Editor’s note: On Jan. 1, 2013, we begin our year-long celebration of the 25th anniversary of this church.
What does it mean to be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the ELCA? Does it matter?
What are some distinguishing marks of this changing church? Where have we been and where are we going? For ELCA members who understand the Reformation as an ongoing call to renewal and reform, these questions are especially important.
As part of a transformational movement across this church, we are privileged to help shape a church that has greater authenticity, integrity and depth. This major cultural and religious shift — some even call it a new kind of Christianity — includes a renewed exploration of the teachings and actions of Jesus.
What did Jesus have in mind, and what does it mean to live the message of Jesus today? How does the church interpret and embody Christ’s sacrificial love and overwhelming grace to a world longing for hope and transformation?
It also includes renewed commitments about what it means to be Christian, to be Christ’s presence in the world. It’s a call to servant leadership, to church as a verb. It’s a movement filled with hope and with room for exploring the mysteries of a gracious and loving God. It’s a church bold enough to leave its walls and go into the world.
These first 25 years have been marked by new ecumenical partnerships, honest struggling with the complexities of sexuality, new discoveries in genetics, commitments to justice and peacemaking — all issues of faith and life!
Theologians, scholars and ordinary people of faith are helping us rethink and re-imagine the church. Being Christ’s presence in the world has never been easy, never entirely clear, never without controversy.
But the good news of Jesus always has been radical and controversial. And our fear of the radical grace and mercy of God has too often prompted us to tame it, make it acceptable, more palatable, less challenging.
So I come to this anniversary of the ELCA filled with hope and gratitude. I’m grateful for a church bold enough to proclaim radical Christianity. I’m hopeful about a church that celebrates sacramental life and liturgical formation and continues to interpret the multiple meanings of word, water, wine and bread.
I’m grateful for a generous orthodoxy that incorporates ancient, modern and postmodern practices into worship and community ritual. I am hopeful about a church open to questions of faith, transformational practices, ecumenical dialogue, and the inclusion of all God’s people.
I am grateful for an emphasis on tradition rather than traditionalism, on faithfulness rather than fundamentalism. I am hopeful about a church that is intent on helping eradicate hunger and diseases like malaria.
I am grateful for a prophetic church willing to make difficult and sometimes unpopular decisions for the sake of justice and God’s unfathomable grace. I am hopeful about a church driven by hope and love rather than fear and isolation.
Worshiping with a variety of ELCA congregations over these past months, I have been nourished and fed by liturgies from “Evangelical Lutheran Worship,” the worship book created from a decade-long focus on renewing worship and sacramental formation in the ELCA.
Working with congregational leaders and pastors, I often recommend sacramental resources like “Fed and Forgiven” and “Washed and Welcome.” They convey the riches of the means of grace, of a God who welcomes us to the feast of life! Both resources are available from Augsburg Fortress.
Unlike resources of the last century, we’re now privileged to share the love and steadfast grace of a life-giving, generous God through electronic media, social networks, and communities of faith and learning different from traditional churches.
Resources for faith formation come in experiences like ELCA Youth Gatherings where diversity and servant leadership are lenses for Christian life. They come in cutting edge materials like “re:form,” “The Greatest Story,” “Animate,” “Spark,” “Holy Moly” and biblical material created for the Book of Faith Initiative, all from Augsburg Fortress.
They come in daily encounters online: Christians communicating with one another on congregational websites, blogs and in interactive meetings.
Making sense of all these connections and choices is sometimes overwhelming. Years ago, we depended on basic biblical and catechetical resources. Perhaps we were more interested in a kind of rule-based Christianity focused on answers and “getting it right.” The world was smaller and our corner of Lutheranism may have seemed simpler.
But I have no longing to go back. Yes, I remember packed churches, overflowing balconies, potlucks and family nights. Yes, I memorized the catechism and recited Bible verses by heart, and I remember good preaching and proclamation.
But on this occasion of the 25th anniversary of the ELCA, I am grateful for a God who is both challenge and invitation — God’s work done with our hands — and for a church that isn’t always popular.
Most of all, I am grateful for the ELCA as we continue to wrestle with the mysteries of God, the life of Jesus, and the complex world we live in. I hope we have moved beyond God as a divine hero who rescues us.
I hope we will continue to be a church that doesn’t have everything nailed down and figured out. I am grateful for a church that evokes responsible action in the world and for a God who turns the church inside out for the sake of the world.
May we continue to look for ever more meaningful ways to be the body of Christ — sharing, living and proclaiming the radical news of Jesus Christ and God’s overwhelming love and mercy — with hope and gratitude!
Julie Aageson is the coordinator for ELCA Resource Centers and the director of the Eastern North Dakota Synod Resource Center.
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This rubs me as a theology of glory.
