The idea of storytelling has come up more than once in this series so far. The Gloria for example worships God through an overview of salvation history. And we’ve seen how even the form of the service itself in some traditions is way of telling the story of Jesus. But nowhere is the liturgical storytelling more clear than in anaphorae, that is, the prayers over the bread and wine during the Eucharistic liturgy. From our earliest records, these prayers have always recounted the Christian story. But the thing about stories is, how you tell them matters. One telling may emphasize one aspect of a story, while another may ignore that piece completely and focus on something else. It’s why we always want more than one witness if we want to understand what really happened. And that’s why I love the fact that the most common Eucharistic rite used in the Anglican Church of Canada includes a selection of six different anaphorae, six different versions of our story and framings of what the Eucharist is and does.
Today I’d like to do something a little different from the norm in this series, and survey all six of these prayers and explore a bit their different emphases, before turning at the end to the debate about the value of variety versus consistency in liturgical services. (The texts are available online, starting on p. 194)
Eucharistic Prayer 1 begins at the very start of the story, emphasizing the creation of humanity in God’s image, and God’s continuing care for us after the Fall through the promise to Abraham, the freeing of God’s people in the Exodus, and the renewing message of the prophets. The second half of the prayer focuses on the Incarnation and Jesus’ ministry of healing, hospitality, and the radical Good News of God’s Kingdom. This frames the institution of the Eucharist as a continuation of that ministry, as a lasting sign of the incipient Kingdom, and ongoing revelation of God’s will. The prayer calls Jesus’ death a “perfect sacrifice,” which “destroys the power of sin and death,” and his resurrection as the gift of eternal life. All this leads to the epiclesis (the part where the priest calls down the Holy Spirit to transform the gifts), which, taking is cue from the Eastern liturgical rites, calls the Spirit down not just on the gifts but on us too, in rightful recognition that the true miracle and sacrament of transformation in the world is us.
If Eucharistic Prayer 1 has a focus on Christ’s ministry, Eucharistic Prayer 2 tells the story in a way more reminiscent of the Christus Victor atonement model. It begins by identifying Jesus as the “living Word,” the agent of all creation, then jumps immediately into the Incarnation. Already by the third stanza it is focused on Jesus’ death, as a voluntary sacrifice by which he might “shatter the chains of devil and death,” and which “bring us into the light of [God’s’] presence” through his resurrection. The second half of the prayer covers the words of institution and epiclesis. While this epiclesis does not call the Spirit upon “us” the way the first prayer does, in calling the Spirit upon the bread and wine, it asks that it “gather into one all who share in these scared mysteries, filling them with the Holy Spirit and confirming their faith in the truth….”
Eucharistic Prayer 3 introduces even more liturgical variety by starting with one of several possible prefaces. They all focus on blessing God for the wisdom in the order of creation and salvation history. It then thanks God for the gift of creation, for God’s faithfulness to God’s people, and for God’s final revelation in and through Jesus, who has led us “out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life.” After the words of institution, it focuses on the gifts of bread and wine as an offering from creation, and the Eucharist as a sign of the New Creation: “In the fullness of time, reconcile all things in Christ, and make them new, and bring us to the city of light where you dwell with all your sons and daughters…”
Eucharistic 4 presents the story like a psalm with a refrain. It’s also famous (or infamous) for zooming out and presenting a more cosmic and therefore ecological perspective on the Christian story:
At your command all things came to be:
the vast expanse of interstellar space,
galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses,
and this fragile earth, our island home.
It speaks too of the creation of humanity “from the primal elements” and the gifts of “memory, reason, and skill” God gave us. But it then refers to the advent of sin, and God’s consistent calling us back, “through the prophets and sages” and finally through Jesus. His death is framed through Isaiah’s suffering servant. After each of these stanzas, the congregation responds “Glory to you for ever and ever.” After the words of institution, its epiclesis goes even further than Eucharistic Prayer 1, asking for the Spirit to be poured out on not just “us and and this offering of [God’s] Church,” but also “upon the whole earth,” in the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom, “where peace and justice are revealed, that we, with all your people, of every language, race, and nation, may share the banquet you have promised.”
Eucharistic Prayer 5 continues with the call-and-response format of number 4, but with a simplified perspective. I think of it as more of a Sunday School Eucharistic prayer. It thanks God for creation and for creating us to love God and others, and for sending Jesus to heal the world from our rebellion and “gather us into one great family.” It speaks of Jesus’ ministry of care for the poor and hungry and suffering alongside the sick and rejected, and his loving and nonviolent example of refusing to strike back at those who betrayed him. Its epiclesis too includes us as well as the bread and wine, “that we may know the presence of Jesus in the breaking of bread and share in the life of the family of [God’s] children.”
Finally, Eucharist Prayer 6 provides a more mystical telling of the story. It begins by describing God as “dwelling in light inaccessible,” surrounded by angels “beholding [God’s] presence.” It continues on in this Wisdom vein, speaking of creation as a revelation of God’s wisdom and love, and focusing on our creation in God’s image and our vocation to care for the whole world. When we disobeyed and fell away from God, God did not abandon us but “again and again” called us into covenant and to a greater hope. This prophetic hope is fulfilled in Jesus, who lived out the Isaiah manifesto and destroyed death in his death and resurrection to make “the whole creation new.” Jesus then sent the Holy Spirit “that we might live no longer for ourselves,” “to complete his work in the world.” It ends with the standard words of institution and an epiclesis that again includes the congregation as well as the bread and wine.
That was long, but I hope instructive. But what are we to make of it all?
There’s always a debate within and between various Christian traditions about the place of variety and diversity on the one hand, and uniformity and consistency on the other. Variety makes things interesting, says the one side. Variety is the enemy of participation, says the other. I really do understand both sides, which is why I love the fact that our prayer book includes these, limited, options. If nothing else, as a big believer in narrative theology, spirituality, and psychology, I think it’s a helpful object lesson that no one grand narrative is big enough to hold our Christian story. Just as our Scriptures speak of sin and salvation in different ways, and use many metaphors to describe what Jesus’ death on the cross accomplished for us, so too do we need to remember that we not only can tell our Christian story in different ways, but doing so only adds to our understanding of the faith. We can zoom out and take a cosmic approach, we can zoom in on God’s faithfulness to Abraham and his descendants, we can focus on Christ’s victory over death or his life as an example for us or his nonviolent love. None of these are either/or situations, but a resounding and faithful YES!
Pour out your Spirit upon the whole earth and make it your new creation.
Gather your Church together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom,
where peace and justice are revealed,
that we, with all your people, of every language, race, and nation,
may share the banquet you have promised;
through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ,
all honour and glory are yours, creator of all.
Glory to you for ever and ever. Amen.
Matthew Root 