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Membership in the Three Ages of the Church by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy
"Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit... ." So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers."
The story of Pentecost is the story of the birth of the Church. While it purports to recount that birth as a singular and unique event in response to the preaching of Peter, the text makes clear that this phenomenon of universal inclusion was enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit. It's also true that the growth of the Church happened not over hours but over generations. But it was surely experienced as a supernatural phenomenon: How else to comprehend the rapid growth of an institution, the membership in which might result in persecution and even death? Church "membership" in the Apostolic Age (1st-4th centuries) People "joined" the fellowship of the Church after a period of initiation and instruction. That process, commonly known as the Catechumenate (after the "catacombs" where the instruction took place), could last for three years or even longer, and involved learning, through mentoring, what it meant to walk "in the Way." Catechumens were allowed to worship with the Christian community until the exchange of the Peace but were not allowed to share in the Eucharistic meal until after their baptism. In this respect, church affiliation was less institutional membership and more organic identity, the initiation of which was symbolized by full immersion baptism in which the old life was washed away - the convert "died" to the old life - and rose from a watery grave to a new life. That New Life was defined by moral decision-making (the Epistles in the New Testament are, in a sense, primers on the ethical and moral options for Christians) but also involved new choices. For example: vocationally, artists had to learn new skills because artisans were primarily employed by the state and as such, would be hired to fashion statuary, mosaics or paintings of "false gods" (Caesar, Zeus etc.). Soldiers could no longer serve in the military; magistrates could no longer adjudicate cases as capital punishment was unacceptable in the ancient church; magic, eroticism, games in the arena - all were considered forbidden to Christian believers. Additionally, Christian converts often were disowned and disinherited by their families and for this reason, being baptized in Christ (a criminal offense) meant inheriting a new family identity. And so, why do it? People choose to affiliate with the Church for two reasons: firstly, it was a community marked by joy in the midst of the harshness of 1st, 2nd and 3rd century life.
"In a word, Christianity directly answered to the human quest for true happiness - by which more is meant than feeling happy. Ancient Stoicism ... taught that happiness is achieved by the suppression of desire for everything that one cannot both get and keep. `Before the external disorder of the world and bodily illness, retreat into yourself and find God there.' The Stoic soul stood proudly erect amidst a sea of troubles, untouched by emotion. (Conversely, Christians lay)... stress on the grace of God as making the Christian life possible, on the love of God (rather than individual's self respect) as the object towards which human striving should be directed, and on the outgoing activity of `charity' towards one's fellow men." Secondly, it was a community which expected miracles - not just healings and exorcisms, but what became known as becoming a "new creature."
"From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view ... Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come." This experience, even though illegal and dangerous, spoke powerfully to the anomie and meaninglessness of life in the Roman Empire, especially to marginalized peoples, slaves and women. The radical doctrine of equality in Christ ("For God shows no partiality" Romans 2:11) and a life of greater charity, electrified the world and was so powerful that Caesar sought to imitate and thus compete with it. The 4th century emperor, Julian "the Apostate", bitterly complained: "No Jew is ever seen begging, and the impious Galileans support not merely their own poor but ours as well." (His effort to reform paganism to more closely reflect the values of Christianity ultimately failed.) Membership in the Age of Christendom (4th - 20th century) When Christianity became the religion of the state in the 4th century, there was increasingly no distinction between citizenship and church membership. One became a member of the Christian Church by being born in a Christian Nation. Parochial boundaries defined all persons born in the geography of the parish as members. Baptism, rather than symbolizing a rite of renunciation of an old life, became a celebration of live birth. Christian formation was no longer done in secret caves but was the purview of public education. To be a good citizen and a good Christian were the same thing. One result of the overlapping identity of church and state was the loss of the nonviolent tradition. Whereas Christians were prohibited from serving in the military in the Apostolic Age, "Christian solders" now went to war to extend the boundaries of the Christian Empire (colonialism, the Crusades) or to defend Christian lands against the incursion of infidels and barbarians. The prophetic tradition became less a critique of civil life and more future prediction (obsession with the "end times," Armageddon etc.). The Church itself became the patron of artisans (Michelangelo etc.). Conversion was no longer a public and normative process for all Christians moving from paganism to Christian faith but an interior and specialized (and optional) experience of going deeper in the faith for the few. In the Apostolic paradigm, all Christians were expected to exercise their "ministry" by how they lived and witnessed