"...the holy catholic Church..."

This wasn’t a trick question, the one she was asking me in the line of folks I am greeting after Sunday worship.  Sometimes the comments of folks are humbling, or funny, or needling (good-natured).But this question was sincere: “Pastor, why do we say we believe in the holy catholic Church? What does it mean, ‘catholic’?”  With one hundred people behind my friend a short, snappy answer was in order: “Well, when we say ‘catholic’ it means ‘universal’.”  “Oh, OK.” Meaning, I think, that she understood she was not professing her faith in the Roman Catholic Church, but in the world-wide Church of Jesus Christ, which, when spoken with its companion phrase, ‘…the communion of saints…’, means the church that spans time as well, the gathering of saints on this earth and in heaven awaiting our re-uniting.

One of the joys of leading the particular church I pastor is that people in worship are (or were) Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Methodists, Baptists, Christian Reformed, Reformed, Presbyterian, a few agnostics and one or two atheists.  I don’t know if these latter folks recite the Apostles Creed with us.  But the rest do. It is a statement of faith used by the Western Church since at least the late 300’s in many, many denominations, sung by ‘a thousand tongues’. It is as close as the Church can come to a universal statement of faith other than the Bible’s “Jesus is Lord”.

But, what does it mean, ‘catholic Church’? Henri Nouwen offers a beautiful summary:
“The Church is the people of God. The Latin word for ‘church’ is eccelesia (which means ‘to call out’). The Church is the people of God called out of slavery to freedom, sin to salvation, despair to hope, darkness to light, an existence centered on death to an existence focused on life. When we think of the Church we have to think of a body of people, travelling together…supporting one another on their long and often tiresome journeys to their final home.” (Bread for the Journey, October 16)

This is the work of the universal Church gathered in millions of outposts, mega and mini.  We are all called out to help each other finish our walk home together; the holy journey of a people everywhere following Jesus: ‘…the holy catholic Church’.

"Behind the Lady Who Dances"

“Behind the corpse in the reservoir, behind the ghost on the links,

Behind the lady who dances and the man who madly drinks,

Under the look of fatigue, the attack of migraine and the sigh

There is always another story, there is more than meets the eye.” At Last the Secret Is Out, W.H. Auden

I am trying to understand.  You.

There must be another story.  There must be more than meets the eye.

I want to forgive. I want to be forgiven. 

But I don’t know your untold story. I cannot comprehend what my eye cannot see.

I offer you blank pages, with no columns for judgment, for you to tell me your story. I seek to understand you finally.  I search to see you fully.

I want to love you real, as God who knows all your stories loves.

Tell me another story…tell me please.

A Meditation on Psalm 139:1

What If We Could Take It With Us? Part 2

“Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.” (1 Timothy 6:18)

Why?  Well, while we cannot take our money and stuff with us, our ‘good deeds’ are investments which pay dividends in this life and in the life to come.

When we do good and generous things our brains reward us by making us feel better about ourselves and the world. As we express our gratitude to God for true life as we do good and share generously,  God rewards us through our a built-in reward system.  Doing good and being generous with your time and money is good and good for you.

But, our good deeds, generosity and sharing are also investments for the future. They are a ‘firm foundation for the coming age.’ (1 Timothy 6:19)  What’s more, we are promised that as we leave this world and enter the world to come, that is, when we die, here’s what happens to all the good, generous, sharing investments made on this earth. We are blessed when we die because our deeds will follow us.  “’Yes’, says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.’” (Rev. 14:13)

That’s right, you can take it with you. Not money and stuff, but your good deeds. They are in the U-Haul which the angels drive behind you as you enter the next life. Salvation comes by grace through faith, all gifts from God, that is for sure. But, the reward we experience will be far greater for those who heed the admonition to be rich in good deeds on this life’s journey.

The richer we are in good deeds during this life, the richer when we will be as we enter our divine rest.

May the angels need to rent a semi-trailer to carry your investments down heaven’s highway,  and may Jesus prepare a place for you which is large enough to store your reward for eternity.