“I wrote the word acceptance on my hand


yesterday,” said Elyssa Salinas. A graduate of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Salinas is now pursuing a doctorate, studying connections between body image and Luther’s theology of creation. Like Luther, her theological interests are intertwined with personal experience. “I’ve had my own body issues this year and it’s been very difficult,” Salinas admitted. Weight loss often tops the list of goals for the new


year—and the root of this resolution is often not just health but feelings of shame about our bodies. “This voice of pain says, ‘You’re not enough,’ ” she said. “[Losing weight becomes] a constant ladder, these constant stairs you’re never going to get up.” Losing shame, Salinas finds, begins when we


remember that we were made by God. “You weren’t just created; you were created with purpose,” she said. “It is so profound to consider your body as something purposefully made—as art.” This liberating word allows Salinas to accept


her body “as it is today,” to share her struggles with others who love her and to continue a journey focused on health, not weight. “If I really believe I am God’s beloved creation,


then what is the mirror God holds up to me? There’s no shame in that mirror,” she said.


Meet your #goals Meet your grace


You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. What does this mean? We are to fear and love God, so that we do not try to trick our neighbors out of their inheritance or property or try to get it for ourselves … but instead be of help and service to them in keeping what is theirs” (Luther’s explanation of the Ten Commandments). The hashtag “#goals” is often used in


social media to comment on someone else’s accomplishments or possessions. Though mainly employed as a compliment, this practice also reflects the human temptation to compare our lives to others. When our “#goal” is someone else’s life, we’re coveting—a practice that can lead to envy, resentment and isolation. Grace offers the antidote, freeing us from


coveting others. Vítor Westhelle, professor of systematic theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, said God’s grace enables “the capability of a person just to be herself, [to say] ‘This is what I am; this is good enough.’ ” Whatever your goals in a new year, Westhelle


insisted that “you do not need to pretend to be who you are not.”


16 JANUARY 2017


Mary Joy Philip, assistant professor of Lutheran


global theology and mission at Waterloo (Ont.) Lutheran Seminary in Canada, finds that focusing on grace rather than goals also builds relationships: “When I talk about goals, it comes from a place of control and power. It implies that I can by my abilities and power make things happen. But when I am not in that place, I have to rely on another [and] be vulnerable and open to grace, and that is precisely what makes for community.”


Find more in your budget Find enough


Give us today our daily bread. What does this mean? In fact, God gives daily bread without our prayer, even to all evil people, but we ask in this prayer that God cause us to recognize what our daily bread is and to receive it with thanksgiving. What then does daily bread mean? Everything included in the necessities and nourishment for our bodies ...” (Luther’s explanation of the Lord’s Prayer). Earn more, save more, pay down debt—financial


and material concerns dominate New Year’s resolu- tions. Far from chastising people for desiring worldly things, Luther expanded the definition of daily bread to include not only food and drink, clothing and shelter, and family, but also “good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.” Many of us, even if we receive this daily bread,


keep looking anxiously for more that will make us feel safe, rather than recognizing and celebrating what is enough. In contrast, Luther’s notion of daily bread echoes the freedom of Jesus’ invitation not to worry about what we will eat, drink or wear (Matthew 6:25). As God frees us from the fear of scarcity, we are


opened up to generosity, to sharing daily bread with those who need it. “We pray for ‘our’ daily bread and not ‘my’ daily bread,” Philip said. “The whole prayer is in the plural, if we only paid attention to that.’ ”


Go to church Be church


I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy, and kept me in the true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one common, true faith” (Luther’s explanation of the Apostles’ Creed).


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