Role of the Church today
defined by Hispanic theologian

(PHILADELPHIA, December 2001)--The Church on earth today is a sign and first fruit of God’s kingdom on earth, "a holy and sinful communion of saints" that God uses to build God’s kingdom on earth. But this essential Church is not to be confused with the whole kingdom of God, a Hispanic theologian and teacher told an audience recently at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP).

The Rev. Jose David Rodriguez, Sr., said he was speaking out of a background as both a parish pastor and a professor. (He’s served congregations in Puerto Rico and taught the humanities in Puerto Rico and Latin America.) He noted that cultures once dismissed by the Western imperial world are increasingly a relevant part of the post-modern world of faith today, causing believers to rethink the meaning of the word "catholicity." This more universal and inclusive understanding of the Christian faithful brings a continuing spirit of renewal into the modern church that echoes the kind of renewal Reformer Martin Luther helped to stage in the sixteenth century.

"We are not a religious elite, separate from the rest of the world," Rodriguez, a 1955 graduate of LTSP, told the Seminary community. The Church is a sign of salvation, a symbol of God’s plan in history that moves toward completion in the course of time." Through the church, healing is brought to brokenness, and all are in need of healing, he said.

He reminded his audience of faculty and future leaders that the role of the church as a healing influence places it by necessity in solidarity with those suffering in body and spirit. They include victims of domestic violence, those excluded from the economic order, and individuals imprisoned for their commitment to justice. That role places the church in the ferment of life renewal, in the context of political debate and in the presence of people’s most urgent needs, he said. In such a critical role the Church, in proclaiming the love of Christ, strives to keep human lives from being reduced to objects of manipulation and remains critically committed to the wholeness of life.

Dr. Rodriguez's appearance was sponsored by the Rev. Evaristo Falco Esteves Lecture Series. (Evaristo Esteves was a Lutheran pastor and former Roman Catholic priest in Puerto Rico.)