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tionship became a hand-in-hand relationship. While Lutheran and Catholic churches in Augsburg remained independent, there was religious cooperation as well as civic coop- eration. One dramatic example is the twin St. Ulrich churches, one Protestant and one Roman Catholic, side by side on a public square. In fact, for many years there was an open archway in the wall shared by the two structures so people could walk freely from one church into the other. With this history of cooperation
between Lutherans and Roman Catholics, it is fitting that Augsburg was chosen as the location where representatives of the Lutheran World Federation and the Vatican gathered on Reformation Day (Oct. 31) 1999 to sign and to celebrate the “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.”
What now? What does this mean for us in our congregations, workplaces and neighborhoods? Although our history is marred by religious intol-
Lutheran World Federa- tion General Secretary Ishmael Noko (seated at left) and Vatican representative Bishop Walter Kasper sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justifi- cation on Reformation Day (Oct. 31) 1999 in Augsburg, Germany.
26 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
erance, Luther and the Reformers wrote positively of the need for tolerance in civil society and daily living. Luther said tolerance is nec- essary because we live in an imper- fect world. While he didn’t always live up to this goal, his insight is still important for us today. We live in a more diverse world than our ancestors could have imag- ined. As scientist René Dubos wrote, “Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival.” The U.N., established in 1945 in the aftermath of World War II, was founded on a similar conviction. One of the goals affirmed in the U.N. Charter is “to practice toler- ance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors.” Fundamentally, tolerance is not just about ideas and beliefs. It is about people.
As Christians, however, we are
called to more than tolerance. We are called to love. We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are called to love as Jesus loves. Thanks be to God, Jesus does more than just tolerate us. Jesus offers his life for us and welcomes us fully into his own family. This is the
love of neighbor that Christians are called to: putting our lives at the dis- posal of others and welcoming them fully as people who, like us, are cre- ated in the very image of God. Luther offers an all-encompass- ing description of what it means to love our neighbors as ourselves: “Now our neighbor is any human being, especially one who needs our help. ... Even one who has done me some sort of injury or harm has not shed his humanity on that account or stopped being flesh and blood, a creature of God very much like me; in other words, he does not stop being my neighbor.” These are words to live by—and to love by—in this imperfect world that God has entrusted to our care. As Christians, we are not called out of the world but into the world in all its brokenness. We are called into the partisan political landscape in the U.S.—and the world—today, not to choose sides and draw battle lines but to work together for the common good.
For “our neighbor is any human LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION
being,” whether Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, American or citizen of another country. We are called onto the play- grounds and into the boardrooms to stand against bullying and greed and intoler- ance and to stand for the God-given dig- nity of all people. “Our neigh- bor is any human being,” whether rich or poor, weak or strong, gay or straight, old or young. Tolerance is not enough. We are called to love.
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