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A brief history lesson.

The persecution of Christians by the Roman authorities ended officially with the death of the Roman Emperor Galerius in 311 CE.  Following his death, fighting broke out between Roman leaders who wanted to be the new Emperor.  On the night before a crucial battle one of the contenders, Constantine, had a vision or a dream (accounts differ) which led him to order his soldiers to put a Christian symbol on their shields and banners.  Constantine won the battle and became Emperor.

Constantine did not immediately become a Christian.  In fact, he was not baptized as a Christian until he was on his deathbed.  Also, Constantine did not make Christianity the official religion of the empire, and he did not put an end to the worship of Roman gods.  Indeed, as Emperor, he himself took a leading role in the ceremonies worshiping those Roman gods until the end of his reign.  But Constantine actively promoted Christianity.  He promoted, and often paid for, the founding of new churches, many of which were built on a grand scale.  He exempted church properties from tax and also made it legal to bequeath property to the church.  This meant that churches, and the bishops who controlled the churches, started to get rich.  Christianity became popular .  (If the Emperor promoted Christianity then it did you no harm to become a Christian if you wanted to get on in his empire).

These changes happened very suddenly, and this caused major problems for the church.  During the period of persecution of Christians by the Roman authorities, it had been normal for people who became Christians to go through a lengthy process of instruction and examination to make certain that they understood their new faith and lived their lives in obedience to the teachings of Jesus.  This period of instruction and examination could take as long as two years, then the new Christians were baptized and could take part in communion services.  When Constantine began to favor the church, the large numbers of people wanting to join meant the period of education and training before baptism was greatly shortened and many people were baptized who had little understanding of what being a Christian really meant.

Also, during Constantine’s reign, a number of changes were made to the Christian forms of worship which, until then, had been simple.  The following practices were adopted which were features of rituals associated with worship of Roman gods.  (However, it should be noted that some of these had also featured in traditional Jewish rituals.)

Use of incense.

Adopting the title ‘priest’.

Priests wearing special robes.

Renaming the communion table ‘the altar’.

Beginning services with a procession of priests entering the church.

Christian leaders didn’t just start to become wealthy,  they started to become influential.  Bishops became advisers to Constantine and other Roman rulers.  They eventually became major players in the political, as well as spiritual, affairs of the state.

 

What was the reaction of followers of Jesus to all this?

Broadly speaking, there were two responses:

• Some Christian leaders, such as the influential Bishop Eusebius, believed that Constantine was chosen by God to bring the church and the empire together.  This was the beginning of formalizing a strong relationship between the Christian church and state authorities which lasted well into the 20^th century in many countries and can still be seen in some countries today.
• Others were horrified by what was happening.  We know there were some strong sermons preached against the direction the church was taking.  But the change, at that time, seemed irreversible.  Unable to stop it, many devout Christians withdrew to remote areas to lead a life of meditation and self-denial.  Quite quickly they began to form groups, and this was the beginning of the monastic movement.

 

What did God do?

Our loving, heavenly Father never gave up on his church, nor did he give up on any part of it.  Throughout history, he has raised up servants to point out the ways in which his people have been failing to serve him, and to show the way his children should be living.  He continued to do so.  Like the prophets of the Old Testament, or Jesus himself, these servants were often not welcomed by the leaders of the institutionalized church.  Some of these servants suffered terribly.  God continues to raise up such servants today.  We must listen for their voices because, unfortunately, many churches today are still institutions.

The word “institutionalize” means “establish as a convention (tradition) in an organization or culture”.  Many, perhaps most, of the things we do in our churches are established traditions.  We don’t question them because we have always done things that way in our church, almost all churches do things that way, and churches have been doing things that way for a very long time (since Constantine, 1700 years ago, in many cases).  Probably the best example is that we hold church services in church buildings.  Did Jesus tell us to hold church services in churches?  No.  He didn’t.  He told us to get out there, make disciples and teach them to obey his commands (Matthew 28:19-20).  We don’t need church buildings, or church services, to be followers of Jesus.  In fact, churches and church services may hold us back from doing the things Jesus told us to do.  Most church communities spend almost all their resources on holding church services in churches and there is little energy or money left over to do the things Jesus actually told us to do.  Things have to change.  Things are changing.  Let’s pray that our heavenly Father will move mightily to bring change in our communities.

May our loving Father bless us, strengthen us and guide us as we serve him.

Jesus is Lord.

Peter O

 

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