The Calling of the Church

I mentioned a section of the Constitution of our denomination in one of my sermons recently. The Constitution of the PC(USA) comes in two parts. The first part is called the Book of Confessions. It lays out the theology of our denomination as captured in various historical statements of faith, or confessions. From the beginnings of the church, we have the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed. From the Reformation we have confessions from Germany, Switzerland, Scotland, and England. The word that historians and scholars of theology use to describe our system of beliefs is "Reformed Theology." This is a subset of theologies from the historical period called the Reformation; all denominations with Reformed Theology trace themselves back to the Reformation, but not all denominations that came from the Reformation have Reformed Theology. There are also several modern confessions including the Declaration of Barmen and the Belhar Confession. We believe God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, but we also acknowledge that the church must work out ("in fear and trembling," says Paul) its theology for its time as the world and circumstances change. There are high hurdles to changing the Book of Confessions, but we still acknowledge that it is a living document. Even now, there is a special committee of the General Assembly working now to consider a new confession to be considered for adding to the Book of Confessions. We believe all these confessions reflect the essential tenets of our Reformed Theology.

The second part of the Constitution of the PC(USA) is called the Book of Order. It captures all the high-level policies for how we choose to govern ourselves. We take our form of government pretty seriously, but we do not consider that it is essential. Our form of government is called "presbyterian." The root word of presbyterian is presbuteros, which means "elder" in Greek. We choose to organize ourselves into a government ruled by elders. I said that we do not consider our form of government to be essential: one of the early statements in the Book of Order is "The presbyterian system of government in the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is established in light of Scripture but is not regarded as essential for the existence of the Christian Church nor required of all Christians" (F-1.0402). The United Church of Christ is a denomination that shares our Reformed Theology, but practices a form of government called congregationalism.

The Book of Order is divided into major sections that cover "Foundations of Presbyterian Polity," "The Form of Government," a "Directory for Worship," and "Church Discipline" (these are normally cited as F-#.####, G-#.####, W-#.####, and D-#.####, respectively, to help people find them, and I am doing that in this article, as well). Think of this like the Constitution of the United States that has a preamble, a description of the legislature, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. In the United States we have a republic, or a representative democracy, depending on how you look at it. An alternative would be a pure democracy where every citizen votes directly on every issue. The PC(USA) has something like a representative democracy, and the United Church of Christ has more of a pure democracy on a congregation-by-congregation basis.

In the United States, we threw off the yoke of tyranny, by which we meant the monarchy, especially of King George III. Even though the presbyterian form of government is a representative democracy, we still acknowledge one head of the church, Jesus Christ. That's a major difference between secular government and church government: We have to account for our theology. The Book of Order says, "Almighty God, who raised Jesus Christ from the dead and set him above all rule and authority, has given to him all power in heaven and on earth, not only in this age but also in the age to come. God has put all things under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and has made Christ Head of the Church, which is his body. The Church’s life and mission are a joyful participation in Christ’s ongoing life and work" (F-1.0201).

We don’t have a monarch; we have the Head of the Church. This brings up another major difference between secular government and church government. Citizens make up a country, but members of the church make up a body--Christ's body. The section I was quoting in the sermon was about this. Before the part I lifted out of the Book of Order was this introduction: "The Church is the body of Christ. Christ gives to the Church all the gifts necessary to be his body. The Church strives to demonstrate these gifts in its life as a community in the world" (F-1.0301). We are a body, the Body of Christ, but we live in the world as a community. This section of the Book of order describes that community as a community of faith, hope, love, and witness.

"The Church is to be a community of faith, entrusting itself to God alone, even at the risk of losing its life" (F-1.0301). This is an intimidating aspiration. While we revere the martyrs of the church, are WE called to give up our lives? There MAY be a time when Christians face death for their beliefs, but HERE? in OUR congregation? This becomes a little more relatable when we realize that the one risking loss of life is the community. It's easy to apply all manner of techniques for making the church more attractive. Build a basketball court, have lots of pizza, show exciting multimedia presentations, be active in multimedia campaigns, leverage AI, tell people what they want to hear. These programs put butts in pews and dollars in the offering plate. We are not called to put butts in pews; we are called to be the body of Christ. We are called to "participate in God’s mission for the transformation of creation and humanity by proclaiming to all people the good news of God’s love, offering to all people the grace of God at font and table, and calling all people to discipleship in Christ" (F-1.01). When that is at odds with the prevalent moods and desires of the culture around us, it might mean we lose members, money, It might mean we close. We do it anyway.

"The Church is to be a community of hope, rejoicing in the sure and certain knowledge that, in Christ, God is making a new creation. This new creation is a new beginning for human life and for all things. The Church lives in the present on the strength of that promised new creation" (F-1.0301). God is making a new creation. We don't know what it will be like--it is a mystery--but we are sure and certain that in Christ, God is making that new creation. To me, the emphasis isn’t so much on that new creation as that is God making it, God whom we trust. I'm pretty sure the deaf will hear, the lame will walk, and the prisoners will be set free. I'm pretty sure that all will know the love of God. I don't know much about the details, but I trust that whatever is in the mind of God is going to be good. The Church rejoices while it waits in hope. Sometimes, worrying about all those programs and whether we're going to survive, working on all those details of budget and implementation, gets us down, but this is an affirmation that we can choose to work with joy in our hearts for the fact that we are participating with God in bringing about that new creation, in proclaiming that good news.

"The Church is to be a community of love, where sin is forgiven, reconciliation is accomplished, and the dividing walls of hostility are torn down" (F-1.0301). While we work together in the meantime, we love each other. Remember when we started the water abatement project? I reminded everyone that this kind of project can test our patience with one another. I urged patience and mutual forbearance. I quoted Paul--the very scripture for the Sunday sermon where this section of the Book of Order showed up--saying, "Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor" (Romans 12:9-10). All THAT was just us amongst ourselves. I think this part of the Book of Order is about more than just us. We are to be a community of love where we not only love one another, but the people beyond the walls of our church building. We are to tear down the dividing walls of hostility between US and THEM until there's only US, offering forgiveness and reconciliation to ALL.

Finally, "The Church is to be a community of witness, pointing beyond itself through word and work to the good news of God’s transforming grace in Christ Jesus its Lord" (F-1.0301). When we live the consequences of our faith, rejoicing in hope, loving and forgiving one another, we are showing the world what Christ's reign will be like. I love the line in Amazing Grace that says, "When we've been there ten thousand years, bright, shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun." THAT. That's how we are to live now. We are to live now, singing in harmony together, enjoying one another's company, loving and forgiving one another because those ten thousand years have ALREADY begun. That's what I mean when I say that when we live now like we are part of Christ's reign, then we are witnessing to the world what Christ's reign will be like. We are showing them that it's already started. We are showing them that Christ's body IS the community of faith, hope, love, and witness with Christ as the head.

Blessings,

--Chas