The Church is A Wall
by Linda Rios Brook*
I am honored to address you this evening. It's a privilege to stand before the governance of the Lutheran Church. There has been only one other time in my career when I have been allowed to address such a prestigious ecclesiastical gathering. Honesty demands I tell you about that.
It was in 1984 when I was appointed by the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas to the office of Lay Leader of Evangelism, and was invited to address the general convention. After my speech, the Bishop fired me and abolished the office. So perhaps you understand if I'm a bit nervous about talking to you tonight.
The letter of invitation said I should speak to you out of my area of expertise. Since expectation is the source of all disappointment, I've been concerned about your expectations regarding my message. So I reviewed my history to see if I had any area of expertise. I was so relieved to come up with something.
Card-carrying Lay Member
I am indeed an expert. I am an expert member of the laity. I have been a card carrying lay person in the Assembly of God Church, in the Baptist Church, in the Catholic Church, in the Episcopal Church, in the Evangelical church, and now in the Lutheran Church.
Some people have asked if I have been a part of so many churches because I couldn't find one I liked. The fact is, I have never found a church I didn't like. I love the institution of the church. I uphold the authority of the church. And I respect, revere and give thanks for you here who are the clergy and the lay leadership. It is out of that regard and awe for the church that I speak to you and tell you why I'm concerned about the church.
Over the last 18 months I had the privilege of speaking in some 150 churches and Christian gatherings.
Many were in Minnesota, others as far away as Oregon and Florida, and not confined to one denomination. As a result, I believe I have been given a unique perspective. These opportunities have come at a time of significant environmental change in this country, as the social acceptability of "the church" and "historic Christianity" has been in a free fall.
Religious War Coming
From those dynamics – a wide perspective across the body of Christ, and the social perspective afforded those in the media – I have formed an opinion as to what is about to happen regarding the church. I do not know if any of the clergy share this opinion or notùperhaps not. But I hope you will listen, because much of the laity does. I believe there is a religious war coming to this country.
Contrary to what you might think, it will not be a war between the denominations. Nor will it be a war between the church and a post-Christian America. It will be a war between the apostate church and the revived church of the Revelation generation. There is a prize in this war. It is the soul of the nominally Christian nation we have become.
Nehemiah said to his brother, "How's it going in Jerusalem?" His brother answered, "Not so good. Its walls have been torn down and the gates have been burned." Nehemiah sat down and wept because he knew what the loss of a city wall meant. People who were inside were vulnerable to their enemies.
What stands today as a wall around God's people in this country? What is the only line of defense against an encroaching secular environment which systematically devalues and discredits historic Christianity? It's the church!
But Where Are The Walls?
But it cannot be the church if the walls are torn down and its gates are burned. It cannot be the church if the church doesn't know what it believes any more.
Maybe you know what the church believes, but we who are out here in the laity, we're not as sure that we know. It cannot be the church if the church has lost its conviction to say that our hope and beliefs are based upon a personal God who talks. Who is knowable. Who has used language as a method of expressing His thoughts. And whose thoughts regarding righteousness can be checked out through history and have not changed.
It cannot be the church if the church has lost its courage to say that we shall not be mere participants in a social roulette. Frankly, I'm not as convinced as some that God is interested in every item on the social agenda. I shouldn't be surprised if there were some things about which God has no opinion. But those things which He has bothered to mention, appear to be things about which He is and has been clear, concise and consistent. The church suggests otherwise at some peril.
Perhaps you don't agree that the walls of the church have been torn down and its gates have been burned? But perhaps we could agree on the analogy of the church as a wall around God's people. If we can, then let's consider a simple question: How's the wall holding up? How's it going in Jerusalem? Let's look at a few statistics.
USA TODAY says that 85% of the mainline denominations in this country are losing membership. One in four adults in the nation and one in four high school students in Minnesota – the most churched state in the union – have a sexually transmitted disease. In this land of abortion, 9% of all babies in 1990 were born to single teenage girls. Is it a surprise that a recent teenage magazine survey concludes that the most depressed person in America is a teenage girl?
According to the University of Minnesota, one in four teenage girls in Minnesota attempts suicide. One in five boys and one in three girls will be sexually molested before their 18th birthday. The typical child molester will molest 380 children before he is caught. Murder of kids by kids has quadrupled in a decade. The teen violent death rate increased by 13% in five years. The number one killer of all teens is suicide.
