This morning began, as should all Christian endeavors, with worship. A sermon by Rev. Erma Wolf called us again to the hard task of ministering to those that anger us most because they are so similar to us. She reflected on the very familiar story of the woman at the well from the Gospel of John, recognizing that the crowd that gathered in response to the woman’s testimony were Samaritans also. (Samaritans were especially repugnant to Jews because they claimed to be worshipping the same God, but they did it in the wrong way.) To sum up Pr. Wolf’s point, as it was for the ancient Jews when they looked at the Samaritans, so it is for us when we look at Christians with whom we disagree: We are called not only to tolerate such people, but go to them, minister to them, and when necessary evangelize them with the fullness of the Gospel… because that is what Jesus did.
Dr. Paul Martinson concluded the theological presentations by outlining for us the deep connection between our theology and mission, especially noteworthy was his nuanced overview the differences between the visions of God proclaimed by Christianity and Islam. Following Dr. Martinson’s powerful lecture, Ryan Schwarz asked us the question, “What does all this mean for our future?” It was a time primarily for questions to be asked from the microphone by those in attendance. These questions were asked not of the lecturers of the assembly, for it is we as lay and clergy theologians who will have to answer them. These days have been intense and powerful, but they have only been the beginning. Much needs to be done, and not only must every thought must be made captive to Christ, so must our practices. As one person said eloquently from the microphone, “we must practice a faith that yields nothing while practicing a love that yields everything.”
My own answer to the question to the question “what does all this mean for our future?” was first articulated by Dr. Hinlicky on the first night of the conference: As our Sunday liturgy teaches us, Christian faith has as its starting point repentance. “Repent and believe the Gospel,” is our Lord’s first public declaration in the Gospel of Mark, and it is the starting point for us today as well. And what does repentance look like for us who hoping to put wheels on the ideas we have contemplated at this conference, those of us who want to see orthodox Lutheranism revitalized in this country? In practice, it will at the very least mean reexamining our every parish practice—no matter how hallowed a local tradition—with an eye toward the Great Commission and its injunction not only to spread the faith, but to teach “everything that Christ commanded us” so that we may be obedient to Christ. We must unflinchingly examine such local conventions so that we may practice what we preach… and so preach the faith even more faithfully.
With the conclusion of the theological conference, it was time to “see if this dog would hunt.” The ideas we had bandied about for two days now had to “become incarnate” in the form of the guiding documents of Lutheran CORE—the coalition that is to provide the fellowship, support, and resources for orthodox Lutherans of all denominations. Could this be done? Was there much hope for the future in this regard? How would it look when “the rubber hit the road?”
Have you ever seen smoke pour off the tires of a race car as the sheer power of the engine pushes the wheel beyond the ability of gravity, friction, and inertia to keep it bound to the pavement? That is the sense I have of what is happening here. The car is not moving fast—yet—but the power at work beneath the hood is showing its evidence everywhere here and it is but a matter of a short time before the wheels find their purchase, and we are off to the races.
It is gratifying to know that others seem to think so too. The assembly received greetings from other church bodies and had visitors from even more. The assembly received official greetings from several of these groups. Especially noteworthy were the remarks of Bishop Ray Sutton of the Anglican Church in North America and the Rev. Dr. Francis Stephanos of the Mekane Yesus Lutheran church of Ethiopia, who reminded us that “one cannot inherit the kingdom of God by majority vote.”
Christians who desire to be orthodox, confessional, one, holy, and apostolic are watching us. I leave the first day of this convocation optimistic about what they saw.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Day 3 - It Is Humbling To Be Here
I begin by wishing that everyone could be here with us in Columbus, Ohio. This day has proven to be one of the most humbling of my life and ministry. I mentioned in my entry from yesterday (posted earlier today, when I got the internet issues resolved), that the presentations have been uniformly excellent here in Upper Arlington. You will, of course, in the near future have the opportunity to assess them for yourself, so I will not belabor that point. What the upcoming internet broadcasts and book are sure to fail to convey, however, is the sense of hopeful expectancy that characterizes these proceedings. The Spirit is definitely doing something amazing, as seemingly just the right people with just the precise expertise needed to tackle the issues before us a church have been assembled from the disparate corners of North American Lutheranism. Not only has this been an immensely satisfying—though extremely challenging—couple of days intellectually, it has also been so emotionally and spiritually.
