We continue in our series looking at this ancient document called The Apostles Creed. We’ve sat with it for four weeks now, this is the fifth. At the end of the sermon, as we have other weeks, I’ll be inviting you to stand to recite the creed together.

This morning we come to the two parts of the Apostles Creed which deal with this strange and wonderful thing we call “the church.” But we’re going to begin by reading from the letter of I Peter 2:4-10.

A while back, there was a memorial service here in the sanctuary. It was a small service, and as we usually do, there was an open time for sharing in the middle of the service when people can share stories and reflections. I had no more closed my mouth from issuing that invitation when Uncle Leo bolted out of his seat in the second row and up to that microphone over there.

I didn’t know Uncle Leo, but clearly ¾ of the people in the service did, because as he started to talk (obviously a guy who loved a microphone) most of the people out here rolled their eyes and looked sideways at each other. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to read their non-verbals: “Oh, boy, here we go again! Who knows what goofy Uncle Leo is going to say this time!”

I know that each and every one of you has…an Uncle Leo in your family. They pop up in every family, sometimes they’re loud or a little belligerent, they laugh too loud and tell inappropriate jokes, and sometimes they make you cringe and think “Did I have to be born into a family with Uncle Leo?!”

It’s the biggest complaint we have about this family, you know. The Church.

The biggest complaint I hear about this family is actually not about the theology, the decision-making process, the style of worship…it’s about the people. We disagree, we act selfishly, we’re too conservative or too liberal, we have eyes only for our own agendas, we build little kingdoms with our names on them and finally someone says “I’m gone. I don’t have to put up with this, there’s thousands of churches out there, I’ll just find one in which my needs will be met better.” PSSST. Guess what? They all have Uncle Leos!

So this morning, I’d like us to think about the church. Not just Bethany, but the church. This sermon is not designed to convince you that you need to go to church (that seems rather pointless since you are already here), but rather, to encourage all of us to be the church.

In a wonderful turn of events, when we read this I Peter passage and Peter begins to talk about the church, he starts by talking about…Jesus. This is a good thing, because it will start us down the road of thinking that maybe, just maybe, the church is not all about us. It’s about Christ.

And so before Peter can get to much at all about the Church, he has to talk about Jesus Christ as a living stone, and in fact a cornerstone, a foundation stone for the church, the first stone laid that must be square because a whole building, a whole temple is going on top of it, Peter calls Jesus the stone that was rejected by many, the stone that trips people up…all of which is so interesting because it was Jesus who gave Simon the name “Peter” (literally “rock,”) and now here is the Rock talking about Jesus the Stone.

Peter is trying to get onto some stuff about the church, but he’s being tripped up and must first exhort his readers, “Come to him (Jesus), and let him (Jesus) build you into something…a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.”

Only after Peter talks about Jesus can he then talk about the church. We should remember the order of that sequence. Peter talks about Jesus. Then about the church.

And when he finally does make it down to the church, notice that it’s all in the plural. It is not written to the individual, but the entire passage is collective, plural, communal. The message for the church is not a message for Chris and one for Wayne and one for Astrid. The whole emphasis is on the community, it is, in the words of one of my favorite staff people, for “ya’ll!” The Texans have something right!

But you (plural) are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people…this community called the church is something special. Something really special:

• chosen expressly and specifically by who? By God (boy, that sounds different than a voluntary association of folks who decided to meet together, doesn’t it?)
• given a special task of “proclaiming the mighty acts of God,”
• called a holy (set apart) nation…set apart by whom? by God Almighty.
• actually called God's own people …by who? By God. For what reason? Not merit, not size, not power, not influence, not good works.

It’s a continuation of the call of Israel…a tiny, insignificant people in the Middle East who, for some reason, God picked. Called God’s own people…because God called it so. He’s the Caller. The word “church,” in fact, ecc lesia , which we don’t find in 2 Peter but we do find in the New Testament and in the Apostles Creed actually means the “called out people.”

