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friends. It is my pleasure and privilege to introduce to you for a second time, our 2013 Westervelt lecture of the reverend joseph D. Small. Now , if you were here yesterday, you already know

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that joe stands virtually without equal as a theologian of the church. I think it would be hard to find somebody who's vision is clearer or whose thoughts are crisper than joe's when it comes to the subject of

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ecclesial ology. And for a long time a lot of us have looked to joe for that kind of clarity of vision and crispness of thinking. We have gone to him for insight and guidance and I'll have

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to confess at least in my case, the occasional mid course correction as long as we have sought to serve the church. I want to give you two examples out of my own personal experience with joe.

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You can read his resume as well as I can speak it In 2005, at least. That's when I think it was Joe, The Presbyterian ST Augustine , which is the Presbyterian II served as executive for

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13 years, was engaged in one of those occasional self inflicted paroxysms of uncertainty called a mission study and structural redesign. We decided we'd go at this differently , however than we'd ever done it before. And

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instead of starting with the question now, how shall we reorganize our dwindling resources so as to get more and more out of less and less. We decided we'd start a little earlier in the scheme of questions

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. We clicked the dial back twice, not to the question, how shall we do it? Or even to the question, what shall we do? But to the prior question of them all, who

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are we and who does God intend for us to be? We decided to start with that question. And we asked joe small to come and answer it for us, and he did. He brought us

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a brilliant little meditation on the church as koinonia, as community. And he built that notion around the doctrine of the trinity, observing that the nature of God was a divine community of three persons, distinct

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but inseparable, connected by relationships that made it impossible to speak of one. Without speaking of the whole the church, all the parts of the church presbyteries included need to reflect that communal and relational nature,

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at least. That's what I took away from joe's talk that day. We are parts of the same body, distinct as God's creations, yet inextricably bound in relationships of mutual accountability and love. And without

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that sense of koinonia, we as the church, whether congregational E at the presbyterian level or as a denomination, are little more than a voluntary association of the like minded. That idea was transformative for us

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and it reshaped what we did as we re conceived , what it meant to be the presbyterian ST AUC ST Augustine. The other example occurred about a year later In 2006. I was elected to be a

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part of the form of government task force. And as the task force was beginning its work to redraft our first section of the book of Order, we were trying to identify the core principles and ideas on

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which that redrafting would be founded and we thought who can we talk to that would guide us in that . And the answer was obvious. We wanted to talk to joe small, so joe cain. It

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may have been the very best decision we made to spend that afternoon with you. I hope you remember it as well as I do. He came and pointed out to us the danger of a word I

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hadn't heard before, clerical is um, and by that, he didn't mean that the danger of having administrative assistance. He was talking about the idea that ministry is the province of a professional class of clergy

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and that the rest of us are essentially audience too , and critics of that ministry, but not participates participants in it. Such a notion, joe argued , is anathema to a reformed ecclesial ology. And

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instead, joe reminded us that ministry is that are that the basic form of ministry rather is the ministry of the whole people of God, all of us and each of us and that we all have roles

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in that ministry. We are parts of a body , each of us with his or her own function building together the ministry of the whole. The Church has determined that certain sets of skills and gifts are

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necessary required even for the building up of that ministry . And so it has set aside or ordered those gifts and skills into particular ordered ministries. We presbyterians call them deacons, ruling elders and teaching elders,

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but whatever their titles, the idea is that we are different in function in these ministries, but never in substance. We differ only in function from the ministry of the whole People of God. And these

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ministries exist always for the purpose of equipping and strengthening that larger and more basic ministry. That's what joe small reminded us that day, and that day led directly to the second chapter of the form of Government

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, which is now a part of our Book of Order and to a rethinking of what it meant to be congregations and presbyteries, and indeed, of a church as a whole. I could go on with

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this, but you've heard enough from me enough at least to establish that when it comes to ecclesial ology , there is no voice I am more eager to hear than the voice of joe small. I'm sure

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that's true of you too. So let us hear that voice again. It is my pleasure to give to you, my mentor, my teacher and my friend reverend, joseph D Small. Thank you,

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paul. You've teed it up nicely for me this morning. This is my first experience of midwinter lectures . And it's beginning to remind me of a television reality show, Survivor Austin Seminary. So you're still

