20 July 2006

More on the "The Church and the Cross" in The Cross in Our Context by Douglas John Hall.

For centuries theology has maintained that the true marks of the church are the four that are named in the Nicene Creed: "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church" (unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity). Each of these notae ecclesia can find some biblical basis, but none of them can claim a fraction of the attention paid to the theme of the church's suffering in these sacred writings. They are all latecomers on the scene of Christian ecclesiology. The earliest and most prominent manner of discerning the true church and distinguishing it from the false claims to Christian identity was to observe the nature and extent of the suffering experienced by the community of faith. ...if you preach a theology of the cross, you will have to become a community of the cross. Anything else would represent a kind of hypocrisy.

I have read over this selection a number of times. It is troubling to me because Hall strikes a full chord within the faithful anthem of the Church and I have to say I don't often sing within that chord. I also noted that the words of the Creed, those "marks" can be spoken among us but, for the most part, they mean little to us. But suffering...well, that is as real as life can be. This takes the words of the faith and now we have a life...that we can all understand. We are not a people who simply suffer. We stand with and for and beside folks and for that we suffer in the name of Jesus. That is we suffer in the way of Jesus...like him and with him at our side in the middle of all that will come when we venture into the lives of the sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes...and their equivalents among us today. Suffer?!? It is no game and it is no great aspiration. It is the living reality of the church as we follow the one we claim is our Lord of Life. Here at this level of the discussion about our identity is where I often have to look around and prayerfully ask for courage to walk with our Lord into the blossoming of the Reign of God in which Jesus walked before me and you.

Connection: Come, Lord, Jesus, and hold our hands as we move within this day where suffering may be just what is needed for the welfare of all.

Today's prayer might just be what I printed in the "connection."
Come, Lord, Jesus, and hold our hands as we move within this day where suffering may be just what is needed for the welfare of all. Amen.