Self versus God

As is true of most pastors, I have preached about the spiritual dangers inherent in our modern preoccupation with materialism, consumerism, and wealth. But until the environmental, social, and economic sea change (pun intended) that is now occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, I don't think I fully realized the extent of our modern arrogance. It has taken the utter lack of a "back up plan" from BP -- despite the enormous depth at which that and other oil companies are drilling for oil -- to finally give me a wake up call.

BP is hardly alone in its corporate myopia and preoccupation with itself. Consider the enormous experiments our society is embarking upon, with little or no reflection on the consequences for our civilization. It's pretty easy to name just a very few other experiments, in addition to drilling on the continental shelf. How about: research on human cloning, dramatic changes in our definition of the family, dramatic changes in our acceptance of alternative sexualities, a decline in concern for the welfare of human beings in the context of financial concerns for corporations. And for many Christian denominations, another sea change in the deterioration of the primacy of scripture and tradition as over against the organizationally useful, and ethically and morally worthless, notion of "bound conscience."

Is anybody else fed up with our societal, ecclesiastical, corporate, and individual hubris?

Grrr.

Pastor Garry

New policy statements from the ELCA

The new policy statements from the ELCA concerning the denomination's expectations for clergy are now published and available. The changes were necessary in order to accomodate the most recent Churchwide Assembly's vote to allow publicly LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) individuals in a committed relationship to serve as clergy in the ELCA. You can find an article concerning these changes on page two of the "Core Connection" newsletter available at lutherancore.org. The full documents are available from the ELCA's web site (use the search engine and enter "Visions and Expectations."

I knew it was coming, but was still a bit shocked when I read it. It somehow seems ... starker ... when the policy changes actually appear in print. Especially the substitution of "this church" for "scripture."

If you're a member of the ELCA, continue to reflect on the role of scripture in the daily life of those who follow Christ. If you're not an ELCA member, pray for us: this division in our communion runs deep.

Blessings,
Pastor Garry

Lutherans Persisting now inactive

Dr. Michael Root has announced that the Lutherans Persisting blog is at least temporarily inactive because his duties call him out of country. He notes that the blog may not be re-activated upon his return. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Root and Dr. Yeago for their comments into the latest troubles to beset the ELCA. Their comments have been a source of valuable insights for me and for many others. I hope that the blog will become active once again upon Dr. Root's return.

Church and culture

I've been powerfully reminded on more than one recent occasion of the truth of Lyle Schaller's remark that the Church is is wonderful shape today -- if today is 1954.

The life of the Church is always in tension between two poles. One one hand is the great Tradition of the Church, and many of the traditions of the local congregation as well. On the other hand is the ongoing need for the gospel to be proclaimed in terms that to some degree are understandable to the culture in which the Church resides. Cultures differ, and the Church necessarily takes on something of the cast of each culture. Similarly, individual congregations not only have their own traditions, they also reside in a specific community and take on some of the characteristics of that community.

But what happens when the Church does not adapt to changes in the larger culture? What happens when the local congregation does not adapt to changes in its community? I strongly suspect that when the Church does not accomodate cultural changes to some degree, when the local congregation does not change to reflect the changed needs of its community, that both run the risk of becoming increasingly irrelevant. And that for me is a serious concern.

A serious concern, because the Church must be grounded in the world view provided by scripture or it will cease to be the Church. The world view of scripture is normative for our Christian living, and yet the world view of scripture is increasingly different from that of our changing culture. I might even suggest that the world view of scripture is radically different from that of our culture.

Both the Church as a whole and the local congregation live on the margins of culture and the local community. To paraphrase Stanley Hauerwas, congregations are colonies of the Kingdom of God. And that gives both congregations and the larger Church of which we are a part a perspective that the culture itself does not - and indeed cannot -- have. Size does not matter -- Christianity seems to thrive as a minority. What matters is Christ, the Word of God, and the world view of the Kingdom of God that He came to proclaim. What matters is that the good news of God continues to be proclaimed, even when the culture or the local community -- or sometimes portions of the Church itself -- has trouble hearing it. Or doesn't want to hear.

Status Embarassmentionis

Paul Hinlicky of Roanoke College has written an article that is well worth reading about the continued fallout from the August Churchwide Assembly. In addition to noting the serious negative effects on the ELCA of the sexuality decisions, Dr. Hinlicky builds on David Yeago's assertion that we are now in a state of impaired communion, and argues that the ELCA has now moved toward a congregationalist polity, defining the locus of the Church at the congregational level.

I fear that ours is an example of how seriously impaired ecclesiology can have a devastating impact on a church body. So much for the theologically idiotic idea of "bound conscience."

Dr. Hinlicky's article can be found at Lutheran Forum. the link is to the right.

Blessings,
Pastor Garry

Regression to the Mean

Before my call to ministry of Word and Sacrament, I was a psychologist for many years. As a part of both my clinical and educational work in psychology, I found statistics to be an essential tool. Along with other social sciences, psychology uses statistics to help determine things like the "average" test score (mean, median, mode), as well as the degree of deviation from the average (standard deviation, among other indices).

The reason I'm noting all this, is that modern churches use statistics, too, to help determine all sorts of things, such as the average size congregation, demographic profiles of members, average gain or decline in membership (mostly decline, nowadays), etc. Like other organizations, church bodies rely on statistics to help them make decisions. Statistics are both useful in description and in projecting future outcomes.

The problem comes when statistics are used to determine what is normative for the Church, i.e., when statistics are used to determine what is religiously and spiritually desirable. When statistics are used in this way, then it seems to me that what is statistically average can and has become confused with what is desirable. The more people who are for or against something determines decisions made by the Church and the statistical mean becomes normative in place of scripture and tradition.

The problem with a church body's using statistics in this fashion is that the decisions that are made increasingly reflect the culture in which the church body resides. If the statistical majority rules in the place of scripture and tradition, church bodies can be expected to quickly take on the values and attitudes of the secular culture in which they reside. This is a serious challenge for any American church body, and tendsto promote the theological absurdity that -- as H. Reinhold Niebuhr suggested -- "... a God without wrath brought people without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministry of a Christ without a cross."

The salvation of God which seems so free to us was bought at a terrible price -- the suffering and death of God's son. Statistics somehow don't reflect the grittiness of this very well. Or at all.

Facing Reality

The press of ministry as well as my personal life have kept me busy enough in the recent past so that I have not added anything to this blog for a while. I do want to commend a new paper by Dr. David Yeago to your reading list. As usual, Dr. Yeago's theological insights are balanced by a genuine love for Christ as well as a pastoral sensitivity often absent in the ELCA's internal wrangling. Thank you once again, Dr. Yeago.

You can find Yeago's paper, "Facing Reality in the ELCA," at Lutherans Persisting. The link is to the right.