A Holy Church

Much of my childhood was spent on the front pew of the Church of the Nazarene in a little lumber town in western Oregon. Now I know I wasn't on the front pew because I was especially religious, but that’s where my parents could keep a watchful eye on me from the choir. All it took was a disapproving glare from the choir loft to stop any poor church behavior. From my first row vantage point I often witnessed my parents leading worship in various ways. My dad led often led the singing, my mom was our local missions president for most of my childhood.

One of my vivid memories is of them singing a duet, a gospel song popular in those days titled, On the Jericho road. Part of the chorus says:

“On the Jericho road
There's room for just two
No more or no less
Just Jesus and you.”

I loved hearing my parents sing this song, but it never dawned on me as a young boy it was really strange not only for the song to be presented as a duet but also the whole idea of "room for just two" didn't fit with New Testament discipleship.

And it's fair to say at least part of the reason the error of the idea never dawned on me was it never dawned on anybody who taught me the Christian way. My family and the congregation that nurtured my mind and heart in the life of Jesus until I was a young man taught me the supreme concern was my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I emerged from my childhood a committed Christian, but one who thought of discipleship mostly as "Just Jesus and me."

Now please don't misunderstand--that's not all bad. I am deeply grateful I learned what so many have not learned--you can have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I have since learned, however, Christian life is at the heart a community life. I understand I do not walk this Christian journey alone. I am one member among many members of the body of Christ.

In fact I think I would now say my supreme concern is not only for my personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but also that I might live as a true Christian within the community of faith so together we might show the world what the kingdom of God looks like.

As we think about God's call to holiness, there is much more at stake than our personal holiness. A major part of this biblical call to holiness is God calling His church to be holy. God is not only calling you to be holy, He is calling us, together to be holy.

However, twenty years of pastoral ministry in the Church of the Nazarene have convinced me whenever we think about our walk with Jesus we think mostly in terms of a personal and sometimes even a private journey.

“There’s room for just two.
No more and no less, just Jesus and you.”

This individual mindset has some disturbing consequences. For example, there is in today's church a common lack of intimacy among God's people. We who speak of ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ are, in fact, often not that close. Paradoxically, Christians are some of the loneliest people in America.

The cultural value of personal rights as supreme is often reflected in the Church. Our society has driven home the idea what matters most is your rights. Have it your way, protect yourself, actualize yourself, take care of yourself. This unchristian idea has thoroughly invaded the Church. People leave churches every week on their way to different churches because, they say, "My needs just weren't being met"--as if that's the main issue in being part of a church.

There is also a kind of "boot straps theology" at work whereby people seem to believe being reconciled to God is mostly their work. "I" come to Christ, "I" get saved, "I" repent, "I" reorder my life, "I" surrender all. This rugged individualism we have become so steeped in impacts every dimension of our Christian lives. It certainly impacts the way we think about and express the doctrine of holiness.

In my lifetime I can recall few if any sermons about the fact the Church is called to be holy. And if we begin to think about how the Church should be holy, it raises some different questions.

Maybe holiness has as much to do with how we act and live together as it does with how you act and live individually.

Now there is no doubt the grace of God's sanctifying work is thoroughly personal. I mean a life marked by the very character and spirit of Jesus is personal. But it is not private. This is borne throughout the Scriptures but it is beautifully evident in the way Jesus prays for us just before He goes to the cross.

This wonderful prayer of Jesus in John 17 has the balance just right. Jesus does begin His prayer, interestingly enough, praying for himself. His relationship with the Father is personal. But it is not private for Jesus very quickly moves His prayer to the relationship He and His Father desire with all of us who would believe.

Jesus' prayer for us is a corporate prayer and as He prays for us together one of the main things He prays for is that we would be holy. He prays, "Sanctify them by the truth" (verse 17). His longing is that somehow in our life together we might experience what it means to be a sanctified church. What does that mean?

It means we are set apart, we are given a new and special identity and mission. It means we no longer live by the values and priorities of this world.

So He prays, "They are not of the world any more than I am of the world." And yet by His sanctifying grace we are to live in this world as His distinctive people. Jesus prays, "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one."

Jesus imagines more than a collection of holy individuals who happen to get together on Sundays. He imagines a holy Church--where the result is greater than the sum of the parts.

