Third Sunday of Easter

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life—the life was made manifest , and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us…”
+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
           
You have probably heard the expression “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.” We say it every Sunday, when we recite the Nicene Creed; “We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” What does that mean? Let’s break it down: “One” means that we believe that the Church is one, that we as Christians are one with Christians everywhere in the world and throughout the history of the Church since New Testament times. We believe in one Lord, one faith, one baptism.  “Holy” means that the Church is holy because the Holy Spirit dwells in the Church and sanctifies its members setting them apart to God in Christ and call them to a holy and righteous life. “Catholic” means the Church is “catholic” (according to the whole) because it keeps the whole faith it received from the Lord Jesus Christ, in continuity with the whole Church in all times and places. The Church is called “apostolic” because it holds the faith of the first apostles sent by Jesus Christ. In continuity with the Apostles, the Church is likewise sent by Christ to proclaim the Gospel and to make disciples throughout the whole world.
           
Our Gospel lesson for today from St. Luke captures for us the moment when Jesus declares to His disciples the imminent establishment of the Church and its identity and mission. Here is St. Luke’s description of the incident we read last week in John 20:19-23: Jesus appears to His disciples, and He shows them that He is not a ghost, by showing them His sacred wounds and by eating food in their presence. As we examined last week, a ghost does not have wounds, nor does a ghost eat food.
           
Once Jesus has established for the disciples that He is truly resurrected from the dead, and present with them, He then proceeds to sum up all that He has done and what will now happen moving forward.

Jesus reminds them that He is the Messiah, the Christ, and that His coming, and His earthly ministry, His teaching and His miraculous signs, culminating in His death and resurrection, was all the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy—in the first five books of Moses, in the books of the Prophets, and in the Psalms as well.

Then in verse 45 Luke writes, “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” This tells us that since the Scriptures are spiritual and supernatural writings, the ability to understand and proclaim their meaning to others is also a spiritual and supernatural act. It does not come principally from intellectual or academic study, but it comes from God Himself through the Holy Spirit. It is also a reminder that the Church’s authority and power comes from God through the Holy Spirit: remember last week in John’s Gospel, Jesus declares to the disciples, “As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you...Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

With these words, Jesus declares that He is establishing His Church, and that this Church, made of up of all those who believe in Him and who led by His Apostles, those who were eyewitnesses of His earthly ministry, and His death and resurrection, all of whom are now commissioned to go out into the world in Christ’s name. To do what? Jesus continues, declaring, “That repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” So then, the Church is a Holy Spirit empowered institution, created and established by Christ Himself, a supernatural body empowered by Christ, entrusted with the faith first given to the Apostles, to go out into the world and to preach the Gospel to all nations.

​St. John the Divine, in his first letter, uses the same kind of language he used at the beginning of his Gospel, to describe Christ’s commission to him and to the other Apostles, and to the whole Church. John writes, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life—the life was made manifest , and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us…” This is the Gospel and the Great Commission that the Church, proclaims and practices. This Gospel comes to us from the Apostles, who as St. John says, heard it from Christ, seen it with their own eyes, looked upon and touched with their hands (remember Thomas?), this life and ministry and story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, this we proclaim to you. For what purpose? So that you (all of us) may have fellowship with us (the Church and the Apostles).

This then, is what we mean when we say that we believe in and are baptized into Christ’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. We believe in the Apostolic faith, which was handed down to the present day from the Apostles. We can find this Apostolic faith in the Scriptures and in the teachings of the Church. We are to take this faith that we have received and teach it to our children, and proclaim it to all the nations to make disciples of them.

Here at St. John the Divine Church, we come together to worship God and His Son Jesus Christ, to glory Him in all that we say and do. We take the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we believe it, teach it, and as St. John the Divine, writes, we proclaim it also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and that indeed our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

​+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.