Presiding bishop
By Elizabeth A. Eaton
A place called Lutheran Reformation themes need to be claimed in all we do
A
first- call candi-
date as- signed to the Northeast- e rn Ohio Synod came
to me about an interesting encounter she had with a waitress. The wait- ress admired our candidate’s Luther Rose pendant and asked what it was. “It’s Lutheran,” replied the candi- date. “Where’s Lutheran?” asked the waitress. We chuckled that the waitress
imagined a place of beauty and mystery called Lutheran and were a little rueful that she had never heard of Lutheran before. Her question “Where’s Lutheran?” has stayed with me ever since. Lutheran does not coincide with
I tell people that we are Lutheran, that we have a distinctive voice that has something to add to the Christian, interreligious and cultural conversation.
Lake Wobegon. It’s not found only in Philadelphia or Minneapolis or South Dakota, but everywhere from Maine to Hawaii, from Alaska to Puerto Rico. The cuisine of Lutheran is not limited to green bean casserole and Jell-O, but also tortillas, greens, fried rice and goat. It’s not populated exclusively by the descendants of Central and Northern Europe, though there are a lot of those folks. It is not a place of rigid confor- mity or where anything goes. Lutheran would never be confused with utopia. Its citi- zens have too realistic a view of disobedience,
70 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
sin and brokenness to believe that any human habitation can claim goodness and righteousness for itself. But Lutheran is also a place of great hope. Lutheran is a place where the incessant human struggle for self-righteousness and self- justification is left at the border and, free of the burden of making themselves holy and acceptable to God, its people cling to the cross of Christ as the true assurance of life. It’s a place where people can spend their lives in service to God and neighbor.
Lately people have been taking a closer look at Lutheran—perhaps because of the unexpected events of the 2013 Churchwide Assembly in Pittsburgh. I have been asked to explain the ELCA to an audience that, much like the waitress, has no idea who we are. I tell them that we are church. At the center of our life is worship, and at the center of our worship is the crucified and risen Lord. We should be “lost in wonder, awe and praise,” and we should be intentional about the spiritual practices of worship, prayer, silence, generous giving and Scripture study. I tell people that we are Lutheran, that we have a distinctive voice that has something to add to the Christian, interreligious and cultural conversation. The great themes of the Reformation—justification, grace, law and gospel, the theology of the cross, two kingdoms, the Lutheran scriptural hermeneu- tic—need to be claimed in our teaching, preaching and living. We are a theology of the cross people in a culture of glory. We are a two kingdoms people who would never claim a covenantal status for America or any other earthly government. We understand that the quest for holiness and purity (the works righteousness of the religious right) and the attempt to bring in the kingdom through social programs (the works righteousness of the religious left) is vanity. We are sinners utterly dependent on the crucifixion, which not only destroyed sin and death but put to death the false hope of good intentions and human agency. We are saints made righteous by the cross and joined to the resurrected life of Christ that makes it possible for us to bear God’s creative and redeeming word to the world. We are church together. There is no way that the churchwide organization
or synod offices can be with the saints and be present in the communities where our churches are planted. The local congregation does that. But there is no way that the local congregation by itself can run camps, train leaders, engage in disaster response or accompany global companions. That is the work we do together as synods, agencies, colleges, seminaries and the church- wide organization. We are church for the sake of the world. We have experienced God’s extravagant love in Jesus. We want others to know that love too. That is what motivates our evangelism and our work to make the abundant life promised by Jesus a reality for the most vulnerable. This is who we are as the ELCA. By God’s grace Lutheran is a beautiful
place.
A monthly message from the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Her email address:
bishop@elca.org.
MICHAEL D. WATSON
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 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72