Who would have thought it would ever be necessary to defend the physical meeting of local churches as the New Testament norm?
But the rhetoric of some church leaders during the coronavirus lockdown seems to call for this. For example, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, recently declared in a video that ‘when we don’t go to the church building…we recover the sense that Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name I am there with them”. And they don’t even actually have to be physically gathered; virtually gathered does very well indeed. Jesus is quite up to date on this stuff’.
Certainly, there is plenty of Christian proclamation happening online and on social media during the lockdown. Christians are continuing to share the good news of God’s forgiving love in Jesus Christ. In some ways, they are seeing new doors opening for the gospel with people stuck at home having more time on their hands to face up to spiritual issues.
Furthermore, Christians at home are able to access livestreamed services and to inter-act with fellow believers online. The lockdown would not seem to demand the absolute negation of the command to Christians in the New Testament letter to the Hebrews: ‘And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day (Christ’s second coming) approaching’ (Hebrews 10v24-25).
Can Christians do that via livestreamed services or a Zoom meeting? They can. But how can an online meeting live up to the glorious New Testament definition of the church as the body of Christ?
In his first letter to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul used the metaphor of the working of a human body to teach a congregation inclined to disunity about their spiritual inter-dependence as Christ’s people: ‘For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free: and we have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many’ (1 Corinthians 12v12-14).
This New Testament description of the church as the body of Christ surely rules out putting online meetings on an equal theological footing with the physical gathering of God’s people. Christ had a physical body in his incarnate state on earth. Now in his exalted heavenly state he continues to have a physical body on earth. His body is the human members of his church gathering together locally in a shared physical space for corporate worship and mutual edification.
So, virtual Christianity will not do. Thank the good Lord, the body of Christ is not an avatar.
Yes, many of us are currently finding ourselves pondering the ‘reality’ of this or that form of ‘church’ or ‘worship’. Like the various discussions about music over the last 30 years, it is easier to get caught up in the obvious elements rather than reflect on the many layers which make up our being ‘the body of Christ’. In the first phase of where we are at present, the use of video and audio media is essentially one of keeping pastoral connection in our local ‘parish community’. We need to keep working and being intuitive about what might come next.
Social media has become a leper hole so we can watch mass priests solo. If breaking the canons is now allowed, why not just break bread in our homes in remembrance? 1552 had no “consecration”. Cranmer realised the words of institution are addressed to people, not the elements- the important thing is to eat and drink believing Christ’s promises with his words still in your ears. The heading “prayer of consecration” and “Amen” between the words of consecration and reception came back in 1662.
The Lord’s Supper versus the secret and mystic elixir of Eucharist? One for people and one for scholars, professionals, and elite.
Priests and Bishops whine and complain about Government calling Churches non-essential. Rubbish! It is the actions of the Churches themselves that have demonstrated how non-essential they are. Especially to one”s salvation. Home Churches are the future.
One must be careful in regard to “home” churches. I know many who advocate this and end up staying home and watching a sermon on TV and calling it good. Churches, corporate gatherings, of multiple people is without question the scriptural model. Whether they meet in a home or a building is irrelevant. Jesus after all worshiped in synagogues (church).
One must be careful indeed. The purpose of Church, however done is to gather as a community to worship and glorify God. Watching a sermon on an lcd screen does neither. Home Church in some ways is more demanding than corporate worship in a big building and congregation. One can warm a seat and not be stirred to true worship and glorification of God. In our Home Chapel we say the Mass in High Church form with incense on designated Holy Days such as Easter. It is a small, but reverent, gathering in true Anglo-Catholic fashion.
Sitting at home watching “church” is just what it says. Home church has to involve people meeting together in a home. Once you have that you have all the problems of a ‘regular’ church, just up close and personal. It takes a much stronger stomach … in my experience.
Churches have done a lot of damage to believers. I used to feel it was a cop-out when someone would claim to be a believer in God but not of institutional religion. Now, I sometimes wonder what is wrong with myself for sticking around all of these years. Salvation from endurance doesn’t seem right.
There are wonderful local churches, it is up to us to seek God and see what local body to which He would have us to become a member. No doubt poor and self serving leadership have indeed done damage, but I would venture to say there are many, many more that have encouraged, exhorted and equipped the saints for ministry.
There are certainly more dysfunctional congregations than functional. Clearly all the parishes I have been a part of were shattered. But this notion of ‘me ‘n Jesus” is even worse.
Is there a functional one somewhere? Would someone care to describe it for me please?
Who would have thought it would ever be necessary to defend the physical nature of resurrection as the New Testament norm?
Are you accusing the Apostle Paul of denying the physical nature of the resurrection? It was he who taught that the church is the body of Christ. For example, in his hymn to Christ in Colossians 1, both theological convictions are there: ‘And he (Christ) is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy’ (Colossians 1v18 – NIV).
