Sárospataki Füzetek 14. (2010)

2010 / 1. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Sell, Alan P. F.: Milyen megoldásra váró feladatok elé állítja Kálvin a 21. századi egyházat?

Sell, Alan P. F.

profession of faith. They are within the covenant family of the Church, but they do not have the full responsibility of church members; they are not yet enrolled saints. For his part, Calvin stoudy opposed the taking of communion by children. In all of this there is much to be pondered ecumenically.

Again, it may be argued that the widespread ecumenical conviction that baptism is the ground of the Church's unity is not only unrealistic in that so many Christian initiations are never completed; it can also marginalize the idea of God’s gracious call in the Gospel as being that which constitutes the Church, and it can even appear to sanction the sacerdotal apparatus introduced in the middle ages which was designed to provide for the situation in which those baptized and thereby deemed regenerate, continued thereafter to sin. Among the underlying themes in all of this, and one which clamours for further attention, is that concerning the balance to be struck between the Church’s being called out of the world (the separatist thrust) and its being sent into the world in mission and service. This is no new challenge, but it is a particularly clamant one in the Western world wherein the Church has in some places become so identified with the surrounding society’s mores and aspirations as to be almost indistinguishable from it, and this to the detriment of the counter- cultural witness that we are on occasion called upon to make.

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Fifthly, in his understanding of ministry Calvin held together preaching and pastoral care. In Calvin’s view there was nothing more noble or more humbling than the call to the Church’s ministry. He concurs with Paul in contending that ‘this human ministry which God uses to govern the church is the chief sinew by which believers are held together in one body.’68 Ministers must he holy, they must be steeped in the Scriptures, and, in succession to the apostles, their primary duty is the preaching of the Word. But this Word is the Word of God, from which they may not deviate; and they are guided by the Spirit of truth, which Spirit also conveys the truth preached to those who receive it.69 He goes so far as to say that God wishes to be heard only through the voice of his ministers.70 The preacher’s authority is Christ himself, and it is his voice that must be heard.71

To Calvin there is no distinction between preaching and pastoral work. Preaching is pastoral work. It is designed to move, instruct, encourage, console, and rebuke those who hear it. The Gospel, he declares, is not simply something to be heard, it is a seed of eternal life designed to reform us and give us joy, peace, and the certainty of salvation.72 Calvin would have regarded his prolific writing no less than his sermons as all part of his pastoral work of building up the Church. The pastoral work extends to the cure of individual souls in contexts of private confes68 Ibid., IV.iii.2.

69 Ibid., IV.viii.9.

70 See Commentary on Isaiah, 50:10, trans. W. Pringle, 1853, 61; cf. Commentary on John, 10: 4, trans. W. Pringle, 396-7; CNTC trans. T. H. L. Parker, I, 260.

71 Institutes, IV.viii.7.

72 See Commentary on I Peter, 1: 23, trans. John Owen, 1855, 56-7; CNTC trans. W. B. Johnston, 1963, 252-3; and Commentary on John, 15: 11, trans. W. Pringle, 1847, II, 114-115; CNTC trans. T. H. L. Parker, 1959,11, 98-9.

92 SÁROSPATAKI FÜZETEK