Reflecting on the 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly

Beloved in Christ,

A party of 21 Nebraska Synod voting members attended the 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly this past week. What follows are my reflections on the week together in Phoenix and what I believe this means for the future of our church. 

Elections

• The Rev. Yehiel Curry, Bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, was elected to be the next Presiding Bishop of the ELCA. You can learn a bit more about Bishop-Elect Curry at the video below.

• The Rev. Lucille "CeCee" Mills was elected to be the next Secretary of the ELCA. Learn more about Pastor Mills here.
• Elections for the ELCA Church Council and various committees & task forces were also held. PMA Matt Schur, a member of Southwood Lutheran Church in Lincoln, was elected to a six year term on the ELCA Church Council. 

Social Teachings, Constitutional Amendments, Memorials, and Resolutions

• We adopted our newest social statement, Faith and Civic Life: Seeking the Well-Being of All. 
• We approved editorial updates to the 2009 statement Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust. These updates reflect contemporary legal definitions and actions for all marriage relationships and do not change the essence of the statement itself. We will begin a reconsideration process for the statement this fall, which will be addressed by the 2028 Churchwide Assembly. 
• We heard the Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church’s final report along with the ELCA Church Council’s response to the report. The CRLC’s work also found its way into some of our constitutional revisions, many of which were debated in great detail in the course of the Assembly's work.
• Memorial D4 "Stand for Palestinian Rights and End to Occupation of Palestine" Adopted 742-38
• Calls for the ELCA, its members, congregations, synods and churchwide units to advocate for human rights and a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis by supporting policies that end the occupation, to join the World Council of Churches in calling for an immediate end to the mass killing in Gaza, to urge the Office of the Presiding Bishop to petition U.S. leaders to recognize and act to end the genocide against Palestinians, halt military aid to Israel used in Gaza, and support Palestinian statehood and U.N. membership, to reject forced displacement and settler violence, to promote prayerful engagement and solidarity with those working for justice and peace, including ELCA partners in the region, and to amplify the voices of local partners and strengthen the ELCA’s advocacy through the Office of the Presiding Bishop, the Middle East and North Africa Desk, the Sumud initiative, and the Witness in Society team, among other offices.
• Memorial A3 - "Indian Boarding School Remembrance" Adopted 779-7 
• Calls for the church to observe the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools annually, develop educational programs and materials surrounding the history and ELCA’s complicity with Indian boarding schools, and provide ongoing recognition and support for the continued work to locate all known records regarding the ELCA predecessor churches’ involvement with Indian boarding and day schools, among other actions.
• Memorial B14 - "Consideration of Recommendation 1 of the Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church" Adopted 646-144
• Calls for the church to acknowledge the importance of accountability in addressing racism within all structures of the ELCA, to affirm the work of the Strategy Toward Authentic Diversity Advisory Team, to request that the Church Council continue to work with the team to clarify the nature of mutual accountability, and to direct the Church Council to add a timeline to its actions taken and to provide progress updates to this church with a final report by fall 2027, including possible constitutional changes.
• We received the Common Statement on the Filioque. "Reception" means more than just hearing a report - it means we affirm the work that our ecumenical partners have done and will consider with care their recommendations related to bridging gaps between Lutheran and Orthodox churches.
• The Assembly approved an amendment setting a goal for youth (14-17) and young adults (ages 18-30) to make up 20% of Churchwide councils, committees, and task forces. 
• Special thanks go to Deacon Timothy Siburg of the Nebraska Synod for his service on the Churchwide Assembly's Memorials Committee. 

Worship, Prayer, Spiritual Practices, Speakers & Presentations

• The Assembly received the final reports of both Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and ELCA Secretary Sue Rothmeyer, who were both celebrated after their presentations and at a banquet on Thursday evening. 
• Other speakers and presenters included Presiding Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada; Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism; Bishop-elect Imad Mousa Dawood Haddad of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land; Rector Chad Rimmer of Lenoir-Rhyne University/Southern Theological Seminary, and many others. 
• Daily worship was a highlight for many of the Assembly attendees. We heard from a variety of preachers: Bishop Elizabath Eaton; the Rev. Imad Mousa Dawood Haddad, bishop-elect, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land; Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, General Secretary and President of the National Council of Churches; and the Rev. Wyvetta Bullock, ELCA executive for administration.
• On Tuesday evening, the ELCA's staff for Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations invited the Assembly to observe a powwow involving traditional dancers from a number of different tribes and nations. 
• On Thursday evening, AMMPARO hosted an impactful Candlelight Prayer Vigil for refugees and immigrants. 
• Voting members often paused for prayer before votes and even during plenary discussion.

