Hebrews - Back to the Burning Bush Report #8 Do Christians go to Church? Well…yes and no.
The account of Moses’s distraction by a bush that appeared to be burning but never consumed is well known. The initial distraction quickly transformed into a holy encounter with God, Moses removed his shoes and walked barefoot on holy ground.
This is as typical as it is unique. Something gets our attention and before we know it, we’re grappling with a depth of thought that carries us towards God…or God comes close to us.
I’m reading through Hebrews in the New Testament (my money is on Paul as the author, but the authorship isn’t known).
This series is like a journalist reporting on scenes he’s been sent to comment on.
Report #7 – Do Christians go to Church?
‘…you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to….angels…to God…’ Hebrews 12 v22,23
It’s Sunday morning, 8.28 to be precise, and I’m intending to ‘go to church’. The service starts at 10.30 and will last approximately an hour after which there might be tea/coffee/cakes and convivial conversation.
You know the drill.
At the time of writing Hebrews, it is unlikely that this Jewish community of believers would have met in a ‘church building’ and we have no knowledge of how they would have passed the time when they had gathered. It’s unlikely it would have been a Sunday – that was a working day in most of the Roman Empire.
All the paraphernalia we associate too easily with the word ‘church’ may well have been noticeably absent. Congregational singing, hymns, songs, a ‘worship band’, a variety of instruments, amplification, a dress code, notices, collections, liturgy, regular preaching…the list goes on. It took centuries for our present version of ‘church’ to settle into its traditions.
A Christian is someone in whom God the Holy Spirit has taken up residence.
‘If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His’ Rom 8 v 9
So, when Christians ‘go to church’ it is a meeting of individuals in whom God the Holy Spirit is indwelling. Perhaps picture each Christian as a light bulb switched on. So, when Christians gather, the light becomes greater.
The essence of verses 22,23 shatters any notion of ‘going to church’ being a man-led event. It is a meeting with God, the living God.
Is God capable of leading the meeting? Wel…erm…yes. Leaders, whether our tradition calls them pastors, Vicars, priests, elders, or ministers, should be believers who know what it is to be ‘led by the Spirit’ so they can model to the congregation what being ‘led by the Spirit’ means in life and when the church gathers together.
Does this mean we have to abandon all structure, pull down our buildings, disrupt all plans, and disband any form of leadership?
It’s subtle and yet sharp. You may have read of when Uzzah put his hand out to steady the cart:
‘Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against Uzza, and He struck him because he put his hand to the ark; and he died there before God’ 1 Chronicles 13:10
The priests learnt that their task was to carry the presence of the Lord, not use their strength and abilities.
All of us, as the book of Hebrews has taught us, are priests of the order of Melchizedek – carrying the presence of the power of an endless life. When we meet, therefore, we should be carrying the presence of God into the meeting. No one can predict what God will do amongst His people when they meet.
But the Spirit can be grieved by leaders who, like Uzzah, put their hand out to steady the ark. Death follows. Life disappears from the meeting. You are left with the husk, not the grain, or, as the New Testament puts it ‘the outward form of godliness but denying the power’.
There is only one solution. Like a grain of wheat, we must be willing to go into the ground and die to any notion that we are in control or have any role in ‘keeping the show on the road’. This is the risk of true faith. What that looks like precisely no one can know. But you’ll know. Switching fuel tanks from you to God is deeply personal. You’ll know.
When I eventually ‘go to church’ this morning, it will be with this mentality. Carrying the presence of God like this is not dependent on our circumstances. We weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who are rejoicing. Jesus was ‘anointed with gladness above his companions’, but also a ‘man of sorrows acquainted with grief’, but whatever condition He was in, He carried the presence of God.
He had peace. On occasions, he had healing to give away. Sometimes a parable to share. When he was physically shattered, He met a woman at a well, and God showed Him personal details of her life, the fruit of which was the conversion of a Samaritan village.
To conclude. Do Christians go to church? If you’re a believer, reading this, and about to go to church this morning, whether a leader or not, let us be careful not to be like Uzzah, rather die to any notion that ‘we’ are in control of events. Let us lay down our ‘roles’, if we have any, and as the verse above says, lift our eyes up to God…and be expectant. And if we have no particular role, to ‘see’ that we are here, just like any of those who are more prominently ‘leaders’ to worship the living God.
We are on holy ground. Let us take off our shoes.