I think it is important to commend the administrative people who do the hard work of keeping a denomination together and who take the brunt of the flak for everything from not allowing links on their website to CWA decisions they had no role in making. It is important to commend the pastors who week after week struggle to proclaim God's Word and those who make each church what it is. There are a lot of people to thank God for.
However, I'm not comfortable putting my hope in what we have accomplished as a denomination. Everything is vanity, and we are dust. We see this in shrinking attendance, shrinking interest in reading Scripture, shrinking need for Jesus, and shrinking trust in Jesus. Instead, I need trust in Jesus. That will see all of us through these shrinkages. Even if God does cast down the ELCA, we can trust that there will be new life, that God promises to make all things new through Jesus. That frees us to serve as we will.
I am old enough to remember "...a kind of rule-based Christianity focused on answers and 'getting it right'... Yes, I memorized the catechism and recited Bible verses by heart, and I remember good preaching and proclamation...."
True, times have changed. Peter, I think the "shrinking" of which you speak comes from ourselves. Why do you say: "I need trust in Jesus" -- as if the church were going to give it to you? Why not just say: "Jesus, I trust in You!"? Peter, you say: "That frees us to serve as we will." Why not say: "That frees us to serve as God wills"?
Karen,
Because "Jesus, I trust in You!" doesn't get us saved. It is the response to already having Christ. Also, the role of the church IS to give Christ to the world...between the Sacraments and proclamation, this is what should happen at church.
With our freedom in Christ, it's still serving as we will. We always live as sinners and saints. The important change is that what we will is what we ought, so in many ways it is more as God wills.
Once again: Oh Peter, for heaven's sake! Should I pray: "Jesus, I believe in you!"? Would that "get me saved"? Maybe your brand of simplistic religion worked in the past, when people died at 40, and here in America spent their lives battling disease on the prairie, but it just doesn't work now.
Of course the work of the Church is to proclaim the Word and offer the Sacraments. Problem is, in the ELCA, after 25 years, the Word has become the "Book of Faith," a bible (note lower case) of liberal interpretations, and the Sacraments have become applesauce communion and kick dancing around the altar.
We do NOT have to "live as sinners and saints"! This is heresy! Jesus Christ clearly states, at the pinnacle of the Sermon on the Mount, "Be perfect!" He does NOT say, "You can never be perfect (so don't even try)."
Nadia Bolz-Weber talks a lot about Saints and Sinners. When you look at her and listen to her, which part -- saint or sinner -- do you think she is celebrating? What is her visual message to our youth?
Karen,
More like, "I believe, Lord help my unbelief!"
Very interesting juxtaposition you have between my "brand of simplistic religion"that may have worked in the past and remembering the good old days.
Simul justus et peccator is solid Lutheran theology. We're stuck living as sinners. Through Christ, we get the saint part, but this side of the grave, we're never clear of the Old Adam and Eve. "Be perfect" is only possible through the work Christ does in us, and will only be fully realized once the Old Adam or Eve is finally put to death.
Nadia Bolz-Weber does talk a lot about sinners and saints. Everything I've seen from her has been rock solid Lutheran theology.
You are absolutely right in saying this is solid Lutheran theology. But what if we really do have completely free will as Erasmus and many other Christian groups say we do? What if it is possible to be perfect, as Jesus commanded? After all, if it were not possible, why would he have said it?
I am of an age now -- and I suspect you are, too -- where the question of what happens to us after we pass over is becoming a little more immediate. We both agree that nothing imperfect or impure can exist in heaven. So what happens? Does Jesus just say: "Game over. Now you are perfect because of grace"? Where do you get that from Scripture? It is certainly not part of Tradition. At Medjugorje, if you believe such things, Mary says: "The majority of people go to purgatory. Many go to hell. A small number go directly to heaven."
If we have completely free will, it means that salvation is also up to us. Whether or not it is possible to be perfect, I know that I'm not, and I don't know anyone who is. What I do know is that Christ's promise is that He will be our perfection. That's what the cross and resurrection is all about. Jesus promises that just as He shared in our death, so too do we share in His resurrection.
'Be perfect' is law. It helps structure society and points out how we have failed, and condemns us to hell.
'Be perfect' is fulfilled in Christ, who is perfect and yet who still dies on the cross for all of us imperfects. He goes to hell, too, but is raised up by God and breaks hell forever. That changes us from hell-bound to heaven-bound.
'Be perfect' is Christ's promise to us; that through the new creation made in us, we will be perfect. Not through our own actions, but through God's power in Christ.
