August 2015
The Pastor’s Ponderings Pastor David’s cell phone—348-330-4170 and email address—fleeneda@gmail.com This is the third of three newsletter articles on three classic attributes of Lutheran Christianity. 1. We are catholic. (June) 2. We are evangelical. (July) 3. We are reforming. (August) I hope you find them helpful. Have a question or comment? Contact Pr. David at fleeneda@gmail.com. “At the time when divine truth lay buried under this vast and dense cloud of darkness…then Luther arose, and after him others, who with united counsels sought out means and methods by which religion might be purged from all these defilements, the doctrine of godliness restored to its integrity, and the church raised out of its calamitous into somewhat of a tolerable condition. The same course we are still pursuing in the present day.” John Calvin, The Necessity of Reforming the Church (1543) To be a Lutheran Christian means recognition of a vital truth about ourselves. The way that we “do church” may or may not be in conformity with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What works in a particular time to proclaim the Gospel may not be the best way to proclaim it in another time. We’re not talking about doctrine here. We’re also not necessarily talking about liturgical traditions – the ancient catholic form of worship. We’re talking about conventions.
For example, I love the use of the organ in worship. However, if I’m in a congregation or community that hates the organ, that may not be the best way to musically proclaim the Gospel in that particular context. It goes beyond worship, though. To be a reforming church means examining ALL of our practices as a Christian community, to determine if they proclaim or hinder the proclamation of the Gospel. The Augsburg Confession, Articles 22-28, describe seven reforms undertaken to strengthen the church’s proclamation. A number of practices in the sixteenth century had gotten in the way of the Gospel, and in response, the Reformers made these changes in their congregations: 1 1. Lay people are to receive the wine as well as the bread in Holy Communion. 2. Priests are allowed to marry. 3. Mass is restored as a communion rather than a good work. 4. Emphasis in Confession is on absolution (forgiveness) rather than on the listing of sins (Yes, Lutherans still retain individual confession!). 5. Fasting and other spiritual disciplines are encouraged but not as ways of earning salvation.
6. The vows of monks and nuns are not binding if made for improper reasons. 7. Bishops are no longer to rule with civic, secular power. Contrary to popular belief, then, Lutherans have been willing to make needed changes for the sake of the Gospel. Lutherans can change! So the questions before us are these: What conventions of ours get in the way of the Gospel? What ways of doing church no longer reach people as they once did? We all know that we live in a different age. Religious faith is not something necessarily passed down through the family like it once was. The congregation can no longer the enclave of a few families, or a particular ethnicity. Jesus calls us out of ourselves, to embody the good news in all of life’s bad situations. People are hungry for God. When we keep to our own instead of going to those unlike us, we are doing the equivalent of hiding our light under a bushel. Perhaps the thing in greatest need of reform (as in many times and places) is our own desire for comfort. We all like to be comfortable. We like being in a congregation that does things the same ways they were done twenty, thirty, or forty years ago. It’s like taking a bath at exactly the right temperature. But the same thing can happen in the congregation that happens with the bath – we find
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Adapted from Baptized W e Live: Lutheranism as a W ay of Life by Daniel Erlander.