For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. (Ephesians 5:23, NIV)
During the US Amateur Championship telecast, Jim “Bones” McKay referred to one of Oakmont’s distinguishing features when describing what the finalists wanted to do off the tee at the fourth hole.
“Church pews in the left bunker, so certainly something to avoid there,” he said, and immediately I was reminded of Tom Sawyer.
If you’ve forgotten one of the distinguishing desires of the classic American protagonist, Tom did everything he could to avoid church. Too much refining there, just like in school, and at home with his guardian, Aunt Polly. Who needed all that?
In many ways, this same question has threaded its way through our culture ever since, so much so that today far more people ask about church, “Who needs that?” than say, “Time to get a taste of heaven, where ‘congregations ne’er break up and Sabbaths have no end’” (from the hymn, “Jerusalem, my happy home”).
There is no question that we have all grown accustomed to a faster-paced life, even as golfers, who play a slow game. Movie clips come at us far more rapidly, and we can access all the info we need from the palm of our hand in mere moments. So church finds itself in a precarious spot. Three hundred years ago, Puritan pastors would pray 20-30 minutes after preaching for well over an hour. Today, we must briskly sing-sing-sing, preach-preach-preach, and pray-pray-pray, so as not to lose a congregation that would scroll through 200 Facebook posts in that same hour.
To one another, we are a body, a living organism that in health cannot be torn apart.
Have I painted an accurate picture? It depends on where you attend church (if you do), but you can see why inviting someone to church leaves them wriggling in their skin. Their mind says, How could I possibly bear it?
This response is one thing for those who don’t know Jesus. But for those of us who claim we do, we cannot forsake church and its “gathering of the saints.” I say this not because I am thinking of church as a time and place, but rather as a body and a bride.
The body and the bride are the two prevailing metaphors of the church in the pages of Scripture. To Christ, the church is his bride. He loves us individually, yes, but he loves us collectively with the eyes and heart of a covenanted husband. To one another, we are a body, a living organism that in health cannot be torn apart. So there lies the gravity of forsaking the church: we have turned our back on Christ’s bride and separated ourselves from the body.
Why go to church? To see who God has assembled there, those like you and those unlike you. Those who believe as you do that Christ is their Savior are your brothers and sisters in him. You need to spend time with them.
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Jeff Hopper
August 24, 2021
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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