Holy Convocation
This blog came about as a result of an event we recently experienced during a holy day observance. It has to do with basic standards of conduct while attending a Christian meeting. So if you consider yourself a Christian, and attend holy day observances (such as one of the feasts or the fast), then this blog may be of interest to you. Herein I will attempt to give you a primer on the basic theory of, and how to conduct yourself during the meeting according to Apostolic requirements.
One of the commands for all of the holy day observances (including Sabbath) is the requirement to have a MEETING. This meeting is a special kind of meeting compared to all the other kinds of meetings that people can participate in. There are many different kinds of meetings found in the Bible. Same with the secular world. The type of meeting is known by the Biblical phrase that identifies it. The Hebrew phrase translated into English for holy day meetings is HOLY CONVOCATION. A ‘convocation’ is a GROUP GATHERING/MEETING. The word HOLY classifies the meeting as different from all other types of meetings. The KEY to understanding what Holy means is to know what makes it Holy. The thing that makes a it Holy is THE PRESENCE OF GOD/JESUS. They are present in the meeting AS A SPIRIT, a Holy Spirit. The theological term for God’s presence in a meeting is INDWELLING. I wrote a bit about that in a previous blog. Based on what I read in the Bible, there are 2 kinds of ‘indwellings’ of God’s (YHWH’s) Spirit: 1. personal and 2. community. Obviously this blog concerns community indwelling.
There are 2 aspects to the meeting, the Human and the Divine. Since the Divine Spirit is the key to a holy meeting, the foregone conclusion is that the focus during the meeting is YHWH’s/Jesus’s Spirit. The focus isn’t any one of us. Nor is the focus on the group of people or their leaders. In other words, a holy convocation isn’t a group therapy session, it’s not a place to bare our soul or speak our grievances (like an AA meeting), or to ‘take inventory’ about how we feel, or to debate theology, or a social club, or a place to make contacts and network, or to be entertained, etc. It’s a place where we gather together to focus on YHWH and Jesus and ‘wait’ to see what the Holy Spirit will bring to us in the form of instructions, exhortations, encouragements, prayers, or even (if He so wills) exercise of the spiritual gifts. If you haven’t experienced this before, then it’s something you will want to experience, because it’s different from anything you have or will ever experience. The thing is, in order to experience it, we need to get out of the way and ‘wait on YHWH’.
For example, when I lived in Israel I attended a Brethren church on Sunday (that was before my ‘wake-up’ about Sabbath observance). That kind of ‘fellowship’ is known as an Open Meeting. That means anyone can participate. Note that the women wore head coverings and only the men spoke. The women were permitted to start a hymn or pray. The children were kept in another room and cared for. It was an adult-only meeting. By way of contrast, the ‘over-the-wires’ meeting we just had was a family type atmosphere where all the children attended. So the standards of conduct should be elevated to account for the innocent and naive children.
What happened during that meeting is, if someone had a testimony of God working in their life during the previous week (like saving them from a bad accident, or the family receiving an unexpected but needed blessing of some kind, etc.), then they would ‘pipe-up’ and briefly share the event/experience, and ‘give glory to God’. Also ‘permitted’ during the meeting was if someone had a hymn they wanted to sing, they would request it and then everyone would open their hymnal, and someone who could sing on key (usually appointed) would start the hymn and everyone would sing along. There were no musical instruments. And if you didn’t know the hymn, then you remained silent and eventually you would figure it out so you could sing along. The songs were not about us, they were ‘praises to YHWH’. So even remaining silent and going along with the proceedings qualified as participation with/in the group towards YHWH.
The other thing that was permitted was if someone had a word of exhortation or a teaching to share. Usually there was an ‘elder’ there who would bring ‘a word’ to the group. But frequently he would sit quietly and ‘allow’ others to share. The ‘elder’ who circuited greater ‘Judea’ was appointed from the Brethren headquarters located in England. So when someone had something of importance to share that was in the Bible, they would indicate that they did, and then they would speak it. But usually new-comers didn’t do that. And if eventually they had something to say, they would look at the elder and wait for a nod from him so they could speak. Otherwise, they would remain silent. The elder basically kept order in the assembly. The assemblies were usually small, about 30 people max, who met in a ‘big room’ in someone’s house . The message was always brief and on-point to the theme of the meeting. Usually the message came at the end, but sometimes, if the ‘spirit of the meeting’ solicited it, it would occur at any other time during the meeting.
