Ephesians 5:25-27 - The Communion of Saints - August 26, 2018

When you boil it down, the Apostles’ Creed is basically a short list of Biblical facts; things that God has done, things that are true regardless of whether anyone believes them or not. But these facts do not save anyone unless they believe them…thus the I believe part of the confession. While the 1st and 2nd articles are composed of things the Father and Son have done – things it is only possible to accept by faith because we weren’t there to see them; the 3rd article presents the work and activity of the Holy Spirit in our world and in our midst right here and now. Why, then, do we say we believe these things – and not that we see them? Because quite often, the facts seem to stand in stark contrast to that which we do see. Take the phrase before us this morning: the communion of saints. Based on the inspired Word of God we believe that there are living saints who are in perfect communion with God and with one another. Be honest: is that what you saw in the mirror this morning? Is that what you see when you look around? But what is a saint? How does one become a saint? What is a communion and how do you get it? Those questions will focus our attention this morning.

While much of the doctrinal language of Scripture has been lost to modern culture as a result of biblical illiteracy and the dumbing down of education (how many people can properly define justification or grace?) the word and concept of “saint” has survived. The world has its saints. They are idolized at awards shows. They are memorialized with a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. They have hospital wings and schools named after them. And, usually, they all have one thing in common: they’re dead. (Senator McCain joined these ranks overnight.)

That’s because our society in general has a very Roman Catholic understanding of “saint”-hood. A Catholic dictionary gives this definition of a “saint”: in the strict sense saints are those who distinguish themselves by heroic virtue during life…the Church’s official recognition of sanctity implies that the persons are now in heavenly glory. [1] In Catholic thought, saints are those who locked themselves away in cold, lonely monasteries/nunneries and devoted themselves to long hours of prayer; who waged war against the enemies of Christ and died trying; who denied themselves and faced persecution and disease to help others; who lived humble, self-sacrificing, moral, upright lives. This is the standard conception of what it means to be a saint. And, like all good errors, this one survives because it is half-true. If we who have been saved from the fires of hell by Christ are compelled by his love to live for him now (2 Corinthians 5:14-15) – then many of those things ought to characterize our lives too, right? We ought to be people who forget ourselves to serve others, who suffer persecution and pain as we carry our own crosses, who deny the desires of the flesh in order to follow the will of God, who are determined to live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. (1 Timothy 2:2)

And so, while we thank God for protecting us from the faith-killing errors of worshipping and praying to the saints (a related Roman Catholic heresy) – we might ask ourselves whether the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction. That we don’t love the good and virtuous as much as we ought to. That rather than cherish and admire those who give of their time, their energy, their gifts to support the church and serve others – and strive to follow their example; we abuse their generosity by expecting it. It’s a sad commentary if we still pay lip-service to the Biblical principles of faithfulness and humility and self-sacrifice – but in practice, we operate with the worldly attitude that actually pride ourselves on how little we can do and still get by, on how quickly we can accomplish tasks rather than their quality, that we often ask “how can the church serve me?” instead of “how can I serve the church?” Diligence, faithfulness, hard work, self-sacrifice and service to others are fruits of the Spirit that we should all strive for. (Galatians 5:22-23) May it never be said among us: “well, I can’t do anything to be saved – so that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” If we have ever justified our lack of effort in our commitments to our God, our spouses, children, families, jobs, or Christ’s church by the truth that we are saved by grace and not by our works, we need to repent; to call it what it is: sin – and rejoice that Jesus worked tirelessly to save us from those sins.

And yet, as natural as the Catholic definition of a “saint” is, it’s not the meaning of the word as it is used in the Creed or, more importantly, in Scripture. In the Bible, a saint is not a person who lives an especially holy life nor does it refer exclusively to dead people – it is rather applied to all who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. The Greek word for saint is hagios, which doesn’t refer to what a person does as much as what a person is. The basic meaning is “set apart.” [2] How are natural born sinners set apart from their sin? Paul tells us: Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

In contrast to the view that only a few exceptional – and dead – individuals are saints, Paul says that the entire church – from the 5 year old to the 85 year old – is holy, is a saint in God’s eyes. This is not because of who they are or what they have done – but, rather, because of what has been done to them. The reality is that when Christ found us, we were not holy, we were not without stain or wrinkle or blemish, there was nothing remotely saintly about us. We were, instead, infected with sin from head to toe and covered in the filth of our own dirty thoughts, words and actions. To use the vivid picture from the OT – we were not spotless brides but trashy, unfaithful, adulterous prostitutes. [3] And no amount of scrubbing or doing of good works could change that. But Jesus took our impurity, our filth, our sin upon himself and suffered God’s wrath on the cross to pay for it. He exchanged our rags for his righteousness through the Sacrament of holy Baptism – the washing with water through the word. Baptism is the fact on which your sainthood stands. Every time we begin worship in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, every time we see the sign of the cross, every time we see the font, every time we receive our Savior’s body and blood in Communion – we are reminded of what God gave us in baptism: that Christ has died to make us holy, to cleanse us from every sin, to dress us in his robe of righteous so that a holy God might see us as saints, “holy ones”. And the goal of his redeeming work – and the Holy Spirit’s work of applying it to us individually – is that when he returns, we would be ready and waiting for him to come and take us to his home to be united with him forever. Those are the facts. So next time you look in the mirror, don’t believe what your eyes tell you; believe what God tells you: you are a saint, holy and set apart from sin and from this world.

