Introduction
Today we are going to continue our preaching series entitled Christianity 101, as we explore our faith using the Apostles' Creed as our guide. Thus far we have looked at an overview of the importance of this creed, and the first nine affirmations. Today we are going to look at the next affirmation, “I believe in the holy catholic church and the communion of saints” as we seek to understand the nature of the church and our relationship with other Christians the world over.
The Fair!
Growing up there were several annual events that I always looked forward to. One of those events was the Fall Fair, hosted by Nativity Catholic Church. Now this church was absolutely a mega church. The majority of my friends went there, their campus was enormous, and they ran an accredited K-12 school. In the 1980's, the city of Brandon was all about Nativity Catholic Church. It was very much a them (up here) and everyone else (down here). The word nativity was synonymous with Catholic.
So for me, when I attended worship in my United Methodist Church, and we recited the Apostles' Creed; when I read the line, I believe in the holy catholic church, I always thought I was saying I believed in Nativity Catholic Church. I thought it weird, but not enough to give it much thought. However, for some people, this line can cause some serious reservations.
Holy=Set Apart
So this morning I want us to spend some time looking at this affirmation to unpack what we really are saying. The first word we say in this affirmation is “holy”. To call something holy is to set that thing or institution apart. When we call ourselves holy we are saying we have been set apart and “the church has been set apart for righteousness, godliness and beauty.”1
As Wesleyans holiness is one of our central institutions. Last week we talked about how John Wesley saw a need for deeper religion and therefore started those holiness clubs with his brother Charles. He felt there needed to be more to our relationship with Christ than just attending church and making our faith another check on a to-do list. He felt, as Christians, we needed to practice disciplines like prayer, fasting, and Scripture reading. He felt that true religion, life-changing religion, happened not in corporate worship, not in a mass gathering, but in small groups where we can look each other in the eye and ask, “how is it with you soul?” and then have the opportunity to wait for the response. He felt that lives were changed when, with love, grace, and mercy, we had groups that enabled us to hold each other accountable in growing our relationships with Christ and with each other. You see, the church is holy, we are set apart as holy. However, “the church is not merely to be 'declared holy;' we are to be holy.”2 That means that we seek to understand Christ better each day. That means that we are to give that same grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love that Christ gave to us, to those people in our care. That means we are to listen first, speak second. That means that every word that comes forth from our mouths is steeped in love. That means we readjust our priorities from self- fulfillment and personal preference to be about the will and glory of God. Please hear me on this. We have become a society of self-centeredness. We seek out those things that we want and that we like and we put time, effort, and energy in to making them adapt to us. When instead, we should spend that time, effort, and energy in seeing what impact we can make in this world for Christ.
Out there, the world complains about trivial stuff; wall color, office size, and personal tastes. In here, we should celebrate what God is doing in our lives, ways we can feed the hungry, and support the needy. Out there it is about me first; my wants, my needs, my desires. In here, it is about how can I help you, support you, love you. You see the disconnect? Out there it is about me. In here, it is about God. Out there, me, me, me. In here God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. We are set apart. And that should not only be in word, but evidenced by our attitudes. When people encounter us as the church, they should literally be left speechless at how different we are versus the world at large. And the fact that 65% of people in Marion County are not affiliated with any church, tells us that they are not. We have to do better. We have to improve.
catholic=universal
The next word in our affirmation this morning is the one that causes many people, significant concern. catholic. Everyone, please open your hymnal to page 881, find the word catholic in the phrase, “the holy catholic church”. Do you see the two asterisks? When you look down, you are given the word universal in italics. As you look back up you will also notice that word catholic is used with the lower case “c”. All of this means that we are professing a belief in the universal church, not the Roman Catholic Church.
“It is our confession that the Church of Jesus Christ has burst forth from the parochial, swaddling clothes of our Jewish origin and is now a global movement of all tongues, tribes and nations.”3 I was at a preaching conference many years ago and listening to a pastor describe church growth. He said that some pastors get so wrapped up in congregation size, that they lose focus on what church is really to be about. So he opened up an umbrella to use as a visual aid. He said you can stand anywhere underneath this umbrella and you will be as dry here as you are there. He said the universal church is like the umbrella; there is more than just one church that will lead you to Christ. There are many denominations, and many churches in each of those denominations that are all focused on building the Kingdom of God. We are all connected, striving to reach the same goal.
Therefore, for us to profess belief in the holy catholic church, means we believe in a church set apart from society, different from the affluent culture, that is universal, connected across countries, nations, and continents. A church where love is the driving force, grace is the language spoken, and mercy is ethical guide.
Communion of Saints
A connection that rings forth in the next affirmation, I believe in the communion of saints. This belief brings out and emphasizes our spiritual connection not only with our brothers and sisters across the world now, but also with those back through time. “Whereas the word catholic emphasizes our global identity with all Christians all over the world, the 'communion of the saints' emphasizes our spiritual connection with the Church throughout space and time.”4 It means we are all connected with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
This connection is spoken about in our first Scripture lesson. Listen again as the Apostle Paul talks about that connection as played out through the unity that we all should exhibit as the body of Christ, “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:1-6, NRSV).
Conclusion
Folks, we are for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood. We are the holy church set apart from this culture. We are to be different, act different, and speak different to one another.
We each have a job to do because of this. We each are called to live lives full of grace, mercy, and hope, because God has given each of us gifts full of grace, mercy, and hope. We are to be the place where people find acceptance, love, and hope.
I believe in the holy catholic church and the communion of saints. I believe in a church connected across time and space, set apart, and influential in bringing about the future hope and present reality that is the Kingdom of God.
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1. Tennet, Timothy. This We Believe. Published by Seedbed, 2012.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
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