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on the island and here we go, mm hmm . Again this morning. To texts for this thinly disguised sermon first, from the first letter, john that which was from the beginning which we have heard

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, which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest and we saw it and testify to it and proclaim to

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you the eternal life which was with the father and was made manifest to us, that which we have seen and heard. We proclaim also to you, so that you may have communion with us and our

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communion is with the father and with his son, jesus christ. Mhm. And the second text is from again, one of The late 20th century's best theologians John Updike, if you haven't read Updike,

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you really need to and this is a lovely place to start this book. And the beauty of the lilies, which is a kind of romp four generation , robbed through what has become of religion In 20th

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century America Okay, a company of believers is like a prison full of criminals. Their intimacy and solidarity are based on what about themselves they can least justify . It's a fundamental conviction of classic reformed ecclesia ology

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, that the gathered congregation is the basic form of church. More precisely, reformed ecclesial ology understands that the gathered congregation is most truly itself when it is gathered around word water, bread and wine In worship

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of the one God who is Emmanuel God with us and who's active, word is spoken to us, I will be your God, and you shall be my people. Now, it's also a fundamental conviction

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of reformed ecclesia ology, that the gathered congregation is not a sufficient form of church. The congregation gathered by word and sacrament is the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, but not of itself alone, as

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if it were a solitary, self contained ecclesia. The gathered congregation is the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church only in its essential communion with the Lord and therefore it's communion with other gathered congregations. Now,

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both of those convictions require considerable unpacking because they're not manifest in the self understanding of contemporary reformed churches. But all I can offer this morning is a brief sketch that I hope will be suggestive. Now,

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once again, it's helpful to start with Calvin, not because he's a privileged authority or because I have an unnatural affection for him, but because his distinctive approach to the church provides a useful angle of vision

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on the current state of our churches and a suggestive path towards reshaping the life of our churches. As we listen to Calvin, it's worth reminding ourselves that he was a second generation reformer. Or perhaps it's

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better to say to you, is part of the 1.5 generation of the reformation. Okay, Central theological trajectories of reform had been laid out by the time the young john Calvin experienced his sudden conversion to the

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reformation cause. Among the unfinished tasks that remained, however, we're shaping christian communities that would be capable of ensuring reception of reformed faith and the nurture of reformed faithfulness and that's why the church was central in

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all of Calvin's writings and why the task of giving new shape to the to the life of the church was central to all of his labors in Geneva. And now in our time of ecclesial disarray, it

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may be worth renewed attention to Calvin's reform of the shape of the church. Now the swiss reformation had a particular approach to the nature and purpose of the church that began not with the church itself, but

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with christ In the words of the 10 Theses of Baron, That's, 15, The holy christian church whose only head is christ is born of the word and abides in the same and listens not to the

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voice of a stranger. This declaration is more than a self evident bromide for the word of God sounds in the midst of many other voices, societal, political and religious voices. And so the church must

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always be called back to its true self. Centuries after Baron, the theological declaration of Barman sought to recall the church to the evangelical truth that jesus christ as he is attested. For us in Holy scripture

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, is the one word of God which we have to hear, in which we have to trust and obey in life and in death. And Barman went on to reject the false doctrine as though the church

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could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation. Apart from this one word of God , Still other events and powers figures in truth is God's revelation. So what the reformed tradition means by

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church begins with the Word of God, jesus christ revealed to us through the word of God scripture and as the creation of the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit, the church comes into being continuously

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through the real presence of christ and word and sacrament , the real presence of the living christ in proclamation baptism and Eucharist. So how do we know this creature of the word when we see it in word

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and sacrament said, Calvin in word and sacrament, he said. The church comes forth and becomes visible to our eyes and this you all know wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard and

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the sacraments administered according to christ's institution. There, it is not to be doubted, a church of God exists, the Word of God rightly proclaimed and heard baptism and the Lord's supper celebrated in fidelity to

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christ. These are the clear indicators of the one holy catholic and apostolic church where we see faithful proclamation in sacramental life, we see the church now. Clearly these marks are not the only things that congregations

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do. Churches engage in many other forms of mission and ministry, but at the heart of it all animating and shaping everything else must be God's word, present and preaching and teaching in baptism and Eucharist and

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so central are those two marks, Calvin said that we must embrace any church that has them, even if it otherwise swarms with many faults. The calvins , two marks of the church center on lived faith

