The Apostles' Creed: One--The Holy Catholic Church
The Apostles’ Creed: One–The Holy Catholic Church by Rev. L. John Gable
May 26, 2019
Yesterday I had the privilege of performing the wedding ceremony of a young man who grew up in our church in Wisconsin who now lives in Cincinnati. The Scripture lesson they chose for their wedding just happened to be this passage from Ephesians which I chose last July to preach on today in which Paul commends the church, followers of Jesus “to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called…with humility and gentleness and patience and love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” I had never been asked to use this particular passage in a wedding before and candidly I wondered why they chose it as it speaks of there being “one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all.” But then as I spent time reflecting on this passage I began to see how clearly it applies to the exclusive bond of unity and faithfulness in the covenant of marriage, which then made me begin to wonder if and how it applies to us in the Church, those for whom this lesson was originally intended.
Admittedly we will nod our heads in agreement with this teaching as we affirm our “oneness” in Christ and gladly stand and recite the words of the Apostles’ Creed as we say, “I believe in the holy catholic Church”, but I wonder aloud with you if our actions belie our words? How can we say we believe in “one, holy, catholic Church” when there is a church with a different label on it on nearly every street corner of every town and city in the country (I know that is an exaggeration, but you get my point), and as much as we may confess to loving the friendship and fellowship I know we enjoy here together, I also I know I could toss out any number of different issues over which even we would vehemently disagree with one another, which could likely threaten our sense of “oneness”? So, what do we mean when we say we are “one in Christ” and members of the “holy, catholic church”?
Historically there have been four characteristics which define the true Church; it is described as being “one”, “holy”, “catholic” and “apostolic”. I’d like to look briefly at the meaning of each of these, beginning with what we mean when we say “Church”. The Greek word we translate as church is “ekklesia”, and it means, not a building, as in “I’m going to church”, but “a company of people; those who are called out”. As we put our faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord we are “called out” of the world “into” a community of faith, or as we read in I Peter 2:9, “we have been called out of the darkness in to the wonderful light.” To be Christian or to be a follower of Jesus is to be part of a community, not just of belief, but of love and support and fellowship. So, to choose Christ is to choose to His people, His community. We don’t walk with Jesus alone, but in the company of others, and together we are called “the Church”. And how is the Church defined? By these four characteristics or distinctives, as being “one”, “holy”, “catholic” and “apostolic”.
The Church of Jesus Christ is “one”. While there may be many churches, there is only one Church. Any gathering of believers which in any way claims exclusive rights to being the only true church stands outside the historic confession of the faith, so we must never trust anyone who says you have to be one of us, of our ilk, to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. There is only one Church because there is only one foundation, just as there are many members of the body but only one head, that being Jesus Christ.
Admittedly this is a point of confusion among many Christians and of critique among many non-believers. We say and sing “we are one in the Spirit; we are one in the Lord”, but then we divide ourselves in to so many denominational factions often over seemingly inconsequential nuances of theology or practice that it boggles the mind. From one perspective we can very rightly critique the Church over our divisions particularly when any one or the other claims any unique corner on the truth or casts dispersions on another body of believers because “they don’t do it our way”. When that happens the cause of Christ is damaged and our witness for Christ is diminished. On the other hand, I happen to believe in the benefit of there being many denominations as each becomes an expression of the many faceted body of Christ. I don’t mind a bit that we are a toe and another is a finger as long as we all remember that we are members of the same Body of Christ. It does the Body great harm when one member of the Body casts dispersions on another member of the Body; but it is greatly beneficial to the Body when each serves its part for the common good, but that requires of us then that we act with “humility and gentleness and patience and love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”, just as Paul instructs in his letter to the Ephesians. In 1952 a group of Christians from across the theological and denominational spectrum came together in Lund, Sweden, under the auspices of the World Council of Churches. They spelled out the basics of their gathering very simply by saying, “The closer we come to Christ, the closer we come to each other.”
Just as the Church of Jesus Christ is “one”, so it is also “holy”, meaning it is God-chosen, God-called, God-“set apart”. This is not a point of pride for us; it is not a matter of anything we have done for ourselves, but only what Christ has done for us. All we have done is heard and believed the Good News of God’s saving grace in Christ, and responded to it. And having heard and believed we are now called to live in a “set apart” manner, as followers of Jesus Christ. We are called to be “in the world but not of the world.” It is not that we are “holy”, but that the One we worship and serve, the One in Whom we believe and lives within us, is holy. So we are “to live our lives in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called”, as Paul writes. We are to live lives of distinction and distinctiveness because we have been “set apart” by God for God’s holy purposes.
