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Ask a Theologian: Communion of Saints

'Screen of Saints and Angels' at Coventry Cathedral, by John Hutton (1906 - 1978). Photo by Tara Rutledge - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86592537

Dear Theologian,

What is meant by “the communion of saints”? Every time I recite the Apostles’ Creed at Morning Prayer, I say that I believe in it, but I am vague about its meaning. Is this an important doctrine? And does it have any bearing on my own life of Christian faith?

Looking for Enlightenment

Dear Looking,

Let’s start with the word “saints.” We don’t ordinarily apply this word to ourselves, since it seems to affirm a higher degree of holiness than we dare to claim. But it is a surprising fact that in the New Testament this word refers to all Christians. (Rom 1:7, 1 Cor 1:2)

This usage reflects the conviction that all those who belong to Christ through faith and baptism are called to be powerfully transformed by the Holy Spirit into the image of Christ. They are not necessarily morally better than other people, but they are involved in a process of being made holy, no matter how far they may be from reaching the goal (Phil 3:12-14).

What is meant, then, by the communion of saints? The word “communion” translates the Greek word koinonía, which means fundamentally “a common sharing in” something. It can also be translated by the word “fellowship.” For Christian faith, what the “saints” share in is Christ. So in the New Testament, koinonía is the word used for the community of believers. What they have in common is the crucified and risen Lord who lives in them by the power of the Holy Spirit. “God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Cor 1:9; see also Acts 2:41-42 and 1 Jn 1:3.)

This “fellowship” or “communion” involves the participants in a relationship of mutual love and solidarity.

“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Col 3:12-14; see also Rom 12:9-10.)

This unique fellowship unites people of very different backgrounds, across all boundaries of race, class, or gender. It is not a matter of uniformity, but rather of “diversity in communion.”

“…in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:26-28; See also Col 3:11-12.)

Furthermore, as the Church has come to believe, this communion of people “in Christ” is not broken even by death. There is a spiritual unity of the living with all those who have gone before them in faith. The great fellowship extends beyond all boundaries of time or place, to include all those who have been or ever will be gathered into Christ.

Is the communion of saints an important doctrine of Christian faith? Rightly understood, it is central. St. Paul considered that the “mystery” of God’s eternal purpose for mankind was revealed precisely in the joining together of Jews and Gentiles into one new community.

“In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” (Eph 3:5-6; see also Eph 2:11-22.)

Does the doctrine of the communion of saints have any bearing on your own life of Christian faith? Here are some considerations to ponder.

The life of faith that you live is really a participation in the communion of saints. To belong to Christ is to belong to his Body, the Church. If you let your living be illuminated by this truth, you will value highly your participation in the “fellowship” of the Church in various ways (liturgical worship, education, service, social interaction). You will not think of your personal spirituality as utterly private, but rather as a sharing in a great communal process of “formation” and indeed of “transformation” in Christ.

You will find strength and encouragement in the many witnesses who have lived the faith before your time. (Heb 12:1) You will also be strengthened by the good example of so many other people now living, in whom the mystery of Christ is “bodied forth.”

And when you experience the death of people whom you have loved, your faith in the communion of saints will sustain you. The sharing in Christ which we have known together is not ended by death.

One final point: When we experience the joy and blessedness of sharing in the communion of saints, we desire to include others in that fellowship. We are motivated to be missionaries and apostles. This is well expressed in the First Letter of John:

“We declare to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” (1 Jn 1:3-4)

Faithfully,
The Theologian

The Rev. Dr. Wayne L. Fehr wrote a column for a previous version of the diocesan newsletter called Ask a Theologian. He answered questions from ordinary Christians trying to make sense of their faith. Now he's back with a monthly column once again. You can find and purchase his book on Tracing the Contours of Faith: Christian Theology for Questioners here. 

Ask a Theologian: Through Christ

Dear Theologian,

Why do the liturgical prayers of the Church typically end with the words “through Jesus Christ our Lord”? What does this mean, anyway?

Faithful Church-goer


Dear Church-goer,

Your question points to the fundamental dynamic of Christian faith life. It is only Christians who address God in this peculiar way. To ask why they do this is to be drawn more deeply into the mystery of Jesus the Christ. This is a matter of every-day spirituality for all believers, not merely a question of liturgical correctness.

From the very beginnings of Christianity, believers have had to consider how Jesus the Crucified and Risen One was involved in their relationship with God.

The Church’s liturgical way of praying “through Jesus Christ our Lord” expresses clearly the mediating function of Christ. We find the same pattern in nearly every Collect prayer. It is expressed most powerfully in the climactic words of the Great Thanksgiving in the celebration of the Eucharist: “By him, and with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. Amen.”

This way of praying establishes the pattern not only for our “asking” but for our very existence in relationship to God.

Our faith in Jesus as “the Christ” or “the Lord” does not terminate in him; rather it leads us through and with him into his eternal relationship to the Father in the unity of the Spirit.

Jesus recognized as the Christ brings people to the Father, so that they become intimate sons and daughters of the living God. In this relationship of utter intimacy there is no place for fear or shame, as we cry out to God with the same word that Jesus used, “Abba! Father!” (Gal 4:6, Rom 8:15-16)

Notice the consequences of this truth for everyday faith-living. We have confident “access” (Eph 3:12) to the unspeakable mystery of God because we are baptized into a permanent union with Jesus our brother, a fellow human being who is like us in all things except sin, but whose humanity is united inseparably with the eternal Word.