St. Paul makes it very clear that Jesus was resurrected physically. He also uses analogical language to refer to the church as Christ’s body. There is no hint that Jesus’ body after the resurrection was a temporary appearance of some sort.
My connection to the institutional church began to fray in 2003. By 2012 it was essentially severed. So I’m okay “in the desert.” However, all along I have known that Christianity requires community. A series of family tragedies 2018-2019 told me that I had to get my @$$ back to church. I found a Church outside the scope of my Anglican roots.
For an interim period I’m fine will “on-line” worship. My Catholic friends are apoplectic over not being present at Mass, which kind of baffles me. Yes, Christ is present in the Elements, but He’s also present “when 2 or three” or a 5th “are gathered.”
This will pass and I will return to my parish and “all will be well, all will be well, all will be exceedingly well.”
Julian, you answered your own question.How can an online gathering be the body of Christ? “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free: and we have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” What unites as the body of Christ, to Jesus and to each other is the Holy Spirit. The body of Christ transcends both time and space. We are united to those believers who went before us and those believers who will come after us as well as to other believers around the world. The assembly of the local church, when it gathers in the same room, is an outward manifestation of that reality. It points to it. However, we should not confuse the outward manifestation of that reality with the reality itself. Online gatherings may be an imperfect manifestation of the body of Christ. But when Christians gather online to do what the church does–to worship God, to hear God’s word, to pray for God’s world, to encourage each other, and to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, it is the body of Christ even though its members are seated in separate rooms in front of a screen.
The Holy Spirit is not tied to our physical reality. He not only dwells in the inner most being of the believer but he also dwells outside of time and space. He manifests himself when we gather together in one room and when we are physically separated from each other. He is present when we gather online as he is present when we gather in person.We do not need to share the same physical space for the Holy Spirit to be present.
In-person gatherings have historically been the norm of the Church and should in my opinion continue to be its norm. However, online gatherings have a place in the life and worship of the Church.
Thank you very much Robin for engaging here. It is great to be reminded that we Christians are members of the eternal body of Christ, i..e. the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church, transcending space and time by virtue of our union with him through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Though one may be incarcerated for one’s faith, one remains a member of the body by faith in Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
But it would seem that 1 Corinthians 12 has the local gathering of believers in view as the body of Christ. Indeed, Paul goes beyond describing the local gathering as a manifestation of the body of Christ. He wrote to the church at Corinth gathered physically in a building able to fit them all in to hear his letter read out to them: ‘Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it’ (1 Corinthians 12v27 – RSV).
That high view of the physical gathering of the local church surely provides not only an historic norm for its meeting together to edify its members through the Word of God and to share bodily in the Lord’s Supper but an apostolic imperative?
Virtual Christianity will certainly not do. But it will have to do for now. As for ‘home churches’, well, we’re not at that level of persecution yet. But it may come…
‘And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good’.
These biblical words tell us that God had purpose in creation and that he was pleased with it. Although it became tainted by man’s sinfulness, God did not destroy his creation. He kept man within it, expecting him to work the land, living in families in good order and mutual support. Finally his work of salvation came about through the physical presence of Jesus among us. His earthly life was marked by physical travel and continual face to face encounter with people, often with signs (as John called them) involving physical healing. He was notably concerned for the integrity of that physical place which he called ‘my Father’s house.’
When we become Christians we do not lose our physical nature. Although we have been born to a new spiritual life, God intends us to continue living our physical lives until their natural span comes to an end, whereupon we are called home to him in that eternal realm where we shall live for eternity.
Our church buildings and our desire to meet together there for worship are witnesses to God which tell the world around us that we value him and one another in a way that moves us physically to do something purely for love of him. Sitting at home, unseen, looking at a screen cannot compare. If circumstances prevent our public worship for a while, so be it; but let us never allow the convenience of technology to cause us to settle for the sofa in preference to joining others in worship within the house of God.
Perhaps for a few months more we shall have to explore and evaluate the novelty of contact via internet. A suggestion was put forward on Anglican Unscripted for a Zoom meeting whereby followers could contribute online. I think that’s worth trying. Not as a replacement, but as another avenue of communication.
I use Skype to chat with Christian friends overseas. Being able to see each other is better than a telephone call, especially when you get to see their surroundings if they use an iPad!
ReebHerb says below that churches have done a lot of damage to believers. I think some have done a lot of damage to enquirers also! The fact that many churches are reporting a surge in on-line attendance shows I think that non Christians can get a feel of a church service without attending. They may be encouraged to contact that church and perhaps attend when things get back to normal. The sad fact is that there are churches that are very off-putting to a visitor.
No one speaks to you, asks you about yourself or offers refreshment after the service. Some churches are so riven by disputes, gossip or factions that I doubt the Lord Himself would feel welcome!
So let’s look at the positive, explore the opportunities and think about how much the love of Christ is manifested when we do come together..
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