The Church is “one”, “holy” and “catholic”. This is often another point of confusion, particularly for us as Protestants. When we say we are “catholic” we are not referring to the Roman Catholic Church. The word “catholic” comes from the Greek word “katholico” which means “according to the whole” or “universal.” Recall the Apostles’ Creed was written in the early 4th century at a time when the Christian Church was dispersed and spread throughout the Roman Empire, the then known world. The problem with this great and rapid expansion of the Gospel was that there was not a consistency of teaching in one place or the other, given that there was not yet even a set or widely disseminated canon of Scripture, so someone living in Constantinople may hear a very different presentation of the Gospel from one living in Athens or Rome, so the early Church fathers wisely set down in writing the essentials, the universal, the orthodox or “catholic” affirmations of our faith, out of which we get creedal statements like the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed.
The affirmation that the Church is “catholic” not only underscores the importance of consistency in its teaching, it is also a reminder that its message is relevant regardless of time or place. “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday and today and forever”. So while context and culture will help to shape and influence how the message is presented, the cornerstone teachings of our faith remain constant, universally valid and relevant.
The fourth and final characteristic of the Church is that it is “apostolic”. While every preacher and teacher is going to put her or his particular personality and insight into their presentation of the Gospel, the central message is not unique or original to any one of us; nor should it be. We are not “free agents”. All Christian preaching and teaching and faith-sharing must be consistent with and in continuity with the teaching of the apostles, the first evangelists and witnesses of the faith. We read in Acts 2:42, the early Church, “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers”, so the Church in this time and place, and in every time and place, must be devoted to the same. As tempting as it would be, and it is, to make up our own way of doing things, to “cut and paste” the Scriptures like Thomas Jefferson tried to do, to embrace the parts we love and discard the parts we don’t, we are not given that option if we are to be faithful to our calling as stewards of the same Gospel as has been passed to us by the Apostles’ preaching and teaching. This Gospel has been faithfully entrusted to us, so we have the God-given responsibility to faithfully pass it on to those who follow us.
The Church has a lot to teach the world when we live into our ideals of being “one”, “holy”, “catholic” and “apostolic”, but unfortunately we live in a culture and climate in which we have opted to choose the world’s way of dealing with conflict and disagreement rather than the Lord’s way. We have somehow forgotten that the One who unites us is greater than anything that seeks to divide us, so even we have too often chosen the way of division rather than of unity. But what a witness to the world we, the Church, could be if we modeled a different way of being together.
I recently came across a way of thinking about how we identify ourselves in relationship with others that is very helpful for me. Some of us use what is called the “bounded set model” when determining with whom we will work or associate. Those who think this way create boundaries, theological or political borders, cultural fences to keep clear lines of distinction between us and those with whom we do not agree. Those who define relationships this way think in terms of “us” and “them” and “nary the twain shall meet”.
But others of us take a different approach called the “centered set model” of relationships which asks the question, “Do you care about what I care about?” Or as Christians we might say, “Do you care about what Jesus cares about?” Do we have a shared set of values that supersedes those things over which we disagree? For instance, do you care about feeding hungry children, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, working for justice and righteousness? If so, then it doesn’t really matter if we agree on every nuance of theology or politics or any of the other myriad of things which might divide us because this one central issue, or more importantly the One we call Savior and Lord, holds at the center and unites us.
Edwin Markham’s little poem “Outwitted” illustrates these two different approaches beautifully.
“He drew a circle that shut me out;
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in.”
I have tried to practice this “centered set” model of relationships in my own life and in my leadership of the church. I think of myself as being a “big tent” preacher and teacher, believing that we can hold a wide spectrum of different beliefs and practices – progressive to conservative, and have passions regarding a wide variety of different issues, even those that seemingly conflict with one another, without losing any sense of our “oneness” as long as the center holds; the center being our shared faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. I believe as Leslie Newbegin put it, that “The Church is not defined by its boundaries, but by its center”.
So let us then live as we say we believe as we stand with believers through the ages and confess, “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church”. Amen.