WE ARE - CHURCH

Who am I? Jesus asks his disciples. We might ask him the same question, Who are we? Before we even ask, he tells us, You are my church! 

Jesus used this very word in today's gospel, "church". He will do so again two chapters later, which we'll hear in two weeks. These are the only two times in the gospels when Jesus uses this word, although it is used in other books of the New Testament.

The whole New Testament was written in Greek, and the Greek word that we translate as "church" means "people called together". That is worth thinking about. Often, when we hear the word "church" we tend to think of an institution or a building. But that's not what the word means. It means people...people who are called to come together in faith.

Next week I go to visit a part of the world that I do not know. I like to think of it as visiting part of my family that I do not know. And I wondered what it would be like if someone from another part of the world visited us, someone who may have never heard of Christians. What would they see in us? What would they report back to their family and friends?

Perhaps, it might go something like this:

We found this group of people at Our Lady of Good Counsel, in St. Augustine, Florida, who, believe it or not, can trace themselves all the way back to Jesus Christ! They go back that far, and are direct descendants of Jesus and his disciples.

After Jesus died, his disciples continued on as a group, and they invited others to join them. They explained to new members who Jesus was and how he lived and what he taught. As they died off, all this was passed on to others, who passed it on and on from one generation to the next. And this group in St. Augustine can trace itself all the way back to the beginning.

Besides that, they have writings from the first century about Jesus and about the early disciples. It's remarkable. They go all the way back.

Moreover, this group of people in St. Augustine have a real sense of being called by no less than Jesus himself. Imagine. After all these years they still feel that Jesus is here on earth calling disciples.

There's more. These people experience some kind of 'life force' within them that is more than human life. They say that they have, running through their body and soul, a life force that is God's own life. Can you believe that? Human beings who claim to have God's own life coursing through them! You see they believe that Jesus is still alive, and that Jesus has breathed his own Spirit upon them as he did upon his first disciples.

This 'life force' is what most of all binds them together as a group. They say that it is stronger than ties of blood or race or country. It goes far deeper, and they are joined together in a way that goes far beyond any human bonds.

That's not all. Listen to this. They believe that they are in touch with the dead. They really do. These people believe that dead people aren't really dead. People go through death sort of like through a doorway and they're still alive - different, but still alive. These people in St. Augustine still include the dead as part of their community. They call it something like 'communion of saints'. They can talk to them, pray for them, and those who are dead can pray for those who are still here on earth. In other words, the dead are still considered part of this group they call 'church'.

There's more, and this next part may be the strangest of all. These people in St. Augustine have a different way of life - in some cases, really different. For example, they believe that instead of hating our enemies, killing them...we're supposed to love them, forgive them, and do good to them. They talk about 'turning the other cheek' when someone slaps you. It makes you wonder how a group like this could have survived all these years.

They also believe that this world, this universe, and everything in it, belongs to God. So what they're supposed to do is share what they have, especially with people who don't have much. They remember all sorts of quotes from Jesus about this, and they consider themselves as 'stewards' - managers - of what really belongs to God.

There's lots more, but this is the one that we found most startling. These people in St. Augustine come together once a week for a meal - a banquet - and they believe that Jesus is the host of this banquet. They believe that Jesus is right there with them. They actually get together around a table (they call it an 'altar') and Jesus, as the host, speaks to them, and eats with them.

Now, understand...they believe that they're not simply imitating what Jesus once did with his disciples, or remembering what Jesus did. They believe that Jesus is right there, really there, and having a meal with them. It's all 'live' - really happening.

But, not only that (and here's the part we couldn't figure out) they believe that Jesus gives himself to them as food. They call it the 'bread of life'. They say that they receive Jesus into themselves and that because of this they are shaped more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ himself. 

They do this every week and for them it's the most powerful, awesome, wonderful thing that they do. Every week they do this! We watched them do it. They sing, and pray, and listen to the words of Jesus, and join with him in giving themselves entirely into God's hands as he did in his own life and especially in dying on the cross. This is the heart of their life as a group called together by God.

Well, that's how we might look to people who visit us. And do you know what? They'd be right. That is who we are. And it all goes back to Jesus himself. 

In these 2,000 years we've had a great mixture of success and failure, holiness and sin. Why, right from the beginning, Peter denied Jesus three times - under oath. And all the disciples abandoned Jesus when he was arrested. And not too many years later, Peter and Paul got into a public disagreement, and people took different sides. 

Oh, we can look from the early days to our day and find plenty of evidence of how human we are. We're not a perfect group of people. 

But our faith is not in ourselves. Our faith is in Jesus Christ who promised to be with us all days, even to the end of the world. The Church isn't the only place he said he would ever be. It's the only place he said he would always be.

What a gift to be part of this gathering we call "Church". It's a cause for celebration. And celebrate we will.