Spam-risk and shoulder work ahead

Synagogues weren't "authorized" by God. 

Sometime in the days when Israel was in or just getting out of exile with Babylon, it developed - probably as a means of encouraging one another while they were "away from home". 

They weren't allowed to offer sacrifices outside of the temple worship system and especially not outside of Jerusalem, so at some point synagogues came into existence - first as a gathering and then as formal locations with buildings called "synagogues".

If you read through the Old Testament, they're not mentioned at all.  It's only when you get to the gospels you run into them being mentioned.

Something developed to replace their temple worship, per se, after Solomon's Temple was destroyed.  And even after a new version of the temple was built, they continued on with synagogues in their various locations.

God didn't say "make synagogues" but they did.  There's no indication they were condemned by God either when Jesus showed up.

Jesus even went to them and participated!

They became part of the culture and eventually, the way that Jewish people "evangelized" the cultures and countries around them, forming them wherever you could get ten men/families together.

God worked in and through them for people to "grow up" learning about scripture, being encouraged in their faith, and having community.

Though never explicitly "authorized", God used what the Jewish people developed adjacent to their faith walk (synagogues) and worked through them.

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Everyone's mind works a little differently.  When you hear or see some things, images or meanings come into your mind - and sometimes they're a little different.

For example, Spam.  When unwanted emails began being referred to as spam, it took me a good minute to re-associate that familiar word that used to mean a processed meat product to now also mean unwanted emails. 

Ditto with when phone companies began putting the words "spam risk" over in-coming calls from phone numbers not programed into your phone - not a processed meat product, but an unwanted call.

Now, after a good while, I now think of spam as some kind of sales based email or call that I don't want before I think of it as a processed meat product.

And here's another one that sticks in my head for some reason - a construction road sign that says "shoulder work ahead".  

From my younger, working-out-with-weights years we had days when we focused on shoulder work and would lift weights to grow our shoulders.

Just a couple weeks ago, driving down the highway and coming on to an off-ramp, there was a sign that said "shoulder work" again and, for whatever weird reason, I imagined coming upon people on both sides of the road who would be lifting weights over their heads, doing "shoulder work".

No idea why my brain does that, but it does.

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In a previous post (probably several actually), I talked about how "church" is one of those words that is automatically associated with God, being a Christian, etc.  

The word "church" as we use it and the phrase "going to church" are not words that exist in the original language that scriptures were written in.

Kind of like how the word "baptism" was transliterated from an original language instead of translating its original meaning - to dip or immerse - church is not a word the first believers would have used.

But over time, origins of words are lost, new forms and concepts are adopted and people move on without knowing where a lot of what is common to them came from and how different it is from its origin.

And, like synagogues, God can and will work through just about anything to share the news of what he's done and is doing in the world through Jesus - even "churches".

Interestingly, Paul went to synagogues to share Jesus with the people there.  It was a natural, common ground to reach people.  Some people, in some synagogues, in some cities, responded positively and some did not.

Paul didn't mind going anywhere to meet with anyone to share the good news of Jesus with people. Eventually, people in different places believed and began meeting together around their shared faith in God through Jesus to learn, to be encouraged, and to have a community.

It's very possible that many Jewish believers in Jesus kept going to synagogue gatherings as well. We know that many kept going to the temple for sacrifices, activities, etc - as Paul later has to address their divided belief between trusting in Jesus and still being practicing Jews.  

At least one of the reasons that Christians gathered on Sunday was because a lot of Jewish believers were still practicing Sabbath on Saturdays and wouldn't travel any distance because of its regulations.

As time went by people developed Sunday into the new "Sabbath day" and eventually the world "church" was plastered over words that used to describe believers getting together to learn, to share, and to have community.

After a while, it became very formal for many groups - a place you went to and things you did while you were there - and certain people had to "run it" or it wasn't right.

That's a lot of vague history that can be summarized with saying that the function of getting together with other believers were over taken by form.

Church became spam.

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More later...just getting a few things down for now.

Grace and peace.