Bonhoeffer adds community to the marks of the church. The church, as the Body of Christ, requires a corporateness. This becomes the major challenge to the Believers but Not Belongers of our society. The revelation of God comes not to an individual as an idea but as a person addressed by Christ in community. For the revelation to have validity it must be lived out in relation to others who are in turn being addressed by that same Christ. It is where two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name that Christ promises to be present. Karl Rahner states that “the community,” above all, “is the visible sign of salvation that God has established in this seemingly godless world.” (As quoted in Christianity in the 21st Century, Robert Wuthnow, p.6)
We know by reason of the Trinity that the economy of God is revealed in relationship. That is, even God is most truly revealed in the relationship among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Apart from any part of this relationship, we do not truly know God. We know by the summary of the Law given by Jesus that God’s truth is revealed in relationships. We cannot love God separate from our relationship with our neighbor. “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” (1 John 4:20)
It would not take many conversations with those alienated from the church to hear their conviction that such marks of the church can become a formal adherence in an empty vessel. They do not see the continuity between the person of Jesus and the church they experience. They witness the charismatic experience of the Spirit as individualistic emotionalism easily manipulated by human hands and resulting in a prideful separateness. They would question whether the Word is ever rightfully preached or that the sacraments were anything other than empty rituals. While they hunger for true community, their experience of the church has been anything but what they long for. As I have tried to suggest, I think these ‘marks’ of the church have a validity for our time but in themselves they will not be convincing to the culture in which we minister.
Next week we will explore further criteria for identifying the “true church.”
