This title should really be "Two words for the month" - for there is obviously a difference between "a church", in the sense of a building where Christians meet, and "the church", in the sense of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church, "the mystical body of Thy Son, which is the blessed company of all Christian people," to quote from Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer.
These two meanings are reflected in the two Greek concepts from which the various language groups have derived their own word for "church". Our English word, like the German Kirche and Russian cerkov, comes from the Greek kyriakos, short for oikos kyriakos - the house of the Lord. The Italian word chiesa, French église, or Welsh eglwys come from ekklesia - a word applied in the Greek secular world to gatherings of citizens at political assemblies.
When the Bible was being translated into English, there was a substantial body of opinion which thought the word "church" was too institutional. They wanted to use a neutral word, like "assembly" or "congregation". King James himself is said to have insisted that the translators used the word "church", and so they did (well, most of the time). It was good that he did so, because in the Old Testament, there is a distinction between the people whom God has chosen, called and hallowed, and a mere group of people who meet together. It is this holy and chosen people who are "the assembly of the faithful" (Ps. 149:1), "the assembly of the Most High", in the words of Ecclesiasticus (24:2).
The Gospels only twice use the word - once in Mt. 18:17, where if someone has wronged you, you are to point it out privately, but, if that does not work, you are to "tell it to the church" - here it clearly means an assembly. The other occasion is Jesus' words to Peter, the rock, that "on this rock I will build my church." Here, the church refers to the whole of those who are redeemed - those who belong to Christ.
The "institutional" meaning recurs throughout the New Testament. Paul writes to "the churches of Galatia", the Revelation is a message to the seven churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. And in later centuries, when assemblies built places to worship in, these too came to be called churches.
The other, more "mystical" meaning is developed further by Paul. The church has several aspects. Firstly, its members have been called. The verb that underlies the word ekklesia is the verb that Jesus uses when he says: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mt 9:13), and that Paul uses of the Romans "called to be saints."
The church is "in Christ" (1 Thess 1:1, Gal 1:22), as we all are. We share Christ's life. So the church is Christ's body (Col 1:24) - and we are his hands and his feet. Paul brings this home particularly in his letters to the Corinthians, who seem to have been a "difficult" congregation! Their different views, their different talents should not be a source of divisions, but a chance to work together in unity and harmony - a real lesson for us today! Especially when sharing in the Lord's Supper, they needed to see this unity. Just as the tribes of Israel in the desert "all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink" (1 Cor 10:2-3), so in the meal which stood at the centre of the Corinthians' worship, "we all partake of the one bread."
For Paul the church is also Christ's bride (Eph 5:26-32, 2 Cor 11:2). And just as Jesus is head of the Church, his body, so he is the cornerstone of the Church, his temple (Eph 2:20, 2 Cor 6:16). We have been called by Christ, we have been equipped with the Holy Spirit, to work with him, to do his work, and to share his heavenly life - seated with him in the heavenly places, as Paul tells the Ephesians.
With this breadth of meaning in one word (or even two words!), we should wonder what we at St Ursula's have in common with Christ's body, Christ's bride, Christ's temple. A body needs feeding and growth, a bride needs loving, a temple needs building up (and we should not forget that the Bible talks of "edifying", which means just that). We are on the way. We are not there yet, but if our eyes are fixed on Christ, our head, we can look forward to the day when the church on earth, the church in Jubiläumsplatz, is indistinguishable from the church in heaven.
HD