Summary: Jesus shows up in the community called the church, and it is in this assembly that his mission and ministry are advanced. Jesus promises to be with us whenever two or three gather in his name.
Church buildings can be as small as a house or as large as a cathedral. Each size has its own distinctive appeal. House churches meet weekly in homes, offering people personal connections and opportunities for spiritual growth. Neighborhood churches offer worship services and Christian formation classes for people of all ages. Cathedrals are the home churches of bishops in the Catholic and Episcopal traditions, and Protestant megachurches are where large numbers of people worship every week, often with contemporary Christian music.
As different as they are, these churches all have one thing in common: They gather people together. This is critically important, since Jesus makes clear that it is essential for us to come together to experience his presence and his power. As he says in the gospel of Matthew: "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."
Gathering is central to the life of the church, and this has been true since the first followers of Jesus came together. In the New Testament, the Greek word for church is ekklesia, which literally means "the called-out ones" -- a group of people who have been called out to a meeting. When you say you are going to church, you are really saying that you are going to an assembly, a gathering, a meeting. When the book of Acts says that the apostle Paul and Barnabas "met with the church,"1 the line could also be translated "they assembled with the assembly," or "they gathered with the gathering" or "they met with the meeting." No gathering, no church.
So, what happens when we gather as a community of faith? First, we are disciplined. This has a specific meaning in the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus says that sinful behavior among his followers should be dealt with in a particular way. For starters, the person who is the victim should "point out the fault" to the offender, person to person. If that does not work, one or two others should join the conversation, in an attempt to resolve the problem and reconcile the parties.
If there is still no reconciliation, says Jesus, "tell it to the church, and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a gentile and a tax collector." In this process, discipline is done by increasingly larger gatherings of Christians, and the ultimate act of discipline is exclusion from the community. This exclusion is what Jesus is pointing to when he says that an unrepentant offender is to be treated like "a gentile and a tax collector."
Discipline is important in the church, but fortunately such acts of confrontation and exclusion are rare. More common is the work of discipline that is done every week in Christian communities, as people are taught to be disciples of Jesus. It is no coincidence that the words "disciple" and "discipline" share the same Latin root discipulus, a word which means "learner" or "pupil."
It is when we gather that we are shaped as disciples. This approach was not original to Jesus, but began when God offered moral and ethical instruction to a gathering of Israelites. In the book of Leviticus, God spoke to the congregation of Israel through Moses and gave them guidance on how they should treat parents, avoid idolatry, keep the sabbath, assist the poor and the alien, avoid stealing and lying and offer just judgments. The teaching included the command to "love your neighbor as yourself."2 The people of Israel, like the followers of Jesus, were not shaped as disciples in isolation. Their learning happened in their gatherings.
The first followers of Jesus also discovered the power of assembling for prayer. James, the brother of Jesus, wrote a letter to a group of Jewish Christians outside Judea, and offered them guidance on putting faith into action, taming the tongue and showing patience in suffering. At the end of his letter, he asks, "Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord."3 James knows that the power of prayer is best experienced in community, when Christians gather to ask for help in times of suffering, to give thanks in times of joy and to request healing when a person is sick.
When we pray together, we are saved from the isolation that afflicts so many people today. We are healed by community prayer, in the sense that we are restored to a deep connection with God and with each other. But that's not all. When we "meet together," says the letter to the Hebrews, we are able to encourage one another, and we can even "provoke one another to love and good deeds."4 Such gatherings can include services of worship, small group Bible studies, youth group meetings, mission teams, musical groups, men's groups and women's groups. The point is that we have opportunities every day to meet together in ways that encourage one another and provoke each other to love and to do deeds of service. Coming together is an essential part of the life of the Christian community. No gathering, no church.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus makes the promise that "where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." This is a bold and surprising statement, one that assures us that the risen Jesus is always present in an assembly that is doing the work of reconciliation, prayer and loving service. The place where Jesus most often shows up is in the community called the church, and it is in these gatherings that the mission and ministry of Jesus is advanced.
Jesus is not looking down on us; he is working through us. He is not judging us; he is encouraging us. In fact, says Christian ethics professor Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, God actually "ratifies the decisions of the community." This happens not because the church is perfect, but because "God, in the person of Jesus, is in the midst of this community."5 This promise of Jesus reminds us that the church is nothing less than the body of Christ, the physical presence of Jesus in the world today, continuing his work of advancing the kingdom of God.
When he speaks to his disciples in Matthew, Jesus gives them enormous power. "Truly I tell you," he says, "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven." It is in our assembling that we are given earthly access to heavenly power. All it takes is for us to get together and agree.
An affordable housing project called "Glebe View" has been underway in Fairfax, Virginia, since 2017, and it has experienced a number of "God moments." These are the unexpected surprises in which God "winks" at people and says, "I've got this."
The first God moment was experienced in the enthusiasm of members of Fairfax Presbyterian Church. It was not just two or three church members who gathered to do the work of Glebe View, but dozens. Sensing that affordable housing was a critical intervention in the lives of needy neighbors, a team quickly came together and began to contribute time, energy and expertise. They have been working together for almost a decade.
A second God moment came when the pastor received a call from an attorney who had been a friend for 30 years. The friend said, "I need some pro bono work. Do you know of any project in the Presbyterian world that could benefit from a real estate attorney?" The pastor said, "Have I got a project for you!" Another God moment. This attorney has provided excellent counsel for Glebe View, offering help that would have cost the church $200,000 over several years.
The Glebe View team originally reached out to three potential partners in the affordable housing industry and asked them to come up with separate proposals. Early in the process, they said, "Let's not do separate proposals; let's work together!" Another God moment. Then two other congregations joined the project, contributing volunteers to the Glebe View team and making significant monetary gifts.6
Jesus promises to be with us, saying, "where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." Jesus assures us that he will work through us, saying that "if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven." Jesus does not want us to worry about completing his ministry and mission on our own. In fact, he seems to be saying, "I've got this." God moments will be experienced whenever we gather to encounter Jesus and do his work in the world.