The Duty and Joy of Household Worship

Nothing can substitute for the gathering of the people of God in the congregation, who on Sundays  “come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,  and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Hebrews 12.22-24). The Christian soul, separated from the Church of Christ, “longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God” (Psalm 84.2).

However, in the wake of the advice against all large gatherings in the United Kingdom, we must work out in what else a Christian’s worship and spiritual sustenance consists. Indeed, there is a wider question about how church institutions ought to function in such a situation – we could, after all, be in this situation for 18 months. Institutions can certainly, for instance, livestream sermons and so forth, but that is not the same as having gathered public worship. Christianity is not “Gnostic” – the body matters, physicality matters. Jesus speaks of us binding and loosing when we are gathered; church discipline happens in the gathered congregation; the author to the Hebrews wants us to meet together, not write letters to one another. Voice and video calling are a literal Godsend at such a time as this – but they are not church.

Without addressing that wider question – a complex one, to be sure – there is a partial answer in Scripture to what we might do. It is, indeed, what we always ought to be doing. As a subsidiary of the gathered congregation of God, we ought to worship as households, where we can (and pray mightily for those living alone).

What is the Biblical command to do so? We see it in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Consider Deuteronomy 6.4-9, the Shema, the centrepiece summary of religious duty for the people of Israel:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

The language of the Shema is used of the Trinity by Jesus in John 17.20-26, and by Paul in 1 Corinthians 8.6 and Ephesians 4.4-6. They believed the Shema; they believed it spoke of the Christian God. And they believed in the moral code of the Old Testament – affirmed throughout the New Testament. We can presume, then, that they believed Christians ought to always speaking of the things of God, in their houses and by the ways, not just in the gathered congregation of God. There are other indications of household worship in the Old Testament – as an example, in Genesis 18.19 where God speaks of Abraham raising his household, including servants, to follow the Lord – but does this apply in a similar way for Christians, or is it one of those commandments that takes on a transformed meaning in Christ?

This command still applies – Christians should teach their biological children about the Lord, and Christian households should learn about God together. Paul speaks of this in Ephesians 6.1-4: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honour your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Children are to obey their parents “in the Lord”; in a Christian manner, on a Christian basis. Parents – most particularly fathers – are up to raise their children to follow God. (Yes, the election of God is indispensable here, and parents do not save their children. Nevertheless, it ought not mystify us that the people statistically most likely to be Christians are those raised by faithful conservative Christians; God has set this out as a pattern of His faithfulness.)

So Christian parents and children (and lodgers and servants and the rest) are to learn of God together, separate from the gathered congregation. This “little platoon” – the household – may be said to be the basic building material of the church. It certainly is in Scripture. And this is not merely a duty – it is a joy! As Psalm 118.14-16 puts it:

“The Lord is my strength and my song;
    he has become my salvation.
Glad songs of salvation
    are in the tents of the righteous:
‘The right hand of the Lord does valiantly,
the right hand of the Lord exalts,
    the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!’”

The people of God sing to God in their own houses. This is a literal song singing about people singing to God in their tents – it’s no metaphor! And this is the strength and gladness of the righteous one: praising God as they sit down and stand up, at home, and by the road. Even the person living alone at this difficult time has that joy available to them. As the persecuted pastor Richard Wurmbrand said, the Christian is never alone – when stuck in the isolation cells, he would preach sermons to the angels! If you are stuck home alone, do not despair. Like Elijah facing the Arameans, there are invisible hosts arrayed alongside you – you are not truly alone!

Household worship was a duty before this crisis – it is still, but the joyfulness of it is more clearly evident. We are not deprived from the sustenance of God. We do not have to rely on livestreaming – however useful it will undoubtedly be – to meet with Him. We can do it daily together in our homes. But what should we do?

There are clear elements indicated in Scripture: (1) the instruction of the Lord, which is the written Word of God; (2) the singing of songs of worship to Him; (3) and thanksgiving for all good things we receive from Him (1 Timothy 4.4-5), such as dinner at the family table, which we should eat and drink to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10.31). There is no set format – no order of service – but those are distinctive elements. Here’s just one household’s take on that (2 adults, 2 pre-school children, with room to grow), that we usually do after a meal:

SCRIPTURE READING: We usually have both an Old Testament and New Testament book going at the same time, and alternate. We tend to read a “subheading” each time, where the editors of our translation have put in a break. As our eldest kids grow a little, we might expand that to more like a chapter at a time.

SPIRITUAL READING: We read a couple of pages from a spiritual book most times. This is by way of gaining some instruction about Scripture. (I usually gloss both the Scripture and spiritual reading, too.) We are currently alternating between two books, as with the Bible: a bulky but very readable systematic theology which has pastoral applications, and a short, punchy book from the Puritan Paperbacks series. Both books are by Puritans, in fact.

SINGING: We often sing songs together. Though a few are “family” songs, most are traditional hymns. We mostly use the Trinity Baptist Hymnal.

PRAYER: We always finish with prayer, and ask the kids (well, Joe, who can speak) what he would like to pray for.

That might seem very heavy, but at 10-15 minutes both our kids usually cope with it. (We are flexible if they are really struggling, but they’ve learned patience by us persisting.) It is an incomparable privilege to see my 2-year-old praying articulately on his own (when he wants to!), and the joy they both have in singing songs like “A Mighty Fortress” or “Immortal Invisible God Only Wise”. Not every session is as easy, but even where they are not getting as much from it, my wife and I do – and we are worshippers in need of sustenance, too.

I hope and pray that this period of isolation and crisis can be, in the Lord’s kind dispositions, a great opportunity for a revival of household worship. It is as likely a thing as any to cause spiritual renewal after the plague is curbed.