What’s that again?  Yeah, Christian Nudist Colonies…

Do you ever feel that this whole Sunday worship thing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love belting-out a few quality ‘Lutheran’ hymns just as much as the next guy, but do you ever feel that Sunday worship and all its bells, whistles, cool-sermon-alliterations and flashy presentations weren’t always exactly what the Holy Father had in mind when he said through the writer of Hebrews, “You should not give up meeting together”?

That maybe, just maybe, the hard-wiring behind Spirit-led community and mission is more than laser shows, grade-A choirs and tight-necked dress shirts that get all the compliments at the potluck dinners…

Christian Nudist Colonies

In the early 20th century, German progressives left the majority of the western world in awe as they established the first nudist colonies. These pockets of ‘progressive’ community were initially established to declare and preserve the beauty of vulnerable humanity.  These ‘Naturists’, as they were called, thought that if they were able to dwell in complete exposure to one another; then the true beauty and simplicity of what it means to be innately human would shine forth in their community…and instead we have private getaways and scandalous ‘couples’ vacations in the Gulf of Mexico…perhaps there was some short-sightedness at work here, yes?

But nonetheless, initially, somebody saw this vulnerability and raw beauty as something to be held in community and celebrated rather than shut-out, shunned and hidden from everyone else…and they did this, in complete confidence with no fear of how foolish it might appear to the outside world.

In other words, that true community is about exposure for what really ‘is’ and what remains ‘to be’…it’s a proclamation of the imprint and identity that you and I have been branded with.

Alright, let’s shift some gears and head out of obscurity and ridiculousness into some helpful context of the early church and where it’s come since the first chapter of Acts.

Stinky, Sweaty Jesus Houses

Alright, now for a oversimplified history of the first four centuries of the early church…

In the early church, after Christ ascended into heaven and sent his spirit among the members of his body, the Christian ‘church’ and the assembly of worship that it practiced became illegal under the Roman Empire, up until the 4th century.

Under heavy persecution by the whole of society, the church, or assembly of believers went into hiding.  Instead of the castle-like, pristine structures we know today, the early church was very much underground.

House churches became the place of assembly, community and building up in the body of Christ.  These ‘houses’ were often nothing more than what you or I would deem a ‘sub-par condo’ in today’s standards.  And so early Christians packed themselves in uncomfortably close, as they starved for the living, breathing word of this Moshiach in a time when such words, stories and spiritual realities were deemed a crime against the state.

Nonetheless, these meetings were more than just individuals coming to have individual needs met.  It was a place of great intimacy, not just physically, but spiritually.

In one of his letters to the church in Corinth, Paul writes concerning issues that have arisen in the context of meeting together as a church body, he makes note that there should be a distinction in the community between the meal they share as a group of persons and the spiritual reality they partake in as the body of Christ in the wine and the breaking of bread.  That there’s this incredible authenticity and transparency present, where the body of Christ amidst persecution in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd centuries, finds itself exposed for what it is, and what it remains to be nonetheless.

These communities, in every way, shape and form were the true, genuine, hot, stinky, cramped-up Christian nudist-colonies…these stinky, sweaty Jesus houses, where the body of Christ was present and exposed in the way that this God intended in the intimacy he wired it for…something truly spiritual to celebrate.

This was the private community and assembly of the intimate kingdom of God…however, this movement of people towards a redeeming God also existed outside these sweaty, thin walls.

The Kingdom that went streaking in broad daylight…

Towards the end of the book of Acts there’s this story about Paul in the Greek city of Athens, where surrounded by Greek citizens, philosophers and seekers he gives witness to the gospel of this Christ in the language of the people.  He says, “I see that you are religious men”…now stop for a minute…

This is Paul, the guy who used to be a super-rabbi in Jewish religious society…and now, Paul of all people is admonishing these Epicurean philosophers for being ‘religious’?  Think of it like a Hasidic Tzadik telling a raggedy-band of Star Trek geeks that he really appreciates how devoted they are to the quest for truth…I mean, seriously?

But Paul’s a master of his craft, so we can rest easy.  Now in this greeting, understand that he’s not manipulating the Greeks so as to throw the punch line ‘Jesus!’ in later and knock ‘em dead on their feet…He’s not baiting them, tricking them or telling a lie to throw in a truth later…

Paul meets the people where they’re at.  He uses their language, their experts, authorities, poets and artists to open up a venue for the redemption of this Christ to make sense.  He doesn’t package the Gospel in a static, rigid Kennedy evangelism program, but rather allows the redemption of this God to flow completely through him (in speech, rhetoric, relationships etc.) as he integrates the community he’s speaking to into the truth that he now embodies.

In other words, that this God is the God of all…and the early Church knew and understand this on a very deep level.  Therefore, they saw no issue with using the culture and questions of the unchurched around them to relay the message of reconciliation into darkness from light.

Granted, as is evident in Paul’s sermon to Athens (Read It), he still finds himself bound to certain aspects of the public sphere.  To put it another way, there’s a distinction in the early Church between what was shared in the private ‘Sweaty Jesus Houses’ (i.e. exposed community coupled by communion as a means to proclaimwho the Church was and to whom it was bound), and how the movement progressed (the reconciliation of 2 Cor 5) and existed where thin walls could not protect against persecution.

Nonetheless, this Kingdom had a missional mindset so unashamedly exposed, that it made the outside world blush and claim, “These men have turned the world upside down”

This community strained itself as much as possible, so as to integrate as much its ‘private’ intimacy and community into truths lived out in its ‘public’ mission.

This Kingdom intimately understood that they were bound for eternity and therefore that they could become the nudist colonies they were meant to be, to expose and embody the intimacy of the body of Christ on this side of eternity and the next.

So…back to that whole ‘Sunday Worship’ thing…is there something we’re missing?  Are we missional on Sunday mornings?  Do we resonate and radiate the ‘spiritual exhibitionism’ of the Kingdom while swaying and singing in the pew?

The issue isn’t the building, or the music, or the lasers (if you’re lucky enough), or the potluck dinners…it’s the living Spirit, burning inside the hearts of its people…

So how do you and I take some steps towards living, for lack of better words, as the exposed body of believers we’ve been called to be?

May you find freedom in the knowledge of what and to whom you are bound.  May this peace impassion you to go streaking in broad daylight with the Kingdom of Heaven, proclaiming in all tongues, words and wisdom the reconciliation through this God who grants his people a missional faith…

Much love.