Morning Has Broken

"Morning Has Broken" is a hymn that was included in many of the church hymnals after it first appeared in 1931. The author was Eleanor Farjeon who lived from 1881 to 1965 and had a number of poems and other literary works to her credit.   

It was relatively unknown until 1971 when Cat Stevens featured it on his album ”Teaser and Firecast”.
 

While many may just enjoy the melody, the hymn embraces both the first day and the wonder of God’s creation.
 

Here are some of the lyrics to help us remember and see God’s creation:
 

Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing
Praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the world
Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass
Mine is the sunlight
Mine is the morning
Born of the one light Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise ev'ry morning
God's recreation of the new day
Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing
Praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the world

The ‘first morning’ in the first verse is a reference to Genesis 1 and the creation of the universe.  

All to often we take God’s creation for granted.  We enjoy it and use it but fail often to fully embrace the wonder of creation.   Even more infrequent is the reference to God’s creation in the media.  However, there was a moment back on December 24, Christmas Eve, 1968, as the spacecraft Apollo 8 orbited the desolate surface of the moon. The Apollo craft carried a three-astronaut crew — Commander Frank Borman, Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders.  

Back in 1968 these historical space flights were the subject of national and international news as we saw the first humans to travel beyond Earth’s orbit, to travel to the moon for the very first time.  On Christmas Eve, with the earth in view out of the porthole, a bright and beautiful marble in the darkness of space, the three astronauts on board chose to read the opening verses of the book of Genesis, the words of Holy Scripture describing the wonder of creation:
 

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and He called the darkness “night.” Evening came and then morning: the first day.” (Gen. 1:1-5).

 Have you ever thought what it would have been like to be there at creation? It’s almost incomprehensible to read that first there was nothing, and then there was something. The Bible says God “calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom. 4:17). “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Heb. 11:3). The Latin term for that is creation ex nihilo (out of nothing).

 

The second stanza closes with a reference to God walking in Eden through the garden, “where his feet pass.” This is an echo of Genesis 3:8: “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.”

 The scriptures teach us that we should rejoice in each new day. In Psalm 118:24 we read the words, “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

 This is a verse that I have opened our worship services with. We call people to worship with these words, “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Every single day is a gift from God.  Every day God continues His work of Creation.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that we too often forget the miraculous and mighty works of creation in the hand of God.  He said we use all of God’s creation but we don’t remember it is a gift.   Daily, the works of God are the natural rhythms in which creation occurs.”  Bonhoeffer’s words help us know, recognize and reflect how every day is a gift from God and evidence of the Creator’s ongoing work of creation.

 Listen to some of these words from the song again, this time seeing God’s hand in creation.   The first verse says, “Morning has broken like the first morning, blackbird has spoken like the first bird.  Praise for the singing!  Praise for the morning!  Praise for them springing fresh from the Word!”  The last verse adds, “Mine is the sunlight!  Mine is the morning born of the one light Eden saw play!  Praise with elation, praise every morning, God’s re-creation of the new day!”

 I have a feeling that if we could begin each morning reciting Psalm 118:24 and maybe singing the words to “Morning Has Broken” it would help us start each day with a positive attitude.  When we the day offering praise to the Giver of all good gifts and we would see the goodness of God, not only in all his creation but in all of the people around us as well.

The Catholic Mass and Agape Feast

Most of us are aware that all Christian Communion practices have their beginnings in the Last Supper of Jesus and His apostles. That Last Supper was actually a Seder meal, and many contemporary Jews would recognize many of the elements—the sharing of the cup, the blessing, the breaking of bread, the sop that was handed to Judas—as part of their Passover celebrations.

The New Testament’s book of Acts 2:42 records that early Christians would gather together to worship, pray, and teach. In the years after the church was empowered by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, there were two different but similar customs or early sacraments that are closely related to the more contemporary practice of Communion. These two sacraments could also be called meals, as one was the Lord’s Supper and the other was the Agape feast.

In 1 Corinthians 11:20–22, the apostle Paul was critical of the church because they were getting too rowdy and even drunk at what others would later call the Agape love feast: Therefore, when you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s Supper. For at the meal, each one eats his own supper ahead of others. So one person is hungry while another gets drunk! Don’t you have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you look down on the church of God and embarrass those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I do not praise you for this! (HCSB)

Many scholars believe the early church would gather weekly for a common meal, often shared in the homes or house churches. Each meal would include a blessing, the breaking of bread, and a distribution of Communion. Over time this Communion (a Greek word for “fellowship”) became the Eucharist (another Greek word, meaning “grateful” or “thanksgiving”) and the central focus of the weekly gathering.

