“People have almost forgotten why they go to church and what they do there because they fail to understand the true purpose of public worship: that we openly gather to engage in priestly service. In public worship we go about our Father’s business, we bring sacrifices to God’s temple, we offer ourselves to him with all we have. In worship we do not passively receive but actively seek to build up ourselves and others in our most sacred faith. That is the true meaning of going up to the house of prayer.
“The key to this understanding is rooted in the truth that all believers are priests. The priestly task today no longer . . . focuses on a mediating intercession of the Old Covenant which belongs to a specific priesthood. This disappears with the universalization of the priesthood. Nevertheless, this remains: observing the service of the holy place, that spiritual and heavenly offering which coincides with the sacrifice of the New Covenant. This offering consists in confessing the name of Christ, in revering God, in our participation in Christ’s intercession, and in the presentation of gifts for God’s work and the poor in Christ.
“It is God’s will that we call upon him in public gatherings. In public because he is worthy of such honor and because it is proper that the world hears God’s people acknowledge him as God. In gatherings because God only wants and recognizes believers as the body of Christ, as an entity wholly organized in Christ. Outside of Christ, that is outside his body, God has no communion with the individual, as of old he would not with an Israelite separate from Israel.
“For this reason the faithful gather on the day of rest. Every local congregation represents the body of Christ. Her members are called to priestly service in the congregation, which is the temple of the Lord. As priests they come together, as priests they bring the Lord offerings of praise and thanksgiving, of petition and lament, as priests they present gifts for the temple and the faithful. That is the essence, the wonderful meaning, and the joy of our gathering on Sunday, or whenever we gather as God’s people. Thus we find ourselves in communion with those gathered in heaven, and work as one with them; even the angels, as a sign of that unity: are present in our meetings as they are in the heavenly congregation.”
Excerpted from “De Predikdienst,” in Kennis en Leven (Kok, 1922), 80-81. Translated by ACLeder.
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