28 September 2024
Your churchhouse should not represent a temple of worship.
So far as we know, even in its most primitive condition, the nation of Israel did have a basic literacy. In ancient times, writing was an expensive habit, and the cost of teaching people to write was both prohibitive and pointless in practical terms, but being able to read was a separate skill. So far as we know, the average Israeli could at least read the Hebrew language.
Even if they couldn't read, they could certainly understand it. Every year they gathered to hear the reading of the Covenant of Moses. It was necessary as a reminder. And Moses himself instituted the community judge system, men who understood the law and customs and could teach them. It was the kind of thing elders would discuss daily when there were no cases to judge.
The leadership was the key to this whole system. When leaders went astray, the nation went morally blind. During a couple of revivals of faithfulness, the kings would sponsor Levites and priests riding circuits to teach the people aspects of the Covenant that they might have lost.
When Israel, and then Judah, went into exile, the issue was unfaithfulness. God owned them and the people kept rejecting His demands. During the Babylonian Exile, the leadership got one message above all: Stop the idolatry.
Since there was no Temple during that time, they decided to devote their Sabbaths to the teaching of the Covenant. A Sabbath gathering would include some effort at worship, but the primary focus was a better understanding of the Covenant and their feudal obligations to Jehovah.
By the time of the Return, this became an ingrained habit. However, the leadership too quickly devolved into mundane concerns and faith evaporated again. Well before Jesus came on the scene, the synagogue had become yet again an elitist system of political and social control, not faithfulness. Any synagogue leadership that restored the focus on faith was remarkable, quite literally -- they warranted remarks as being models.
Who would be surprised that the first churches were simply Christian synagogues? They could still worship in the Temple, and that was separate from their weekly formal meetings to discuss the Scripture.
Jesus Himself placed the emphasis on personal private worship. All the more so when you include His warnings that the Temple would eventually disappear again. You could certainly gather with others for this private worship, but it had little to do with their weekly community gatherings for teaching. The proper emphasis for those weekly meetings was of the nature of a synagogue, not of a temple.
Even the verbal habit of referring to Sunday church meetings as "worship" is dangerously missing the point. The purpose is not high reverence, and it should not be a large venue like a theater. The point is to teach and discuss, the small community learning session. It should not be age segregated.
But then, kiddos should not be allowed to spend the rest of the week being highly conditioned for fast-paced media consumption that squelches their creativity and ability to pay attention for more than a few seconds. They should be able to sit still for an hour without too much fidgeting; it is most definitely a cultural issue.
Maybe someday we'll get all of this right, but for now, we need to work on what we can change, and that's our false association of "church meeting" with worship. When the Temple stood, you were expected to focus inwardly on your personal communion with God. It was not a time of putting on a show; you paid attention to the rituals and called on God internally. Rarely did any Temple gathering include reading the Scripture, and certainly no preaching. It was more about maintaining a national identity as the people of God.
We are the temple.
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