Where Is Your Home?

Christian,

Is your country the political space in which you battle? Is the rage of conquering a nation in the name of God’s holy law the road to your home? Are the “dreams that there will be a golden age on earth before the Day of Judgment, and that the pious, having subdued all their godless enemies, will possess all the kingdoms of the earth.”¹ your dwelling place?

Do you find your peace and security in the wilderness? Is the wind-swept plain, or the misty mountain your sanctuary?

Where did you first find your only comfort in life and in death?² Was it in a field or on your death-bed? Or did someone bring you this comfort?

If Christ is your salvation, where do you find him? And why would you not continue to seek him once he is yours? He has placed, on this earth, precisely the home you need for the rest of your life. Your country – your home – is his Church. If you trust him, trust his words. “I will never desert you, nor will I ever abandon you,” and this is done in context with the continual gathering to worship from the Old Testament to the New Testament. “where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

Your home is not your house or your flat. It is not the campus or the online forum. It is certainly not the politics or religious wars that consume our “Christian” culture. These things will pass away. When you are dead and gone, they will matter not a whit to you, and eventually even you will be forgotten.

But in the Church of Christ, you are with the others who will meet with you in heaven, including God himself. It’s not some mystical concert or movie moment, or a hike in the Appalachians, or even a college crusade with elevating worship songs and an altar call.

The Bible has defined the place of meeting and home for Christians, and it’s clearly expressed throughout the Old and New Testament. Gather as God has called you, worship as he has prescribed, and as a people. God’s people have always gathered at his call, confessed their sins and beliefs to him, prayed for his help, joined in the the supper with him, heard his holy word, and received his blessing.

Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, “Go, eat the festival foods, drink the sweet drinks, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your refuge.” So the Levites silenced all the people, saying, “Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.” Then all the people went away to eat, drink, to send portions, and to celebrate a great feast, because they understood the words which had been made known to them.

Nehemiah 8

Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all the believers were together and had all things in common; and they would sell their property and possessions and share them with all, to the extent that anyone had need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Acts 2

If you give your assent to the Creed, it is essential to include

the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;

The Apostles Creed

Jonathan Cruse has put it quite nicely,

…worship is the most important thing you will ever do with your time here on earth. Nothing else has eternal significance like worship. We might even consider what we do every Sunday as “practice” for that great day in glory. Not only that, but this means that every week God is giving us a taste of the bliss and blessedness that await us in glory. This is so like our God: always lavishing us with that which we do not deserve and sustaining our present troubles with future delights. By so doing God graciously reminds us of where we are going and to keep our heads up. “God’s gift to His sorrowing creatures,” the consummate musician J. S. Bach once observed, “is to give them Joy worthy of their destiny.” The wonder of worship is but a small taste of the wonder of the new heavens and the new earth, and it is sufficient to sustain our hearts until we are there.

Therefore, our hearts should be tuned toward heaven every Lord’s Day, and we should have an earnest desire to join the redeemed host:

O that with yonder sacred throng

we at His feet may fall;

we’ll join the everlasting song,

and crown Him Lord of all.

Jonathan Landry Cruse | What Happens When We Worship (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2020), 23.

1. —Heinrich Bullinger, Second Helvetic Confession (1561/1566), chapter 11. ↩︎
2. —Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 1 ↩︎