Tonight we continue with another question from the series of questions posed by our youth that adult mentors and middle school mentos will be discussing after the service in the rooms and hallways of our building.

 CAN I BE A CHRISTIAN WITHOUT GOING TO CHURCH?

 The Biblical Testimony
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.  Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.   Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”  (1 Cor. 12:12-14, 27)

 The Proclaimed Word
As I look at the communion records of those who name themselves members of Holy Love Lutheran Church, I see that there are a number of people who seldom attend or participate in any way.

 I don’t say that to be critical or condescending, but merely as a fact.   If someone does not participate, I am certainly not questioning the authenticity of their faith and placing them under judgment.  

 There are a lot of reasons why people do participate and why people do not participate, and it is not my purpose this evening to focus on that.   But what I will talk about is some of what the Bible tells us about the church, about being the church, and the baptized believer’s relationship to the church.  

 First of all the word church in Greek is the “ekklesia.”  Ekklesia literally means “assembly, gathering, or meeting.”   Mostly when we say “church” we usually think of a worship service or the building.  One thing we can say is that the church is not the building.  The ekklesia is the assembly of believers; the gathering of believers; the community of believers.   When  we gather for worship as a community, centered around word and sacrament, and we are the church in worship. The assembly may meet in a building, but the assembly could meet anywhere and still be the church – the ekklesia.  And ekklesia is not limited to formal worship.  The ekklesia exists anywhere we gather as God’s people in the name of Jesus Christ for worship, study, retreat, service, prayer, fellowship; in this building, in a home or work-place, at a Habitat for Humanity Site, gleaning a cabbage field, a Stephen Minister having coffee with a care receiver at Starbuck’s, mentors and mentos having a coke and talking about life and faith; calling on a lonely soul in a nursing home or hospital, etc.  Jesus said in Matthew 18, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

 Jack Fortin, a college room-mate of mine and Director of Life-Long Learning at Luther Seminary, St Paul, Minnesota just published a book entitled The Centered Life.  Jack describes four essentials of the life centered in Jesus Christ.  His fourth essential is to be “nurtured and supported by a community of faith.”  (p 21.  The Centered Life, by Jack Fortin)

 Do you know the lyrics of The Church Song?  (sing it with me if you do)
            The church is not a building where people go to pray; it’s not made out of sticks and stones, it’s not made out of clay.  We are the church, the body of our Lord.  We are all God’s children. We have been restored.  WE are the church.  We are the body of our Lord.  We are all God’s children.  Notice the first person plural “we.”

 Ekklesia is the totality of what happens when we assemble in the name of and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 I think we need to rephrase the question, and in so rephrasing, I believe, we get closer to the real intent of the question.  The question might be rephrased, “Can I be a Christian and be a lone ranger?”   Can we be “lone-ranger” Christians?  Is there such a thing as a lone-ranger Christian?

 The best place to look for answers is the Bible and the Bible tells us that “lone-ranger Christian” is an oxymoron, and you know what an oxymoron is.  An oxymoron is the attempted merger of two incongruous terms.  The Bible tells us that God never designed us to be lone rangers?  The Bible is crystal clear that God created us to be in relationship:  with God, and with one another, and that fulfillment, purpose and joy comes through relationship – comes through community. 

 In the scripture I read from 1 Corinthians, Paul declares that when you were baptized, it wasn’t a private affair.  It was extremely public, for you were baptized into a community, and Paul gives this community a very, very, very, very special designation.  Paul calls it the Body of Christ.   “You are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”

 You are (in Greek it’s the second person plural, all of us together) the body of Christ  (corporately we make up this mystical union, assembly, community, gathering that bears the name of Christ; and even becomes Christ in the world)  and individually members of it  (Yes, we are individuals, each unique, each gifted; but we don’t live in isolation or independent from one another, but we have been placed into a special community intimately connected to one another).

 A parallel, imperfect though it might be, might be the human family.  We are all part of family into which we either were born or adopted.  In the context of family, for better or worse, we are cared for; we care for others; we are nurtured; we are empowered.  My family, growing up, was anything but perfect.  In many ways we were very dysfunctional and had serious issues, many of which we never resolved.  But nevertheless, it was my family.  I could choose not to take part in family stuff, and sometimes I did choose to not take part.  I could withhold myself from the life of the family, and sometimes I did withhold myself, but that did not make me any less a member of that family.   My status as a member of that family was conferred upon me by my parents when I was born, and it was their intention and design that we be a community, living in relationship with one another and connected to one another whether we liked it or not.     

 In a similar way, by God’s action in baptism you are a part of the family of God; the household of God; the Body of Christ.  It is in this local expression of the  ekklesia, the congregation that you are cared for; that you care for others; are nurtured; that are empowered in the gospel of Jesus Christ and in your faith..  You can choose to not participate in the dynamics of the faith community, this body of Christ, but when you make that choice the community becomes less than what God intended for it to be.  Like the human family we are not perfect.  We struggle and wrestle with issues and conflicts that emerge in the course of everyday relationships, but as the body of Christ we hopefully arrive at a place where we can begin to apply the power of God’s love in Jesus Christ and do the hard work of reconciliation and resolution. 

 In the Apostles Creed we confess, “I believe in the holy catholic church.” (the holy catholic ekklesia)    The word catholic with a small case “c” means all who are baptized into Jesus Christ, across all denominational lines and all expressions of Christianity.   That’s “we are the church” in the fullest sense.  You have been baptized into the body of Christ and you didn’t have a choice in it any more than choosing the family into which you were born. 

 The ekklesia is not something you join or leave like you would join or a leave a health club.  You may join or leave a specific congregation, but you remain a part of the wider circle of world-wide believers by virtue of God’s action in baptism.  Being a active part of a local household of faith is the way you participate in the larger world-wide ekklesia.

 Can I be a Christian and not go to church?  Can I be a lone-ranger Christian?   Can you be a lone ranger Christian?  Based on the little slice of Biblical testimony I have shared with you tonight, you tell me!