On Sunday 21 August, many of us heard this passage from Isaiah 66:<\/p>\n
\u201cThus says the LORD:
\nI know their works and their thoughts,
\nand I come to gather nations of every language;
\nthey shall come and see my glory.
\nI will set a sign among them;
\nfrom them I will send fugitives to the nations:
\nto Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan,
\nto the distant coastlands
\nthat have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory;
\nand they shall proclaim my glory among the nations.
\nThey shall bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations
\nas an offering to the LORD,
\non horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries,
\nto Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the LORD,
\njust as the Israelites bring their offering
\nto the house of the LORD in clean vessels.
\nSome of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the LORD.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here and elsewhere in the Bible, God speaks of the divine plan to gather all of Israel\u2014indeed, all nations of \u201cevery language.\u201d\u00a0 The Pauline Letter to the Ephesians indicates that this ingathering is cosmic in scope:<\/p>\n
\u201cBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
From these passages, it is evident that something eschatological is symbolized every time Christians gather for worship.\u00a0 Gathering is an indication of what God has in store for humanity.\u00a0 Hence, gathering frustrates the designs of the Evil One.\u00a0 In the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch: \u201cTake heed, then, often to come together to give thanks to God, and show forth His praise. For when ye assemble frequently in the same place, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and the destruction at which he aims is prevented by the unity of your faith.\u201d (Letter to the Ephesians<\/em>, 13)<\/p>\n How often do we and our assemblies view gathering as a mere sociological happening?\u00a0 Or perhaps as a mere prelude to worship?\u00a0 How often do we reflect on our gathering as playing a role in a \/ the eschatological drama?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How often do we and our assemblies view gathering as a mere sociological happening? Or perhaps as a mere prelude to worship? How often do we reflect on our gathering as playing a role in a \/ the eschatological drama?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[285,31],"tags":[44,3049],"class_list":["post-33688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastoral-theology","category-sacramental-theology","tag-eschatology","tag-gathering"],"yoast_head":"\n