That is what an ‘open meeting’ is typically like. The meeting that we had for this past Yom Teruah was an open meeting, albeit ‘over the wires’. The above is a description of typical conduct during an open meeting. The point I’m trying to make about an open meeting is this: All the contributions during the meeting always added-up to one theme. No person could guide the meeting to bring that theme. No person could possibly know what that theme would be. But every time we met, a theme came out of it that everyone benefited from, and that came right out of the Bible. It’s important to note that the theme of the meeting was always a message of YHWH’s/Jesus’s Spirit speaking to the people, through the people, during the meeting. It’s a communication between us and Them and between Them and us.
That’s a prime example of what it means to ‘wait on God’ during the meeting to see what the Spirit will speak to the congregants. Our meeting ‘over the wires’ was similar to a typical Brethren meeting because it was an open meeting. The primary difference is that we didn’t have an appointed leader because we don’t belong to an institutional church organization. Our small meeting resulted from our like-minded lifestyle and desires to please YHWH/Jesus. It wasn’t about us. Instead, it was about doing what YHWH commanded with the right motives.
Sometimes during a meeting with newcomers, a person will give their ‘testimony’ of how they ‘got saved’ (how they became ‘Christian’). The reason why they do that is to show everyone at the meeting that they are ‘connected’ with all the other participants through the same Spirit. Sharing that kind of testimony is the means used to discover that each of us is in fact a ‘Christian’ of the same kind. That’s the key to UNITY in the group. Sharing our personal testimonies of how we became ‘Christian’ is a means of boding together in the common faith. By way of contrast, those people who go to church and who do not have a ‘personal testimony’ like we do, do not have a place in such meetings, because they don’t have YHWH’s Spirit in them to join them together. YHWH’s/Jesus’s Spirit is the key element in all fellowship. That’s what makes it HOLY. All of this info is found in the NT, and much of it comes out of the OT, as-lived during NT times under the Apostle’s leadership. So this isn’t my personal opinion. Instead, it’s the way they did it.
You can read about the ‘rules of conduct’ for holy convocations mostly in Paul’s letters. They are historical gold mines of information on what went on in the assemblies, from an administrative viewpoint. By way of contrast, during college we all were required to learn ‘Robert’s Rules of Order’. I don’t recall ever using those rules for the past 40 years! Yet, we didn’t learn much about CHURCH POLITY (order in the churches) during Bible college, believe it or not! Another venue that has piles of rules of conduct and ‘speech’ is the legal forum and courts. Every sporting event has rules of conduct for both the players and participants. Engaging in warfare does as well. There are many kinds of business meetings too, such as corporate board meetings, shareholder meetings, and employee disciplinary meetings. Family get-togethers have rules too, that is, if the parents who hold the gatherings have any kind of culture and customs from their ethnic roots. National holiday events do as well, especially if they are held at a government venue. I’ll let you add to this list and think about the contrasts between all the kinds of meetings and rules of those meetings compared to the nature and rules of the a holy convocation.
Here are some Bible passages that you can read to see how the Apostles supervised the New covenant communities, in order that the participants would properly conduct themselves ‘in the house of faith’ (‘when gathered together’):
“…but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15)
[Paul wrote that to one of his hand-picked administrators in his letter of 1 Timothy. If you want to see how the admins viewed the community, read Paul’s 2 letters to Timothy and his letter to Titus.]
“5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children…3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” (Ephesians 5)
1 Corinthians 14 concerns the operation of the spiritual gifts within the assembly. However, the same principles apply to an ‘open meeting’ that we have today, two millennia after the Apostles. Go ahead and read that chapter and see for yourself the instructions for proper conduct. The key phrases in that chapter are:
“seek to abound for the edification of the church” (v4)
“Let all things be done for edification” (v26).
That’s the goal of our conduct in the assembly when we offer something to everyone else.
Although my father wasn’t much of a Christian, had a saying he used a lot: ‘be on your best behavior!’ I think that’s appropriate when we meet together as a ‘holy convocation’.
“29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. 30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4)
“Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4)
[“All” is a reference to ‘believers’, not to nominal Christians. And that’s the reality of the Spirit. It’s not religion. It’s the basis of and key to our ‘eternal life’ and daily living. This is an essential aspect to being ‘Christian’ that I briefly blogged about in the past.]
To summarize, the key to proper conduct during holy day observances (including Sabbaths) is recognizing and focusing on the key element of the meeting. That is, YHWH/Jesus. It is THEIR SPIRIT in each person and in the community as a whole. That’s what makes it a HOLY meeting, in contrast to any other kind of meeting (e.g., court, congress, county hearing, funeral, wedding, other religious, house warming, war/militia, etc.). And the purpose of the meetings is acknowledgment of YHWH and edification of others, not self. The meeting is where people are ‘touched’ by God’s Spirit so that they become more like Jesus in their daily lives. The opposite of this is found in 1 Corinthians 15:33:
Do not be deceived: Bad company corrupts good morals.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing in this message about Christian conduct in the community!
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