Reflections

This is my second Churchwide Assembly, and it was a very different experience than my first (2022, as a replacement voting member and as bishop-elect). Some of you may remember that 2022 was a very difficult year for the ELCA. We were still working our way through COVID-related trauma and also struggled to deal with trauma within the church, some of it self-inflicted. I remember the plenary room feeling very anxious throughout the 2022 Churchwide Assembly; in 2025, anxiety was not nearly so rampant, even as we considered major leadership elections and further work we need to do as a church. We celebrated the ministries of Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and Secretary Sue Rothmeyer, giving thanks for their good work as leaders of this church. We acknowledged that changing structures and structural issues in this denomination is difficult, and that there is much work left to do, but I believe we also allowed ourselves to acknowledge that there are signs of hope that may not have been so apparent three years ago. 

I knew this was going to be a momentous Churchwide Assembly. I wasn't prepared for how the election of the presiding bishop was going to affect me emotionally. When Bishop Yehiel Curry was announced as the next presiding bishop of this church, I found myself tearing up. Some of that, I believe, is knowing the quality and character of our Presiding Bishop-Elect. Some of that is knowing what this election means for our church. Just as Presiding Bishop Eaton's election spoke volumes in 2013, so do the elections of Bishop Yehiel Curry and Pastor CeCee Mills in 2025. The repercussions of these elections will ripple through this church for years to come. So, yes: I had a very quiet little crying session as we stood and applauded the election of our new Presiding Bishop, and I'm fairly certain I'm not the only one who did, either. 

I asked our voting members to summarize their Churchwide Assembly experience in three words. Mine are: Changing - Determined - Hopeful. We are not the church we should be - not yet. But we are also not the church we were - not anymore. As a GenXer, I know I'm supposed to be suspicious of institutions (if not outright dismissive), but I continue to see signs of the Spirit's work in this church throughout all of its expressions. God is up to something in this church: from the smallest congregations to the Churchwide office, there are people who just will not give up on this church, and I saw that determination in abundance more than once during the Churchwide Assembly. It reminded me of the quote that Rector Chad Rimmer used to close his presentation: 

“This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise; we are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished, but it is going on; this is not the end, but it is the road; all does not yet gleam with glory, but all is being purified.” Luther, Defense and Explanation of All the Articles (1521)

"This is not the end, but it is the road." Amen, Brother Martin. Here in Nebraska, it's good to be on that road together with all of you. 

Bishop Scott

October Newsletter Article

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. - (Colossians 3:14-15)

"der Leib Christi"

¹⁴When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. ¹⁵He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; ¹⁶for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” ¹⁷Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; ¹⁸for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” ¹⁹Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁰And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:14-20)

Doctor Strange and the Theology of the Cross

"We never lose our demons: we only learn to live above them." The Ancient One - Doctor Strange

Sermon for Easter 6, Year C - Unity

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany - "God-Centered Life"

            I hung a BC comic strip on the door of my study at my last call, in Minnesota.  When we moved, I accidentally ripped it in half, and without thinking I just threw it away.  Now I can’t find it online, but I remember that it said, “ser-mon: An inspired message directed mainly at those who are not in attendance.”  It’s been informing how I preach ever since I first read it, laughed out loud, and then winced. 

Shining Lights

It was a day for shining lights in the Windy City. I know I'm going to miss one or two, but here's a brief list.

