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  • B January 15 2023
May 17, 2018
“Church is a verb.”
 This coming Sunday is Pentecost Sunday!!!
 Several years ago, I was teaching a class on the Augsburg Confession and we were on Article VII.  I read a quote from Eric Gritsch and Robert Jenson’s commentary on the Lutheran confessions. 
 “The church, it says, is a “gathering” of people; the church is not the persons simply as such, but something that happens with them,...  Neither a class of persons nor a structure is the church; the church is an event.”
 One person in the class commented, “This means that church is a verb!”  Remember Luther’s explanation to the Third Article of the Apostle’s Creed. 
 “ …  In the same way he [Holy Spirit] calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it united with Jesus Christ in the one true faith….”
 The church is the Holy Spirit calling people together into community where the gospel is our center.  This means we are active, not passive.  This means that the center of our life together is Jesus, not a tradition of social gatherings.
 What is the church?  It is a verb, and the Holy Spirit is providing the action.  The church is the Holy Spirit at work bringing faith into our lives through the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Doesn’t that sound more exciting than a fund drive to patch the leaky roof or even taking another survey?
 Party on!
Pastor Mike

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