The Church IS God's Plan

Jesus Christ came to establish His Church, not a religious philosophy or philosophy of "how to have your best life now!" Our salvation ALWAYS INCLUDES the Church!

Our modern age is suffering a crisis of meaning. This, of course, is a natural consequence of decades of the proactive dismantling of the timeless wisdom that had been shaping our culture for centuries. You can’t tear down something and not have chaos while attempting to reconstruct something else. Anyone who has lived through the traffic during interstate construction can relate!

Part of this chaos has produced an interesting and very human reaction – tribalism.

In fact, we moderns have created whole new tribes centered around our passions. But the desire to belong to a group isn’t all bad. It is actually a desire that flows from our very creation. We were created in God’s image, and He knows Himself as Persons in Communion. We were made for community! So, our work as humans becoming who we were made to be is to grow in wisdom so that we are able to choose community wisely!

So, humans have a basic instinct, given by God, that we are meant to be in community.

We aren’t meant to be lonely.

But, as usual, without the grace of God to inform and form our desires and instincts, we wander around trying to answer this hunger for community with all the wrong and too small answers! The results are the tribalism, chaos, and lack of purpose we see driving an unparalleled epidemic of loneliness in our modern age.

Look at our lesson today in Romans 16:1-16:

Brethren, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchreai, that you may receive her in the Lord as befits the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a helper of many and of myself as well. Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I but also all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks; greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epainetos, who was the first convert in Asia for Christ. Greet Mary, who has worked hard among you. Greet Andronicos and Junias, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners; they are men of note among the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. Greet Ampliatos, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulos. Greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissos. Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaina and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, eminent in the Lord, also his mother and mine. Greet Asyncritos, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brethren who are with them. Greet Philologos, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.

Paul wants to greet all these people at the end of arguably one of his most essential letters: the Book of Romans. He’s writing his opus in hopes of visiting the Roman church on his way to missionize in Spain, and he sends this letter ahead of his visit to learn his theology, his insight as an apostle, and his devotion to Christ and to them.

You see, devotion to Jesus means devotion to His Body, the Church.

There is no way to have a relationship with the Head and ignore the Body. Jesus is whole.

He is One, and His Church is One because she is His Body. To be devoted to Jesus is inseparable from being committed to His Church. You can’t have one without the other. This is why the Creed says, “I believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.”

And listen to the way Paul describes these dear ones he wants to make sure get greeted by the Roman church: A “deaconess” (let the debates rage, but there she is!), fellow workers who risk their necks for Paul, the first Gentile convert in Asia, hard workers, fellow prisoners, beloved, kinsmen, eminent in the Lord, and all the saints. And he concludes, “Greet one another with a holy kiss.”

What a powerful picture of love and devotion. And this devotion, far from competing with our dedication to Jesus, actually enhances and magnifies my devotion to Jesus.

The modern sickness of “Me and Jesus got our own thing going” only leads to a weak and shallow faith that cannot stand against the strong tide of faithlessness in our modern age. It is only a very physical, locatable, and VISIBLE CHURCH that can act as an antidote to the selfish narcissism of our modern age.

The lives of the 70 who followed the Lord and were fellow witnesses of His resurrection, along with the 12 Apostles, are filled with the early heroes of our Faith. Sts. Stachys, Andrew, Amplias, Apelles, Urban, Aristobulus, and Narcissus were men who learned the lesson of Gratitude and Generosity. They embodied in their lives the example of an undistracted and meaning-filled life. St. Stachys became the first bishop of the then-city of Byzantium. He was made bishop by St. Andrew the Apostle, who had established the church in the city that would one day become Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empire. Having shepherded his people for sixteen years, he reposed in the Lord. As for the others, each one shone forth in the episcopal see appointed to him: Apelles, Bishop of Heraclea; Amplias, Bishop of Odyssopolis; Urban, Bishop of Macedonia; Narcissus, Bishop of Athens; and Aristobulus, Bishop of Britain. Each lived a focused and purposeful Christian life and became the foundation stones of the Faith all across the Empire.

Today, are you devoted to the Church? Oh, I’m not just talking about the local church where you go on Sundays. I’m talking about the Church through history, time, and Space, that still lives in Christ as His Body. Being Christian means being an honest and actual member of His Body, the Church. This is what we mean when we say, “Be a Normal Orthodox Christian.”

P.S. Come, let us duly praise Apelles and famed Aristobulus, the wise Apostles, with Urban, Narcissus, and Stachys, and blessed Amplias, as the most sacred treasures of the All-holy Spirit and the far-shining beams of Christ, the Sun of Glory, whom God brought together by His grace.

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Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV