We Long for a Mother Who will Feed Us

When John Calvin, the father of modern Presbyterianism, speaks of the Roman Catholic Church of his day he says of her that “Satan has adulterated all that God had appointed for our salvation.” He speaks of the Church as our Mother. This is not the mother of our first birth, our physical birth, but on our second birth, our spiritual birth to eternal life.

Just as our physical mother nourishes us with her milk and, later, with solid food, so does our Mother, the Church, feed us so that we made grow to maturity in Christ Jesus. The Church is Christ’s bride, we are their offspring. Just as a husband has union with his wife, in marriage, so the Christ has union with the Church. Our union with Christ is always in the context of our union with his bride, the Invisible Church. Calvin says of the Church that it is “into whose bosom God has collected His children.”

God, through Paul speaks of the Church as an eschatological (heavenly) Mother. In Galatians 4:26 we read “the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.”  This means that the Church on earth is being sanctified from glory to glory, just as individual Christians are being sanctified. The full glory of the Church is only realized in heaven after God reformed (re-creates) His creation. This is why Calvin speaks of the Church as both, at the same time, “the flock of God and an untamed herd.”  It is the work of God moving us and Her toward completion.

The means by which our Mother nourishes us is through the ministry of God’s Word. The ministers of the Word are prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. (Eph 4:11) This is why it is so important that such ministers are worthy of their calling or are true and not false witnesses of the “truth once delivered among the saints.”

We have just one Mother, one church. Ephesians 4:4 (RSV) There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call”. Those who would call us to view our congregation as a separate Church do so in error. Christ is not a polygamous. He has but one bride.

Is it possible that the Presbyterian Church (USA), as part of the visible and temporal earthly Church, has become so adulterated  that it can no longer nourish us or our children with the spiritual food that we may grow strong in the  knowledge and faith of our Lord? The theological guidance offered by our General Assembly regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ fails to affirm anything of substance about that vital topic. They tell us to believe that God offers salvation through Jesus Christ but also that God may or may not save by means other than finished work of Christ. They teach us that righteous morality among teens and unmarried adults may rightly include sexual activity. They teach that those who practice homosexual activities are blessed of God and are fine moral examples for our children. They call for an end to hunger among the poor children of the world and yet support the brutal and painful ending of a child’s life as he or she crowns its mother’s womb. They question the morality of capitalism while managing a billion dollars in liquid assets. They cry for freedom in countries where tyranny is the norm but call into the question the morality of any military effort to defend and protect freedom.

Is it possible that the Presbyterian Church (USA) has become so adulterated that it can no longer nourish us or our children with the spiritual food that we may grow strong in the knowledge and faith of our Lord? Some of us long for a visible and temporal church that is more closely connected to that true Christ that is the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, and, thereby, the mother of our souls.