And then there's the plague. It's spread by behavior. It's called AIDS, the impact of which we have not imagined. It descends upon our country, placing an entire generation at risk. How's it going in Jerusalem?
Rebuilding the Walls
Maybe you're not scared about the direction this country is going. But we ordinary laity, we're scared. We look at our children and we're scared. Do you know why?
Because we have moved from a position as the most prosperous and blessed nation in recorded world history, a nation which was founded upon a belief in a personal God who talks, to a nation that in one generation has participated in wholesale abandonment of its moral and spiritual culture, and is now a nation in chaos. We're scared because we can read history, and we know that no nation has ever survived the abandonment of its moral culture.
We're scared because the question is no longer, "Is there room for debate on moral issues between Christians and non-Christians?" Rather, "Is there room at all, anywhere. for the expression of a scriptural point of view on what the moral code of a society ought to be, without being labeled 'fundamentalist', 'religious right,' 'homophobic,' 'dangerous'"?
We don't think we ought to have to apologize for being Christian. We laity want this wall called the church "rebuilt" because when we look at
The Church Is A Wall
Our children, unless this wall holds, we know we're looking at the last generation of Bible-believing Christians. Is that an overstatement? I don't think so. The wall didn't hold in Europe. In 1960, 70% of the people in England attended church on Sunday. Today 3% attend. The cathedrals and the great churches are empty.
You who are the shepherds of God's flock, you have such a hard job. I've read your job description, and I don't want your job. We here in the flock know that most of us would fail at being held to the standard of accountability to which you are held by God's Word. We would tremble at the warning in Jeremiah 23: "I will bring disaster upon the shepherds of my sheep who destroy and scatter the very ones they were to care for."
How very hard it must be to minister God's Word faithfully in a world of such pervasive relativism. We pray for your discernment and we pray blessings and grace upon your royal priesthood.
We acknowledge that you are here by divine appointment. Your ministry will determine which side of the coming religious war this great church will be on. We who are your followers and who submit to the authority of your office, uphold you. But be assured, we are also calling you to action. We are calling you to courage. In a world of counterfeit Christianity we are calling you to hold fast to those things which you believed at first.
We call you to guide the destiny of this church with fear and trembling. The Spirit of the Lord says to the apostate church in Sardis, "I know your reputation as a live and active church; but you are dead! Wake up," says the Lord, "strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is at the point of death. Your deeds are far from right in the sight of God."
And to the faithful church in Philadelphia He says, "I know you well. You have tried to obey and have not denied my Name. Therefore I have opened a door to you that no one can shut," says the Lord. "I will force those supporting the causes of Satan while claiming to be mine – but they are not; they are lying – to fall at your feet and acknowledge that you are the ones I love. Because you have patiently obeyed me I will protect you from the time of Great Tribulation and temptation which will come upon the world to test everyone alive."
Hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the churches.
Let the wall be rebuilt! Let the church arise. And let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
*Brook is CEO, President and General Manager of TV station KLGT, channel 23, St. Paul, MN. She delivered this banquet address at the Assembly of the St. Paul Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Forward to the Basics
by Dr. Walter Sundberg*
Join me in considering six theses regarding our church:
Thesis Number One: We must not let ourselves become distracted from the truth. Author Tom Wolfe wrote a mini-essay called "The Pocket Calculator." He said of it: "This marvelous machine was the 1970's most notable contribution to the impressive list of 'time and labor-saving devices' that have made it possible for Americans since the Second World War to waste time in jobs lost and get less and less done, but with sleekness and precision of style. The time you can waste...going chuck - chuck - chuck... on your calculator, and watching the little numbers go dancing across the black window, all the while feeling that you're living life attop speed, is breathtaking....
"...[T]he French writer Balzac – he published 60 books between the ages of 30 and 51 – enjoyed no time or labor-saving devices whatsoever, not even a typewriter. ...He either wrote a note by hand or said, To hell with it.' Now friends, there is a time and labor-saving device."
Our time and labor-saving devices are often a means to distraction. They help us keep at bay that most terrible of things, looking reality straight in the face, making choices, casting our lot, putting pen to paper. The poet Emily Dickinson once said, "Show me the man so bold who in lonely place will that awful stranger consciousness deliberately face." Are you willing to look in the mirror and see yourself candidly? It's very difficult indeed. Time and labor-saving devices help us avoid this.
