the apostles’ creed – part ix

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,

Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. AMEN.

When the creed speaks of “the catholic church” and the “communion of saints” it is referencing the followers of Christ. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses” (Acts 1.8).  “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another…by this all men will know that you are my disciples” (Jn 13.34-35).  This is what is signified when the creed speaks of the “holy catholic church” and the “communion of saints.”  They are synonymous terms describing the followers of Jesus the Christ, whereby Christians are united to one another under His Lordship.[1] In this uniting under Jesus Christ, the Lord, they are united in fellowship, but also in mission and purpose-namely, to go into the world taking the Gospel news of hope and life.  Therein lies the holy, catholic church; the communion of saints.  Yet this leads to a question of terms-viz. what do these titles denote of Christ’s disciples?

Concerning the Holy Roman Empire, Voltaire once quipped that it was “neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.”[2] Much the same could be (and has been) said regarding the creed’s assertion about the Church.  More often than not it seems neither holy, nor universal (unified), nor saintly.[3] Thus, a defining of terms will go a long way in clarifying what is intended here.  Holy “does not mean ‘morally irreproachable,’ it means ‘set aside,’”[4] and catholic denotes unity and universality.  The fact that the Church is declared “holy” and a “communion of saints” (despite its evident sinfulness and discord) reveals the “power of sanctification which God exerts in spite of her [the Church] in spite of human sinfulness.”[5] It reveals the hope for humanity, which was first revealed in Christ Jesus; namely, God has not abandoned His creation that has abandoned Him.  God comes near to human need, associating with the sinful and unclean, in order to redeem and transform it all.  As such, the “unholy holiness” of the Church reveals “the continuation of God’s deliberate plunge into human wretchedness.”[6] God “stoops to conquer”[7] and “descends to re-ascend…com[ing] down…into time and space, down into humanity… to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him.”[8]

Finally, in our present culture which emphasizes the individual over the collective-viz. looking out for yourself before (and often to the exclusion of others)-it cannot be stressed enough that the Church does not exist for itself, but is a means by which the Gospel is proclaimed.  “Take to the world this life, this hope and faith; take to the world this rare, relentless grace.”[9] Such is the basis for the Church as institution, which is formed by the work of God’s Spirit in order to carry out the task to love all and serve all.  It is the means by which believers are encouraged and equipped to proclaim the Gospel and live out the Christian faith in and for the world.[10] Thus, the Church is not something we believe in per se, but something that we are a part of naturally by the fact that we believe in and follow Christ Jesus, our Lord.[11] Since it is the natural outgrowth and result of the missio dei, it is precisely when our focus turns inward that the Church ceases to be the Church.[12] “Where the life of the Church is exhausted in self-serving, it smacks of death…In it all the one thing must prevail: ‘Proclaim the Gospel to every creature!’  The Church runs like a herald to deliver the message…Christianity is not ‘sacred’; rather there breathes in it the fresh air of the Spirit…it is an out-and-out ‘worldly’ thing open to all humanity.”[13]

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[1] cf. Pannenberg, 152; Barth, 141-142, 145; Küng, Credo, 133

[2] Harrington, Joel F.  “Holy Roman Empire.”   [database online].  (Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007, © 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation.  All Rights Reserved), Available from <http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761558731/Holy_Roman_Empire.html; Internet.

[3] cf. Ratzinger, Introduction, 339.

[4] Pannenberg, The Apostles’ Creed, 56.

[5] Ratzinger, 341.

[6] Ibid., 342.

[7] C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 96.

[8] C.S. Lewis, Miracles, 179.

[9] Tate, Aaron.  “Take to the World.” 2003. Performed by Derek Webb. [database online].  (Available from http://www.lyricsdownload.com/derek-webb-take-to-the-world-lyrics.html); Internet.

[10] cf. Pannenberg, The Apostles’ Creed,  145-147; Ratzinger, Introduction, 342-343

[11] cf. Kung, Credo, 132; Barth, 141-144.

[12] cf. Pannenberg, 155.  Here Pannenberg again emphasizes the need to exhort the Church to refuse to turn its gaze inward to the exclusion of the world.  For it is precisely when this occurs that the mission dei is forgotten and rejected.  Christ came to draw all peoples to Himself through His self-giving love, and He calls all who follow Him to go into the entire world and proclaim this love, this Gospel.  Again, Pannenberg’s words are worth noting: “Communion with God is misinterpreted when it is understood as the goal of an aloof and egotistical striving for personal salvation on the part of the pious.  Whenever the horizon of the kingdom of God has been forgotten in an understanding of the church as communion with and in Christ, the result has been the narrow piety of a mystery society which shuns the world…Only a relation to the future of the coming kingdom of God, surmounting the narrowness of its internal ecclesiastical interests, can make the church conscious of its importance for the world-that is to say, its importance for mankind as a whole” (155).

[13] Barth, Dogmatics, 146-147; cf. Küng, 133; Berger, Questions of Faith, 139-140; Pannenberg, 153