Here We Stand!, or Where do We Stand Now?

Zion Lutheran, Kerrville, June 12, 2005

Pastor Jack Lien

Isaiah 53:6-11 - Hebrews 4:12-13 - John 5:39-43

Some challenging days, one of the most important decision times in the life of this church family. Fifty-eight years this week since my ordination and I've been thinking about decision times in the congregations where Virginia and I have served: three congregation rural parishes, inner city, university setting, organizing new congregations, overseas with English speaking church families.

And how often such decisions involved serious thinking and decision making about whether to conform, or to confront issues that were taking place around us. In retrospect some of them don't seem too serious now such as: having to decide whether all the Sunday services had to be conducted in English, or at least some of them could stick to Norwegian; or the exact reversal of that in Jersey City, when new members included families who had recently emigrated from Norway, and I had to tell parents of confirmation kids that I wouldn't be able to speak to them in Norwegian, and they insisted, loudly: "Oh no—we're Americans now, help them to learn American"; or of a Lutheran congregation's role in assisting with some, then arguable, inner city programs and people. Some issues were serious: while I was working on my master's degree, some not-fun classroom discussions with a university professor who loved to berate Christianity; how soon a new congregation would dare to assume its indebtedness and budget, and free funds for more new congregations; later, when and how to add to pastoral staff. On that last one I received excellent advice from our home mission regional director, and one of my mentors, who said it this way: "Always add staff to to cover the areas you don't like, or the ones you're no good at." And, overseas...with folks from literally all over, even including some Mormons; we used to end the services with folks praying the Lord's Prayer, in some twenty languages. Conform or confront.

For us now, facing our current culture: examples? Jim Lehrer on his news hour show, and his question to a guest--Tell me, "Just what are moral values?" An attempt at an answer to that in a news magazine quote: "A bunch of ideas from God-bothering, pulpit-pounding, Armageddon alarmists, enslaved by ancient texts and prophecies, and committed to theocratic rule." Or, another one, "A bunch of dummies, who are all hung up on the issues of abortion and homosexuality". Or Robert Reich, university professor, former presidential cabinet member: "We've got to get rid of this religion stuff, and get back to reason.". . . What are moral values? Just maybe: loving, trusting, reverencing a Father God above everything else, enough so that we don't curse, swear, lie or deceive, but feel free to approach him in prayer, giving him praise and thanksgiving, worshiping, studying his word to us; respecting, and loving, parents, seeking never to hate them, or even anger them; never harming a neighbor in any way, but helping him and her; in matters of sexuality, words and conduct to be pure, honorable, wife and husband loving and respecting each other; not stealing or using dishonest practices, but helping others to improve and protect property and the means of making a living; seeking to befriend that neighbor, speaking well of him or her, understanding their actions in the kindest ways; never tempting or trying to coax away a neighbor' wife, or workers, but encouraging them to always remain loyal. . .Those goals don't come from a t.v. news show or magazine, can't even be found in a public school. What's the source? Try Martin Luther's Small Catechism. Conform or confront?

Or, for me, kicking it all up another notch: when decision making becomes more than just a matter of judgment, and can become a matter of conscience; or when tolerance runs smack-dab into conviction. Think back through the texts chosen for today: Isaiah, with some truths that can jump 2,500 years, to us, the beautiful invitation: Seek the Lord while he may be found, issued to whom? To those who needed to be reminded in Isaiah S3: "We're the ones who stray like sheep. God laid on Him the guilt and sins of everyone of us. How many realized it was their sins he was dying for? Letter to the Hebrews only 2,000 years ago: Whatever our God says to us is full of living power, cutting deep into our inmost thoughts and desires, exposing us for what we really are; He knows about everyone, everywhere. Nothing can be hidden from him. Or the gospel, John 5: tying both testaments together, Jesus speaking, to the Jews of his own day and to us as well?, and also providing the basis for the Apostle Paul in his Roman letter some fifty years later: You pore over the Scriptures, for you imagine that you will find eternal life in them, and all the time they give their testimony to me! But you are not willing to come to me to have real life! I've come in the name of my Father, and you won't accept me. There's no need for you to think that I've come to accuse you before the Father. You already have an accuser--Moses! And if you really believed him, you'd be bound to believe in me; for it was about me that he wrote. For sure no one knew Moses better than the Apostle Paul, and after his Damascus road experience, what did he have to say, also to us: The ten commandments were given so that all could see the extent of their failure to obey God's laws. But, the more we see our sinfulness, the more we see God's abounding grace forgiving us. Justification is by faith as we fast forward another 1450 years, and this time it's Martin Luther, with his: the Word alone; Grace alone, Faith alone. We are simultaneously sinners and saints. Here I stand! Popes, councils, bishops may make mistakes; here WE stand--God's Word, God's grace, the Gift of faith from a faithful God. . . Lutheranism, 2005: Here we stand!; or. where do we stand right now?