Labor-saving Devices in the Church
Such devices beset the church. We've got the weekly planner, the mailings from Higgins Road, and the latest "How-To-Do-lt" manual. Much of this is geared to making the minister the sleek professional with a knowledge of specialized techniques. Parish leadership is reduced to a series of tasks, ministry is defined as getting things done. Write newsletters, make X number of calls per week, think of novel things to do with the young people – Good luck on that one!
We concentrate on how to do. We don't waste time and labor over theological and biblical questions like, "What does it all mean?"
So, get rid of the theology to save time and labor, and never have to face up. There is no reflection, no agonizing. We do not confess our doubt. We do not ask questions we cannot control with a standard verse from the Bible or prayer. After all, we have a schedule to keep!
Don't get me wrong. It is important to be organized, to get the right training. The average congregation would be a sorry place if it did not pay attention to its structuring and its program. Conferences on "Ten Ways to Make the Church Grow" or "How to Welcome the Stranger in Our Midst" are important. But these things must serve our fundamental calling, our mission, what our ministry as a Lutheran church is all about.
You and I are to proclaim Christ crucified. To face up to Him, to feel the joy of Himùand the burden of Him. That's what we're about.
Thesis Two: We should preach the joy of Christ crucified. Five hundred years ago Martin Luther discovered something absolutely essential in the Scriptures. We call it the "Doctrine of Justification." Find its meaning this way: Apart from Jesus Christ Himself, think quickly of five well-known people in the Bible. Your list should look something like this: Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul and Mary. You've known them since Sunday School.
Now ask yourself: "Of whom is it true that their relationship to God was earned by their behavior?" Adam and Eve? Abraham? – Ask Sarah what he was like. Moses? – A murderer, constantly fleeing from God. David? We know what happened with him. Looking across the way from his palace – there she was, sunbathing. The rest is history. He ordered Bathsheba's husband to the front line to get him killed. His child with Bathsheba was taken in death by the judgment of God. Before it was all over, David composed the great penitential Psalm 51: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence." Luther says of this "Who is this God, that even David, after what he had done, can turn to Him?" Or think of Peter? Cock-a-doodle-doo. Paul? – He was Saul, persecutor of the Christians. And Mary? A simple young girl. These people are taken in by God, shaped by Him. So it is with us. Often when we are furthest away from God, salvation can happen, our knowledge of God is opened and His grace made known.
We don't earn our way; it is God's grace that receives us. This is what Luther discovered. It is the joy of Christ crucified who shows us the way to God, who died for us that we might be saved.
It is the reality of Romans 3, "Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God they are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus."
Thesis Three: We must preach the burden of Christ crucified. To be a Lutheran Christian is to know that confessing the crucified Christ has consequences for our journey of faith. It means taking up the cross in a life of repentance, recognizing candidly how we struggle against the cross of Christ.
Basic in Luther's call to the Reformation faith was his simple austere theologyùnot only of mercy, but also of judgment through God and Christ.
From the Scripture, Luther understood what a human being was about. He said a human being must be acknowledged as someone – you and me – who is in rebellion against God. Our very essence, what makes us tick, is our rebellion. Luther put this in an arresting fashion. "Man is by nature unable to want God to be God. Instead, he himself wants to be God and does not want God to be God. This is the seed of our unworthiness, the chief evidence in our character that we are enmeshed in a web of sin. Only by facing up to our predicament can we learn the right path."
To be God is to have control. But we want control. Several years ago a student came to me and said, "I want to make my brother-in-law a Christian. How do I do it?"
"Tell me about your brother-in-law."
"He and my sister have three wonderful kids; they live in the western high-priced suburbs. He has a great job, and he just got a shiny black convertible from Germany."
I said, "What does he need God for? He is God. Wait until he gets a scratch on that convertible, then broach the subject."
How do we learn to release control, to let God be God? Luther says most often we do not do it on our own willingly. Rather, God must bend our will.
