LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 398

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

398 ADDITIONAL THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS—OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

selves, liberating us for a life of gratitude, love and hope. By grace
we have been saved, through faith (Eph. 2: 8).

17. Into this life of communion with God and with one another
(koinonia), we are summoned by the gospel. In baptism the Holy
Spirit unites us with Christ in his death and resurrection (Rom. 6: 1-
11; 1 Cor. 12: 13); in the eucharist we are nourished and sustained
as members of the one Body by participation in the body and blood
of Christ (I Cor. 10: 16f). The Church and the gospel are thus nec-
essarily related to each other. Faith in Jesus, the Christ, as the foun-
dation of the reign of God arises out of the visible and audible
proclamation of the gospel in word and sacraments. And there is
no proclamation of the word and sacraments without a community
and its ministry. Thus, the communion of the Church is constituted
by the proclamation of the word and the celebration of the sacra-
ments, served by the ordained ministry. Through these gifts God
creates and maintains the Church and gives birth daily to faith, love
and new life.

18. The Church, as communion, must be seen as instrumental to
God’s ultimate purpose. It exists for the glory of God to serve, in
obedience to the mission of Christ, the reconciliation of humankind
and of all creation (Eph. |: 10). Therefore the Church is sent into
the world as a sign, instrument and foretaste of a reality which
comes from beyond history the Kingdom of God. The Church em-
bodies the mystery of salvation, of a new humanity reconciled to
God and to one another through Jesus Christ (Eph. 2: 14, Col. 1:
19-27). Through its ministry of service and proclamation it points
to the reality of the Kingdom; and in the power of the Holy Spirit it
participates in the divine mission by which the Father sent the Son
to be the saviour of the world (I John 4: 14, cf. John 3: 17).

19. The Holy Spirit bestows on the community diverse and
complementary gifts. These are for the common good of the whole
people and are manifested in acts of service within the community
and to the world. All members are called to discover, with the help
of the community, the gifts they have received and to use them for
the building up of the Church and for the service of the world to
which the Church is sent.

20.The Church is a divine reality, holy and transcending pre-
sent finite reality; at the same time, as a human institution, it shares
the brokenness of human community in its ambiguity and frailty.
The Church is always called to repentance, reform and renewal,
and has constantly to depend on God’s mercy and forgiveness. The
Scriptures offer a portrait of a Church living in the light of the
Gospel: it is a Church rooted and grounded in the love and grace of
the Lord Christ; it is a Church always joyful, praying continually
and giving thanks even in the midst of suffering; it is a pilgrim
Church, a people of God with a new heavenly citizenship, a holy
nation and a royal priesthood; it is a Church which makes common
confession of the apostolic faith in word and in life, the faith com-
mon to the whole Church everywhere and at all times; it is a
Church with a mission to all in every race and nation, preaching
the gospel, proclaiming the forgiveness of sins, baptizing and cele-
brating the eucharist; it is a Church which is served by an ordained
apostolic ministry, sent by God to gather and nourish the people of
God in each place, uniting and linking them with the Church uni-
versal within the whole communion of saints; it is a Church which
manifests through its visible communion the healing and uniting
power of God amidst the divisions of humankind; it is a Church in
which the bonds of communion are strong enough to enable it to
bear effective witness in the world, to guard and interpret the apos-
tolic faith, to take decisions, to teach authoritatively, and to share
its goods with those in need; it is a Church alive and responsive to
the hope which God has set before it, to the wealth and glory of the
share God has offered it in the heritage of his people, and to the
vastness of the resources of God’s power open to those who trust in
him. This portrait of the Church is by no means complete; never-

2001 Convention Workbook

theless, it confronts our churches with challenges to the fidelity of
our lives and with a constant need for repentance and renewal.

B. The Nature of Communion and the Goal of Unity

21. The Scriptures portray the unity of the Church as a joyful
communion with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ (cf.
1 John 1: t-10), as well as communion among its members. Jesus
prays that the disciples may be one as the Father is in him and he is
in the Father, so that the world may believe (John 17: 21). Because
the unity of the Church is grounded in the mysterious relationship
of the persons of the Trinity, this unity belongs by necessity to its
nature. The unity of the Body of Christ is spoken of in relation to
the “one Spirit..., one hope ..., one Lord, one faith, one baptism. one
God and Father of us all’ (Eph. 4: 4-6). Communion between
Christians and churches should not be regarded as a product of
human achievement. It is already given in Christ as a gift to be re-
ceived, and “like every good gift, unity also comes from the Father
through the Son in the Holy Spirit’.

22. Viewed in this light, disunity must be regarded as an anom-
alous situation. Despite our sins and schisms, the unity to which
we are summoned has already begun to be manifested in the
Church. It demands fuller visible embodiment in structured form,
so that the Church may be seen to be, through the Holy Spirit, the
one Body of Christ and the sign, instrument and foretaste of the
Kingdom. In this perspective, al] existing denominational traditions
are provisional.

23. Visible unity, however, should not be confused with unifor-
mity. “Unity in Christ does not exist despite and in opposition to di-
versity, but is given with and in diversity’. Because this diversity cor-
responds with the many gifts of the Holy Spirit to the Church, it is a
concept of fundamental ecclesial importance, with relevance to all
aspects of the life of the Church, and is not a mere concession to the-
ological pluralism. Both the unity and the diversity of the Church are
ultimately grounded in the communion of God the Holy Trinity.

24. The maintenance of unity and the sustaining of diversity are
served by bonds of communion. Communion with God and with
fellow believers is manifested in one baptism in response to the
apostolic preaching; in the common confession of the apostolic
faith; in the united celebration of the eucharist which builds up the
one body of Christ; and in a single ministry set apart by prayer and
the laying on of hands. This unity is also manifested as a commu-
nion in love, implying that Christians are bound to one another in a
committed relationship with mutual responsibilities, common spir-
itual goods and the obligation to share temporal resources. Already
in the Acts of the Apostles we can discern these bonds: *Those who
received [Peter’s] word were baptized... And they devoted them-
selves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of
bread and the prayers... And al] who believed were together and
had all things in common’ (Acts 2: 41 ff).

25. In the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles this sharing in a
common life is served by the apostolic ministry. We are given a
picture of how this ministry fosters the richness of diversity while
also maintaining unity. Through the mission of the apostles Peter
and Paul, the Gentiles also are baptized. In the face of the threat of
division, this radical decision is ratified by the coming together of
the Church in council (Acts 15). Here is illustrated the role of apos-
tolic leaders and their place within councils of the Church.

26. Such an understanding of communion has been described
in the following terms: “The unity of the Church given in Christ
and rooted in the Triune God is realized in our unity in the pro-
claimed word, the sacraments and the ministry instituted by God
and conferred through ordination. It is lived both in the unity of
faith to which we jointly witness, and which together we confess
and teach, and in the unity of hope and love which leads us to unite
in fully committed fellowship. Unity needs a visible outward form
which is able to encompass the element of inner differentiation and