Back to basics. We continue our studies in the Apostles' Creed. We have stretched from the sublime, soaring through the heights of creation with Almighty God; we have seen humanity at its best in the life and ministry of Jesus; we have seen a love that reaches down to the very depths of Hell; we have joyously experienced resurrection, Christ's ascension to glory, and his commitment to work justice in this unjust world. We have been reminded of God's continuous action in our lives through the presence of the Holy Spirit. And now, "I believe in...the holy catholic church..." We are tempted to say we have moved from the sublime to the ridiculous. Of all the affirmations we make from week to week, this one raises the most questions.
Let us take it one word at a time to see if we can make sense of it. "The holy, catholic church." HOLY. What do we mean when we call the church holy? The word "holy" literally means "separate" or "set apart." It is used to designate anything or anyone that belongs especially to God and thus is separated or set apart from the world. In the Bible the priests of God are holy because they have to do with God. The temple is holy because it is a place set apart for the worship of God. The Bible is holy because it contains a revelation of God different from that which you will find in any other book. The church is holy because it is a fellowship with God and therefore is distinct from any other human association.
To modern minds, the word "holy" brings up a picture of something with a halo over its head - pious, pure, sinless. But that asks more of the word than is fair. And if we need proof, all we have to do is say again, "I believe in the holy catholic church."
Is the church sinless? Of course not. The church is an association of sinners; in fact that is the entrance requirement. The first question we ask new members in the Presbyterian Church is, "Do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God?" You could just as easily get into Alcoholics Anonymous without being an alcoholic as you can get into the church without being a sinner. Yes, AA members are working on their addiction and church members are working on their sinfulness, but you are bound to find drunks in AA and you are bound to find sinners in the church.(1) All of us can tell tales of ignorance and hypocrisy in the church - ministers who were deceitful, elders who were unbearable, men who were obstinate, women who were silly and insufferable. Religion, says one theologian, is what many people do with their lunacy.(2)
Put all that together under one roof and the results are almost predictable. Crusades to recapture the Holy Land and free it from the "infidels;" Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition; the persecution of the Reformers; the religious arguments in favor of slavery; the silence of German Christians when Hitler persecuted the Jews or the Dutch Reformed Church when South Africa instituted apartheid. "Frankly," wrote Leslie Weatherhead in The Christian Agnostic, "I often wonder why so many people do go to church. Christianity must have a marvelous inherent power, or the churches would have killed it long ago."(3)
In spite of all that though, we continue to make our affirmation: "I believe in the holy, catholic church." Why? Precisely because the church is HOLY...set apart. For all its flaws and failures, the church belongs to God.
What about this word "catholic?" Lots of Protestants choke on this one because, when we hear the word, our mind jumps automatically to the church of Rome - Pope, priests, nuns, - the very church from which our forebears broke away hundreds of years ago. In fact, some protestant congregations refuse to use the word "catholic" in their recitation of the creed - they offer substitutes: "I believe in the holy, Christian church" or "I believe in the holy, universal church." To be accurate, "universal" is the better substitute because that is what "catholic" really means. The earliest use of the word "catholic," as applied to the Christian church, is found in the writings of a scholar named Ignatius in the early part of the second century. It meant "the whole body of believers, as distinguished from a group of Christians or an individual congregation."(4)
Some years ago, at a meeting of our Presbyterian General Assembly, a request was received from a presbytery asking for an explanatory statement on the word "catholic." The Assembly answered by simply referring the presbytery to our Westminster Confession of Faith:
The catholic or universal church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the head thereof...The visible Church, which is also catholic or universal under the gospel (not confined to one nation as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion, together with their children; and is the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ; the house and family of God...(5)
When God's people was simply the Jewish nation, the church was not catholic. But with the expansion of the gospel, people of all nations, races, and languages were welcomed into the family of God. Suddenly, we had a catholic church. And ever since, our allegiance has been not to a racist church which accepts only one ethnic group, not to a national church limited by artificial boundaries, not to a denominational church that insists on a certain label, not even to a "one, true church" that denies the name of Christian to any who do not walk the walk and talk the talk in a certain specific way. Our allegiance has been to the church of Jesus Christ.
A woman was talking to her Presbyterian minister, taking him to task for injecting something into a worship service which, she said, was "not Presbyterian."
"Well," the minister replied, "you don't mean to say that you believe that the only way you can get to heaven is by being a Presbyterian, do you!"
She thought a minute and said, "No, not really. But no genteel person would think of going any other way."(6)
Ha! "I believe in the holy, CATHOLIC church." The word "catholic" is a good word, and it belongs to Presbyterians as much as it does to anyone else.
Finally, the word "church." What do we mean when we say "church?" Strange as it seems, nowhere in scripture do we find a definition of the word "church." We find a foundation for the church in our gospel lesson. Jesus asked the Twelve, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" They responded with popular conjecture: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or some other of the ancient prophets. Then Jesus asked, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answers, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." This is the foundation of the church, this universally-held belief that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is Lord, and this is why Jesus would say, "...on this rock - this solid confessional foundation - I will build my church..."
A foundation, but still no definition. Instead, we find descriptive pictures, metaphors, similes - students have found over 90 different descriptions of the church in the pages of the New Testament...but no definition.
