What is the Church? What Good is Church Anyway?

The first and most harmful of these problems is that of individualism which permeates every aspect of our American culture. "Some of our most powerful cultural myths and images center on the self-made and independent individual, who achieve success in life without assistance from others. Independence rather than interdependence is our cultural bias, and this has an impact on the prevailing understandings of Christian faith and life." This type of white North American cultural bias has an influence on the people of God which leads to a self-centered piety. This individualized piety relegates to church and the church community to being secondary and often times optional.

The second is similar and directly connected to the problem of individualism and it is the problem of privatization. "That is, the world of work and public affairs is separated from the world of domesticity, leisure, personal nurture, and religion. The process of privatization severs the message and mission of the church from the larger questions and struggles of life." For this reason, the church becomes closed off and begins to only serve the needs of private individuals or small study groups.

The third is something we here at the First Presbyterian Church of Rensselaer have been intimately involved with and that is the problem of bureaucratic organization of the church. "Bureaucracy is a system of administration marked by anonymity, adherence to fixed rules, hierarchy of authority, and proliferation of officials. The ultimate in modern bureaucracy is the reduction of personal relationships to communication with a machine." This is any easy problem to fall into because the church does need to organize in a particular way and if it becomes a large group the groups does need to delegate responsibilities but the difference between an organized church and a bureaucraticly organized church is the community found within the organization. The personal and intimate understanding of the connectedness we have to all members of the church local as well as the church global.

The final problem I would like to highlight that the church has in understanding what the church of Christ is is that of the church's actual practice. A good quote to understand this problem comes from Fredrick Nietzsche, "They would have to sing better songs to make me believe in their Redeemer: his disciples would have to look more redeemed!" Because, in large part, of the aforementioned problems, there is a huge gap between what we as a church proclaim and what we as a church actually practice. In as much, people who look in at those within the church do not see the true church of Christ but rather an individualized, privatized, bureaucratic and cosmetic form of Christianity.

If we are true to ourselves and confess the problems of the church we can then start to gain a new vision within ourselves that is able to grasp what it means to be Christ's church in the world. It is this mystery of true ecclesiology that is being revealed in the processes we are going through here as we search for a new pastor for this church. We are seeing that the church is not called to be a witness for our modern society but rather a witness of God's one new humanity that Paul describes in Eph. 2:15. A humanity where all humanly built walls of separation crumble and the expression of the love of God is witnessed to in the mutual giving and receiving of love. "The church is called to be the beginning of new human life in relationship, solidarity, and friendship beyond all privatism, classism, racism, and sexism."

But how can we tell we have cast away the social influences strangling the church and are in fact becoming God's witness of new human life in relationship? For this we can look to the ancient Nicene Creed.

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen

After all of that, I only want to point out one sentence from the creed. In the creed we stated, "We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church." It is such a short sentence but it is jam packed with meaning for understanding what the true ecclesiology of the church is. But before I start in on pulling apart the sentence, I need to make sure I am being clear. I am not attempting to prescribe exactly what the true church of God looks like specifically but rather what the marks of the church are. What is seen within a church that is already functioning in the way God has called that church to function in the world. In the way the people have responded to God's call and how they connect their faith, practice and community to the world. The reason I mention this is that for all of us "it is destructive to drive a wedge between the church as a charismatic community and the church as an institution with order and structure." Each has their role to play and they should both be within the same church. "It is destructive to compel people to choose between the worshiping church and the socially involved church." "It is destructive to separate the church from the Word and the church of the sacraments. A good Reformed church, according to the stereotype, is a church of the Word and not a sacramental church; and a good Catholic church, the stereotype continues, is a sacramental church and not a church of the World." Which brings injury to both assemblies. The tension that has developed and often times lead to a splitting of the church must be embraced and always held as tension of the diversity of life which God has created within all of us. It is living with and into these tensions that we lovingly inform each other in such a way that we grow ever closer to God in our diversity and our struggle to be community and God's new humanity.

One: What does it mean to be 'one' church? The unity or 'oneness' of the church will never be found in the dynamic tensions, the structures, the offices, the doctrines, or even the programs of the church but rather the unity of the church is found in our fellowship with the triune God. We read this in Eph. 4:4-6, "There is one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; on God and [Creator] of all, who is over all and through all and in all." This unity of the church is not found in the deadening and lifeless uniformity of 'sameness' but rather when our isolated self dies and we find our new identity in Christ through loving and mutual relationship with others. The unity of the church is found when we throw away the designation of ourselves as 'I' and replace it with our new identity in Christ, 'We.'

