Perplexed about the Church? 3

Perplexed about the Church? 3 July 19, 2011

In the next textbook on the church, by Matt Jenson and David Wilhite: Church: A Guide for the Perplexed (Guides For The Perplexed) , there is a discussion of the issue of mediation. In brief, here it is as a question:

Does the church mediate the work of God and, if so, how? Before you read on I hope you’ll take a few moments to ask yourself how you would answer that two-fold question. (I’m assuming you’ll answer Yes to the first part.)

In my estimation, if you don’t answer Yes, then why bother. Since most do answer that with a Yes, we can begin to dig in to ask How the church mediates.

Jenson and Wilhite begin by putting on the table two breathtaking ideas that many of us assume or believe, or ought to believe but haven’t even thought about. (Low church evangelicals are the most egregious sinners on this one; high church liturgicals are the most presumptuous on this one.) Their two ideas: (1) God has bound himself to the church and to be with the church; “we must go to the church to find God” (105). But (2) the triune God is not is not limited to the “perimeter, parameter, people, possibilities or perfection of the church” (105). That’s enough to dig in for some questions, but we’ll press on to how they think God mediates through the church.

They begin with John Wesley’s famous sermon on the means of grace (prayer, Scriptures, eucharist) and that leads them to a four-fold breakdown of the means of grace, and they have good responsible discussions about each item, and they are not predictably free church ideas:

1. Baptism: incorporation, identification, inclusion and initiation, and they don’t minimize baptism. We mediate Christ in baptism.
2. Prayer: we pray through Christ and mediate Christ that way.
3. Scripture: by reading and studying and living into Scripture we mediate the Living Word by the Written Word.
4. Eucharist: the body and blood of Christ (they hop around the real presence issues) are mediated through Eucharist.

OK, I agree. But there are so many ways God is mediated or that the church mediates the gospel and Christ et al. We need more on communal embodiment, on service, compassion and love as embodiments, on presence with others as mediation, on worship and gathering and preaching … and we could go on. God’s grace is mediated in all sorts of ways, and not just through those four … so I’d like to see this list expanded dramatically.


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