Nazarene Essentials (5) What We Believe, Part 4 About the Church and the Sacraments Rev. David W. Edwards, MA January 31, 2016 Text: Ephesians 5:21-33 Something s bothering me. Actually, it s been bothering me for a very long time. I used to hear it expressed like this: I don t need to go to church to be a Christian. I d hear people complain about organized religion as if there were any that weren t. A system, by it s very nature, is organized. And organization is a helpful thing; we humans are organizers by our nature. My desk may be a mess, but my calendar is organized, my library is organized, and even my messy office is organized (not neatly, but in a sense) what is there is what belongs there (for the most part). We put kitchen things in the kitchen, bedroom things in the bedroom, garage things in the garage, so we know where things are, and so we know they are where they are supposed to be. But for some folks, it s a bad thing that religion should be organized. Or, consider the idea that the church is full of hypocrites as if there weren t any hypocrites on the job, in the grocery, at the big game, or at school. We don t let hypocrites keep us from eating, buying gas, repairing our cars, working, or cheering our team. But we will let hypocrites keep us out of church and out of heaven. Let me explain: hypocrite comes from ancient Greek drama and means under a mask. 1 Actors didn t wear make-up or facial prostheses like modern actors do. In ancient Greece, Chewbacca would be a furry mask the actor held up to hide his face. He would speak through the mask, pretending to be Chewbacca, just like Peter Mayhew does in his Chewbacca costume. Actors, people who pretend to be what they are not, who speak what they don t really believe, are hypocrites, people under a mask. Hypocrisy is when we live so as to deceive; it is to pretend to be something we re not. People who condemn drugs while using drugs may be hypocrites, or they may be truly disgusted with their habit and trying desperately to break it. But the pastor who speaks passionately against homosexuality while secretly engaging in homosexual acts is probably a hypocrite. We don t know someone else s motivations, or heartbreak, or struggle, and we are told not to condemn (Matthew 7:1-2). My point here is that all of us come with issues, struggles, problems we are trying to overcome, habits we are trying to break. We re not hypocrites for shooting at a goal we keep missing. We re not hypocrites for preaching what we want to be. We re trying to grow into our faith. None of us are perfect that s why we re here. We re here because we recognize our own need for the mercy of God and the grace of Christ. No church is perfect except a dead one.
Page 2 But people have a lot of excuses why they reject the church. Boring is one I ve heard. Always asking for money is another. But then, so is your grocer; so is your doctor; so is your daycare; so is your gas station; so is your electric company; so is your phone/cable/satellite/internet company. Out of touch is another (for another day). And we are treated almost daily to advice from one direction or another about what we are to do about the grand exodus of people from our churches. All of that begs the fundamental question: what is the church? Why do we need a church? The American church, and (I think) the European church as well, are afflicted with an individualistic view of the church. Americans, in particular, believe in individual rights, individual worth, and we are somewhat narcissistic in that we think our individual opinions carry great weight and are as valuable as everyone else s individual opinions. We function largely as isolated individuals. I ll leave that for the sociologists to explain. But it comes into the church. Do you recall the pointilism art that I showed you a couple weeks ago? We were talking about how we often view the Bible as a collection of stories, books, etc. We used the word plenary and panned back from the dots to show you a portrait as an example of seeing the Bible as a whole, unified story. I told you then how important context is to our understanding. Well, the same idea applies to the church. The church is not a collection of individuals. I ve used the illustration of my idiot box at home that collection of nuts and bolts, spare screws and bits that might be useful someday. We sometimes treat the church as a box of spare parts. Bits a pieces thrown together in a box with no particular order or arrangement. Some might be useful, but some probably are not. I don t mean to be crass, but we often treat the church just like an idiot box just a collection of spare parts. That s not the Biblical way, though, and when we view the church that way, we do all sorts of things wrong, including the way we handle conflict. 2 In Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 11-14, and Ephesians 5 Paul gives us a picture of the church as a body, the Body of Christ. And he s not talking about body as a group of things. He s talking about the human body as an example. No cell, organ, or appendage of the body can survive apart from the body. Cut off your finger and it dies. Step on a Lego brick and your whole body reacts. Trip on the sidewalk and you whole body falls. Burn your finger and it goes (often) into your mouth to cool and soothe. A toothache will cause pain for the whole body, as will a headache. When a part of your body is injured, the rest of it does not just go on as if nothing happened. Your hands function as noses; your eyes function as ears; your feet function as eyes. No! Hands do their own job, as to eyes, feet, noses, and ears. Every part of the body (the church) has a function - we call them spiritual gifts. Every part has it s own job to do, and it is only as the whole body - and every part of the body - functions according to design that the body (the church) is healthy. The human body functions all together or it doesn t function well at all. What happens if one part of your body begins to act all on it s own? What happens if one part of the body fights with another part? It s a problem, isn t it? If you want to understand how the church was intended to work, a course in human anatomy and physiology would help. Because that s the image the Bible presents. And if we truly understood that we are the Body of Christ, living in Christ, we wouldn t be so quick to separate ourselves over
