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Archive Early Church Fathers Eric Parker Nota Bene The Natural Family

The Home is a Church

After preaching an excellent sermon on a difficult text (Genesis 1:1-2), John Chrysostom encourages his congregation to keep the sermon going, so to speak, in the home:

Perhaps our first reaction is to submit our minds immediately to a whole range of intricate questions. So it’s better to conclude our sermon at this point, exhorting you in your goodness to remember what has been said and keep it ever in your mind; when you go home from here, layout within your meal a spiritual meal as well. 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.1.

  1. Homilies on Genesis, 37

By Eric Parker

Eric Parker (PhD McGill University) is the editor of the Library of Early English Protestantism (LEEP) at the Davenant Institute. He lives in the deep South with his wife and two children, where he is currently preparing for ordination to the diaconate in the Reformed Episcopal Church.

3 replies on “The Home is a Church”

Although Chrysostom has a good word here, the household is not a church nor can it “become a church” since it lacks the marks of a true church…

Au Contraire. The home is either a church or it’s not. “Type of church”? Check the various confessions. My guess is that none of them contemplate the home in their definition of “Church”. The home is not a church nor is it a type of church…

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