Church News Soldiers and servants
Today in our Lenten thoughts let us think of the Church.
Karl Barth, was a theological giant. His life work was his 13-volume Dogmatics.
This work is so important it has been likened to the works of St Thomas Aquinas.
But he called his gigantic work his ‘Church’Dogmatics, to emphasize the importance of the church.
TS Eliot wrote,‘Even the hermit who meditates alone, for whom the day and night repeat the glory of God prays for the church the body of Christ incarnate’(Choruses from the Rock).
In our generation, the significance of the established church has been grossly undervalued.
We are thinking of Easter with the aid of Jesus’parables.
Today, we think of the parable of the talents. The master leaving on a journey commits his possessions to his servants, giving five talents to one of the servants, two talents to another and one talent to one servant (Matthew 25.14-30).
The parable has a simple meaning. When Jesus returned to his Father God, Jesus entrusted to the church the gospel and the care of the kingdom.
Remember the little story. When Jesus returned to God, the angels of heaven asked Jesus what he had left behind to safeguard the gospel.‘I have left the 12 disciples’, Jesus replied ‘But what if they fail?’, they asked in amazement.‘I have no-one else’, Jesus concluded.
‘Christ has no hands but our hands to do his work today. He has no feet but our feet to lead folks in his way. He has no voice but our voice to tell folks how he died. He has no help but our help to lead folks to his side’.
The gospel message and the gifts of the kingdom are the talents committed for safe keeping into the hands and heart of the church.
The Christian gospel is a unique form of literature.
In classical Greek, the‘gospel’was the declaration of the king telling his citizens of a victorious battle or of a new law.
The Early Church‘stole’this word and gave it a Christian content.
The Easter gospel announces the victory of God over evil and death.
The Easter gospel proclaims God’s grace and forgiveness found in the kingdom.
That is why all the Reformers stated that the true marks of the church were the right administration of the sacraments and the true preaching of the gospel.
Today, the gospel lies in tatters, its message scorned and its voice silenced.
Like the single talent, the gospel has been buried in the ground. We need to restore its lost greatness.
‘And the church must be forever building, and always decaying, and always being restored’(TS Eliot, Choruses from the Rock).
Or as the Reformers wrote the church is,‘Semper reformata et simper reformanda’.‘The church always reformed and always in need of reform’.
How can we regain the church’s proper status and significance? Remember the meaning of the word ‘church’.
The word‘church’comes from the Greek word‘Kurios’, meaning the Lord.
People of the church are the Lord’s people. We belong to and are under the command of the Lord. We are the Captain’s soldiers and the Lord’s servants.
That thought should both discipline and fortify us. The Lord Jesus will guide us, only let us be disciplined. Let us also be encouraged in these anti-Christian times.
If we belong to the Lord then the Lord Jesus will protect us.
Another name for the church is ‘ecclesiastical’from the Greek word ‘ecclesia’.
In secular Greek, an‘ecclesia’was an assembly of the people for public debate or an important announcement,
But, in the Old Testament, the word ‘ecclesia’had a more powerful meaning.
It meant an assembly‘called by God’. Like the first Christians, be convinced that we have been called by God.
As church members, we are guardians of the gospel, witnesses to the Cross’passion, and examples of the empty tomb’s resurrection.
Let us improve our church commitment. Let us raise our own personal Christian standards.
There is no higher calling. As in the parable, the Lord will one day ask us for an account of our stewardship.
Let us work hard as Christians that the Lord Jesus will say to us,‘Well done thou good and faithful servant’ (Matthew 25.21).