The Uses of Adversity
Luther names this as a function of adversity, to instruct us that we are not gods, able to control all things for the purpose of our desires. He says, "God overwhelms us with things which move us to anger, with many sufferings which rouse us to impatience. Last of all, even with death and the abuse of the world, by means of these He seeks nothing else but to drive out of us anger and impatience and unrest and to perfect His own work in us, that is, His peace. Suffering in life bears a transcendent purpose. It is to bring us to God."
This insight is fundamental to Luther's teaching and to the Reformation. It is a teaching that has evaporated in our church, because it's a dangerous thing to think about. We more commonly ask, "Hey God, why are you doing this? Why do bad things happen to good people? We're good people, what's this going on for?"
But consider your own life. When have you been brought before God's throne, forced to look at life very carefully? Has it not been in times of adversity? Then it is we learn lessons that go down deep.
This cuts against the grain of the individualism that undergird our culture with its belief that we have certain inner desires which must be expressed, so that we can find fulfillment.
Expressive individualism under-girds our "therapeutic culture". Talk shows, self-help books, contacting the inner child, having things our way. We want it, so we go for it. But what do we have at the end of the day?
Repentance
No, says Luther, we must be called up short before God, so that we see where our life is going, so that we become willing to let God be God. When we do that, it's called repentance, turning around, confessing our sins before God and asking Him to lead the way. That's a very difficult thing to do.
How serious is the matter of repentance in Christian life? Luther believed that the cultural ritual Christianity of his day obscured a proper relationship to God. The Church may baptize people, he said, but this is not enough. "For the world and the masses are and always will be unchristian, even if they are all baptized in Christian name. Christians are few and far between.
Most often the Church misleads people in matters of fundamental importance, because it is ruled by a priesthood dedicated to the aggrandizement of worldly power and wanting to be popular. These rulers believe that they can control the gates to heaven by ritual indulgences and canon law,"
But this is false. Only when the individual believer, under the power of the Holy Spirit, explicitly faces up to the truth of the Scriptures can regeneration begin. This, however, is an act of the entirety of one's life. In the first of the 95 Theses with which the Reformation began, Luther said,''When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, Repent,' He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance." How seriously Luther meant this can be seen in the way he understood the sacraments. Consider the Lord's Supper.
– The other three theses will be discussed in the next issue of FOCL-POINT.
*SUNDBERG teaches at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, and is co-editor of The Rose, a journal of personal faith, and of the recent volume on the historical critical method in biblical study, The Bible in Modern Culture.
This is an edited version of his 1995 FOCL Reformation Rally lecture
Attacking With a Specious Theology
by Gordon Selbo
Gordon Selbo, retiring president of the Fellowship of Confessional Lutherans, responds to the actions of the Sierra Pacific Synod Council in retaining every relationship – except voting at assembly – with the two San Francisco congregations which were removed from the roster of ELCA last Dec. 3ist for ordaining and continuing to employ three homosexuality active pastors. They celebrated their expulsion from the ELCA congregational roster with a "New Year's Eve Party" with two ELCA synodical bishops in attendance: the one, their synod bishop, as the celebrant for the Holy Eucharist, and the other as preacher for the occasion.
It would be day dreaming to hope that the division in the Church over the issue of homosexual conduct might come to a sudden and dramatic conclusion. The ELCA has postponed the formulation of a statement on the mailer, a fallback from its previous intent. Though it relies for now on the position of its predecessor bodies, this inaction has insured a continuing dialogue and confrontation. In its most recent action, the ELCA Church Council authorized yet another "message" on human sexuality. After several years of study and the production of three documents one wonders – why the delay?
Discussion continues, but there seems to be no common ground, no base, from which meaningful conversation can take place. A communication was sent to clergy of the Sierra Pacific Synod by a pastor of one of the two San Francisco congregations recently expelled from membership in the ELCA. In it the following statement, perhaps his core argument, reads:
"It is sad that a church body as gospel oriented and as large as the ELCA cannot tolerate the presence of openly gay and lesbian pastors and their life partners."
The slightest scrutiny reveals an alarming confusion of law and gospel. If this is the pro-homosexual argument it needs to be exposed, severely challenged and refuted, before any further discussion in a Lutheran context can take place.
Law and Gospel
The ELCA policy is based on biblical authority and moral conduct, not on "gospel orientation." But in a strange diversion, there is thrust upon us (the ELCA) the burden of this dual implication: If you believe the gospel, you will approve of homosexual conduct; if you disapprove, you cannot be gospel oriented. Astounding! The gospel is used as a kind of trump card, a theological club. Even the most amateurish of theologians ought to see through this.
