Laundry

I teach a Sunday School class made of very astute young adults. I find it enormously challenging because they are smart, perceptive, and want only the truth so they can live it and apply it in their daily lives. I admire them and their hearts for God so much. They ask difficult questions, and I am continually seeking to be able to answer them scripturally. This causes me to continually evaluate my theology, my faith, and even my church attendance.

For example, church attendance has been a long-standing practice of my family, and I have gone to several churches in my life. Some have felt like “my church” and others were just ones I attended. There are lots of different names on church doors, but what about inside those doors? Will those names be on doors in heaven?

Do I think it’s important to go to church? It doesn’t matter what I think. What does God think about the church? The first time the word is mentioned is when Jesus said, “I will build my church; and the gates of hell will not overpower it.” Note a few things: Jesus is the builder, his church is greater than the kingdom of darkness, and hell will strenuously try to overpower it. (I’ve noticed that hell loves to attack and destroy churches or fight church attendance, for that matter.)

Also God said that His Son ”loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle...” This may explain some of the hardships we are going through. How do you get rid of stains? “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” He already provided that and finishes with the other part of the verse, “cleansing through the word.” But, wrinkles? I only know of one way to de-wrinkle, and that is a combination of heat and pressure. Anyone else met with any heat or pressure lately? Slight wrinkles in delicate fabrics need just a light touch up with a warm iron, while coarser fabrics and stubborn wrinkles get different treatment--turning up the heat and applying increasingly heavier pressure. My wrinkles seem to resemble the latter kind. Oh that I might become more malleable and respond eagerly to the touch up rather than needing hotter and heavier.

Scripture says that Jesus is the “head of the church.” I googled the word church and found it was the Greek word Ekklesia which is a feminine noun meaning “the assembly of Christians gathered for worship” (not a building). Why feminine? Remember that earlier verse about the washing and ironing, Jesus says that he wants to “present her to himself as a radiant church.” What does that sound like? What is often radiant? A bride! The church, His bride? I remember that the first Adam’s bride came from his side as he slept in a garden. It follows that the Jesus’ (the last Adam’s) bride came from his pierced side as he was laid to sleep in a garden tomb near the cross.

Tomorrow is Sunday. When I think of what He did and what He is doing, I definitely want to be a part of the Ekklesia, the assembly of Christians gathered for worship.

It’s laundry day!