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within congregations. He does not speak in the first instance about a churches Orthodox doctrine or about its sacramental theology, much less about its structures, but about faithful proclamation and reception and faithful sacramental practice within gathered

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christian communities, Calvin's marks of the Church pointed to congregations, not academies, two assemblies of people not libraries to worship, not books, doctrinal purity and sacramental precision are not the primary issue, as if

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the marks serve only to provide us with standards by which to critique others. Calvin's marks concern our fundamental ecclesial faithfulness that allows the gospel to be received, believed and lived by ordinary men and women. Now

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two features of Calvin's formulation must be emphasized. One explicit and the other implicit. First Notice that Calvin Adds two little words and heard to the preaching of the word faithful congregation is where the proclaimed word is

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heard, not in a merely auditory manner, of course, but rather heard received, believed and lived . And similarly, the sacraments are administered, carried out, conducted within and by the whole community,

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the whole assembly, in accordance with christ. The marks are not simply functions of what ministers do, but characteristics of the whole people of God who are called to faithful living under the word not listening to

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the siren voices of strangers. Well 2nd and implicitly Calvin was concerned that proclaiming the word of God christ , he was certain that proclaiming the present word of God christ and being united with christ through baptism and

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the Lord's supper actually formed faithful disciples in a community equipped for living out the faithful life in the world . Calvin was confident that the word and sacrament are effective. They give us precisely what they portray.

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They give us christ preaching God's word in parts christ himself to us maintaining christ living presence among us. The word is near you on your lips and in your heart romans 10 8 and the sacraments represent the

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person and work of christ making real among us the very presence of christ. We were buried. Therefore with him by baptism into his death so that as christ was raised from the dead by the glory of

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the father. We too might walk in newness of life romans 64 or the cup of blessing which we bless. Is it not a communion in the blood of christ? The bread which we break? Is

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it not a communion in the body of christ First Corinthians 1016, Calvin takes it as a settled principle that the sacraments have the same office as the word of God to offer and set forth christ to us

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and in him the treasures of heavenly grace. The church born of the word made flesh abides in union with the crucified and risen christ through proclamation and sacraments because they're more than liturgical activities and certainly more than

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the memory of a long ago and far away, jesus, they are the principal means by which we come to life as the body of christ now, because Calvin's marks of word and sacraments centered on the

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lived faith of actual congregations, they don't work well if they're used as boundaries to determine who's in and who's out after all. Where is the word purely preached, let alone heard. And where are the

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sacraments administered? Always in accord with christ, Calvin's marks of the church don't function as borders, but as directional signs pointing to the core of faithful church life. Any community claiming to be a christian church

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must place proclamation of the gospel of jesus, christ at the heart of its life through proclaiming and living the word and through faithfully enacting the word in baptism and the Lord's supper. Now, contemporary application of

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word and sacrament as marks of the church are not mere nostalgia for reformation, clarity, because word and sacraments provide us with foundational, identify irs of ecclesial faithfulness. The question to be asked of any congregation

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or denomination is whether word and sacraments are found at the heart of common life. When we look at a christian community, when we look at our christian communities, do we see at the center of its

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life, spoken and enacted proclamation of the Gospel? Although congregations and denominations engage in a wide variety of activities that grow from preaching, teaching and celebrating the sacraments, those programs and activities must not bury word

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and sacrament or push word and sacrament to the periphery of church life. The whole range of church life must remain subject to authentication by word and sacrament, the embodiment of the Gospel in the life of christ

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men and women. Now, if word in sacrament together are at the heart of the church is true and faithful life neglect of one leads to deformation of the other. For when either word or sacrament exists

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alone, it soon becomes a parody of itself. Reformed christians are aware of how sacraments can become objects of eccentric piety in churches where sacraments are exalted and preaching is minimalized, but we may be less aware

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of how easily preaching and teaching can deteriorate into idiosyncratic monologues, institutional marketing, human potential promotion or bourgeois conformity, and churches that magnify preaching while marginalising baptism and Eucharist. The real and present danger of sacramental

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minimalism, which is our real and present danger is that a church of the word alone will degenerate into a church of mere words and words are what we fight about and words are what we fight with Reformed

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churches so neglectful of the sacraments. So tied to words are the churches that have divided and split more than any other ecclesial tradition, more than lutherans, or anglicans or Methodists, or Catholics, or Orthodox

