Local Option for Certifying Pastors
By George H Muedeking, D.D., Ph.D*
Without doubt, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will face an upheaval when its select Committee on Human Sexuality reports in to the 2005 Churchwide Assembly (CWA). The committee has been charged to bring in recommendations; and the Assembly will have to act.
Whether the recommendation is to affirm or deny same sex marriages and the ordination of practicing homosexuals, the respective positions of the ELCA members are pretty well chosen already. More "study" of the issue, as proposed by the committee for the next biennium, in the hope of changing the views of either the majority, or of imposing the will of the homosexual interest group, will not do it. Either way, the voted outcome will be hugely disturbing to the defeated.
Can Anything Be Done?
So what to do about heading off what promises to be a major debacle? At the last CWA meeting, a concerted effort to force a vote on the issue was threatened and attempted by the homosexual special interest group. Engineers of the Assembly's dynamics thought they could snuff out the flames before they would rage like wildfire through the ELCA. It could be done by tabling any reckless resolution from the floor, and proposing further study. The pressure and demonstrations conducted by the homosexual lobbying groups were too pronounced on the participants, however. The only recourse was to define the issue forth-rightly, and appoint a committee charged to bring in a specific recommendation. That presumably would get the monkey off the back of the ELCA for good. So the CWA hoped.
Any Other Way?
Of course this solution of further and interminable studies will not do. As Sigmund Freud had already made clear a century ago, sex is woven into the pattern of life itself. No one, least of all a whole church body, sets the boundaries of this powerhouse by "further study."
One of the ELCA bishops took a cue from the controversy over the document called the "Call to Common Mission" (CCM), which established "full communion" with the Episcopal Church at that same CWA. In order to blunt the anticipated substantial opposition to the impending approval of the CCM, ELCA bishops offered a resolution at the CWA. It provided that with elaborate hoop-jumping, by way of an "exception," a seminary graduate could be ordained by his chosen pastor instead of a bishop. For there were some prospective ordinands who still labored under the belief that the CCM's mandatory ordination by a bishop in the "historic apostolic succession" violated the seventh article of the Lutheran Confession of Faith, the Augsburg Confession. Every Lutheran pastor takes a vow to preach and teach in accordance with the Augsburg Confession.
In all other cases, the CCM provision for mandatory ordination by a bishop in the "historic episcopate" would prevail. For that was the price the Episcopalians uncondtionally demanded had to be paid to them for their opening their pulpits and altars to the ELCA clergy by the CCM agreement
The CWA voters approved the ELCA bishops' proposed resolution, believing it thereby also became an integral part of the CCM agreement.
With this resolution adopted by the CWA, the ordination could be carried out by a bishop not "in historic succession," or even by some lowly ELCA pastor.
(It should be noted that after the CWA adopted the CCM, the Episcopal Church had to adopt it also. To avoid a hassle about that very unepiscopal provision for an "exception," the Episcopal national assembly was told by the Secretary of the ELCA that the ELCA bishops' resolution, adopted by the ELCA's assembly a matter of weeks before, was actually not part of the CCM document of agreement at all, and therefore need not be an issue to the Episcopal Church.)
We Have a Precedent
Now back to the bishop referred to above, Mark Hanson of the St. Paul Synod. He was under much pressure from his congregations because he had expedited the irregular ordination of a lesbian. He saw that the route of "exceptions," pushed on the CWA by the conference of bishops in regard to the CCM, could also just as successfully be a model to sidetrack the uproar expected from any future attempt in his synod to endorse homosexual marriages or clergy ordinations. Just so, an "exception" could also be the savvy answer to the unhappy future prospect of running head on into a smashup with the ELCA majority, still obviously skittish about endorsing homosexual behaviors in the clergy parsonage.
By applying the "exceptions" principle, the strikingly unbiblical support the ELCA might give to its homosexu-ally active clergy might be both grudgingly condoned, and yet zealously encouraged. For by this principle, no one had to ordain homosexual activists, but would be encouraged to do so, if they were so minded. By means of the "exceptions," the modi-tied CCM presumably had taken care of the pastors whose conscience bothered them about violating their ordination vow of adherence to the Lutheran Confessions. So then, why could not this same makeshift Rube Goldberg device be extended to the question of ordaining homosexually active clergy? Exceptions had worked to disarm the the CCM's opponents. Apply it likewise to the potentially disastrous issue of ordaining the behavioral homosexuals. So Hanson reasoned in reference to his synod.
