of various businesses located near the water turned day and night, farmlands were naturally irrigated, and the view from restaurants was picturesque beyond description. Years passed. One evening the town council met for its semiannual meeting. As they reviewed the budget, one man'ʹs eye caught the salary figure being paid the obscure keeper of the spring. Said the keeper of the purse, "ʺWho is the old man? Why do we keep him on year after year? No one ever sees him. For all we know, the strange ranger of the hills is doing us no good. He isn'ʹt necessary any longer."ʺ By a unanimous vote, they dispensed with the old man'ʹs services. For several weeks, nothing changed. By early autumn, the trees began to shed their leaves. Small branches snapped off and fell into the pools, hindering the rushing flow of sparkling water. One afternoon someone noticed a slight yellowish- brown tint in the spring. A few days later, the water was much darker. Within another week, a slimy film covered sections of the water along the banks, and a foul odor was soon detected. The mill wheels moved more slowly, some finally ground to a halt. Swans left, as did the tourists. Clammy fingers of disease and sickness reached deeply into the village. Quickly, the embarrassed council called a special meeting. Realizing their gross error in judgment, they rehired the old keeper of the spring, and within a few weeks, the veritable river of life began to clear up. The wheels started to turn, and new life returned to the hamlet in the Alps. As servants at God s altar, you are the keepers of God s spring from out of which the Resurrected Christ comes and appears to us. Bless you and thank you. Amen. 5