When I think of spiritual practices, I think of quiet, focused, soul-searching activities – prayer, bible study, confession, fasting, retreat. Even as I consider regular engagement in corporate worship as fundamental to a thriving Christian life, I never thought of it as a practice. But spiritual practices for a Jesus-focused life are those activities of the heart, body and mind which bring us more fully into relationship with Jesus – and we often meet Jesus most fully when we come together as the church.
In the gospels, we most often see Jesus interacting with people in groups, whether his chosen disciples or throngs of thousands. He was present for people, even in great crowds. So he is present when we gather in his name – that was a promise he made. When believers gather, we make a space for seekers and newcomers to enter and encounter God in community. Christian faith cannot thrive in isolation.
And when we gather in Jesus’ name, we are his Body; we reconstitute the Body of Christ so it is visible to the world. Each of us can make Christ known, but when we put our faith together, God’s power to love and transform and make whole becomes concentrated and explosive and world-changing.
We also gather for worship because Jesus always shows up. The Way of Love gospel for Sunday tells the story of an encounter two men had with Jesus as they walked to a village called Emmaus on what we now call Easter Sunday. They were still in Good Friday mode, grief-stricken at the brutal death of their Lord, and now confused by reports that his body was missing from the tomb where it had been laid. They are joined by a stranger, who asks why they are sad. When they tell him of the recent events, he links those with their scriptures, explaining the meaning of the sacred texts.
When they arrive at Emmaus, they prevail upon him to have supper with them – and at table, he takes bread, blesses, breaks and offers it. The familiarity of that movement ignites their awareness: they realize they have been with Jesus this whole time. “Were not our hearts burning within us, when he opened the scriptures to us?” They high-tail it back, seven miles in the dark on the road they’d just traveled, to tell their companions in Jerusalem, “We have seen the Lord!”
Our weekly worship mimics the movements of this story. We come, bearing the joys and sorrows and stresses of our lives. We are invited to view those in the context of our sacred story of redemption and restoration – at its best, a sermon offers the space for that. We gather at table and discover Jesus again in the breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup. The power of that encounter can send us out onto the road again, telling our companions, “We have seen the Lord.” And if, as happened for those disciples, Jesus vanishes as soon as we recognize him, we know he’ll materialize again somewhere else, often when we least expect it.
When Christians gather for worship, we praise God joyfully, we offer the prayers of the community, we tell again and again the stories of God’s great love for God’s creation. And we participate in the holy meal which is itself a re-telling of our most central story, of how Jesus, God in flesh, gave himself up to restore all of creation to wholeness, and told his followers to recall him (call him back) in the simple, quotidian substances of bread and wine. We can see in the patterns of Christian worship a form of play, serious play, the way children will celebrate and express themselves and play through a story over and over again, finding new ways into it, drawing new meanings from it. So, In our worship we “make believe” and come more deeply into relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.
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