E-note 3/11: Christ's Church

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

What happens in your house at dinner time? At our house those who are far off are called to come near. At our house someone is inevitably standing at the bottom of the stairs calling the children upstairs to come down for dinner. And, as you might expect, every one comes tumbling out of their rooms making a fast break for the table only to be re-directed to the sink (ha! a little ritual cleansing first). But what if one didn't come? What if, after repeated calls to come to the table, one just didn't come? I suppose we would send up a messenger to make visual contact, just in case headphones were blocking the best news of the day: "Dinner's ready!" But what if our messenger comes back and says, "She's not coming." I suppose we would then send up a delegation of high-ranking officials. But what if upon arrival we heard this: "No thank you. I can't make it. I have to clean my room, iron my shirts, organize my shoes and do my homework. I'll grab something to eat later." Hmm. What now? Now I suppose we could imagine a corrosive scenario where "grabbing something to eat later" really turned out to be grabbing something unhealthy and inadequate and, worst of all, grabbing something alone. I suppose if this happened again and again our solo-eater would soon lose all taste for communal eating and real food. They would soon find communal eating and healthy food strange and foreign. But I can imagine an even worse scenario. What if meal after meal we hear the same thing and meal after meal this loved one forgets to eat! What will we find then? We will find a clean room, ironed shirts, well-organized shoes and completed homework. But we will also find death. You can not keep yourself from the bread of life and live.

If you have guessed by now that my parable is about the feast Jesus serves us in his Church, particularly in worship, you are right. But is the Church really that important? Is the analogy fairly applied to Lord's Day worship where the word of Christ is served up and the table is set? I think most definitely so. You are right to immediately wonder which scriptures support such a notion. So let me give you a few via John Calvin. Calvin, teacher in Christ's church and bright light of the Protestant Reformation, said this:

"But as it is now our purpose to discourse of the visible Church, let us learn, from her single title of Mother, how useful, nay, how necessary the knowledge of her is, since there is no other means of entering into life unless she conceive us in the womb and give us birth, unless she nourish us at her breasts, and, in short, keep us under her charge and government, until, divested of mortal flesh, we become like the angels, (Matth. 22: 30.)....Moreover, beyond the pale of the Church no forgiveness of sins, no salvation, can be hoped for, as Isaiah and Joel testify, (Isa. 37:32; Joel 2:32). To their testimony Ezekiel subscribes, when he declares, 'They shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel,' (Ezek. 13: 9;) as, on the other hand, those who turn to the cultivation of true piety are said to inscribe their names among the citizens of Jerusalem. For which reason it is said in the psalm, 'Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation; that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance,' (Ps. 106:4, 6). By these words the paternal favour of God and the special evidence of spiritual life are confined to his peculiar people, and hence the abandonment of the Church is always fatal" (Institutes, IV.I.IIII).

If we don't like what Calvin says, to whom can we run? Luther? But Luther said this:

"Therefore he who would find Christ must first find the Church. How should we know where Christ and his faith were, if we did not know where his believers are? And he who would know anything of Christ must not trust himself nor build a bridge to heaven by his own reason; but he must go to the Church, attend and ask her. Now the Church is not wood and stone, but the company of believing people; one must hold to them, and see how they believe, live and teach; they surely have Christ in their midst. For outside of the Christian church there is no truth, no Christ, no salvation" (Sermon, Luke 2:15-20).

If we don't like what Luther says on the matter, to whom can we run? The Roman Catholic Church? They agree with Cyprian of Carthage, the third century bishop who said: "Extra ecclesiam nulla salus" (outside the church there is no salvation).

If we don't like what Cyprian says, to whom can we run? Well, we must run alone then and we must reckon with this frightening truth: we like our own fancies on religion and faith and salvation more than we like what Jesus has taught his apostles and bishops and doctors of theology. This is a fatal affection, the fate of rivals to the King. But if hearing that frightening truth suddenly makes you hungry, famished even, then hear again the call to dinner:

"Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things" (Psalm 107:4-9)

Yours in Christ,
John