Chapter Two - The Church in History

Chapter Two – The Church in History

I appreciate Moltmann’s reminder that the church’s first word is not the church but is always Christ. This is a challenging reminder to any pastor who is given the charge to “grow the church”. What this really means is the minister is supposed to grow the congregation’s numbers. Ambrose said, “The church is like the moon, which has no light of its own or for itself. If it is the true church, the light that is reflected on its face is the light of Christ, which reflects the glory of God, and it shines on the face of the church for the people who are seeking their way to freedom in darkness.”

I have always struggled with paradox and Moltmann deals a lot with it talking about the essence of the church and the form of the church. I will do my best to unpack this. Do we look at the church as top – down or bottom – up? The church is both a historical entity and something that is completely out of time that looks and hopes for the completion of all things. In this way, it mirrors the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the hope of his coming glory. “The remissio peccatorum liberates men from the power of the past and therefore opens up the new future of righteous and eternal life.” The author talks a great deal later on about transformation of the individual and the church. It is interesting to note all the times “creative” is used in describing God. It is a concept lost on me for the most part and I wonder why we don’t focus on it more. The God who creates, who recreates, must be creative. I had a friend who mentioned God must have a sense of humor because he made the porcupine. God’s creative power goes beyond the creatures called forth in Genesis.

The musician Bruce Hornsby rose up the charts with his 80’s diddy, “The Way It Is.” He sings that many things in this life – injustices, inhumanity, etc will never change. The church cannot accept itself as simply “what it is” as long as the promise of Christ’s Kingdom goes unfulfilled. We must take on the Christ who was crucified, the Christ who was resurrected, the Christ who is with us and the Christ who will come again in glory. When we ignore any of these, we miss the mark. Of course, we will never completely be who we are called to be. However, this is not an excuse to do nothing with weak resignation assuming any efforts amount to Sisyphus. We are called to keep on working, even if the true mark is always outside of our grasp.

Moltmann talks about our “sacramental identity” throughout the book. Rememberence of the past and a hope for the future is linked together in the sacraments we participate in the present. “This definite event which ‘makes the church the church’ is a sacramental event. We mean by this the preaching of the Word of God in the human word, the presence of the coming of Christ in bread and wine, and the coming of the Sprit in baptism. To such an extent the church is what it is in the light of this event.” The history of Christ always points to eschatology.

When we talk about any part of Christ’s earthly ministry, we are also making a soteriological statement as well. History is important, but so is the promise to which that history points. For the Apostle Paul, all of Christ’s history points to the justification of sinners. “In the eschatological thanksgiving of the new creation the destiny of all created being is fulfilled.”

“The church as the community of justified sinners, the fellowship of those liberated by Christ, who experience salvation and live in thanksgiving, is on the way to fulfilling the meaning of the history of Christ.” History passes into eschatology and eschatology passes into history – the work of the Holy Spirit. Liberation from sin is an entrance into a new life and leads to a new creation.

I don’t know if I read Moltmann using the word “perichoresis” but the concept seems to be present throughout his writings. Christology and Pneumology must be understood in the movement within the Trinity. Likewise, any movement in the church must be seen in this triune movement.

We are a part of the church that has always been influenced by the signs of the times. This language appears to echo many of our intro readings in the Gospel and Culture sequence. We exist as a part of the culture, but cannot be ruled by that which surrounds us. I loved Moltmann’s writings comparing the Mosaic understanding of “signs and wonders” with the prevalent end time approach to “signs and wonders.” I am wearied by all the religious talking heads proclaiming the impending coming end of world on television shows, radio programs and internet articles. The coming end times will be announced through earthquakes in Haiti, tsunamis in Japan and wars in the Middle East. I appreciate his discussion of “signs and wonders” as a call to look back to the God who led God’s people out of Egypt and into a land flowing with milk and honey. “The modern orientation of the church towards ‘the signs of the times’ really follows both biblical traditions, arriving at diametrically opposite notions, depending on whether the present is read in accordance with the apocalyptic timetable of in remembrance of the exodus tradition.”

How should we view revolutions around the world? Are they signs of the end of time or a steady moving forward of God’s plan for God’s kingdom on this earth? Moltmann argues for a messianic orientation to everything going on around us. I don’t know if that will “Play in Peoria” but it certainly resonates with me as someone who is wearied by apocalyptic overload. “God ultimately desires the state, the perfected sate, the moral kingdom of God on earth, because he wants people who have arrived at full maturity. Once this is achieved the church will have become superfluous, since it was a transitional institution, designed for the education of men. Its goal has been reached, for it is there not for its own sake or for its own expansion but for the sake of the kingdom of God.” This quote resonates with me as the goal of our whole being. The church should do so well that there is no longer a need for the church because the world was transformed. This is a utopian view, but it is still our goal.

Christ remains our hope as the signs of the times continue to change rapidly around us. The church lives in the today of Christ’s presence, remembering his life and looking forward to his future glory. “For it is not world crisis that leas to Christ’s parousia; it is Christ parousia that brings this world with its crises to an end.” These are signs of history, not signs of the end.

“Without an understanding of the particular church in the framework of the universal history of God’s dealings with the world, ecclesiology remains abstract and the church’s self-understanding blind”

Does the salvation of the world come through the church or does the church come out of the salvation of the world? We stand in the middle of this movement – not at its beginning and not at its end. We are like a ship on the ocean that must look to God as a set star in the heavens guiding our path.

