DESIGNPICS


it lays out the ministry of Jesus and his disciples, is a pattern of public ministry for the life of the world that can help reform and refocus denomi- national mission. Imagine a stone thrown in the water, with the ripples fanning out in concentric circles. That stone, that confessional and theologi- cal foundation for mission in Luke, is the teaching of Jesus.


In Luke we learn that Jesus teaches, then sends out the 12 and then sends out the 70 in mission. Each time Jesus sends them out as witnesses to the incoming reign of God, he tells them to carry no bread, for at the kitchen table they will eat their neighbor’s bread, becoming companions of Jesus and each other in God’s mission. (Companion: the words con pan mean “with bread.”) A denomination that matters is a community of companions seeking welcome and companionship in the world, calling all to the new commu- nity of companions at the foot of the cross and the light of the empty tomb (page 25).


24 The Lutheran • www.thelutheran.org


Stetzer summarizes his case for denominations this way: “Through a denomination, we can provide resources to people we will never meet, reach places we will never go, and preach the gospel to souls who are beyond our personal reach. We can find what we need and give as much as we want … and serve a common mission in the one thing that brings true unity: the gospel.”


I can testify to the power of this denominational companionship in the days after the events of 9/11 in New York. I’m talking about you, my beloved companions in the ELCA. On April 6, 2002, more than 200 companions from every ELCA synod (including 32 bishops) came to New York to accompany us in prayer, lit- urgy, comfort and renewal. This group represented a continual denomina- tional accompaniment of more than $15 million of relief aid, personal visits, expressions of support, techni- cal skills, leveraged networks (such as those who attended to the pain of students at Columbine [Colo.] High


Imagine a stone thrown in the water, with the ripples fanning out in concentric circles. That stone, that confessional and theological foundation for mission in Luke, is the teaching of Jesus.


School and helped us conceive and share ministry to young people in New York) and a massive visitation of extended prayer. Their visitation was also an expression of thanks to the church in New York that had rep- resented them as the wider church at ground zero.


On the Saturday after Easter we came together for a liturgy at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church attended by nearly a thousand visitors and New Yorkers.


The next day these visitors fanned out to 150 ELCA congregations to preach and lead worship for us. The sermon text was the story of doubting Thomas. These sermons were a chron- icle of pastoral theology “on the run,” dispatches of comfort from every area of the country delivered personally to a beleaguered metropolis. • • •


In The Plague by Albert Camus, the doctor observes an old man look- ing into a window at his own reflec-


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