Recently re-reading some Early Church Fathers, I was both pleased and inspired to discover this exhortation on the part of Ignatius of Antioch who was martyred in the early second century. Quoting from the longer extant version of his epistle to the Ephesians, we read in Chapter XIII:
Take
heed, then, often to come together to give thanks to God, and show forth His
praise. For when ye come frequently together in the same place, the powers of
Satan are destroyed, and his "fiery darts" urging to sin fall back
ineffectual. For your concord and harmonious faith prove his destruction, and
the torment of his assistants. Nothing is better than that peace which is
according to Christ, by which all war, both of aerial and terrestrial spirits,
is brought to an end. "For we wrestle not against blood and flesh, but
against principalities and powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of
this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places."
Ignatius argues that our worship is a form of spiritual
warfare – worship which (it must added) certainly included the celebration of
Communion, the holy meal that proclaims Christ's death till he come, and as
such is a declaration of his spoil of and triumph over the principalities and
powers (Col 2.15). That spiritually beneficial and efficacious meal, a blessing,
and bread from heaven is the outward means utilised by the Holy Spirit, the
rite of establishing communion between Christ and His Church – even between its
militant and triumphant aspects (1 Cor 10, John 6).
To expand on Ignatius, we can proclaim that we worship with
the saints in heaven, in the very throne-room of God and this fact is being
proclaimed on the Earth – in the midst of the nations and the elohim-princes
that rule over them (the celestial servants (and their Earthly agents) of the
Prince of the Power of the Air, Satan himself). Our worship is a form of
warfare. It is part of a war that is unseen, of kingdoms in conflict that the
world cannot discern, and yet this reality underlies our empirical interactions
with this world which is cursed by death and as such is (apart from the eyes to
see granted by the Holy Spirit) cut off from the eternal or spiritual realities
– or at least cut off in the capacity of having any kind of accurate
understanding of their wider cosmological import and analogous relationship to
this age or order – the world of space-time as we know it.
Since the time of Constantine, the mainstream Church shifted
its emphasis onto the temporal realm and spiritual combat became united and
confused with the conflict over kingdoms, political control, and the concerns
of mammon. The Early Church, some have argued was not motivated by these
concerns because it found itself in the place of persecution and yet when
Constantine emerged, the Church could rightly 'shift' gears and embrace and
seek to subsume the world's socio-political and economic order. The proponents
of this view see it as a natural outgrowth, a happy development in terms of
Christian thought and status.
But the Ancient Church had no such visions nor did they
anticipate them. Whether specifically chiliastic or non-chiliastic (as both
schools of thought seemed to be in play), their view was universally
apocalyptic and as such the pilgrim ethic reigned over and dominated their
thought. The contemporary notion that somehow focusing on worship and prayer are
a form of quietist retreat or cultural abdication was absurd to them – as
Ignatius all but indicates. These were and are the primary forms of Christian engagement with the world, our
spiritual warfare, and our proclamation to the world. And while the
post-Constantinian mindset (focused on the sword-and-coin tokens of worldly
power) cannot understand, these tools are far more potent anyway – even if one
were to grant or assume that worldly offices and power had any import for the
Church and its larger mission.
Their true import is of course to corrupt the Church and make
it lose its way and as such they have remained one of the most potent
enticements and means utilised by the ancient Enemy to seduce the Church and
distract it into the goals and ethics of an over-realised eschatology, fighting
the wrong battles in pursuit of the wrong objectives. Those that fall into
these traps become entangled in the affairs of this life (2 Tim 2.4) and are
choked by the cares and riches of this world (Matthew 13.22), fall prey to
temptations and err concerning the faith bringing only sorrow and destruction
upon themselves and the wider Church (1 Tim 6.9-10). Their deeds lead the
Church and the way of truth to be maligned and they themselves lose their way
and fall into the error of Balaam (2 Peter 2).
This understanding of worship is fairly basic and straightforward
but few seem to grasp the profundity of what it is we're doing (individually
and corporately) and what it means. As such, the Church is easily confused and
waylaid, and their energies are poured into pursuing false hopes and
counterfeit Edens.
Most Evangelical gatherings are occasions for a hearty mix of
comedy, entertainment, therapy, and politics. The realisation of what we're
doing as the Church when we gather, that we meet to commune with God and with the
saints, that we might be in the throne room of God and in the presence of
angels – is wholly absent. Read the many accounts in Scripture of the prophets
encountering God in visions or who are taken spiritually into the presence of
the holy throne and Divine council. Are such moments the time for jocularity,
light-heartedness, casualness, entertainment, therapeutic self-focus and
so-called self-care? Do not the concerns of earthly power and mammon grow dim
in such a setting – all the more when one realises these are but outward
manifestations of eternal realities that escape us and represent realms of
existence and power that we have no right to challenge? Men rail against the
rulers of nations and plan their conquests and yet in doing so they challenge
the heavenly order and bring judgment on themselves.
We place all our hopes and strength in Christ. He, the Theanthropos is our warrior, our
conquering risen King. He is our justice and our vengeance, just as He is our
life, righteousness, and reconciliation. He wages the wars. We are called as
soldiers in the army of Zion to emulate his Earthly mission to walk in meekness
and humility and to take up the cross. Mortification (a doctrine virtually
unknown today) is our calling, our victory resulting in newness of life. The
world and the worldly-minded Christians won't have it and thus (to them) the
focus on spiritual war (as actual spiritual war) is a waste of time and even a
distraction. They want a Kingdom that is tangible and tactile – treasure that
is experienced in this life, along with vengeance and victory they can taste
and glory in. And as such they lose their way. For my part I take comfort in
the words of Ignatius the martyr.