catholic

"I believe in the holy catholic Church."

In our contemporary Evangelical Covenant version of the Apostles' Creed we've changed the wording to "the holy Christian Church" in order to avoid sounding like we're pledging allegiance to the Pope. But the change has always bothered me.

I like the idea of the Church as being catholic in the original sense: universal, for everyone. God's Church is not an elitist group. The twelve that Jesus chose included tradesmen (fishermen) and professionals (the well-heeled Judas Iscariot), a religious fundamentalist (a Zealot) and someone who had turned his back on religion (a tax collector), commoners and those with friends in high places (John, with family connections to the high priest). Jesus, a Jew, even reached out to the hated Samaritans and other Gentiles.

"Catholic" today is a kind of mark of separation: Catholics v. Orthodox v. Protestants. Even the name Christian can be seen as a call to division: Christians v. Jews v. Muslims, etc. But Jesus came to break down walls of separation. Christianity isn't just for those with enough willpower to live a pious life, or for those smart enough to articulate the theistic arguments or build an irrefutable case for why an omnipotent God allows evil and suffering in the world. I'm a follower of Jesus because he offers to me the grace I need. Through him I have new life, something I can't earn, something which must be given to me as a gift because I'm completely unable to attain it on my own.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8)