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. And it may well be that our history of schism, always going from disputes about words, fought with words, is a result of our deficiency. As a church. Our failure to be a church

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of the word and sacrament, word and sacrament together are instances of the real presence of christ. And so it's the christ's real presence that we now turn . Remember, the gathered congregation is the basic form

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of church, but not a sufficient form of church . The gathered congregation is the one holy catholic and apostolic church only in its essential communion with the Lord , and therefore with other gathered congregations. So,

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first communion with the Lord of the church, juergen moellemann sets forth a crucial ecclesial, logical axiom. The way one thinks about Christ Is also the way one thinks about the church. Thus, ecclesial ology

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can only be developed from crist ology and its consequence and correspondence with it, that clearly there are numerous angles of approach to a genuine crystal logical ecclesial ology , but one that focuses on the real presence of

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christ is suggested by Dietrich rituals, inquiry in his book, memory and hope, Developed by the way from his 1967 curry lectures here at Austin Seminary. Richard was also in the faculty of Austin Seminary before

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he went to Pittsburgh where he was my revered teacher . The ritual begins by noting with approval, Bonhoeffer is critique of scholastic ecclesia ology that asks what is jesus christ, rather than asking who is jesus christ

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, because only by asking who is that we can avoid a separation between christ being and his work between his person and his benefits and answering the who question turns attention to the whole christ's present actions hans fries

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, discussion of the identity of jesus christ makes the same point. A person is what he does centrally and most significantly so ritual asks who christ is by asking what christ does and his inquiry at one point

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incorporates a synopsis of new testament passages that speak of christ's actions, What christ does as a way of understanding who christ is, after all, neither gospels nor epistle set out a self contained christ apart from

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his acts within Israel with his disciples and for the world and neither gospels nor epistles separate christ acts from his being in the new testament, Witness, jesus acts as God to us and there's us to God

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. And ritual summary of these actions is displayed in a call and response schema which you have in front of you, jesus christ is simultaneously. Yahoo is call humanity's response. Yahoo's demand humanity's fulfillment. Yahoo's

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invitation, humanity's prayer, you always will. Humanity's obedience. Yeah, always revelation, humanity's understanding yahoo's word, Humanity's reply. Yeah, ways command humanity's following. Yeah, always anointed humanity servant. Yahoo

00:28:00.600 - 00:28:22.620

help humanity's cry and so on and so on and the list that ritual gives is deliberately incomplete and the specific terminology is not really the main point because rituals contention is that jesus christ should not be described in

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terms of being or location or relation of nature's but of functions and so he sets out a call and response. Crist ology, in terms of christ's priestly actions is the one who does both. The initiating

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works of God and the opposite lee responsive human works and in these priestly actions the human response is no less astonishing and no less salve. If IQ then the divine call in some how jesus christ acts reveals

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who jesus christ is for us and our salvation, the one who is both the living and active word of God and the one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sinning. In

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this view, the cradle formula, truly God and truly human is not a static description of substances, but a dynamic condensation of God's faithful call and humanities , faithful response embodied in one person, jesus christ

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rituals aim is to inquire into the presence of christ . So his call and response. Crist ology is not restricted to long ago and far away galilee and Jerusalem. The risen christ remains present to us and

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with us as mediator as our great high priest who continues to be God's call to us and who continues to be faithful. Human response on our behalf, christ is the righteousness of God, whose call generates

00:30:10.370 - 00:30:29.720

knowledge of God's covenant, all will to be our God, and to form us as his people. Christ is the righteousness of God, whose call once heard elicits our response to remember the way one thinks

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about christ is the way one thinks about the church , just as we've asked who christ is, rather than what christ is, and just as we've answered , who christ is, by what christ does.

