By Dr. Hillmer
These thoughts were shared by Dr. Hillmer with fellow members in the form of an invited article in Bell Echoes, the parish newsletter of Bethesda church, a mid-sized ELCA congregation in the Twin Cities. Bethesda has under consideration a decision to "redirect" its benevolences from a generic yearly gift to the ELCA, to projects more certifiably in keeping with its Lutheran profession of faith. It is also considering joining up with Word Alone Network and Lutheran Churches in Mission for Christ. (See accompanying news report by Associate Editor Alan Waite for the recent formation of the latter group).
Martin Luther grew up in a church that had a lot of rules and he almost died trying to keep them. Then one day he found the Bible, and through it rediscovered the Gospel (Good News: Less Rules). When he compared what he found in Scripture to the church of his day, he began, one by one, to exchange the many human rules for the few simple rules found in the New Testament.
One of those human rules he examined was: "Without the pope and the bishops there is no church."
Many of this year's seminary graduates, bound by their vow to uphold the confessions of the Lutheran Church, are depending upon congregations without pastors for a pastoral position. Only thus can they be confident their conscience-bound resistance to the mandatory implementation of the ELCA-Episcopal agreement called CCM will be effected. ELCA congregations in harmony with these seminarian convictions must be able to extend them a call.
"Nonsense," said Luther. "The church is found wherever the Bible is read, gospel sermons are preached and the sacraments rightly done. Didn't Jesus say, 'Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am'?"
For obvious reasons, the pope and the bishops didn't like what Luther said. It made them real close to unnecessary.
So for over 400 years the Lutheran churches have said, "We'll let our church leaders do the ordaining, but they don't do so by divine right, because the Bible does not give them that right." (For most of our history our church leaders were variously called superintendents, district presidents. and the like; they weren't called bishops in the US until very recently-the past 10 or 15 years or so.)No Church without a Bishop?
Since August, 1999, however, the ELCA, in order to achieve unity with the Episcopal church, has been implementing an agreement known as Called to Common Mission (CCM), in which the ELCA has agreed to operate according to a favorite rule of the Episcopalians. Their rule (called the Historic Episcopate) says, "You can't have church without a bishop."
Sound familiar? (Since HenryVIII couldn't abide the Pope making rules about Henry's sex life, the Episcopalians [called Anglicans in England] have never tried to make the pope necessary for the church. Just bishops.)
In response to this un-Lutheran, unbiblical and unwarranted move on the part of the ELCA bishops-60 of the 65 bishops voted for this agreement which gives more power and prestige to themselves-some members of the ELCA have banded together to form an educational network (WordAlone-WA) and an organization (Lutheran Churches in Mission for Christ-LCMC)
Every ELCA church will be affected by the CCM. What will the members of Bethesda congregation do?
If Bethesda does nothing, then slowly but very surely what we have understood to be the church (the laity with their pastor, whom to call and ordain is their God-given right) will disappear. In its place will arise a hierarchic (a fancy word for "priests rule here") structure where bishops are all-powerful and at the top, then, pastors (ordained only by bishops who have been ordained by other bishops in the historic episcopate) and deacons, also ordained.
At the bottom and shorn of the rights which are theirs as members of the priesthood of all believers will be the laity, 99.9% of the church's membership.
Will Bethesda stand up for the freedom given them by Luther's hard fought struggles or will Bethesda also make Luther weep?*Dr Hillmer is Old Testament faculty professor at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Mn.