What Did They Preach About in the Early Church?

Easter Sunday we attended a Roman Catholic Mass. The priest talked in his homily that in the early 3 centuries of the church they only preached about the resurrection. Now I’m not sure just how accurate that is but it got me to thinking, just what did they preach about?

First, they didn’t have any preachers, as we know them today. There were no ordained clergy that spent years of study on history, traditions, theology, scripture, applied theology and the like. They just had some eyewitnesses at first, and then those who told others what they heard the eye witnesses told. So, the resurrection was a big deal, but I suspect they did get into some implications of the eye witness talks and the meaning of being Jesus’ disciples.

Secondly, preachers today, if they are worthy their salt, preach on the scriptures. What does a passage say, what are its main points and ideas, and how does that related to how we live our faith as disciples of Jesus? Well, they had the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament as we talk about it and I’m sure they used them in their talks. And they had the rabbinical teaching traditions. But as for the New Testament, it wasn’t written yet. The first gospel, Mark was written about 55 to 70 A.D., Matthew around 70- to 100 A.D., Luke 80 to 100 A.D. and John the philosophical one that the priest used for his text that Sunday, 85 to 100 A.D.

Meanwhile Paul along with some others are writing letters which were shared among those early churches and he writes basically in the 50’s A.D.

If you read Acts you get a descent idea of what was going on in the early church.

So, what did they preach about in the early church? They didn’t preach they basically witnessed at least from a modern viewpoint. Not a bad idea. I like it when the so-called laity (the unordained) “preach” on a Sunday. Some try to imitate pastors with varying results. But often the most powerful messages are when they just witness to their faith and share how it has affected their lives.

Perhaps that is part of the problem of the modern church; too much preaching and not enough witnessing. Rather a difficult thing to say for one who made their living by preaching. But I think Christianity ought to be a participatory activity rather than a passive one. “Professional Christians”, clergy types, can’t do your religion, you have to. I think a lot of other folk feel the same way and see themselves as religious or spiritual and believe in a deity but or turned off by organized religion. I also believe we need experts, those who have time to study more deeply into scripture and theology, but the primary work of the church should take place by the people of the church.

The idea of one pastor per congregation is a historical fluke and I don’t think it has worked all that well. I wonder what God has in mind for the church (the body of believers) for the future?