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So we can ask who the churches by observing what the church does like. Crist ology. Ecclesial ology can be approached dynamically, rather than statically by looking theologically at the life of the Church. Rather than

00:31:02.520 - 00:31:18.360

distilling an abstract nature of the church. And looking theologically at the life of the Church requires cutting through the myriad activities of countless congregations in order to perceive the actions that lie behind them. And so,

00:31:19.240 - 00:31:42.610

with apologies to Dietrich ritual, what we see in the life of the Church is God's call and the Church's response and indifference. God's demand the church's fulfillment and obstinacy. God's invitation. The church is prayer

00:31:42.620 - 00:32:04.550

and curse God's will. The church is obedience and disobedience. God's revelation, the Church's understanding and ignorance . God's word, the church's reply and silence God's command the churches following a defiance, God's anointing the

00:32:04.550 - 00:32:21.590

church's service and selfishness. God's help the Church's cry and self boasting and so on and so on. A call and response. Crist ology embodies dynamic movement rather than static categories. It focuses on particular actions

00:32:21.590 - 00:32:37.550

rather than abstract natures, and it preserves the humanness of christ against all day ascetic distortions, and similarly , a call and response. Ecclesial ology focuses on the Church's actual life rather than an ideal nature,

00:32:38.340 - 00:32:53.460

and it casts the relationship between the try and God and the church and dynamic reality within history. The way we think about christ is the way we think about the church, but the church is not christ

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. Unlike its Lord, the church's response to God's call is always mixed, ambiguous and equivocal closure, simple Eustis at Takata Church, it was justified and center. Now, each gathered congregation consists of people

00:33:19.920 - 00:33:39.960

who have responded to God's gracious call in jesus christ , but those responses are never perfect. They may not even be conscious and intentional, and yet the people who are there are there. The congregation gathered

00:33:39.960 - 00:33:57.720

around pulpit font and table is a strange blend of faithfulness and faithlessness, ebbing and flowing in time, but the one who calls is the ever faithful, ever present living christ whose invitation comes in a gracious

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multitude of ways, and the people are gathered not by virtue of their devotion, but in ambiguous and yet actual response to the call, some ingratitude and others in hope, some in service and others in

00:34:15.900 - 00:34:36.530

need, some in anticipation and others out of habit . The call of christ cannot be limited and response cannot be divided into pure and tainted. God knows our hearts, but all we know is that the

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church is the ecclesia, the called ones whose responses remain mixed and carl. Bart is surely right when he deplores every attempt to distinguish between real christians and christians only in appearance. The truth says Bart,

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is that not merely some or many, but all members of the christian community stand under the sad possibility that they might not be real christians. And yet at all, and not merely some or many are

00:35:10.970 - 00:35:31.090

called from death to life and therefore to the active life of service Company of christians is bound together not by its faithfulness, but what in its life it can least justify. The church is not left on

00:35:31.090 - 00:35:50.750

its own. However reduced to self deceptive marketing of its achievements or self defeating despair over its failings. Our response to christ's call is always ambiguous, but christ call remains his faithful call to communion with him

00:35:51.740 - 00:36:05.120

and a call to be joined to him in doing the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven. The church is the place where christ's call is heard most clearly even over the din of

00:36:05.120 - 00:36:20.940

preaching, that may be more about the preacher than the gospel and even in the midst of sacramental celebrations that may be more about congregational camaraderie than union with christ. But through it all, christ is present

00:36:20.940 - 00:36:36.910

as God's word, invitation, revelation, command and help, and through it all christ is present as faithful human reply, prayer, understanding obedience and health and present with us in word and sacrament christ call

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is not a distant summons but an intimate disclosure that we're his friends, his sisters, his brothers, we're his body. The gathered congregation is most truly itself in full communion with its savior. A union

00:37:00.600 - 00:37:15.390

with christ has long been a hallmark of Reformed Ecclesia Ology. Christ said Calvin having been made hours, makes us sharers with him and the gifts with which he has been endowed. We do not therefore contemplate

00:37:15.390 - 00:37:32.140

him from outside ourselves from afar, but because we put on christ and are in grafted into his body in short because he danes to make us one with him, we glory that we have communion of righteousness

00:37:32.150 - 00:37:50.830

with him. Christ calls us to communion with him so that we are united to christ as christ has united himself to us. And in union with christ We enter into the communion of the one God Father

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, Son and Holy Spirit. And our union with christ is not simply a personal actuality, although it is that more fundamentally union with christ is an ecclesial reality. Our Lord still praise as you father are

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in me and I am and you, so may they also be in us, I and them and you and me, that they may become completely one christ call continues to beckon us to himself and to

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empower us. So that our reply maybe growth as the body of christ, loving the Lord, our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength and loving our neighbors as ourselves. So the

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gathered congregation is the basic form of church, but not a sufficient form of church. The gathered congregation is the one holy catholic apostolic church only in its essential community with its Lord, but therefore it's essential