Simply put, it is humbling to be here.
Today’s presentations by Drs. Jenson, Paulson, Benne, and Hultgren were too detailed and complex to be reviewed well here, at the end of a long day of thinking. Suffice it to say, I will be returning to Christ Hamilton United with much about which to speak and preach. Dr. Jenson’s presentation gave a much-needed intellectual justification for why the language we inherit from the Scripture for God is the only language we can properly use to talk to, about, and for God. Dr. Hultgren helped us understand how understanding the Bible’s plain meaning as authoritative without steering into an unreflective fundamentalism is one of the hallmarks of classical Lutheranism. Drs. Paulson and Benne had for us perhaps the most challenging words of the conference, calling us (as did Dr. Hinlicky last night) to repentance for the way we have mishandled, ignored, and even denied clear teachings of Scripture in many aspects of human life in recent epochs, including but not limited to the proper use of human sexuality, especially heterosexuality. Most challenging of all was Dr. Paulson’s reminder of Dr. Martin Luther’s blunt statement of fact that “it is a characteristic of love to be easily deceived.” There is no space here to elaborate on what he meant by quoting Dr. Luther in this way; that is a topic for extended face-to-face discussion in the future. I will leave you with this to stimulate your little gray cells: How much evil have we as a culture and a church done or permitted to be done in the name of love? Is love the Gospel or is it a form of the Law? (Give Romans a careful read before you answer that last one too quickly.)
I close by noting that in his pinch-hitting banquet speech, I got a lesson on how to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ with conviction and utter clarity from the Rev. Dr. Gemechis Buba. Born in the crucible of communist oppression of the faith, he learned from his father—who suffered in prison for six years because he would not deny Christ just to secure his own freedom—that if we are truly and deeply Christian, we must be willing to suffer persecution and even expect it. “Where the Church’s witness is visible, it will be attacked,” he reminded us, for God is not unopposed in this world, as some futilely imagine. “The persecutions of Christians in China, Russia, Somalia, … and the Sudan are passing,” he warned us with the voice of an experienced and widely-traveled sufferer, “and now they are coming here to this country.”
He did not say this with a sense of hopelessness or fear. Rather, he said it to remind us of our true identity. “The Church without persecution is an anomaly,” he said, quoting the second century Church Father Tertullian. I would add to this quote a more famous one by the same theologian: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
I do not desire martyrdom. I would rather live for my Lord than die for Him. However, if the martyrdom of this pastor is what the Church of Jesus Christ needs to grow strong and flourish once again, so be it. To borrow from the American patriot Patrick Henry, “I regret that I have but one life to give for my Lord and His Church.” To quote a brother in Christ, “so then whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”
Yet I will not end this day, which has been so marvelous, reflecting on death but life. “The world,” Dr. Buba reminded us, “can take away your home, your clothing, your career, and your life. “But,” he shouted triumphantly holding aloft his Bible, “if you cling to the Word of God, the future belongs to you.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
Simply put, it is humbling to be here.
