The Church Exists for the Redemption of the World
from “THE CONFESSION OF FAITH OF THE EVANGELICAL UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH” as found in "THE TRANSITIONAL BOOK OF DOCTRINES AND DISCIPLINE THE GLOBAL METHODIST CHURCH”
“We believe the Christian Church is the community of all true believers under the Lordship of Christ.
We believe it is one, holy, apostolic and catholic. It is the redemptive fellowship in which the Word of God is preached by men divinely called, and the sacraments are duly administered according to Christ's own appointment. Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit the Church exists for the maintenance of worship, the edification of believers and the redemption of the world.”
As the newly formed Global Methodist Church, this statement represents our best understanding of the church giving guidance to our organization and mission. While our denomination is new, this statement is very old. Also, while our denomination is new, we consider it’s identity ancient. We aren’t changing into something new for the purpose of innovation, we are re-forming something ancient that has withered and eroded over time and is being lost for the purpose of restoration.
This is one of the Mantra’s of the original Protestant Reformation, ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda (the church reformed, always reforming). We have been reformed many times over, but we are always in need of reforming and should remain in a posture of mind and heart to re-engage in that process when deemed necessary. History demonstrates for us that there are cancerous corruptions that grow in the church over time that will not be remedied without the drastic step of surgery.
In our case, we need reform not just from the denomination we departed, but as we demonstrated in our message last week, from the corrupted, consumer oriented, entertainment driven American Church in general.
We are going to walk through select passages from John 17. John 17 has been titled the “high priestly prayer” of Jesus because he is praying for the creation of his church which is about to be made possible by submitting his own body as a sacrificial offering to death on the cross. This act functioned to make possible the re-union between God and humanity. Allow me to offer my summary of what Jesus is requesting of God for his church before we begin reading:
Jesus wants to provide humanity with eternal life.
Eternal life is made possible through knowing God as he is specifically revealed in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.
Jesus asks God to select people out of the people of the world to be set apart as distinct to receive, obey, and communicate God’s truth.
Being set apart as a distinct people is both an event, which we learn from other scripture is marked by our baptism, representing Christ’s burial and resurrection. It is also a process which is marked by being obedient to the continual receiving of holy communion within Christ’s gathered body together as a remembrance of his work and teaching. These are the two holy sacraments that God has provided his church through the priestly ministry of Jesus offered in his death, burial and resurrection. They function together to enter into and grow into what Jesus asks for at the closing of his prayer.
This is perhaps the most remarkable request Jesus makes in all of scripture. It is a mystical prayer where Jesus asks the we become perfectly united with God just as Jesus is united with God.
Jesus also asks that this process produce similar perfection of unity among believers. He describes this unity as being the key to the world believing the message of Jesus Christ. Jesus was deadly serious about unity between and among believers, we should be too.
Here are the passages from John 17:
John 17 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
The church is the predestined means by which eternal life is being offered to the world. Eternal life can only be found through the testimony of scripture. It is through our growing understanding of that message that we are being increasingly united with God and with other believers for the majestic purpose of sharing in the glory that will be revealed in the second coming of Jesus Christ. There ought to be a profound sense of reverence, awe, and honor at being selected by God for the high calling and privilege of participating in this mission. To take this casually is to desecrate it.
That process is happening little by little, year after year through our faithful participation in the life and the ministry of the church. It is faithfulness and obedience by which this process is being accomplished, not mountaintop experiences. We fail to see the fruits Jesus prayed for materialize to the extent we fail to be faithful and obedient in our discipleship.
Participation in the church is not an optional component of this process.
Now to be clear, notice the focus of the prayer is not about washing away our sins and removing our guilt. The focus of the prayer is on being completely united with God and with one another. That process is so grandiose that it typically requires the entire lifespan of the average human being to be completed.
Here is how our particular church father, John Wesley described it:
“By salvation, I mean, not barely (according to the vulgar notion) deliverance from hell, or going to heaven, but a present deliverance from sin, a restoration of the soul to its primitive health, its original purity; a recovery of the divine nature; the renewal of our souls after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness, in justice, mercy, and truth.” (John Wesley, “A Farther Appeal” Part 1 11:106)
In light of this prayer by Jesus, we also need to be reminded of our particular mandate as Methodists within the broader body of Christ. In the very first Methodist Conference of 1744 it officially recorded the purpose of the people and preachers called Methodists:
“Not to form any new sect; but to reform the nation, particularly the Church; and to spread scriptural holiness over the land.”
Finally, in the book of James (1:22-27), he speaks about the duty and discipline required in being a follower of Jesus Christ. He refers to it as “pure religion”. Not spirituality, not personal relationship, but religion - that is only a bad word in an indulgent and narcissistic culture where every message needs to end by answering the question, “how does this apply to me and my day to day life here and now?”
In contrast, the message of scripture and pure religion is this:
James 1:7 “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
Service of Holy Communion Liturgy:
Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another. Communion is a vital means by which we receive the ongoing, ever present redeeming grace of God. Through Christ Jesus, this grace is made freely available for all, to all, and in all. Therefore, let us confess our sin before God and one another.
CONFESSION AND PARDON.
Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not done your will, we have broken your law, we have rebelled against your love, we have not loved our neighbors, and we have not heard the cry of the needy. Forgive us, we pray. Free us for joyful obedience, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Leader to people:
Hear the good news: Christ died for us while we were yet sinners; that proves God's love toward us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
People to leader:
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
Leader and people:
Glory to God. Amen.
THE GREAT THANKSGIVING
The Lord be with you. And also with you.
Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life. When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast. You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God, and spoke to us through the prophets. And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. Your Spirit anointed him to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to announce that the time had come when you would save your people. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and ate with sinners. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit. When the Lord Jesus ascended, he promised to be with us always, in the power of your Word and Holy Spirit.
On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
When the supper was over, he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith.
Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.
By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.
Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and forever. Amen.
THE LORD'S PRAYER
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
BREAKING THE BREAD
The body of Christ, given for you. Amen. The blood of Christ, given for you. Amen.
Eternal God, we give you thanks for this holy mystery in which you have given yourself to us. Grant that we may go into the world in the strength of your Spirit, to give ourselves for others, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.