Going to Church

For the first time in my life, driving to church on Sunday morning means that I am going to work. This has caused me to wonder: Why do we come together and do the things we do on Sunday morning? What is this thing we call church? It is obviously not merely an institution or a building. What, then, is the church and why do we gather?

It’s common to define the church as “the people.” Although this is true, it is an incomplete definition of the church. If the church is simply “the people,” then bowling leagues are also churches. What differentiates the church from any general gathering of people is the object around which the people gather. Whereas a bowling league comes together to bowl, the church comes together to meet God.

To say that the church is the people who come together to meet God might seem abstract. However, our God makes Himself available to us in very concrete ways. We don’t gather around an abstract concept of God, but around the Word of God. This Word meets us in the reading of Scripture and in the preaching of God’s message.

Furthermore, the Word of God meets us in the meal we celebrate together. Jesus Christ – the incarnate Word of God – gives Himself to us in that meal. He is the One around whom we gather, and His Spirit is the One who makes us the “church” and not just another social club.

Additionally, God meets us in the very presence of the people who gather. Because the church is the body of Christ, the person sitting next to us in the pew on Sunday morning presents to us the very presence of God in bodily form. As Jesus has said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20)

The church is the gathering of people around Jesus Christ. He is our head, and we are His body. When we come together on Sunday morning, it is to meet Him. We come together to speak with Him in prayer and song, to receive Him in Word and Sacrament, to give thanks to Him as He gives Himself to us, and to love Him by loving the other members of His body. That is why we gather on Sunday morning. It's true that we do these things in small and humble ways, but our boast is not in the things we do but in the Lord for whom we do them. (1 Corinthians 1:31)