Heavenly Worship.

Worship begins in heaven. The Holy Scriptures record numerous instances of the drama of
heavenly adoration taking place before the very throne of God. It may be that for the person
familiar with Scripture, some of these are so apparent they are overlooked. The concept of
heavenly worship begins with Gods revelation to the children of Israel about the building of
the Tabernacle, and the manner of worship to take place within it. This revelation formed the
basis for the Old Testament worship of the Jews. Worship on earth was to reflect worship in
heaven.
Worship on Earth As It Is in Heaven.
The summary New Testament passage on heavenly worship is Hebrews 8:1-6. Here
Jesus Christ is described as the High Priest, seated at the right hand of God, Who has
accomplished salvation and reconciliation through His mediation. Verse 2 says that this High
Priest has another role also. He is the Liturgist (the word is leitourgos) of the sanctuary. Jesus
Christ Himself is the Liturgist, and this liturgy takes place in the sanctuary of the true
tabernacle which is in Heaven before the throne of God. Verses 4 and 5 say that worship on
earth is patterned after that in Heaven. This is described in verse 6 as the more excellent
liturgy which He has obtained because He is the mediator of a better covenant. The
teaching is quite clear liturgical worship is not optional. Rather, it is normative for
Christians.
Worship on earth, then, is to be an extension, a reflection, of that in the Kingdom. It is
to be a window to heaven. Christian believers cannot decide that this or that is unnecessary
and disposable because it is not contemporary or is not in vogue. The obligation is to follow
and to serve God, to accept His Word of revelation. This is the guardianship of Tradition in
the life of the Church; to remain true to the faith as revealed, as it was in the beginning.
Recall in the book of Acts when the followers of The Way were first called Christians,
meaning those who followed or acted like Jesus Christ. The implication is clear. The believers
were living lives which appeared like the very life which Christ lived. So are all believers to
live: conformed to the will of God, loving and caring for all brothers and sisters. And so are
believers to worship: In a heavenly pattern which shows forth the Kingdom of God in which
Jesus Christ reigns. The Kingdom of God is the critical element of worship for good reason. It
was the reality and advent of this Kingdom which constituted the core of the preaching and
teaching of Jesus, especially in His parables.
From the New Testament one can make three summary observations about the nature
of the Kingdom of God. First, it is a present spiritual reality (Rom. 14:17), as well as the
realm or dimension into which followers of Jesus have entered (Col. 1:13). Second, it is the
reign or rule of God which has been established in Jesus Christ, and will be consummated
when He returns (Matt. 8:11, 11:27). Third, it is the inheritance which will be bestowed upon
Gods people when Christ comes in glory (Matt. 25:34).
Christ came to bring followers into the Kingdom of His Father. This is where the focus
must be. Fr. Thomas Hopko describes it well when he says, The two comings of Christ are
held together in Christian thought, action, and prayer at all times. They cannot be separated.
When they are, it is the end of the Christian faith, life and worship. The first coming without
the second is a meaningless tragedy. The second coming without the first is an absurd
impossibility. Jesus is born to bring Gods Kingdom. He dies to prove His kingship. He rises
to establish His reign. He comes again in glory to share it with His people. In the Kingdom of
God there are no subjects. All rule with the risen Messiah. He came, and is coming, for this
purpose alone. [1]