Ordination to Place
Hanson gave this strategy a very neutral sounding name: "Ordination to place." That is, the ELCA would not have to take a stand on the issue of homosexual practice, one way or the other. For the homosexually active prospective ordinand would seek out a bishop, a congregation, or a synod, sympathetic to his or her case. In that place and for that kind of ministry, the ordination would occur and everyone would be satisfied. Those indignant at what was done, would be mollified, since it was not their synod, congregation or bishop that had welcomed this clergy type. And certainly the proponents would rejoice for achieving their purpose of opening the clergy roster of the ELCA to this kind of minister and ministry. The latter could look forward to continuing to wear down the opposition like water dripping on a stone.
Hanson was subsequently elevated to the top bishop slot in the ELCA.
The perception is growing rapidly accross the ELCA that he and the homosexuality study committee appointed by him to bring in to the 2005 CWA, an action-resolution, will propose this solution as a way out of the disastrous turmoil that is ahead if the Assembly votes to certify to its roster the homosexually active. The ominous prospect of a church-wide revolt is too real, a mass defection too likely to split the church, should any action--for or against-be enacted by the 2005 Church Wide Assembly. Either way, those following the biblical principles of sexual conduct, or those pushing the envelope to revise our millenia-old moral insights, will walk out if they did not prevail in the 2005 CWA.
Will It Work?
What a relief! For everybody! Call it "exceptions." "ordination in place" or more honestly, "local option." Whatever. Everybody gets his way, no matter which side he might be on in this conflict.
Before the ELCA Assembly takes this way out, however, it is incumbent on us to envision the implications. Lay aside the only theologically respectable question whether or not approving homosexually active clergy flatly denies the ELCA's constitutional foundation of adherence to the Scriptures alone for its faith and life. Start instead with this question: Why do we have a synodical clergy roster in the first place? The answer is historically simple. The first Lutheran denomination in the U.S., the Pennsylvania Ministerium, was formed precisely to "accredit" certain pastors who were starting congregations all over the new land, and "discrediting" certain other carpetbaggers--those pseudo-shepherds, who, as the Ministerium's founder, Muhlenberg, said, were roaming the frontier, looking for the sheep's wool, not for the sheep's welfare.
Since a state-church did not exist in the US however, some other body would have to step in to certify the reliability of the work ofany individual who aspired to recognition as a Lutheran minister. So the "ministers" got together and did the certifying. The Pennsylvania Ministerium, came into being precisely for that purpose.
In that sense, the Ministerium was a professional society, laying down tests or criteria by which it could testify to the reliability of any who wanted to work in that profession. And that is precisely also the only final meaning for the existence of the "clergy roster" of the ELCA.
This is no different than the creation of any and all professional societies, guilds, unions, or other similar organizational structures. They all start as a product of the recognition of its practitioners, who want to distinguish themselves from the incompetent or the deceitfully deviant who aspire to their ranks. If the standards for accreditation made by such a group are ignored or are yet too imprecisely formed to isolate the unqualified, then the Law steps in to structure such professional or guild associations. If the government can find an excuse, by citing a health, educational, or consumer-protection need, the Law jumps in to set the standards and to certify membership by issuing a license to practice. Probably the most recent example of this state preemption in the field of religious practice, is in the governmental takeover of the pastoral marriage-counseling or psychotherapeutic counseling function of pastoral activity, mandating legal certification, particularly for medical reimbursement privileges.
Since the First Amendment to the US Constitution denies the State the right to interfere in the recognized work of the church, and since the church is rigorous about trying to keep the ever eager State from climbing over that wall between church and state, and since the church endeavors constantly to limit the Law's intrusion into its affairs, the church in the U.S. certifies and rosters its own qualified workers and members. It cannot, as was regularly the case in Europe, depend on the state to indicate who is equipped for the pastor's task. In the U.S. the organized denomination assumes this task.
This is ultimately also then the only irreducible reason we have an ELCA-so that when a congregation wants to call a pastor, or an organization wants a religious worker-it will know where it can find a reliable prospect. Everything else the ELCA does arises initially from that cooperative mechanism for certifying and providing accountable and reliable church workers.
The Implications
Now then, if we gratefully and hastily adopt Hanson's easy "local option" solution for who deserves to be on the ELCA clergy, homosexually active or no, we should recognize the implication. We no longer then have a national church body that can certify, let alone guarantee, the doctrinal or moral integrity of its workers. For in any "local option" jurisdiction, by definition the national body is silent. We will be reduced to shopping around, asking the neighbor, some other congregation or pastor friend who can be recommended. Then of course we will also suffer in silence and frustration when the recommended candidate can't fill the bill of integrity or competency.
