GREYFRIARS' COMMUNITY

In this his third sermon at Greyfriars, given on 16 February 2003, minister Rob Yule develops his understanding of the local church as the Body of Christ. Avoiding the clichés that have come to surround this term, Rob shows the unexpected dimensions of vitality, adaptability, and resourcefulness that are contained in this rich description of the Christian community, as it manifests in society the very life of Christ himself.

The Body of Christ

The most common term for the church today is 'the Body of Christ'. The term is now so widely used it's almost become a cliché. But this wasn't always so. Before the Charismatic Renewal Movement of the 1970s, you hardly ever heard this term used outside of Catholic and Anglo-Catholic circles, where you'd sometimes hear the church described as the 'mystical body of Christ'.

Today we refer almost glibly to the church as 'the Body', without really thinking what the term means. Yet it's a very rich and suggestive term. It has profound implications for our fellowship together as Christ's people. Here are some of its implications:

The Church is an Organic Whole

The church is unlike any other social organisation or institution. In fact, it's not an organisation or institution, it's an organism. An organism is a whole comprised of interdependent parts. In an organism, the whole is greater than sum of the component parts, yet it cannot function properly without all the components playing their proper part.

This is what Paul says. 'The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.... Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.' (1 Corinthians 12: 12, 27, NIV).

We live today in a very individualistic age. Everyone likes to do their own thing. But the church is more than an assortment of isolated individuals. It's a unique divine society, an organism, a body in which individuals find their fulfilment as members of a larger whole, and in which our achievements as individuals are multiplied in the service of that larger whole.

The church isn't all the same. It's made up of members who are different. There's an incredible diversity and variety of people in the church: diverse in social class, ethnic background, income level, intellectual ability, vocational achievement - as diverse in function and purpose as different parts of a body. Each 'member' has a distinctive part to play in the life of the whole community.

It's a challenge to be a healthy rather than an uncoordinated body, a community in which all the members play their part. We all need to pull our weight, make our personal contribution to the life of the fellowship, and honour rather than devaluing one another's contributions.

The Church is a Living Entity

The church of Jesus Christ is a living organism. It's alive. You'll never understand the church if you think of it as something static or inert. It's alive, vital, dynamic. The church continually surprises us with its ability to rejuvenate itself when seemingly exhausted, when its critics have written it off, and even when its friends have given up on it.

The life that energises the Body of Christ is the very life of God himself. When we become Christians, when we trust in Christ and are born again of the Spirit, we receive God's life, divine life. God's life is both life abundant, able to overcome life's difficulties ; and life eternal, capable of overcoming death itself. This is the secret of the church's amazing ability to renew itself, even when it has been dismissed as outmoded and irrelevant.

In his retiring address to the 1976 General Assembly, the then Moderator, Dr. Ian Breward, tongue-in-cheek, predicted that at the rate of decline in the church at the time the last Anglican would bury the last Presbyterian in New Zealand in the year 2000! In the event, nearly 100,000 Anglicans and Presbyterians were in church each Sunday in New Zealand throughout the year 2000, and over one million New Zealanders chose to identify as Anglicans and Presbyterians in the 2001 census. As Mark Twain once remarked, 'The rumours of my death are much exaggerated! 'The church is alive. It continually surprises observers who would write it off.

My favourite parable is Jesus' one about the seed growing 'of itself' (Mark 4: 26-29). A farmer plants seed in the ground. Night and day, whether he's working or asleep, the seed sprouts and grows. He hasn't a clue how this happens, it doesn't depend on him, it happens without him doing anything about it. He doesn't have to fret or worry. It grows 'of itself' - the Greek is automate, 'automatically'. The seed grows, because it has life in itself.

I like that. The church is alive. It doesn't all depend on the minister ! It grows 'of itself. 'I can go and have a kip - and so can you - and it still goes on growing ! Life imparts life. For the church to grow it doesn't need programmes; it just needs life. Programmes are like paddocks, but paddocks have got to have living seed if they're going to grow anything.

The important thing is that you and I, as members of the church, have life - have a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit. Where there is life, the church grows and multiplies, evangelises and expands, develops and prevails. All by itself, automatically, gradually, the church produces a harvest - as Jesus says, 'first the stalk, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. '

The Church is an Adaptable Community

The Christian church is the world's oldest institution. It has a longer continuous existence than any other organisation in the world. It's so old you'd actually expect it to be very musty and cobwebby - like Miss Faversham's house in the film of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.

In fact, the church is astonishingly adaptive. As a living organism it responds to challenges, fights off threats, overcomes disease, adapts to changing social conditions, withstands external dangers and resists internal ills. Down the ages the church has shown a remarkable capacity to adapt to different social situations: going underground when persecuted in the early centuries, exercising responsible leadership when publicly accepted in the Middle Ages, developing its own resourcefulness when marginalised by secular society in the modern era.

The secret of the Church's continued vitality is the divine life of Christ within it, the presence of the Holy Spirit renewing its life and energising its mission in every generation. As the body of Christ, the human community with Jesus Christ as its head, the church is led by the risen Lord who says, 'I am making everything new.' (Revelation 21: 5, NIV).

It is Jesus who makes all things new. Don't worry about your new minister. He's not Jesus. He'll only make some things new !

Greyfriars' Community

In his 75th anniversary history of Greyfriars, The Tower by the Hill, Ivan Moses wrote, 'Greyfriars Church, through its ministers and leaders, [has] sought to recall the Church to its historic faith, while adapting it to the needs of contemporary society.' (p. 30).

This sums up what I too believe is God's calling for our Greyfriars' community. We are called to bear witness to the historic Christian message of God's saving love for human beings revealed in Jesus Christ, and adapt our presentation of this unchanging message to the changing needs of our contemporary society, in Mt. Eden, central Auckland, and beyond.

All of us have a part to play in this common task of our community. Some of you have giftings and callings to develop existing ministries. Some of you have visions and burdens to initiate new ministries.

My motto is, 'One gift releases another.' A good PA for me would make me more efficient and more effective in what God has gifted and called me to do. A good church manager would provide an environment for the further development of ministries in our community. Those with helping or caring motivations need people with administrative or leadership gifts to provide the organisational structure for their ministries to flourish.

Life Imparts Life

Life imparts life. So our evangelistic and discipling groups, like Alpha or Evangelism Explosion, are absolutely foundational in Greyfriars. It is through these groups, and through our personal witness, that people are introduced to a living relationship with God through faith in Christ. When people are well-rooted in Christ, well-grounded in a living experience of the Holy Spirit, that's when they'll be productive in Christian service and witness.

Just as the brain and central nervous system give direction to a body, so Jesus Christ as head gives guidance and leadership to his church. He's the brains of the operation. There are no doubt many changes that Jesus has in mind for us. We as a church should be receiving our directions from Christ himself. So the intercessors should be praying for direction, the prophets and visionaries should be sharing their dreams, the administrators and leaders should be seeking Christ's guidance.

There's no need to be anxious about our future. We don't need to strive, or push our views, or get upset and fractious. Like the farmer in Jesus' parable, we don't need to worry about the crop. If it's got life in it, it will grow, and keep on growing, of itself.

Rob Yule, 16 February 2003

© 2003, Greyfriars Presbyterian Church