• Eboo Patel, founder and executive director of Interfaith Youth Core, spoke for 45 minutes this morning to a spellbound audience about a "theology of the bridge," his metaphor for ways interfaith cooperation can overcome those who use religion to dominate or separate people of different faiths.
• A workshop with Hamsa and Emy of IFYC discussing concrete ways we as campus ministry staff can promote religious freedom and respect in our own environments. It was their first workshop, but they carried it off without a hitch and really opened our eyes.
• I sit down to lunch, and one of our campus ministry students hands me a list of all the things she and the rest of the group have been planning for this academic year. Completely. Freaking. Unprompted. By. Me. This is what I was hoping we could do after returning from the conference, and now it's already done. Time to hang on for a wild ride this year, I think.
• A remarkable conversation with B, a seminary classmate serving in a new call since we saw each other last. Her new call is a) a very important synodical staff position, b) one for which she is very well-equipped and, I imagine, at which she is succeeding wildly, and c) one which usually goes only to ordained clergy, regardless of whether the clergyperson in question is qualified. Here's a great example of the church not being bound to its past when looking to its present needs. Professional lay ministry is a growing part of the church and needs to be lifted up when we do it right!
• A plenary session on social media that turned out to be more valuable than I suspected it would be. Lots of helpful information, but the caveat by which our use of that information can be judged: "Don't mistake effort for success."
• Another workshop with Rosella and Mike on Alternative Spring Break programs. Rosella and Mike are two incredibly vivacious 20somethings who have been carrying out heavy ministry responsibilities over the past two years, if not longer. I was floored by their intelligence and commitment to the important ministry they are doing, and I wish I had known about them prior to this conference.
• Finally, a gut-busting dinner with our friends from Christus House at the University of Iowa. We all went to Gino's East for true Chicago deep-dish, and I'm about ten minutes from succumbing to a major food coma.

It was a day to celebrate the many ways God is active in this church. In the midst of all our anxiety about mission support, social issues and the future of our denomination, we need to take time to look around and see the fearfully, wonderfully made people carrying out important ministry in our midst. God be praised: this church will have a future if we are wise enough to encourage and empower those with such remarkable gifts.

Grace and peace,

Scott

Good Book Groups Make Good Pastors

"God is utterly committed to set the world right in the end. This doctrine, like that of resurrection itself, is held firmly in place by the belief in God as creator, on the one side, and the belief in his goodness, on the other. And that setting right must necesarily involve the elimination of all that distorts God's good and lovely creation and in particular of all that defaces his image-bearing human creatures. Not to put to fine a point on it, there will be no barbed wire in the kingdom of God. And those whose whole being has become dependent upon barbed wire will have no place there, either."

Bishop N.T. Wright
Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven,
the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

There are days when being a pastor doesn't involve much. On those days, you find yourself tending to the details of administrivia, as a few of my blogger friends have put it; picking hymns, moving around the building and putting things where they belong, thinking about the nuts and bolts of the day-to-day operation and administration of a community of faith. You buy communion wine, make sure someone's baking the bread, pick up some napkins from the store, figure out what kind of donut holes you should have for Bible Study on Sunday morning. And, for God's sake, don't forget the coffee. :-) Like most jobs, these kind of days make up a lot of what I do - they are unremarkable, but generally enjoyable as well.

Then you have days like today. Days like today are what make what I do a vocation, not just a job. We have a group of folks meeting at University Lutheran Center every Friday to read and discuss books. I call it Theology for Lunch, though in truth there's only a few of us who eat and the group predates my time here, so it's more a title to go on the calendar than anything else. Currently we're reading the book quoted above, and after almost three months of slogging through introductory stuff, today we finally hit the meat of the matter. My heavens, was it ever a good conversation today.

There are a lot of reasons to love a group like this. For one thing, we can disagree without demonizing, a rare commodity. Granted, we're a fairly cohesive group politically and theologically, but we do have varying opinions on matters, and, more importantly, a few members who are unwilling to let generalizations and poorly-explained arguments slide. You better bring your "A" game to this group, and it better be good. At the same time, we've been together long enough that we can confess to ignorance, stereotyping and frustration with certain aspects of our lives. The combination of willingness to argue and agreement to respect makes for a lot of good discussion.

In the chapter we read for today, "Purgatory, Paradise and Hell," Wright really made some spectacularly cogent arguments toward what I think is a more fruitful understanding of, as he calls it, "life after life after death." I especially connected with the idea that even though God is indeed determined to right the wrongs of this world, God is NOT interested in maintaining the divisions we so painstakingly construct between ourselves. When we were discussing the paragraph quoted above, there were a number of different images people admitted came to their minds: the U.S. Mexican border and our problems dealing with immigration, gated communities, and, most importantly, I believe, Christians who seem to base their entire existence on proving they know exactly who is in and who is out when it comes to salvation. Any time the idea of heaven and hell get weaponized, Wright argues, we're missing the whole point, and I agree wholeheartedly.

