Our need for community, a special community.
The church, is always in the midst of a storm… but safe in Him
Devotional Thought of the Day:
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47 (ESV)
As the Father is called Creator and the Son is called Redeemer, so on account of his work the Holy Spirit must be called Sanctifier, the One who makes holy.
37 How does this sanctifying take place? Answer: Just as the Son obtains dominion by purchasing us through his birth, death, and resurrection, etc., so the Holy Spirit effects our sanctification through the following: the communion of saints or Christian church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. In other words, he first leads us into his holy community, placing us upon the bosom of the church, where he preaches to us and brings us to Christ.
We often talk about the Body of Christ from a functional or clinical viewpoint. That is, we will talk about it as we try to find people their place in the church, finding out what part they will play, what gifts they have. Or we might use the concept clinically when one person is disrupting the unity of the church, and we appeal to them, reminding them that they are a part of the whole.
I think Luther, in explaining the work of the Holy Spirit, brings the topic up from a view that is not primarily functional. Rather it is experiential, that the Holy Spirit brings us into the special community to reveal to us the dimensions of God’s love and transform us. That transformation is called “sanctification”, which is another way of saying making us holy, setting us apart to a special relationship, to be one with God and all His family.
His family, His holy people, His holy community, His communion.
This is easy to say, but hard to accept, this idea that we are one body, that we are one community (no matter how fractured or impaired) That we are one in Christ, which makes us one, even as Jesus and the Father (and the Spirit ) are one. That we live and move and have our being in Christ, as the Spirit sanctifies us, removing every bit of sin, causing us to live, reflecting the glory of Christ into the darkness of a world that doesn’t know hope.
We are, whether we want to admit it, one, holy, catholic (all of us in all places/times) holy and apostolic church. This isn’t our work, it is what the Holy Spirit has established and drawn us into, even while we are being saved. This isn’t just a theological teaching or a pragmatic tool to use. It is our reality, it is where we together explore the incredible dimensions of God’s love for us, revealed in Christ.
Let us pray, as Jesus prayed, that we all may be one!
Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 415). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
Posted on June 26, 2018, in Ancient Future, Augsburg and Trent, Devotions, Martin Luther, Theology in Practice and tagged Church Unity, gifts of the Spirit, one holy catholic and apostolic church, sanctification, the Body of Christ. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
Yes and amen! What I don’t think most christians know, acknowledge or even want to consider is the fact that there is a demon of religious spirit who targets each member to kill, steal and destroy. Or rather to influence us to be divisive, hateful, hurtful, prideful. We need to wise up and repent!