April 23, 2015 – “C” is for catholic

“I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting…amen” Apostle’s Creed (The third article of the Creed)

I have often been asked why, as Lutherans, we pray to the Catholic Church in the Creed. My answer is this – we don’t. The word catholic in the Creed is not capitalized. Catholic – with a capital “C” means the Roman Catholic Church. But when the word catholic is not capitalized, it means “universal”. I understand that the Apostle’s Creed used to read “the Holy Christian church”. But it was changed at some point in time, and so we get some confusion in the understanding of this statement from people who may not have learned something about the creed in their Confirmation years.

So what does it mean to experience the “universal” church? We can look at the universal church in two distinct ways. We can remember the church universal, the church of all time and space, from the beginning of our relationship with G*d as a people. There have been so many people who have died for the faith, have devoted their lives to the faith, have taught the faith, have lived out the faith, and have passed along the faith to their children, year after year after year. And then there is the church “universal” – the church across the entire world – people who will gather together with one another on this day and every Sunday to worship G*d in many different expressions. One of the most mind-blowing experiences for me as a pastor is to realize that on a Sunday morning, there are like-minded Christians reciting the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostle’s Creed and celebrating Holy Communion together if not almost simultaneously across the country if not the world. The is the holy catholic Church in action. This is the strength of the catholic church. We must remember that we are the “one”, “holy”, “catholic”, and “apostolic” church, which we are remembering, are experiencing, and are passing along to the next generation of believers.

Pastor Dave