Believing in The Holy Christian Church – Watching the Mystery of God at Work

When it comes to your Christian faith, what do you believe? The Apostles Creed is a good summary of what Christians believe. Perhaps you, like me, “believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.” If you are a Christian, a believer in the Christ, then you “believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.” If you are a Christian, then you also believe God works in your heart through the Holy Spirit. “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”

But what do you believe about The Church? In the Third Article of the Apostles Creed we say “I believe in the Holy Spirit, The Holy Christian Church.” It may be one thing to believe in God, the all loving, all powerful, Creator, Savior, and Comforter. But it is something else to believe in the church! When I served as volunteer chaplain on a regular basis at Mat-Su Regional Hospital and introduced myself to patients as the chaplain, I often heard. “I don’t believe in organized religion.” My response was, I’m not here to talk about a specific religion, but I will talk with you about God.” Sometimes they were then willing to have a conversation.

There is a reason for such feelings of skepticism about the Christian Church. Two weeks ago we read in worship from Luke 5, about Jesus calling Peter and Andrew, James and John, to follow Him. After a miraculous catch of fish, we are told of Peter, “when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." (Luke 5:8) Jesus never denied Peter’s sin. But, even knowing Peter’s failings, Jesus still said, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." (Luke 5:10) The work of spreading the kingdom of God, of ‘fishing for men,’ is a HOLY work. Yet, surprisingly, in grace, God uses sinners like Peter, like you and me, like other members of The Holy Christian Church! I understand why people have trouble with The Church. Yet, mysteriously and graciously, God chooses to do His holy work through sinners. That sounds like a recipe for disaster, ,and often we see a mess. BUT, Jesus came “to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) Jesus does call sinners to faith and forgiveness through His Church And, Jesus uses sinners to do the work of the church! That’s Amazing Grace!

Please know that the church is not the idea of human beings. After Peter confessed that Jesus is “The Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:16), we read, “17 And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’" (Matthew 16:17-19) The church belongs to JESUS. Jesus BUILDS HIS church through the administration and sharing of His forgiving love. Jesus’ church will accomplish bringing many to salvation through faith in Christ because, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!” Throughout the rest of His ministry on earth Jesus instructed His disciples, and called them to bring others to faith in His love, found in Jesus death and resurrection.

That is a LONG WAY TO GO to share that I saw Jesus working in His church this past Sunday evening, February 16. The people of First Lutheran Church in Gainesville, Florida, had been without a full-time settled pastor since the first Sunday in August 2023. They studied, and met, and called two other men, who declined the request to be pastor at this congregation. But, after prayer they were then led to call Pastor Chris Kollman. He said, “Yes.” On Sunday evening Pastor Kollmann was installed as the new man called to shepherd the sheep of Jesus in this place.

I told Pastor Kollmann in front of the congregation, “The people of First Lutheran have been praying for almost a year and a half for God to send a man to lead then in following Jesus. They did not know who this would be. You are that man. It is a wonderful thing to be God’s answer to prayer.”

Surprisingly, God works to share His saving love in Jesus with the whole world through men and women who are sinners. I do believe in the mystery of God’s work through The Holy Christian Church. I saw God working on Sunday night!