Faith Works 4-25-20

Faith Works 4-25-20

Jeff Gill

 

Gathering, assembly, ecclesia

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In the New Testament, where we English speakers see the word "church" what's behind it in the Greek is the term "ekklesia."

 

Transliterated into English, an ecclesia is literally an assembly, and in Greek literature it can be a group in the public forum called together for political purposes, an ecclesia which comes together, and is dismissed when the public things, the "res publica" (Latin) of the republic have been dealt with by the people, the "demos" (Greek again) ruling themselves, or "kratos" together making our English word democracy.

 

A Christian gathering, or assembly of believers, is also a form of "ecclesia," which does not require or even imply a building. Some of my Restoration Movement fellows dislike the term "church" for that very reason -- it derives from a tradition before English through Old English & Saxon languages which can be see in the German of "kirche" (reframed in Scotland as "kirk"), which indicates quite specifically a place, even refers etymologically to a building: the kirk o' the heather, and so on.

They're correct in that particular: ecclesia is not church in the sense that an assembly is not the building it meets in. Ecclesia very clearly, in Greek generally and the Apostolic Writings in particular, is talking about the gathered Christians as a group doing the work of Christ's commandments together. And in Acts and the pastoral epistles, that's almost always a house, once in a while a rented hall and specifically referred to as such. But generally a private residence, in which the ecclesia meets.

 

Our references in the New Testament to "church" also includes some places where there's not even a word in Greek, but an implication such as in Acts 2:47, "adding those who were being saved every day to..." The Greek implies something like "to their number," and some translations say "to their fellowship" which is fair, but implied, and King James' merry crew just wedged in "and the Lord added to the church every day..."

 

But church is, in the writings which give us our Christian starting point, and our lasting model, the gathered believers as they did the work of discipleship -- prayers, apostolic teaching, fellowship, and the breaking of bread.

 

Except for the last item (depending on your eucharistic theology, your church rules for communion) the work of discipleship of the gathered assembly, the ecclesia, can be done in many ways without having to have a specific, set-aside building. To break and share bread with your companions -- "panis" being bread, "com" being with (both in Latin), so companions are literally those you are "with bread" together -- that feels like the clearest call to come together in one place.

 

And where we don't have in Greek the word "ekklesia," when the gathered Christians are discussed, we do have one other model to keep in mind. The Body. To be as the Christian community in a particular place "the Body of Christ."

 

Which we both bring together at the communion table, but we also break and scatter, every time. "This is my body, given for you" which must be as a loaf broken for us to share, for us to be companions. So it is only right that we deeply desire to be brought back together as Christians, somewhere, in some fashion. It is also only right that we understand that to be the living Body of Christ at work, we have to also accept being broken and scattered, so that others might eat, and live.

 

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he misses the ease and comfort of having a building to work with, but wonders if there's a message here. Tell him what tools you miss having for your calling at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.