The Essential
Service of
the Church by John Hellwege
U
nder the shadow of COVID-19, we have found ourselves questioning and rethinking many areas of life. We have rethought work—questioning if our work requires a building full of people or if it can be done remotely. We have rethought education— moving classes online. We have rethought where to live—with large urban centres, such as Toronto and Montreal, seeing record population losses as people have moved out. As Christians, we have also had to rethink church—with churches required to meet online and having limitations when attendance has been allowed. There have been debates as to if and how to celebrate Holy Communion safely in a pandemic. Not only this, but new struggles have arisen between the civil and spiritual realms as some of our political leaders have placed great restrictions on church services; there have even been some churches here in Canada that have rebelled and held illegal services. Any time we are forced to rethink things, we need to start by getting to the core of things and working out from there. So, to start, what is the Church? This question can be more complicated than it sounds because English is such a confusing language, even for native speakers. The word “church” can mean many things: a congregation, a church body (such as our own Lutheran Church–Canada), a building, the Divine Service… But, at its core, what is the Church? Martin Luther answers this in the Smalcald Articles: “A seven-year-old child knows what the church is: holy believers and ‘the little sheep who hear the voice of their shepherd’” (SA III.12.2). Now, I guess children were brighter in Luther’s day, because I would have been a bit older than seven before I could have given such a good answer. But the definition is excellent: the Church is “the little sheep who hear the voice of their shepherd.” This should be a comfort to us considering the last year and a half. At no time did any premier or other civil leader cancel the Church; they could not! So long as there are Christians who listen to Christ, the Church remains. As Jesus reminded us, the very gates of Hell cannot overcome the Church (Matthew 16:18). Does this mean that since there are Christians running around, and therefore the Church continues to exist that there is no need to “go to church?” Put another way, do we really need our local congregations or to attend the Divine Service? Absolutely, we need to attend the Divine Service! Our local congregations are absolutely essential! After all, there are two reasons that we call our local congregation a “church.” First, it is a local gathering of the “one holy Christian Church.” It is where Christians meet to “do the Christian thing” of receiving God’s gifts and worshipping Him. The second, and most important, reason is that our local church meeting for the Divine Service is where God creates and sustains Christians and therefore creates and
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THE CANADIAN LUTHERAN July/August 2021
