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Up one levelThe Hope of Eternal Life
The eleventh round of the American Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialog has released its latest common statement entitled The Hope of Eternal Life. Following the general format of the Joint Declaration the statement explores first the Biblical evidence and then ecclesial-specific doctrinal teachings on matters such as “death and Intermediate states”, “Judgment”, “Hell and the Possibility of Eternal Loss”, and “Heaven and the Final Kingdom”...
Two Senses of the Word “Gospel”
“Gospel” is a dear word to us Lutherans, the measure of all good theology and preaching. But because of its polyvalency, especially because of our law-gospel distinction, the word itself sometimes trips us up. In my recent re-read of the Book of Concord, I came across a useful little section in the Formula about two distinct senses in which this word is rightly used among Lutherans...
The Communion of Saints
One of the challenges of raising and educating children among the urban poor is finding heroes for them. Despite the low poll numbers Barak Obama still retains hero status among most of my youth here at the school because someone who is “one of us” became president of the United States, and those examples of success are often few and far between in this community. Presidential politics aside, I find the notion of embracing heroes somewhat refreshing in a world that is so often riddled with the historical amnesia of a contemporary information overload that has little space for quaint stories of old...
Sources of Authority according to the Lutheran Confessions
Lutheranism as a distinct branch of the church catholic began with the realization that the church is full of liars, politicians, hucksters, unbelievers, and traitors. Luther and his companions were not the first to realize this as such. It has been the ongoing problem of the church and of Israel and of the whole fallen world. The fact that our Lord Jesus Christ even needed to declare that “all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18) is proof enough that sin, death, and the devil contend Christ’s authority. So Christians should be aware that if the topic of authority comes up at all, it is because there is already a crisis of authority at hand...
The Right and Salutary Way to Destroy the House of the Lord
I didn’t realize till I was well past seminary and halfway through internship that the adult Jesus took up residence in Capernaum. I suppose it’s because Christmas focuses our attention on Bethlehem and Nazareth, and then Easter and Pentecost put us in Jerusalem. The other cities of the Gospels slide by, familiar but otherwise meaningless names. Capernaum doesn’t have much in the way of emotional or theological resonances like the other cities do, but I’ve ever since been struck by the fact that Jesus did in fact establish himself in another city as his ministerial base of operations. In the past week, this Jesus-of-Capernaum has startled me once again...
The Resurrection in a Memorial Culture
Years ago I had the great delight of seeing Kathleen Chalfant star in Margaret Edson’s play “Wit,” sometimes written “W;t” in reference to the recurring theme of commas vs. semi-colons in one of John Donne’s holy sonnets. Chalfant played Vivian, an English scholar of markedly misanthropic tendencies diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer. Over the course of the play she suffers through the side-effects of aggressive treatment, which finally fails, just as she struggles through what the death awaiting her means. Is it the end, as rigid a division from life as a semi-colon? Or is death—compromised by what Christ has done—merely a comma, passing from one life with him to another?...
American Lutheran Bishops?
The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in its wisdom established a Commission on Constitutional Matters (CCM) to serve as the supreme court interpreter of Synod’s constitution and bylaws until such time as the Synod in convention gives their official opinion on matters. Their quarterly plus special meetings reports are “must reading” for aspiring church bureaucrats everywhere. Occasionally, they even make decisions that actually impact the average everyday life of those few remaining Lutherans who still seem to care about church bureaucracy and authority. The recently posted minutes of the CCM meeting over February 18-20, 2011 are one such example. Buried in their comments regarding the revision of the constitution and bylaws of the English District of the LCMS (10-2578), the CCM referenced back to its previous opinions 00-2202 and 00-2215 which affirmed that although the LCMS constitution and bylaws refer to “district presidents” as “district presidents”, it is ok for them to be referred to as “bishops” in the everyday usage of everyday Christians, with the exclusive “district president” being reserved for constitution and bylaw usage...
The First Use and the First Article
I must not be the only one longing for the first use of the law, judging by the outpouring of responses to my previous post. In fact, it’s probably not even the first use itself, but just plain old preaching of the Law, which will be “used” by the Holy Spirit in the first way or the second way (perhaps even in the third!) as is needed in each human soul… but which can’t happen if the Law isn’t getting preached at all...
Desperately Seeking the First Use of the Law
At the midpoint now of my biblically allotted threescore and ten, I have come to the sad conclusion that anybody is capable of anything. I have also, not coincidentally, come to the conclusion that one of the worst failures of our Lutheran churches has been the widespread abandonment of preaching on the first use of the law. I can’t remember ever, since childhood, hearing a Lutheran sermon simply expositing the Ten Commandments, telling me in plain speech that this action is pleasing to God while that action is not...
Luther on Godparents
Last year I posted some comments about the renewal of the role of godparents in baptism in connection with my article in the print edition of Lutheran Forum, “Joyful Exchanges, Part I” (Summer 2010). So I was pleasantly surprised to rediscover Luther’s comments on the duties of godparents in his “Baptismal Booklet” appended to the Small Catechism. They are well worth repeating here...
