'The holy, catholic, Church'

[1 Corinthians 1:10-17 & Matthew 28:16-20]

Michael del Rio, Sunday 20 January 2008

Introduction

I well remember that one of the very first questions (the first of many I might add) that I posed to a good Christian friend of mine, after I made a personal commitment at 16, was “But what about all the different churches? Why are they so divided? What about the Catholics (by which of course I meant the Church of Rome)? Are they saved too?”

I think it’s fair to say that in the nineteen years since I made a personal commitment to Christ I have developed and, in some cases, even wholly changed my views on any number of issues, but one of the few things on which my understanding has changed little, if at all, is that of the Church. The answer my friend gave me went something like this: “There are Christians in every denomination because the Church is not a denomination; it’s a group of people who truly believe in Christ. We might believe that a particular denomination has a doctrine (that is a set of rules or beliefs) that is so far removed from the gospel that it cannot possibly contain true believers. However, even if the doctrine is corrupt there may still be people within that denomination that hold fast to the truth.”

I’d therefore like to spend a few minutes this morning considering what it means first of all to be ‘holy’, secondly ‘catholic’ and thirdly ‘a / the church’.

Holy

Holy is one of those strange words which has taken upon itself all sorts of bizarre connotations. We use it in the strangest of ways. At its root it is a very simply word meaning ‘set apart’ that in Scripture is often associated with God’s people, i.e. those ‘set apart’ as His own. It designates them as ‘special’ and sometimes as being ‘sanctified’… that is made right with Him. They are to be distinct or different from the world around them in many ways. However, we have come to use the term of objects or liturgies or traditions which we have come to think of as being in some way ‘special’ or ‘significant’. Unfortunately, this in turn has led to a belief in what one might call ‘holy things’ and from that belief has arisen this idea that some Christians do things the right way because they respect these ‘holy things/ traditions’ whereas others who do things differently are no longer considered holy. An example of this is the person who raises someone up on the basis of outward piety which they then consider to designate that person as holy. “He goes to church every day; he prays for two hours every morning; he reads his Bible three times a day; he prostrates himself when he prays; he crosses himself before he receives the sacrament; he never misses out a prayer from the fixed liturgy; he never speaks in church…..” and so on and so forth. We might look at many historical figures who have lived up to all of these expectations and yet at the same time been murdering megalomaniacs! So, holiness is not about keeping rules of tradition or decorum, but about some inward change which effects our outward action.

In the Bible holiness is designated by the relationship of a person to God. It describes their status before Him. Those considered to be holy are those who are ‘made right’ in His sight, those who have nothing to fear from death or judgement; those for whom Christ says ‘There are many mansions in My Father’s house.’

Relationships manifest themselves in many forms and therefore we should not be surprised if one person feels the need to separate themselves from society for a time in order to strengthen his/ her relationship with God, whilst another feels the need to immerse themselves in working for those poor and needy within society. Equally we should neither be surprised or offended if one person feels that out of respect for God they should kneel or prostrate themselves when they pray, whilst another feels that the sacrifice which Christ has made for them enables them to sit/ stand when they pray. Holiness is a state of mind rather than an outward expression.

I don’t know how many of you have been following Peter Owen Jones on his ‘Extreme Pilgrimage’ over the past three weeks. The purpose of his journey seems to be about rediscovering ‘outward piety’ derived from bodily punishment. It seems to be all about ‘earning salvation’ by physical exertion. Now, whilst I by no means wish to knock aside the idea of taking time apart to be with God, I’m equally not advocating that by punishing the body we can earn our way to heaven. There may be benefit in freeing ourselves from some of the material shackles of our worldly existence but at the same time the path of asceticism is by no means the certain road to heaven. Like anything else, it is simply one expression of seeking to build and maintain a healthy relationship with God. Speaking for myself, it would be more likely to result in a descent into madness.

The opening verse of our passage from I Corinthians says “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose.”

The key thing which, note, Paul does not say here is ‘You should be united in practice, ritual, dress, tradition, and so forth.’ Rather, true holiness is derived not from outward piety or practice, but from a common mind and purpose. And what is that common mind or purpose? Well, if we were to read on from the end of our passage this morning we would find it in the succeeding verses. Verse 18 says “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Our holiness comes not from the traditions of men, but from the cross of Christ.

When I was at theological college doing my Master’s dissertation I was researching the objections of the Puritans to the revised Prayer Book that would ultimately be reintroduced into England in 1662. What I found incredible was that the Church of England divided in 1662 over issues that today we would consider incredibly insignificant. For example, should people be instructed to kneel to receive Holy Communion? The Puritans thought not since this clearly wasn’t what happened in the New Testament. Should we make the sign of the cross on a child’s forehead at baptism since this had (a) Roman Catholic origins and was connected with freedom from original sin and (b) become associated with some superstitious belief that a child was therefore automatically saved?  They also objected to the maintenance of Feast Days and to the excessive repetition of the Lord’s Prayer in the old Book of Common Prayer rite.

Now, compared to the issues which the Church of England has faced in succeeding centuries these seem incredibly minor matters over which to split a church. And yet, whenever we associate holiness too closely with outward religious practice this is the risk we run. I want to advocate this morning that whilst we would certainly object to things which clearly contradicted the commands of Scripture, at the same time we see no threat from diversity in our worship and practice of the faith which is glorifying to God and an expression of our status as a ‘holy people.’ Therefore, there will be no idols or totems raised in this church building for you to bow down to, but if you prefer to kneel or stand or sit for prayers, if you prefer to put on your best frock or newest suit for church or feel more comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt, or if you would rather make the sign of the cross to remind yourself of Jesus’ sacrifice for you or prefer to raise your hands heavenward as a sign of your openness to God’s blessing, then you are most welcome so to do.

