LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Page 83

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CONVENTION ESSAYS AND BIBLE STUDIES
4. It Is Universal
A self-consciously catholic understanding of the church
would give full value to the universal dimension of the
church. That the church is one and holy means that it is
universal and is not confined geographically. Central to the
concern of the Reformers was that the priesthood of all believers included all believers in Christ, not just a priestly
class. And likewise, the church, which is universal can
never be conceived of in narrowly parochial or national
terms. It is a simple but profound truth that the una sancta
extends out spatially; its context is universal.
What does such a church look like? It would not be, except in an external sense, “American,” or “20th century.”
The church is neither space- nor time-bound. It is larger
than American, larger than German. The church conceived
as universal would be a church whose forms are universal,
open to the multiplicity of the racial and ethnic peoples for
whom the Lord died and whom He has saved through the
means of grace. The liturgy of the church which is universal
would be flexible and diverse, and inclusive, in the sense
that it would be formulated and articulated in the light of
the various cultures among whom it is carried out. The
liturgy would not be racist or ethnocentric; it would be neither German nor American. It would be universal.
And this is precisely why the church that has a strong
sense of its universality would treat the historic liturgy of
the church with great respect. It would recognize that the
liturgy transcends geographic boundaries. It does not belong to just one segment of Christendom, to do with as it
pleases. The liturgy is not ours as Americans. It is only ours
as church universal. We therefore would regard the liturgy
as the accumulated testimony and worship of all of God’s
people, and of the past, and therefore as far more likely to
plumb the depths of God’s character and the nature of true
worship than what someone has referred to as the “idiosyncratic voice of the present.” 1
5. It Is Apostolic
The church that understands itself to be catholic would
emphasize both in its teaching and its practice the apostolicity of the church. A primary concern of the Confessors
during the time of the Reformation was to show that what
they taught and confessed in their churches was “a genuinely Christian symbol,” 2 and nothing more or less than
that apostolic faith once given to the apostles and confessed
by the church throughout all its ages.
What would such a church look like? Were we to understand the church as apostolic, we would be given a much
sounder view of time and history and the past. We would
recognize that God’s concern for His church extends not
only over days and weeks and months, but over decades
and centuries and millennia as well. We would know something of the long view of history, which would free us from
what Mark Noll calls “the dreadful amnesia that cripples
nearly all Christian faith in America,” 3 and would steel us
against the instability and innovation and ignorance which
is characteristic of so much American religiosity.
Because we are apostolic, we Lutherans know something
of the living tradition of the past, handed down by the Fathers of the church, a “community of memory,” 4 you might

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say, which enables us to resist the American “lust for novelty” 5 and which stands as a sober witness against the follies of human short-sightedness and short memories. We
know and respect those who have handled the Word before
us and handed it on to us. The church that is apostolic is
the church that is not just for our time or for our place but
that has solidarity with the church, with God’s people, from
all times and all places.
The Lutheran understanding is that the church thrives
within a context that is trinitarian and one and catholic
and universal and apostolic.

III. Singing God’s Praises in Eternity
Lutheran theology offers the world on the eve of a new
millennium a focus, a sense of order and intelligibility,
which is centered in the Gospel. We also offer a sense of
context which is not located primarily in the narrow particularity our times but in the reality of Christ’s church,
which time cannot contain. We therefore offer a focus which
is genuinely evangelical and a context that is genuinely
catholic. Because it is evangelical, it speaks to the present.
Because it is catholic, it speaks to all time, to the past and
the future. With our evangelical-catholic understanding of
the church, I am convinced that we have what we need to
go to the ends of the earth and to sing God’s praises for all
eternity.
In fact, the church in eternity will not look all that different from the church of time, although it will be cleansed
of all of its imperfections and weaknesses. But the church
in eternity will still have its focus on the Gospel, and it will
still be catholic in its context. At least, that’s what the Bible
teaches us. Revelation, chapter 7, shows us a glimpse of the
church singing God’s praises in eternity. In eternity, the
church still focuses on Christ: “For the Lamb at the center
of the throne will be their shepherd; He will lead them to
springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear
from their eyes” (v. 17). But in eternity the church will also
still be catholic in its context. For “a great multitude that
no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, will praise God before the throne and in front of the
Lamb” (v. 9).
What does this mean for us as we bring the Gospel to
the ends of the earth? Two things: evangelical faithfulness
and catholic responsibility.
A. Evangelical Faithfulness
Because the church is evangelical, it speaks to all people at the level of their greatest need, that is, of their sinfulness and the need for forgiveness before God. As Luther
wrote in his Large Catechism, “Everything, therefore, in
the Christian Church is ordered to the end that we shall
daily obtain there nothing but the forgiveness of sin
through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our
consciences as long as we live here.” 6 And because it is so
ordered in the Gospel, our evangelical focus provides a message, a focus, that is desperately needed today.
Whatever happens in the future, we must be faithful to
our focus on the Gospel. If we lose our focus, we will cease
to be evangelical and, thus, we will cease to be Lutheran.