The Business Of The Church
Stories
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit
Series VI, Cycle C
Object:
Is there one simple answer to the question "What is the business of the church"? I was curious so I Googled™ "the business of the church" to see what might be out there. The first hit was an article from the March 17, 1952, issue of Time magazine, which was appropriately titled "The Business of the Church." At issue was the Washington advocacy activity of the Council for Social Action of the Congregationalist church that was considered somewhat left of center by some prominent church people. Dr. Walter Judd, a congressman from Minnesota who was well known for his commitment to the church was quoted as saying, "We do not believe it is the business of the church to tell the state what to do. It is the business of the church to discover what is righteous, what is the will of God, and inculcate those ideas in the individual." Okay, that is one answer.
Another Google™ hit pointed to the website of The White Horse Inn, a nationally syndicated radio talk show that features a regular roundtable discussion of Christian theology and apologetics. The header promoting this particular program asked, "What is the business of the church? Should it play a political role?" We can only guess at the panel's answer because no further information was provided. We know very well that, depending upon whom you ask, the answer to the question would be absolutely "Yes" or absolutely "No."
That, of course, is not a new argument. The American church can remember a century and a half ago and the controversy about slavery. Even though in our twenty-first-century sophistication we might wonder how such could be possible, there were voices on both sides of the issue. James Henley Thornwell, for example, was a prominent Presbyterian from South Carolina who insisted the church had no business discussing the problem because the business of the church was spiritual, not temporal. Just as the church should keep its ecclesiastical nose out of slavery, he argued, "It is not the distinctive province of the church to build asylums for the needy or insane, to organize societies for the improvement of the penal code, or for the arresting of the progress of intemperance, gambling, or lust."1 Ironically, a South Carolina orphanage (that is still in operation today) was established in Thornwell's honor not many years after his death in 1862. It is hard to imagine that kind of thinking in our own day, but in Thornwell's it was widely held.
Google™ responded with a number of other quotes
* "The business of the church is ministry; the church is in the business of saving souls, helping people move from a life of sin to salvation."
* "The business of the church is to gather and hear Christ. The result of that meeting is unity/love with God and each other...."
* "It is the business of the church to tell truth to the world. We must never forget that."
There were, as might be expected, a number of Google™ hits that referred to ecclesiastical councils doing "the business of the church." The point of this exercise, of course, is to note that there is no unanimity in answering the question about what is the business of the church.
If it is any consolation, the problem goes back to the earliest days of the faith. The apostle Paul felt compelled to address the issue in one of his first encyclicals, the epistle to the Galatians. The Galatian churches were wrestling with the same question that other congregations of the day were: namely, how should new Gentile Christians be incorporated into the faith? Some, the so-called "Judaizers," argued that since the Jews were God's chosen people, these new Christians should become Jewish -- obey Jewish law and adhere to Jewish tradition and practice including the ritual of circumcision for male converts. This was part and parcel of the business of the young church.
In a way, that thinking had a certain appeal to these new believers. Obedience to the Jewish law was not seen as onerous; it could be actually liberating as it helped someone deal with life in a pagan environment where questions of morality could be overwhelming. The law was helpful in providing boundaries, just as a yellow line down the middle of a highway helps a driver stay in the correct lane. As to circumcision, even though painful surgery was involved, there was a certain sense of security in the ritual; after all, this was a tangible sign of membership in God's family. Beyond that, realizing that this was God's commandment from generation to generation, ever since Abraham (Genesis 17:9-14), the thought would be that surely God would honor this kind of faithfulness.
Paul objected, and he did not mince words. He begins with the traditional salutation that we find in any other letters of the day, but then, instead of kind words or a brief prayer for his recipients, he lashes out: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel -- which is really no gospel at all." The key word is "grace," which, for Paul, should not be understood as something God gives, but rather the way that God establishes a relationship with people. In Sunday school we learned that grace is the "unmerited favor of God," and is not something we can earn by what we do, even surgically. "God sent his Son ... to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons" (Galatians 4:4-5). That being the case, Paul insists that there is no other way to gain membership in God's family, no middle ground where God does the divine part and humans do the human (and painful) part, and a curse on anyone who would suggest otherwise!
Grace -- the grace business -- that is the business of the church. For Paul the business of the church is to communicate the grace of God that we come to know in Jesus Christ to a world that is desperate to hear -- grace.
Regardless of what the scripture teaches, there are still plenty of folks who want to add some additional business. Generally, it has to do with the hot-button social issue of the day -- as we noted previously, 150 years ago it was slavery; after World War II it was communism, the Cold War and the arms race; in the early twenty-first century, we have issues like abortion, creationism, and homosexuality from one quarter while from another we have poverty, global warming, and genocide. All of these were and are important topics of conversation, and the church absolutely should discuss them. Moral issues are important, but the church has to remember what business it is in.