Once upon a time, the seminaries established by the Lutheran denominations of this country observed their students and certified them and their qualifications for ministry. The seminary faculty had four years to weigh the prospective ordinand's fitness. With the ELCA, however, in the name of "inclusivity" and its manipulative quota system, we have resorted to "synodical candidacy committees," to certify a competency for ordination. Graduating seminary candidate after candidate has reported the imposition of "politically correct" answers demanded by an aggressive synodical committee member, as the price for ordination into the ELCA.
"Local option" will only aggravate the problem. "Ordination to place" should not be given any place in the ELCA.
*George H Muedeking, editor of FOCL-POINT, the newsletter of the Fellowship of Confessional Lutherans (www.foclnews.org), retired after 14 years as Editor of The Lutheran Standard, the official publication of the American Lutheran Church. He previously was Professor of Functional Theology at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, in Berkeley, California.
An Admonition to Peace and Unity
The Word Alone Network's Theological Advisory Board, a group of international Lutheran theologians, has issued an "Admonition" to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Our FOCL-POINT readers will appreciate its sincere application of Lutheran doctrine to the troublesome "full communion" agreement with our sister Episcopalian church, which unconditionally demands that "for the sake of the unity of the church" all ELCA bishops must be put into their office by bishops who had themselves been previously brought into their office in the same way, (the so-called "historic episcopate.")
Admonition for the Sake of the True Peace and Unity of the Church
I. Theological Foundation
Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, "was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification" (Rom 4:25 cf., Smalcald Articles 11.1). We affirm together that we are justified by grace alone, that is, by faith alone through Christ alone. This comes about through the Hofy Spirit by means of the gospel alone in its iwo forms of proclamation and sacrament. Whereas through the law God convicts, through the gospel God forgives, and raises the sinner unto new life. This is a life free from law, sin and death, and at the same time, rich in fruits of the new obedience.
The church of Christ is the communion of saints, that is, the communion of believers, the communion of those who are justified sinners. That means the church comes into being in the same way and at the same time with faith and justification: through the Holy Spirit by the proclamation of the gospel and the distribution of the sacraments. These two forms of the gospel, and only these, are the means through which the church is created and sustained; they and only they make the church apostolic; they and only they make the church catholic; they and only they make the church holy; they and only they make the church one. By them, and only by them, the church, its apostolicity, its catholicity, its holiness, and its unity is unequivocally made manifest.
As the creature of the gospel and communion of the believers, the church is called to proclaim the gospel which brings about justification. This ministry is divinely instituted and bestowed by God upon the whole church (Augsburg Confession 5). It is the responsibility of all believers to participate in it and to propagate the good news where they find themselves in life. For this purpose, the Holy Spirit graces the church and invests the gifts of that grace in all believers. To preach and administer the sacraments publicly in the name of the church is the specific calling of the ordained ministry (Augsburg Confession 14). Ordination does not confer any quality or special ability higher than that bestowed in baptism. Ordination is the call to proclaim the divine word entrusted to all publicly on behalf of the whole church.
There are many other elements and features which belong to the church, like worship, loving service for the world, discipline, and oversight. The church cannot be without them. But how they are shaped and lived out is dependent on circumstances, history and cultural background. Their specific shape is neither something that makes the church the church, nor that by which the church is recognized. In other words, their specific shape is necessary neither for justification, nor for the church to be the church. In this respect, their specific shaping is indifferent (adiaphoron).
Since what makes the church the church, and what makes it one, holy, catholic and apostolic, and is sufficient for this, is the pure proclamation of the gospel and the right administration of the sacraments, none of those elements which are indifferent as regards justification and the being of the church can be made necessary for its unity (Augsburg Confession 7). Therefore, it is wrong "when anyone imposes such ceremonies, commands, and prescriptions upon the community of God with coercive force as if they were necessary, against its Christian freedom, which it has in external matters" (Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article X). The distinction between that which is necessary and that which is not necessary in the church must be absolutely clear, both in the teaching and practice of the church- If any "indifferent" element is made a condition for the being, the apostolicity or the unity of the church, this distinction is blurred. Thus Christian freedom, which is an essential dimension of the Christian faith, is destroyed, and the Lordship of Jesus Christ over His Church is compromised.
