See You In Church
Essay Posted April 17, 2007 by James E. Nelson
A couple of weeks ago I reported that a church school student asked if it were a sin not to go to church. I’ve been informed that it’s unfair to leave my readers hanging and that it is high time to answer the question here on the web site. I didn’t answer the question in the aforementioned essay because the answer is an essay in itself. This is so because the student asked the wrong question. As Karl Barth used to say, 90% of good theology is learning to ask the correct questions. And in this case a proper answer requires reframing the question. “Is it a sin not to go to church?” implies that the point of our life is about sinning or not sinning, and that is not the point of our life.
The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?” The answer is, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Life isn’t so much about sinning and not sinning; it’s about glorifying God, according the Westminster Divines. The Orthodox answer goes even further, giving content to what it means to glorify God. As St. Irenaeus, the early Gallic theologian, puts it, “The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ . . . [became] what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.” Athanasius said a similar thing (and here I am paraphrasing Athanasius) when he said that the Word of God (that is, the Second Person of the Trinity) took on human nature so that he could give us a divine nature. This is language drawn from 2 Peter, that through Christ’s “precious and very great promises” we might escape the corruption of the world and become “partakers of the divine nature.”
The Apostle Paul describes the same reality in a slightly different manner. We are creatures and as creatures we can’t look upon God or grasp what God might be like on our own. So it is that Jesus Christ became human, and by uniting his deity and humanity, we were able to actually look at God and see what God was like. It was as if a veil had been removed from our eyes, and we could see for the first time what the potential of the image of God truly was. He describes it this way 2 Cor. 3:18. “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another.” We become that which we concentrate on. With the correct focus on Jesus Christ’s glory we can be “transformed into the same image, the same glory from one degree of glory to another.”
So the more proper question is, “What do I do to be transformed into the image of God?” Of course, there’s no single answer to that question, but this question does help put worship into context. Worship is one of the primary means of transformation because it gives meaning to nearly everything else we do. It is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice, bringing together the whole body. It is a communal event. Just as it is very foolish to try to direct your own spiritual life without the insight and advice of another (because we so quickly, readily, and easily deceive ourselves), so it is foolish to think we can adequately worship the triune God (who is unity in community) in solitude. Finally, it is the place designated by God where God and humans come together. It is our journey into heaven where we gain the context and perspective necessary to live properly on earth.
So, how can we possibly hope to be transformed into Christ’s image if we forsake church attendance? The Holy Spirit does not work in a vacuum, and if we give nothing to the Spirit to work with, if we live our lives in a spiritual vacuum, how can we expect God to change us from one degree of glory to another?
But it is not simply a matter of attending a service in church, it is doing the work of worship as we are called to do. First, we cannot just sit back and idly observe the pretty sights, pretty sounds, and pretty smells. Worship is the leitourgia (the liturgy), a Greek word that means “the work of the people.” Going to church does not mean we are attending an event but attending to the task at hand; it means we are actively praying the liturgy. Going to church also means that our hearts are open to the voice of God. It means we listen to the Word of God read and proclaimed so that we can obey. This is critical. As Fr. George Pappas writes in the weekly bulletin over at Holy Trinity, “If you didn’t arrive in time for the reading of the Gospel, please refrain from taking the Eucharist.” And that brings us to the apex of worship: going to church means participating in the Eucharist. In general, there is no sound reason to attend worship if you do not also participate in the Body and Blood of Christ.
The Son of God didn’t become a cuddly little baby just because it would look good on a Christmas card and boost the stock price of Hallmark Corp. The Son of God, while remaining fully God, became fully human, thus joining for eternity the Creator and created. The incarnation (enfleshment) is the crucial step in the union of all things, which is the ultimate goal of salvation. And for us today that union of Creator and created, of heaven and earth, is accomplished most fully and sublimely at the Lord’s Table, where Jesus said, “This is my body which is given for you” and “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” Or, even more bluntly in John 6:53, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” And it’s not just an historical artifact, for Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, calls us to come and dine at the banquet. If the parables are to be believed, it’s not just a generic and open ended invitation. The King had his servants search out the streets in order to gather the people into the banquet. We are commanded to attend, to be prepared, to participate in this most remarkable of banquets, for in it all creation—both heaven and earth, both divine and human—are brought into union. And it is that very union of “all things” (that is, St. Paul’s glorious ta panta that Jesus Christ, as ikon and prototokos—image and firstborn—bring together) in which we participate (Col 1:15ff).
