Simple Church Minute 54--communion

54—communion

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            Whether one calls in the Lord’s Supper, Communion, or Eucharist—why is there virtually no food?  The words used before this function in almost all traditional churches come from First Corinthians chapter 11.  We have been told that this was the institution of the ceremony, but how similar is it?  Jesus and the disciples were celebrating Passover.  Although it was an Old Covenant ceremony, it was also a real meal.  For the early church, it was celebrated as a festive occasion for a believing community that could potentially be, and in many places was, both Jews and non-Jews, rich and poor, slave and free, men and women.  Jesus’ resurrection, and the sending of the Holy Spirit to indwell them, that they could each be the temple of the Holy Spirit was a joyous thing.  Chapter 11 verse 27 may have had to do with some eating too much before poorer believers got off work to join the others, maybe some were drinking too much, and maybe some unbelievers were party crashing for free food—its impossible to know by now.  It wasn’t just a holy snack.

            Over time, pagan influences took the church out of homes of believers, set up buildings, ceremonies, and set up a caste of religious professionals.  It came to be not a meal, but first an offering, and later a sacrifice, which implies Jesus being a victim over and over again, instead of the final sacrifice for sin.  It went from being the Love Feast to being Eucharist.  Mystical explanations were attached to it.  The Reformation rejected the mysticism, but became a small piece of bread and a thimbleful of juice, to be taken with a serious attitude after examining oneself for sin.  In traditional churches, the church picnic comes closer to the original application of this directive as practiced in the early church.

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On the recording, at this time, it says, “house churches.”  While that phrasing is OK, to say “organic church” is better.  I comment on that in blip 94.

Simple Church Minute--pastor's chair, stained glass windows

30—pastor’s chair and stained glass windows

NOTE:  I originally wrote a segment for each of the 61 points Frank Viola and George Barna make in their book, Pagan Christianity, about traditions in the institutional church not based on scripture.  After writing it, I chose to not include this segment merely as I felt that in wouldn’t be an interesting radio commentary.

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            Today, I mention two traditions in some traditional church organizations, but cannot be found in the Bible.   The first is a special chair for the pastor or priest to sit in, sometimes plain, but usually ornate.  How’d it happen?  Back in the Roman Empire, a judge had a special chair, robe, and music in the courtroom.  As Roman pagan priests rose in influence, their temples copied the majesty of the court, including the special ornate chair.  When Rome legalized Christianity, the ornate chair was copied for the bishop, who over time became the priest.  The Reformation brought the word pastor for the person officiating over the congregation, the chair was made less fancy, but in many churches, the special chair exists today.

            The second tradition is stained-glass windows.  After Rome got church building started, the architectural style went from basilica to Byzantine to Romanesque.  At that style, which is about the 6^th century, Gregory of Tours introduced stain glass to the church building.  Sugar, abbot of St. Denis, took it to another level by having sacred stained glass paintings made for Gothic cathedrals.  This style is to this day renowned for their beauty and quality.  The architects were influenced by Plato, who taught that sound, light, and color had mystical meanings, and could induce moods to create a sense of splendor and transcendence.  Gothic architecture, with its excessively high ceilings, combined with the colorful windows, was made to create a sense of awe.  During that time, though, priests were mainly taught how to do ceremonies, the common person had no access to the Bible, and there was a great lack of spiritual light, which we now call the Dark Ages.

            You…

Simple Church Minute 27--steeples

27—steeples

NOTE:  I originally wrote a segment for each of the 61 points Frank Viola and George Barna make in their book, Pagan Christianity, about traditions in the institutional church not based on scripture.  After writing it, I chose to not include this segment merely as I felt that in wouldn’t be an interesting radio commentary.

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            In Genesis 1, God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, and take dominion over creation.  This may well be the directive of God that ungodly man has done his best to follow, although the population explosion and pollution can both be considered a perversion of taking dominion over the earth.  Adam and Eve and their progeny sinned, but did not spread over the earth.  God sent the flood, and told Noah the same thing.  Once again, his descendents did not spread over the earth, and specifically, chose to sin by building an astrological tower to heaven.  Now, we know that with their ancient construction methods, they would not have gotten all that far up before getting impossibly frustrated, but God chose to intervene with the miracle of confusing their speech, forcing them to go various ways.

            In the book of Habakkuk, the prophet is warned by God that the Chaldeans will overrun Israel, and he hides and watches it happen from another astrological tower.  The Babylonians and Egyptians built and attached religious significance to pointed buildings.

The Bible does the opposite.

            The early church did not even have buildings.  Only with the Byzantine period did pointed towers begin to appear on church buildings. Over the centuries, they got taller and taller.  This trend ended in 1666, when a fire happened in London and damaged most of the churches. The replacement buildings were designed with the modern, shorter steeple.  The whole idea of a steeple is to point to the heavens, but for the believer in Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwells inside us; there is no need to stare up mystically.

            You…