The eCrozier

This time between the Feast of Pentecost and Trinity Sunday offers a good opportunity to reflect on the nature of the Church. It’s no accident that we also celebrate between Pentecost and Trinity Sunday the first Book of Common Prayer, which was introduced on Pentecost in 1549. Below then is my reflection on the nature, and thus the mission, of the Church, for her nature is inextricably connected to her mission.

The Church is the extension of God’s incarnate nature, the Body of Christ, on the earth. The Church then is God’s way of taking take up permanent residence on the earth. So, the Church isn’t merely a human organization, even though it’s made up of human beings (with all that entails). The Church isn’t an organization. With apologies to John Wesley, it’s not even a religious society. Rather, she’s an organism, a body, on which God has endowed the Divine nature. The Church then isn’t simply a place to come together for fellowship or doing good things for the community, although both of those things occur as a result of coming together. Rather, the Church is a people gathered in Christ’s name deriving her identity and purpose from God’s incarnate nature on earth.

That means the Church is the Church of Jesus Christ as she aligns herself with God’s nature and then physically and animatedly lives out that incarnate nature in the world. Now, that doesn’t mean that the Church will ever be even close to perfect. The Church will always be a human organism as well. God sires it, but humanity incubates it. Still, the Church is called to incarnate God’s nature on earth and to live by the Spirit that gave her birth.

When Jesus rose from the dead and God sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to give birth to the Church, it wasn’t God’s intention to check out of life on earth. It was God’s intention to be smack dab in the middle of human life. The resurrection isn’t an invitation to come to heaven when we die. Rather, it’s a decision that God has made to take up permanent residence on earth. The resurrection doesn’t tell us that Jesus is in heaven calling us to join him someday. No, it tells us that Jesus is here with us right now and always.

The Gospel then doesn’t mean that when we die we go home to Jesus, but rather it means that Jesus has been raised from the dead and comes home to us. The Good News of Jesus tells us that life isn’t something we endure. Rather, through the Holy Spirit, life is something God endows. The Good News of Jesus isn’t a mere promise, but rather it’s a manifest presence; the presence of the risen Jesus in the midst of the world incarnated in his Church. The Good News of the Gospel isn’t only that we’ll live some day with Jesus, but that Jesus lives with us today. Why should we want to live with Jesus in heaven for eternity, if we’re not willing to live with him now on earth? Do we think we’ll love him someday in heaven, if we don’t love him now on earth?

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit directs and sustains the Church. The nature of God as Trinity shouts out a clear message to us. God is in the midst of us as Trinity. And we’re called to incarnate that relational nature as the Church.

+Scott