Where Two or Three are Gathered

St. Peter's, Purcellville:
decorated for Christmas

During Advent, I was leading a Morning Prayer service on Wednesday mornings.  At first it was just me, then one person joined me, then another, but this past week (the last service for the time being) it was back to just me again.  And whether I was the only one present, or whether there were others, I read through the service, aloud, each time I was there.  I noticed that even though the number of worshipers was small every time, there was a distinct difference in the feel of the service as soon as it was more than just me alone. 

That’s because something special happens when God’s people gather in His name, even if the number is quite small.  St. John Chrysostom puts his finger on it in the prayer attributed to him that comes at the end of the MP service.  “you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them”   (from Matthew 18:20) 

When we are alone, God is in us: as faithful believers, we have been given the Holy Spirit (John 14:17), and more than that, we have Jesus abiding in us, and through him the Father also. (John 14:20).  So when we are alone and speak to God, we speak to God as dwelling within us.  That is personal prayer and relationship with God, and an important part of our lives as Christians.

But what happens when “two or three gather in His name”?  There He is, in the midst of us!  God is no longer only within, but also among and between!  God “with” us.  And the presence of God in the midst of us will change everything.  The presence of God among us converts our private prayer into corporate worship – even if the time and place and form and everything else is the same (as it was for my variously attended Morning Prayer services). 

And we need to participate in corporate worship.  It is the joyful duty of God’s people to come together with God in their midst to worship.  Anyone who thinks they can “worship on the golf course” instead of attending corporate worship, doesn’t know what they are talking about.  Gathering regularly with others for worship is a cornerstone of faith and one of the simple ancient disciplines of living the Christian life.  We worship weekly, joining with God’s people in God’s presence to offer Father, Son and Holy Spirit all the glory, awe and love they inspire in us.  

If you consider yourself a Christian, yet don’t feel any need to gather with others to offer loving praise to God, then perhaps you need to reconsider your faith.  Perhaps you need to reexamine the nature of the god you believe in.  Because if the god you believe in does not inspire such love and awe in you that you want to gather with others to shout it out, then perhaps it is not God himself that you believe in, but some shadowy imposter - a mere idol.  

Find a church and go find out who God really is.  God will be there with those who gather - you can count on it!