PAPER #2, Pages 13-21
First Presidency Meetings
January 9, 1979
10:30 a.m.
(A) THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH
The church of the future will be formed by the living spirit of the One who gathered around him a dozen plain men and shared with them what (B) it is like to live one's life in community. There were many things about Jesus they could not understand. So far as we know, he wrote no words of instruction to them. His message was his life and its relation to God and to them. The successful formula of life he shared with them was hard to accept. At first they could hardly believe that "the man who preserves his life will lose it," though they saw that Jesus was not attempting to preserve his life. In fact he claimed nothing for himself, not even his own life, which was finally offered on a cross. Jesus' death on the cross became to the early disciples a revelation of the love of God's (C) own self exposed to the consequences of human sin. In the cross God is revealed as an offering in quest of the sinful human family. The triumph and resurrection of this life, that did not treat its own goodness as an independent act of human achievement, formed the basis for the creation (D) of the community which became the church, the Body of Christ. The church was the community that formed in response to the One who rejected all ethical heroism and threw himself solely on God's grace. Into it came all kinds of people--Jews, Greeks, bond, free, male and female-but there was no barrier between them because they were one body of sinners, forgiven. The bond that united them was the common confession: "Not I, but the grace of God." This breaks down the barriers between person and person, and the members come to love each other because God first loved them and drew them out of themselves into the unity of "one body," the (E) ecclesia, the church.
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A Reconciling Church
(A) In Jesus Christ God has created a new universal community, the church, which transcends all barriers of class and race and nation since all are (B) sinners, and all can be saved. It is within the church that salvation occurs and God draws persons into the community based upon faith in Jesus Christ. This fellowship cannot be content until every person has been drawn into its circle of love and care for every concern of each one. It can never be at rest until humankind is truly "one body" according to the (C) eternal purpose of God. "Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of Christ: that we may be no longer children. . . but maintaining the truth may by love grow up wholly unto him who is the Head, even Christ, from whom all the body, fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh of the increase of the body unto the (D) building up of itself in love." (Eph. 4:13-16) The call to grow and expand is the divine urge at work among us to fulfill this mission.
The church is God's community of reconciliation. Its perennial function is to interpret and proclaim through all its means of expression what God has done in the life of a baby in a manger, the toil of a (E) young carpenter, the presence of a trusted friend who loved parties, the words of a teacher who spoke always of utter dependence upon God, a strong man betrayed by his own people suffering in agony in Gethsemane, a sinless man nailed to a cross-a savior who is victorious over death. (F) The interpretation of life and its meaning is not revealed in words from (G) a book nor in structural forms of church organization. Its meaning emerges in life lived out in response to the word that was "made flesh and dwelt among us." The interpretation of reality that we find in the
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gospel always calls our human logic into question. Rather than destroying our rational system, the gospel merely expands it to allow that which remains a mystery to be accepted as the basis of all reality.
The gospel deals with the twin mysteries of the most basic structures (A) of human personhood, and the ontological mystery of how and what one may know of the creator, sustainer and savior of the world. Thus the ministry (B) of interpretation of the meaning of life and reality reaches its highest expression when the church gathers together to feast upon a crust of bread and sip of wine. Interpretation of the creative energy which undergirds and sustains all reality is made most lucid in a tear shed over a sinful city, and in prayer, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." The demonic antithesis to such an attitude can be clearly understood when we take seriously the sinless life which is interpreted to be that life which claims for itself no moral superiority or ethical advantage and chooses to make no claim for itself, but which relies wholly upon God. The demonic is that which is within us that causes us to put ourselves in the center of our universe, where God ought to be, thus destroying the possi-(C) bility of our becoming a part of the Body of Christ, God's universal (D) community, into which all people are to be drawn. God is constantly offering the life of reconciliation through faith, but we choose to be separated, broken and alone.