Through Christ, everybody has been made perfect Karen V.,
No need to believe, no need to repent, no need for any law, no need for any Bible, no need to evangelize; there is really no need for anything. Christ will pick and choose just whom He wants to serve Him in heaven. You can believe and try to live a Christian life until the cows come home but if you are not among the chosen ones then you are just out luck. And if you happen to be one of the lucky ones, it doesn't matter if you hate God and worship Satin; because you are going to heaven whether you like it or not. It does you no good to try and do any of the things that Christ, all of the prophets and Gospel writers in the Bible tell us to do. Don't you know that that’s all filthy works? Besides, you have absolutely no free will anyway. You might as well eat, drink and be merry because either way it does not matter one iota to your salvation. You are not responsible for your sin any more than you are responsible for your salvation. Christ has preprogrammed everybody. Even Christ was preprogrammed. He didn't choose His path. He was never actually tempted and chose not to sin. Everything is a grand preordained illusion.
This is some pretty intense satire, Davey. Peter has twisted and contorted the Scripture to fit his own theology. (Is it Calvinism?) Yes, what he has done is reprehensible. He disparages and diminishes our responsibility for our actions, and our actions themselves, by saying we do not have free will. This philosophy has been tragic, nearly fatal, for our society -- and fatal, apparently, for the mainline denominations. It has given us a no-fault religion that certain leaders think must be so very attractive, especially to youth.
I think your satire, though disconcerting, is an appropriate response.
Thank you Karen V.
Satire and sarcasm can sometimes magnify a meaning better than logic and reason.
These days it seems many in the church believe in a God without wrath that brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.
davey,
I'll leave it to Calvinists to describe how accurate your statement covers them.
There are two parts you're missing. One is about free will. The statement that we don't have it is descriptive: see if your will is free enough to never sin again. Paul describes it in Romans 7:14-25. That doesn't absolve you of any responsibility any more than "just following orders" absolves the soldier. Or think of it as addiction... the addict is still the one acting, and responsible for his actions.
The other part you're missing is the power of Christ. This isn't an abstract, imaginary morality play. It's as real and as the Body and Blood in the Sacrament. There is a transformative event in there, that comes from outside of us. That accomplishes what the Law cannot, but it accomplishes a real event. That transformative event is why the Canaanite woman goes to tell the others of her village 'He told me everything I ever did'. It's what spares a woman caught in adultery from her proper fate. That forgiveness of sins is real power is seen when Jesus tells the paralytic to take up his pallet and go home.
I'll chime in here. The issue of free will is critical. Let us take your example of St. Paul in Romans 7:14. Saint Paul was a man and a sinner like all of us. He met Christ. He repented. He lived his life, exercising his free will. He could have chosen to quit at any time. At the end of his life, as he faced execution, he said: "I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness...."
Saint Paul is called "Saint" for a reason: The Church has always believed and taught that he went to heaven. He was purified by his faith and suffering, and went to heaven... maybe he was dusted off a bit in "purgatory" as he passed over -- that is known only to God -- but Paul became "perfect" through faith, suffering, and living in communion with Christ -- perfect enough for heaven.
And the woman caught in adultery -- remember, Jesus told her to go and sin no more, not: "Oh, that's just the way you are."
Really, this is not difficult.
Well peter,
Having lived the life of a functional addict alcoholic for many years followed by three years of an intravenous meth addiction; I can speak to your “addict analogy” with some experience. You are right, it was not by a simple choice that I freed myself; it was when my life became so painful and unmanageable that my temptation to continue using began to diminish. This is where my choice (or bottom) was. Many folks I know were in the same condition as me, or even worse, but they just didn’t care if they were homeless or broke or had no teeth. I could have chosen to continue to live that lifestyle just as they did, but I didn’t. After having landed in the county jail I cried out to the Lord from a lonely jail cell. I literally never looked back. I was still temped you see, but I knew I could never see any of my friends ever again lest I become tempted. I busied myself with self-Bible study and prayer. Within three years you would never even know that I had used drugs before. It was neither the devil who made me use, nor Christ that made me quit. It was the temptation of euphoria that made me start and the pain, shame and guilt of having to live with the consequences of that very poor decision making that made me decide to stop. Sometimes when I am alone I can’t help but remember some of the good times of using, but inevitably my mind flashes back to what I had become and I thank God again for defeating yet another temptation. I could go back right now…if I wanted. Free will is not that we are able to defeat sin every time if we know Christ or that we will sin continuously if we don’t. We have two competing spirits working in us. Both are very powerful and know the human condition to a tee. One seeks your destruction and the other seeks your salvation. The one you decide to spend more time with is the one who will have more sway over your decisions.
Thank you, Davey, for this. It is very powerful. Would you say, then, that we human beings have completely free will? This is what I believe.
Yes Karen V,
This is what free will is all about. One "chooses" what one "decides" to do. As for me and my household; I "choose" to follow the Lord. It really is as simple as that.
Thing is, Davey, what is behind this is Luther's On the Bondage of the Will. Martin Luther said we do not have perfectly free will, but that we are still "bound" by the effects of Original Sin. Erasmus argued against this. It was a main point of contention in the Reformation.
Today people are using it to justify sin in the church.