Today’s presentations by Drs. Jenson, Paulson, Benne, and Hultgren were too detailed and complex to be reviewed well here, at the end of a long day of thinking. Suffice it to say, I will be returning to Christ Hamilton United with much about which to speak and preach. Dr. Jenson’s presentation gave a much-needed intellectual justification for why the language we inherit from the Scripture for God is the only language we can properly use to talk to, about, and for God. Dr. Hultgren helped us understand how understanding the Bible’s plain meaning as authoritative without steering into an unreflective fundamentalism is one of the hallmarks of classical Lutheranism. Drs. Paulson and Benne had for us perhaps the most challenging words of the conference, calling us (as did Dr. Hinlicky last night) to repentance for the way we have mishandled, ignored, and even denied clear teachings of Scripture in many aspects of human life in recent epochs, including but not limited to the proper use of human sexuality, especially heterosexuality. Most challenging of all was Dr. Paulson’s reminder of Dr. Martin Luther’s blunt statement of fact that “it is a characteristic of love to be easily deceived.” There is no space here to elaborate on what he meant by quoting Dr. Luther in this way; that is a topic for extended face-to-face discussion in the future. I will leave you with this to stimulate your little gray cells: How much evil have we as a culture and a church done or permitted to be done in the name of love? Is love the Gospel or is it a form of the Law? (Give Romans a careful read before you answer that last one too quickly.)
I close by noting that in his pinch-hitting banquet speech, I got a lesson on how to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ with conviction and utter clarity from the Rev. Dr. Gemechis Buba. Born in the crucible of communist oppression of the faith, he learned from his father—who suffered in prison for six years because he would not deny Christ just to secure his own freedom—that if we are truly and deeply Christian, we must be willing to suffer persecution and even expect it. “Where the Church’s witness is visible, it will be attacked,” he reminded us, for God is not unopposed in this world, as some futilely imagine. “The persecutions of Christians in China, Russia, Somalia, … and the Sudan are passing,” he warned us with the voice of an experienced and widely-traveled sufferer, “and now they are coming here to this country.”
He did not say this with a sense of hopelessness or fear. Rather, he said it to remind us of our true identity. “The Church without persecution is an anomaly,” he said, quoting the second century Church Father Tertullian. I would add to this quote a more famous one by the same theologian: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
I do not desire martyrdom. I would rather live for my Lord than die for Him. However, if the martyrdom of this pastor is what the Church of Jesus Christ needs to grow strong and flourish once again, so be it. To borrow from the American patriot Patrick Henry, “I regret that I have but one life to give for my Lord and His Church.” To quote a brother in Christ, “so then whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”
Yet I will not end this day, which has been so marvelous, reflecting on death but life. “The world,” Dr. Buba reminded us, “can take away your home, your clothing, your career, and your life. “But,” he shouted triumphantly holding aloft his Bible, “if you cling to the Word of God, the future belongs to you.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
Day 2 – Seven Marks Constitution & Beginnings
I have to begin with an apology for the delay in posting this blog. For those of my congregation who are eagerly awaiting news from the floor these important proceedings, I hope the delay has not been too frustrating for anybody.
This day has been truly amazing. It began with Holy Eucharist with an absolutely riveting sermon by Rev. Cathy Ammlung. She preached on the texts of the Sunday before (as is the custom at midweek Eucharist services), reflecting on how Jesus’ right way of doing ministry results in the woman who had been bent over being able to stand upright and praise God. Get that pattern? Right practice of ministry leads to the right praise of God. Right praise of God is what this whole week is about; right praise (and proclamation) of God in the Lutheran church. How we can do that better than we have been so that we may be better disciples than we have been so that our churches would not be in the condition they are. The message was clear: If we hope to reform the church, to name, be claimed by, and praise God as the Bible and the Apostolic Tradition teach us to do, we must be willing to reform our practices of ministry to make them right.
Following that worship, after much good-natured wrangling to get the wording right, the Seven Marks Society adopted a constitution and became a real group. I am proud to be part of a group committed to the renewal of the Great Tradition within the Lutheran church. In the Reformation, Lutherans did not set out to form a new Church but rather to purify and recall to its heritage the one holy catholic and apostolic church of Jesus Christ. To be faithful to our heritage requires us not only to know that heritage, but to live it by doing the things that catholic Christians—even Lutheran ones—have historically done.
