On Liturgy and Worship 16 – The Fraction

In the third book (by my count, not the current publisher’s) of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, there is at the end a moment that still, after all these years causes me to catch my breath and tears to come to my eyes.

Edmund and Lucy and Eustace, after their long voyage and many adventures, have arrived at a place of great peace, they are walking across great, grassy expanses when there appears to them in the distance a great whiteness.  As they approach this glistening whiteness it resolves into a lamb, which greets them, and offers them fish, cooked over a fire.

Even when I was a little boy, the first time I read that passage, I knew who the lamb was.  Aslan, yes, but more than that, I knew, even when I first read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe that this wonderful, terrible, life-giving lion was my Jesus.  And so, I knew who the lamb was, too, and there is something in that moment of revelation that captures my heart and shatters it with love at the same time.

For this reason, I’ve been looking forward to writing this bit with great joy and great trepidation all at the same time.

Because the Fraction is the moment in our Eucharist where, after all our long adventures, we come to that place of perfect peace and the Lamb is revealed in all His majesty.

This is the moment where, for me, the heavens open and I see the Lamb seated on the throne and I hear the elders and the angels singing, and I join in on behalf of the congregation, “Allelujah!  Christ our Passover (Lamb) is sacrificed for us!” and they reply “Therefore let us keep the feast! Allelujah!”

“Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:11-12)

And it breaks my heart that we do not all fall on our faces in awe and wonder and love in praise of this revelation.  That we hurry on to finish the service, rather than dwell here with Him for as long as He’ll have us.  The liturgy itself hints at the response I long for as we cry out “Oh, Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world!  Mercy!”  But this moment requires much more of our time.  Truly, if we could see what it is we acclaim in those words, we would gaze on Him for hours and hours and never tire, never grow hungry or thirsty.  (Never worry about missing the football game!)

I want to say so much more, to pile up words to create a great wave of explanation that will sweep you up into this amazing epiphany, but I don’t have them.  My vocabulary fails, my word-processor stumbles.  So instead, I’ll close with a bit more of that passage from Revelation.

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals,for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever! And the four living creatures said, Amen! and the elders fell down and worshiped.

(Revelation 5:6-14)

In Him,

Jeff