Many, many years ago I sat in a chapel service at Judson College (now University) that featured a musical group called “Truth.” I had a mad crush on one of the altos who helped run their product table; otherwise I might have never attended. In my desire to hold a meaningful conversation with her after their performance, I listened carefully. And even today, there is one line out of their 45-minute set that sticks with me. Sung to the tune of the opening line of the old standard, “The Church’s One Foundation,” it is this:
The Church’s one foundation is tax-deductible…
For those of you who are not familiar with that song, the actual lyric is
The Church’s one Foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord…
Understand that this was in the middle of a satirical piece that included a number of lyrical rewrites from the Sunday morning hymnal. I remember it being a very clever few minutes that went over well with the student-heavy audience. I also find it remarkable that of all the things I could remember out of the numerous chapel services I’ve attended – likely hundreds since then – that line stands out.
That’s probably because I’ve engaged in many conversations, some lighthearted and others deadly serious, about what would happen in the financial foundation of the church if gifts and offerings made toward its mission were no longer tax-deductible. It’s probably a worthwhile discussion to have, but it highlights a disturbing undercurrent: the encroaching belief that God’s provision somehow lies outside of God himself. In other words, that God might not be able to sustain the mission of the church without help from the IRS.
And I’d like to take this a step further. Especially in election years, we who are the church often seem anxious to curry favor with politicians who seem to affirm cultural issues we use to define “the true church.” Sometimes in that process, we cease to be the church at all because our foundation ceases to be Jesus. Proclamation of the gospel gives way to the proclamation of political platitudes. We define our mission in terms of the planks we were able to negotiate (in exchange for what?) in election campaign platforms.
The reason the Barmen Declaration is timeless is because it speaks to a timeless issue: When does the church cease to be the church? The answer for the Confessing Church, in response to the Reich Church of the Nazi party, helps define this issue:
The inviolable foundation of the German Evangelical[i] Church is the gospel of Jesus Christ as it is attested for us in Holy Scripture and brought to light again in the Confessions of the Reformation. The full powers that the Church needs for its mission are hereby determined and limited…. [ii]
The power of the gospel is somehow enough. The power of Christ is somehow enough. There is no need to redefine the church according to the political whims of pandering wannabes, however messianic their handlers say they might be. Because if we succumb to such redefinition, we lose our true identity:
We are bound together by the confession of the one Lord of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.[iii]
We publicly declare before all evangelical Churches in Germany that what they hold in common in this Confession is grievously imperiled, and with that the unity of the German Evangelical Church. …This threat consists in the fact that the theological basis, in which the German Evangelical Churches is united, has been continually and systematically thwarted and rendered ineffective by alien principles, on the part of the leaders and spokesmen of the “German Christians” as well as on the part of the Church administration. When these principles are held to be valid, then, according to all the Confessions in force among us, the Church ceases to be the Church …[iv] (emphasis mine)
When does the church cease to be the church? The Barmen framers cite the threat of “alien principles” that would violate that which is inviolable in the church’s confession. It’s relatively easy to look back and cite Nazi atrocities that run the gamut from the extermination of mentally and physically challenged citizens to the isolation and systemic elimination of the Jewish population to the targeted assassination of political enemies. Slaughter of the innocents and not-so-innocents. Racism. Prejudice. Corruption.
And those were the people advising the loyal members of their Reich Church how to behave, and in a short while how to foster Hitler worship to supplant Jesus worship. (Add idolatry to the list, if you haven’t already.)
So in response, the Confessional Churches put their necks on the line. In writing, they stated, “We may not keep silent, since we believe that we have been given a common message to utter in a time of common need and temptation.” And it began with a clear statement of their inviolable foundation:
“I am the way, in the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6). “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheep fold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber…. I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved.” (John 10:1, 9).[v]
Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to here in which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.[vi]
We reject the false doctrine, as if the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from them besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures[vii] and truths, as God’s revelation.[viii]
As for them, so for us. Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture. Our inviolable foundation. The definition of our activities. The core of our heart. The one Word of God and the sole source of our proclamation.
God grant us the wisdom to inform the culture with grace and truth, rather than letting the culture somehow dilute our stewardship of the Word and ways of God. May we live, move and have our being in Christ, and may Christ fully dwell in us.
Otherwise – obviously – we run the very real risk of ceasing to be the church.
You can read the full text of the Barmen Declaration at http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/barmen.htm.
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[i] Since you’ve read this far, it’s probably important to remind us all that the word “evangelical” as applied to the Confessing Church in 1930s Germany may be a far cry from the word as applied to the conservative Western church today. This is not an inherent critique of anyone as much as it is a simple recognition that 80+ years have passed between then and now.
[ii] Barmen Declaration, 8.05, Article 1
[iii] Ibid., 8.06
[iv] Ibid., 8.07
[v] Ibid., 8.10
[vi] Ibid., 8.11
[vii] Some English translations of the Barmen Declaration say “historical figures” here.
[viii] Barmen Declaration, 8.12