The Vatican released a statement summarizing misunderstood eccelesiology that has developed as a result of both Vtican II and the ecumenical movement. That the church is defined by its sacramental character and apostolic succession. So, protestant churches cannot purely be defined as churches in that sense since they are not in succession, nor retain a true sense of the sacrament. Any church not under papal authority is not precisely a church.
I like this. Clarity. Since the Lutheran church is not really a church, we don't really have to act like one. Good. Because we don't most of the time anyway. So the only hypocrites left are the Romans, who claim to be the church and yet are not. In their very claim, they separate, divide, and exclude others who share faith in the God who raised jesus from the dead. By so doing, they build intellectual walls instead of relational bridges. When I read the Gospels, I see Jesus crossing cultural barriers and dismantling the religious walls of temple Judaism in order to broaden the scope of His mission. The Kingdom of God is bigger than Jerusalem or Vatican city or Geneva or Sweden or New York, NY.
So if the Roman Catholics and the Protestants are not the church, where is the church? The Orthodox? In their inability to contextualize beyond the early middle ages, they do not incarnate the gospel. So its not the orthodox. The evangelicals? In their basic rejection of the cruciform life, coupled with a personal salvation plan and a fundamentalist worldview that divides sacred and secular, they limit the power of God. So its not the evangelicals.
So where is the church? is it visible? Is it here? If there is no church on earth, where is Jesus incarnated today? If there is no church, what are Christians doing?
is church a human corruption?
Jesus never spoke about the church. He was never part of the church. His followers were church. When did church stop being church? When did it start being what it has become? Pentecost? Constantine? Council of Nicea? Great Schism? Reformation? When?
is it possible to receive the good news and articulate the Kingdom message of Jesus afresh? is it possible for the church to be reborn? Is it possible that the church will emerge or is emerging in this post-modern world?
I hope.