II. Ecclesial Consequences
In 1999 the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), in order to enter into full communion with the Episcopal Church USA, mandated on a church-wide scale episcopal succession and ordination by bishops for the sake of unity. It seems clear that the ELCA, by accepting these practices as a condition of unity, has made an adiaphoron into a theological necessity, thus contradicting its own confessional basis. What intimates that this might not be so is the by-law amendment (ELCA Constitution 7.31.17) allowing pres-byteral ordination. In order to ensure that an adiaphoron has not been made a theological necessity, however, what is now an exception must be made an option of equal standing. Likewise the two practices of installing bishops, with or without the participation of (three) bishops in episcopal succession, must be options of equal standing.
Therefore, we ask the ELCA to amend its constitution and by-laws accordingly so that the constitution is brought back in line with its own confessional basis. Although this might be a difficult process, it is necessary for the sake of the truth of the gospel and the church's true peace and unity: "For weakening this article and forcing human commands upon the church as if they were necessary . . . already paves the way to idolatry" (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration X). Drafted and Signed by.
[x] Dr. James Bangsund, Senior Lecturer, Old Testament and Hebrew, Makumira University College, Tanzania
[x] Dr. James Burtness, Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota
[x| Dr. Gerhard Forde, Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology. Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota
[x] M Dr. George W. Forell, Carver Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
[x] Dr. Roy A. Harrisville, Emeritus Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul,
Minnesota
[x] Dr. Jack Dean Kingsbury, Emeritus Professor of New Testament, Union Theological Seminary. Richmond, Virginia
[x] Dr. James Nestigen, Professor of Church History, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota
[x] Dr Steven D. Paulson, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Luther Seminary. St. Paul. Minnesota
|x] Dr, Hans Schwarz, Professor of Systematic Theology and Contemporary Theological
Issues, University of Regensburg, Germany
[x] Dr, Walter Sundberg, Professor of Church History, Luther Seminary. St. Paul, Minnesota
[x] Dr. Martin Synnes, Associate Professor of New Testament, The Norwegian Lutheran School of Theology (Det Teologiske Menighetsfakultet), Oslo, Norway
[x] Dr. Dorothea Wendebourg, Professor of Church History, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
[x| Dr. Vitor Westhelle, Professor of Systematic Theology. Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
KANSAS CITY STATEMENT
Nearly 300 persons, coming from 49 states and Canada, attended the conference whose Pastoral Statement fe included below. Nine top-ranked theogians and ELCA leaders presented lectures at this Conference on Human Sexuality: Included among them were Dr. James Nestigen, Dr. Robert Gagnon, Dr Merton Strommen, Dr. Robert Benne, and Pr. Amy Schifrin. The conference crafted the following statement and invites congregational church councils and members to add their own names as subscribers, for presentation to those addressed.
A Pastoral Statement of Conviction and Concern Presented at the Conference on Christian Sexuality Sponsored by the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau Ruskin Heights Lutheran Church, Kansas City, Missouri
October 24-26, 2002
To: The Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; The ELCA Conference of Bishops, the Rev. Bishop Donald McCoid, chair; The Church Council of the ELCA; The ELCA Task Force on Human Sexuality, Dr. James Childs, director; and The Congregations of the ELCA
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is in the midst of studies on human sexuality. We wish to be a part of this process and to be active participants in the conversation. We do so in reliance on the Spirit's power to keep the church faithful to its Biblical and confessional heritage. We also do so with the intention to "maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3).
We offer the following statement as a way of summarizing our position on human sexuality and as our way of affirming what the church has taught and confessed on these issues since apostolic times.
1. The Bible and the Christian Tradition, including the Lutheran Confessions, see sexuality as integrally related to the doctrine of marriage. Marriage, an institution ordained by God, is the life-long union of one man and one woman for the creation of human life and for their mutual love and care. Sexual intercourse is not a fundamental private right or psychological necessity, but a gift of God. Its purpose is to serve as a means of uniting husband and wife and continuing God's life-creating work. The confessions teach that we are to "live chastely in thought, word, and deed in (our) particular situation" (Large Catechism 394:219, Tapper! trans.). Sexual intercourse is part of the vocation of marriage and is misused in any other context.
2. The Gospel frees us from the curse of the Law, that is, the judgment that falls on us because we are sinners. It does not free us from the righteous life that the Law summarizes. "You, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6:18). The freedom of the Gospel does not make the forbidden permissible; rather, that freedom encourages and enables us to embrace joyfully a life of faithful service and holy living. In Christ we are given the grace, by the Holy Spirit, to "know how to control (our) own body in holiness and honor" (I Thessalonians 4:4).