Fair question then—What does it mean to be a Lutheran today? And what is our attitude toward Scripture? Not the same as it was very recently. Just a few days ago comes a published answer in a direct quote from Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson: "Instead of relying on a bibliocentric version of the Christian faith, I believe in a God who reveals himself to me." We do know what "bibliocentric" means, don't we? It means Bible-centered. So are we advised to focus primarily on our experience of God rather than on the Scriptures? And would that fit with basic Lutheran theology that proclaims — Sola Scriptura--The Word Alone.

Our leadership has adopted the epis-co-pa-cy form of church government: presiding bishop, regional bishops insisting that as a result of their election they become the moral compass for us, preferring at times to make our decisions for us--for us who repeat almost every time we worship: I believe in the holy catholic (that is, universal) Church, the comunion of saints. There might have been a lot less confusion if the first translations had been a little more precise. It's interesting to recall that the phrase "communion of saints" doesn't appear in the earliest Apostles' Creed statements. It was added, by Rome, probably in the 13th century when Rome created their definition of sainthood. Saints?, folks who had been dead the prescribed five years and who could be credited with performing a miracle or two. And those saints, then, can be prayed to--as a kind of a shortcut to get us directly to the Father. I need a shortcut, to get to my heavenly Father? Who already loves me as much or more than any saint ever could, even at the cost of His Son? Current events: another saint name will soon be added, the former pope, even before he's been dead the previously required number of years.

So, by Luther's day, that "communion of saints" phrase has been included in the third article for a long time, and he spells out what Paul had taught earlier, which is why I suggested that a more precise translation would have been very helpful. Next time you profess that Third Article, try taking out the comma, and thinking it like this: I believe in the holy catholic church which is the communion of saints. So the communion of saints is the priesthood of all believers. The Apostle Paul addresses the believers in many of his letters with: Greetings, all of you saints. So the local congregation too is the communion of saints. I'm not sure Pastor Dave will ever begin aservice here by greeting us: Hello! Saints! But I believe he could! And that the Apostle Paul would agree!

For whatever reasons, still never really explained, ELCA leadership chose to impose and practice the episcopal style of church government. The Episcopal Church is the American arm of the Anglican church in England, and so really was never directly involved in the Protestant Reformation, nor with reformation theology. It was set up by King Henry VIII because he couldn't get the Roman pope to grant him enough divorces and/or marriage annulments to keep up with his change of wives. So he pulled out of the Roman Church altogether, substituted the Archbishop of Canterbury as the head of the church, and conveniently took legal possession of all the church lands, buildings, even villages, in his empire, adding appreciably to his tax base.

Back to our own day. . .Again, our presiding bishop has informed us that we always need to look to, and depend upon, him for correct interpretations of doctrine, and of church practice. And so when the Episcopalians recently chose to elect a homosexual as their presiding bishop we in the ELCA find ourselves at the point of ordaining, and our bishops forwarding, names of homosexual seminarians to congregations who are seeking pastors. Yes, technically, there is still a meeting coming up which will face the issue, but let me very clear: the ELCA church council by a nearly unanimous vote has already proposed the creation of a process for granting exceptions to the present policy which requires celibacy on the part of gays and lesbians who seek ordination or consecration or commissioning to ministry. When this is okayed by the Churchwide Assembly it will permit gays and lesbians, in same sex relationships, to be ordained and rostered as ministers, at the discretion of the Conference of Bishops. And soon the new ELCA hymnal will include rubrics for same sex marriages.

Also by decision at the top, without opportunity for input from local congregations, there is now agreement that the ELCA can pretty well abandon the historical Lutheran definition of the Real Presence of Christ's body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine in Holy Communion. Another issue has just surfaced indicating that Episcopalians very likely will agree with Romaic Catholics, that the Virgin Mary was perpetually virgin, and so Jesus had no brothers, or sisters. Several Scriptural references to his brothers thus will have to be explained away somehow.

So, decision time. As indicated in the letter sent out to all of us members, we're invited to open forum discussions, two more to come. And, as announced, our congregational meeting will be held two weeks from today, June 26th, at approximately 12:15 p.m.

For us then — time to conform or to confront. To weigh what should happen when tolerance seems to run directly into conviction. Or when a matter of judgment for some becomes a matter of conscience for others. Or when, and purely personally now, I am forced to realize that with respect to all these issues that not a single one of my seminary professors would have agreed to any of them. And maybe you can understand me when I say, That hurts! Or, is it that I'm just too old?

But don't let me ever end on a negative. I'm pretty sure I've urged this particular Biblical assurance statement here before, but hear again Paul, his second letter to Timothy, chapter one, verse twelve: "I know whom (not just "what" but WHOM) I've believed, trusted."

Amen, God Bless!