Do you believe in the Church? (Part 3) - Rev Allister Lane
READINGS: JOHN 15:1-5 AND 1 CORINTHIANS 12:12-14, 26-27
Sermon on 18 July
For the last couple of weeks our sermon series has been on The Church. And today, I want us to use our imaginations together.
Firstly, let me recap one point which I think is particularly relevant for us today…Last Sunday we heard from God’s Word (Ephesians 2) that God adopts us as His children; that makes us brothers and sisters. We are family who are able to experience a spiritual communion with God and one another.
That means we care about each others’ needs.
We weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice. (Romans 12:15)
This sharing of each others’ experiences has been a very real experience for us this past week. With the sudden death of Robyn, we feel great sadness together. We grieve with Robyn’s family.
And in today’s reading from 1 Corinthians we are told something very similar about how connected we are:
If one member suffers, all suffer together with it;
if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it
I titled this series ‘Do you believe in the Church?’ And I hope this stirs our imaginations…
about what we expect the Church to be
and what our part in it is.
We will come back to this question in a moment. But right now I want you to consider three statements about the Church, and to have a brief chat with some people around you about these…These are all from a UK comedian, Milton Jones:
Church is like a Winnie the Pooh pyjama suit. Safe and warm, but I hope no one sees me in it!
You don’t have to be part of a team. You can go and kick a ball around in a field on your own if you want. Just have a plan for when the opposition turn up, that’s all.
Church should be everyone arriving with one piece of the jigsaw.
Which of these statements do you like best? Talk to someone near you as to why.
Do you believe in the Church?
The Apostles’ Creed is the oldest summary of biblical doctrine. The Apostles’ Creed concludes with this sentence:
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.
Firstly, let’s be clear… ‘the holy catholic church’ doesn’t mean St Mary of the Angels and her affiliate congregations, that’s the Roman Catholic Church. In the creed ‘catholic’ has a small ‘c’, because it’s not a noun but an adjective; ‘catholic’ it means ‘universal’.
The Church is universal – across the world.
If we can agree on who Jesus is and what He accomplished, that the Bible has special authority; if we concur with the Apostle’s Creed – we can agree to disagree on almost anything else – and still be connected together as the ‘holy catholic church’.
We are united across the globe.
And today I have a special treat to remind us of this. Many of you will remember our friend Ridho, the minister from Indonesia who had three months with us at St John’s the year before last. He has sent us a video message (in which he echoes that we are all part of the holy catholic church).
Together, we are God’s holy Catholic Church – here, there, everywhere!
And to address the question of what does the Church mean for us, let me offer three biblical images: Vine (John 15), Clothes (Gal 3:26-28) and Body (1 Cor 12:12-27)
Image 1) Vine (John 15)
This is what we’ve heard in today’s Gospel reading:
I am the vine, you are the branches.
It is an image of how we live connected to Jesus and that we are nourished by him. God cares for us all, and cultivates fruitfulness from us, and for us.
Image 2) Clothes
In the letter to the Galatians we are told:
for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
The image of clothes suggests a new identity. We are recognisable first and foremost by our connection to Christ. Our other identities (ethnicity, socioeconomic, gender) are still real, but are subordinate.
As well as a new identity, the image of clothes indicates a new intimacy. As adopted children we have a new belonging, and clothes indicate a care and nurture (I’m thinking of Little Orphan Annie who we see transformed from poor orphan to a daughter of a loving father – symbolised by new clothes, and a new home).
Furthermore, clothes are also worn close to our skin – they wrap around us and keep us warm. Through our baptism, we have intimacy with Christ – and unity with one another.
Image 3) Body
This is the famous way Paul describes the Church in the reading we had today from 1 Corinthians
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (v27)
Listen carefully now…The only way we are allowed to think of the Church as a ‘building’ is… ‘Body building’! We grow as a Church as God shapes us through spiritual body building.
If we imagine the Church as a Body, then the way we live together as the Church could be thought of as like hand/eye coordination: the hand and the eye are both united and function as part of the same body – but they must learn to cooperate –
through practice,
and with coordination from the Head.
So, do you believe in the Church?
Do you notice what these three images have in common? Vine, Clothes and Body – are all about belonging. They are about proximity, interdependence, identity (as associated with the other).
As we use our imaginations, I hope we glimpse what this means for us today.
We considered a couple of weeks ago, how we are enabled to get along with people who are different to us.
I also hope we can imagine what is expected of us as the Church.
None of these images suggest Church is about coming along one Sunday a month for a quick dose of inspiration. Do they…? What Adrian Plass says
A quick salvation sandwich and a cup of sancti-tea
Will you do something in response to this message? In your prayers this week, will you ask God to show you what belonging means?
Let me finish with this story…
An elderly gentleman, who had lost most of his hearing and eyesight, nonetheless continued attending church faithfully. It was difficult for him to experience the worship, but he didn’t stop coming.
One day after the service someone asked him, “It’s obvious you can’t hear or see most of what’s going on, you can’t be getting anything out of the service, so why do you even bother to come?”
The man replied,
“To show everybody Whose team I’m on!”
Let’s pray…