Lutherans and Roman Catholics - By the Numbers
One of the many hats that I wear is as the leader of the Atlantic District team on our local trialogue with the ELCA Metro-NY Synod and the Archdiocese of New York. Given the significant changes in the American church political landscape over the past few years, the dialog determined to spend the first few meetings just reintroducing ourselves. Each tradition shared some of its history as church bodies and regional incarnations of church bodies, documenting developments over the years, and identifying challenges and pressing issues that their respective communions will face in the years ahead. It was a rare and helpful opportunity for each tradition to describe itself in its own words I had always known how big Roman Catholicism and the Archdiocese of New York was. But to work with actual numbers was astounding. Arch-NY has nearly 3 million members. Comparatively, the whole of the LCMS has approximately 2.5 million members (the ELCA, 4.8 Million)....
There were Giants in the Land
December 12 marked the second anniversary of the death of Avery Cardinal Dulles. In commemoration of this occasion, Fordham University, where Dulles spent his last 20 years as a professor, held a forum discussing his legacy...
The Forum Package for Christmas
You already know what a great read and a great deal the Forum Package is--four issues of Lutheran Forum absolutely stuffed full with articles, probably more than you can read in 3 months anyway and certainly the most colorful covers in the theological journal business, plus 12 issues of hot-off-the-presses reporting in Forum Letter--but a lot of your colleagues and friends probably don't. Even though we enjoy an astonishingly wide circulation for a Lutheran-specific publication at about 2500 paid subscribers, by our count there are at least twice as many people who ought to be subscribing. If not more! So please help us and your neighbor out, and think about giving a gift subscription for Christmas, maybe to a first-call pastor in your area who's feeling the painful loss of the seminary community, or a parish ministry veteran who's ready for a fresh encounter with theology, or lay folks who are constantly bugging you with their excellent challenging questions..
A Septuagint of Prayer for the Unity of the Church
This is a list of 70 verses for prayer and meditation in the setting of the divided church but in hope of church unity. It was originally developed to accompany each of our 70 days walking from Erfurt to Rome, but it could be used in any number of other situations, from personal devotion to church study to ecumenical gatherings. Feel free to augment or alter the list as you see fit...
Seventy Days on the Road with Luther
In 1510, Martin Luther, not-yet-reformer, walked from Erfurt to Rome on business for the Augustinians. In 1910, missionaries from all over the world gathered in Edinburgh, Scotland, to discuss world evangelization, in the process giving birth to the ecumenical movement. And in 2010, my husband Andrew and I figured we'd try to put the two together, retracing Luther's steps from Erfurt to Rome for the sake of ecumenical reconciliation between Protestants and Catholics. We've been on the road nearly four weeks now...
Here I Walk: An Ecumenical Pilgrimage
A few years back my husband Andrew and I noticed the upcoming 500th anniversary of Luther’s 1510 pilgrimage to Rome. We thought it would be really cool to retrace his steps. But the questions of “how?” and even more “why?” (besides the coolness factor) remained unanswered. Now, however, we have answers, and we’re gonna do it… in just a few days. We leave August 22 from Erfurt...
Amish Ecumenism
My parents are friends with an Amish family in upstate New York. Those who know my legendarily outgoing father may not be terribly shocked, but I must confess that this one even caught me by surprise. I don’t know a whole lot about the Amish but I remember learning that their theological identity is to live out literally St. Paul’s command to “be not conformed to the world” and to heed the warning of the author of James that to “befriend the world is to have enmity with God.” Friendship with “English” like my father and mother breaks down those worldly barriers. Nevertheless, there I was standing in the dark, smoky kitchen of an Amish family...
Two More Significant Ecumenical Speeches at the LWF Assembly
First, during the worship after the public apology and forgiveness between Lutherans and Mennonites, Larry Miller, the General Secretary of the Mennonite World Conference, gave a brief testimony, which included this admission: “At times, our versions of martyr stories have reduced complex history to simple morality tales of good and evil, in which historical actors are either Christ-like or violent. At times, we have remembered Lutheran reformers primarily for their arguments and actions against Anabaptists, thereby minimizing the broader theological contribution of these reformers to the Christian church and, indeed, to our own movement...
After the Apology
I can say already that I will be proud for the rest of my life that I was able to take part in the action of the LWF in repenting of the sins of the past against the Anabaptists. It was an extraordinary event. I am proud that the Lutheran family was capable of confessing its wrong and asking for forgiveness. But I was not expecting the response from the Mennonites, which was every bit as extraordinary...
Tell Your Congregation About This One
I'm in Stuttgart, Germany, at the moment, attending the 11th Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (assemblies happen every six or seven years; the LWF was founded in 1947). Among all the other business on the table, it's an ecumenical action taking place here that will be the main thing remembered and have the biggest impact on the whole church in the years to come. In recognition of the fact that some Lutheran reformers, including Melanchthon and Luther himself, advocated the use of violence and even capital punishment in dealing with Anabaptists, whose present-day descendants are called Mennonites, the LWF is making a public statement of repentance and remorse, asking forgiveness from God and from the Mennonites. It is hard to convey the enormity of this action in the ecumenical world...