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communion with other gathered congregations. Now, presbyterians, together with other american Protestants, are fond of referring to ourselves as a connection of church. I've never liked the term. It sounds too much like plumbing

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even at its best intentioned, it has an organizational institutional ring to it, focusing as it does on church structures. I prefer a biblical term cornea, communion coin India and its family of words occur with

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moderate frequency in the new testament variously rendered in english translations as communion fellowship, participation, partnership, sharing , contribution and taking part. And the variety of translation suggests the richness of the term. No one

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English term can capture the whole range of its meanings . Mhm. And yet readers who are confined to english translations of the new testament Are unaware that one Greek term underlies seemingly disparate terminology and so are unaware

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of the astonishing range of context in which that one term is used. The time doesn't permit anything more than a bear mention of coin India's employment to express the most significant features of christian faith in life.

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Beginning with the deep communion of believers with the Tryon God, A communion that reveals the very being of the one God, father, son and Holy Spirit . The communion of believers with God takes place in

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a communion among believers that bears the marks of communion with the triumph, God and communion within the community is more than a vague feeling of togetherness because it entails fidelity to the truth and a truthful living.

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Communion is also expressed, also expresses reconciled agreement between diverse forms of fidelity to the gospel, and differing forms of community life, as well as the reconciliation of sinners and the reconciliation of enemies one to another

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. And, moreover, communion among various local communities is characterized by mutual responsibility and accountability that finds expression in the reciprocal sharing of resources, including money. Now, all of these elements of koinonia are interrelated

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aspects of a coherent whole, which is deep, intimate abiding mutuality, characterises new relationships between God and us among us in communities of faith and among communities of faith based on coin India's depth of meaning Communion

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, Ecclesial ology is an influential contribution of the catholic church to ecclesial logical thinking, becoming now the most prominent way of talking about the church in ecumenical circles , Koinonia has been a key focus of ecumenical engagement

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for decades, especially within the World Council of Churches expressing the ecumenical goal of common confession of the apostolic faith, common sacramento life, reconciliation of ministries and common mission. And while such meta ecumenical efforts have

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borne some fruit, including so called full communion agreement among denominations, my interest in coin mania is a key to ecclesial ology is more modest. Communion. Ecclesial ology is invariably expressed vertically, and cleric lee

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gathered, eucharistic communities are in communion in one local church that is a diocese through their priests. Common communion with the bishop, whose ministry is to preserve the fidelity of the local church. But this Episcopal

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ministry cannot be exercised in isolation from other bishops, so it's necessary to have an unbroken communion of the bishops established and expressed through communion with the presiding bishop and archbishop were a primate. And then communion among

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national churches is expressed through commune with, for example , the pope or the archbishop of Canterbury is all vertical and clerical communion ecclesial ology as it exists now in eco medical conversation, is marked by ascending relationships

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of clergy, priests, and bishops. Now that episcopal understanding should not sound foreign to reform gears, However, because with a few terminal logical changes, it's not very different from the presbyterian connection allow church

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model, vertical clerical communion finds reformed expression in our system of ascending councils. Gathered congregations are in communion through minister and elder representation, and presbyteries and presbyteries are in communion through regional sentence and general assemblies.

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And of course, national churches are not in real community with anyone in spite of the aspirational termed world Communion of Reform Churches, Unless there be any doubt , we sometimes refer to presbyteries as corporate bishops.

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Our version of episcopate is corporate rather than personal, but it remains vertical and clerical missing from from communion . Ecclesial ology is a comprehensive embodiment of the ministry of the whole people of God, both Episcopal and

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conciliator, communion ecclesial Allah jeez, neglect possibilities of lived coin mania Among gathered congregations, congregations are not sufficient forms of the church and yet lived relationship between and among congregations are thin, fragile and sporadic interactions

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among congregations of the same denomination or among neighbouring congregations of different denominations, are generally limited to irregular bonds among some clergy and common support of some ministries, such as habitat for humanity. But for the most

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part congregations live there. Ecclesia lives in isolation from other congregations, often engaging in oblique competition for members . So the question is, is it possible to imagine genuine forms of communion among congregations? Can we

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imagine coin mania among reformed congregations that is not structural , but rather embodies authentic communion in faith? Sacraments , mutual ministry and shared mission. Might we even imagine coin India lived through deep communion among churches of

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diverse traditions? Is it possible to conceive of inter congregational communion that embodies the fullness of new testament, cornea, deep, intimate abiding mutuality that expresses communion and faith. Hope and love communion and sacraments.

