Series: 2022
This note is not an original sermon manuscript but a transcribed primary-source passage from Justin Martyr’s First Apology (c. 155 AD), housed in a sermon folder titled ‘How to Build a Car.’ It describes the order of early Christian Sunday worship: the common assembly of city and country members, reading from the apostles’ memoirs and the prophets, the president’s exhortation to imitate virtue, communal prayer, the Eucharist of bread, wine, and water (carried by deacons to the absent), a freewill collection used to care for orphans, widows, the sick, the imprisoned, and travelers, and the rationale that Sunday is both the day of creation’s light and Christ’s resurrection. It functions as illustrative source material on worship and the gathered church.
Illustrations: justin-martyr-sunday-worship
On Sunday we have a common assembly of all our members, whether they live in the city or the outlying districts. The recollections of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as there is time. When the reader has finished, the president of the assembly speaks to us; he urges everyone to imitate the examples of virtue we have heard in the readings. Then we all stand up together and pray.
On the conclusion of our prayer, bread and wine and water are brought forward. The president offers prayers and gives thanks to the best of his ability, and the people give assent by saying, “Amen.” The eucharist is distributed, everyone present communicates, and the deacons take it to those who are absent.
The wealthy, if they wish, may make a contribution, and they themselves decide the amount. The collection is placed in the custody of the president, who uses it to help the orphans and widows and all who for any reason are in distress, whether because they are sick, in prison, or away from home. In a word, he takes care of all who are in need.
We hold our common assembly on Sunday because it is the first day of the week, the day on which God put darkness and chaos to flight and created the world, and because on that same day our savior Jesus Christ rose from the dead. For he was crucified on Friday and on Sunday he appeared to his apostles and disciples and taught them the things that we have passed on for your consideration.
Justin Martyr