It is by God’s sheer graciousness that we have been brought into this “family relationship.” When the celebrant of the Eucharist introduces the Lord’s Prayer, we are reminded that it is an act of staggering audacity to address the eternal Mystery with the intimate family word, “Father.” It is only because we have been made one with Jesus the Son that we dare to do this. “And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say ... Our Father.” [1]

All this is implied in the simple liturgical formula, “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” To become aware of it is to enter more deeply into our day-to-day living of the great mystery of our baptism.

To let this influence our thinking may help to resolve some of the nagging uncertainties that sometimes trouble our minds. Instead of asking, “where is Jesus in my relationship with God,” we may wind up asking, “where am I in that identification with Jesus which makes my relationship with God intimate and saving?”

Faithfully,

The Theologian

The Rev. Dr. Wayne L. Fehr wrote a column for a previous version of the diocesan newsletter called Ask a Theologian. He answered questions from ordinary Christians trying to make sense of their faith. Now he's back with a monthly column once again. You can find and purchase his book on Tracing the Contours of Faith: Christian Theology for Questioners here. 

[1] BCP, p. 363.

Ask a Theologian: Reconciliation

Dear Theologian,

After seeing a movie of the Passion of the Lord, I need to ask: Why did Jesus have to undergo such a horrible ordeal? And what does it mean to say that Jesus suffered and died for our sins?

Disturbed Moviegoer


Dear Moviegoer,

The Mel Gibson film is a graphic and relentless depiction of Jesus' suffering. For those of us who confess him as Lord and Christ, it may well be the occasion to reflect deeply on our own understanding of the Paschal Mystery.

The passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the very heart and center of our life of faith. It is what we remember and participate in every time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist. Yet it remains a mystery that we cannot penetrate with our rational mind.

The disciples of Jesus could not at first find any meaning in what happened to him at the end. Only in the light of his resurrection were they able—by searching the Hebrew scriptures—to interpret his suffering and death as something foretold by the prophets, and hence as part of God’s eternal plan of salvation.

This is brought out simply and movingly in the Emmaus story in Luke’s gospel (Lk 24:13-35). In that passage, the Stranger on the road (the risen Lord) says to the two disciples: "How slow of heart [you are] to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" 

"Was it not necessary?" Apparently it was, but how can we begin to understand this? If this terrible fate was, indeed, included in God’s intention of “saving” mankind, how does it relate to our salvation?

In the New Testament as a whole, Christ’s death on the cross is regarded as the focal point of God’s action of "reconciling" sinful humanity to Himself. Paul says,

"… while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." (Rom 5:10) And again, "God ... reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us." (2 Cor 5:18-19)

Like most, if not all, theological words, "reconciliation" has its literal meaning in the world of ordinary human experience. What does it mean to reconcile, in ordinary usage? It means to bring back into a proper relationship persons or things which have become incompatible. When the word is used theologically, it refers to the mystery of how the estrangement of human beings from God is overcome.

It presupposes the negative state of estrangement or "alienation"––being separated or cut off from that to which one belongs. A vivid image of this is given in the story of the first human beings, after the Fall, hiding from God among the trees. (Gen 3) They were afraid and ashamed, unwilling to interact with the One to whom they belonged.

Christian faith affirms that the alienation of human beings from God has been overcome, in principle, by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. But how are we to understand this? What difference did/does Christ make? What is it about his existence in our world that re-unites us with the God from whom we are alienated?

In the Hebrew scriptures, God repeatedly urges the people of Israel to "turn," that is, turn back toward the God of the covenant. (Isa 31:6, 45:22; Jer 15:19; Ezek 18:32) God also complains about the unsteadiness and stubborn refusal of his people. (Hos 6:4; Jer 5:3) The estrangement that keeps happening is caused by the people’s lack of a consistent response to God’s steady love.

This is important for how we interpret the "reconciling" quality of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. There is no obstacle to reconciliation from God’s side, but only from the side of sinful and alienated human beings. The question then becomes, How does Christ change the human side of the relationship?

Is it only his suffering and death that matter? But his death is unintelligible when isolated from his ministry and teaching. It is surely wrong to think that Jesus came only to suffer and die. It is wrong to think that it was only his torture and violent death—accepted willingly—that redeemed mankind. Surely it was his entire existence as "child" or "servant" of God that mattered.

Christ himself was "turned" utterly "toward God" in his living and finally in his dying. The Passion was the supreme test of Jesus' obedience to the Father. It was the culmination of a life that belonged wholly to God. 

"He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross." (Phil 2:7-8) "Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered." (Heb 5:8)

Jesus' suffering and death was the outcome of a life lived in utter faithfulness to God. His offer of forgiveness and reconciliation with God was misunderstood and rejected by human beings. This is poignantly expressed in Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem: "How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!" (Lk 13:34)

Why did Christ suffer? We could say that we human beings—represented by some Jewish leaders and the Roman governor at the time—rejected the revelation of God that was presented to us in the person, ministry and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. If we regard Jesus as the divine Love incarnate, then our human sinfulness rejected that Love and, indeed, crucified it. 

If that were the end of the story, we might not think of reconciliation between human beings and God. But the Cross is not the final word. The Resurrection of Jesus is the triumphant re-affirmation of divine Love, despite the worst that human beings can do.

This is suffering Love, which overcomes evil with good. It is finally victorious by “absorbing” all the malice of human beings and repaying it with infinite mercy. The first word that the risen Lord speaks to the disciples who had abandoned him is "Shalom! Peace!" (Jn 20:19) This is the word which he continues to speak to each of us, whenever we turn again toward him.

In Christ,
The Theologian

The Rev. Dr. Wayne L. Fehr wrote a column for a previous version of the diocesan newsletter called Ask a Theologian. He answered questions from ordinary Christians trying to make sense of their faith. Now he's back with a monthly column once again. You can find and purchase his book on Tracing the Contours of Faith: Christian Theology for Questioners here.