I Believe in the Holy Catholic Church

Acts 2:1-21

Revelation 7:9-17

Georgetown Presbyterian Church

Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins

June 4, 2006

The late Clayton Bell, who was the brother-in-law of Billy Graham and for many years served as the Senior Pastor of the Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, told the story of a time when a woman was talking to her Presbyterian minister after church one day. She was taking the pastor to task for introducing something into the worship service which, she said, was "not Presbyterian."

"Well," the minister replied, "you don’t mean to say that you believe that the only way you can get to heaven is by being a Presbyterian, do you?"

The woman thought a minute and said, "No, not really. But no genteel person would think of going any other way."

When Marj Carpenter, who was moderator of our General Assembly several years ago, coined the phrase, "sinfully proud to be a Presbyterian," I don’t think that was what she was referring to.

I am deeply appreciative of my Presbyterian heritage. But even more, I am grateful to be part of the holy catholic church. I believe in the holy catholic church.

Of all the questions or concerns I hear about the Apostles’ Creed, only one other line in the Creed elicits more questions than the phrase about the holy catholic church, and that is the one about Jesus descending into hell. Many people wonder why, in the Presbyterian church, we profess belief in the catholic church. Surely such questions are loaded with images of venerating the Pope and the Virgin Mary, and praying to saints and making pilgrimages to Rome. But the questions, though genuine, arise out of a misunderstanding of the meaning of the word "catholic". The word catholic is derived from two Greek words, "kata", which means "over", and "allah", which means "all". Catholic means overall, or universal. When we say in the Creed, "I believe in the holy catholic church," we are saying that we believe in the universal body of believers, the worldwide Body of Christ.

Both of the scripture lessons this morning serve to remind us that the Church of Jesus Christ is much more just those of us who gather in this sanctuary on a weekly basis. It’s much greater than our mind can comprehend. It’s far more than our limited vision can grasp.

The image in our passage from Revelation is a glimpse into what worship will be like in heaven. People love to talk about the book of Revelation because of the mysterious symbols and almost-science-fiction-like scenes. But one of the images of heaven that consistently pops up throughout the book is the image of heavenly worship. And if you look at the worship in Revelation, what you find is worship that is unlike any we experience here on earth. There are no video projectors. There are no people falling asleep. Nobody is looking at their watches and wondering if they’re going to beat the Baptists to the buffet line. There are no dour expressions.

It’s a celebration of the face-to-face presence of God.

It’s a celebration of the people of God in the presence of God.

It’s a celebration of ALL the people of God.

It really is a striking image in the seventh chapter of Revelation. A great multitude of people – so great, in fact, that the multitude is beyond counting; people from every nation, every tribe, every language, every race. It is an image that helps me understand what it means every time we say, "I believe in the holy catholic church."

The vision in the seventh chapter of Revelation is the fulfillment of what is begun in the second chapter of Acts, when the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples at Pentecost. You’re familiar with the story: The disciples are gathered in one place, when all of a sudden something akin to a mighty gust of wind blew through the whole house, and tongues of fire rested on each of the disciples, who then spontaneously begin to speak in all sorts of different languages.

Pentecost is sometimes referred to as the birthday of the Christian church. Some party! But people, when they hear the story of Pentecost, tend to focus on the spectacular, like the rushing wind, or the fiery tongues, or the spontaneous speaking in different languages. When I look at this text, what I see is a worldwide church at its very beginning. For the text tells us that there were God-fearing Jews who had come to Jerusalem from every nation under heaven. Then we find a list of such people as Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, Cretans and Arabs. It’s a list that represents the whole world that was known to the Jews, a description of nations reaching to the ends of the earth.

You might remember that in the first chapter of Acts, Jesus told the disciples that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And then we have this account of Pentecost. Do you see what’s happening here? Jesus doesn’t wait for his followers to go the ends of the earth; instead, the ends of the earth have come to Jerusalem, and by the power of the Holy Spirit the gospel is being proclaimed to people from all nations. Contrary to what you may have believed, the Christian church didn’t start out as a small group of people in a little chapel on the streets of Jerusalem; the Christian church, from the very beginning was a worldwide church, because from its inception the gospel was proclaimed in every tongue to every nation.

I believe in the holy catholic church.

And on this Pentecost Sunday, we would do well to recognize that we have the Holy Spirit to thank for that. For it is the Holy Spirit that communicates the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to us in such a way that we can understand and so that we can respond, and it is the Holy Spirit that broadens our understanding of the church.

One of the chief functions of the Holy Spirit is to quicken the heart of the individual, so that you and I and anybody else can understand just what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, and so that we can respond with faith.

This morning we will celebrate the confirmation of the faith of four of the children of this congregation. Confirmation represents the fruit of our earnest desire to fulfill the promises we make when we baptize our children, promising on behalf of the whole Body of Christ to nurture our children in the faith, so that the faith of the parents at baptism will one day become the faith that the children profess.

Today we arrive at that day, and what a proud moment it is. Over the years, Sunday school teachers and youth advisors and nursery caregivers and pastors and youth directors and choir directors and a whole host of other people have invested their time, their talents, their faith in these young men and women. And today these four confirmands will profess their faith publicly.

But none of this would be possible without the working of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that awakens in our hearts the desire to follow Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Spirit that communicates the gospel to us in such a way that we can understand it and accept it. On that first Pentecost, it was the Holy Spirit that enabled the speaking and hearing of the gospel in so many different native tongues. And today we recognize that it is the Holy Spirit that has been at work in and through these young men and women, bringing them before us today, to affirm their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

And we recognize that today they are joining more than just Georgetown Presbyterian Church; they are also making public their commitment to the worldwide church of Jesus Christ. Before we lock up the building today, the holy catholic church will have grown by four.

I believe in the holy catholic church.

You see, the church is not defined by bricks and mortar, but by people. People like you and me. People like Helen and Tyler and Aaron and Faith. People like the Kouamous from Cameroon, or Yorky and Paulina from Chile. People like Jack and Celesta Rae and the people among whom they work in Hong Kong. People who live in the projects and people who live on lavish estates. Red and yellow, black and white. Democrats and Republicans. Capitalists and Socialists. The church of Jesus Christ is defined by people who have, by the power of the Holy Spirit, responded to the message of the gospel and who have identified themselves as belonging to Jesus Christ. The truth is, the church is much bigger than you or I would ever have considered making it. But that’s what makes the church so exciting!

I believe in the holy catholic church! And I am sinfully proud to be a part of the holy catholic church.

To God be the glory! Amen.