Spice of Life

Variety, they say, is the spice of life.

When I began teaching my current class on The Early Church, I asked each participant his/her reason for taking the course. Prominent among the answers was a desire to know about the way in which early Christians thought, lived and worshipped. At least one student said he and a friend felt called to establish a Christian mission that was modelled after the New Testament Christian community. He hoped to discover in this class what that should be.

I understand the interest in knowing what the Church was like in the beginning. Worship is more meaningful to me when I'm reminded that some of the prayers we pray, many of the words of the Eucharist, and more have centuries of history behind them. The very form of the worship service and the form of the Eucharistic Prayer date from the first century. This is an important emotional connection for me.

As an amateur historian, I'm taken by how many times in the 2000 year history of the Church, various Christians have been on the quest the young man mentioned above is on. In the U.S. in particular, a "return" to the purity of the early Church has shaped many denominations and even created a few.

The bad news is: there is no single "early Church." There was a variety of organizational models, (that is, who was to lead the assembly?), a variety of forms for baptism, for the Eucharist, for belief systems and on and on. Just on the matter of what was used in the Eucharist, some used bread and wine, some bread, wine, water, some bread and fish, some bread, wine and olives, and some bread, wine, water, and milk and honey. Some early communities were led by the householder who hosted the gathering--meaning some women presided at the Eucharist. Some were led by a council of elders; some a council with a senior elder as overseer or president; some by those who had some charism, such as prophecy or healing.

In short, variety seemed to have been the order of the day for a couple of centuries. And you know what, each community's individual members seemed to have been nurtured, some fed well enough they were willing to die for the faith. So, what I've been thinking about is: what does that say about today's variety of beliefs and practices? I know what I've concluded. What about you?

Peace,

Jerry+