John's gospel portrays for us the dynamic paradox of the Christian (E) experience which is rooted in the incarnation of God in the man Jesus: "I,. . . yet not I, but the Father" is the living kernel of the message about the life of the followers of Jesus. This dynamic was expressed in Jesus' own life, ". . . I do always the things that are pleasing to him." "Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of
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myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. (A) This commandment received I from my Father." (John 10:17, 18) "Verily, verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doeth, these the son doeth in like manner." (John 5:19) "My teaching is not mine, but his that sent me . . . .He that speaketh from himself seeketh his own glory; but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him." (John 7:16, 18) "The words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth (B) his works." (John 7:28-29)
(C) The church of the future will then be that community of people who are fully and freely immersed in the depths of human life but constantly bearing witness of its relationship to the One who creates, sustains and (D) ultimately saves life. Thus the church is not separate from the world, nor does it claim any special privilege before God other than that it has been called to witness of the One who said, "Why call me good, there is none good but my Father who is in heaven."
The faith of the church is in the God, who is at work in the Body of Christ reconciling the world unto himself. In faith the church perceives and bears witness of God's reconciling ministry within its own fellow (E) ship and structure. However, it claims no power of itself to reconcile persons to God's presence in the world. The church enters the world as reconciled persons and offers its life in witness of God in Christ, but not in boasting of its own works and strength. As God's people, the church relates to the world in the quality of relationships which bear witness of the reconciling power of the Lord of the church.
An Unassuming Church
The church has a faith in God to share with the world. It has no (F) power to develop that faith in others. However, it is the firm assurance
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of the church that the Holy Spirit will reveal God's reconciling power at work in the world to the people who will receive the church's ministry. We, the brokenhearted, the captives, the blind and bruised who comprise the church, have the assurance that the words of Jesus are presently being fulfilled in the world.
. . . He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (Luke 4:18-19)
It is this faith that God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself which forms the church and sends it into mission.
The mission of the church is like that of Jesus to stand in the world rather than against the world. "I called you servants for the world's sake, and you are their servants for my sake." (D&C 90:8b) If the church perceives itself as a full and present participant in the world, it may sound the witness of God's judgment in history as well as his salvation in history. But if the church stakes out its position in (A) isolation from the world, its prophetic voice is invalidated because it is an external non-participant whose word is angry judgment rather than (B) redeeming invitation. Thus the church does not establish isolated communities to exert power over against the world but bears witness of Jesus Christ and lives out its life as a body formed by that witness. The church knows that what ultimately counts is not all of our human achievements and statistics, theories and practices, but a trusting faith in God who is the guarantor of the kingdom. The church is marked by (C) its obedience to God rather than being noted for its power to compel others to obedience.
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(A) The church is the Body of Christ formed into community by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Even though the church is a sociological group, its ministries cannot be manufactured or designed as in the political or technological arena because our propensity is to program and structure, mend and measure, while God's method is to nurture and grow. Thus the church grows in relation to shared responses and shared experiences upon (B) which people place high value and celebrate in worship.
One of the major areas of ambiguity facing persons at present is the confusion emerging out of the search for self authenticity and identity. One writer described the current situation as "the biggest introspective binge any society in history has undergone." This emotional binge is related to the failure of the institutional church to live out its life in response to the God revealed in Jesus Christ and to trust in the Holy Spirit to do God's work.
The search of the church for a relevant role among the other institutions of the culture has robbed it of the authentic witness which speaks of man's predicament. Relevance for the church is to be faithful in sharing its faith in the God who became man, and who witnesses of Himself in (C) the depths of the inner self. If the institutional church fails to accept this central role of witness its members will search for direct experience with "the spirit" which appeals to present needs. Because of our failure to be the unassuming and provisional people of God, and our (D) opting to be a relevant social force, the deepest needs of persons in our time have gone unfulfilled. The result has been obvious. As Daniel Bell (E) has said, "When religions fail, cults appear."