After lunch (at every meal I have been involved in meetings with colleagues where not only networking but important information has been exchanged) we began the theological conference. At most conferences, some of the lectures are good, some less so. At this one, the presentations have been uniformly excellent, all of them so far ending in a standing ovation by the gathered assembly. These ovations have been more than mere formalities by the like-minded. They have been responses to the excellence—and challenge—inhering in each of the presentations. I am excited because I have heard that these presentations will soon be available for you to hear or see on the internet, so you will have the opportunity to have your mind renewed as mine is being.
There have, of course, been a few moments that have been disappointing. These have usually involved uncharitable comments being made about “the powers that be” in the ELCA. They have been rare, and corrected quickly by a bystander, but still lamentable. One such person, after receiving the correction of a brother pastor, agreed that he had been out of line, but added, “I have been called a Nazi from the microphones of my synod’s assembly. It is wrong to be bitter, but it is hard not to be.” As I have met pastors from all over this week, the story of his mistreatment has been repeated in different ways by pastors from all over America. Most common are stories of pastors with strong track records of faithful service being told by a bishop’s staff—presumably afraid that they will stir up trouble for the unity of the ELCA as an institution by preaching according to their “bound consciences”—that there is simply “nothing available” for them. They are told they are too controversial, and that no congregation wants to interview them. Can this be true? Does truly no congregation want to interview them? God forgive me if I slander anyone here, but it seems unlikely. In any event, it makes such comments, though perhaps remarkably rare, more understandable, though no less lamentable.
I will wrap this reflection up now and plan to post my reflection on today’s proceedings later this evening, following tonight’s presentation by the Reverend Doctor Gemechis D. Buba, Director of African National Ministries in the ELCA.
This day has been truly amazing. It began with Holy Eucharist with an absolutely riveting sermon by Rev. Cathy Ammlung. She preached on the texts of the Sunday before (as is the custom at midweek Eucharist services), reflecting on how Jesus’ right way of doing ministry results in the woman who had been bent over being able to stand upright and praise God. Get that pattern? Right practice of ministry leads to the right praise of God. Right praise of God is what this whole week is about; right praise (and proclamation) of God in the Lutheran church. How we can do that better than we have been so that we may be better disciples than we have been so that our churches would not be in the condition they are. The message was clear: If we hope to reform the church, to name, be claimed by, and praise God as the Bible and the Apostolic Tradition teach us to do, we must be willing to reform our practices of ministry to make them right.
Following that worship, after much good-natured wrangling to get the wording right, the Seven Marks Society adopted a constitution and became a real group. I am proud to be part of a group committed to the renewal of the Great Tradition within the Lutheran church. In the Reformation, Lutherans did not set out to form a new Church but rather to purify and recall to its heritage the one holy catholic and apostolic church of Jesus Christ. To be faithful to our heritage requires us not only to know that heritage, but to live it by doing the things that catholic Christians—even Lutheran ones—have historically done.
After lunch (at every meal I have been involved in meetings with colleagues where not only networking but important information has been exchanged) we began the theological conference. At most conferences, some of the lectures are good, some less so. At this one, the presentations have been uniformly excellent, all of them so far ending in a standing ovation by the gathered assembly. These ovations have been more than mere formalities by the like-minded. They have been responses to the excellence—and challenge—inhering in each of the presentations. I am excited because I have heard that these presentations will soon be available for you to hear or see on the internet, so you will have the opportunity to have your mind renewed as mine is being.
There have, of course, been a few moments that have been disappointing. These have usually involved uncharitable comments being made about “the powers that be” in the ELCA. They have been rare, and corrected quickly by a bystander, but still lamentable. One such person, after receiving the correction of a brother pastor, agreed that he had been out of line, but added, “I have been called a Nazi from the microphones of my synod’s assembly. It is wrong to be bitter, but it is hard not to be.” As I have met pastors from all over this week, the story of his mistreatment has been repeated in different ways by pastors from all over America. Most common are stories of pastors with strong track records of faithful service being told by a bishop’s staff—presumably afraid that they will stir up trouble for the unity of the ELCA as an institution by preaching according to their “bound consciences”—that there is simply “nothing available” for them. They are told they are too controversial, and that no congregation wants to interview them. Can this be true? Does truly no congregation want to interview them? God forgive me if I slander anyone here, but it seems unlikely. In any event, it makes such comments, though perhaps remarkably rare, more understandable, though no less lamentable.
