June 3, 2012

“CREDO: I believe in the Holy Catholic Church”

Acts 2:42-47; Romans 12:2-8

Introduction

    “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth… And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord… I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit… the holy catholic church… the communion of saints…”
    The word “church” conjures up a variety of images, feelings, experiences, and reactions in just about everyone in our world today. And not all of them are good. What the church is supposed to be and what the church can be are many times widely disparate.     As a child, the church for me was a large, dark, cold building I had to go to every Sunday morning to spend an hour or more standing, sitting, kneeling, not talking or wiggling, watching and listening to things I could not understand. It wasn’t until college when I happened into a church where I met friends and had a sense of a loving, accepting community.
    For some of you here, church has been a happy, fulfilling experience from day one – not without the human element getting in the way from time to time – but generally, church has been a good thing. For others, church can have memories of conflict, abuse, boredom, control, offense, even betrayal.
    Many have insisted on being “the one true church” (Roman Catholic, Church of Christ, LDS, several eastern Orthodox churches, and others). There’s a confusion in saying the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in the holy catholic church.” It is meant to say, “I believe in the church universal, the church made up of people in all times and all places who have trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.” That’s what the word catholic means. So, I often tell people that I’m catholic, non-Roman. I even say, I’m LDS, non-Mormon. Yes, there is one true church; but it is not any human organization or structure. The one true church is the people of God who know, love, and serve Jesus Christ.

I. Acts 2:42-47

    I love our responsive reading this morning: Acts 2:42-47. Look at it again. Luke describes the early church, the gathering of the first followers of the Risen Lord. There was no building (although they met in the temple courts); there was no apparent organization – what? no Session? no college of cardinals? no Quorum? no Presbytery? How did they survive? 
    They just “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer… They just broke bread in their homes. They ate together with glad and sincere hearts… they just gave to anyone who had need.” Amazingly and perhaps surprisingly, “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” I hope you are experiencing some of these these things at 1st Pres. We are devoted to the Bible, especially the New Testament, the apostles’ teaching. I deeply hope you have Christian fellowship and friendships here. Today we will share the breaking of bread, the Lord’s Supper, the Sacrament of Holy Communion. I often see “glad and sincere hearts” as marks of this congregation. Today the Lord adds to our number those who are being saved.
    A few years ago, there were some Korean Christian undercover missionaries building houses in Iran. They came across a young woman named Elham. They shared the good news of God’s saving love in Christ. Elham became a believer in “Isa Masih,” Jesus Messiah. She went home and told her husband Sina. He amazingly and perhaps surprisingly believed as well.
    Soon there was a house church of 100 new Christians in Islamic Iran. The joy and freedom of knowing Christ overflowed – but too much for the local government. The church was shut down; arrests were made; the church scattered. Sina and Elham fled for their lives. They made their way to Turkey, missing being apprehended by just one day on several occasions. The U.N. refugee service granted them asylum to the United States. They found Iranian-American sponsors where? in Salt Lake City, Utah. Their first child Samuel (Sammy) was born here last August.
    Two days before Christmas, Sina strolled Samuel into 1st Pres. It was after 4 pm. The doors were supposed to be locked. Pastor James and I were ready to finish the day and be ready for Christmas Eve services. We figuratively tossed a coin, and I “won” – to sit down with yet another person in need.
    Sina asked, “What is Presba – how you say?” I said “Presbyterian Church.” “You read Bible here?” he asked. I said, “Yes, we read Bible here.” “Good,” he said with a smile. “This protestant church?” After learning he was a new Christian refugee from Iran, I smiled and called Kambiz Pezeshki, an Iranian Christian who’s been a member and elder here at 1st Pres for 20 years. Connections were made. There’s more to the story as it continues to unfold.
    This morning, Sina and Elham (Ellie) have asked to be baptized along with their 10 month old Samuel. And so, as we celebrate their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we welcome them not only into the fellowship of 1st Presbyterian Church but also baptized into the catholic, universal church.
                  (Celebrating the Sacrament of Baptism for Sina, Elham, and Samuel)

II. Romans 8:2-8)

    “So in Christ we, though many members, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others… serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, showing mercy,” as Paul writes for the church in Romans 12.
    Two phrases have recently appeared in people’s commentary on the church: “I am spiritual but not religious” and “I don’t believe in organized religion.” Isn’t that like saying, “I have strong political opinions but don’t vote?” Or, “I’m athletic but don’t do anything with it.” Isn’t this like saying, “I don’t believe in an organized business… or organized schools…or family… or government?”
    We are human beings. We live in time and space. Of course we organize. If you care about serving people in need, you have to actually do it. It takes some organization. If we care about any kind of education, we have to plan, prepare, support, and organize.
    I’m sure the early church made decisions about who’s house they should meet in for Resurrection Day worship. The apostles spread out to teach the gospel. They needed to know who had needs before they could go about meeting them. Korean missionaries going to Iran to share the love of Christ must have done some careful organization to pull that off.
    This is the church in action. We, too, have a history and tradition of being a church. We call pastors to preach, teach and administer Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We appoint elders and deacons to lead and serve. We gather groups together encourage each other in our faith and work. And it is incumbent upon each member of the church, the body of Christ to use his or her gifts for the strengthening, nurture and well-being of this family of God.
    “I believe in God the Father Almighty… and in Jesus Christ his Son our Lord… I believe in the Holy Spirit… the holy catholic church and the communion of saints.” In baptism we are welcomed to belief and trust in Jesus Christ and into the communion of saints, the church here present and of all time and place. In the Lord’s Supper we are nourished for life together as the communion of saints seeking to follow the Lord Jesus Christ – loving God, loving one another, loving neighbor, and making disciples. If that’s why you’re here this morning, come to the Table of the Lord. For this is the joyful feast of the people of God…