Vol. VII • 1984 http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v07n3p30.htm
Biblical Creation in the Russian Orthodox Liturgy
Biblical Creation in the Russian Orthodox Liturgy
Alexander A. Bogolepov, Orthodox Hymns of Christmas. Holy Week and Easter. Russian Orthodox Theological Fund, Inc.. New York; distributed by St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary. 575 Scarsdale Road, Crestwood, NY 10707. 76 pp.. paper. $1.95.
This little book, first published in Russian in Tallin (Reval, Estonia) in 1934, presents translations of Russian Orthodox hymns of Christmas, Holy Week, and Easter, the most important holy day of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The entire book is a great joy to the Christian believer as it introduces us in a very warm, personal, joyful yet reverent way to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The surprise is how frequently and how totally inescapably He is presented as the Creator of all things. It is palpably evident that in these hymns there breathes "in particular. . the spirit of the Gospel of St. John. a lively sense that Eternal Life has entered into this life on earth, that God the Lord has appeared to men in the flesh, that men have seen Him with their own eyes, touched Him with their hands, have beheld the victory and glory of the Only Begotten Son of God (John 1:1 14,1 John 1:1-31.... reverent worship of what is for man's mind the incomprehensible union of the divine and human, which led to the birth of Him who has no beginning, the death of Him who is immortal, and life beyond the grave." (pp.7-8)
Let us now quote from the many Orthodox liturgical hymns relating us to Christ the Creator. The Christmas hymns refer to Him as "the Son who was born of the Father before all ages," emphasizing His eternal deity (p.10). He is called the Creator in His work of regeneration:
Man, who, being made in the image of God
Had become corrupt through sin, and was full of vileness,
And had fallen away from the better life Divine,
Doth the wise Creature restore anew. (p.15)
"As God at the Creation took some earth and out of it created a man, so now,
in the words of the Pre-Christmas Canon,
Thou, 0 Creator, who Thyself art born on earth,
Dost create human beings anew.
"The ultimate goal of man's recreation is to lead him back to his original
condition, `to restore the lost image of God.'
Now hath all mankind cast off its decay,
Seeing how Thou, 0 Creator,
Hast appeared on earth as the Baby
And art renewing manking and raising it up to the beauty
It possessed on the Day of Creation.
i.e., to the beauty of God's image." (p.16)
The blessing for all creation is emphasized by the Orthodox Christmas
liturgy:
At the birth of the Lord of Glory
The whole creation played with joy. (p.25)
and
Today the whole creation rejoices and is jubilant
For Christ is born of the Virgin. (p.26)
We find the following references to our Lord as Creator in the Orthodox hymns used in Holy Week:
Thou who art the Lord of all and God the Creator, Thou to whom suffering is unknown, didst humble Thyself and unite Thyself with Thy creation (which undergoes suffering), and as the Passover (as the Paschal Lamb that was slain), Thou hast offered Thyself to those for whom Thou willed to die, saying, `Eat of My Body, and be established in faith.' (p.34)
The liturgy emphasizes that the Creator Himself is uncreated: "Be mindful, all ye faithful, of the heavenly summons of the uncreated, and self-existent Wisdom of God." (p.35) How beautiful and deeply moving is this passage from the liturgy used on Good Friday: "The violent throng of those who despised God and willed to kill Him in their rage surrounded Thee, 0 Christ; and brought Thee to death like a criminal, Thou who art the Creator of all." (p. 3?) Similarly a prayer on the theme, "0 Lord, I have cried unto Thee, hearken unto me exclaims in awe:
The Creator is struck by the hand of His creation,
The Judge of the living and the dead
Is himself condemned upon the Tree. (pp.38-39)
Christ is portrayed as comforting His mother on the eve of His Resurrection
with these words:
In willing to save my Creation I willed to die,
But as the God of heaven and earth
I shall rise again, and I shall raise thee too. (p.44)
The Orthodox liturgy on Holy Saturday, the day before the Resurrection,
contains these statements:
0 Son of God, the King of all, my God, my Creator, how didst Thou
submit to this Passion? (p.46)
"The mind cannot grasp" (writes Bogolepov) "how the Lord and Creator of all could undergo suffering, how He could suffer death at the hands of beings He Himself created, or how He could be buried like an ordinary mortal." (pp. 46-47) The liturgy says, "Joseph and Nicodemus buried the Creator as befits the dead." "Come. all ye creatures, . . . let us offer our lamentations to the Creator." (p47 And how can we not be moved as modern twentieth-century believers in Biblical creation when we read in the ancient, traditional Orthodox liturgy:
Seeing Thee suspended in the Place of the Skull, Thou who didst suspend the whole earth in space without support, all creation cried out in deepest dread: "There is none holy, save Thee, 0 Lord." (p.47) How can we not be moved by reflecting upon reading these words from the Orthodox Canon of Holy Saturday, "The blessed Tomb received the Creator as one who slept, and was revealed as the divine treasure-house of life, for the salvation of us who now sing: `Blessed art Thou, 0 God our Redeemer."' (p.50) And what about the Orthodox liturgy celebrating Easter, its highest and holiest feast day? Bogolepov writes:
Nor does the Liturgy on the first day of Easter make reference in its Gospel to the Resurrection of Christ, instead it tells of the eternal begetting of the Son by the Father, and of the Divine nature of the Son. It tells us that in the beginning, before the appearance of the visible world, the Word or Logos existed, Creative Intelligence, Divine Wisdom and Power; that this Word was with God, and was God. All things came into being in the world through Him, and without Him there has been nothing created. And what is most important: in Him was life, the fullness of vital energy, which He has brought to the people in the world. "I have come," said Christ, "so that men might have life, and have it in all its fullness." (Jn. 10:101. But when He who made the world came into the world with the new gift of life, the world did not recognize in Him its own Creator and Source of Life.. . Only the Author of Life Himself, the very Creator of the world, could resurrect the dead and bestow upon men the possibility of life after death. St. John's doctrine of Christ as God-the-Word raises to the very highest level our understanding of His work and of the significance of "the saving Pascha of our God." (pp. 60-61)
Bogolepov ends his beautiful little book as follows:
In Orthodoxy the spiritual life is regarded in the light of the Resurrection. Orthodoxy lives under the sign of the Resurrection, and this victorious sign fills men with courage and hope that God's truth will triumph amidst all the vicissitudes of human life. (p.78)
He might have pointed out again that the Resurrection depended on the power of "the Author of Life Himself, the very Creator of the world," but truly such reiterated emphasis is not needed for one who has faithfully read the entire book. This book is a great and special blessing to the Christian who believes in Biblical creation. Indeed it is so alive with the spirit of Biblical creation that we might wish to give it to friends, and consider using it as a soul-winning instrument. It is filled with life, joy, truth, the simplicity of the Gospel. and a sense of living communion with Christ and with fellow believers. Whatever one's doctrinal or theological differences might be with the Russian or Eastern Orthodox Church, they need in no wise detract from enjoying this book, a fact which is a beautiful testimony to "mere Christianity" and its foundation truth of Biblical creation.
Reviewed by ElIen Myers
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