Sacred Roots Workshop

116 Sacred Roots Workshop: Retr ieving the Great Tradi t ion in the Contemporary Church

a. The Church Year was filled with festivals of saints, some of which were legendary, sometimes even more than one to a day!

b. Festivals were multiplied in terms of medieval doctrines, e.g., All Souls (purgatory) and Corpus Christi (the doctrine of transubstantiation).

9. The Reformers, reacting against these trends, rejected numerous dates of remembrance in the Catholic Christian Year (e.g., in Scotland, which only kept the celebration of the Lord’s Day alone ).

10. Even in the midst of this dramatic shift in Reformed practice, there was a general acknowledgment of the importance of lived time for the sake of training the masses in Christian thought and life.

III. Christus Victor : Rehearsing the Victory of Christ in Weekly Gatherings of Worship

The Christus Victor motif offers an alternative perspective on the work of Christ, viewing the cross and resurrection from the stand- point of conflict and victory over Satan, sin and death rather than ceremonial sacrifice for sins. It is a perspective that sees the plight of Israel and humankind as bondage to a power rather than laboring under guilt (though these are not ultimately exclusive perspectives). The cross and resurrection form the climax of the paradoxical battle that engages spiritual and human forces within Israel, with the cross, the harsh symbol of coercive Roman power, transformed into the symbol of Christ’s victory. In the words of Paul, “having stripped off the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, and led them in triumphal procession on the cross” (Col. 2.15). In his resurrection from the dead he has vanquished the ancient enemy: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. “Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15.54-55 NIV; cf. Hos. 13.14). Since Jesus has triumphed over his enemies, “God has highly exalted him” (Phil. 2.9) as cosmic Lord. He is pictured both as presently subduing his enemies (1 Cor. 15.24-26) and as reigning in triumph over his enemies, who are now “under his feet” (Eph. 1.19-22; cf. Ps. 110.1). And he will