The Necessary and Possible Church - Part 1
These are crazy times.
For many of us, it is like watching a disaster movie only to discover that we are in it! The jaw-dropping exponential rise of deaths, newly diagnosed cases and spread of COVID-19 are not fantasy. They are real. And so is the fear, loss of life, and loss of income that have been ushered in with it. Is it true that as many as 80% of us could become infected? Will our health care system be overwhelmed and collapse? Are we headed into an economic depression? Can we trust our leaders? We are confused. We are fragmented. We are frightened.
Where is Jesus?
As the church we claim that even amid these dark days there is yet good news. God has not abandoned us. Our grounding of that claim is the life, death, and resurrection of God’s Messiah, Jesus. But, as more and more of the population exists in self-quarantine and practices social distancing while others – health care workers, food providers, and other essential services – put themselves at risk for the sake of the common good, how does the church draw persons into the life and hope of Jesus? At a time when church doors are closed, people no longer gather in assembly for worship, and cyber worshipping opportunities are offered instead, just where is Jesus? This is an important question, because it is not our technological savvy that delivers us from the perils of this age. It’s Jesus, the one who would not stay dead because he loves us. So, where is he?
Present or Absent?
In December 2003 at the inaugural event for the Abiding Hope Academy for Adaptive Leadership and Spiritual Formation, New Testament Scholar par excellence Mark Allen Powell gave a presentation on the biblical tension concerning the presence and absence of Jesus. When it comes to the question, “Where is Jesus?” the New Testament holds two seemingly contradictory positions. On the one hand, the scriptures proclaim that the crucified and risen Jesus is always with us. This position is best, but not only, supported by the final words of Jesus on the Gospel of Matthew. “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). On the other hand, the scriptures also proclaim, most notably the narrative of Luke-Acts, that Jesus is not with us. Instead, Jesus has ascended only to reappear in the future in the same way in which he was “taken up” (Acts 1:11). Our creeds hold this latter position.
So, what is the church to believe?
Is Jesus with us always, as he clearly promises he will be? Or, has Jesus absconded “into heaven” somewhere only to reappear at an unknown time out in the future? The answer to both questions is yes! And, as Mark Powell would argue, we cannot choose one position over the other. We must embrace both. Powell says that it is the very presence of Jesus that makes the church possible. He may not be present in the same way as he will be when he “comes again,” but he is yet present. At the same time, it is the absence of the still yet-to-come Jesus that makes the church necessary.
Embracing the Possible
Given Matthew’s insistence on the presence of Jesus, it is not surprising that in a narrative section dealing with forgiveness and reconciliation, Matthew’s Jesus says, “For wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” (Matthew 18:20). In just a few verses before these words, verse 17, is the only use of the word, “church,” in the four canonical Gospels. “Church” is the word used to translate the Greek word, =ekklnsiva, from which we get the word ecclesial or ecclesiology. In its root form the word means an assembly of people called out of the world for God’s purposes. It is a worshipping community. Because of a Constantinian hangover we have come to think of church as being about buildings, budgets, programs, councils, programs, Robert and his Rules and the like. But the church’s primal expression is worship. Dogs lick. The church worships. And according to the words of Jesus in Matthew 18, a quorum for the presence of Jesus is two.
More than a Silent Bystander
But when Jesus comes and joins the assembly of only two, it is not that we have an additional unseen bystander present. It is the risen Jesus coming to us with power. Because I am theologically Lutheran in my identity, I cling to the notion that Jesus is present in specific ways: in Word and Sacrament. Our very confessional documents (Augsburg Confession, Article VII) states that the church is the assembly where the gospel is preached in its purity and the sacraments (Baptism and Eucharist) are administered according to the gospel. In other words, when the scriptures are read in the assembly, when the gospel is preached, when the Word is expressed in hymnody and our liturgy, the risen Jesus is present. And because he is present, the Word comes to us as more than just information. It’s transformation. It moves us. It impacts us. It changes us. It frees us.
Bread and Wine
But what about a word that does not move us? What about an assembly where the preacher gives a sermon that would be a great pep talk at the Rotary Club but does not invoke the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection? What about a preacher who takes us to ancient Palestine and leaves us there? Are such words the “gospel preached in its purity?”
No Ambiguity
What we can claim, without ambiguity, is that when bread and wine are taken, when thanks is given, when the elements are blessed with the ancient words of Jesus, “This is my body given for you. This is the blood of the new covenant shed for you and all people for the forgiveness of sin,” gospel is happening. And when the gospel happens in, under, and with bread and wine among God’s people, the real presence of Christ happens. As Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
The gospel overcomes Social Isolation
In this time of social isolation and fear arising with the increasingly ominous escalation of COVID-19, the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and its eschatological implications are what makes the church possible. When the church got going after the women discovered the empty tomb and preached the first sermon, “Jesus is risen!” the defining activity of the church was the meal. Encountering a risen Jesus in the meal the disciples and early church were empowered to reimagine their circumstances and their future. As they would eventually hunker down in their house churches under Roman threats, celebrating the meal invoked the presence of the one who was innocently executed by the Romans and yet rose and overcame it to appear again to his followers. He made himself known in the “breaking of the bread” (cf. Luke 24:35). When we gathered as the church in Littleton, Colorado after the Columbine High School shootings and when adequate words seemed illusive at times, it was the meal, the coming of a risen Jesus who himself was victimized and murdered, with wounds to show it, that worked to heal and bring resilience to our community.
The meal and the possible church
Particularly important today is that when we are isolated and celebrate the meal, we recall that Jesus himself was isolated, and outcast, murdered outside the walls of Jerusalem on a garbage heap, and yet rose and came back to his followers. The meal, as a “foretaste of the feast to come,” is the clearest image of what God promises in the worst of times, that there will come a banquet for all people where everything that separates us, divides us, demeans us, even suffering and death, will be swallowed up and overcome forever (cf. Isaiah 25:6-10).
Not a time for abstinence
I have read several statements and treatises that argue that the church, when gathering as a cyber community, should refrain from celebrating the meal. With all due respect, I do not agree with any of the arguments I have read. I do not believe that the bread and the wine need to be lifted and touched by holy hands to validate it. I do not believe that the assembly must be physically present. I understand good order (I think). But instead of looking at a community that is physically separated due to social distancing and cyber worship being an obstacle, we should look at Zoom and other platforms that bring us together as a gift. And more importantly, what is pleasing to God? When there were those who objected to Jesus’ disciples picking grain on the Sabbath, did not Jesus reframe their objections by drawing attention to rules for rules sake versus rules that may be broken to give life?
Our little congregation celebrates the meal when we gather for worship through Zoom. Last Sunday we had people from three different time zones participating together. Each of us had a small plate of bread and a cup of wine (or grape juice) positioned in front of our devices. When the pastor lifted bread and the cup and said the words spoken for centuries in the assembly, my wife and I then broke bread and gave it to each other, “The body of Christ given for you,” and we then gave the cup to each other saying, “The blood of Christ shed for you.” Gospel happened. It was a holy moment. Jesus and his promises were present. And we all received the blessing from our pastor together through space and across the time zones, “May the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ strengthen you and keep you in his grace.” After the final benediction, we knew that church had happened. The meal made it possible.
As we are isolated and the threats continue to mount, it can feel like Friday, but Sunday is coming. I can’t wait!
In the abiding hope of the empty tomb,
