The Rev. Dr. Tara W. Bulger
Friends, we are starting a new sermon series today. Today and for the next several weeks, in a series we are calling Theology 101, we’ll look at different doctrines of our faith tradition. Today, we’re going to look at the doctrine of the church. I think it’s good to step back every once in a while and take the 30,000-foot view of what we are doing together as the church. To do that, we’re going to start with a reading from the book of Acts, the second chapter, verses 41 through 47. This reading takes place on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit swept among the people. In response, Peter preached, and many people joined the church that day. That’s where our passage picks up.
Acts 2:41-47
So those who welcomed (Peter’s) message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
A couple of years ago, I had a death in my family, and I went to a funeral in the small western North Carolina town my family is all a part of. In a lot of ways, that little church is very different from the churches I have been a part of as an adult. It’s a very small church, white clapboard. It sits right next to the creek where my dad, my grandparents, my great-grandparents, and I were all baptized.
It’s of a different denomination. It’s a Baptist church, and so there were three preachers for this funeral, and it went on a little long, if you’re asking me. We sang hymns that were different from what I am used to singing, and at the end of the funeral there was an altar call, an invitation to come and give yourself to the life of Christ. And I’ll tell you, I looked around that room, and I knew everyone there, and they were all members of that church. And I thought, is this for me? Is this altar call for me? I wanted to assure them I was good, but I just sat through it.
But you know, for all its differences, it was also a church like ours that I know and love. It is a church where, when my cousin was diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s, that small church community gathered around that family and cared for him like he was their own. It’s a church that organized meals to take to the family. It’s the same church that, when my grandfather was in a nursing home, would send a small group from the choir to sing to him every Sunday. It is a church that takes the Bible seriously and endeavors to serve the world however it can. Churches may differ, but we have much more in common.
Today, we’re going to look at some of the ideas of the church throughout history. We will look at three times the church has been described, and the first comes from this passage in Acts.
The book of Acts is the story of the Holy Spirit and how it formed the church, and we are told that on that Pentecost, the birthday of the church, many people were added to this new community, a community that identified itself as followers of Jesus Christ. This earliest passage about the church gives us four marks of the church.
First, we are told that they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. Remember, it was the apostles, back when they were called disciples, who had followed Jesus around and learned from him firsthand what he wanted people to know. Now that these apostles are with this new church community, they share those samestories, lessons, and teachings, and the people devote themselves to learning more about what Jesus wanted from them.
Next, we are told they become a community that shares life together. They decide to be a community that meets with one another and shares the good times and the bad. They also share what they have. We are told that the Holy Spirit is so strong that they share everything they have with one another. The second mark of the church at this time is that they agree to be in community, to live life together.
The next mark of the church we find in this early passage is what is called the breaking of bread. People sat around tables and shared a meal with one another. Fast-forward to our time, and we too gather around the communion table and break bread and share the cup, just as they did long ago.
The fourth mark, we’re told, is that they shared prayers together. They lifted their voices with one another to God, asking, I imagine, for God’s will for their lives, for how they might serve, for how they might be the church in the middle of this Roman Empire. Those are the four marks of the early church that we see at its formation.
The second idea of what the church is that I’m going to bring you comes from the fourth century and what will become the Nicene Creed. The Council of Nicaea gave the first statement, the first real doctrine, on what the church is, and what they tell us is that the church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Here’s what they meant by those four things.
First, the church is one; the church should be unified; the similarities we have are much greater than the differences; and the church should always be united as the people who call on the name of Jesus Christ. The church should be unified. The church should be one.
The next thing the Council of Nicaea tells us is that the church should be holy, and that does not mean full of perfect people. By holy, they mean set apart: the church is a community where we are set apart because we dedicate ourselves to Christ above anything else. Today is All Saints’ Sunday, and when we talk about the saints of the church, we aren’t talking about perfect people. We are talking about people who dedicated themselves to Jesus Christ and to living in the community of the church that He instituted. The church should be holy.
They then said the church should be catholic, and that word means universal: the church is for everyone. Today, when we proclaim that the church is catholic, we are saying that regardless of race, nationality, sexuality, gender, or anything else you can imagine, all are welcome in the community of faith. The church, friends, is universal. It is for everyone.
And when they say that the church is apostolic, they mean what that early church did: that it is a community dedicated to the teachings of Jesus, to the teachings that the apostles shared, to the teachings that we find in Scripture. They are dedicated to those teachings because they are the fullest representation we have of what God wants for us and who God wants us to be. The church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
So let’s flash forward several centuries to the Reformation in the 16th century. When those early church reformers talked about the church, they put it this way: the church of Jesus Christ is for the ear, the eye, and the hands.
The church of Jesus Christ is for the ear, because this is the place where we hear the teachings of Jesus given to us anew. This is the place where we struggle together with what it means to follow Jesus faithfully. This is the place where we hear the word of God read and proclaimed, and where we hear of God’s love for all of us. The church is for the ear.
They also said the church is for the eye, because this is the place where we see the love of Jesus enacted. We see it in the waters of baptism when we welcome new people into the community. We see it at the communion table, where we see the bread broken and the cup shared, and we are reminded that Christ is with us even now. We see it in the way we care for one another and love one another. The church is for the eye.
And then, last, the reformers said the church is for the hands, because the church is the place where we learn how to serve others. It’s the place where we learn to do the work of caring for and transforming the world. It’s where we learn to use our hands for the benefit of others, as Christ has called us to do. The church is for the ear, the eye, and the hands.
Now, if I were one of the church reformers, which I’m not, nor would have been, I might add that I think the church is also for the heart, because this is the place where our hearts grow and are built up for the work of serving the world. This is where our hearts are mended in Christian love, and where we can come with broken hearts when we are full of grief and loss. I believe the church is for the heart.
If you take all those teachings, from way back in the book of Acts to the Council of Nicaea to the church reformers, what they all have in common is that the church is full of people trying to be faithful. We stand on the shoulders of every faithful person who has come before. We stand on the shoulders of every imperfect person who didn’t do it correctly but tried to live out the faith as best they could. The church is the place where imperfect people try to be faithful.
It is the place where we come and are a part of the community when we feel like it and when we don’t. The church is the place where we come and are reminded to love others when it is easy and when it is difficult. The church is the place where we come and are reminded that God has first and always loved us and calls us to love others. The church is a place for people who are trying to be faithful.
And on this All Saints’ Sunday, when we remember our faithful church members who have died in the last year, I want you to remember that they were saints, not because they were perfect, but because they were faithful. And I want you to remember, too, that you are the saints of the church today and tomorrow. Others will stand on your shoulders because you kept the faith and because you called on the name of Jesus, whether you wanted to or not. Because you were faithful, others will come behind you. The church will live on. May it
be so.
Amen.