Ship of Fools: Why 'Maranatha' ?

Thread: Why 'Maranatha' ? Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Eirenist (# 13343) on :

Apologies is this is the wrong board for this thread, or the point has been discussed before, but I am at a loss to understand the use of the acclamation 'Maranatha!' in some service orders (Anglican) that I have looked at recently. Is it thought by those drafting these documents that Jesus won't understand unless he's addressed in his native Aramaic? I suppose the use of 'Alleluia' is no different, but that is a relatively familiar word, whereas I don't suppose anyone outside a handful of folk ever uses the word 'Maranatha' from one year's end to the next. The effect is to make Christianity look ever more weird and cliquey than ever.
Can anyone shed light on my darkness in this respect?

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

I'd guess it is something to do with a reading in the lectionary, no?

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

quote:
The effect is to make Christianity look ever more weird and cliquey than ever.

I dunno. I first became aware of a denomination called Maranatha when I was in my teens, mid 80s or so. I never thought it sounced weird or cliquey, even though I was unaware of its meaning. If anything, it made me mildly curious to find out more about the group. (Not that I ever did)

To an outsider, a name like Emmaus Lutheran Church or Our Lady Of Perpetual Help is gonna sound pretty off-the-wall, too. That's not much of an argument for not using them.

Granted, if an Anglican church is gonna use a phrase that might be unfamiliar to many of its congregants, to say nothing of the general public, it might be helpful to explain what it means. Though they probably can't do that every service without the celebrant going bonkers delivering the same explanatory lecture over and over again.

[ 10. February 2015, 13:57: Message edited by: Stetson ]

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :

The word is in the liturgy I use at one of the churches I attend, but it is also defined when it is used. I think we say, "Maranatha, come Lord Jesus." Personally, I find the connection to so much history powerful even if it is only a small connection in that particular case.

Posted by Garasu (# 17152) on :

I confess that when I first encountered it, I assumed it had something to do with Buddhism...

[Hot and Hormonal]

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Garasu:
I confess that when I first encountered it, I assumed it had something to do with Buddhism...

I'm guessing because of this? I think I used to make that same vague association.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Garasu:
I confess that when I first encountered it, I assumed it had something to do with Buddhism...

I'm afraid I thought it was some Psychedelic/Prog Rock band, c 1973. [Hot and Hormonal]

Posted by Oscar the Grouch (# 1916) on :

I find it interesting that there are a couple of Aramaic words which seem to have been retained in the worship and prayer life of the early Church - even where Aramaic would probably have not been known and where Koine Greek was in use.

One was "Abba", which seems to have been the word that Jesus taught his disciples to use. Another is "Maranatha", which is found in 1 Cor 16:22 and also appears in the Didache. Just as "Hallelujah" was taken over by non-Hebrew speakers as a praise utterance, "Maranatha" seems to have been used in a similar fashion, as an utterance of longing and expectation: "Come, Lord!"

Posted by Belle Ringer (# 13379) on :

I thought from the title the question was: In what way and when are we asking Jesus to come and do we really mean it?

I was briefly with a (young and silly) group excited about the possibility of Jesus coming back "this afternoon," but by their theology anyone "not saved" when Jesus returns would go to hell. My Dad was by their definition "not saved," so I didn't want Jesus to come back yet, which I knew meant I was a bad Christian since we are supposed to want Jesus' return more than we want our families saved from hell.

Oh well, I've gotten used tp being a bad Christian: I want to visit the Grand Canyon and a few other amazing places before the world burns up. [Smile]

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

In Brazil, the Maranatha church is known for having good drummers.

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

That word was also floating around in the 1970s, and since I was a child, I thought nothing of it - it was one more word I learned in a religious context alongside all the others. Though it seemed more on the fringes even in the Assemblies of God (the tradition I was raised in). By "fringes," I think I mean the hippie/coffee-house types (anyone remember those? I have a very vague memory of sitting on my mother's lap in one of those coffee house services when I was little. I think she was there to be polite to a friend who was into it).

Anyway, I grew up on my grandfather's farm, which he bought for his retirement. There had been a large building we called the "chicken coops," even though there were smaller, outside structures where I remember gathering eggs from the chickens when I was really little. (Eventually, grandpa told us foxes got the chickens, though as an adult, I suspect my grandparents slaughtered and ate them. I never saw any foxes around!) Anyway, some hippie group that was loosely affiliated with our church somehow - I think some kid in our church's youth group was involved in their group too - came to the farm to camp once, and they vandalized the chicken-coop building where they had spent the night, spray painting "Maranatha" all over its interior. So that's my main memory of the word! You have to wonder just how religiously worked up they'd gotten in order to do that... The matriarchs in my family were quite upset, because, by their definitions, my grandfather was "unsaved," and the vandalism was going to set them back in their witness to him.

I've never heard it in an Anglican liturgy, but I'm in the US, and my experience is mostly with cathedrals. Can anyone provide a link or something?

Posted by Oscar the Grouch (# 1916) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
I was briefly with a (young and silly) group excited about the possibility of Jesus coming back "this afternoon," but by their theology anyone "not saved" when Jesus returns would go to hell. My Dad was by their definition "not saved," so I didn't want Jesus to come back yet, which I knew meant I was a bad Christian since we are supposed to want Jesus' return more than we want our families saved from hell.

