Church, a Den of Robbers?

The great movement of Desert fathers and mothers out to the desert happened in the 300’s. Why, what happened? Constantine, the Ruler, made Christianity the national religion. In 312 he saw the vision of the cross at the Battle of Milvian Bridge (312 CE), which he won and intrepreted as a call for everyone to become Christian. Christianity was no longer a persecuted religion. One of the reasons the desert fathers and mothers went to the desert was because they were disappointed with the Christians who were not longer fearful of being arrested. Christianity became their national religion. It was safe, easy, comfortable and even culturally expected. Cultural and society expectations became more influential than the teachings of scripture, and especially the gospels. Those desert fathers and mothers went to the desert to pray the Psalms (7 times a day, Psalm 119:164) and to make a serious effort to live as Jesus taught and modeled for them (and us). Jesus said Church was to be a place for prayers and he was paraphrasing Isaiah. “My house shall be a house of prayer for all the peoples" Isaiah 56:7. In Matthew 21:23, Jesus added, “but you are making it a den of robbers.” Ouch! Perhaps Jesus was saying we’ve made Church a “den of robbers” because we have stolen prayers from the Church by insisting own our ideas of what Church should be doing. We are to gather in community, church, primarily for prayer. Jesus said so! Bible study, preaching, praise, evangelism, fellowship, youth retreats, etc. are not bad, but they steal the time and focus for prayers. The temptation is for society and culture to be the primary influence about who the Church is to be and what it is to be doing.