and less as an opportunity to love one another. The focus came to be on
the ritual actions of the priest in offering mass, more than on the people’s
relationships with one another. Ritual has its place, but the doctrine of
“salvation by sacrifice” led to worship that was pretty much “ritual alone.” As
ritual is more impressive in large groups, church became focused on large,
beautiful cathedrals, and there was less need for small groups.
Centuries later, the Reformation brought significant changes, such as
allowing the common people to read the Bible, and having sermons in church
services, and speaking in people’s native languages (instead of Latin) so people
could actually learn something in church.
Unfortunately, the focus was still not on love and good will, but on faith
alone, and since faith in God as three Persons is actually incomprehensible, the
focus was not on understanding the truth, but upon persuading people to give
emotional assent to a set of beliefs that they did not really understand.
In the Protestant world for the most part church services were not set up
for dialog or questions because the clergy really didn’t want people to doubt
or question – they didn’t have answers – but simply to have faith that what the
minister said is true. As a result, in the Protestant world the focus came to be
on the sermon as the center of worship.
Sermons have an important place; the Lord Himself gave the Sermon on
the Mount and other discourses. Yet the doctrine of faith alone led to worship
that was almost “sermon alone.” If only one person is talking, a large group
is more efficient than a small group, and also a large group allows for group
thinking where each person thinks that what the minister is saying must be
true, because everyone else present seems to believe it. (See True Christianity
796:1-2)
The New Church – New Priorities
In the New Church we find a renewal of the early Christian values. Love for
the Lord and other people is in the first place, our highest priority. We also
value truth, which involves not just believing a creed, but questioning, digging,
really understanding and applying the teachings of the Word. Again, we value
uses, knowing that the Lord’s kingdom is a kingdom of uses. These values
affect the way we look at small groups in the New Church.
The New Church teaching is that our neighbor is not only other individuals,
but also groups of people, and the more people there are, the more we are to
love them. So we should love a small group more than an individual, and a
large group more than a small group. This doesn’t mean that we feel especially
mushy and emotional when in a large group, but rather that we put the good of
a large group ahead of the needs of the smaller groups within it.
It also does not mean that we leave unmet the needs of smaller groups,
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