The church is inseparably connected to Jesus.

Leslie Newbigin, the bishop of South India years ago, reminds us of this:

“It is surely a fact of inexhaustible significance that what our Lord left behind Him was not a book, nor a creed, nor a system of thought, nor a rule of life…but a visible community.”

A visible community of Jesus Christ. So. “Do I have to go to church to be a Christian?” The question pops up again and again. You’ve heard it, maybe even asked it…or is it just pastors that people direct this question to?! Do I have to go to church to be a Christian? Kent Hughes answers it like this:

“You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian. You do not have to go home to be married either. But in both cases if you do not, you will have a very poor relationship.”

We don’t have to go to church, because its not a building, a program or an institution. But we do have to be the church, or rather, as we come to acknowledge God’s call on our lives, we become the church.

I hate to tell you, it’s not really a choice.

I believe in…the holy catholic church. And the communion of saints. These are the two parts of the creed highlighted on the front of your bulletin. So let’s think about these phrases for a moment.

The holy catholic church. The word the implies a “oneness,” a unity that is stated more specifically in the Nicene Creed as one. The one church.

Now let’s be honest. Anybody in today’s culture would say: you have to be joking me. And they would be right. one Church. Hah! In the United States alone there are over 5,000 denominations of churches, over 5,000! And though some may serve the purpose of providing variety in style and theological emphasis, far too often these denominations come from splits among people that can’t get along. One church?

The unity of the church would be an amazing testimony to the power of Christ.

The disunity, and not just the disunity but the lack of respect or support between churches obscures people from seeing Christ. Churches compete with one another, churches throw rocks at other denominations or other leaders. The world at large sees Christian schism as far more prevalent than unity.

The consumer culture that we live in has also pervaded the church and contributed to destroying its unity. You know what I mean. And if you’ve moved recently, you’ve probably engaged in this activity more than you wanted to: Church-shopping.

• Which has the big parking lot (clearly not Bethany)?
• Whose children’s program is better?
• Who has the best band?
• Big screen?
• Preacher?

The hot thing with churches now is to run simultaneous services in various parts of a mall of theater-like spaces to cater to different styles and have the pastor pop in just in time to deliver the sermon, then pop out to go to the next room just in time to deliver it again. And whatever goes on, people are just free to change brands…err, stores…um, churches. Somehow it seems like we’re getting a long, long way from a people that Jesus has called out, and called to be together. Are we just “doing” church, or being the church?

The same could be said of any individual part of the church, including this community at Bethany. You know what? We don’t all get along all the time. Trust me. We don’t. At any given point in time, when you get 500-600-700 people or whatever we have here together…I guarantee you there will be arguments, tension, people not speaking to each other or wounded from someone’s comments or conduct. This week there were easily 4-5 different conflict situations that I heard about. Does that shock you? Does your family at home get along perfectly all the time?

This actually doesn’t bother me at all. We are people…broken, imperfect and very human people. What happens to me whenever the unity of our community here is threatened is…I get excited! Sounds weird, I know. But whatever the source of the tension, marriage relationship, friendship, power struggle, I get excited because of what God wants to do. God wants reconciliation, forgiveness, truth-telling. All the things that don’t go on in much of the rest of the world. So I get excited. “Conflict? Okay, here we go! This is where it hits the road! Now is our chance to try it out. Does this Christianity stuff work? Does God heal? Is He bigger than our situation?” I get excited that we have opportunity to show our culture, our world an entirely different way of living, arguing, reconciling and living again. We don’t always do it well.

The holy catholic church. Holy means “set apart.” Set apart from what? From the world? Does holy mean finding a monastery somewhere and checking out of society altogether? Not for most of us. Holy means “set apart, separate, different.”

How is the church different? It’s called to be salt and light, it’s called to make a difference in the world.

Is the church of Jesus Christ different, is it called Holy because it is morally pure?