How would YOU define "church?" Some would refer to a specific building, some to a denomination. Some might use some of those New Testament phrases like "Body of Christ" or "Bride of Christ" or "Servant." Most of you would probably insist on people being involved in any definition, and I would certainly agree. For all the flaws that sinful people bring under steepled roofs and into stained-glass sanctuaries, there is no church without people.
As we say, scripture does not give us a definition of "church" but a little word study offers us a clue. Our word "church" comes from a Greek word "ekklesia" which itself is made by combining two other words - "ek," meaning "out," and "kaleo," meaning "call." (And this is where our word "ecclesiastical" [meaning anything to do with church] comes from.) That would lead us to conclude that the church is those persons whom God in Christ has CALLED OUT.
"Called out?" For what? I will give it to you in one simple sentence found in our new Presbyterian Study Catechism: "The mission of the church is to bear witness to God's love for the world in Jesus Christ."(7) Simple sentence. Considerable challenge.
And for all its flaws, the church has done a mighty work. This called out church has given the world ideals...ideals like religious and political liberty...ideals like racial unity, social justice, and human brotherhood. Through the work of the church and the convictions which have come from her, the most sinful of the world's economic and social and political evils have been driven to defeat or shamed into hiding. Who led the battle against human slavery in this nation in the last century? Who has been in the forefront of America's quest for racial equality? Who has been most vocal in its concern for peace among nations? The church and her people have been the conscience of the world.
The called out church has provided bold messengers...the first pioneers and adventurers into the dark and neglected areas of the earth - the William Careys, the David Brainards, the Hudson Taylors, the David Livingstons - not simply for the sake of pushing beyond frontiers but that the people who live there might come to know the fullness of God's blessing in Jesus Christ. The messengers of the church - not the militarists, not the magistrates, not the merchants - have always taken the lead in the civilizing and enlightening work of the world.
The messengers of the called out church, not medical people as such, have been the first to go into all parts of the earth with the science of sanitation, nutrition, and physical healing. How many hospitals are named "Baptist" or "Methodist" or "Presbyterian?"
Not professional educators but the messengers of the called out church have reduced languages to writing, established schools, and set up printing presses for the distribution of the Word of God. The first Sunday Schools were established, not simply to teach Bible stories to youngsters, but to offer what was then the only opportunity for them to learn to read and write. Public education in America grew out of the selfless work of the church.
Not social reformers but the messengers of the called out church have taken the lead in the fight against poverty, famine, and plague. The church has elevated the status of women, created new conditions for childhood, established orphanages, day care centers, asylums, homes for the aged and others who need help.
History offers no parallel to the unselfish and uplifting work of the called out church. There is no question that what goes on in parliaments and congresses, in council halls and chambers of commerce, and in the highest courts of the nations is always of importance to humanity. But when the world is out of joint, when people's minds are disordered and their hearts are failing them for fear, then the thing of supreme importance is the living church, with all of her sanctuaries of worship and her avenues of service, where men and women come to have their faith strengthened, their thoughts clarified, their ideas uplifted, their convictions born, and their characters created. The called out church, for all her faults, is the institution of supreme significance and value in the world through the ages.
But remember the words of the catechism: "The mission of the church is to bear witness to God's love for the world in Jesus Christ." Simple sentence. Considerable challenge. For all the good works the church has offered, those pale by comparison to the one thing that the church uniquely did and continues to do - it has introduced the world to Jesus Christ. It was the called out church that preserved those magnificent words, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." It was the called out church that taught us, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." We know Christ because the called out church brought us to him. The called out church gave us a right start, and the called out church TRIES to keep us on the right road.
I read somewhere that near a church in Kansas there can be seen in a cement sidewalk the prints of two baby feet pointing toward the building. It was said that some years ago, when the sidewalk was being laid, a mother secured permission to stand her baby boy on the wet cement. The mother had wanted to start her son in the right direction. She pointed him to the church.
"I believe in the holy, catholic church." Jack Redhead tells of a Chinese proverb to the effect that there are five points to the compass: north, east, south, west, and the point where you are. The holy, catholic church is scattered to the four points of the compass, but we come back eventually to the point where WE are because our attitude toward the universal church is revealed in our attitude toward the local church.(8) Remember, as we believe, so we behave. Where are you today? In a society for which church is optional and there are wonderful excuses to ignore it, the choice is yours. As for me, "I believe in the holy, catholic church."
Amen!
1. Albert Curry Winn, A Christian Primer: The Prayer, The Creed, The Commandments, (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), p. 160
2. H. A. Williams quoted by John Killinger, You are What You Believe: The Apostles' Creed for Today, (Nashville: Abingdon, 1990), pp. 89
3. Quoted by Killinger, p. 90
4. John A. Redhead, Jr., Uncommon Common Sense, Volume III: The Apostles' Creed, (Greensboro, NC: Worth Family Foundation, 1997), p 168
5. Book of Confessions, "Westminster Confession of Faith," Chapter XXVII/Chapter XXV, "Of the Church," (Louisville: KY, Presbyterian Church [USA]), 6.140-141
6. B. Clayton Bell, Moorings in a World Adrift: Answers for Christians Who Dare to Ask Why, (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990) p. 87
7. Q. 63, Presbyterian Study Catechism, approved by the 210th General Assembly (1998)
8. Redhead, p. 172