Family Obligations

How many of you have heard someone say, “Why do I have to go to church? Can’t I be just as good of a Christian at home, reading the Bible, doing good deeds, praying by myself, maybe watching a favorite preacher TV in the comfort of my own living room? Why should I bother getting up on Sunday morning when I can get all the spiritual nourishment I need without it?

Do you know what to say to people who talk like that? Forty percent of all the people in this country who claim to be Christian, to believe in Jesus Christ, don’t even regularly attend a church, much less make the commitment of belonging to one. So the question really does need to be asked, “Why should we go to church? Why should we join?”

Fortunately for us, there is a simple answer. We go to church because God commands it. And of course, claiming to be a Christian while ignoring what God says is kind of a contradiction in terms, isn’t it? But that begs the question, “Why did he command it? What’s in it for God, to have us gather together and sing and pray and listen to somebody talk? Wouldn’t God be just as happy if we did all that stuff at home?” The fourth commandment - “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy,” [Ex 20:8] doesn’t say how we’re supposed to remember the Sabbath, except of course that we’re not supposed to work. But back in Old Testament days they didn’t have Bibles. Or if they did have a scroll or two, there certainly weren’t very many, and of course not all people were literate. So if you wanted to hear the word of God you had to go to where the word was and hear it from someone who knew how to read.

But things are different nowadays, aren’t they. Everybody has a Bible, at least in this country. Sometimes three or four. And everyone can read it for themselves, although surprisingly few do. And we can listen to religious music on the radio or put on a CD or two of anything from worship choruses to Gregorian chant. So, many say to themselves, “I can get my dose of spiritual input without having to worry about getting dressed or dealing with traffic or the weather or any of that stuff.”

And even beyond the question, “What’s in it for God, to have us gather in a particular place on a particular day?” For far too many of us, an even more important question is, “What’s in it for me? What do I get out of coming to church?”

We could come at that question from a whole variety of different angles. One reason shows up in the letter to the Hebrews, which tells us, “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.” [Heb 10:24-25] That’s an important reason to come to church. If you’re so spiritually mature that you don’t need the encouragement and support of your fellow Christians, then they - we - certainly will benefit from your example!

But the most important reason to come to church, to belong to a church, is that it is through the gathered people of God that Christ does his work in the world. The Greek word "eklisia" - the word we translate as church - means “the gathered ones.” “[God] has put all things under his feet and has made [Jesus Christ] the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” [Eph 1:22-23] It is only when we are connected to one another that we can function as Christ intended us to when he created this new kind of community called “church.”

There are all kinds of things that the church is called to do in the world. From feeding the hungry to witnessing to God’s love, each one is as important as the other. And the church has done so well at them over the last 2000 years that most people in America have forgotten who started things we take for granted: like equality for women, caring for the sick, providing for the poor. But there is one task that we have forgotten or neglected in the last few decades. And that is what in some traditions is called the “Office of the Keys.”

That term, the Office of the Keys,” comes from a different part of Matthew’s gospel: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” [Mt16:19] But as you can see it’s clearly just longer version of today’s text, “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” [v. 18]