Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Why the Church?
I've been asked many times why we need a church--"Why can't I just worship God personally and privately? Why do I need an organized religion to stand between me and God?" I don't think those are the right questions because I do believe that we can worship God personally and privately, and that an organized religion should not "stand between" us and God, however, I also believe that the Church is a necessary part of Christianity. Do you agree? If so, what does the Church give us that we couldn't get by ourselves?
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As I've thought about and studied this question, I read a talk and an essay that I really liked. Elder Neal A. Maxwell, a leader of my church who died several years ago, said in a talk, “…the Church is ‘for the perfecting of the saints’ (Eph. 4:12); it is not a well-provisioned rest home for the already perfected…[And] in the kingdom we are each other’s clinical material; the Lord allows us to practice on each other, even in our imperfections.” (Neal A. Maxwell, “A Brother Offended” )
ReplyDeletehttp://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/1982.htm/ensign%20may%201982%20.htm/a%20brother%20offended.htm
Eugene England, a Mormon scholar and writer, echoed similar ideas when he wrote, “I believe the Church is the best medium, apart from marriage (which it much resembles in this respect), for helping us gain salvation by grap¬pling constructively with the oppositions of existence, despite our limited and various understandings of "the gospel." I believe that the better any church or organization is at such help, the "truer" it is…Martin Luther, with inspired perception, wrote, "Marriage is the school of love"—that is, marriage is not the home or the result of love so much as the school. I believe that any church can be a school of love…the Church provides the best context for struggling with, working through, enduring, and being redeemed by our responses to those paradoxes and oppositions that give energy and meaning to the universe. …The Church is true because it is con¬crete, not theoretical. And despite, even because of, its contra¬dictions and problems, it is as productive of good as is the gospel…
We must be active, thoughtful, faithful, believing, truth-seeking, struggling, unified members of the body of Christ. To do so we must accept the Church as true in two very important senses: First, it is a repository of crucial redemptive truths and of the authority to perform essential saving ordi¬nances. Though, as I have observed, those truths can be difficult to pin down to simple propositions, taken together they motivate and make efficacious the willingness to serve that creates the redemptive schooling I have described. Second, besides being the repository of true principles and authority, the Church is the instrument provided by a loving God to help us become like him, that is, to give us essential schooling—experiences with each other that can bind us together in an honest but loving community, which is the essential nurturing place for salvation” (Eugene England, “Why the Church is as True as the Gospel”).
I get that all the time too! "Why can't I just worship at home? I hate the church, they are so messed up and I don't want to associate myself with them. Why do we need organized religion? it just messes everything up." These phrases bounce from teenage and young adult mouths to my ears too often. (I think I should do a sermon series on this--thanks for pointing this out David [smile])... I do agree that the church is necessary for Christianity--in fact, without the church we do not have Christianity. And this is true not just because of the things past down in the church but also the very function and nature of the church. In order for the people who ask these questions to be fully satisfied--to a point where they no longer ask those kinds of questions they must consider the definition of and nature of church. Generally, today when people deny the need for organized religion [in context of talking about Christianity] the view of the church is "going to church to hear a pastor or elder preach, to sing some songs, to take communion together and leave. But that is a misconception of what the church is. So these people view the church as a place where you do something, perform certain rituals, and believe certain things. --that all can be done elsewhere really... But that is not the nature of the church.
ReplyDeleteThere is another group of people who attempt to define what the church is and say that, "We, the Christian people are the church"—this kind of saying is a response to the thought that people show up on Sunday morning, do the church thing, and then go back to their other life. While I agree that “Church” is not something you can “go” to and “leave” I do not agree that “Christians” are the church. Unintentionally this statement elevates Christians to a status that is not biblical and that has by-passed the very nature of the Church. The Church is where the rulership of Jesus is. So it is not the actual make-up of the people but rather where Jesus reigns—where he has authority. Of course the Church was founded not by Peter (as some may say) but by Jesus—and he is the living rock, the immovable foundation for the church. Origen a brilliant 2nd century Theologian who suffered for his faith and eventually died wrote, “Outside the Church, no one is saved—For the red blood of Jesus is hanging out the window of the Church.—at the root of the Church is the blood of Christ—the only way to be saved is in the blood—the symbol of the church. In his understanding of the church (especially at the time) the mission of the church was (and still is) to welcome and be the agent of salvation. –We are blessed to be a blessing…
Throughout the centuries, the church is strongly defended—and it is easy to defend because it is within the nature of the church that lies the defense. The Barmen confession (7.24 McGrath) states that the church is the possession of Christ alone. And the confession also holds to the fact that the church is a place of forgiven sinners, bearing witness in the midst of darkness and continuing to proclaim the good news. The purpose of the church is to provide justice and peace in the unredeemed world. Here the Confession brings up a solid point. The Church is the bride of Christ—Christ’s possession. If you are a believer in Jesus as the savior of humankind and seek to transform your character to his (as the Bible teaches) then you will care for what he cares about—and he cares about his people. This is where the defense of the “isolated Christian” comes in. There is no such thing as an isolated Christian because
From a good friend:
ReplyDeletewell, this is a bit late.
I had this conversation with a friend on Thursday night. After we vehemently discussed theology and comparative religions for a few hours, we ended up in the parking lot that was cool and breezy and perfect for lingering. He had to let his bike warm up and I just sort of shrugged and said to him, very simply that Christianity is about love.
It's about Jesus loving me even in my mess. I told him (in response to an earlier question) that reason I stick in the church is becasue I found Adullam (my faith community) and within two weeks I knew. I knew that something here was different. These people were real. They were messy and beautiful. But they love Jesus and they know his love.
Because that's what it is, really. I can never earn love. But God, in his incredible grace and mercy looked down on me, while I was yet dead in my sin. He reached out to me and called my name. He took me from my hopeless wandering through a life of mistakes. He brought me home, washed me, dressed me and put bracelets on my wrist and he covenanted to me that he will never leave nor forsake.