On the whole, that may be the easier half of the equation to accept: that we as individuals have been made holy by Jesus. But we also confess that there is such a thing as a communion of saints. The word communion comes from the Greek word koinonia (1 Corinthians 10:16) meaning “participating in” or “fellowship.” the Apostle Paul describes the common union that exists between all who have been cleansed by Christ, as symbolized by the Sacrament of Holy Communion: Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. (1 Corinthians 10:17) Martin Luther, always wanting to explain theological truths in terms that even children could understand, actually preferred to use the term “holy congregation.” This was how he explained it in the Large Catechism: “I believe that there is upon earth a little holy group and congregation of pure saints, under one head, even Christ [Ephesians 1:22]. This group is called together by the Holy Spirit in one faith, one mind, and understanding, with many different gifts, yet agreeing in love, without sects or schisms [Ephesians 4:5-8, 11]. I am also a part and member of this same group, a sharer and joint owner of all the goods it possesses [Romans 8:17]. I am brought to it and incorporated into it by the Holy Spirit through having heard and continuing to hear God’s Word [Galatians 3:1-2], which is the beginning of entering it.” [4]

A related term, community, is a popular notion today. There are community organizers, online communities, communities defined by every letter of the alphabet, and even community churches. These exist because people long to belong, long for social connections, long for common union and fellowship with other people. And that’s not by accident. That’s how God created us. Remember the only thing that wasn’t completely, perfectly good on the 6th day of creation? The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:18) God designed us to be social creatures, to have unity and fellowship both with himself and with other people. The evidence of this inborn desire is everywhere. (Ironically, though, every time the world fabricates a “community” it ends up dividing people rather than uniting them!)

But there are several important differences between the communion of saints and the poor imitations fabricated by the world. 1) First and foremost, membership in the communion of saints is not voluntary – not that it is forced on anyone, but that no one joins it by their own free choice. Recall our lesson from Acts, where the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:47) You may choose to be a democrat or choose to join a fitness club – but the Lord added you to the communion of saints. 2) Christian communion doesn’t depend on our level of commitment or effort. Worldly communities depend on the passion and dedication of its members to survive. Our communion depends solely on the work of the Holy Spirit. For example, while there were many divisions in the Corinthian congregation, Paul still refers to them as the church of God…those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy. (1 Corinthians 1:2) The bond we have in the Spirit exists even if we disagree, in spite of the fact that we may have different tastes in music or different opinions in worldly matters. As long as we gather around the Word and Sacraments – through which God joins us to himself, we will have communion with each other. Apart from those means, our fellowship will disintegrate. 3) The bond we have – because it is created by the Holy Spirit – cannot be broken or destroyed by outside forces. Think of how regularly the Church has been persecuted from the days of the apostles up to today – and yet because we are bound together by Christ and Christ rules all things in heaven for the good of the church (Ephesians 1:22-23) not even the devil himself can disrupt our communion. (The only way a person leaves this communion is by deliberately cutting themselves off from Christ and the means of grace through impenitence or unbelief. Thus: excommunication.) 4) Finally, unlike any other association we may enter into in this life – be it citizenship in a nation, a branch of the military, a family, or even marriage – the communion we have with others who are in Christ is not ended by death or even by the end of the world. The people we stand shoulder to shoulder with as we receive the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins are the very people we will see and worship the Lamb with throughout all eternity in heaven. (Revelation 7:14)

So let us cherish this communion that the Holy Spirit has created among us through Christ. Let us find our common union, not in our social standing or outward appearance or mere friendship, but in the Word and at the altar, where each of us come as ragged, unworthy sinners, but leave dressed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. Let us rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15) because we all belong to one body, and whatever happens to one of us affects us all. Let us gather regularly to strengthen our fellowship with each other by confessing our sins and being forgiven, by receiving the body and blood of Christ, by helping, encouraging, instructing – and yes, sometimes even admonishing each other – because the day of Judgment is fast approaching. (Hebrews 10:25) We may not see it with our eyes, but we are saints, cleansed in Baptism with the cleansing blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit has gathered us into the body of Christ, into intimate communion with one another. May God lead us to not only believe and confess these facts, but to work diligently to be what Christ has made us: the communion of saints. Amen.  

[1] https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=36247

[2] See Romans 1:7; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Ephesians 1:1

[3] See the book of Hosea

[4] LC Article III, par. 51