1.
The People of God in World-Occurrence (History)
Just
as there is no Church without Christians, so we must now emphasize there are no
Christians apart from the Church. And, just as we become Christians when Christ
calls us, so Christ’s call is also what binds us together as Church.
We
shall begin our reflections on the existence of the Church in the world by
considering theologically the history of the world in which it exists and into
which it is sent. To begin with, although world history as such differs from
salvation history (which includes the Church), Jesus Christ governs both as
King. So even though world history differs in its darkness from salvation
history, it is not secular history because God has not abandoned it to its own
destruction.
Even
though God does rule over the world providentially, world history still remains
a history of confusion. It remains a dynamic human activity of colliding
purposes which is evil though not absolutely so. World history is a history of
confusion because in it human beings actively entangle God’s good creation with
the sinister power of nothingness. God’s good creation—including man—does not
cease to be good in all this. But in our confusion we do surrender God’s good
creation to the destructive control of nothingness. But even so the history of
God’s good creation endures. For better or worse, God sustains his good
creation even through our subordination of it to nothingness. This provides
glorious proof of God’s gracious superiority to us. But this is also terrifying
in that what was positive continues to work but does so in a negative way.
God’s grace becomes judgment, our reason becomes irrational rationalism, and
creation’s fruits become toxins. God is not mocked (Galatians 6:7); if we sow
nothingness, we reap death.
World
history involves both God’s fatherly providence as well as our own confusion.
Fortunately world history is not exhausted by this antithesis. Instead we have
Jesus Christ as the work and Word of God in the world attested by the Church.
By looking at the concrete event of his life, death, and resurrection, the
Church can see that world history has been radically altered. In Jesus Christ
we have the world reconciled to God, order restored, confusion rooted out, and
the covenant fulfilled. This is the grace of God addressed to the world in
Jesus Christ.
This
does not mean that the twofold nature of world history—God’s providence and our
confusion—has disappeared. What has been overcome is the contradiction between
the two. Though this is still unknown to the world, the Church knows it even
now. Nonetheless, even the Church knows the new reality of world history only
in Jesus Christ and not in the world. Even the Church knows it only by faith
and not by sight. The new reality is totally established in Christ but its
revelation is still restricted. Still, there are signs of this new reality
visible in the history of Scripture, the Jews, and the Church to the eyes of
faith.
The
Christian community exists visibly within the world as an organized social
group comparable to other such groups. At the same time, without separation or
confusion, the Christian community is the one incomparable community elected
and called by God in Jesus Christ. This call, though real, is not empirically
verifiable. Hence the Church is both visible and invisible. Being both, any
attempt to understand the Church solely as one visible religious tradition
among many is completely false because it completely ignores the invisible
secret on the basis of which the Church exists outwardly. Also, because it is
obedient to its Lord, even outwardly the Church will be unique among other
groups in world history. Finally, though the body of which he is the Head, the
Church as such is not Jesus Christ but only his unique witness on Earth by
grace. But as such it lives in history with the necessary resoluteness. The
Church exists because Jesus Christ has called it into existence and promises to
sustain it.
2.
The Community for the World
The
Christian community exists for God and for the world as God is for the world.
To begin with, the Church is the community of those to whom it is given to know
the truth about the world. Only on the basis of this knowledge is meaningful
action in and for the world possible. Yet to know this is to know how human
beings are determined by God’s good creation, by the destructiveness of
nothingness, and decisively by God’s reconciling grace in Jesus Christ. Second,
it is given to the Church to radically commit itself to the well-being of every
human being despite all distinctions between human beings. Third, Christians
are those to whom it is given to be responsible for the world by witnessing to
it.
The
Church is for the world as the community of those to whom it is given to know
the world as it is, to stand in solidarity with it, and to be responsible to
it. The freedom needed to be for the world in this way is given to Christians
with their call. Second, this freedom comes to them as members of the Church to
empower their participation in its work. Third, this freedom for the world is
given by God to members of the Church according to God’s good pleasure: some
being free now and others being free tomorrow; the last being first today and
today’s first being last tomorrow.
That
the Church really does exist for the world is, of course, a statement of faith.
This means we know that the Church is for the world in the same way we know
that, in being so, it is simply following its Lord. So the Church knows that it
may be free for the world because it is established, sustained, and ruled by
the free power of the Word of God through which the world was created and is
loved. Second, the Church knows its freedom for the world consists in its confession
of Jesus Christ to the world. Third, the Church knows it is free to confess
Jesus Christ with gratitude because Jesus Christ first graciously called it.
Finally, the Church knows that Jesus Christ calls it to be in and for the world
a provisional likeness of him and as such of the Kingdom of God first revealed
in his resurrection and to be consummated in his final appearance.
Copyright © 2019
by Steven Farsaci.
All rights
reserved. Fair use encouraged.