One of the reasons I remain an ELCA Lutheran is because in our theology I find precious little evidence of walls and barbed wire constructed for their own sake. The Augsburg Confession, our "constitution of faith," if you will, states that preaching of the gospel and administration of the sacraments are all that is required for the unity of the church. Everything else is adiaphora, matters about which we are free to decide what seems best in our local ministries. This can lead to an ungodly mess at times - witness the current brouhahas brewing over sex and money in our denomination. But these things are not the pillars upon which the church stands or falls, contrary to what some will say. So long as we have only the gospel and the sacraments, the preaching and the presence of Christ in His church, we have all that is necessary.

One of the things that got Jesus most in trouble with the authorities in his day was the way he kept tearing down walls they had built to increase their power. It seems to me God's been doing that for quite some time: we find ways to box God in so we can be in control, God gets busy busting loose and tearing down the spiritual barbed wire we've so painstakingly used to imprison ourselves. Frost was right: "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," and today it seems to me that God, also, doesn't love a wall. "...no barbed wire in the kingdom of God." Sounds good to me.

Grace and peace,
Scott

Sermon for Reformation Sunday - "On Freedom"

What is freedom? What does it mean to be truly free? Is it something like this scene from this week’s episode of the show “Heroes?”

Is that freedom? To be welcomed on the one hand, and coerced on the other? To receive promises of unconditional love while also hearing that conditions do indeed apply? Jesus says “you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Well, our friend Sylar here has seen the truth about himself, and he is most certainly not free. Sylar, knowing the truth, might find himself more of a slave than ever before.

Freedom is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days. And, of course, today we celebrate “Reformation Sunday.” The commonly-held belief is that today we celebrate the Protestant Church throwing off the shackles of their Roman Catholic oppressors. Well, in this Reformation week, there has been a lot of hullabaloo this week between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England, one of those “churches of the Reformation.” Here’s a commentary from Time Magazine:

‘At first glance, the surprising news on Tuesday that Pope Benedict XVI has created a new structure to welcome some disenchanted Anglicans into the Roman Catholic fold … might look like a happy reunion. But the Vatican's establishment of new "Personal Ordinariates," in which Anglicans, including married priests, can practice Catholicism while maintaining much of their own identity and liturgy, reveals more about the growing internal rifts within each of the two churches than any sign of real hope for reuniting the fractured Christian communion.

For Anglican leaders, the Vatican announcement is the latest minefield to manage in their ongoing effort to avoid a full-fledged schism within their 80-million-strong church, which includes 2.2 million American Episcopalians. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is juggling the gripes of Anglicans of all philosophical stripes and ecclesiastical sensibilities, most notably as battles over women and gay clergy have undermined that prized "communion" within Anglicanism for more than two decades.

In the centuries since King Henry VIII pronounced the Church of England independent from papal authority, certain Anglican conservatives have always drifted back to Rome, "swimming the Tiber," as reverting to Catholicism was called. But in the past two decades, more and more seem to be doing so. Benedict's latest ruling confirms and expands earlier ad-hoc decisions by Pope John Paul II to allow several married Anglican priests to convert and remain in the clergy.

Under the new structure, groups of Anglicans can move into a local Catholic Church that will be headed by former Anglican clergy, who can ease them into Catholicism without their having to kiss goodbye their own pastor or the rites they were raised on. Married Anglican priests who convert, like married priests in the Eastern Rite of Catholicism, will not be eligible to become bishops.

The Vatican's doctrinal chief, Cardinal William Levada, told reporters on Tuesday that Catholic leaders were simply responding to requests by certain Anglicans to find a comfortable home in Catholicism. "We have been trying to meet the requests for full communion that have come to us from Anglicans in different parts of the world in recent years in a uniform and equitable way," said Levada, who would not specify how many Anglicans he expected to convert. "With this proposal, the church wants to respond to the legitimate aspirations of these Anglican groups for full and visible unity with the Bishop of Rome." In a joint written statement, Williams, who as Archbishop of Canterbury is the worldwide spiritual head of the Anglican Church, issued a joint statement with the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, saying the decision "brings an end to a period of uncertainty" for those Anglicans who have sought to convert.

