The Unified Life of the Church

Based on a devotional I recently gave at a church retreat, minor adjustments have been made for this non-spoken medium

Let me begin with a question: What are we doing? What are we doing here? Can anyone tell me? What can we say: we are sharing meals, we are playing games, we are taking hikes? No, no, I think we all know these things aren’t the answer, that they’re not quite what we’re looking for, that they don’t fully encapsulate what’s going on. Perhaps the question will be more clear if we ask: Why are we doing this, or Why are we here? Now, having put it that way, I can tell what some of you are thinking now: Ahh, we see what you’re doing, you want us to say community! Very good guess, I appreciate that! But no.

To help us think through this curiosity I want to take us back to the life of Christ. In there we can find many answers to many questions, and hopefully ours tonight. Particularly in the Gospel of John, Christ’s mission comes to a climax in what has been called John’s Farewell Discourse, wherein Christ, Who came to us and brought us together, is now preparing to go away from us. In John 17, Christ turns from His disciples to His Father, affirming and confirming the mission He was sent to do; He prays as follows:

“Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, since You have given Him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent. I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work which You gave Me to do; and now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory which I had with You before the world was made.”

The mission of Christ, His tabernacling amongst us as John words it earlier in this his Gospel, was “to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him.” 

Christ continues praying, and later on says:

“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You did send Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate Myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.”

Here we can say we see the answer of, What is Christ doing here? He has been sent into the world so as to give all eternal life, and so that He might also “send them,” send us, into the world, as God did send Christ into the world. As. I invite you to chew on that verbiage. 

We, however, may still find ourselves asking, Why is Christ here? Why is Christ doing what He is doing? Well, like I said, this prayer is a time for affirmation and confirmation, so as we read on we see Christ say this:

“I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are One, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to behold My glory which You have given Me in Your love for Me before the foundation of the world.

Why? Because God’s ultimate desire is to share that most wondrous love that He has had and shared before the foundation of the world with the Son, and with the Spirit. Please listen, let me make something clear, we confess the universal faith, which is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity. The Sunday of May 26, not too long ago, is celebrated as Trinity Sunday, a holiday formalized in the 14th century and recognized ever since. It comes at a most opportune time, for it comes one Sunday after Pentecost, the fulfillment of the Holy Spirit’s mission, eight Sundays after Easter, the fulfillment of the Son’s mission, and thus it follows the completion of the eternal mission of the Father: “that they may be one even as We are One.” 

So, remembering this, years after Christ prays these words a particularly wise Jew will write these words to Christians living in Ephesus:

“And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through [Christ] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in Whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in Whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

This passage, as you can see, is bookended by three Persons: Christ, Spirit, Father; Christ, God, Spirit. In between these three? “The saints and members of the household of God.” 

You should see what I’m emphasizing here, hopefully: the language of Trinity, which Paul is now applying to the Church, which is the household of God. As he will say elsewhere, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” and it is this same Christ in Who “we who are many are one body in…and individually we are members who belong to one another,” this is because we no longer live, but Christ lives, and Christ lives in the Father and the Spirit, Who live for Him, and Who have loved each other before the foundation of the world. 

Understand me when I say this, you do not live for yourself, and everything that you speak, do, think, breathe, eat, or drink is done for, by, and to [your brother], for we are one in Christ Jesus. Think of the Israelites who, despite the sin of one, made atonement for all, because they realized this fact, even if they did not realize the Trinity, that “we were all baptized into one body.” Sin cannot happen in private, because it must always affect another person, at the very least three Persons if no more: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the same way, life cannot happen alone, because it must always be shared, as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share in one life together eternally and inseparably. 

I’ll now bring us to a close. Look around yourself and know this: Christ loves you, Christ lives in you; I love you, and I live in you; we love Christ, and Christ lives in us. What are we doing here? Coming together as one body to share in the gifts of God’s Spirit, Who builds us up as one. Why are we doing this? Because it is a natural consequence of what we are called to do and be as Christians. This cannot be mistaken nor forsaken, for without it we will lose what it means to be Christian, even what it means to be human. The Church is the living body of the Living God, Who has called us to participate in the everlasting and everloving joy and glory of His Being, in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever and ever. Amen.¹

1. This article is derived from studies I’ve done over the past few years that have enlightened me as to the concrete, practical (ecclesiastical + ethical) significance of the Blessed Trinity. See Philip Kariatlis, “Affirming Koinonia Ecclesiology: An Orthodox Perspective,” Phronema 27:1 (2012): 51-66; Ryan McGraw, “The Trinity and Christian Devotion”; Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity (rev. & exp. ed.), 451-576; Brandon Smith, ed., The Trinity in the Canon, 369-462; Fred Sanders, Fountain of Salvation