Our holiness means simply that we are ‘one in faith and purpose whilst not necessarily being one in liturgical practice’.

Catholic

Now, having spoken about the connotations associated with the word ‘holy’ we now move on to a word with perhaps even greater diversity of use. Such is the controversy surrounding the inclusion of this word in the creeds that many Protestant denominations today have removed it altogether and replaced it simply with the word ‘Christian’. However, in its original meaning and application the term catholic simply means ‘universal’ or ‘broad’ and ‘all-embracing’.  

In his letter to the divided Corinthian Church Paul says in verse 12 of our passage “…each of you says ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’” The Early Church is fragmenting behind different personalities and congregations. This is the beginning of denominationalism. However, worse than just being divided by adherence to a particular leader is the idea that the Church is fragmenting into sects or even cults who are cutting themselves off from one another and abandoning the unity of the cross.

I said at the beginning that my friend had answered my early question about the divided Church by saying that all Christians were united in Christ. However, it sounds in this passage in I Corinthians as though the Church was in danger of losing even that most fundamental unity.

Sadly not all churches in the world today agree on the meaning of catholic. The current bishop of Rome, as recently as last summer, reiterated the traditional Roman Catholic view that there is no salvation outside of the Church of Rome and that by catholic it referred only to those churches in full unity with Rome. However, such is not the view of the majority of churches in the world today. The term ‘catholic’ is seen simply as being a reference to the myriad of Christian peoples on every continent and in every nation across the globe who, by their faith in Christ, have been saved by His grace.

It is particularly unfortunate that a term which denotes ‘all-encompassing’ should have come to be a word associated with division. We are a catholic Church precisely because we believe that Christ welcomes all, and that salvation is found not in the physical structures of any particular denomination, but in a personal relationship with Christ. We are not a church seeking to exclude but to include. The mission of the Church is not to send people to hell but to call them to repentance and faith that they might be counted amongst the elect.

Catholic is not a term that says we have many different beliefs, but rather that we have many different practises. Within the Church of England there are some who believe we should dress in robes for divine worship, others who think we should stand for the reading of the gospels, others who would like us to kneel to receive Holy Communion, others who believe we should follow a single, fixed-form of liturgy. However, these are simply practises which are derived from a common faith in God, His revealed word in Scripture and in the message of salvation which the Church is called to proclaim in diverse ways.

The problem arises not when we are diverse in practice, but when the fundamental beliefs of our faith are challenged and diversified. The kind of ‘catholicity’ which we proclaim in the creeds is not a ‘bring your own god’ to Church or ‘worship who you like’ sort of faith. Rather, it is a catholicity which says ‘We worship one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we acknowledge the uniqueness of Christ and His power to save, we affirm our need to repent of our worldly sinfulness and to acknowledge Christ as Lord in our lives’. At the same time we retain our humanity and we express those core beliefs in many different ways. We acknowledge the creativity of individual human beings and the many expressions of the one faith which we find in the world today.

The Church ‘catholic’ is an expression of unity but not necessarily uniformity.

Church

So what of the Church itself? We tend to distinguish between a church community (with a small c) and the Church universal (with a capital C). The Church of the creeds is a reference to the latter.

One of the problems with the Church in the modern world is our obsession with reaching agreement on every single tenet of our doctrine and practice. There are always high-powered discussions going on behind the scenes between different denominations in an attempt to heal divisions between the different branches of Christianity. It is estimated that in the world today there are more than 25,000 denominations. Of course many thousands of these are restricted to a single church community with perhaps a hundred members.

However, this is where our understanding of the concept of the term Church becomes very important. In the New Testament churches are local, and loosely organised. There is no evidence of a single chain of command. Unity is not based on archbishops and metropolitans, but on faith. Paul does not command the Corinthians to obey his instructions, but rather writes “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters…”

When we speak of the Church in the creeds we mean simply the ‘Ekklesia’ or in English ‘the people of God assembled’. Wherever they may be in the world, whatever the individual liturgical practises of their denomination, as long as they agree on the core fundamentals of the faith as expressed in the gospel, we stand in unity with them before the throne of God.

Sadly, at times, individual denominations stray so far from the message of the gospel that we cannot be said to be in unity with them. However, even when that happens, we do not turn our back on those people and condemn them to hell. Rather, we may separate from them for a time so that God may work in them to restore them to a healthy relationship with Him. Nonetheless, whatever the errors of individuals or particular denominational doctrines, the Church refers to individuals rather than to organisations. Therefore, we remain always in unity with everyone who is at peace with God through the cross.

We concern ourselves predominantly with the local Church because it is there that we express our own faith in a common purpose or mission. However, we do not forget or abandon our brothers or sisters in far-flung regions of the world who need the support of our prayers, our money, our talents or our human resources.

We acknowledge that within our own denomination we may have a certain unity of practice but we do not seek to elevate that practice above the liturgies or structures of other church communities who in good conscience choose to do things a little differently. As the old saying goes ‘If you ever find the perfect church don’t bother joining it, because it will immediately cease to be perfect.’

The Church therefore is an expression of people who are ‘united in Christ whilst not necessarily united in outward church structure.’

Conclusion

The ‘holy, catholic, Church’ is therefore: a community of believers that is worldwide; that is united by its common faith in Christ and its common purpose of proclaiming the gospel; that is set apart and made right with God by repentance and faith in Christ; that is inclusive rather than exclusive; that is diverse in liturgy and ritual; that is both local and international.

The membership of this Church is found in the salvation of Christ, granted by His grace through faith in Him to those who believe.