March 14, 2007

John 8:19
"They said to him therefore, 'Where is your Father?' Jesus answered, 'You know neither me nor my Father; if you knew me, you would know my Father also.'

One of my favorite places in the whole U.S. is Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue. It is said to be the largest parish church in the country. Even more remarkable is the building's great beauty. It is the masterpiece of the architectural firm of Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Goodhue, the foremost church architects of their time (early 1900s).

When the former building burned down, naturally the parish started a fund for a new building. However, when a disastrous earthquake hit San
Francisco and the news came in of the devastation that had befallen that city; the rector was so horrified at what he heard that he rushed the accumulated monies in the building fund to their aid. When people were in such dire need, he felt, rebuilding his church could wait.

People throughout New York and the country were so impressed by this generosity that they responded in kind, sending thousands of unsolicited contributions that more than replenished the fund and made possible the splendid building that stands now. It is, among other things, a monument to the spirit of Christian charity.

Perhaps the most dramatic feature of the church is the magnificent stone reredos that covers the entire wall behind the high altar, floor to ceiling, eighty feet tall, even wrapping itself with delicate exuberance around and above the three windows near the ceiling. In this work are literally dozens of statues of Our Lord, saints, and angels.

Directly above the altar is the scene of the confession of Thomas, where he meets the risen Christ and says, "My Lord and my God!" Cram, the son of a Unitarian minister, was converted to Anglicanism as a young man and became a very devout churchman. As though he anticipated the enrichment of worship that the parish would undergo after fifty years, he built the church for such worship, incorporating suitable details that would take decades to be recognized and properly used. I don't know for a fact, but it is certainly conceivable, that he was aware of the suggestion in missals that worshippers should mentally repeat Thomas's words in the Eucharist at the elevation of the host and the chalice, and deliberately placed this scene in its position just above the altar as a reminder and a gesture to the Sacrament.

But what about the Second Commandment? How can we be comfortable with a reredos that looks like a blatant violation of the prohibition of graven images? I was aware, of course, that Episcopalians haven't seemed to be very worried about this in their church building and furnishing for a long time. But I didn't understand why not and had no good reply to Christians with plainer tastes who would challenge us on this point.

But there is a decisive reply, as the rector Fr. Mead will explain to anyone who asks. During the iconoclastic controversy in the eighth century, the argument of "the last Father of the church", Saint John of Damascus, carried the day. It was grounded on the Incarnation. Not only did this event, God's greatest watershed in human history, bless the world and make it fit for our use in worship as never before. But we have knowledge that we never had before, because we are a people who have seen Christ, and therefore we have seen God. Because Christ Himself is the perfect icon of God, we are now free to make icons.

"If you knew me, you would know my Father also."