Om söndagen som ecklesiologiskt problem

Abstract

The meaning of Sunday is seldom treated from an ecclesiological perspective. One reason for this seems to be that in various catechisms and homiletical explorations, Sunday has been interpreted in the context of the Third Commandment. In Christian tradition, the Sunday and the Sabbath have greatly coincided, which fact has not, however, in its turn raised the reasonable question of the meaning of the covenants. As the expositions of Sunday are dominated by Sabbath as the day of rest, the concept of Sunday has become a predominately ethical question.

The history of Sunday is complicated. Jesus Christ observed the Sunday, but on certain conditions. During the time of the Early Church, “the Lord’s Day”/“the first day of the week”/“the eight day” was celebrated as the day of the ekklesia with no reference to the Sabbath. The central part of the Sun­ day was not obeyance but the Lord’s Supper, and the eucharistic celebration became the structuring factor of the ekklesia.

During medieval times, there was an accelerating integration of the motives of Sunday and Sabbath in Church life. A growing spititual individualism, accompanied by a weakening of the Easter motives in the observance of Sunday, contributed towards the integration of Sunday in the sphere of the moral teaching of the Church.

It is possible today to note a change in the conception of Sunday, not least in liturgical theology: the Sunday assembly - celebrating Baptism and the Eucharist - is essential to ecclesiology.

Summarizing the historical development of the Sunday, the Early Church seems to have regarded the Day of the Lord as constitutive for the Church. When, however, Church developed into a societal institution, embracing everyone in a certain territory and with governmentally approved, canonical regulations, clergy and lay people became separated in a new way. The authorities, including the upper clergy, prescribed Sunday obligations to people. And at the same time, an ongoing differentiation of Church life and, consequently, liturgical life resulted in the dissolution of the ecclesiological meaning of Sunday. A separation between liturgy, dogmatics, and piety was at hand.

1. Sabbath and Sunday as Covenant Categories. There is an interconnection between various covenants in the “Old Testament” and in the “New Covenant”. This is obvious but complicated in the history of the Church, taking into account the sabbatical contents attributed to Sunday, but also the theology of Sunday itself.

1.1 Creation, the New Creation and the Day of Rest. Sunday as Sabbath Day relates to “the order of creation”, which bears eschatological implications (Hebr 3,18f; 4,Iff). The first day of creation correlates to the first day of the New Creation. To the extent that the Church is “in Christ”, it is the New Creation. And that is celebrated on Sundays through baptism, the Eucharist, and the proclamation of the Word of God.

1.2 Sabbath as a Sign of the Covenant with Israel. According to the Sinai covenant, the Sabbath is the sign of the pact between God and his people. The Church claims to be the New Israel. As tar as Sunday is then identified with or related to the celebration of the Sabbath or has any bearing on the interpretation of the New Israel, the quest for a theology of the Sunday should be introduced by the Jewish-Christian dialogue.

1.3 The Relation between Sunday and Sabbath in the New Covenant. Sunday as an ecclesiological phenomenon is based more on eschatology, on resurrection, than on incarnation. The handing over of the Commandments at Mount Sinai is interpreted in Church as a prefiguration of the resurrection of Christ or of Pentecost. The importance of Sunday as the “eight day”, the first day of the New Covenant, exceeds the Sabbath as the last day of the old creation.

1.4 The New Covenant in the Blood of Christ. The Lord’s Supper is consti­ tutive for the New Covenant (Mt 26,27f). This is one part of the Church’s liturgical tradition (1 Cor 11,23-26). W hen the Eucharist is celebrated on Sundays, there are theological reasons for seeing it as a structuring factor in Church.

2. Sunday as a Structuring Factor in Church. The Christian Church has, throughout history, tried to clarify and establish factors in order to give it a necessary structure and thereby identity, mainly by means of communicative actions. Sunday, its celebrations, and assembly seem to be constitutive for the ecclesiality of Christian life.

2.1 Sunday Eucharist as a Unitive Element. If the Sunday Eucharist is the centre of Christian worship, then Sunday is as constitutive for Church membership as the Sabbath is for the Jewish people (1 Cor. 10, 16f). St. Chrysostomos wrote that any one baptized person, who does not take part in the Sunday assembly, separate themselves from Church. Taking part in the Eucharist manifests the body of Christ. Word and Sacrament is the memoria of the Lord and, together with the Day of the Lord, they form the dominicum.

2.3 The Eucharist as Constitutive for Sunday. If the development of the Liturgical Year dissolved the original, coherent content of Sunday, the role of the Lord’s Day as the integrative force in Christian life - the only thing which today associates all Sundays with Easter - is the celebration of the Eucharist. So, if Sunday goes without the Lord’s Supper, it is deprived of its most fundamental meaning. Sunday worship without the eucharistic celebration dissolves also the ecclesiologically significant relation between communio and communion.

2.4 Sunday as a Sign of the Unity and Catholicity of the Church. All local Churches observe the Sunday, and it therefore becomes a sign of unity in time and space and the catholicity of the Church. It is also a sign of the catholicity of the local Church itself, since the Sunday celebration inte­ grates all kinds of people who keep the memoria of the Day of the Lord.

2.5 Sunday Celebration Is a Sign of the Legitimacy of the Local Church. The presence of all the baptized people at the Sunday assembly was early seen as a criterion of the legitimacy of the local Church. The presence of the Body of Christ presupposes that everyone is present who is integrated into it through baptism. During medieval times this motive was applied less on the Church proper than on the individual. There was a shift from the legitimacy of the local Church to the identity of the individual as a Christian. In the ecumenical dialogue, the legitimacy of the folk churches has occasion­ ally been questioned, with reference to the discrepancy between the formal membership and the actual participation in Sunday worship.

2.6 The Connection between the Church and Sunday as an Eschatological Sign. Keeping the “eight Day”, the Church asserts itself as an instrument and prophetic sign of the Kingdom of God. The Church bears witness to the eschatological reality, living the existence of the resurrection.

2.7 Sunday and the Sacramentality of the Church. As the sacramentum mundi, the Church is a sign and effective instrument of salvation in its manifold dimensions. If it is true that Sunday is of importance for the theology of the New Covenant and the New Creation, it has also a significance for the theme of Church and “world”. And if Sunday is a sign and instrument for the Easter event taking place in Church and through Church, then Sunday itself - I am here alluding to St. Augustin - is a part of the sacramentality of the Church.

Finally, there is an alternative ecclesiological pattern for Sunday which should be elaborated, and confronted, with the dominating ethical ones. The purpose of this article was the indicating of this.