Something powerful and new happens as God's people join together to impact this world as a people who by the very quality of their lives together and their love for each other make an eternal mark on the world and point people to a God of love and grace.

So Jesus prays, "I sanctify myself (I set myself apart for a holy purpose - the cross), that they (we, us) too may be truly sanctified (set apart for a holy purpose).

Everywhere the New Testament places the idea of a sanctified discipleship squarely within the context of the community of faith. Even as Jesus continues his prayer he says, "May they . . . Be one as we are one" (John 17:21-22).

I think the important question then becomes, “How can a church like ours live this out? What does it mean, what does it look like for a church to be holy?” Let me suggest four ways our church can be an answer to the prayer of Jesus.

The first of those ways has to do with worship. We’ve said before worship is our central and core activity as a church. Everything else we are and everything we do must rise from our worship together.

The reason I believe so many congregations fall short of living in holiness together is because worship becomes not much more than an exercise in personal preference. When worship becomes a matter of styles and forms and methods, we cannot live together in holiness.

The phrase “worship wars” ought to sound as grotesque in our ears as “adulterous wife” or “embezzling banker” or “pedophile priest.” (Eugene Peterson uses similar phraseology in a different context).

When worship centers more around individual concerns and preferences there is no way it can honor God who is always to be the object and the subject of our worship. (Marva Dawn forwards this idea in her book, “A Royal Waste of Time”).

This is why it’s important for our worship to be centered on the word of God, organized around the story of redemption as remembered in the Christian calendar, and energized by the Spirit who is present in word and sacrament to make us a holy church. Worship is essential.

The second way to be a holy church has to do with Christian forgiveness. Of course the larger issue is love which is central to the whole idea of holiness. But I want to talk about forgiveness because what most damages authentic corporate holiness is unforgiveness. Forgiveness lies at the very heart of the gospel and at the heart of Christian holiness.

If we really believe what we say we believe about holiness then our relationships as brothers and sisters in Christ should not so regularly remain broken by unforgiveness.

Holy churches are places where people are well aware life together will inevitably lead to hurts and misunderstandings. But our pattern and our commitment when that happens is to extend grace, mercy, and forgiveness to one another. It’s critical for a holy church.

The third way to corporate holiness is through a spirit of unity. Christian unity is the indisputable sign the people of God have surrendered their own interests to the kingdom interest of serving God and neighbor.

It’s a unity of Spirit that says, “Even though we are so different from one another, and even though we have different ideas and different practices and different lifestyles--we belong to each other and we need each other. This kind of unity crosses institutional, national, economic, racial, and gender barriers. Where holiness is active, the typical prejudices, discriminations, and suspicions between people are disempowered.

The fourth way to corporate holiness is through service. Corporate holiness is much more than a group of Christians being pious. It is the community of faith actively serving each other and engaging a broken world with acts of sacrificial love and service.

Certainly we could identify other ways a church moves toward holiness in its life together. But these four are central and critical: worship, forgiveness, unity, and service.

So how are we doing? Are we the kind of church where the spirit of Christ can move and work and cleanse and transform so that somehow in our corporate life we become an answer to Jesus’ prayer?

Are we remembering our worship is not about our personal preferences but about the exaltation of Christ and the praise of God’s glorious grace?

Are we remembering the gospel will never allow us to remain in broken relationships with each other? Is forgiveness active among us?

Are we remembering we can only be a holy church when we live in unity together, preferring one another above ourselves and laying aside petty differences for the greater mission?

Are we remembering our whole reason to exist has to do with those who are not yet a part of us? Do we remember we are here not to serve ourselves but to serve lost and broken people?

I want to say, “Yes--we are a church that remembers those things.” We certainly are not living there flawlessly. Sometimes we fail. But I do believe that God is helping us to be a holy church.

I want us to remember Jesus prayed for us so we would be holy. He died and rose again to make us holy. He is working even now to make us holy.

Let’s be careful never to resist the work of Christ in our midst. Let’s always be responsive and open, living in surrender to the lordship of Christ--not only individually, but also together.

Truth is, on the Jericho road there is room for more than just two. There is room for all who join the company of redeemed and commit to walking together on this wonderful highway of holiness. Let’s keep walking.