I will wrap this reflection up now and plan to post my reflection on today’s proceedings later this evening, following tonight’s presentation by the Reverend Doctor Gemechis D. Buba, Director of African National Ministries in the ELCA.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Day 1 – Seven Marks Society Convocation
It is 11:55pm, and I am just getting back to my hotel room from the “meeting after the meeting.” As Bp. Paull Spring noted in his greeting from Lutheran CORE, it was good tonight to be part of a worship service in the broader church in which you could engage wholeheartedly, where you could pray with the assurance that the worship leader (Rev. Cathy Ammlung, STS) would use hymns and liturgy rooted in the plain meaning of Scripture interpreted as the Apostles had taught the Church to do so. Though we met in a conference room, gathered around tables rather than in a sanctuary designed for the celebration of liturgy, I had the impression that Peter, James, Paul, and John would have been perfectly at home amidst the singing and prayers of our opening worship service.
Tonight’s business was primarily debating the language of the Constitution on which we will vote tomorrow. As always when your are constituting an organization, words are important, for the documents we adopt tomorrow will have the potential to both guide or limit, empower or hamstring us in the years to come. The discussion was substantive, and I look forward to seeing what kind of fruit it will bear tomorrow.
I think the most exciting part about tonight’s meeting for me personally was the greetings we received. Because of the Archbishop was out of the country, another bishop of the Anglican Church of North America brought us an extended greeting, pointing out the close ties between Lutherans and Anglicans, saying “If ever there was an ecumenical relationship made in heaven, it is ours.” This assured me that whatever the future holds, we will not be going it alone, and that taking the stand we are taking on the issue of faithfulness to the Bible aligns us more, not less, closely with the vast majority of the world's Christians. Also Bp. Bogonza, head of 5+ million member Lutheran Church of Tanzania, was with us, which I found very humbling. If I was tempted to think what we were doing here was insignificant simply because the initial number of participants tonight was so few, his presence disabused me of that notion. God is doing something profound, something that other Christians around the world are paying attention to, and it is a humbling (but thrilling) experience to be part of it.
Have to be up in a little less than six hours, so time for bed. I look forward to having more meat for you to chew on tomorrow.
Tonight’s business was primarily debating the language of the Constitution on which we will vote tomorrow. As always when your are constituting an organization, words are important, for the documents we adopt tomorrow will have the potential to both guide or limit, empower or hamstring us in the years to come. The discussion was substantive, and I look forward to seeing what kind of fruit it will bear tomorrow.
I think the most exciting part about tonight’s meeting for me personally was the greetings we received. Because of the Archbishop was out of the country, another bishop of the Anglican Church of North America brought us an extended greeting, pointing out the close ties between Lutherans and Anglicans, saying “If ever there was an ecumenical relationship made in heaven, it is ours.” This assured me that whatever the future holds, we will not be going it alone, and that taking the stand we are taking on the issue of faithfulness to the Bible aligns us more, not less, closely with the vast majority of the world's Christians. Also Bp. Bogonza, head of 5+ million member Lutheran Church of Tanzania, was with us, which I found very humbling. If I was tempted to think what we were doing here was insignificant simply because the initial number of participants tonight was so few, his presence disabused me of that notion. God is doing something profound, something that other Christians around the world are paying attention to, and it is a humbling (but thrilling) experience to be part of it.
Have to be up in a little less than six hours, so time for bed. I look forward to having more meat for you to chew on tomorrow.
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