March 5
Thought and Prayer of the Day
by Mother Jennifer
This past week we wrapped up our Pilgrim course – where we were examining the Apostle’s Creed, and what it means when we confess our faith together.
The first five weeks we looked to the nature of God, exploring who Christians believe God to be and what it means to believe in God – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
But on this final week we looked to the last part of the creed – and what it means to say “I believe in the one holy, catholic, apostolic church”.
The church is God’s gift to us, but it is made up of human beings. Its foundation is Christ, but the building blocks of the church are us.
For some people this is the most challenging part of the creed because some people have more faith in God than they have in humans or human institutions. And not without cause, for the church doesn’t always seem so holy or united.
But as we are called to confess our faith in the Holy Trinity each week – Father, Son and Holy Spirit — we are also called to confess our faith in the church – in God’s body of believers here on earth.
The church is God’s institution, gifted to us by God as a show of faith in us! We believe in God and God believes in us. (Shout out here to Justin Bieber who references this in his song Holy)
The four words “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church are the foundation of who we are called to be.
We are called to unity: One
Our purpose is to be: Holy
Our reach is: catholic (meaning universal)
The tradition we are to follow is: Apostolic (following in the tradition of teaching and serving that the apostles started).
The church is the way many people come to know about God, grow in faith, and serve the world. It is the instrument that God has created to showcase God’s love and we are all invited to be part of it.
This analogy of the church was shared Tuesday night:
In 1672 Sir Isaac Newton Published a series of experiments where by shining white light through a prism, he demonstrated that it is made up of a spectrum of colours, of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. By refracting this rainbow through another prism, Newton found that it became white light once more.
Similarly, the church is made up of a spectrum of churches and individuals – each with there own particular colour or hue, which find their unity through the prism of the Trinity.
Just as the persons of the Trinity form a single communion, so different people and expressions of life-together form the church.
We each are called, we each have something to offer, and together, with God’s help, we are called into something bigger than any one of us, to help fulfil God’s mission here on earth.
That is something worth believing in!
Prayer:
O Gracious and Holy Father, give us
wisdom to pursuit you,
diligence to seek you,
patience to wait for you,
eyes to behold you,
a heart to meditate on you,
and a life to proclaim you
May we be built up as living stones into a spiritual house,
Your church,
through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