Page 3 every difference of opinion or every wind of fashion. Which means that to be a Christian is to be part of the church. And the opposite is also true to be apart from the church is to not be a Christian. The Early Church used the phrase nulla salus extra eclesium: there is no salvation apart from the church. 3 That doesn t mean that the church replaces Christ or that the church is your savior, but that salvation makes you part of the church. A Christian, by his new creation in Christ, is part of the church as your nose is part of your body. For those who reject the Church, this presents a rather grotesque image of worshiping the head and hating the body. Or wanting to be with the head, but rejecting the body. It can t be. The New Testament uses another image: the Bride of Christ. Paul s mixed metaphor in Ephesians 5 blends both Body and Bride. In Revelation 19, we are treated to the heavenly picture of the wedding supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9). Jesus is pictured throughout the book as the slain Lamb through whom redemption is made. And the ultimate end is the union of the Bride (the Church) and the Lamb, Jesus. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready (Revelation 19:7). In Ephesians 5:25, husbands are told, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to maker her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church (Ephesians 5:25-27), a radiant bride. Now let me tell you, I chose Marsha. She s my bride. If you insult her, you insult my choice, my wisdom, my intelligence, my sense of beauty. If you insult her, you are insulting me. As much as I love and protect my bride, how do you think Jesus feels about his? No, Marsha is not perfect. But I love her and she is my bride And no, the church is not perfect. But Christ loves the church and she is his bride. If you reject the Bride, you insult the Groom. Jesus loves his Bride. And Jesus died for his Bride, the Church. We are very rocky ground when we insult or reject the very thing Jesus died for. As the Bride and the Body of Christ, the church is the visible expression of Christ on earth. It surprised me when I found it, but in Revelation 1-3, in the letters to the various churches, the first thing we see is that Christ is in his church. There were heresies, divisions, weakness, mediocre faith but Jesus still walks with his church. The sacraments are holy acts that relate to the very nature of the church. And, by the way, it is in the sacraments that we see the via media, the middle way, the refusal to engage in pointless controversy. Some denominations recognize seven sacraments, including marriage. We believe that marriage is holy, but we do not call it a sacrament. Some would include divine healing, the anointing with oil for healing as a sacrament. We believe in divine healing, in anointing with oil, laying on hands and praying for the sick. But we also believe that God gave us brains and the ability to work with physicians (Luke was a physician, Colossians 4:14), to work with nature and to use every means available to keep and restore health. If you have a problem, do both pray and see the doctor. It irritates me when people reject doctor s advice and do not do the simple things to bring healing and rely instead on a misguided idea about faith healing. A child with an infection needs prayer and an antibiotic, along with rest, fluids, chicken soup, and mother s love. It s not either/or, but both/and. We ought to live a sacramental life, meaning that we are aware of God s gracious presence and the impact of our own witness, but Nazarenes recognize only two sacraments: baptism and Communion.
Page 4 Some baptize by immersion, some by sprinkling, and some by pouring. We say that baptism is valid by whichever means. It is not how you do it but why. And for us, baptism is an outward sign of an inward grace. It is the public declaration that you have decided to follow the way of Christ. The Apostle Paul referred to baptism as being buried with Christ (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12), a symbolic participation in his death. Baptism is a symbol of the new birth, and from the earliest days of the church, it was the entry point. Baptism was crossing the Jordan, a baptism of entering into the life of the church. In the Early Church, baptism came after a period of study. Only after baptism did a believer enter fully into the life of the church and join in the Eucharist, the celebration of the Lord s Supper. We also find the via media of value in regards to Communion. Whether you call it the Lord s Supper, the Eucharist (meaning Thanksgiving), or Communion makes no difference. Communion is just that - the community of Christ sharing the body of Christ together in communion. It is the ultimate expression of koinonia, the fellowship of the saints. It is for believers, not just for Nazarenes, so one need not be a member of the Church of the Nazarene to share Communion with us. There are long-standing differences in how Christians view the Lord s Supper. Catholics believe in transubstantiation - that when they are blessed the bread and wine become the actual body and blood of the Savior. Lutherans believe in consubstantiation - the idea that the body and blood of Jesus are present in the bread and wine without a change of substance. Some believe that the Lord s Supper is merely a memorial, to remind us of Jesus sacrificial death and the cost of our salvation. We refuse to get caught up in the controversy. We call it Communion, for it is the common denominator of the church. Whether it is or merely represents the body and blood, still it calls us together at the foot of the Cross. I believe that Jesus is present in every celebration of the Eucharist, and that it is both a memorial, a participation in the Body of Christ, and a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb, bringing past, present and future together in a single act. It reminds us that Jesus came and that he is coming again. It reminds us of the cross and each time we experience anew God s grace. It reminds us that in him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). It reminds us that we are his Body and it is his blood that gives us life. It is our history and our hope and our identity. We re not terribly concerned with what happens to the bread and wine. Rather we are concerned about what happens to us when we celebrate the Lord s Supper. The sacraments are among those things we refer to as means of grace, points on our journey where we encounter and experience God s grace. We do that in worship, of course. We do that in our times of community, as the church dines or works or plays together. We do that in our times of prayer and study, especially when they also function as times of community. And we do that in the sacraments. Let s bring it all together. The Church, then is not a place, a time, a building, an activity. The Church is the Bride of Christ preparing for a wedding. The Sacraments wash us and give us a foretaste of the wedding supper. How then ought we to live as we prepare for the marriage supper of the Lamb?
Page 5 The Church is the Body of Christ. The Sacraments illustrate for us both the new birth and the life we live in Christ. The Church is his Body, and the bread of the Eucharist reminds us that we are part of the Body. The wine (we use grape juice) reminds us that it is Jesus blood that gives us life. The Church exists wherever two or three have gathered together at Shari s on Sunday evening, in the breakroom at work, in the cafeteria at school, or in a storefront, warehouse, or sanctuary on any day of the week. The Church exists when we pray, study, worship, sing, work, or play together. We don t go to church; we are the church. How then ought we to live as the Body of Christ, the living expression of grace in the world? Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21) To him be glory in the church. 1. See N. T. Wright, Small Faith, Great God (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press, 2010), Chapter 10: Christian Hypocrites? 2. See Richard C. Carroll, Is Christ Divided? Approaching our Conflicts In Christ (Enumclaw, WA: Winepress Publishing, 2008) 3. See James Emery White, The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2008), Chapter 13: Reimagining the Church