So saying, the church is not in the morality business, despite what many people think. Society handles that role just fine, thank you. Society pays legislatures to codify that morality by writing the appropriate rules and regulations then pays police to enforce that code. The church is not in the morality business, the church is in the grace business. Ask the apostle Paul. Hear that again: The church is not in the morality business, the church is in the grace business. What's that, Paul? One more time: The church is not in the morality business, the church is in the grace business.
Paul adds, "And don't you forget it!"
____________
1. Quoted by Bradley J. Longfield, The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, & Moderates (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 35.
Another Google™ hit pointed to the website of The White Horse Inn, a nationally syndicated radio talk show that features a regular roundtable discussion of Christian theology and apologetics. The header promoting this particular program asked, "What is the business of the church? Should it play a political role?" We can only guess at the panel's answer because no further information was provided. We know very well that, depending upon whom you ask, the answer to the question would be absolutely "Yes" or absolutely "No."
That, of course, is not a new argument. The American church can remember a century and a half ago and the controversy about slavery. Even though in our twenty-first-century sophistication we might wonder how such could be possible, there were voices on both sides of the issue. James Henley Thornwell, for example, was a prominent Presbyterian from South Carolina who insisted the church had no business discussing the problem because the business of the church was spiritual, not temporal. Just as the church should keep its ecclesiastical nose out of slavery, he argued, "It is not the distinctive province of the church to build asylums for the needy or insane, to organize societies for the improvement of the penal code, or for the arresting of the progress of intemperance, gambling, or lust."1 Ironically, a South Carolina orphanage (that is still in operation today) was established in Thornwell's honor not many years after his death in 1862. It is hard to imagine that kind of thinking in our own day, but in Thornwell's it was widely held.
Google™ responded with a number of other quotes
* "The business of the church is ministry; the church is in the business of saving souls, helping people move from a life of sin to salvation."
* "The business of the church is to gather and hear Christ. The result of that meeting is unity/love with God and each other...."
* "It is the business of the church to tell truth to the world. We must never forget that."
There were, as might be expected, a number of Google™ hits that referred to ecclesiastical councils doing "the business of the church." The point of this exercise, of course, is to note that there is no unanimity in answering the question about what is the business of the church.
If it is any consolation, the problem goes back to the earliest days of the faith. The apostle Paul felt compelled to address the issue in one of his first encyclicals, the epistle to the Galatians. The Galatian churches were wrestling with the same question that other congregations of the day were: namely, how should new Gentile Christians be incorporated into the faith? Some, the so-called "Judaizers," argued that since the Jews were God's chosen people, these new Christians should become Jewish -- obey Jewish law and adhere to Jewish tradition and practice including the ritual of circumcision for male converts. This was part and parcel of the business of the young church.
In a way, that thinking had a certain appeal to these new believers. Obedience to the Jewish law was not seen as onerous; it could be actually liberating as it helped someone deal with life in a pagan environment where questions of morality could be overwhelming. The law was helpful in providing boundaries, just as a yellow line down the middle of a highway helps a driver stay in the correct lane. As to circumcision, even though painful surgery was involved, there was a certain sense of security in the ritual; after all, this was a tangible sign of membership in God's family. Beyond that, realizing that this was God's commandment from generation to generation, ever since Abraham (Genesis 17:9-14), the thought would be that surely God would honor this kind of faithfulness.
Paul objected, and he did not mince words. He begins with the traditional salutation that we find in any other letters of the day, but then, instead of kind words or a brief prayer for his recipients, he lashes out: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel -- which is really no gospel at all." The key word is "grace," which, for Paul, should not be understood as something God gives, but rather the way that God establishes a relationship with people. In Sunday school we learned that grace is the "unmerited favor of God," and is not something we can earn by what we do, even surgically. "God sent his Son ... to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons" (Galatians 4:4-5). That being the case, Paul insists that there is no other way to gain membership in God's family, no middle ground where God does the divine part and humans do the human (and painful) part, and a curse on anyone who would suggest otherwise!
Grace -- the grace business -- that is the business of the church. For Paul the business of the church is to communicate the grace of God that we come to know in Jesus Christ to a world that is desperate to hear -- grace.
Regardless of what the scripture teaches, there are still plenty of folks who want to add some additional business. Generally, it has to do with the hot-button social issue of the day -- as we noted previously, 150 years ago it was slavery; after World War II it was communism, the Cold War and the arms race; in the early twenty-first century, we have issues like abortion, creationism, and homosexuality from one quarter while from another we have poverty, global warming, and genocide. All of these were and are important topics of conversation, and the church absolutely should discuss them. Moral issues are important, but the church has to remember what business it is in.
So saying, the church is not in the morality business, despite what many people think. Society handles that role just fine, thank you. Society pays legislatures to codify that morality by writing the appropriate rules and regulations then pays police to enforce that code. The church is not in the morality business, the church is in the grace business. Ask the apostle Paul. Hear that again: The church is not in the morality business, the church is in the grace business. What's that, Paul? One more time: The church is not in the morality business, the church is in the grace business.
Paul adds, "And don't you forget it!"
____________
1. Quoted by Bradley J. Longfield, The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, & Moderates (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 35.