3. We view any change in the church's doctrine of marriage as a grave error. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is currently studying whether the church may bless homosexual relationships, and whether the church may ordain sexually active homosexuals to the office of the ministry. Such proposed changes in Christian doctrine distort the Biblical record, appeal to questionable scientific theories, suppress inconvenient data, and rely overwhelmingly on individual experience which has been conditioned by contemporary culture and values. We are troubled by the process that has been used in recent studies on human sexuality within the ELCA. The conversations on this issue thus far have largely focused on personal experience and the sharing of anecdotes, rather than on the teaching of Holy Scripture and the theological and confessional witness of the church. We call the church to recognize that personal experience is not a reliable interpretive key to the Word of God.
4. Three strategies have been proposed by those who wish to change the present policy. One is "ordination to place," in which a non-celibate homosexual is ordained exclusively to serve one congregation. A second is "synodical option," which permits synods to set their own standards in this matter. A third strategy might be termed "conscientious pluralism," in which traditional and revisionist perspectives on these matters are allowed to coexist in the church. Any of these proposals would destroy the unity of the ELCA and of its ordained ministry.
5. We understand the genuine suffering and challenge that our homosexual brothers and sisters face. We repudiate all forms of prejudice and hatred, but we believe that Christian love requires the clear proclamation of God's truth which alone can free and reconcile us. Sensitive pastoral care for homosexual persons will include compassion, encouragement and the same call to repentance and chastity that God continually places before us all.
Because we love the whole church, many of us are facing a potential crisis of conscience regarding the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We earnestly desire to remain actively engaged in the life and mission of our church, but we observe that the ELCA is becoming schismatic and sectarian. We therefore pray that our church's reflection on human sexuality be determined by an obedient listening to the Word of God and by a faithful witness to that Word.
PERSPECTIVES
Prochoice it Aint: Fewer and fewer are choosing to support "pro-choice" abortion. Barely reported by a surprised and chagrined media from the 2002 election results, was the fact that "pro-choice" advocates were virtually swamped. The leading abortion advocate, the NARAL, saw 9 of 11 of its supported nominees go down to defeat in the Senate race and 20 of its 26 endorsed candidates in the House. Along with the reduced number of abortions yearly, a growing revulsion among youth toward this form of mass murder, and the majority of polled citizens opposing abortion on demand, the money-gorged abortion industry is in increasing trouble. Here is clearly one time our church people can indulge in what the Germans call "Schadenfreude," loosely translated as "Glad you got took!"
Confessing the Faith: "After decades of decline both in numbers and faith, mainline Protestantism is experiencing a robust renewal from within," said UPI's Uwe Siemon-Netto, reporting on the recent "Confessing the Faith Conference" that brought together nearly 700 leaders of "confessing movements" from 12 denominations in Indianapolis in October. "This was a conference of the future Church," said Diane Knippers, President of the Washington-based Institute on Religion and Democracy, which convened the group, organized by the Association for Church Renewal.
"This has been a stunning step forward," she said. "Let's not waste too much time and energy combating worn-out and unappealing modernist heresies. In a post-modern era, the problem may not be unbelief but too much belief."
Theologian Donna Hailson illustrated this "cafeteria religion," in which people create their own religion piecemeal out of the beliefs and practices of a global bagful of options-Wiccan ceremonies, Eastern healing rituals, erotic litanies, drums and chants invoking ancestors, and even some old camp-meeting hymns-all in an intoxicating poisonous brew. "Theology matters, indeed, now more than ever," said Hailson.
Maxie Dunnam, president of Ashbury Methodist Seminary elaborated on these distortions of belief by pointing out that the Church was also under siege by those of its leaders who distort and suppress orthodox Christian doctrine. As a result, spiritual starvation has beset mainline denominations: "People both inside and outside the Church are starving for the living bread of Jesus Christ. They ask for bread and are being given a stone."
Despite the stunning decline of mainline churches in the last 10 years, a pastoral letter issued by a preparatory committee affirmed, "Ultimately, the reason we cannot and must not leave our denominations is that the Gospel can still be freely proclaimed in them and the sacraments administered without hindrance. However true it may be that 'other gospels' are also heard in our midst, none of our churches have legislated against the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In such a situation, it is unnecessary for congregations to turn their backs on their churches."
