Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief 5. God in Company (And I believe one catholic and apostolic Church) Sunday, February 22, 2009 10 to 10:50 am, in the Parlor Presenter: David Monyak
Primary Reference Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief, Rowan Williams, Westminister John Knox Press, Louisville, London, 2007
Primary Reference Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief, Rowan Williams, Westminister John Knox Press, Louisville, London, 2007
The Most Revd. Rowan Williams is the 104 th Archbishop of Canterbury. He was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 27th February 2003
Born 1950 Studied theology at Cambridge DPhil at Oxford 1975 Priest 1978 1977 to 1992: taught theology at Cambridge and Oxford 1986: Lady Margaret Professorship of Divinity at the University of Oxford 1991: Bishop of Monmouth in Anglican Church of Wales 1999: Archbishop of Wales Dec 2002: confirmed as the 104th bishop of the See of Canterbury Considered by many the best Protestant theologian in the world today Also a noted poet and translator of Welsh poetry
Tokens of Trust An Introduction to Christian Belief Jan 25. Who Can We Trust? (I believe in God the Father almighty) Feb 1: The Risk of Love (maker of heaven and earth) Feb 8: A Man for All Seasons (and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord) Feb 15: The Peace Dividend (He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again) Feb 22: God in Company (And I believe in one catholic and apostolic Church) Mar 1: Love, Actually (I look for the resurrection of the dead)
Gracious Father, we pray for they holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. For the Church, Book of Common Prayer,, p. 816
This Week: 5. God in Company (And I believe one catholic and apostolic Church)
I Believe in the Church
I Believe in the Church The Dynamic Peace of Christ To breath the air of Christ, to let Christ become the atmosphere in which we live with others: brings about not a state of peace, but a dynamic peace with others = a constant maintenance of relation and growth as we give into and receive from each other s s lives. One view of the Church: the community of those who breath the atmosphere of Christ.
I Believe in the Church The Unique Gift of the Other The church is a community of those breathing the atmosphere of Christ, with the motto: Not without the Other = No I without a you, no I without a we When we proclaim I believe the Church = I trust the Church, we mean: to believe in the unique gift of the other God has given you to live with.
I Believe in the Church A Community of Universal Giftedness The New Testament tells us the Church is a community where each person has a gift that only they can give to the common life; A community of universal giftedness, A community of members whose diverse roles and functions form the Body of Christ (see Paul s letters to the church in Rome and in Corinth). If one member is frustrated in giving, then the whole community is frustrated.
I Believe in the Church A Community of Diverse Giftedness The great metaphor of the Church as the Body of Christ, a body with many members implies: Not merely a diversity of temperaments, but A diversity of gifts given by the Spirit, A diversity of relationships with God, A diversity of perspectives on God, A diversity of ways of making God s s work real for each other
I Believe in the Church Role of the Minister The role of the minister in this community is to: Be an apostle (= one sent forth ) ) who witnesses to Jesus resurrection, who directs the thoughts and prayers of the Church; Empathize most acutely with both the joy and the pain of other believers: Congratulation = rejoicing with Compassion = suffering with Inhabit the common life with a particular intensity
Mutual Interdependence
Interdependence God s s Gift Make Givers If you have a gift, it is meant to help another to become a giver. God s s gift make givers. In a good Christian community, everyone is working steadily to release the gifts of others. Furthermore: the gifts of each are inseparable from the needs of each. Our gifts may satisfy the needs of Another; the gifts of Another may satisfy our needs
Interdependence Analogy to Marriage Relationships in a good Christian community are analogous to marriage in that they involve: Mutual attention Giving and receiving Enjoyment and sacrifice woven tightly together There is nothing good for one that is not good for all; nothing is bad for one that is not bad for all. Fullness of life can only be found through collaboration.
Interdependence The Good Life The good life is one in which: we have learned how to be for each other, and in so being,, to live fully as ourselves.
Communio Sanctorum
Communio Sanctorum A Holy People In the Latin version of the Apostles Creed, we pray for the communio sanctorum (translated in English as the communion of saints ) communio sanctorum could mean one (or both) of two things: the sharing between holy people the sharing of holy things Christians are holy people simply because they have been adopted by God into God s family, able to address God as Our Father
Communio Sanctorum A Holy People The communio sanctorum = the sharing between holy people is simply the relationship between: people expressing their adoption by God into God s s family; That is: people making real in words and actions who they are in relation to Jesus.
Communio Sanctorum A Baptized People The communio sanctorum = the sharing between holy people = the Church is also the community of the baptized: those who have been immersed in Jesus' life, overwhelmed by it; those who have disappeared under the surface of Christ s love and reappeared as different people. The waters close over their heads, and then, like the old world rising out of watery chaos in the first chapter of the Bible, out comes a new world.
Communio Sanctorum A People Invited to Eat With Jesus The communio sanctorum = the sharing between holy people = the Church is also the community of those invited to eat with Jesus and pray to the father with him. Remember we are part of the community Church because we have been invited, not because we have earned our place.