Ibid p. 19
Ibid p. 22
Ibid p. 27
Ibid p. 33
Ibid p. 33
Ibid p. 41
Ibid p. 46
Ibid p. 50
Ibid p. 51

Thoughts on The Church in the Power of the Spirit

Preface, Introduction and Chapter One


The first thing I noticed when reading through the preface and the first chapters was how prophetic Moltmann was in describing the current situation of the church. The book was first published in 1975 – a time when many in our denomination and downtown church would describe as the “Good Ole Days.” It is interesting to hear the author describe many of the fissures that have become modern day cracks in our foundation.

Moltmann argues we have to move from the large structures seemingly inherent in denominational churches to smaller communities. Further, we have to address passive attendance into active participation. I have thought recently about the number of people who attend the 9:30 worship service at First Presbyterian Church, shake my hand, compliment my sermon and head out into the world. About half of our congregation stays around for the educational hour and their Sunday school class. “Forms of community that are accepted personally and entered into voluntarily are becoming more important.” This is a challenge to Presbyterians who have relied primarily on offspring to fill the church’s rolls. I am encouraged by the thought that we worship a God who does not merely calls us to join together. Moltmann’s purpose is to understand the triune God as the God who is community, who calls community into life and who invites men and women into sociality with him. ”


“Anyone who only talks about a ‘crisis’ without recognizing this implicit opportunity is talking because he is afraid and without hope. Anyone who only wants to have new opportunities without accepting the crisis of previous answers is living an illusion.”

“When its traditions are imperiled by insecurity, the church is thrown back to its roots. It will take its bearings even more emphatically than before from Jesus, his history, his presence and his future. As ‘the church of Jesus Christ’ it is fundamentally dependent on him, and on him alone.”

“Theological insight and the practical experiences I have mentioned would suggest that the book’s practical intention might be formulated as follows: to point away from the pastoral church, that looks after the people to the people’s own communal church among the people.”

“The church is the people of God and will give an account of itself at all times to the God who has called it into being, liberated it and gathered it.”

The church is present before God and before men and women and before the future. Where have we put our emphasis in the past? Do we recognize this, and if we do, do we mix the two spots? “The church of Christ is an ‘open’ church. It is open for God, open for men and open for the future of both God and men. The church atrophies when it surrenders any one of these opennesses and closes itself up against God, men or the future.” I think there is a lot of truth in the need to be an “open” church. It is easy for churches, when faced with adversity, to shut itself off from the outside and hunker in a bunker. It is a contributing factor in the closing of many churches and the relative few new church developments.

Many will blame the cultural upheavals begun in the 1960’s as the basis of the declining membership in mainline denominations. It appears Moltmann would disagree with this thinking. The church ceases to be the church of triune God when it settles into a comfortable routine. “The unrest of the times points it to this inner unrest of its own. The social and cultural upheavals of the present draw its attention to that great upheaval which it itself describes as ‘new creation’, as the ‘new people of God’. It appears that we need to pay attention to the inner unrest within the church and see where we need to move.

We are called to continually go back to the one who called the church into being; Jesus Christ. “It is only where Christ alone rules, and the church listens to his voice only, that the church arrives at its truth and becomes free and a liberating power in the world.” The church’s lone and all embracing reason for existing is the lordship of Christ. Our Christology will determine our ecclesiology. I believe this is a very helpful reminder. It requires all of us to pay attention to the Christ we claim to follow. Whenever we make a statement about Christ, we are also making a statement about the church and towards the messianic kingdom. We have to subordinate our individual interests to the interests of Christ. Of course, this is easier said than done.

I wonder if Moltmann was one of the founding fathers of the “missionary church” movement? It seems like he touches on a number of themes present in current writings. I can only assume many of our modern theologians have read this book and are influenced by its insights. The modern church is beginning to understand that mission is not something exclusively “over there” but a thing that needs to be practiced in our everyday world and lives.

Moltmann identifies the way many churches (including my own) get it wrong. “Call and mission are something that have happened once and for all, then the church today calls no longer, it instructs and teaches Christians and baptizes the children of Christians. In this way it remains within the confines of ‘Christian society’, which continually reproduces itself through infant baptism.”

“The theological interpretation of the church today must absorb these germs of a missionary church in the decay of the corpus christianum. What we have to learn from them is not that the church ‘has” a mission, but the very reverse that the mission of Christ creates its own church. Mission does not come from the church; it is from mission and in the light of mission that the church has to be understood. The preaching (emphasis added) of the gospel does not merely serve to instruct Christians and strengthen their faith; it always serves to call non-Christians at the same time.” I absolutely love this paragraph and believe this is the goal of my whole work in the DMin program. In my 9 years of ministry, I have had very few adult baptisms. I would like this to change and I am hopeful it will. “Evangelism is mission, but mission is not merely evangelization.”

“The real point is not to spread the church but to spread the kingdom. The goal is not the glorification of the church but the glorification of the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.” I think we all have to hold ourselves accountable to this standard.

I am looking forward to reading further about the concepts of ecumenism and the political church. These are two hot button topics with many people in the pews and I do not know if I have a complete grasp on them yet. “Generally speaking, the theology of revolution understands ‘revolution’ as the outward correspondence of man’s inner repentance.” Moltmann begins to talk a lot about liberation theology and the need to read the Bible through those with full eyes and empty bellies. If we are working for liberation, we must take sides with the poor and the oppressed. I just read an article that stated that most evangelical Christians in America are in favor of cutting support to foreign countries and slashing Federal aid to the many social programs that benefit the poorest in our land.


Moltmann p. xiii
Ibid p. xv
Ibid p. xvii
Ibid p. xviii
Ibid p. xx
Ibid p. 1
Ibid p. 2
Ibid p. 3
Ibid p. 5
Ibid p. 9
Ibid p. 9
Ibid p. 10
Ibid p. 16