Bride and Mother
“No one can have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.” (Cyprian, bishop-martyr c.250 AD)
Introduction
One of the intriguing aspects of my journey with the Lord is how I keep encountering men and women who have been bruised and bashed by institutional Christianity. In every case I counsel them to release forgiveness and centre solely on Jesus rather than “the Church”. for this is what the Spirit of God has taught me to do. One of the reasons for much Church conflict over the centuries has been Christian leaders having far too low an opinion of the spirituality of the Bride of Christ, and so too high an estimation of the earthly aspects of their ministry. The way past all these tensions is to seek “the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:1-3). By God’s grace, over the decades, I have had a number of such epiphanies from the Lord that teach me that the Church is not only a Bride but also a Mother.
Divine Pleasure and the Nations
About 25 years ago I was driving along the banks of the Swan River between Fremantle and the centre of Perth. It was a typical spring day, the sky was perfectly clear and bright blue, the sun was dazzling and dolphins were playing in the river. I had such a tremendous sense of the pleasure of God over the city and its surrounds. Then out of all apparent immediate context the Lord began to speak to me through Psalm 87: “Among those who know me I mention Egypt and Babylon; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush— “This one was born there,” they say. 5 And of Zion it shall be said, “This one and that one were born in her”; for the Most High himself will establish her. 6 The Lord records as he registers the peoples, “This one was born there.”” In biblical context this was a prophecy that in the end times the former enemies of Israel would attach themselves to the worship of the people of God with Zion/Jerusalem as their mother. In the context of the Church in Perth I wrote that this would mean the emergence of a post – multicultural church. NOT in the sense that different cultures will be assimilated into a homogeneous whole, but through a spiritual experience of union in Christ richer than whatever may have occurred in their homelands. Through our union in Christ different races, ages and traditions would cooperate to reach the ends of the world by global mission. There will be a great flowing together of gifts from across the multi-coloured Body, a manifestation of distinction without separation which will have unique authority over the evil rulers above (Eph 3:10 cf. Ps 133:3). The Church in Perth will be a Mother Church.
Built from Heaven
On the 26th of November 1999 I was in a prayer meeting with about 30 other pastors and as I was praying aloud I could “see” that the eternal city of God i.e. the Church (Rev 21:9-14) was being built now as cities all over the globe witness a harvest of souls for Christ. As these cities were networked, not primarily electronically but through mutual prayer and love, they imaged in real physical space-time the life of the city we will enjoy for eternity. In the Spirit we can see a prophetic deposit of “the glory and the honour of the nations” being brought to the Lamb on his throne (Rev 21:24, 26) now. The kings who bring the “wealth of the nations” (Isa 60:5) into heaven, and the wealth itself, is the Church as a company of priests and kings (1 Pet 2:9; Rev 1:6; 5:10). Do you see this is happening now?
Children Coming
One of the more foundational prophetic images released in Perth comes from Isaiah 54:1-3, ““Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labour! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord. 2 “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. 3 For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations”. This glorious prophecy cannot be loosed from what precedes it, the sufferings of Jesus outlaid is Isaiah 52:13-53:12. “he shall sprinkle many nations…he shall see his offspring…he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied;” (53:11; John 12:27). Children of God, can you see that the cross and exaltation of Jesus has created another Mother?
Another Mother
Paul sees in the Spirit the Mother that Isaiah wrote about, “But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labour! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” (Gal 4:26-27). This heavenly Mother has nothing to do with the “elemental spirits of the world” (Gal 4:3, 9 cf. Col 2:8, 20) who exercise control over the people of God through external commands and prohibitions. The eternal Mother rules solely by the Holy Spirit in the heart. She is the woman in labour in Revelation 12, an impregnated messianic community in agony for the birth of all the children of God across the nations (John 16:19-22 cf. Isa 66:7-9). This groaning in the Spirit (cf. Rom 8:22, 26) is what will forcefully distinguish the emerging Bride-Mother from various powerless forms of religion (2 Tim 3:5), whether liberal, rationalistic or hyper-charismatic. The result will be, as always over the long history of the Church is that the last move of God will persecute the new move of God. This “clash of mothers” will separate those whose loyalty is to old forms from those who are being called forth through “fire”. Ungodly rivalry is unavoidable (Phil 1:15).
At this point Cyprian’s quote, alien to most Protestants, is a help. “No one can have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.”, can help. All natural born children know they are loved because they were brought forth willingly through great suffering. By divine decree, “I will multiply your pain in childbearing” (Gen 3:16), the anguish of labour foreshadows the travail of the cross. To suffer for her children is alike the essential nature of the Bride-Mother. When this reality is widely expressed in the city-Church it will shame and activate opposition against us.
Conclusion
The Lord is calling forth in our midst an outward looking missional Church. She will be marked by a radical discontinuity with the easy-going comfortable form of lifestyle Christianity which is presently dominating Western Christianity. What will be indisputable will be her anguish for more and more spiritual children, and what will be spiritually contested will be the glory of the Lord in her midst. This is a call to the Church in Perth (at least). Do you sense the call of Jesus to be a part of this Bride-Mother, not a Bride only, lest we fall into a spiritual eroticism, not a Mother only, lest we succumb to sentimentalism, but the maturity of the Church encompassed within the dominant images of scripture? A Bride-Mother. We all deeply need to belong to the nurturing-and-birthing Bride-Mother. Without the former, woundedness through the immature Body prevails, without the latter, the arrival of new children for God, the vitality of the Body declines. Let us pray.