Sunday Service - 7 Oct 1962

We find this in the Creed which we say together during our worship. This Sunday and the last Sunday (15 th and 16 th after Trinity), the subject of our prayer in our Collects has been the Church. “Keep thy Church with Thy perpetual mercy,” we prayed in the Collect last week. “Let your continual pity cleanse and defend the Church, preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness,” we prayed in the Collect for today. ‘I believe in the Holy Catholic Church.’

Why do I believe in the Church? First let me make it as plain as I can what the Church is? There are some Christians who say that they have no use for the Church. There are those who speak disparagingly of the Church and the Church doctrines as if they are different from Christian teachings and the Christian way of life. Membership in the Church is regarded as something not very essential for Christian living. It is something extra which a Christian may or may not have. I think it is good to be clear about our idea of what the Church is. What is the Church? I believe that Jesus Christ came to us to start something – to bring God to us and us to God in a new and deeper way. He did all that God could do in a human life to show God’s true character, and to bring us to Him.

When he left the world he handed on His work to those who believed in Him. That is the Church – Jesus Christ and those who believe in Him. The Church has an organisation as any earthly society must have. Jesus built the Church round the Apostles. He gave it officers and we have three orders of Bishops, Priests and Deacons. He gave the Church certain basic facts and principles – what we now call the Creed. He gave the Church certain symbolic acts, like the Holy Communion, which bring us into close communion with Him. Jesus gave the Church a job to do. He entrusted the Church with the responsibility of speaking the Good News of God throughout the world. Now the fact we have always to keep in mind is, that whatever mistakes the Church may have made, whatever may have been its failures, the Church is Christ’s. He is at the centre of all its activities. I believe in the Church because I believe in Christ who founded it, and who is behind it all the time.

There is a whole section of the Church, the biggest part which we can’t see at all – the Church beyond. It has not got our earthly organisation any longer. It has its own job to do in heaven. But we who belong to the Church on earth – called the Church Militant – and those beyond the veil - who are called the Church Triumphant - all belong to the same Church, because Christ is the Lord of all life in God, here and hereafter. The Church is called the Body of Christ. Just as the body is the instrument by which a person acts in the world around him, so is the Church the instrument by which Christ continues to do His work in the world.

Now let us come to the Church as you and I see it organised here on earth, with its many divisions and differences. We must admit with sorrow that it is nowhere near up to Christ’s idea of the Church. Perhaps it is not doing sufficiently well the work that has been entrusted to it. That is obvious. But still I believe in the Church. It is a necessity for the Christian life. It has got the things Christ entrusted to it. It has got the same structure of continuous life, the same basic faith and principles enshrined in the creeds, the same sacred actions or sacraments, and the same job to do. If I believe in Christ and want to do a job for Him, and let Him do a job for me, of course I want to be inside and not outside the Church. And by the Church here I mean all the different Christian Churches. We differ on some things, but we agree on far more things; and we are beginning to work together. The Church is sometimes better and sometimes worse at its job. But there is no one else to do the job; for only the Church has the tradition, the faith and the tools which Christ gave it. We can’t say that the Church is doing its job in the world badly, for in every country of the world it is bringing men to God, and it is continuing to give resistance to the degrading forces of the world, the flesh and the devil. If we want to serve Christ, there is no doubt that our place is inside the Church. The Church is here in the world to do a job and it is Christ who established it. It is not possible for us to live the full Christian life and to do the Christian work, unless we are members of the Church.

How will the Church help us to live the Christian life and to do work for Christ?

1. First, the Church trains us to know what Christ has told us about God and Himself, about ourselves and all men, about this world and the next. That is Christian doctrine or teaching. The Church is built not on what we feel or suppose, but on what by God’s grace we know. There are of course things we do not understand; but we know enough to walk by. I must be a member of the Church, because it is through the Church that I can to learn about God, man and the life hereafter.

2. Secondly, the Church helps us to live according to the teachings of Christ and follow his example. That is discipline. There are things a Christian must not do, and He knows it. To fail is to let Christ down and the Church. The Church helps us not merely to know God or try to obey Him, but also to see Him, to love Him, to trust Him and to receive from Him strength of spirit, beyond any strength of ours, to be in heart and life a Christian. It is that kind of thing, in another way, that the army does for a recruit – it trains him to think and act as a soldier all the time. The Church trains us to think and act as a disciple of Christ and to be at least true to Him all the time. In doing that the Church brings into use spiritual muscles which otherwise you would never use at all. When the Church comes together to worship God, we use a common drill – confession of our sins, thanksgiving for God’s goodness, prayer for ourselves and other men, and the humble reverence before the mystery and wonder of God’s love and holiness which we call ‘worship’.

We have all got those spiritual muscles. The Church trains us to use them. If we don’t belong to the Church we miss the doctrine, the discipline, the drill, all the encouragement of companionship with others in the service of Christ; and so we miss Christ perhaps altogether. For remember, the Church is Christ among His disciples.

So, we have to ask ourselves this evening: What is my sense of loyalty to the Church? How far do I value my membership in the Church? The Church is the Body of Christ, and it is in and through church members like you and me Christ has to work in the world today. As a member of the Body of Christ am I ready to be used by Him to do his work in the world?