Piecing various historical records together indicates that this weekly common meal, sometimes called the Agape feast, included the distribution of Communion. However, independent of the Agape feast, a separate liturgy developed for Communion that did not include a meal. The Agape feast was truly a feast (think potluck with wine), and, probably because of the abuses similar to those mentioned by Paul hundreds of years earlier, it disappeared completely by the fourth century.

The apostle Jude also mentioned these Agape (meaning “love”) feasts and some problematic individuals. He wrote that some people were “spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves” (Jude 1:12, NKJV). Weekly celebrations, services, and the beginnings of what Roman Catholics now know as the Mass were anything but uniform throughout the early church. Cultural differences, location, language, and distance all had impacts on the way these early Christians would relate to each other, gather, and worship.

History records that the head of some of the local churches were called presidents, though in some locations, and over time, the heads of the church were referred to by the Greek words presbuteros and episkopos, typically translated as “elders” and “bishops.” Typically the duty of breaking bread and distributing Communion was the duty of these leaders of the church. Both history and the Bible give us indications that the early Christian community would utilize primarily Jewish prayers of thanksgiving on the Sabbath in connection with the breaking of bread and the distribution of Communion, which was their Last Supper memorial. As the believers in Jesus were removed from the Jewish houses of worship, they began to meet officially on Sundays, which was called the Lord’s Day. The apostle John, writing in Revelation 1:10, said, “On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.”

By the end of the first century, Christians began to identify their weekly gatherings as pure sacrifice as opposed to the public sacrifices to the gods, which they referred to as offerings to demons. As the apostolic community was no longer on the scene, the church would use, read, and reflect on the writings of the first-generation leaders, including the writings of Paul and the sacred writings that would become the New Testament. Various patterned prayers, singing, invocations, and remembrances were added that ultimately developed into the beginnings of what is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as the liturgy of the word.

The concept of the bread and wine being the body and blood of Jesus was acknowledged sufficiently in the second and third centuries that the Romans accused the Christians of being cannibals. There has been much controversy in the church surrounding the actual presence of Christ in the memorial service that we know as the Eucharist or Communion. We will not try to settle this controversy, but we can look at some history and some practical comments related to the development of the doctrine. History records that over time, theologians identified the Eucharist as both a memorial ritual as well as a sacrificial ritual. The Eucharist was said to be both the reenactment of the Last Supper along with a strong identification of the bread and wine with the body and blood of Jesus.

The question that arises is whether the bread and wine were symbolic and a memorial or whether there was a sacrifice and a transubstantiation— the Catholic Church term indicating the bread and wine become literally the body and blood of Jesus. By the fourth century, some of the modern teachings of the Roman Catholic Church had evolved, but not with the clarity that many would suppose. For example, we have writings by both St. Augustine (bishop in Hippo, Africa) as well as Cyril (archbishop of Jerusalem) related to the Eucharist. Augustine said Jesus is present in the Eucharist “per modum symboli,” or symbolically. (35) However, Cyril declared that in the Eucharist, Christians “offer up Christ sacrificed for our sins.” (36) Obviously there was nothing symbolic about the way Cyril viewed the Eucharist.

From my perspective the issue is not about the presence of Christ but the ability of a man, a Roman Catholic priest, to be able to transform supernaturally, call down, or have the power to change bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ. This is a role or a power that other ordained clergy or pastors of various other churches do not claim to have or believe is appropriate. The issue of symbolic versus actual is an argument that may not need to be voiced. Symbols are often actual representations. For example, the national seal of a country on an embassy in a foreign land indicates not symbolically but in actuality that the embassy is a part of that nation, even though it may be thousands of miles from the homeland. The American flag is not a mere symbol but represents the country. That is why patriots will come to the rescue of the flag that is burning or being dishonored in some way. Are a married couple’s wedding rings merely symbols? If they were, why would they be one of the central elements in a wedding ceremony and thought to be literally priceless if lost or stolen?

Misplace your wedding ring someday, and see if your spouse thinks it was just symbolic.

