By Dr. George W. Forell
Readers will be moved to share this article with any acquaintance who wants to know what the Lutheran Church really stands for. Together with Dr. D. James Kennedy's superb sermon on Luther's Quest for God, available on videotape from the Coral Ridge Hour, we have two of the most lucid and helpful presentations of our unique Lutheran faith that your editor has knowledge of.
Occasionally newspapers report the tragic story of a person found wandering aimlessly around the city streets who apparently does not know who he or she is. Such people suffer from amnesia and do not know their identity because they have lost their memory.
Because it is important to know one's past in order to manage one's present, people attempt to uncover their history, "to find their roots." This search not only aifects individuals, it applies also to groups and associations. Young communities like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have a special need to understand where they come from. If we do not know where we came from, we shall not know who we are, or where we are supposed to go.
The Festival of the Reformation helps orient Evangelical Lutherans. As a cure to the institutional amnesia which threatens the Lutheran Church – as it threatens so many other contemporary institutions – this festival tells us where we came from and who we are. Our roots are in Martin Luther's rediscovery of the Gospel in the 16th century, an event which points us to the very center of the Christian faith. Evangelical Lutheran Christians are men and women who know they are sinners saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ
Sinners? What does this strange list of words mean? The first irritant is the word "sinners." This term could win a contest for the most offensive word in the English language. Just mention it and people turn away, unwilling to talk with you. We all want to hear that we are wonderful, beautiful, kind, generous and admirable.
We "feel good about ourselves." At least that is what we tell everybody, and thus we are irritated when we hear a negative term like "sin." Popular religious cults like those described as "New Age" tell us that we are divine, in fact that we are all "gods." This is fashionable at the very time when we are suffocating under the results our greed and selfishness have produced. Air, soil, and water are polluted. Ships sail around the world loaded with garbage, carrying death and destruction, unable to find a harbor, like the legendary "Flying Dutchman." Hunger and disease stalk the weakest of our sisters and brothers over the world and the percentage of poor children is steadily increasing even in our own country. Millions are killed before They are even bornùbut we "feel good about ourselves" and claim to be "gods."
The Reformation reminds us that we are sinners. In Luther's language, we are people who are turned into ourselves and use everybody, including God and the neighbor, to support our own ambitions.
This analysis of the human predicament is not the result of Luther's medieval pessimism; it is an accurate description of the situation confronting us every day on the TV news and in the newspaper. Even if we abolish the word "sin," its results are all about us. Into the euphoric fog of self-congratulation created by politicians, advertisers and the narcissistic cults of our time comes the Reformation with its message that we are sinners.
Saved Sinners?
But this is by no means the last word. Luther tells baptized Christians that they are SAVED sinners. He does not say, "If you listen to me, or if you stop smoking and drinking, or become active in politics, if you give to the Hunger Appeal, tithe or whatever your good works may happen to be, then you will be saved." Without any qualifications he says: "You are saved!"
How is that possible? The answer is very simple and those members of the Lutheran Church who have memorized their Small Catechism should be able to recall what Luther teaches us there: "I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me a lost and condemned creature, delivered and freed me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil, not with silver and gold but with his innocent sufferings and death, in order that I may be his, live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness, even as he is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity."
Note that this statement is not merely Luther's personal opinion; it is also part of the ELCA constitution which says: "This church accepts...the Small Catechism, [and] the Large Catechism...as further valid interpretations of the faith of the Church."
Luther's words help us to overcome our amnesia by reminding us where we in the ELCA came from.
Grace-saved sinners?
With Luther our church insists that salvation is not a human achievement; it is a free gift of God. This is what the word "grace" means, and for that reason it is almost as hard to take as the word "sin." From early childhood, we would rather do things ourselves. We don't want to be dependent on anybody, not even God. We all want to be self-made women and men. Thus Luther teaches us an even harder lesson when he insists that we are saved by grace alone, harder than when he tells us that we are sinners.
The daily media reveal the reality of sin. It is inescapable and everywhere around us. Consequently, many people who never go to church still believe firmly in the total depravity of human beings. But these same people cannot fathom the reality of grace.
Grace is God's sovereign and incomprehensible decision for us. First of all God created us. That fact alone is hard to believe, and we will go to implausible lengths to convince ourselves that God had nothing to do with creation. But here we are, in a vast universe far beyond our ability to comprehend. We human beings, and our living and beautiful earth, appear to exist against all odds – indeed, against the very principles of probability, as physicists point out. But this creation grace is not all.