Oh well, I've gotten used tp being a bad Christian: I want to visit the Grand Canyon and a few other amazing places before the world burns up.

Yup. Been there, too.

I remember reading stuff like "Late Great Plant Earth" by Hal Lindsey. I must have read half a dozen books of that ilk. Scared myself silly one evening when I got convinced that "it" had happened and I had been left behind.

And don't get me started on the emotional blackmail of "I wish we'd all been ready" by that charlatan Larry Norman.

And then there was the film "A Thief in the Night".... [Projectile]

Posted by Oscar the Grouch (# 1916) on :

quote:
Originally posted by churchgeek:
I've never heard it in an Anglican liturgy, but I'm in the US, and my experience is mostly with cathedrals. Can anyone provide a link or something?

There are a couple of places in C of E Common Worship where it can be used - mainly during Advent.

One of the prayers provided for the Advent Wreath:

quote:
People of God: prepare!
God, above all, maker of all,
is one with us in Christ.
Maranatha!
Come, Lord Jesus!

God, the mighty God,
bends down in love to earth.
Maranatha!
Come, Lord Jesus!

God with us, God beside us,
comes soon to the world he has made.
Maranatha!
Come, Lord Jesus!

We are God’s children,
we seek the coming Christ.
Maranatha!
Come, Lord Jesus!

And one set of intercessions for Advent has the following refrain:

quote:
Maranatha:
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

I like the fact that the C of E is seeking to reclaim the word from the exclusive use of fundamentalist whackos!

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

I've heard this word a couple of times. This and a few others (shalom was popular for a while) seem to appeal to some people and turn others away. Either pick up a tambourine or head for the door.

Posted by fullgospel (# 18233) on :

Marantha is in the AV Bible ('King James').

http://biblehub.com/greek/3134.htm

As are Lamma lama sabachthani and Talitha cum.

Like alleluia and the kyries it takes me back to (near) the beginning.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

I had a grandmother named Talitha cumi (or variant spellings thereof).

Posted by Bob Two-Owls (# 9680) on :

A couple of years ago I happened upon a service in a Cathedral I was visiting where the person giving the lesson was slinging Aramaic and Hebrew around like it was linguists happy hour. The gentleman next to me leaned over and said "I'm thinking of going Catholic, at least I understand a bit of Latin".

Posted by *Leon* (# 3377) on :

The World Comunity for Christian Meditation suggests that Maranatha is a good mantra

Posted by Uncle Pete (# 10422) on :

A grace before meal in a very conservative Catholic household in the early 1970s

quote:
Maranatha, come Lord Jesus,
Come dine with us.
Alel, Alelluia,
Come dine with us!

Very popular with the kids.

It is certainly not "new". I hung around a bit with the Catholic charismatic movement in my student days in the sixties, and it was in use then, and had been before.

Morris West wrote a novel,Clowns of God, about end times and a Pope who was forced to resign when he began to preach it. One of the orderlies in a hospital where he was recovering from a stroke was Mr Atha, who at the end of the novel revealed his first name: Maran.

PS: The world survived, but was never quite the same.

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
I thought from the title the question was: In what way and when are we asking Jesus to come and do we really mean it?

And I was thinking that I'd prefer it if he stayed away.

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

quote:
Originally posted by leo:

quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
I thought from the title the question was: In what way and when are we asking Jesus to come and do we really mean it?
And I was thinking that I'd prefer it if he stayed away.

When I feel particularly overwhelmed by the evil in the world-- from the large scale (genocide, ebola) to the small scale (child abuse, sex trafficking) I often pray "Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus Come". I yearn for Jesus to come and set things right. I think that God himself puts that prayer, that yearning, in our hearts.

otoh, since he hasn't answered that prayer yet (although I believe in faith that one day he will) we are left to roll up our sleeves and do something about it ourselves-- with his help.

Posted by The Phantom Flan Flinger (# 8891) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
I'm afraid I thought it was some Psychedelic/Prog Rock band, c 1973.

Maybe.....

quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
In Brazil, the Maranatha church is known for having good drummers.

But then again...

Posted by Belle Ringer (# 13379) on :

quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:

quote:
Originally posted by leo:

quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
I thought from the title the question was: In what way and when are we asking Jesus to come and do we really mean it?
And I was thinking that I'd prefer it if he stayed away.
When I feel particularly overwhelmed by the evil in the world-- from the large scale (genocide, ebola) to the small scale (child abuse, sex trafficking) I often pray "Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus Come". I yearn for Jesus to come and set things right.

My latest "theory" - when you look around at what humans willingly do to each other and to the planet, maybe we are the demons.

Jesus setting things right never seems to include negative impacts on our own interests and comforts.

What are we actually expecting Jesus to do - change or restrain the bad guys? Who are the bad guys? I'm currently running central heating, consuming planetary resources. Maybe I'm one of the bad guys who should be hiding under a rock?

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
What are we actually expecting Jesus to do - change or restrain the bad guys? Who are the bad guys?

My 2nd para addressed this.

[code]

[ 11. February 2015, 20:54: Message edited by: Eutychus ]

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