Is This What We Believe?

By Dr. Paul Berge

The ELCA is in a severe struggle to keep the Faith. An increasing percent of its members believes that the mandatory imposition of the "historic episcopate" to satisfy the unconditional demands of the Episcopal Church as its price to be paid to achieve "full communion," is in flat violation of the basic worldwide Faith-Statement of Lutheranism, the Augsburg Confession. Dr Berge gives us a summary of that Confession's position on the essentials of God's revelation of the Church's unity in Christ, as understood by the Lutheran Church.

The AUGSBURG CONFESSION is a gift not only to the Lutheran Church, but also to the church catholic. The Augsburg Confession identifies in a clear and evangelical way what is at the heart of the life of faith. In the sixteenth century, when the visible unity of the church was identified in the bishop, the reformers identified the unity of the church solely in Jesus Christ. In Christ, God meets us in word and sacrament, means through which the Holy Spirit works faith in our lives, creating a priesthood of all believers.

The crisis present in the ELCA takes issue with the Augsburg Confession as a faithful and true witness of the biblical understanding of the unity of the church. Called to Common Mission (CCM) requires that the ELCA adopt "the historic episcopate" (episcopos is the Greek word for bishop) of the Episcopal Church as the constitutive and necessary requirement for church unity. This requirement is contrary to a Lutheran understanding of our biblical and confessional heritage. In the New Testament it is clear that there is not one order of ministry but a rich variety of ways in which the ministry of the gospel takes place among us. The Augsburg Confession recognizes this freedom in the gospel and states clearly that "it is sufficient for the true unity of the Christian church that the Gospel be preached in conformity with a pure understanding of it and that the sacraments be administered in accordance with the divine Word" (Article VII).

Congregations Must Understand
It is imperative that congregations of the ELCA understand what is at the heart of the biblical and confessional witness of the Lutheran tradition and to educate their members so that they understand what is at stake as CCM is imposed upon them. Members of these congregations had no part or say in this radical change in the understanding of their congregation and national church body. In order to understand the present crisis we need to look at the context within the Augsburg Confession for hearing and understanding article seven entitled, "The Church." To do this we will look at the first fourteen articles of the twenty-eight articles of the Augsburg Confession.

The Augsburg Confession begins with the article on "God," expressing the continuity in faith with the "one holy catholic and apostolic Church" in the first sentence: "We unanimously hold and teach, in accordance with the decree of the Council of Nicaea, ... " The second article on "Original Sin" identifies the fall of Adam and all humanity, and that we "are unable by nature to have true fear of God and true faith in God." The third article on "The Son of God" expresses the faith of the church on the nature and work of Christ and concludes: "The same Lord Christ will return openly to judge the living and the dead, as stated in the Apostles' Creed." Thus the opening three articles of the Augsburg Confession are framed by the faith of "one holy catholic and apostolic Church," acknowledging the Nicene Creed in the opening sentence of the first article and the Apostles' Creed in the concluding sentence of the third article.

Faith Is the Linking Word The reformers made their move over and against the prevailing practices of the church catholic in the fourth article, "Justification." This article introduces the word "faith" for the first time in the Augsburg Confession. This word is the linking word in articles four, five, and six. Article four proclaims: "we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith, when we believe that Christ suffered for us and that for His sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us. For God will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness, as Paul says in Rom. 3:21-26 and 4:5."

As we catch the rhythm and order of the first four articles, we note that article one on "God," is followed by our broken relationship with God in article two, "Original Sin." Article three on "The Son of God," is followed by our restored relationship with God in article four, "Justification." At this point we would expect article five to be entitled, "The Holy Spirit," since article six "The New Obedience." However, article five is entitled, "The Office of the Ministry." The beauty and gift of the Augsburg Confession is that this article confesses that the work of the Holy Spirit is centered in "The Office of the Ministry."

The linking word, "faith," establishes the connection of article five, "The Office of the Ministry," with article four on "Justification" in the first sentence: "To obtain such faith God instituted the office of the ministry, that is, provided the Gospel and the sacraments. Through these, as through means, He gives the Holy Spirit, who works faith, when and where He pleases, in those who hear the Gospel." In the office of proclaiming the gospel and administering the sacraments, God's Holy Spirit works faith in our lives. Luther called the gathered congregation, in which the word is proclaimed, the "mouth house" of God; from the lips of the one who proclaims to the ears of those who hear, it is the work of the Holy Spirit article seven begins: "It is also taught among us that one holy Christian church will be and remain forever."

The definition of the church is centered in the priesthood of all believers, the proclamation of the gospel, and the proper administration of the sacraments: "This is the assembly of all believers good fruits and good works and that we must do all such good works as God has commanded, but we should do them for God's sake and not place our trust in them as if thereby to merit favor before God. ,For we receive forgiveness of sin and describes the work of the Holy Spirit, righteousness through faith in Christ, ... " The first six articles of the Augsburg Confession are the interpretive context for article seven, "The Church." The first three of the six articles (God, Original Sin, The Son of God) place the Augsburg Confession within the theology of the church catholic and its confession in the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed. The second three articles (Justification, The Office of the Ministry, The New Obedience), center in the linking word "faith," expressing what is at the heart of Reformation theology and where the reformers take their stand against the prevailing understanding and practices of the sixteenth century church.

Article seven, "The Church," is a masterful confession both in what it says and what it doesn't say. Once again acknowledging the confessing faith of the church catholic in the first three articles, creating faith in our lives through the word.

Article six on "The New Obedience" continues the work of the Holy Spirit. The linking word "faith" is again present in the first sentence: "It is also taught among us that such faith should produce among whom the Gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administered according to the Gospel." The third sentence of article seven brings the first two sentences together, confessing what constitutes the unity of the church: "For it is sufficient for the true unity of the Christian church that the Gospel be preached in conformity with a pure on "Confession," article twelve on "Repentance," and article thirteen on "The Use of the Sacraments," continue to identify the church, leading to article fourteen, "Order in the Church." Once again the reformers express what is at the heart of the congregation's identity in simple and profound words. The congregation calls a qualified pastor to serve the ministry of the gospel among them: "It is taught among us that nobody should publicly teach or preach or administer the sacraments in the church without a regular call."
The Augsburg Confession is like a Magna Charta of Christian liberty. It is a gift to a time in which CCM takes away the freedom that is ours as Lutherans. Unity among Christians is a God-given gift solely in Jesus Christ and not the office of bishop. The Augsburg Confession is profound in its simplicity and magnificent in its eloquent interpretation of the biblical foundation of faith in Jesus Christ. In the Augsburg Confession we are called to take our stand as Lutherans in the freedom ofthe gospel. To add requirements that seeks to supplant a word and sacrament ministry, such as the historic episcopate, is not in accord with our biblical and confessional heritage.

This is a time to take a stand not unlike that of Martin Luther in the sixteenth century. In his words: "Here I (we) stand, I (we) can do no other; God help me (us)."

BERGE is professor of New Testament at the ELCA's Luther Seminary, St Paul, MN, and one of the committee which formulated the "Concordat of Agreement" between the ELCA and the Episcopal Church USA. It was rejected at the 1997 ELCA Philadelphia Assembly and replaced with minor modifications by "Called to Common Mission," which passed by a small margin at Denver in 1999. Dr. Berge was one of the committee members who voted not to approve the Concordat for adoption by the ELCA.