But while seeming to douse one flame, the opening of an officially recognized channel for reverting to Roman Catholicism could spark other conflagrations within Anglicanism, both from conservatives and progressives who are suspicious that Rome is poaching their faithful. Indeed, Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican's outgoing chief of ecumenical affairs, used a press conference last week to try to curb such fears, insisting that Rome was "not fishing in the Anglican lake."

The incoming converts, however, may offer a false comfort to Catholics that Rome is winning the battle for Christian hearts and souls in the West. Indeed, in the bosom of Europe, where traditional Catholicism became an immense political force, the church is very much on the defensive. The Pope's eagerness to find a home for the core of conservative-minded Anglicans follows the his outreach earlier this year to the traditionalist breakaway movement founded by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, which opposes the modern-minded reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Even Tuesday's news of the forthcoming arrival of like-minded Anglicans to reinforce the traditionalist ranks carries a built-in risk for the Catholic hierarchy. Church liberals will point to the married priests leading Catholic masses as living proof that it's finally time to toss out the celibacy requirement for the clergy.’[1]

It is interesting and painful to watch these kinds of things happen in the church. Interesting because we Lutherans believe that we share the fullness of the gospel with both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church. Painful because that sharing the gospel of Christ means we cannot stand alone, ever. Their wounds are our wounds. Their blessings are our blessings. When they rejoice, we rejoice. When they suffer, we suffer.

Perhaps you disagree. Then let me ask you this: how do you think the Vatican and the Church of England reacted to the news that the ELCA is now preparing to bless same-gender relationships and to install pastors in those relationships in congregations willing to call them? Regardless of what we as individuals might think about that change, it has fractured the unity of our church and placed our relationships with other churches on fragile ground. And I can guarantee you that many of our fellow Christians who are watching our church navigate these stormy waters are hurt to see us mistrust, misrepresent and mistreat each other as we sort out our way into the future and who can join us on that road in good conscience.

I love my church. But I also know who we are in my church. Pastor Robert Farrar Capon may have put it best when he wrote the following:

If we are ever to enter fully into the glorious liberty of the [children] of God, we are going to have to spend more time thinking about freedom than we do. The church, by and large, has had a poor record of encouraging freedom. She has spent so much time inculcating in us the fear of making mistakes that she had made us like ill-taught piano students; we play our songs, but we never really hear them, because our main concern is not to make music, but to avoid some flub that will get us in dutch. She has been so afraid we will loose sight of the laws of our nature, that she made us care more about how we look than about who we are; made us act more like the subjects of a police state than fellow citizens of the saints.[2]

Here is the point, friends: we are slaves, you and I. We are not free. We are enslaved, every last one of us, to the point of sin and death. Some of us, like Sylar in the video from “Heroes,” are slaves to our past mistakes. Some of us are slaves to the fears of what might happen if we don’t protect ourselves from every threat, real or imagined. Some of us are slaves to sex, slaves to drugs, slaves to our appearance or our possessions. All of us are slaves to ourselves in one way or another: we are enslaved by the seductive whispers we hear: “you could be better, much happier, if you’d only ________.” And all of us, even and especially the most faithful of us, are slaves to those churches we call our spiritual home. Yes, even our churches can enslave us, in this way: whenever the church becomes more important than the One in whose name it is gathered, the church becomes a tyrant and an enslaver.

But there is good news to be heard this day, here in this church. Right here, in the midst of all our disagreements and fears, in the midst of our uncertainties and our misplaced certainties, in this church which can sometimes enslave us, Jesus Christ, the living Gospel, comes to us and sets us free from our sins. It is a done deal, by the word of Jesus himself.

This is why we celebrate Reformation. And by Reformation, I don’t mean we celebrate a mythological rebellion started 500 years ago by a German monk with authority issues. That was never, ever the point. What we celebrate this day is this one simple truth: Jesus Christ has freed us from sin and made us all members of the family of God, forever. Every last, living one of us, no matter what emblem you might find on our hymnals and outside our doors, has been set free by Jesus from everything that enslaves us. Freedom, without a single condition or contingency, is yours for the taking, right now.