Both the traditions as well as the teachings of the church changed considerably over the first few centuries. By the fourth century, the first Christian emperor, Constantine, eliminated the persecution of the Christians, which led to the rapid expansion of Christianity in the empire. Around that time the local pastors of the church were first being called priests, a term that would never have been used for the leaders of the church at the time of the apostles. Priests were nonexistent in the church for the first few hundred years, but priest became the popular term for the clergy that were ordained and commissioned. As the priests took on this specialized role, the laity took an increasingly diminished role in spiritual affairs.

Soon the clergy started dressing differently from the rest of the church, and Latin became the official language of the church. Soon those who didn’t speak Latin (including nearly all of Europe after the fall of Rome in the fifth century) couldn’t read the Bible or understand the prayers and liturgy of the Mass.

There was a great amount of diversity in traditions and practices in the church. However, by the seventh century, Pope Gregory declared that the Latin Mass used in Rome was the standard, and it became the basis for what Roman Catholics knew as the Roman rite up until the time of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

In the Middle Ages, the sacraments were fully defined, the power of the church became absolute, and the sacrificial aspect of the Eucharist grew in importance while the Last Supper and meal symbolism diminished. The spiritual divide between the clergy and laity widened. The power of the priesthood was thought to be essential in the celebration and the sacrifice of the Mass. For the most part, the general public became merely spectators to an intentionally mysterious drama that the priest performed while wearing special robes and standing before an altar.

The Eucharistic prayers, consecration, and Communion became the central part of the worship service. However, the people rarely participated, as they were reminded frequently of their sins and shortcomings. The importance of receiving Communion became less important for the laity than their witness at the Mass of the consecration of the bread and wine. This led to the practice of worshipping and adoring the Eucharistic Lord (the specialized round wafer, called a host, from the Latin hostia, meaning “an offering, usually an animal”). Because so few people were receiving Holy Communion, the Fourth Lateran Council (AD 1215) required that Catholics must receive Communion at least once a year.

The sixteenth century brought about the Protestant Reformation. The pope convened the Council of Trent (1545–1563) to correct some of the abuses that had crept into the church. It also defended some Catholic beliefs that the reformers attacked. In the area of the Eucharist, the church fathers reaffirmed the real presence of Jesus. They also defended the sacrificial nature of the Mass against the reformers. In addition the Roman Missal was published, which brought uniformity to the official ritual of the Mass. The Roman Catholic Church used it for the next four hundred years.

Most Catholics continued to avoid going to Communion, believing they were unworthy, until 1910, when Pope Pius X permitted children who attained the age of reason to receive Holy Communion and encouraged frequent Communion by all the faithful. More than anything else, it was Pius X’s reforms of the Eucharist that had the greatest impact on the daily lives of Catholics. With his decree, “Sacra Tridentina Synodus” (1905), Pius emphasized that Holy Communion was not a reward for good behavior but, as the Council of Trent noted, “the antidote whereby we may be freed from daily faults and be preserved from mortal sins.” In another decree, “Quam Singulari” (1910), the pope laid out guidelines on the age of children who are to be admitted to Holy Communion. In the past, children—or better, adolescents—received their first Communions when they were between the ages of twelve and fourteen. Since Pius X’s edict, they were more likely around seven years of age, often in the second grade, as I was at St. Joseph’s School.

The text above from pages 110-118 in Communion and the Mass- Chapter 20 of "Roaming Catholics" 

Was Peter the first Pope? Should Christians pray the Rosary? Should priests be married? These are among the provocative topics addressed in Roaming Catholics: Ending the wandering to embrace the wonder" 

This thoroughly researched book presents the development of the Catholic Church in an engaging way to help Christians understand their common history shared by all. The apostle Paul referred to the church as the "Body of Christ," not the "Body of Christians." Rather than Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female he proclaimed we are to be one in Christ. 

Pastor and theologian Kenneth Behr shares his own religious evolution from a Catholic altar boy to an evangelical pastor and engages readers with a parallel story of the evolution of Catholicism. 

Click here to buy (via Amazon) the book

Click here to buy (via Amazon) the study guide;   Study guide is available free via Kindle for Amazon Prime users

History of Baptism

The history of baptism in the church is interesting and typically one of the most controversial teachings. Today there is a great deal of emphasis in many denominations on baptism, and over the centuries people have been baptized in many different ways.

The Bible actually has a lot to say about baptism. We see in Matthew, chapter three, the coming of John the Baptist, a fi rst cousin of Jesus, calling people to repentance and baptizing them in the River Jordan.