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A Witnessing Church
Because the church has received the revelation that God is in the world for man's salvation, it is committed to stand in the human experience and offer a meaningful witness of faith in the depths of that experience. The church does not attempt to become a pressure group among the many other political forces in society, who have absolutized their own program or plan for the development of the culture. This is always a temptation for the church which emerges from an honest desire for a better world. The temptation grows stronger when there is the availability of a devoted following of people who urge church leaders to conform to the structures of the world. God's revelation in Christ revealed the bankruptcy of every system of this world, the most insolvent system being the one which would unite religious idealism and political power. The unification of (A) political power and idealism leads to the same kind of tyranny which presided over the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus, our Lord.
The church is the company of witnesses of the gospel who assert that God has entered into human finitude and lifted that finitude into eternity. The church sets up its operation at the edge of the abyss into which every thoughtful person peers, and declares that the abyss has been bridged by the wood of a cross. The reconciliation that is received in faith unites the mysteries of the divine and the human, and allows the person to experience the self in continuity with the living and the dead and those yet to be born. The church is formed by the gospel, but like all institutions it constantly stands under the judgment of that same (B) gospel. The church is thus a confessing community ever conscious of its (C) sin and assured of its salvation.
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A New Age
Most of us have lived through one of the major pivotal changes in human history. We were born into and expressed our early ministry in the age of modernity. This period in history was built upon the dynamic interrelatedness of (1) the turning away from the authority of the past, (2) the shrinking of the realm of the sacred, and (3) the radical quest for total knowledge of the universe and the self. That epoch of history (A) has passed and the church is called into a new country where the landscape is strange and the road maps have not even been printed. In fact, there (B) are no roads, but dim paths are beginning to appear.
The church's commitment to stand in the human situation as witnesses of the gospel will shape its ministry to meet the emerging needs of the (C) new age. The ministry of the chruch will be directed toward those inner urgings and human impulses that can only be reconciled by a climate of concrete expectations, articulated in the midst of a repenting and forgiving church fellowship. An essential quality of that fellowship will be its unwavering sense of faith and hope in the purposes of God and in (D) the nature of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Paul Tillich accurately described the need of the church in every period of radical human change.
In a period of turbulence, both in individual lives and in the life of history, the church points to its symbols which show that despite restlessness and chaos there is an ultimate rest. This is the one message that the church must always preach. Today when I think of the generation in colleges and universities this seems to be the most important message we can give them. In a disintegrating society, in the loss of symbols, in cynicism and the terrible feeling of emptiness, the church should show that there is another dimension to existence, there is still a source of fullness and of meaning.
(Paul Tillich, 1958)
The present age is marked by a strong desire for a feeling of meaning and sense of continuity in life. The strong quest to find genealogical
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roots is partial evidence of this urge for continuity and a sense of personal identity and purpose. The redemptive quality which comes through sensing one's place in history and identifying with the ongoing purpose of God in the future helps to define the nature of the church in the new age. In spite of the mobility of the age, the church must develop arenas where the future is alive. This can happen in the mediating institutions of the family and the congregation. Because these institutions are the arenas of affection, care, support and integration of the individual in an age of chaotic stress and division, great care must be given to their development and support. The needs of persons in the new age are causing a return to the symbolic and mystical modes of thought because modernity had painted the world in identical shades of gray--grayer and grayest. The symbolic understanding of life allows one to deal with the world as given and real, and transforms dualities into unities. Only in the symbolic mode of thought do the paradoxes of the faith become intimately interdependent realities.
Summary
If our assumptions regarding the future contain a kernel of possibility, we can take seriously the recent admonition to the church that it is (A) time to make preparation for the building of a temple. Also, if the above description of the nature of the church is valid, we, the bruised and broken who are being reconciled by God, will take our stand with the bruised and brokenhearted who need to be a part of the community of reconciliation. The witness of the gospel is the mission of the church.
Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold fast--unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared unto Cephas, then to the twelve. ...For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (I Cor. 15:1-15, 21-22) [Not from the Inspired Version]
