1. Jesus is the focus...
The rabbis had a saying that “when 2 people sit together and occupy themselves with the Torah the Shekinah abides among them”. Jesus turns that on its head, when he says “where 2 or 3 gather together (Gk sunago is the word from which we get synagogue) in my Name I am in the midst.”
That is a dramatic, startling statement … Jesus is saying something about himself: he is both Torah and Shekinah. He is the Word who reveals the Father to us, makes God known. And “we have seen his glory, glory as of the only begotten son from the Father.” He makes outrageous claims and demands. It's one of those statements that only makes sense when we remember who God is: the Three-in-one. When we gather in his name, Jesus (the visible glory of the father - see Jn 1.14) - is present by the Spirit. So he claims our reverence and worship; and he demands our attention. It's in his name that we gather. But he also makes promises...
2. Jesus is the presence.
When we gather in his name, Jesus says he is there in the middle of us: he is present. When we gather, he not absent, he is present. That’s his promise. We receive it by faith. We've been thinking about the things that enable us to go Deeper with God: silence, solitude, surrender, faith. Today we need to think about gathering. Gathering is vital. Gathering is about making an approach to God, welcoming his presence. It welcomes God, the three-in-one, in our midst.
Gathering welcomes the presence of Jesus... who comes by the Spirit. Acts 2. 1-4 “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. … and they heard and saw, and were filled... “ The Pentecost event started because they were gathered, all together. And when the Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, two things happened to the disciples: they became missionaries (v 5-12) and they became family (v 42-47). Part of what the Holy Spirit does is to make the Church. So Paul says “by one spirit you were all baptised into one body...” (1 Cor 12. 13) The Church – the gathered community is his body: “You are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (1 Cor 12. 27) “The Church is Christ's body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph 1, 23) Gathering is about giving Christ a body. It is about being the body of Christ. " you are the temple of god and god himself is present in you" 1 Corinthians 3.16 , The message. Being one yet many is a living illustration of the mystery of the trinity.
Receive it by faith. When we gather in his name he is here. HE answers our prayers when we are in agreement. We have his authority to “bind” and “set free”. We are his body, he is the head, and he is at work in us. No wonder the guy who wrote Hebrews insisted “Don’t forsake gathering (literally synagoguing) together..” Heb 10. 25
3. Speaking his Name
The Bible talks about a number of ways in which we speak his Name... when we gather...
Baptism – the sacrament of joining. The name of Jesus was central to baptism: we are baptised into his Name, (Acts 2. 38) or into the name of the Father, the Son and the Spirit (Mt 28.19) Now, what happened when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour? You realised certain truths: there's a good God who made a good world. God loves his world and loves you. All of us have turned against God, which has messed up God's world and cut us off from God. Jesus came to put things right through his life, death and resurrection. You turned back to God and trusted Jesus to make you a new person: you probably did that by praying a prayer... and then you may have thought, “What's next?” How do I serve God? Does God want me to get baptised? To join the Church? In the early days of Christianity, you would have realised the same truths about God, the world, sin, you, and Jesus. But then, when you realised they were true and that you needed to respond, you would have got baptised. And from that moment on you would have been part fo the church. “Those who received his word were baptised, and there were added that day about three thousand souls”. (Acts 2. 41) I wonder where that leaves our traditional baptist practise? So far so good.
Breaking Bread and sharing wine in remembrance – calling to mind – the sacrifice of Jesus for us. That's very much about the body of Christ. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. “ (1 Cor 10. 16)
Laying on of hands – which happened for a number of reasons: sometimes to receive the Spirit (Acts 8. 17; Acts 9. 16; Acts 19. 6) although that would have often happened as soon as you were baptised; then to recognise ministry and send into mission (Acts 6. 6; Acts 13. 3) then for healing (Acts 19. 11-12; Acts 28. 8) along with anointing the sick with oil (James 5. 14-15)
Confession and giving forgiveness. That isn't about having to confess your sins to a recognised Church leader; it is about supporting one another with the things that drag us down spiritually. (James 5. 16)
Speaking and singing. The spoken word of God – telling the stories of Jesus (for the earliest Christians the only records they had of the story of Jesus were passed on by word of mouth.) Explaining the great truths of the faith. (These together would make up the “apostles' teaching of Acts 2. 42) If someone important like Paul had sent a letter it would be read out (see Col 4. 16) Praising God and Speaking to each other in “Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”. (Eph 5. 18) ) And that was not all “led from the front” 1 Cor 14. 26 says “What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.”
4. The Maths of Gathering...
Gathering doesn't need to be a big group. the presence of God can be encountered in a small and intimate group. There are some things that are going to work better in a small group:
I'm not so sure about confessing my sins in front of the whole Church though I might find that God does something when I talk to someone mature about the things I struggle with. The right number there might be two.
Praying for the sick might happen in a small group of two or three,
And in a crowd of several hundred, or even several dozen, it may be difficult to hold the kind of worship where each one has a hymn, a lesson or a revelation.
On the other hand Baptism, Laying hands on someone to send them into their ministry or mission may be a joyful occasion to share with a great crowd. Reading and explaining Scripture may be delivered to vast crowd, who may be encouraged by singing God's praises together.
There are benefits to different sizes of gathering. Sometimes Christian leaders have talked about the Cell – a few people who really look out for each other; the congregation, that's a bigger group where we might not all feel free to take part, but where we get taught and encouraged, and the celebration, where there are crowds, worshipping and learning together. In the Cell, the Congregation and the Celebration, when we gather in Jesus Name, he is there in the midst.
5. Gathering is about relationship
Someone should at this point have noticed that the context to this teaching about “gathering”, is how the Christian community sorts out our difficulties in relationships: “putting things right”. Sometimes that is labelled “Church Discipline”. But that isn't what this is all about. This isn't a law-code for removing people from fellowship if they step out of line, it's guidance for maintaining loving relationships. Jesus isn't wanting the person who has done wrong to apologise, or pay back in some way. He wants him simply to listen, because it is the act of listening that relationships are built and maintained. And it's only after listening that the sorting out can happen. If someone doesn’t listen, Jesus says, “treat them as a 'Gentile and a tax collector'”. And how did Jesus treat Gentiles and tax collectors? He challenged them as he challenged everyone else, but the door was always open and grace was always available. Gathering – in large groups or small, is about building and maintaining healthy relationships.
6. Gathering and Going
The presence of Jesus is also promised, in mission (Matt 28. 20). When the Spirit filled the first Christians they became communicators and they became community. I believe there is more than an accidental relationship between these words. There has to be community for there to be communication... Jesus wants us to be family so that we are skilful and attractive in demonstrating father's love to the Gentiles and tax-collectors, the last the lost and the least in our world. Gathering is always linked with going.
© Gilmour Lilly February 2012
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