Communio Sanctorum Baptism and Holy Communion Baptism and Holy Communion are rooted in the New Testament. The night before his death, Jesus tells his disciples to repeat the meal of bread and wine because he will be with them in and through the eating and drinking. After his resurrection, Jesus tells the disciples to go and baptize the whole creation. The Church is thus those who have been: immersed in, soaked in the life of Jesus, Invited to eat with him and pray to the Father with him.
Communio Sanctorum Holy Communion Holy Communion (or The Lord s s Supper) is a covenant meal. In the Old Testament: A sacrificial animal was sacrificed a gift to make peace between God and us. Portions of the animal were then shared out to celebrate the affirmation / renewal of the covenant, the promises between God and God s s people
Communio Sanctorum In the New Testament: Holy Communion Jesus death is the sacrifice a gift that once and for all makes peace between God and us The meal that we share Holy Communion is a receiving of the gift that has made that peace the food is the body and blood of the one sacrificed. In the Old Testament, the blood of the sacrifice was poured out on the altar or sprinkled on the people. Jesus seems to push the covenant meal further by having us take the blood within us it renews us from within,, not from without.
Communio Sanctorum The Bread and the Wine The nature of the bread and wine of Holy Communion has been one of bitter controversy among Christians. All would agree the bread and wine are visible signs of the covenant, the promises between God and God s s people, and foreshadow the fellowship we shall enjoy through Jesus with the Father.
Communio Sanctorum The Bread and the Wine But there is an urge to say much more than this about the bread and the wine, because of Jesus mysterious words This is my body; this is my blood. When Jesus speaks of the bread as his body, think of him as saying this: This too is my body; this is as much a carrier of my life and my identity as my literal flesh and blood.
Communio Sanctorum This Too is My Body The reality of Jesus presence: the radiant action and power of God the Son, the life force that makes him who he is, is extended to the bread and the wine. By eating the bread and wine, the believer receives what was also present in Jesus flesh and blood human body: the radiant action and power of God the Son, the life force that makes him who he is.
Communio Sanctorum Through the Holy Spirit The extension of Jesus identity to the bread and wine is not done through any kind of magic, but through the action of Holy Spirit. The Spirit overshadows the bread and wine and fills them with new life. For Eastern Christians, the great moment of the Eucharistic service is not the recital of what happened at the Last Supper, but the prayer that follows when we ask the Spirit to change the bread and the wine:
Communio Sanctorum Through the Holy Spirit On the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread; and when he had given thanks to you, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me. After supper he took the cup of wine; and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and said, Drink this, all of you: This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me. Therefore we proclaim the mystery of faith: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Recalling his death, resurrection, and ascension, we offer you these gifts. Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of your Son, the holy food and drink of new and unending life in him.
A Eucharistic Community
A Eucharistic Community More Deeply What We Already Are The Church is a Eucharistic Community. When we gather at the Eucharist: We are baptized believers, soaked in the life of Jesus by the Spirit. We are the adopted children of God, and we stand and pray before God the Father, Our Father. We offer up the bread and wine, and through the action of the Spirit, Jesus real presence is extended into the bread and wine, and they contain the tangible presence of Jesus as fully as his flesh and blood body did when he walked the earth. The transformed bread and wine are given back to us, to make us more deeply what we already are, confirming the bonds of the covenant between God and ourselves.
A Eucharistic Community A People in the Midst of Fire When we gather at the Eucharist: We are standing in the midst of fire: Like the three young men thrown in the blazing furnace in the Book of Daniel (Chapter 3:12-28), 28), Who walk in the fire unscathed, accompanied by a fourth figure who is like a Son of God We walk in the fire of God s s love accompanied by the eternal Son of God, who has welcomed us into his company.
A Eucharistic Community A People on the Holy Mountain When we gather at the Eucharist: We are like the elders of Israel in Exodus 24:5-11, who after the covenant sacrifice are allowed to accompany Moses to the top of the holy mountain: Moses and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank. (Exodus 24:9-11 NIV)
A Eucharistic Community A People Witness to Fire From Heaven When we gather at the Eucharist: What we witness is like the fire from heaven that falls on the offering of the prophet Elijah in 1 King 18: 18-39: At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: O O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again. Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, The LORD he is God! The LORD he is God! (1 Kings 18:36-39 39 NIV)
A Eucharistic Community A People in a Pentecostal Event When we gather at the Eucharist: Our receiving of the transformed bread and the wine is like the fire coming down upon the disciples on Pentecost as they gathered in obedience to the risen Christ (St. Luke s Acts, Chapter 2): When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4 NIV)
A Eucharistic Community God s s Adopted Children In the old Prayer book, we said the Lord s Prayer after Holy Communion to remind us as we say Our Father that our identity as God s s adopted children has been renewed. In the new Prayer book (and in the Roman Catholic Tradition), we say the Lord s s Prayer right before Communion to remind us are never more fully our baptized and renewed selves than when we are about to eat and drink at Jesus table.
A Eucharistic Community God s s Adopted Children Before we say the Lord s s Prayer, we say in introduction: And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say That is: we dare to say Our Father, we have the nerve to say Our Father. We have been allowed to say something miraculous and outrageous because of God s s goodness.
