The topic we are looking at this morning is ‘What is the Church?’ I wonder what you think of when you think of the word Church. You might think of all of the richness and ceremony of the catholic and orthodox traditions. You may well think of chapel services. Or if you’re more up to speed and trendy you may well think of a large nondescript building with a full band leading worship and strobe lighting and maybe even a bubble machine.
None of these are church. They’re expressions of church but they aren’t church itself. The Book of Acts documents the life of the early church, in fact most of the new testament excluding the Gospels and Revelation document the early life of the church as it grows, develops and finds its feet. So it is to here that we turn. Acts 2: 42-47. When I began at university I found myself needing to pick a church to go to from the huge array on offer in Reading. The booklet listing them all and their locations, service times, websites etc in the chaplaincy was almost bigger than the one showing the same information for all the other faith groups places of worship. I ended up in a Baptist church. Why? Because the worship was close to what I was used to, because there was good strong teaching but mainly because I felt welcome. The church had over 500 members across its 4 Sunday services but you never felt lost, people always came to chat to you and it felt very much like an extended family, all working together to support each other in life, in how to live out their faith, and in how to help the communities that they found themselves in. If we look back at the passage from a moment ago we can see the similarities. This church described in Acts is a vibrant community of believers who are eager to learn more about their faith and to live it out. Eager to support each other, to share in fellowship, and in meals as we will be doing later. And to prayer; for without prayer we can do nothing. This church is a family. They share everything with each other treating all as equals, those in need being supported by those with more. They support each other through life, collectively having the experience and the knowledge to be able to support those who need it, to be there for each other when times are tough and to rejoice together when times are good. They grow together in hearing God’s word and being taught by the apostles. They muddle through life together, living for God to the best of their ability. This church sounds amazing; I’d love to be a part of a church like this. One that shares everything, shares meals together, grows together, worships daily together. It is this same longing after this sort of church that inspired the monastic movement. The creation of monasteries and nunneries that lived out these principles, generally behind closed doors though. And that is where the similarities end. In adding walls the monasteries separated themselves from society whilst the church has always thrived when it’s got stuck right into it. Where they got it right though was in attending to the needs around them. The early Christians sold all they had and gave the money to those in need. The monasteries were centres of learning, of teaching the faith to those who couldn’t read it for themselves, they built and ran hospitals and schools. They welcomed strangers and travellers to give them food and shelter on their journey. I wonder what needs our society has that the church can fulfil. They met daily to worship and pray and share together. This was no part time thing. As far as we are told nobody asked them to meet daily. They chose to, they wanted to keep meeting together, to keep worshipping God, to praise Him for all He had done for them. I wonder what might happen if we caught this attitude today; to not go a single day without gathering to pray and worship and support one another. And look at this church in Acts. It’s growing, rapidly, every day more are coming to faith and joining the church. Why? Was it because they had the best kit, were up to the minute in their choice of sermon topics and worship songs. No, not that any of these things are bad things. But on their own they’re not enough. They grew because they were a group of people who knew what good news they had. Who shared it with those they met. Who were authentic in living out their faith together. Authentic faith; in a God who loved them so much that He paid the ultimate price in letting His Son die a brutal death on a cross so that those who had put Him there could know God, to have relationship with Him, to know Him and to be with Him forever. This knowledge bringing authentic Joy; knowing all that God had done for them and that they were free to live for Him released a Joy that could not be quenched. Not a surface level happy clappy happiness. But a deep rooted, even if life is tough even if not everything is going my way God is still good and still loves me sort of Joy. We may not always feel happy but Joy is deeper than that. It’s a knowledge that God is in control and has something better. This Joy led to authentic community; a community that genuinely cared for all who found themselves in it or encountering it. Whether rich or poor, slave or free, Jew or Greek, all were welcome to come and join the community and find God for themselves. And in all this time from the beginnings we read in Acts all the way up till today 10th May 2015 in Holy Trinity Church Hall the Church has been growing, changing and developing. New leaders, new ways of doing things, splits, reuniting; ever changing, ever new. But always the same. Thousands of years of worshipping God, of living the faith, millions of people before us and countless who will come after us. And in the face of an ever changing world, the Church with its ever changing leaders has proclaimed a never changing God, a God who is trustworthy and true. And the Christ who gave His life for the Church and is its eternal leader. For it is never humanity that is head of the church, it is run by people, and people are messy and make mistakes, it has its systems and its hierarchy but ultimately the head of the universal church, and the head of every local church, is not the person at the front or the person at the top, its Christ. And as the Church we are to proclaim Christ’s message. An eternal unchanging message. And it is this stability and bedrock on which the church is built. An eternal and unchanging message of an eternal and unchanging God. The church is the place where real people, broken, messy, hurting people, come together to support one another to worship the real God, the loving, generous, gracious and merciful God who made us and saves us.
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AuthorAn Anglican Curate in my 20's I was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church, attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and was a member of a New Monastic Community after graduating. As such my faith has been influenced by these experiences and traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Archives
September 2022
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