I write a brief meditation for our church to us on Saturday evenings as we prepare for worship. This is the one for June 11, 2022.
The Lord’s Church can be thought of in different aspects. There is the invisible Church which consists of “the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ” (WCF 25.1) and also the visible Church which consists of “all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children” (WCF 25.2). We can also think of these two as being the Church considered eternally and eschatologically, on one hand, and the Church considered temporally and historically, one the other. This is because the invisible and visible are not two different churches but only two aspects of the same one Body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We can also consider the Church from the standpoint of two locations, even if location isn’t the best word to use in this case. There is the Church in heaven and the Church on earth, the saints who have been glorified and are now with Christ awaiting the Judgment of the last day, and the saints who remain on the battlefield here below, waging war against the world, the flesh, and the Devil. These have been called the Church in Glory and the Church on Earth or the Church Triumphant and the Church Militant. Again we should emphasize, these are not two separate churches but two aspects of the one Body of our Lord.
I have never been to war, not as a soldier enlisted or commissioned in a national army. But every one of us who are blood-bought, baptized, Spirit-filled believers in Jesus have been elected, mustered, and deployed in the greatest battle in the history of the world. Every Christian is engaged in spiritual warfare. That Christ has won the ultimate victory does not change the reality that there is a Dragon hunting us every day (Rev. 12:10-17). The whole universe is embroiled in war, and the followers of Christ are active participants in the conflict. You may have thought when you gave your life to Jesus that you were settling the affairs of the afterlife. In fact, you were being awakened and summoned to the contest that will occupy you for the rest of your life, only ending when your body returns to the dust of the ground.
“The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten.” –Sam Gamgee in The Two Towers
I will resist the urge to elaborate on Tolkien’s doctrine of divine sovereignty governing human moral agency. Suffice it to say this quote, and others, demonstrate that Brother Tolkien understood that God is not only in charge, he is in control. But the point here is that real adventures aren’t experiences people seek out. They don’t sign-up online or buy a Groupon for them. They simply find themselves there. And here you are, in the middle of one, even if you don’t know it, and if you don’t, you better figure it out.
We need to know who we are, whose we are, where we are, and what we are supposed to do during the time that we are here. We may be the Church visible and militant, but we belong to the Church invisible and triumphant. We are Christ’s Body on earth, but we are truly, spiritually, and eternally joined to Christ’s Body in glory. We are called to battle, to fight manfully and joyfully, until the sword cleaves to our hand and we fall, exhausted but victorious, even in death.
The Oracle at Delphi enjoined visitors: “Know Thyself,” and Calvin began his Institutes of the Christian Religion by affirming that “true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves” (I.1.1). As we gather for worship on the Lord’s Day, we must come as those who know ourselves. We are sinners saved by grace alone, adopted sons and heirs of the Father, servants of a risen and glorious King, soldiers called to valor in the army of our Lord. –JME