Unfortunately, it often doesn’t seem to be the case. Child abuse, financial misdealings, racial prejudices. This is holy? No. Sadly, the church most often looks like the rest of the world, which should cause us no end of squirming and discomfort. The church is called holy because it is chosen by a holy God.

And the church at its best knows it is different… because we know (and will admit) that we are broken people, in the process of being healed by Christ.

The holy catholic church. I’m not going to say too much here. But I need to say “read the small “c” around the word “catholic.” This is not the Roman Catholic Church. Catholic simply means “universal, in all places.” When I say I believe in the holy catholic church it means that when I was in Uganda sitting in a dirt floor, open-aired building with 200 people worshipping Christ…I was in the church. When I was in China hiding in a run-down building with underground church leaders and singing softly so we didn’t make the neighbors suspicious…I was in the church. And when, on sabbatical this summer I was in Ballard, or Lower QA or South Seattle and people were worshipping God in Christ, reading the scriptures…whether or not I loved the sermon or the style or anything else…I was with the church. We’re in the same family.

This morning I was at Tully’s down the street at 6:10 am, thinking about this sermon about the church. (Trust me, I had thought about it before this morning!) There was hardly anybody up.

When I looked up, one guy was sitting four feet away from me, reading a book in Spanish, and another book was on the table between us. It said “ Santa Biblia.” I laughed out loud. I went and talked to him. His name is Fredrico, from Mexico, his English is very limited…which is fine, since my Spanish is even more limited. But we managed to communicate.

I asked if he was a Christian; he said yes, since he’d been a boy. I said, “Fredrico, I’m a pastor. and this morning I’m preaching a sermon about the church, about it being God’s family. And you and I are in the same family, Jesus’ family!” He understood. With a big smile he said, “Will you pray for me today?”

I believe in…the holy catholic church. And the communion of saints. This is a very, very rich phrase that can mean a number of things. “Saints” refers neither to a football team, nor to those canonized in some traditions of the church. “Saints” actually means “holy ones,” and again refers to people made holy not because of their nature or accomplishment but because they have been set apart, chosen by God. Believers.

The simplest meaning of “communion” comes from the word koinonea, which means fellowship or sharing. So the communion of saints at its simplest means:

The fellowship of believers, those who share together…and the New Testament would be quick to remind us that this “sharing” includes sharing prayers, worship, burdens and material possessions.

But the church has found other meanings here as well. Some felt the communion of saints refers to those heroes of the faith who have gone before us, particularly the martyrs, those who have given their lives for the sake of the gospel. And still others have felt that the “communion” here includes the gathering of the believers around the Lord’s table. I think they all lend some important meaning for us.

When I was pastoring in Minneapolis, a guy named Chris walked into my office one day. Chris was in tough shape. He was in his late fifties, a lifelong alcoholic, and after drinking so much that he lost his job, his wife and his children he was in a bad place. He was literally drinking himself to death. Chris was also a little ornery when he drank. I met with him a few times at the office or out on the street somewhere.

Then one Sunday night he showed up at our evening worship service. He’d never come to worship before. And he was drunk. Really drunk. He recognized me, but beyond that, I’m not sure he really knew where he was. But that didn’t stop him from grabbing the microphone and speaking during an open sharing time. Even with the microphone, he was hard to hear because he was slurring his words so much.

After the service, people were chatting and mingling around. And I was standing just a little ways away from Chris, when a friend of mine, Joel, walked up to him, introduced himself, put an arm around him to keep him from swaying so much and said something I’ve never forgotten: “Friend…you’ve come to the right place.”

Not to the right building. Not the right program. But Chris had come to the church. The community of people that God had called, that God had declared holy, that God had set apart, that God had chosen. He found a family, the church. A family big enough to include people around the world, past, present, future, those who have gone before us, those who we agree with and who we don’t. A family big enough to enfold any Uncle Leo. Chris. Fredricko. You. Me.

Let’s stand and speak the Apostles Creed together.