Church: Sacrament of Jesus

"Where is Jesus? Can you point Him out to me?"

One of the difficulties of life on the planet earth is the feeling of being alone. Even in a crowd. Taking a tip from Thomas Aquinas, I have long thought that the hunger for God is the most compelling "proof" for God's existence. As Thomas said, "we get hungry and there is food, thirsty and there is drink, tired and  there is sleep, etc." The desire does not cause the existence of such things, but rather it is a function of their existence. We have desires for existing things. And, therefore, if there is no God why does the human heart long for Him?

Having taken that side step, let us return to the issue of Jesus. We hunger for perfect communion and total connectedness with the Divine. And we long for personal connection of love, not simply a feeling of transcendence. While expressed in different ways, the NT conveys a message that Jesus has risen from the dead but is not with us any more. Acts expresses it most overtly. Jesus is taken up from their sight and an angel upbraids them "Men of Galilee, why do you stand here, looking up to the sky? Jesus will return in the same way as He left..." And while Messiah is away, the church must pray (and work and work and work).

Jesus left communal marching orders. Jesus left a command that we love one another (can't do it privately). Jesus said "y'all" (as in plural) when He addressed us. While there is certainly a personal element (singular) that is always understood in the context of the group. The OT is about Israel. The NT is about the New Israel. Jesus took 12 disciples for a reason, to demonstrate that He was gathering the "eschatological commuity" (the end of time, God's final intervention). Christian faith is always lived in a communal context.

While Jesus is not reduced to the church (He reigns in heaven, waiting to return) the Church is His Body. The church is His hands and mouth; doing the mighty works and proclaiming the Kingdom of God's reign. So the questions, "Where is Jesus? Can you point Him out to me?" is "Right here, in and through the Church." While such a mediated presence is less exciting than the flesh and blood appearance the apostles experienced on that first Easter (and days after) it is not any less real. Jesus is active among us, perhaps better stated, the Holy Spirit is. That is the Spirit which filled Jesus and it is the promised mode of being until the final consummation is complete.

The sins of a Christian reflect ill on the church. The mission and ministry of all of us is impacted by the faithfulness or failures of one of us. A bad preacher's publicity can undo ten good ones. Scandals get more coverage then the good works and when scandals erupt people disparage not only the church but also the Savior.

Taking our identity as the Sacrament of Jesus seriously would mean that we understand our SIGN value and sign-ificance. We would see that Jesus might be able to do it a different way, but He has chosen to do it this way. And that is consistent with how God has worked since the OT times. In response to Israel's cries He says, "I have seen, I hear, I remember the covenant and I care. Therefore I am coming down to save my people----and Moses I am sending you!" God acts in and through Moses. When God delivers the holy land to the Israelites, He does it using their troops, their weapons, shedding their blood in the process. In and through.

The disappearing church in America is a concern to me because it is tied to the ongoing presence of Jesus in our land. Jesus is fine. He is Lord after all, but America is not and  won't be. Where The Sacrament of Jesus (church) is rarely found, the benefits of that presence are also diminished. Perhaps our economically driven understanding of salvation (as a commodity benefiting me) and hyper-individualism have drained the church of meaning. Perhaps the widespread rejection of a sacramental worldview has a part to play. If all that matters is Word and words, then talking is all we care about. If sign and symbol are modified by words like "only" and "just" and relegated to the dung hill of empty, valueless things, then can there be any wonder that the church is sick? And if the claim "Jesus can do whatever He wants, He does not need us" is made loud enough and often enough, is it not likely that we will see a continued self-generated ignorance of the way Jesus actually works (in practice not theory)? He calls and forms the church. That is the way He works. Our decision to ignore that is done to the detriment of all. God calls a people to Himself. And He does it because He understands the sacramental nature of His creation.

A world without sign and symbol cannot exist. A world with people blind and deaf to them, however, is possible. But in such a world people are living on a shallow plain and have a stunted life. And when we fail to be what we are (The preminent sign of Christ's presence) we fail our Lord and we fail the world He died to save.