From
Living Theology in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church In America
Volume 1, Number 4
September 1996
The Church and Salvation
A Community of Proclamation
and Service
Kwang-Ja
Yu
It has been noted, often with a bit of irony, that
Jesus preached the coming of the Kingdom and what came instead was the Church.
The irony is of course that while Jesus proclaimed a new reality, what we got
was another fallible institution, subject to the same frailties and limitations
that define all human existence. Yet for 2,000 years this institution has been
the place where Christians have met their Lord—the place where they have come
together to struggle with issues of faith and love. As we approach the
beginning of the Church’s third millennium of existence it is appropriate to
consider what it is about this institution that keeps it vital after so many
years.
For most
of us the Church is a given. It existed long before we were born and will exist
long after we have been forgotten. For many the Church has been part of life
itself, from that moment when as infants we were splashed with the waters of
Baptism, through adolescence, marriage, and the grave. It is no wonder that so
many Christians give little thought to the nature of the Church. “The Church?
It just is!”
Luckily
the Bible, creeds, and Confessions give us some help. The Church is the body of
Christ. The Church is one. It is holy and Apostolic. The Church is the assembly
of the saints where the Gospel is taught in its purity and the Sacraments are
rightly administered.
Yet as
simple, elegant, insightful, and authoritative as these ancient formulas are,
they fail to sufficiently capture my experience as a member of a particular
congregation: Grace Lutheran Church in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the
ELCA. Most of the time I count myself among those who take the Church for
granted. Yet when I try to analyze those times when I have been most vividly
aware of the power of the Church I find that certain conditions must fall into
place.
First,
the Church must be people among whom the Gospel is proclaimed. In proclaiming
that the salvation promised by the prophets has come and has become visible in
the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Church challenges me to
live a new life of service to God and the world. It pushes me to break free of
my unreflective “take-it-for-granted” way of living. It pushes me to seek a
life that transcends the self-centeredness and self importance that is so
seductive.
The
proclamation of the Gospel reveals the second element that I find present in
those instances when the Church seems particularly vital, and that is service.
In the face of the Gospel, how can one live for one’s self? The cross is a call
to live for others, just as Christ was and is the “man for others.” Service is
more than doing good things, more than charity. It is giving one’s life for
others just as “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give his
life as a ransom for many.” The Gospel moves beyond words and ideology and
manifests itself concretely as God’s people seek justice, love righteousness,
and learn to give of themselves in service to the world.
The final
element that I have found present in those times when the Church seemed most
alive, is community. When I first came to America from Korea I found myself
isolated. I didn’t speak the language well. American society and American
institutions were incomprehensible. My family, friends, and other sources of
support were inaccessible. Life in isolation, life without community, is not
human life. In the Church I found a community that could expand its boundaries
to include a foreigner who, though she didn’t share a common ancestry, culture,
or even language, did share a common encounter with the Gospel of Christ.
The
Church is a special kind of community. It is community formed around a common
encounter with the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel is never proclaimed to me
alone, but to and through the community. Alone I could ignore or rationalize
the proclamation. I could selectively interpret it to confirm my own
aggrandizing illusions. The community acts as a check on my self-deception. It
reminds me that Christian faith is so much more than just me and Jesus.
The
community is the people among whom the Gospel is proclaimed. It is also the
assembly among whom service is affirmed, directed, and supported. I go to the
community when I am in need, to be assured of God’s love through the witness of
others, to be healed by their self-giving love, to be challenged by their
living-out of our common encounter with Christ.
German
theologian Dorothee Solle (Thinking About God, 1990) identifies
these three basic elements of the living Church: kerygma, diakonia, and
koinonia (proclamation, service, and community). The three are interdependent
and share an almost catalytic relationship to each other. Kerygma without
diakonia is little more than tired slogans and empty words. Diakonia apart from
kerygma is unable to identify the roots of the problem and ultimately is
ineffective in changing lives. Koinonia apart from kerygma merely affirms the
status quo while kerygma and diakonia apart from koinonia become simple egoism.
While it
is necessary to hold these three together, the amalgamation itself produces a
power that can be felt as a real tension. For example, the Gospel will always
challenge the community to expand its boundaries to include those who have been
excluded. Churches like Willow Creek, which take the cross out of the
sanctuary, have responded to the threat kerygma poses to the status quo by
adopting a too-cozy koinonia, and have lost the creative tension of Christian
community.
Solle
suggests that we can think through our own church experiences in terms of these
three elements by asking such questions as, “Where have I encountered kerygma?
Where have learned something for my life? Where has diakonia come alive for
me? Where have I helped and where have I been useful in helping others? Where
have I met koinonia? Where was I supported and felt myself “inside?”
Being
the Church is a never-ending struggle to keep in balance these three elements
as we live and worship as God’s people. But when this occurs, this fragile, fallible,
aged institution still has a remarkable ability to reform lives by building a
Gospel-formed community of diverse people, united in a mutual love of and
service to God, each other, and the world.
Kwang-Ja
Yu
Interim,
Westwood, Elmwood Park