Holy: What does it mean to be a 'holy' church? "Holiness does not mean becoming 'holier than thou,' developing an attitude of moral superiority that leads to separation from those deemed inferior." We are a church of sinners. The holiness of the church will never be found within the church itself but rather the holiness of the church is rooted in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The holiness of the church is found in God's love; a love that is far from being transcendent above the world, the sinner, the stranger in our midst but is rather immanent and embracing of the world, the sinner, the stranger without reservation. Because of this, the church's holiness will never be seen in "conformity to conventional moral rules but in the courageous criticism of injustice, acts of solidarity with the poor and the outcast and the sharing of friendship and power with the weak and despised" in our society. The holiness of the church shines in it's ability to train women and men to have Christian character and discipline that will enable them to "resist the style of life characteristic of a self-centered consumer society, who lead the way in opting for a simpler way of life, and who show openness to the needs of others, especially [the marginalized, oppressed and] the poor."

Catholic: What does it mean to be a 'catholic' church? The original understanding of catholic is "that which is believed everywhere, always, and by all" or in a short definition; universal. Daniel Migliore defines catholic as such:

The church today needs to interpret the meaning of catholic as inclusive of all kinds of people. In order to be catholic in this sense, it is, paradoxically, necessary for the church to be partisan. If the Gentiles are being excluded from hearing the good news of freedom in Christ, then it becomes necessary to be partisan for the Gentiles, as was the apostle Paul, precisely to affirm the catholicity of the church and the universality of the lordship of Christ. If particular racial groups and certain economic classes are being turned away from the church, either directly or indirectly, because they do no find their concerns and needs taken seriously, the it is necessary to become partisan for these people, as black theology, feminist theology, [queer theology], and other forms of liberation theology do. When the church makes an [preferential] option for the poor, it demonstrates rather than denies its catholicity. The other side of this coin, however, is that every partisan act of the church must be intentionally universal, or it becomes not the partisanship of God but a divisive and destructive party spirit.

Apostolicity: What does it mean to be an 'apostolic' church? Some would characterize the apostolic nature of the church as an external and mechanical succession of ordinations going back all the way to the first apostles. This notion restricts the apostolic mark of the church to only the ordained clergy of the assembly. This does not fully show the mark of apostolicity. Everyone that is baptized is called to be a missionary for the good news of God's in-breaking kin-dom in Jesus Christ and in that same way is participating in the apostolic tradition of the church. The church participates in this tradition by communicating the gospel in every aspect of its mission in the world. "Specifically, true apostolic witness to the gospel eschews force, intimidation, and deception as strategies to win adherents, whether in the form of a blatant appeal for state power to secure the church's position and influence or the more covert forms of threat and coercion or narrow appeals to self-interest employed in certain kinds of evangelism, both on and off television." Second Corinthians 11:23 and following shows us what the apostle Paul thought was the true meaning of apostolicity when he points to his scars and persecution. Thus the apostolic church will show its faithfulness to the good news of Jesus Christ specifically in it's mission amongst the weakness and poverty that the grace of God uses to God's glory and humanity's salvation.

Do we see the marks of the church in this church? With the gap between the rich and the poor growing in this country and the world how can we answer Christ's inbreaking into our closed doors? How do we answer Matthew 25:31 and following when it states that Christ is where the gospel is preached and heard; Christ is where the gifts of the Spirit are manifest; Christ is present among the poor, the hungry, the sick, and the imprisoned? We must always remember from those verses that those who minister to the wretched, the marginalized, the outcast of the earth minister to Christ.

These are questions we need to be asking here at Rensselaer First Presbyterian. We are in transition just as the disciples were in transition after the ministry and resurrection of Christ. They were figuring out who they were as the people of God. They were asking all the right questions. Even Thomas was so bold as to ask Christ for proof. We should be so bold in how we gather ourselves together and listen for God's call for this Church. So it is with all that I have said in mind that I call upon everyone in this congregation to become an active participant in determining the direction and call God has placed on this church and its people. The simplest way to participate is this process of discernment is to attend the final Congregation Reflection that is scheduled for Sunday April 17th at 4:30pm. The community of this church is strong and we need everyone present so that we can work out the tensions I spoke about in my sermon that every church must face. In the grace of God we will lift up this congregation and be Christ ecclesia in the world! Amen.

Quotes taken from:
Daniel Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing, 2004).