Memorial Moment: Signs of Catholicity

Acts 16:1-10

Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.

And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

(ESV)

Signs of Catholicity

St. Timothy, Pastor and Confessor

24 January 2013

We use the word "religion" rather broadly. Recently my daughter read an article in one of her college classes that attempts to define religion and does so on purely human terms and certainly not with reference to the gospel or God's work: "Religions orient action, and any genuine religious tradition necessarily is concerned with normative behavior, whether ethical or religious in character." She was baffled by this definition because she knows the gospel and the work of God to save the world in Christ. For her religion is defined by God's acts not human works. It is defined by the gospel rather than by the law. When religion is defined by the human acts of devotion it casts a pretty wide net and applies to quite a number of things as religion, including Islam, Hinduism, and football (whether European or American).

However, the term was not always understood so broadly. In late medieval Europe, the word "religion" applied almost exclusively to the Christian religion. Luther uses it this way when he is describing the duty of the church catholic to preserve the true religion of the promises of God fulfilled in the Messiah. The church catholic is to preserve the divine truth against all cultural incursions. She is to be the bastion of truth for God's children, redeemed in Christ. She is the locus of religion, with her preaching of Christ and His work.

This is God's business to preserve to Himself in the church a remnant at some times, and a mass of people at other times. The church's earthly fortunes wax and wane, yet hidden in her is the true people of God, whether she appears weak and few or strong and many. God Himself reduced the earthly church's visible community to eight in the flood, but only the family of Shem from among those remained faithful to the messianic hope. From them would come the Messiah, Jesus. The family of Shem was the whole of the universal, catholic church, simply because they held the messianic hope that God would bring salvation through the Seed of the woman (Gn 3:15). Catholicity is not a numbers game. The church's universality is not about the numbers of people who agree, but it is about the confession of and confidence in God's truth in the person of His Son. The church is universal, but not on the basis of a head count or geography. She is universal because God wants all people to come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. Her mission is ever to go into all the world! She exists in her fullness wherever and whenever the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity and the holy sacraments administered according to Christ's institution, whether in cathedrals swathed in incense or in the hovels of the hiding and harried persecuted. These are the true signs of her catholicity; preserved to us by God.

Martin Luther

"After the Flood, when the ungodly descendants of Ham had suddenly increased and were filling everything with offenses, Noah, together with his son Shem and his grandsons, guided the church. This shows that the article of our creed is true when we believe one, holy, catholic church in all ages, from the beginning of the world until the end of the world. God has always preserved for Himself a people which retained the Word and would be the guardians of religion and of sound doctrine in the world, lest everything degenerate into impiety and there be no knowledge of God among men.

"This catalog of the fathers teaches us the principle point that God has never altogether abandoned the church, although on some occasions it was larger and on others smaller, just as also on some occasions its teaching was purer and on others more obscure. Let us sustain ourselves with this hope against the great wickedness of the world and of the opponents of the Word. So Christ also consoles us (Mt 24:22) that the days of the last time will be shortened for the sake of the godly, namely, that the church will be preserved and Antichrist will not overwhelm everything with error and falsehood.

"These grandsons of Shem were heirs of the promise concerning Christ, which God wanted them to conserve and defend, in order that there might be people among whom the church or the Word might be found. Nor is it possible to separate these: where the Word is, there the church is, there the Spirit is, there Christ is, and everything."

Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis, 11.10

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, You have always given to Your Church on earth faithful shepherds such as Timothy to guide and feed Your flock. Make all pastors diligent to preach Your holy Word and administer Your means of grace, and grant Your people wisdom to follow in the way that leads to life eternal; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For all those who are suffering from cold winter weather, that they might be kept safe in their travels

For all those gathering to support the value of human life in Washington, D.C., that they would speak for the weak and those who cannot defend themselves, so that the culture of life would transcend the culture of death

For the Board of Directors of Lutheran World Relief, which is meeting in Houston next week, that their travel would be safe and their meeting fruitful

Art: CORREGGIO Nativity Holy Night (1528-30)