Reconstructing the Apostolic Church
As you can see, worship and liturgy are on my mind today.
What makes no sense to me is these people who want to recapture the simplicity of the Apostolic Church in the New Testament.
First of all, there is precious little data in the New Testament about the liturgical practices of the Early Church. Maybe one or two verses.
Second, didn't Our Lord say that His Church was like a mustard seed, beginning small and eventually growing to much larger size? The Apostolic Church was the "infant" Church, so why the fascination with wanting to return to our infancy? Do these same people advocate wearing diapers and sucking on pacifiers, or living on a diet of milk and liquid rice cereal?
What is laughable on a personal level is somehow laudable when applied to the Bride of Christ.
You want to reconstruct the Early Church's liturgy? Then read some Church history. Read the liturgical texts of the Early Church, read St. Justin's description of the Church's liturgy, read St. Hippolytus' texts, and so on. But don't stop there - the liturgy has organically developed, like the tree growing out of the mustard seed. It has slowly become more and more beautiful, more complex, more ornate - more befitting a tree than a tiny seed.
Again, why this perverse desire to see the tree reduced again to a sapling, or to a seed?
Here's a hint: the early Church did not structure their Sunday service around a 45-minute sermon.
Another favorite: people who think that meeting in each other's homes is better than meeting in church buildings, because it's more "like the early Church."
Uh-huh.
Well, yeah, if we had the threat of government soldiers crashing our liturgy at any given moment and executing all of us, I think we would be smart to start moving the meeting location to a new house every week - keep the killers guessing.
But without soldiers to chase you around, this whole house-church thing is kind of silly and boring.
So I try to be helpful. When someone tells me they've started meeting in a house church because it's "more like the early Christians," I offer to make it more authentic for them - I'll get a gun and try to find out where they're meeting, and if I find them, I get to start shooting. That would make things truly authentic, and since we're trying to re-create the early Church, let's go all the way, ok?
What makes no sense to me is these people who want to recapture the simplicity of the Apostolic Church in the New Testament.
First of all, there is precious little data in the New Testament about the liturgical practices of the Early Church. Maybe one or two verses.
Second, didn't Our Lord say that His Church was like a mustard seed, beginning small and eventually growing to much larger size? The Apostolic Church was the "infant" Church, so why the fascination with wanting to return to our infancy? Do these same people advocate wearing diapers and sucking on pacifiers, or living on a diet of milk and liquid rice cereal?
What is laughable on a personal level is somehow laudable when applied to the Bride of Christ.
You want to reconstruct the Early Church's liturgy? Then read some Church history. Read the liturgical texts of the Early Church, read St. Justin's description of the Church's liturgy, read St. Hippolytus' texts, and so on. But don't stop there - the liturgy has organically developed, like the tree growing out of the mustard seed. It has slowly become more and more beautiful, more complex, more ornate - more befitting a tree than a tiny seed.
Again, why this perverse desire to see the tree reduced again to a sapling, or to a seed?
Here's a hint: the early Church did not structure their Sunday service around a 45-minute sermon.
Another favorite: people who think that meeting in each other's homes is better than meeting in church buildings, because it's more "like the early Church."
Uh-huh.
Well, yeah, if we had the threat of government soldiers crashing our liturgy at any given moment and executing all of us, I think we would be smart to start moving the meeting location to a new house every week - keep the killers guessing.
But without soldiers to chase you around, this whole house-church thing is kind of silly and boring.
So I try to be helpful. When someone tells me they've started meeting in a house church because it's "more like the early Christians," I offer to make it more authentic for them - I'll get a gun and try to find out where they're meeting, and if I find them, I get to start shooting. That would make things truly authentic, and since we're trying to re-create the early Church, let's go all the way, ok?
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