Household Worship Guide on Can these Bones Live? and One Stick from Ezekiel 37 + the Historic Case for Household Worship
This week we will consider Can these Bones Live? and One Stick from Ezekiel 37. At Springs Reformed Church we distribute a weekly guide running from the Lord's Day to Saturday with Monday-Wednesday reviewing the sermons that were preached the Lord's Day at the start of the week and Thursday-Saturday previewing the sermons that will be preached the coming Lord's Day.
However, for the posts here I am linking to the guide from Thursday to Wednesday so that all are aimed at the Lord's Day as the peak of the 7-day rhythm as seen in the image above. The Lord's Day post includes links to the sermons.
Thursday Ezekiel 37:1-6—Very Dry Bones
Friday Ezekiel 37:4-10—Prophesy to These Bones
Saturday Ezekiel 37:11-14—I Will Put My Spirit In You
Lord’s Day
Monday Matthew 19:16–26—All Things Are Possible with God
Tuesday Romans 1:1-17 – The Powerful Gospel
Wednesday John 17:20–26—May They All Be One
If you find it useful to use these in your household/family worship, consider asking your pastor to speak to me about him developing something similar in your congregation.
Thoughts for Pastors:
Kerry Ptacek traces the continuation of household worship beyond the New Testament through the writings of early church fathers. He notes Ignatius’s comments on Ephesians 6:4. “Fathers … teach them [your children] the holy Scriptures.”[1] Tertullian “spoke about the spiritual unity of a Christian husband and his wife … His comments reveal much about those practices of family worship which he at least viewed as typical of a truly Christian marriage in his time.”[2] Ptacek notes Chrysostom’s call to fathers:
The father of the family might repeat something of what was said here; his wife could then hear it, the children too could learn something, even the domestics might be instructed. In short, the household might become a church, so that the devil is driven off and that evil spirit, the enemy of our salvation, takes to flight; the grace of the Holy Spirit would rest there instead, and all peace and harmony surround the inhabitants.[3]
Chrysostom, in his homily on Genesis 9:20–21, calls his readers to “attend carefully to the reading of the Holy Scriptures, not only while you are present here but also at home by taking the sacred books in your hand and receiving the benefit of their contents with assiduity.”[4] Though not specifically mentioning household worship, this instruction does lend itself to the concept, as the reading of the Holy Scriptures at home would certainly follow the pattern Chrysostom had urged earlier of the father repeating to his wife and children the Word that he had heard.
Whitney notes how Lyman Coleman summarized the early church practice of family worship.
At an early hour in the morning the family was assembled, when a portion of Scripture was read from the Old Testament, which was followed by a hymn and a prayer, in which thanks were offered up to the Almighty for preserving them during the silent watches of the night, and for his goodness in permitting them to meet in health of body and soundness of mind; and, at the same time, his grace was implored to defend them amid the dangers and temptations of the day,—to make them faithful to every duty, and enable them, in all respects, to walk worthy of their Christian vocation. … In the evening, before retiring to rest, the family again assembled, when the same form of worship was observed as in the morning, with this difference, that the service was considerably protracted beyond the period which could be conveniently allotted to it in the commencement of the day.[5]
Ptacek traces distortions of the family and church that developed in the early church. These distortions, moving into the Roman Catholic Church, led to a dividing of the family in the church cathedrals with men and women separated and the youth standing or sitting by themselves. Then, according to Ptacek, “during the era of Roman Papal domination of the western church, family worship and spiritual leadership by the head of household virtually disappeared from the historical record.”[6] One can only speculate if the recognition of the Pope as Papa and the priests as Fathers contributed to this diminishing of Papa/Father in the household.
Thankfully, household worship reappeared and became redeveloped in the churches of the Reformation. This reappearance was driven by the publication of the Bible in the common language of the people. Tyndale, who translated the Bible into English in 1526, believed that “every man ought to preach in word and deed unto his household and to them that are under his governance,”[7]
[1] Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Christian Library; Translations Of The Writings Of The Fathers Down To A.D. 325, Volume 1: The Apostolic Fathers, vol. Vol. 1 (Edinburgh, T. and T. Clark, 1867), http://archive.org/details/AnteNiceneChristianLibraryV01. 228.
[2] Kerry Ptacek, Family Worship: Biblical Basis, Historical Reality, Current Need (Edmonton, Alberta: Still Waters Revival Books, 1994). 40.
[3] Saint John Chrysostom, Saint John Chrysostom Homilies On Genesis 1 17, vol. I, 2010, http://archive.org/details/saint-john-chrysostom-homilies-on-genesis-1-17. 37.
[4] Saint John Chrysostom, Saint John Chrysostom Homilies On Genesis 18-45, vol. II (Washington, D.C. : Catholic University of America Press, 1986), 201, http://archive.org/details/homiliesongenesi0000john.
[5] Lyman Coleman, The Antiquities of the Christian Church (Andover [Mass.] : Gould, Newman & Saxton, 1841), 375–76, http://archive.org/details/antiquitieschri00sieggoog.
[6] Ptacek, Family Worship, 46.
[7] William Tyndale, Expositions and Notes on Sundry Portions of the Holy Scriptures, Together with the Practice of Prelates, ed. Henry Walter (Cambridge, The University Press, 1849), locs. 694, Kindle.