to others. In the Christendom paradigm, the clergy became "professional ministers," representative Christians for a laity whose role was to support that mission (primarily understood as converting the pagans "over there"). Membership in the Post Christian Age (Today...) Two years ago, there was a family who attended the church virtually every Sunday, who participated in the worship and received the Sacrament and whose children attended Sunday school every week. When I invited them to formally join the church, they were visibly shocked and said: "We've attended church all our lives, no one's every asked us to "join" a church!" Clearly, they considered themselves to be affiliated with St. Augustine's and resented the implication that they were not. They participated in its programs and contributed to its welfare by making donations at the offertory - in what ways were they, they wished to know, not members? What does it mean to be a "member" rather than an "attendee" in a Christian church in this dawning Post Christian Age? Clearly, churches are public rather than hidden institutions. Visitors, unthinkable in the Apostolic Age, are not just welcomed but desired. And because we are living at the end of the Christendom paradigm, people bring with them certain presumptions of entitlement (e.g. that children of non-members are welcomed in Sunday school, that should I desire to be married in the church (or buried from there), that courtesy will be extended to me etc). Living in this "New Age" that is neither the Apostolic Age nor the Age of Christendom, churches struggle with redefining their boundaries. Some have tried to reinstitute the Catechumenate (the "Alpha Program" is such); some have elected to deny accessibility to the sacraments to non-members (baptism, marriage and, in one Episcopal church, burial). All churches - including St. A's - worry about the challenge of enabling people to discover and participate in the New Life in Christ with such marginal commitment. Strategically, it makes sense to expect Sunday school teachers, who instruct our children in the faith, to have made a mature, Christian commitment themselves. But how about ushering or reading lessons in worship or attending retreats or adult classes or joining the Altar Guild? In some places, visitors (and regular attendees who have not formally joined the church) are not permitted to assume any leadership role until they make a commitment. The leadership of those churches asks: "Why would anyone actually join the church if they can participate fully in it without doing so?" In other places, membership is presumed to come through affiliation, i.e. through performing various roles ("ministries") in the church, persons will make a connection with the Christian community and want to join. The former philosophy is called "high boundaries"; the latter is "low boundaries." Over the years, St. A's has practiced "mixed - or inconsistent - boundaries" (attendees can do some things but not others). But the issue is not just one of clear boundaries and realistic expectations but also an issue of "attraction." I suspect that the larger issue is that Post Christian Age churches are more often places of struggle than joy (in our denomination, the generational conflicts over the ordination of women, revision of the Book of Common Prayer and now the ordination of openly gay clergy come to mind). Many of the large mega churches have found great success is creating an atmosphere of "joy" with the use of contemporary music and inspired and victorious preaching. Whether it is more "symbol than substance" varies greatly. Post Christian Age churches are also places where miracle has been replaced by manipulation and magic (much of Christian healing in the public arena today - most TV evangelist - is characterized by arrogance rather than humility and showmanship rather than awe and wonder). The recovery of joy (in the sense of "meaning making" grounded in Grace and Charity) and the miracle of transformed lives will not be manifest until, parenthetically, people rediscover the need to surrender their old lives for new ones and that rarely happens in a context of "cautious commitment," inconsistent participation "in the apostles teaching and fellowship and breaking of the bread," lax spiritual practice, and divided loyalties ("You can not serve God and money" Matthew 6:24). It's a "chicken and egg" sort of deal, isn't it? In our lifetimes, this issue will not be resolved, this question answered. Paradigm shifts happen not overnight but over generations. It is important to begin to use new language that we do not fully live into yet (e.g. the "ministry of all the baptized"). It's important to, as best we can, live into the values of the Kingdom. And it's important to invite folk to consider the converted life, a process which happens, as always, through surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit experienced in Christian community, worship, learning and practice. For those who attend St. A's but have never made a formal commitment to it: the question is whether the church is an end in itself (a matter of "receiving" good preaching and teaching, enjoying exceptional music and competent worship and a sense of participation in public community) or is the church a means (the vehicle towards a new life, abiding joy, deeper meaning through Grace and the surprise of the miraculous). The destination of the spiritual journey is always toward the heart of God and the new life offered through the power of the Spirit and the impact of regenerated lives lived in mission to the world; those who dream the dream of God for a new earth of greater justice, compassion and peace. We invite you to "go deeper." (The next Inquirers' Class for newcomers is Sept. 27 and 28th. Call the office for more information or to register).
Copyright © 2003 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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