A Eucharistic Community A Foretaste of What Is To Come Holy Communion shows us a foretaste of what is to come: A community gathered as the adopted children of God, fed by Jesus life and power A community in which all are equal because everyone is equally an undeserving and surprising guest A community in a dynamic peace, displaying God s s freedom in loving and forgiving A community fully absorbed in prayer and adoration
A Eucharistic Community A Foretaste of What Is To Come An ancient hymn about the Eucharist suggests that for a moment we experience the end of the world: Alpha and Omega, to whom shall bow All nations at the Doom, is with us now
A Eucharistic Community A Foretaste of What Is To Come When we come back to our pew after Holy Communion, we should look at neighbor with awe and amazement. For our neighbor is God s s special, honored guest, touched with the glory of the end of all things.
A Community That Listens to the Bible
Listens to the Bible Stories and Songs About Who We Are When Christians come together for worship we gather not just to share bread and wine, But also to be told who we are, in words, in story and song, and above all, in the story and song that is the Bible
Listens to the Bible Stories and Songs About Who We Are The Bible is the Word of God here and now, not just the record of people long ago. When Bible is read to us, it is God telling us our history and our identity. In listening to the word of God proclaimed, we listen in fellowship with all those whom God has invited and inspired: Abraham, Moses, Ezekiel and the rest stand invisibly alongside us We listen as part of a covenant people whose origins go back to the obscure and shadowy time of Middle Eastern nomads in the Bronze Age and before
Listens to the Bible The Word of God We call the Bible the Word of God NOT because it is the primary and central witness in history to God Jesus is the primary and central witness to God But because it is the primary and central witness to Jesus The Bible is inspired because of its capacity to be a vehicle of the Holy Spirit to make Jesus vividly present in our minds and hearts.
Listens to the Bible A Book Read in Community From the beginning of the Church s s life, the Bible was a book read in community. It was a collection of books read by and in community, in the context of prayer and regular meditative interpretation. In modern times some Christians have tended to think about the Bible as if it were first and foremost is a book to be read in private. Making the Bible accessible to everyone has been good. But what badly needs to be recovered now is the sense that the Bible is first and foremost a book to be read in company.
Listens to the Bible A Book Read in Community The Bible has the unique role in proclaiming to a group gathered for worship the acts of God in making a people for himself. It is text meant to be struggled with in the context of prayer and shared reflection. Private and individual reading should be informed by this unique role: When we read the Bible on our own, we must remember that we read it in the company of readers across the ages and we have to be open to learn from them as well as from our contemporaries.
One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic
One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic One The Church is one,, because: There is one invitation, To one relationship with God This unity is expressed in a diversity of ways but there is one tune to which all the variations relate.
One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Holy The Church is holy,, because: holy because, filled with the Spirit of Jesus, we can stand in the holy place where Jesus stands and pray to the Father as Jesus prays, saying Our Father Jesus: where I am, my servant also will be (John 12:26 NIV)
One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Catholic The Church is catholic catholic = universal: For the whole world, Tells the whole truth to the whole human race, Is faithful to the whole of its own treasury of faith, relates to the whole variety of human experience, cultural and individual
One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Apostolic The Church is apostolic apostolic = sent Apostle = a delegate, a spokesperson, someone sent on behalf of another We are an apostolic community: Because the first disciples were sent to proclaim the gospel, Because disciples of generations since were sent forth to invite others, and ultimately ourselves, into the community of God s s people
One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Apostolic We are an apostolic community: Because we too now share the same mission to send forth apostles, apostles, to go where people are, proclaim the gospel, and invite them to come in.
Where Jesus is Active
Where Jesus Is Active The Church is Where Jesus Is At Work A simple definition of the Church is where Jesus is visibly active in the world Therefore: where Jesus is visibly active, something very like the Church must be going on.
Where Jesus Is Active Beyond the Institutional Church We may sometimes find the church outside the boundaries of the institutional church The power of Christ and gospel can sometimes escape across the frontiers of the Church and come back to challenge the Church from unexpected quarters. When it breaks through our frontiers, we must have the humility to acknowledge and learn from it.
Where Jesus Is Active Beyond the Institutional Church Our modern Christian beliefs about human dignity, freedom of conscience, the evils of tyranny, the status of women, were often pressed upon the institutional Church by events and people beyond its boundaries.
I I Have Seen the Church, and It Works
I I Have Seen the Church There is saying of one of the monks of the desert in the early Church: I I am not a monk, but I have seen monks. He is aware his own life is somewhat compromised, his enthusiasm dimmed, his practice far from the ideal, but he has seen true monks. So too with the community of the Church. Its practice is often far from the ideal, but there are moments and stories we can point to and say, Yes, we have seen the Church, and It works.
I I Have Seen the Church When Church is fully itself, it is transparent to the indwelling life of Jesus, or the same thing transparent to God s s future. Next Week: What is the future that God intends? What do we do to collaborate with it or to frustrate it?