But while attending worship and attending to worship are at the heart of our salvation, while they are the way that we put flesh onto our intentions to turn away from sin and turn to God, this is not to say that we go to church or go to hell. Again, going to church is not an action/inaction that either makes us sinful or holy. Going to church is rather a normal part of the normal Christian life, and the Christian life is the arena where we are transformed into Christ’s likeness. While the general rule is that if we are going to become like Christ we need to go to church and participate with our will, our mind, and our body, there are times when the Christ-like thing to do is not go to church, or not participate in church.
Consider the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30ff). A priest and Levite were on their way to church, and it was their obligation to be in church, since they were not only attending, but would be leading worship, they had an obligation, not only to God but to the faithful to be there. On their way they saw a man robbed, beaten bloody and near death. Touching him would make them ritually unclean so that they could not participate in temple worship. Since their priority—their obligation—was temple worship, they passed the man by so that they might attend to their divinely appointed task. On the other hand, that unspiritual Samaritan interrupted his busy schedule in order to attend to the dying man on the road side, thus saving his life. And then Jesus asks, “Who’s the neighbor?” Or, let’s paraphrase that question in terminology we have used above: “Who’s living in community with the injured man?” It’s the one who realized that this injured man was a divinely scheduled opportunity to enflesh true love. In this case, the Christ-like thing to do is skip church and help the robbery victim. We cannot become so narrowly focused on worship that we fail to be a neighbor.
I suspect this is one of the reasons God instituted corporate worship rather than only private worship in the home. Corporate worship in a church building necessarily creates involvement with others and the world, even while we journey to heaven. Indeed, worship is a journey to heaven, but it is not an escape from earth and our responsibilities and opportunities here. Whether it’s the emergency we observe on the way to church, or the needful person who interrupts us during worship by whispering to us their cares during the Great Litany or interrupting our communion with God to ask what page we’re on, true worship is never about me and God. Worship is always about finding our place in-between a hurting world and a loving God. We are a kingdom of priests, according to Peter, and we must not only offer the world up to God, but bring God’s love and mercy back to the hurting world. If we take that seriously, there will be times that our obligation to world and neighbor will take priority over attending a service.
It is also necessary to sometimes not participate fully in worship, for a season, and under the guidance of a spiritual guide. Sometimes our hearts grow cold and hard and it is necessary to deny ourselves the sublime joy of the Eucharist in order to once again develop a thirst for God and a hunger for righteousness. We should not enter into God’s banquet in a cavalier or unprepared manner, or we might be bound hand and foot and cast into the outer darkness (Mt. 25:30). If, for some reason, it is not possible to prepare for worship, it is appropriate to refrain from the Table. Rather than being presumptuous of the grace of the Holy God, it is better, in such circumstances to call upon God’s mercy in confessional prayer as an unworthy servant, like the Publican in the Temple.
But these exceptions prove the rule. Worship is the lifeblood of the church. And if we are truly Christians, we understand that it’s not just me and God, but rather God and his body, the church, of which we are members. Furthermore, we understand that our participation in worship connects us profoundly and inseparably to both God and creation. As a result, when we attend worship and attend to the task of worship we become more fully aware of our responsibilities to one another as a responsibility to God.
So, is it a sin not to go to church? Yes. Except on those occasions when it would be a sin to go to church, and also keeping in mind that it can be a bigger sin to go to church and not participate, except when participating fully in worship is a way of ignoring my brother, in which case, participating in worship would be the greater sin. So you see, it’s all quite simple.
I’ll see you in church!
Copyright © 2007 James E. Nelson (Just Another Jim). All Rights Reserved.
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