Believers in Jesus Christ live both in this world, and in the Kingdom of God. They
experience the Kingdom in their midst through the work of the Holy Spirit. Based upon their
faith, they know it is the eternal life they have begun to experience. They recognize that is it
not yet fully manifested in this world, but will be so at the return of Christ. It is in the Church
that Christians have the fullness of the foretaste of the Kingdom of God.
Thus Jesus said, I will build My church (Matt. 16:18). His Kingdom is Life, and it is
what life on earth is about. Belief in Jesus Christ brings believers into the Kingdom of God
through Baptism and makes them its citizens. At the same time, they are made members of
His body, the Church, to be a holy nation unto Him. The Divine Liturgy focused on the
Eucharist as the mystery and sacrament of that Kingdom is indeed a living continuity with the
beliefs and practices of early Christianity.
The Ascent to Heaven.
Both of these truths, that of worship as heaven on earth and of the Church as the
presence of the Kingdom of God, are crucial to understand Early Christian liturgical worship
in its fullness. Worship is an entrance into the dimension of the Kingdom. The Eucharist
which is the focus of the Liturgy, is a sacramental thing that is, a thing of grace, a thing of
the Kingdom which involves the idea of transformation, which refers to the ultimate event of
Christs death and resurrection, and is always a sacrament of the Kingdom. [2] For the
Christian, the Eucharist is not a mere remembrance, a symbolic acting out of an historical
event in the life of Jesus Christ. Christians take the Lord and Savior at His word when He
said, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you;
he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life... (John 5:53-54). In communion
believers receive bread and wine that has become the Body and Blood of Christ by the work
of the Holy Spirit, by the grace of God.
Like that of the early Church, For Orthodox tradition there is no difference between
the Body of the risen Christ and His Eucharistic Body, that is, the Church in its two-fold
nature, spiritual and sacramental. The Eucharist constitutes the Church more surely, more
essentially, than any of its sociological aspects. In and through the Eucharist, the Church
becomes a chalice from which flows the power of resurrection for the life of the world. [3]
The Eucharist is not of this world, it is of the Kingdom. It is the Body and Blood of Him Who
rules in the Kingdom of God. Thus, how can Christians expect to receive the things of the
Kingdom on this earth? For them, Christians must go to the Kingdom. That ultimately is the
purpose of the Divine Liturgy. It is an ascent to heaven, to the Kingdom of God. It is the
liturgical and sacramental dynamic that carries Christians from this world into the dimension
of the Kingdom where they may partake of spiritual things, and participate in spiritual
worship before the Throne of God!
At a common sense level, this is simply applying to the Eucharist what Christ
expected believers to apply to their lives, for as St. Paul enjoins, our citizenship is in heaven
(Phil. 3:20). Believers are to live in a manner that demonstrates their citizenship is in heaven.
Applied to worship, this is likely what Jesus meant when He told the Samaritan woman that
the hour cometh when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the
Father. But as He went on to point out to her, the hour cometh, and now is, when the true
worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be His
worshipers (John 4:21-24). Worshiping God is not a thing of this world, it is a thing of the
Spirit. And if the Kingdom is the place of God, then the Kingdom is where the Christian had
better be worshiping in spirit and in truth!
The destination of the Liturgy is known from the outset the first words said by the
priest are Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, now

and ever, and unto ages of ages. The believers destination is the Kingdom of God, to
worship Him in spirit and in truth; to join the saints and the Host of Heaven in worship.
Fr. Schmemann writes that to bless the Kingdom is not simply to acclaim it. It is to
declare it to be the goal, the end of all our desires and interests, of our whole life, the supreme
and ultimate value of all that exists. To bless is to accept in love, and to move toward what is
loved and accepted. The Church is thus the assembly, the gathering of those to whom the
ultimate destination of all life has been revealed and who have accepted it. This acceptance is
expressed in the solemn answer to the doxology: Amen. It is indeed one of the most important
words in the world, for it expresses the agreement of the Church to follow Christ in His
ascension to His Father, to make this ascension the destiny of man. [4]
Experientially, the Liturgy is an act of Divine Beauty. To witness and to participate in
it and become aware of its aesthetic value is to become aware of Gods love for us. The point
of any writing or analysis of the Liturgy is to encourage the reader to experience and
appreciate it for its true worth. Its value, of course, is in the lasting spiritual sustenance it
provides. Here is the element that sets the Early Christian liturgical worship apart; it is not
this-worldly, rather it is an other-worldly experience. Christians ascend to heaven, of which
they are now citizens and to which they are ultimately destined, to commune with the God
who loves mankind and has shown forth this love. There Christians worship this God and
receive His gifts. This is truly what worship was meant to be: the ascent to heaven in the
company of the saints to worship and to know God.
Credits: Parts of this page are excerpted from: Williams, B. and Anstall, H.; Orthodox
Worship: A Living Continuity with the Synagogue, the Temple and the Early Church; Light
and Life Publishing, Minneapolis, 1990.
[1] Thomas Hopko, The Winter Pascha, St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, Crestwood, 1984, p.
67.
[2] Alexander Schmemann, For The Life Of The World; St. Vladimirs Seminary Press,
Crestwood, NY, 1973, p. 64.
[3] The Living God; St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, Crestwood,, 1989, p. ix.
[4] Alexander Schmemann, For The Life Of The World, St. Vladimirs Seminary Press,
Crestwood, 1973, p. 28.