A glass full of ice-cubes

Pop's comment to my previous post prompted some thought. Clearly there's something wrong with my relationship with the Church 'event' that happens on a Sunday... But is it Church, or is it my heart-attitude?

let's get back to the source... what did Jesus do?

He attended Sabbath Synagogue. New converts to Christianity also continued to meet at the Jerusalem temple, and local synagogues albeit in the gentiles court, and Paul usually started at the local synagogue as he travelled around.

Clearly then, there's clearly nothing wrong with a weekly meeting...

What about the content...?

Well, Synagogue was a relatively short meeting that began with a standard call to worship, readings according to a set programme, and a short (or very short - see what Jesus said after reading the scrolls in Luke 4) sermon often given by the same person who did the readings. The service ended with a blessing.

Sounds like our services are kind of based on what happened at Synagogues, so - again - nothing much wrong with the ingredients that go into it...

So, should I just put up and shut up? What should I think about my instinct that there's something about it that's just not working... at least for me?


I've done some reading and, although I'm no bible scholar, here are few differences between where church sits in my life, and where synagogue (or similar) sat in the lives of Jesus and the early Christians. 

First, the place I call 'church' is (largely) somewhere I only go one day a week. and it's a place that (for me anyway) has the sole purpose of delivering 'Christian things'. I go somewhere else for all the 'other bits' of my life. Synagogue, on the other hand was the local town hall, benefits office, youth hostel, local court, community centre and place of worship. It was the focus of a town, and teemed with people all the time who saw it as the place where God was involved in all of those things.

I'm not really sure there's anything that I can do about this but the result is that for me at least, church doesn't ask me to refocus the familiar, it asks me to go to a rather uncomfortable building and do something that has little to do with my week. I'm not sure that this is an enormous problem in the grand scheme of things, but it's clearly different from Synagogue... so is there any point having a Synagogue-type service when the background context has gone?


Second, although I meet the people I call Church in the week (some weeks)... it's often just a few, for one evening, or for the occasional coffee. Jesus, Paul and the others, on the other hand, seem to have belonged either to a nation where everyone followed the faith (the Jews), or to communities that made a point of living in each others' pockets all the time. They probably didn't talk about 'spiritual things' all the time... but at least had it as the background to many of their relationships.

Again, I can't change my entire culture... I have lived in community before (and I'll admit that I miss that experience sometimes) but whereas, in community, you have to fight people off with a stick... I now find that I have to shoehorn time with them into my life. Sure, I can take more time with other Christians in the week... but, they are in a similar position and that's only going to give us a few more hours at most... And then I turn up at a Synagogue-type meeting and am asked to turn my eyes away from the everyday and focus on God... Focusing on God isn't a problem... but I struggle if the background context of everyday contact is missing... 

Third... Because of its centrality to the community and the fact that Torah 'teaching' and debate went on through the week, Sabbath synagogue didn't try to be all things. It was just a moment to pause and remember together, who they were and why. Church, on the other hand, seems to try to do and be too much. It's not what goes into it... it still looks like Synagogue did... but it's the way that it's delivered. It's like we're trying to fit an entire week of life into a couple of hours, and not doing any of it very well... it's like a football match made up entirely of set pieces with no time for free play.
 
And I think, that's where my main problem with it lies... It's like Church is trying to be a good, long, cold, refreshing drink for a people who have spent the week wandering in the desert...

... but it ends up being more like a glass full of ice-cubes...