To argue the legitimacy of homosexual acts is one thing. The good news of salvation in Christ is quite another. Since Paul condemns various forms of behavior, perhaps he too was not gospel oriented? How far shall we go in mixing the gospel with the law? When we play this game we not only dilute the gospel, we lose it, and the Church is in deep troubleù very deep.
What is "inclusive?"
Perplexing also is the use of the word "large" in the above quote. What does the largeness of a church body have to do with its moral judgment? Are we to believe that the larger the church, the more tolerant it should be? This is weird.
At issue also in the church's ongoing discussion is the use of that good word "inclusiveness," inherent in the gospel itself. Traditionally it has meant that God's call is to everyone, that Christ's great commission is universal, that the church's doors are open to all sinners, that discrimination denies the church's very nature. It has never meant approval and "tolerance" of errant belief or conduct.
Hypocrites in the Church
In the same letter from San Francisco, the ELCA is accused of hypocrisy because it implemented its policy regarding sexual conduct of its pastors. It is based on the rationale that gay and lesbian pastors are encouraged by the church to remain secret and lie about their sexual identity. The ELCA to my knowledge encourages no one to lie. Do we want some kind of ecclesiastical gestapo to probe the pastors' personal lives? Of course not. But if a pastor intentionally "hides" his/her sexual practice for the sake of remaining on the clergy roster of a church which does not condone it, who really is the pretender, the hypocrite?
Teaching the Gospel
In a service officially terminating ELCA membershipforthe two expelled congregations, our bishop issued them a mild reprimand for their failure to live within the church's guidelines and promised his pastoral support and prayers for the future. He regretted, as we all do, the tension and divisiveness which their action created. With all due respect, one questions his statement to the media that the aberrant churches have taught the ELCA that the gospel is for all. In the context it was misleading and perhaps a put-down of the broader church he serves. If there are those who do not believe in an all-inclusive gospel, they too ought to be disciplined. I know of no such folks.
One might question also the bishop's choice of words in referring to the ELCA position on sexuality as "the received presumptions...of our forbearers." Perhaps I read more into that phrase than is intended.
True Unity in the Gospel
The San Francisco letter laments the fact that the ELCA has had sufficient time in the five-year suspension period to be "more flexible" in the certification of its pastors. No mention is made of the corollary that the two suspended congregations also had been given time to be in compliance.
We wish the two churches well. We do so genuinely. If Christ crucified and risen is proclaimed with power and clarity, the Spirit will work. But law and gospel must not be mixed, or we lose the essence and the purpose of both.
Unity in the church, whether ecumenical or strictly Lutheran, is much to be desired. Ill-founded accusations leveled at the church (betrayal of the gospel, non-inclusiveness, hypocrisy) are not helpful. These are very serious charges which tend only to alienate and polarize, eroding any hope there may be for conflict resolution.
READER RESPONSES
Dear Editor:
As regards Dr. Bragstad's excellent contribution to the date of the Gospels ["Revisiting the Gospels"– summer '95], I have always considered that Saint John's Gospel postdated the epistles of St. Paul. You may read an article on "St. Luke-Evangelist and Historian", which appeared in The Bride of Christ (Vol. XIX,#4), where I strongly argued the case for the reliability of St. Luke as an historian.
Rev. Bruce Wilmot Adams, Glengowrie, S.A., Australia
Dear Editor:
I appreciate deeply the work you are doing with FOCL-POINT. At Trinity Lutheran Church of Minnehaha Falls, Pastor Thomas Parrish has been active in the Great Commission Network. The more voices that can be raised, in the positive and helpful manner of these and other groups, the better. They are greatly needed in this crucial hour. I am enclosing a modest contribution toward the support of your vital and strategic ministry.
Rev. Caroll O Satre, Minneapolis. Dear Editor:
Thanks for your reporting on the great Assembly in Minneapolis. I do appreciate FOCL. I wrote to Bragstad and asked if we might include his article in DISCIPLES' DIARY [ed.note: Conrad is editing this volume of sermons and essays by well-known ELCA clergy].
Dr. Wm. R. Conrad, Stromsburg, NE.