Throughout the OT, worshipers drew near to God moving from east to west, returning to Eden. The Christian church reversed this, so that Christian worshipers enter by the west door and face east during worship. Is this change justified? What does it signify?
No doubt many things, but this at least: Though worshipers in the OT faced west, Yahweh Himself was enthroned above the cherubim at the west-most portion of the sanctuary, facing east. We face east in worship because we have entered the sanctuary, and not only entered to do obeisance but entered to take thrones beside our High King. We face east in worship because we are enthroned with Christ in the west, in the Most Holy Place, in heavenly places.
(Thanks to Peter Roise for the conversation that led to this conclusion.)
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Revival of Patristics
On May 25, 1990, the renowned patristics scholar Charles Kannengiesser, S.J., delivered a lecture at the annual…
The Enduring Legacy of the Spanish Mystics
Last autumn, I spent a few days at my family’s coastal country house in northwestern Spain. The…
The trouble with blogging …
The trouble with blogging, RJN, is narrative structure. Or maybe voice. Or maybe diction. Or maybe syntax.…
