Hebrews 10:19-25
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hi friends! As we turn the calendar to August, we enter the half-way point in our sermon series, which I am calling Johnny Cash Theology. For one last time, I’ll run through some of the introductory information.
I had the realization earlier this summer that we often talk about what is different about our church, and why we don’t believe the same thing as certain other churches. What we rarely talk about are the things that we hold in common, our shared convictions as followers of Jesus Christ. So we will be spending the next few months doing just that.
I’ve called this sermon series Johnny Cash Theology because of a conversation that I had with my brother. As w were trying to decide what to listen to one the radio one day, we could agree that everyone likes Johnny Cash. So Johnny Cash Theology is a reference to what we can agree upon. We’ve looked at God as the creator of the heavens and the earth. Yes, we disagree on how God created the world, but we agree that God is the creator. We looked last week at the Trinity. We disagree on how God exists as 3-in-one, but the church, throughout history, has affirmed that God exists as the Trinity.
I’ve been using Greg Boyd’s concentric circles approach to theology. In the center is what is most important. For obvious reasons, we put Jesus in the middle. The next circle out is dogma, the essential teachings of the church throughout the ages. Dogma contains the things that were covered by the early church in the creeds. The next circle out, we find doctrine. This is the stuff that denominations divide over. Freewill vs. Predestination. Believer’s baptism vs. infant baptism. These things are important, and even though we don’t belong to the same denomination, I still consider you a brother or sister in Christ. The outside, and least important circle is labeled “opinion.” There are the things that aren’t clearly laid out in the Bible, and there will be differing opinions within each congregation.
We are using the Apostle’s Creed as our guide through this series. The Apostle’s Creed is a 1st-century (ish) document that simply lays out the core convictions of the early church. There are times when we would appreciate it if they had gone into a little more detail, but this is what we can agree upon. Let’s read together the Apostle’s Creed, which can be found in our blue hymnals, number 712:
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
The part we will be addressing today is that little line that causes many of us to trip up every time we read the Apostle’s Creed: I believe in the holy catholic church. Today, on our third installment of Johnny Cash Theology, we ask what we are to do with that little phrase. We are, after all, a Protestant church. Of course we believe in the Catholic Church, I drive by St. Francis several times a week! Today we look at the church, we do a little ecclesiology, and we look at the importance of the church. That’s something, I hope, we can all agree upon. But because I never like to leave it at the least common denominator, we are also going to look at different ways of doing church, and why different ecclesiologies might appeal to certain people.
Many people today lament the fact that church attendance is decreasing. The numbers are pretty consistent across the board, from denomination to denomination. People are too busy, they find other sources for spiritual insight, and any other number of reasons are offered. But I want to say that this isn’t anything new. Look at our text for this morning from Hebrews. Chapter 10, verses 24-25a instruct us, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.”
Why do you think the author of Hebrews was encouraging people to continue to meet? Because people weren’t meeting! So even in the early years of the church, they experienced the same ebbs and flows in church attendance as we see today. And in this passage we are given two reasons for meeting together: to spur one another toward love and to encourage one another.
I would want to add a few other reasons for gathering. There is something about corporate worship, singing together, that is good for the soul. We hold one another accountable. We share our joys and concerns. We share meals. We share our gifts, we share our resources.
Perhaps you are picking up on a reoccurring word: share. Going to church isn’t just about you, it is first about God. And secondly, it is about us. The church is about our shared lives.
So from the very beginning, the author of Hebrews and the writers of the Apostle’s Creed found value in meeting regularly with other Christians. But I come back to that line: the holy catholic church.
I remember a conversation I had with my mother a few years ago. She had attended a funeral where the Apostle’s Creed had been read, and she noticed that the words were changed from “holy catholic church” to something else. And I believe she told me that she had at one time sat beside someone who chose not to say that line of the Apostle’s Creed. They just went silent for a few seconds.
First of all, not even saying the words “holy catholic church” feels like an anti-Catholic sentiment, and I wish to stand against that. Not cool, man. Secondly, the reason some translations change the words are because the Apostle’s Creed as we have it is a translation, so there is some wiggle room. Sometimes we see people change the words from “holy catholic church” to something like “the church world-wide” because that is what the word “catholic” means. Catholic literally means “universal.”
And again, remember that when the Apostle’s Creed was written, there was only one church. This statement isn’t glorifying one denomination over all others. Actually, just the opposite is true. If you read the Apostle’s Creed, the words “holy catholic church” should be written in lowercase letters. Catholic Church with capital “c’s” is the denomination. The holy catholic church, all lowercase, is a statement of faith in the entire, universal church. The Apostle’s Creed proclaims the importance of the world-wide church, not one denomination.
Let us not give up on meeting together. We are a part of a world-wide community and a local body, sharing life together. What’s not to like about that?
I have a friend that I’m going to call Jake. I know Jake from around town, our kids go to school together, and we have some mutual friends. Jake is a Christian, which is clear from his bumper stickers to his language. I even seem him studying his Bible in public from time to time. He is a good guy, without a doubt.
