The "house of prayer for all people" excludes no one who is willing to "hold fast (the Lord's) covenant." (Isaiah 56:6). It does not mean "Come on in, whatever floats your boat!" It means, "Welcome, find rest for your soul," and uh-oh, wait for it: "Welcome, and hear the Good News of Christ!"
That last, less you miss it, is the Apostolic part. Standing on the solid rock of Christ, Apostolic faith preaches the Good News.
The Apostolic faith has seen reality as our normal eyes don't see. Standing on this Rock, I have seen Love revealed, the Love that is stronger than death. I have seen phrases of Scripture glow with new Life, virtually leaping out of the text! I have seen Christ in fellow Christians, gathered as the People of God, the Church founded on the rock of the Apostolic faith. Through the power of the Gospel I have seen the Lord Jesus; I have felt and handled this Mystery. I guess like all Christians, I must be called to be a disciple and apostle.
Our forebears, the early Apostles, you know the ones who got crucified upside down so that I could hear the Good News? They put together the Creeds, which are "guardians of the mystery" (Flannery O'Connor) that originated in Baptismal vows. The Apostolic faith in "one Lord, one faith, one Baptism" came through hundreds of generations to that community, those hands, who baptized me and marked me as "Christ's own forever!" I came into New Life mewling and puking, and the mature community took me up. The Church brought me and taught me until finally I could see.
As a botanist can look at grass and see cells; and an astronomer look at the blue sky and see the planets and stars; the Apostolic faith by grace discerns the Holy Spirit brooding over a bent world "with ah! bright wings" (Hopkins). Oh, to be able to see it more clearly; oh to be a better Apostle! Sometimes I'm half-blinded by the bentness of it all, but woe to me if I preach not the Gospel (Paul).
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