THE AHEAD LOOK FROM HERE
by Dr. George Muedeking
Now well into its 13th year, the Fellowship of Confessional Lutherans (FOCL) has pursued its mission: "encouraging biblical, evangelical and confessional faithfulness to our Christian heritage." By workshops, rallies, and its FOCL-POINT newsletter, foundational issues that threaten the survival of the ELCA particularly, have been examined by outstanding church leaders within the ELCA's own constitutional framework: "the canonical Scriptures of the Old and severity and graciousness. There they ask not "What do these words mean for our people?" They ask, "What are these words telling me about me?" Unless we do it so, our churches will continue to chase after and embrace those empty norms for religion and ethics (hat are the cultural fashion of the day. And our congregations will live bereft of spiritual power, mere social clubs of mutual admiration. "Trust and obey; for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus than to New Testament [are accepted by this Church] as the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of proclamation, faith and life."
Less than a generation ago in America's mainline denominations, issues of faith and life were still simply submitted to the scrutiny of the Bible. While consensus on what the Bible says concerning any given moral or theological question might be argued, once agreement was reached on WHAT the Bible's take on the issue was, the dispute was over.
Today these controversial issues are no longer settled by WHAT the Bible says. Instead, our churches have been seduced by the same first and ever-continuing temptation proffered to our Mother Eve in Eden: "Hath God said." Not WHAT God said in His Word, but THAT God even said it-Does God's Bible say so, or does man's Bible say that God might or might not have said thus and so?
The way back to the Word as the light for our path is this: that our pastors and church leaders willingly come quite humbly to the Word as God's words, standing reverently and expectantly before that Word in all of its severity and graciousness. There they ask not "what do these words mean for our people?" They ask, "What are these words telling me about me?"
Unless we do it so, our churches will continue to chase after and embrace those empty norms for religion and ethics that are the cultural fashion of the day. And our congregations will live bereft of spiritual power, mere social clubs of mutual admiration.
"Trust and obey; for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey."
At least, this is how your editor for the past dozen years has seen FOCL's mission. He knows that with the mounting physical constrictions now being attached to the more than eight decades of his pilgrimage toward the Eternal Life that awaits him with Christ Jesus, it is time for a younger generation to "keep the faith" in behalf of us all. The FOCL board of directors therefore, confident of our readers' continued loyalty and support of FOCL-POINT and its mission in the church, has accepted his resignation from the editoral chair, and has appointed Dr. Jeffray Greene, the ELCA pastor of Emanuel Church in La Habra, CA, to that position. It has asked that I continue my relationship to our newsletter as Editor-at-Large.
With deep thankfulness to our FOCL friends who have made this media instrument (internet and print) grow from a few dozen subscribers to thousands of supporters, and with wondering thankfulness to our Lord Jesus who has directed and yes, allowed this print ministry, I sign out.
"With wondering thankfulness to our Lord Jesus . . . I sign out."
George H Muedeking
CALL TO GODLINESS
By Pastor Harold O Bailey
Some Old Testament people are described in a way that is too close for comfort for some of us today: "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.' (Judges 17:6)
What is right in God's sight is not primarily discovered by polls of human opinion. He reveals His will through His Word. And in that Word His Spirit leads us to His message of forgiveness and new life in Christ, crucified and risen.
God's great rescue program reveals that He delights to give us His kingdom through Jesus Christ. But what do we believers need to be rescued from? The need is to be rescued from what God considers evil.
Again, His Word helps us understand what we are to turn from in our thoughts and actions, through our faith-connection wi(h Him. Assuredly, these insights apply also to the larger Body of Christ and to His family in local congregations. In the latter, the major part of (he Church's life is experienced. So Our Lord speaks to His people in Corinth and also to us in our congregations when He both warns and offers His promises, when He gives us both Law and Gospel: "Don't you know that wicked people won't inherit the kingdom of God? Stop deceiving yourselves! - People who continue to commit sexual sins, who worship false gods, those who commit adultery, homosexuals, or thieves, those who are greedy or drunk, who use abusive language, or who rob people, will not inherit the kingdom of God. That's what some of you were! But you have been washed and made holy, and you have received God's approval in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." (I Corinth.6:9-11). Filthy and deceived; cleansed and approved; Law and Gospel.
Only through Christ and His rescue do we have hope. Led by His Spirit, we can humbly live the new life of forgiveness and godliness. Surely this will bring glory to God.
READER RESPONSES
Dear Editor,
Thanks for your continuing ministry on behalf of Confessional Lutheranism. It is beyond my comprehension how the ELCA is being enticed away from its confessional and historical moorings. My loyalty continues with the congregations. I hope the laity of the church can be aroused to prayer so we don't lose our apostolic identity. I am encouraged, however, by the work that you and many others are doing to inform us about these important issues.
Arland O. Fiske