The word baptize is from the Greek word baptizo and means “to dip or immerse under water.” However, the word also can mean “to clean with water.” The Greek word was used, for example, in the way cloth was dyed: it would be immersed under water with pigment. Another example would be how a blacksmith would baptizo a piece of hot iron in water to cool it quickly and therefore make it stronger.

The Jewish followers of John the Baptist, who were called to repent of their sins, already knew a lot about baptism. In the Jewish culture, ritual washings, or baptisms, were also one of the final steps for Gentile converts to Judaism. They would be baptized (called a mikvah) “into Moses” by symbolically recalling the crossing by the Israelites of the Red Sea.

In the early church people who were converted “into Christ” were baptized typically by being immersed in water. We know this because we have historical evidence from the time of the apostles, including excavations of baptismals that are deep enough for an adult to be immersed fully. We also know from first-century writings that the bishops could grant permission for water to be poured only if there wasn’t sufficient or deep water available. 

During the first few centuries, new Christian believers would receive special instruction for an entire year. These new believers were called Catechumens, and after their instruction the church would have a huge celebration, typically right around Palm Sunday, when these new believers were baptized, given white robes, and became full members of the church. 

At that time baptism was a rite of initiation with great symbolic meaning, but it was not directly tied to the forgiveness of sins. Many Catechumens, for example, who were not yet baptized went to the Roman Coliseum and faced martyrdom confident of their salvation.

However, by the fourth century, Christians generally associated baptism with the forgiveness of all sins. As a result many people would delay their baptisms to gain maximum effect and wash away many years of sin. Emperor Constantine the Great, for example, delayed his baptism until his deathbed. The leaders of the church saw a great moral danger in delaying baptism, and fortunately for them another teaching—that baptism was necessary for salvation—became popular. St. Augustine (AD 354–430) had written, “How many rascals are saved by being baptized on their deathbeds? And how many sincere Catechumens die unbaptized, and are thus lost forever!”(15)

As a result of these dilemmas and Augustine’s teaching, two new Catholic doctrines—the doctrine of necessity (that baptism is necessary) and the doctrine of forgiveness (that baptism forgives original sin)—officially emerged. Since the mortality rate for infants was very high, soon babies were being baptized within a few days of birth. By the end of the fourth century, baptism, as an initial step of initiation into the church, split into two sacraments: baptism for infants and then a later confirmation for adolescents and adults, replacing what was typically an adult baptism via immersion that accomplished both rites. In the Eastern or Orthodox Church, babies are still baptized by immersion rather than being sprinkled, or by having water poured over their foreheads. 

By the sixteenth century, many of the reformers began to look at infant baptism in light of both early church history as well as the teachings in the Bible and encouraged each other to be baptized again. These Anabaptists, as they were called, restarted the practice in the church of what we know today as believers’ baptism, which is practiced in many of our Evangelical churches.

Not all Christians baptize the same way, nor do all Christian denominations recognize each other’s baptisms. However, many Evangelical Christians believe that water baptism identifies the believer with the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—as we are commanded in Matthew 28:19 to “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Further, water baptism identifies the believer with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. 

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Rom. 6:3–4).

While some may believe baptism is only symbolic, we also need to remember it was one of the two commonly recognized sacraments of the church. Historically sacraments were viewed as “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given to us, ordained by Christ himself.” (16) Baptism is the manner by which the church fulfills the commandment of Jesus to “make disciples…and baptize them” as well as for the believer to identify himself or herself with his or her new life in Christ.

The text above is from pages 44-46 in Baptism, Chapter 9 of "Roaming Catholics" 

Was Peter the first Pope? Should Christians pray the Rosary? Should priests be married? These are among the provocative topics addressed in Roaming Catholics: Ending the wandering to embrace the wonder.

This thoroughly researched book presents the development of the Catholic Church in an engaging way to help Christians understand their common history shared by all. The apostle Paul referred to the church as the "Body of Christ," not the "Body of Christians." Rather than Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female he proclaimed we are to be one in Christ. 

Pastor and theologian Kenneth Behr shares his own religious evolution from a Catholic altar boy to an evangelical pastor and engages readers with a parallel story of the evolution of Catholicism. 

Click here to buy (via Amazon) the book

Click here to buy (via Amazon) the study guide;   Study guide is available free via Kindle for Amazon Prime users