A Simple Definition

It does not take many.  The Word says, "For where two or three are gathered in My name, I am there among them."  (Matthew 18:20). When I consider these words, I am reminded of Abraham pleading with God for the souls of Sodom.  He started out asking God if He would spare the city if fifty faithful were found and finally he came to the question about ten being enough.  (Genesis 18:22-33).  Indeed, what we know is that God does not require a crowd.  He comes even when there is only a few, or even one of us. (Luke 15:1-7). 

Those words of Jesus about the two or the three are, perhaps, the simplest and most primitive definition of the church.   It is not a word which requires much.  The church defined by these words is too big for a structure of brick and mortar.  It has no cross, no candles, no communion table.  There is no ordained order, no division between clergy and laity.  The language of Jesus speaks of a community and the inclusion of Jesus in the community enables us to know that this community is not just any community, but a spiritual community that is dependent on the presence of Jesus and not the two or the three.  

If we are looking for an image of the church, we need to look no further than a gathering as simple as the one Jesus creates with His words and His incarnate presence.  This we know because it is the witness of the Word, but also because we have encountered such moments in the presence of a few and Jesus.  I remember a moment when a piece of toast and a cup of grape juice was taken from a hospital tray and turned into the holy meal.  Besides myself there was present in that room the soul waiting in the bed, two others standing alongside and Jesus.  Had the meal been offered in a grand cathedral by a robed priest, it could not have been a more sacred gathering of the church.