I’d known Jake a little bit before he actually found out what I do for a living, because I often don’t start a conversation by saying “Hi, I’m Kevin. I’m a servant of the Lord.” That’s usually a good way to shut down a conversation. But one day Jake approached me and told me that our mutual friend told him that I was a pastor, and we talked a little bit about church and where I went to school, and so on. I’ve wondered where he went to church, but never just came out and asked him. I assumed he went to one of two local churches, because we are both friends with the pastors of those churches.
Anyway, I decided to add Jake as a friend on Facebook, because that’s what people do these days. I believe that it was the first Sunday that Jake and I were official Facebook friends that he posted something about the church. But it wasn’t what I was expecting, and it wasn’t exactly positive. In fact, it was a pretty strong criticism of the church. I looked for his post this week, and he must have gone back and deleted it. But to the best of my memory, it said something like, “We did church at home today as a family, just as we do every week, because the church is apostate.”
End of post. No explanation.
By saying that the church is apostate, I believe Jake is trying to say that the church is heretical or teaching unsound doctrine. To be honest, I don’t know what he meant by “apostate,” because even though I’ve seen him a few times since then, I didn’t really want to have that conversation. At least not in the public places where I tend to see Jake.
But here’s the thing: Jake is right. The church doesn’t always get it right. The church doesn’t always teach well or correctly. The church has been abusive. The church has turned its head when leaders have made mistakes. The church has allowed, and at times, endorsed misogyny, racism, classism, and just about every -ism you can think of. The church has at times failed to love our God, and the church has at times failed to love our neighbor. And without a doubt, the church has failed to love our enemies.
And I’m not just talking about the church universal. I’m talking about our church, too. I know that the teaching at Staunton Mennonite Church hasn’t always been perfect. And I know that because I do most of the teaching here! There are things that I’ve said over the years that I wouldn’t say again, or at least say in the way that I said them. Sometimes it is because I didn’t know any better, and I needed to grow as a person. Other times I’ve just made mistakes.
So, yes. Jake is correct. The church is heretical. The church is apostate. Or, as a quote that is often attributed (though not without dispute) to St. Augustine says: “The church is a whore, but she is our mother.”
For obvious reasons, many people have pushed back against such language. But I think that the rugged, in-your-face, offensive nature of that quote is a good reminder of who and what the church is. In Ephesians 5, Paul compares the relationship between Jesus and the church to that of a husband and wife. But the church has not been faithful to the bridegroom.
When Augustine says that the church is a whore, he is saying that we have not been faithful. But when he says that she is our mother, Augustine is recognizing that the church is the source of our lives. The church provides sustenance, nourishment, and growth. While it is true that the church has failed to be faithful, we still need her. We rely upon her. And hopefully, we love her.
Perhaps another metaphor used by the Apostle Paul would be helpful for us to better understand the church. In 1 Corinthians 12:27, Paul writes, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”
We know this passage. Paul says that each person is a part of the body of Christ. Some are hands, some are feet. Some are eyes, some are noses. But no part is any more or less important than the other. Together, we form the body of Christ.
The church is the body of Christ.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t always like the way my body looks or feels. We sometimes get sick. We all get old. I’ve had back problems for the majority of my life, and that sometimes causes me to spend days at a time lying on my back. My knees hurt. I have hair growing places it shouldn’t be, and I have less hair than I would like growing where I do want it to be. I gain weight when I look at a muffin for too long.
Some of our bodies bear scars, signs of painful times. Some of our bodies bear stretch marks, signs of new life growing within.
I don’t know about you, but most days I look in the mirror, and I don’t like what I see.
But we are the body of Christ. Jesus looks at us with our stretch marks, and scars, our hairy backs, receding hairlines, and expanding waistlines, and says, “I love you anyway.”
Jesus love the church; we are, after all, his bride. He loves us in our imperfections. He loves us through our unfaithfulness. Not because of our imperfections and our unfaithfulness, but in spite of these flaws.
One day I received a note via Facebook messenger from Jake. He was asking me if I would pray for him. He had a physical issue that had been bothering him for a while, and it was affecting his work. If this issue didn’t improve or at least stop getting worse, he wouldn’t be able to continue in his work, the occupation that he loves and seems to be quite good at. I realized that in that moment, I was being church for Jake. The church may be apostate, but Jake still need her. The church is surely flawed, but as long as we are flawed, we will still need one another.
I’ve got plenty of concerns about the institutional church. So much money goes to line the pockets of our rich pastors, and so little finds its way to the poor among us. I get the criticism of the church. But you don’t need to be a part of a big church to be a Christian. But you can’t do it alone, either.
As Jesus says, “Any time two or three are gathered, I am there with them.” The church isn’t about getting together once a week to sing a few songs, listen to a sermon, and giving a little money. The church is about being there for one another. The church is about sharing life with one another. Not just with the two or three, but we share life with the church universal. We share our lives with the 2.3 billion other Christians around the globe, many of whom live in places we’ve never been, some we’ve never heard of. We are the body of Christ universal! When one part of the body suffers, the entire boy suffers. When one part rejoices, the entire body rejoices. That’s what it means to share our lives with one another. That’s what it means to be the holy catholic church.
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