Holy Mother Church. . .

I often wonder how St. Nickolas and his right hook would have dealt with the problem of denominations.  In the earlier history of the Church, it was not versions of the same truth but clearly right and wrong, orthodoxy and heterodoxy, truth and error.  Now we have every different kind of denomination facing each other on the corners of our towns -- not to mention those who refuse to be a denomination.  What does this mean?  Is there no truth or error but merely a sea of gray, muddy, middle in which no one is really wrong and everyone is mostly right?  Surely our people are also confused.  Is there a common core of Christianity that nearly everyone (well, except the Mormons and JWs) get right and only fringe areas of disagreement?  Does any of it matter?  Is our only option the reconciled diversity chosen by some Lutherans in America?

Luther identified what he called the seven “marks” of the Church. By these marks, one can know where the Church is located: God’s Word; Holy Baptism; the Sacrament of the Altar; the Office of the Keys; the Office of the Ministry; and prayer, praise and thanksgiving to God. Luther concluded his list with the seventh mark of the Church: the sacred cross.  You might find them also numbered as: Confession and Absolution, The Word of God, The Ministry, Worship (Divine Service), Suffering, Baptism, The Lord’s Supper.  I suppose the 6 chief parts of the faith in the Small Catechism represent a sort of list of the marks of the Church.  

The Augsburg Confession has a list as well:

Our churches teach that one holy Church is to remain forever. The Church is the congregation of saints [Psalm 149:1] in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered. For the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree about the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. It is not necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies instituted by men, should be the same everywhere. As Paul says, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all”(Ephesians 4:5–6).  Augsburg Confession, Article VII

Anyway you put it, the creeds, Word of God, the Ministry, and the Sacraments constitute a fit summary.  So how do most of those denominations and the non-denominationals stack up against such a list?  The answer is pretty bad.  The Sacraments alone are missing and therefore should call Protestantism into question.  We have not even begun to address the content -- doctrine.  Suffice it to say, most of what people call churches today are missing big chunks of that which historically has been minimal in identifying and claiming to be the Church.  So what does that mean?  Does it mean that none of those churches are the Church?  Can there be any other conclusion without rendering the truth impotent?  Can a church which refuses to believe God works through means or that the means of grace actually deliver what they sign and therefore do what they say be Church?

Nobody wants to say it out loud, of course.  It is a terrible thing to say.  The LCMS a while ago said that the ELCA was no longer Lutheran and it caused a big stir.  Imagine the firestorm if we said the Methodists were not the Church nor the Baptists nor the most successful iteration of the big box evangelical style down the road?  What would people say?  But the question remains.  How can we live with a diversity of truths and proclaim the Truth?  If it does not matter, then we are all wrong and all right at the same time.  If we all have a bit of the truth but not possesses it all then who are we and why do preach at all?  It is like Norman Nagel said -- a God who is everywhere is really nowhere when you need Him.  A church which has a bit of the truth is not worth your time.  So maybe there is something to these marks of the Church.  Maybe they do tell us something but we are not listening.  A church without these is not THE CHURCH.  Such a church cannot be your mother and is not even worth your friendship.  Am I wrong?