"Grace" means that God cares about us personally, loves us, identifies with us and our problems. The choice of Abraham and Sarah is grace and so is the election of the people Israel. Christmas and Easter and Pentecost are grace.
Grace, through faith, saved sinners!
How can this grace become ours? According to Luther and the Lutheran Confessions, it happens through faith alone. When Luther talks about faith he uses the image from the Epistle to the Ephesians, the image of a bridegroom and bride. He sees Christ as the bridegroom and the people of God as the bride (Eph. 5). As in marriage, Christ and the soul become one flesh. Luther writes, "It follows that everything they have they hold in common, the good as well as the evil. Accordingly the believing soul can boast of and glory in whatever Christ has, as though it were its own; and what ever the soul has, Christ claims as his own...Christ is full of grace, life and salvation. The soul is full of sins, death, and damnation. Now let faith come between them, and sins, death, and damnation will be Christ's, while grace, life and salvation will be the soul's." (Luther's Works, American Edition, Vol.31, P.351).
Luther's description of faith as the means of exchange between Christ and the Christian shows a very different use of the word from its function in ordinary language. For many people the word "faith" describes an attitude which is quite independent from the object of that faith. We can have faith in almost everything, from earthly possessions like money and real-estate to faith in human beings like family and friends.
Or one may have faith in institutions like one's country, or education, or the free enterprise system, or the bank. Some even have faith in rabbits' feet, crystals, or garlic. Certain theologians promote faith in faith. They seem to suggest that it doesn't matter what you believe; it is the believing attitude which is good for you.
Grace, through faith in Christ alone, saved sinners
For Luther only faith in Christ can properly be called faith. Belief in all the other things, be they ever so worthwhile, he calls idolatry. He insists that all human beings believe in something, as he explains in the Large Catechism: "A god is that which we look to and in which we find refuge in every time of need. To have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe him with our whole heart.
As I have often said, the trust and faith of the heart alone makes both God and an idol. If your faith and trust are right, then your God is the true God. On the other hand, if your trust is false and wrong, then you have not the true God. For these two belong together, faith and God. That to which your heart clings and entrusts itself is, I say, really your God."
Reformation, for Church Survival
For the future, indeed, for the survival of the Church, it is essential that the teachings of Luther move from the ELCA constitution into the daily life of all people. If isn't enough that we have good times together when we meet on Sunday or during the week. People can and do have good times together at all kinds of meetings. Fraternal organizations, clubs, and even the local bar may provide such entertainment. We do not need the Church if that is all it accomplishes.
Nor is it enough that we do all kinds of good works together. That is certainly important and praiseworthy, but all sorts of organizations feed the hungry, advocate racial justice, plead for prisonersandsupporteverykindofgood work. We have UNICEF and Good Will Industries, Amnesty International, CARE and Habitat for Humanity, to mention only a few.
And if we are only a group of people meeting regularly to rememberthe good old days, there are "Daughters of This" and "Sons of That" who do this remembering to perfection. Many organizations do all these tasks as well or better than we do them. We don't need the Church for a nostalgia trip.
But there is one thing that will not be done and cannot be done if the people that have been reached by the Gospel do not do it. They must proclaim that all people, though sinners, are called to be saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Once we make this task the very center of our life, all the other important by-products will follow.
We will have good times together at potluck suppers and congregational meetings. We will fight hunger and racism, homelessness and poverty as well as crueltyand injustice, shoulderto shoulder with other men and women of good will who may do it for different reasons, but do it nevertheless. And even an occasional nostalgia trip may be in order. We may dress up in the costumes of our ancestors and sing old songs, and remember each other's past together with open and eager minds.
But if the center is missing, that is, the Gospel of Christ, we cannot do any of these things for very long. We shall and should fade away. Luther and the Reformation, by telling us where we came from, also tell us who we are. They remind us that the future of the ELCA will depend on the way it proclaims the same old Gospel of the justification of sinners by a gracious God. f
* Dr. George Forell is Carver Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the School of Religion, University of Iowa: He gave this lecture in October at the three Northern and Southern California Reformation Rallies, sponsored by FOCL for the ELCA churches of the areas. His lecture is available on videotape from FOCL. See accompanying side-bar for details.