Once upon a time, I was particularly ticked at some shenanigans within our beloved synod. At the same time, a dear friend of mine kept talking about the so-called "visible" and "invisible" church, and how we should be able to
see the true church in one particular organization. My pastor pointed out to me the line in the creed: "I
believe in the holy Christian church." He explained that the Church's holiness is an article of faith; we cannot
see her holiness. He said,
Allow me to call our synod beloved, as a confession of
faith in the forgiveness of sins. Just as I call you holy by virtue of Christ's
righteousness, not your own. If you deny
the one, you end up denying the other.
If you accept the one, it might make it easier for you to accept the
other.
If you deny the one, you end up denying the other.
Yes.
Believing and seeing often go together. They aren't mutually exclusive.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I do wonder at anyone who would say you can point to an organization, per se, and say "See? This is the visible church." The definition of the Church is right in the name - Ecclesia, those who are called out.
There is indeed a visible church - but trying to equate it to an organization (the LCMS, the Roman church, or anything else) is a mistake. Rather the church is all those who have been called out of the world to follow Christ. You can see them when they gather around his gifts. That is the way they are visible.
There's a lot more to say, I think, but that's probably enough for now.