Nielsen’s Nook

In commenting on Colossians 2:5, Lawrence Farley writes:

… for in this — in [Paul's] love for [the Colossian Church] and his spiritual agony at the thought of their danger — is his moral authority to exhort them. He has never actually met them. They are Epaphras’ spiritual children. His moral authority to teach them lies in the fact of his suffering for them (see Col 1:24). For it is only insofar as we love and suffer for others that we have the right to teach and direct them. ¹

As I reflected on this verse and commentary, it occurred to me that many of the things that frustrate and even anger me at times are, in fact, opportunities in which God would increase and bless myself and others by teaching us to give and receive a love more authentic. In other words, true rich thick authentic love is most inconvenient - that is, unless you think God had His crucifixion for the life of the world merely scheduled out in His pda. Inconvenience, then, for the Christian, is filled with the immeasurable and redemptive possibilities of divine love.

Lord have mercy that your church, starting with me, would recognize authentic love and would be most industrious in its dispensing in this world.

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¹ Farley, Lawrence. The Prison Epistles, The Orthodox Bible Study Companion Series. (Ben Lomond, Calif.: Conciliar Press, 2003) , p. 162. Commenting on Colossians 2:5.

In this final part of our consideration of catholicity presented by the fourth century bishop Cyril of Jerusalem, we turn from considering geographic ubiquity, theological worldview and discipline to the conception of the church as a universal hospital for sinners. Again, for convenience, I have included the quote from Cyril that we’re considering:

The Church is called ‘catholic’ or ‘universal’ because it has spread throughout the entire world, from one end of the earth to the other. Again, it is called catholic because it teaches fully and unfailingly all the doctrines which ought to be brought to men’s knowledge, whether concerned with visible or invisible things, with the realities of heaven or the things of earth. Another reason for the name ‘catholic’ is that the Church brings under religious obedience all classes of men, rulers and subjects, learned and unlettered. Finally, it deserves the title ‘catholic’ because it heals and cures without restriction every type of sin that can be committed in soul or in body, and because it possesses within itself every kind of virtue that can be named, whether exercised in actions or in words or in some kind of spiritual charism [(i.e., spiritual gift)].^[1]

Hospital for Sinners

When the catholic church is on its mark in any given locale, it serves as a hospital for sinners. It is a place where we may come and expect to be changed with a view towards loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. This requires positive shaping (theological worldview) and negative formation (discipline without distinction). These two elements serve as the Doctor’s instruments that convert and heal.

Conclusion

These aspects of the church expressed locally are all done in concert with the rest of the church catholic. If they are done without this jugular connection, the visible lessening of the reality of the gospel occurs, for Christ did not come only to renew those in your church or mine, but to bring cosmic restoration, catholic renewal of all that is. The local and the catholic are as rain drops in a rainstorm. If one takes the former out of the context of the later it ceases to be rain and is reduced to mere moisture.

 

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^[1] The Catechetical Instructions of Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, d. 386, Catechesis 18, 23-5: Patrologia Graeca  33, 1043-50. Tr. The Office of Readings according to the Roman Rite (Slough, 1983), p. 926. As cited in G. R. Evans and J. Robert Wright, The Anglican Tradition : A Handbook of Sources (London: SPCK, 1991), 27.

In about 347 A.D. Cyril of Jerusalem laid out a succinct list of four connotations that were circumscribed by the notion of catholicity:

The Church is called ‘catholic’ or ‘universal’ because it has spread throughout the entire world, from one end of the earth to the other. Again, it is called catholic because it teaches fully and unfailingly all the doctrines which ought to be brought to men’s knowledge, whether concerned with visible or invisible things, with the realities of heaven or the things of earth. Another reason for the name ‘catholic’ is that the Church brings under religious obedience all classes of men, rulers and subjects, learned and unlettered. Finally, it deserves the title ‘catholic’ because it heals and cures without restriction every type of sin that can be committed in soul or in body, and because it possesses within itself every kind of virtue that can be named, whether exercised in actions or in words or in some kind of spiritual charism [(i.e., spiritual gift)].^[1]

Geographic Ubiquity

While the invisible church is no doubt spread across the face of this earth in places like Egypt and Iraq, Nigeria and Uganda, India and Uzbekistan, China and Laos, Brazil and Mexico, and Britain and the United States, Cyril’s ecclesiology does not so readily allow for the abstraction of the visible from the invisible. It is certainly the invisible church that is Christ’s instrument to create in us a theological world-view, to disciple us and to heal us from our many sins. However, it is that in the context of the visible church.

So catholicity is very important because the visible is connected to the invisible ostensibly. Our presence as a church in the area in which we live does say something about the invisible church (may we not misrepresent it!). The connectedness of all who are part of the invisible church via Jesus is to be demonstrated in the relation of the organization and attitude of the visible church. In other words, while the visible church is bound together and throttled forward by polity and committees, these are but instrumental vehicles that correspond to the invisible catholic work of the Spirit. Nevertheless, independent churches would be inconsistent with what Cyril seem to articulate here because they do not visibly demonstrate the invisible connection to the church worldwide.

Look for part 2 tomorrow…

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^[1] The Catechetical Instructions of Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, d. 386, Catechesis 18, 23-5: Patrologia Graeca  33, 1043-50. Tr. The Office of Readings according to the Roman Rite (Slough, 1983), p. 926. As cited in G. R. Evans and J. Robert Wright, The Anglican Tradition : A Handbook of Sources (London: SPCK, 1991), 27.

Dr. Richard Pratt founder of Third Millennium ministries and former professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary has a video that you really ought to see. When my wife and I lived in Russia (2000-2002), we shifted gears in our missionary focus, precisely because there was such a void of well translated, academic, orthodox material in a philologically aesthetic format (relative to Russians). That is when we first came across Third Millennium Ministries, and were able to use their material with good results to train future elders in an Russian church. At the very least it is worth hearing about what Dr. Pratt et al are doing, how you might pray, and even financially support this ministry. The tools they are making are the kinds of things that missionaries need today to do more effective and enduring work around the world.