Presiding bishop
By Mark S. Hanson
Always being made new ELCA anniversary not about the past but the future
T
wenty- five years
ago this month the ELCA came into existence.
Do you remember our beginning? If so, what comes to mind?
As a parish pastor I recall think-
ing how much was not new. In fact, I remember parishioners wondering what all the fuss was about. Worship order and hymns? Confirmation and Sunday school? Scripture and Lutheran confessional writings? Outreach ministry to the community and congregational lead- ership? They all remained the same. Yes, the beginning of the ELCA was marked by both continuity and change.
“Always being made new, 25
We will celebrate our 25th anniversary not because we nostalgically long for the past, but because memories give us confidence in God’s faithfulness and openness toward God’s promised future.
years together in Christ” is our anniversary theme. May it provide opportunity for us to reflect upon how deeply rooted we are as a church and how God continues to make all things new. Together we work to end hun- ger, malaria and HIV/AIDS, and engage in refu- gee resettlement and immigration reform because our ro ots go back 500 years to Martin Luther and the Reform- ers, who were clear that faith in Christ frees us to love and serve our neighbor.
50 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
Living out our faith in service to our neighbor moved Lutherans to start hospitals, open orphanages and form social ministry organizations. Today new immigrants are bringing with them a love for Jesus and a commitment to start new congregations just as our ancestors did. The longing that all shall hear the good news of God’s saving grace in Christ means the commitment to global mission is planted deep within us. Studying the catechism we were taught to ask: “What does this mean?” From these roots we have an insatiable curiosity about faith and life. We have colleges and universities, campus ministries, seminaries, schools and a com- mitment to lifelong learning.
As Luther wrote in the Small Catechism, day after day the Spirit is creat- ing and renewing faith through the means of grace, the word and sacraments. We are a Book of Faith church because through God’s word—God’s living address to us incarnate in Jesus, proclaimed as law and gospel, recorded in Scripture—we are inspired, strengthened, and sent to do God’s work in the world of restoring and reconciling communities. We will celebrate our 25th anniversary not because we nostalgically long for the past, but because memories give us confidence in God’s faithfulness and openness toward God’s promised future. In the months leading up to the ELCA’s official start, I served on the transi-
tion team for the new Minneapolis Area Synod. We faced questions of geo- graphical boundaries, planning for the first synod assembly and identifying people with gifts for leadership. But even more I remember the realization that we would be a stronger church in mission because of this new church. We would be enriched by the wisdom, faith and ministries of our new partners in evangelical witness. Yet the host of relationships that were formed in 1988 is only a glimmer of
the newness that has been arriving in our midst. Though many of us remem- ber predecessor church bodies and the events leading to the ELCA’s official beginning in 1988, for a growing number of us, including pastors, this is the only church we have known. God is renewing our life together as Christ’s body in the world—this is what it means when we say we are “always being made new.” Daily we die with Christ in baptism, and daily we rise to life with him, not alone but together with all who bear Christ’s name in the world. For it is true, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away. Look! Everything is being made new (2 Corinthians 5:17)! The apostle Paul prefaced this joyous news with a word about how we see
the world and our place in it when we have been joined to Christ in his death and resurrection: We no longer see others from a human point of view. Now we are Christ’s ambassadors, servants of the ministry of reconciliation. We have a new life in the ELCA, not because of what was done in 1988, but
because of what God has done in Christ and continues to do in and through us for the life of the world. In Christ we are always being made new.
A monthly message from the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. His email address:
bishop@elca.org.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52