Is God closer in church and on Sunday?

Most Christians would say No to each of these questions.

Jonathan Edwards, however, pointed to biblical passages such as the following: God inhabits the praises of his people (Ps 22.3) and When two or three of you are gathered in my name, there I will be in the midst of you (Matt 18.20).  

These passages point to God’s more manifest presence when His people gather to worship Him and focus on His Word.

Edwards believed in sacred times such as Sabbath when God would be more present, and sacred places such as a church dedicated to his name when God’s manifest presence would be more readily perceived.

For sacred time, Edwards referred to God’s saying the Sabbath is holy and that God rests then, or makes His presence more manifest, then.

On sacred space, Edwards referred to degrees of presence.  He pointed out that Scripture makes it clear that God is everywhere throughout the earth, and yet more present in Israel.  And that while God is in the land of his people, He is even more specially present in His beloved city, Jerusalem.  And while that is where He said He would particularly reside, His presence was more particularly in the Temple there.  But not just the Temple generally, but more specially in the Holy Place.  Yet even there, most pointedly in the Holy of Holies.  And even there, especially above the mercy seat.

The rabbis agreed with this sense of special presence.  They taught that Solomon noted this paradox in his prayer to dedicate the Temple in 2 Chronicles 6.  Solomon tells God that it seems odd that even though God created the whole earth and lives in some sense in all of it, that nevertheless God would dwell specially with man in a particular place: Can it be true that God would dwell with man on earth? Behold the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much more this House [Temple] which I have built? (v 18).

Yet . . . this infinite God made it clear that he would dwell in a special way in the Temple, and that prayers directed there would have special resonance with Him: You will accept the entreaties of Your servant and of your people Israel which they will pray in this place, and You will hear from where you dwell–from heaven.  You will hear and forgive (21).

So what are we to make of all this as Christians?  That while God is available in prayer at any time and from any place, He has promised to be with us in manifest ways when we gather in worship on the Lord’s Day, the Christian Sabbath, and in the “houses” of worship that we have set apart.  He then sets these same houses apart, which means He makes them “holy.”

Another sign of this special presence, and particular access, is that He has promised to give us the Body and Blood of His Son in the Eucharist.  Not just anywhere or any time, but only when and where the Church celebrates this most holy sacrament.  That is a precious promise we should remember when we go to the Lord’s house on Sunday.