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Communion, and the truth of the gospel, Communion and faithful living Communion and the reconciliation of differences, Communion and patterns of mutual responsibility and accountability. So how would we know a communion of congregations? If

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we saw one With about two Calvin Communion of congregations would come forth and become visible to our eyes wherever we could see the word of God preached and taught and studied and heard and lived out in common.

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And the sacraments shared regularly and normally in accordance with christ. There, it would not be doubted the Communion of Christchurch would exist. Such communion among congregations would be born of the word of God, and

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abide in the word of God, and would not listen to the siren voices of ecclesial consumer capitalism, and bureaucratic management, hearing the Word of God together and praying with and for one another, they would

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grow and living the word together, loving God and loving the world that God loves, serving the world that God loves. United in baptism and Eucharist congregations would live out their union with christ sacramental e dying

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to the old life of indifferent self sufficiency and sitting with fellow sinners at christ table. Now, it's not mere coincidence that communion is a word commonly used for the Lord's supper most intensely for the act of

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sharing bread and wine. Centuries ago. ST john of Damascus set out the church's understanding of ecclesial communion , grounded in eucharistic communion. That in turn is grounded in the gracious communion generated by God through christ

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in the spirit. So here's Saint john of Damascus , the Eucharist is called communion because through it we commune in the divinity of jesus. It is also called communion and truly is because of our having communion

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through it with christ and for taking both of his flesh and his divinity. And because we have communion with And are United to one another. For because we all eat one loaf and become one body and

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one blood of christ Members of one another, we may be said to be the body of christ. So, communion among congregations would go far beyond thinking well of each other, instituting pulpit exchanges, conducting

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joint vacation bible schools or establishing limited mission. All relationships. Communion would shape deep patterns of mutual responsibility and accountability. Finding expression in the generous sharing of resources and sharing money was the issue at hand in

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the early church and is still a mark of communions actuality and this Communion and material resources. Only one tangible verification of genuine community and the church is the communities, full resources of energy, intelligence, imagination

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and love. I'm not naive and I do not imagine that such communion among congregations is a real and present danger and it would be dangerous for any who attempted to begin however modestly to shape forms of mutuality

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lived mutuality among congregations Or even between two congregation. But neither am I optimistic about the vitality or fidelity of our existing forms of inter congregational relationship, judi clitoris are in trouble throughout american denominations for us,

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presbyterian synod's are inconsequential anachronisms. Staff driven programmatic presbyteries , A 44 decade old innovation by the way, are withering for lack of resources and commitment and general assembly agencies continue to shrink in size and relevance.

00:51:38.260 - 00:52:00.760

So it's not as if our current patterns of vertical relationships are operational, let alone faithful. The consequence of our connection aled breakdown is congregational hyper autonomy, accompanied by both formal and practical departures from denominational structures

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and to compound the ecclesial problem, american society is increasingly characterized by D Church ng the abandonment of congregational embodiments of faith for more congenial forms of personal religiosity . So our challenge then Is to reform congregational communion

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with our one Lord in lives of shared communal faith and faithfulness so that the gospel we will be uncovered for a world in desperate need of its reconciling power and it's possible for the congregation of which you're a

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part to begin to discover ways to live out that kind of communion with one other congregation or to other congregations. It's possible but difficult. And so perhaps the best way to end this inadequate sketch is to

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hear T. S. Elliot's compelling account of what christ calls us to be and do this is from Elliot's long poem choruses from the rock and if this little snippet oh captures you in any way, it's

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worth reading the whole poem. Why should men love the church? Why should they love her laws? She tells him of life and death and of all they would forget she is tender. Where they would

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be hard and hard, where they like to be soft. She tells him of evil and sin and other unpleasant facts. They try to escape from the darkness outside and within by dreaming of systems so perfect

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that no one will need to be good. But the man that is will shadow the man that pretends to be. And the son of Man was not crucified once for all the blood of the martyrs was

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not shed once for all the lives of the saints , not given once for all. But the Son of Man is crucified always and there shall be martyrs and saints. And if the blood of the martyrs

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is to flow on the steps, we must first build the steps, and if the temple is to be cast down, we must first build the temple