What is the Church?
“The Parable of the Sower,” lower left and central panels, FPCE
Fourth IN A SERMON SERIES, “CONFIRMATION FOR ADULTS,” EPHESIANS 2:19-22; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Matthew 13:24-30
THE REV. JOHN HEMBRUCH, D.MIN. + February 23, 2020
Today, we resume the sermon series, “Confirmation for Adults,” with part 4 of 11. The first three sermons described the way God meets us in the midst of a larger world experiencing rapid change. We thought about our identity as children of God, how religion reconnects us to sacred purpose, and the meaning of faith. Today, we begin to consider how our faith and religious experience is shaped and refined by a larger community. We mark this turn in our journey with the question, “What is the Church?”
In the New Testament, the word most often used to describe singular congregations or a larger collection of congregations is “ekklesia,” often translated “assembly.” Ekklesia means something very close to “the called- out ones.” Think of a public school, in which the principal makes an announcement over the loudspeaker system that students are to assemble in the gym. One simple, biblical answer to the question, “What is the Church?” is “The Church is composed of those who are called out by God to a new kind of gathering.” The same God who calls you to be a child in God’s family, also calls you out of a larger society into a new community called the Church.
To be called out of the world and into a new community is a special privilege, but it still leaves those who are called with questions. “For what purpose have we been called out?” “How do we relate to others who are called out?” “What are we supposed to do in this new community?”
The apostle Paul spent much of his ministry answering these questions for the congregations he founded. Many of his answers use analogies. For example, in the second chapter of Ephesians, (which is the foundation for today’s call to worship) Paul describes the church as a building, constructed on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus the chief cornerstone. We are growing into a holy temple in which God’s Spirit dwells, to the extent that we fit together properly to be people of character and purpose.
It’s the twelfth chapter of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians in which he gives us what is probably his most powerful and memorable image. There, Paul describes the church as a physical body, with Christ as the head or “control center,” and the members of the church as parts of the body, each with her or his own particular critical function. While I’ve never thought of Paul as a comedian, there is some humor implicit in his criticism of conflicts in the church. “If the whole body were an eye (imagine that) where would the hearing be …. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; or again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’.” Paul emphasizes the teamwork that is required to be the body of Christ, all working together to be, in the words of our congregation’s mission statement, “Christ for the world today.”
What is the Church? It is God’s temple. It is Christ’s body. It is the new community we enter when God calls us out of the world, the community that functions as Christ’s hands, feet, and voice, here and now.
“What is the Church?” is an interesting question to ask in context of a day in which we are welcoming new members. Some time ago, Presbyterians Today magazine published a special issue entitled “Welcome to the Presbyterian Church.” In it, several people gave testimonies about what attracted them to this Reformed-and-always-being-Reformed tradition. None of them mentioned innovative techniques. All of them spoke in terms of core values and practices.
· A college student in Kentucky said, “I am Presbyterian because I was raised in a … church filled with open hearts, frequent potlucks, and the conviction that the world outside our old brick walls was in desperate need of all the love we could offer. Thanks to that conviction borne out of love, I have chosen to remain Presbyterian. More often than not, I fail miserably at living out that calling, but it is my faith that gives me hope – hope that, with God’s help, I will do better next time; and hope that, with God’s help, the church I love will continue to grow and change as it answers the call of the Spirit.”
· A graduate student in Chicago writes, “I am still Presbyterian because of the community I have experienced … faith-based passion for social justice issues … mentorship …. My experience at … General Assembly showed me how the church is wrestling with disagreements and discerning the will of the Spirit in a (hopefully) just process. Among disappointment and joy, I fell in love with my Presbyterian heritage and sensed a call to stay in the church. It’s my home, and I don’t always like it, but it’s where I’m call to follow the radically loving and embracing gospel of Jesus Christ.”[i]
The personal testimonies of these younger Presbyterians remind us of a deep truth about the Church. Regardless of those who flow into and out of its membership, the Church is God’s Church, created by God’s Word, sustained by God’s Spirit.[ii] Humans are not the primary agents forming and reforming it, but rather God.
Today’s gospel reading bears witness to this theological truth. In every time and locale in which the church has existed, it has been tempting to answer the question, “What is the Church?” by pointing to its membership rolls and statistics. For example, “What is the Presbyterian Church?” might be answered by saying, “The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. is composed of 1.3-million people in 9,100 congregations.” But Jesus’ prophetic parable challenges this way of thinking. His parable suggests there is a difference between the church we see and the church Jesus intends, between the church as it is, and the church as it will be at the end of time.
There are many biblical passages that help inform our answer to the question “What is the Church?”, more than we can cover in one sermon. The question can be answered only partially with abstract concepts. Tangible actions help us complete the answer.
I was looking around this week for a good example of tangible actions that define the church when I came across the news story about a congregation in Dayton, Ohio. It’s congregation that Therese and I lived and worked in during the summer we were married in a kind of informal internship. The current pastor said that they had gone looking for trouble in their community, a place where a wrong could be made right. (There’s an interesting strategic-planning technique!) And they found an issue in school lunch debt, when families cannot pay for meals. After a bit of research, they set a modest goal of chipping away at $14,000 school-lunch debt in two neighboring school districts. It turned out to be an issue about which many were passionate. During the first four days, the congregation collected $34,000, and now are paying down school lunch debt in nine neighboring school districts.[iii]
If you can muster just a little bit of sympathy to imagine what it is like for a student or parent with school-lunch debt to have the slate wiped clean, then you have a really good example of what feels like to be part of a community in which God forgives us for our faults and shortcomings, and in which we are called to do the same for others. It might be a feeling like the one experienced by those who receive meals through Sandwich Night. It might be a feeling just like the one experienced by people who receive the “emergency bags” that members of our Mission Outreach Ministries Committee are preparing, that will be distributed through the Glen-Carbon and Edwardsville Senior Centers. What is the Church? It is the community of forgiven people in which God’s grace is experienced and shared. May it be so among us!
ENDNOTES
[i] “Why I am Presbyterian,” Presbyterians Today, July 2013, pp. 9-10.
[ii] Anna Case-Winters, “What do Presbyterians believe about ‘Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda?’” Presbyterians Today, May 2004.
[iii] Adam Rife, “Miami Valley church raises thousands to erase student lunch debt at area schools,” Channel 2 News, https://www.wdtn.com/news/local-news/miami-valley-church-raises-tens-of-thousands-of-dollars-to-erase-student-lunch-debt-at-area-schools/?fbclid=IwAR370rsoOGNSIBBKxKSOJixG_fPoyS2Q4SF325hIyvKmOyLPw96fyaoHtnI , accessed 21 Feb. 2020.
