Gospel lesson and Pastor Richard Pokora’s sermon from Sunday, November 6, 2022
Message from November 6th by Pastor Pokora
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and His Son our Lord Jesus Christ.
Recently, a friend from seminary days phoned to ask a question. She had participated in a discussion group about the nature of the church in her Episcopal Parish down in Columbia, Missouri.
What perplexed her is this. She suggested to her group that the church ought to be like a family. That is, God is Father, and we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. That remark was quickly rejected by others participating in the discussion. They said the word “family” today has too negative a connotation anymore. Divorce and abuse give the idea of family a bad name.
The group thought the word “community” a better way to describe what the church is like. But my friend thought the idea of community ambiguous. A community may just be a place where people live. It’s a collection of individuals who very likely do not know each other. She couldn’t understand how the term community describes the church better than family.
Interestingly, a friend e-mailed me several weeks ago to ask how we define the term communion of saints. You recall every Sunday we confess the Apostle Creed; we confess we believe in the communion of saints. But what does communion of saints mean or suggest about the Church.
I cite these two conversations to raise an issue. Christians are unsure what it means to be the church today. The reason for the confusion is clear. Turn on the television and find a televangelist claiming to be the true church. Drive through town and see store front religious groups set themselves up as the church. The internet offers an abundance of web sites describe themselves as the church. Some folks argue the church is irrelevant. These folks either have no religious beliefs or say they are spiritual, but not religious. So, we ask ourselves, what is the church anymore. Is it a television show, a web site, a store front, a country club, or cult?
Today is All Saints Sunday. All Saints Sunday serves as the perfect time to discuss what it means to be the Church. It is the day to explore the idea of the communion of saints.
A saint, you recall, may be defined three ways. First, a saint is someone from the past who was a model of Christian discipleship. Saint Francis of Assisi comes to mind. Secondly, a saint may also be an ordinary person who died in the faith. Think of a relative who lived their life, as a faithful Christian. Finally, a saint is simply a forgiven sinner. This description of a saint includes you and me. These three definitions of saint comprise the community of saints.
The community of saints includes Christians of all times and places who accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and commit themselves to live a life of Christian discipleship. The community of saints, therefore, is another way of talking about the church. The church is the community of saints with Christ as its head.
No where do we better find a better definition of the true church, as the community of saints, than in our epistle from the Apostle Paul to the Church in Ephesus. Paul argues that, through Jesus Christ, we have obtained a rich inheritance, a special treasure, through which God works to redeem his people.
Paul prays that God will give us a spirit of wisdom that we may recognize the richness of this glorious inheritance among the saints. The treasure is found in the midst of God’s saints. You and I are God’s saints. That great treasure encompasses us, as the church.
Listen to what Paul says: “God put his power to work in Jesus Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name this named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.”
First, God does something in new in Jesus Christ. At the resurrection on Easter Sunday, God placed Jesus Christ in a place of authority and power over all things on earth not only now, but for ages to come, for all times.
Second, Paul writes God has put all things under the feet of Jesus and made him head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
In other words, the head of the church is Jesus Christ himself. If you watch televangelists and the mega-church leaders, you might wonder where Christ fits into the mix. Sometimes their personalities and agendas and facilities appear to be the embodiment of the church.
But the Apostle Paul brings us back to a more fundamental understanding of what it means to be church. Church is not any single congregation or person or denomination. The church is not yours or mine nor is it the corporate structure of one religious denomination or another. The church rises above, but includes Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Presbyterianism, Methodism to become something far greater, more powerful, and enduring.
The Church has Christ as its head, and we are the body. Christ fills this body with his spirit and his wisdom and power. The term mystical has lost most of its meaning in our age of computer and internet. Mystical suggests having a spiritual meaning or reality that is neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence. Mystical implies there is more to subject, than meets the eye. For this reason, we describe the communion of saints as the body of Christ, the Church, and suggest it is mystical in nature. The Church encompasses more than we can see or understand. It includes Christ and Christians of every time and place. It is spiritual in nature. The Church is filled with the Spirit and wisdom and power of God.
Today we celebrate All Saints Sunday. We recall we are God’s saints, along with the Christian heroes of the past and those who died in the faith. Together we have been united into the communion of saints, which is the mystical body of Jesus Christ. Through this body we have received a great inheritance, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Together God works through and for us to redeem all creation. Amen
May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
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