The Church

Do you think of the church as an organization or an organism? That sounds like a trivia question playing on similar words, but it significantly affects your approach to the Church. While the Church has forms and doctrines similar to an organization, it is essentially biological. Biology is the study of life and the study of the church must be of its life as the Body of Christ. The forms and doctrines can be distracting to us but the only essential concerns are those that comprise the Body of which Christ is the head. Christianity has to do with life and therefore can be expressed only in biological terms.

Look at the preparations recounted in the Old Testament. The accounts of Creation in Genesis are pictures rather than scientific treatises. They are stories of life personified in a pair of individuals. Critically-minded people might object to the stories as childish and unreasonable and recommend they be disregarded. Is it wise to discard something because it is not scientific? These stories were intended to be life sketches. Which is more inspiring, watching a beautiful sunset or listening to a meteorologist describe the atmospheric conditions?

The Hebrews were God’s “chosen people,” not because God arbitrarily chose them, but because, they chose to respond to God. The Old Testament is the record of God dealing biologically with the human race through the “chosen people.” The Hebrews were not lead by a form of teaching. They were led by God-inspired people – the judges, the kings, the prophets. The central nerve of their religious life was the Aaronic priesthood biologically transmitted by one person to another person. When the Jews returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity in 538 BC, the personal leadership of living men was exchanged for the rigid enactments of the written Law. The result was a period of spiritual decadence when legalism prevailed and religion degenerated into a set of rules. When the biological factor was obscured, spiritual vitality went into a decline.

Then “when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son.” The Incarnation is the reassertion of the biological principle. If God were only interested in the intellect, he could have sent us a system of philosophy. Instead, He sent us a Way of Life, expressed not in an argument but in His Incarnate Son. Birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension are the biological keys to the Christian religion.

When Jesus presented His Gospel, He set forth no system of regulations, no code of doctrine, no book of particulars. He declined the legalistic debates of the Scribes. He told them the Kingdom of God was like leaven, like a seed, like a man. He did not ask: “How do you like this doctrine?” or “How does this theory appeal to you?” He asked: “What think ye of Christ?” He presented his Gospel as Himself. The Christian religion is not essentially intellectual. It relies on a personal loyalty to a Person.

When we leave a job, we leave a record, a journal or a set of guidelines to pass our knowledge and wisdom on to others. Jesus did not leave a system or a book. He left people. He trained, taught and inspired Apostles. He gave them just two things – a Commission and the Sacraments. They were told to baptize all nations in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. They were given the Sacraments as a channel to receive the continuing grace of God’s love. The Body of Christ is a spiritual organism prepared to receive and transmit the benefits of His redemptive life.

If you look at the Church as an organization, you might think it is an assembly of people already settled in the Christian life. You can join it and you can resign from it. If you think of the Church as an organism it is no longer a club for good people. You don’t become a Christian in order to qualify. You grow into the Christian life in the company of your brethren as members of the Body. It is a family in which we help one another to be better. You also do not resign from it anymore than you could from your family. By Baptism, you are grafted into it and belong to it forever thereafter. “By one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body.”

The Church is an organism that functions for Christ as a body functions for a human being. The Acts of the Apostles tells the story of the Church in its initial stage. The first disciples continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, in breaking of bread, and in prayers. We must continue in fellowship, in breaking of bread and in prayers if we are to follow the apostle’s doctrine.

In the Creeds we describe the Church as One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. We are admitted into it by Baptism and continue in it into the next world as well. The interruption of death cannot destroy the fellowship. Most people would agree that we are One in spirit. But the Church is ideally One in visible manifestation as well. The divisions of Modern Christendom are a blot upon the Church and must somehow be removed.

The Church is Holy because it is set aside for God and has received the Holy Spirit. The purpose of the Church is to lead its people in the way of sanctification. It does not mean the members have achieved a particular state of holiness. Yet, it is destined for that end. It is not a question of achievement but of character. The humility that accompanies growth in holiness will someday make it easier to become One both spiritually and visibly.

The term Catholic is a little more complicated. Initially it meant simply universal. It has also been used to distinguish the Catholic Church from the various heretical sects springing up along the whole course of Church history. It implies wholeness – the Church for the whole world, preserving the whole faith, imparting the whole sacramental life, and possessed of the whole apostolic authority. The term Catholic properly refers to all those churches which maintain the faith of the Creeds and the Ecumenical Councils, the practice of the Sacraments, and the episcopate in historic succession from the Apostles. It is not appropriate to use it exclusively for any particular denomination of Christians.

The Church is Apostolic because it receives its commission from our Lord through the Apostles as a safeguard for the apostolic teaching and tradition. It also carries the apostolic responsibility of bearing full witness to Christ before the world. It demonstrates historic continuity from the leaders Christ chose.

There are those who live up to Christian standards and pay no attention to the Church. If it were not for the Church they would have no Christian standards to live by. They are really living on the Christianity of other people. You can study Gospels without the Church, but you cannot practice Christianity without the corporate family in which we grow. The primary function of the Church is to communicate the Incarnate Life of our lord. It is not to entertain people but to edify them. Contrary to the predominant opinion today, reforming society is NOT its primary concern. It is truly responsible for an enormous amount of social improvement and some judge the Church by the extent of its practical charities. When we are criticized for concentrating on spiritual things while people are overwhelmed with physical needs, we should take it as a compliment.

Mercy, sympathy, and practical helpfulness are never questioned in the Church. The Church has been teaching the parable of the Good Samaritan for twenty centuries and it is becoming common place. The fact that non-Church agencies are feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and binding up the wounds of the afflicted is in itself proof that the promulgation of the Christian Gospel has been an unparalleled success. All of these things are attributable to the Church and without the Church supporting them, they would likely fade away and die.

The Church is God’s own blessing in a world that needs His blessing greatly. Take the Church out of the picture and the best features in modern civilization would dry up, starved out of existence for want of spiritual nourishment.

The Church is the most venerable institution in the world. It has outlasted kingdoms and empires. It has met and conquered every kind of adversity. It is strong, vigorous, and vital – and it has our Lord’s promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.