Throughout the checkered history of the church, we have often lost sight of the gospel. In Luther’s time it was indulgences and ignorance that led people away from the saving truth of the gospel. But we have done little better. We have placed our faith in denominations, in individual pastors, in understanding the Bible in a certain way, in one style of worship, in one particular verse from scripture – you name it, we’ve been enslaved to it. But none of those things can save you, friends. Denominations cannot save you. Congregations cannot save you. Your campus pastor cannot save you. Contemporary worship cannot save you. Organ music cannot save you. Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson cannot save you, the Archbishop of Canterbury cannot save you, and the Pope cannot save you. And, last but certainly not least, The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther cannot save you. Only Jesus Christ can save you. Only Jesus can free you from your sins. Only Jesus can make you a member of the household of God forever – and in your baptism, Jesus has done exactly that.

This is the freedom we celebrate when we celebrate Reformation: we celebrate that God makes us free in Jesus. We celebrate the Spirit’s work turning the church back to her savior, freeing us from our idolatry to live for Jesus alone. We celebrate the freedom to be loved without condition, to be adopted without qualification, to be made whole where all we have known is brokenness, failure and regret.

All of us – Anglican, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, and Christians of every stripe and color – are swept up into Reformation. Whenever the gospel of Jesus gets loose and raises another sinner out of death into life, Reformation happens. Whenever lives are changed, whenever wounds are healed, whenever our bondage to anything other than Jesus is broken, we are swept up into Reformation. Thanks be to God: the Reformation of the church continues, until that great and glorious day when our bonds are broken forever in God’s reign, free to worship and serve the Creator in whose image we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

---

[1] http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1931193,00.html

[2] Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon and Three. Cited by Brian Stoffregen at http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/john8x31.htm

The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, 10 Years Later

Tomorrow night, representatives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Roman Catholic Church, and the United Methodist Church will gather in Chicago to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. It was, and remains, a significant moment in the relationship between Lutherans and Roman Catholics, who were the first to be separated by the condemnations of the Reformation and subsequent disagreements.

Here's the thing, though: the JDDJ isn't worth much more than the paper on which it is printed.

Don't misunderstand: our relationship with our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters is better now than it has been for centuries, and that is a good thing, worthy of celebration. But let's not pretend that unity exists where it does not, and the JDDJ has not removed the difference between us in how we view salvation:



The good Cardinal George shows us the difference that still exists between Lutherans and Roman Catholics on the doctrine of justification. Lutherans believe that works are not meritorious - that, in fact, works can be a dangerous distraction from the grace freely and fully given by Christ without our cooperation or worthiness. As Luther himself said, "The Law says, 'Do this,' and it is never done. Grace says, 'believe this,' and everything is already done."

This is not to say that Lutherans despise works, either - we merely note that their place is completely separated from salvation. Good works are the deeds of one who has already been saved by the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. Good works are an important part of the faith we share as Christians; indeed, Luther also described Christians as "most free lords of all, subject to none, and most dutiful servants of all, subject to all." As Paul writes in Galatians, "For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but rhough love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" Works are important - they are the means by which we live out the grace God has bestowed upon us. But a theology that confesses that works are meritorious is not a salvation of justification by grace through faith apart from the works of the law, and we shouldn't pretend that it is.

Ten years ago, Lutherans and Roman Catholics gathered at a church in Augsburg to sign a document stating that we no longer condemn each other as we once had. That, in itself, is a noteworthy accomplishment in the history of our blessed church, the Body of Christ in which we are indeed one regardless of what our differences may be. Those differences remain, however, and should not be minimized or glossed over. Let us continue to converse with one another, to speak the truth to each other, and pray for the day when we can, at last, celebrate an agreement about salvation upon which we fully and completely agree.

Grace & peace,
Scott

The picture is the pulpit in the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) in Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, Germany. Luther's tomb is just under the pulpit.

On Wisdom and Friendship

Crappity - Blogger just dumped this post and now I have to redo it all over again!

I'm in Minnesota for the Mid-Winter Convocation at Luther Seminary, and having a blast. The theme is "Engaging Scripture for the Sake of the World," and our keynote speakers are Walter Brueggeman and Terrence Fretheim, quite possibly the two most prolific and well-regarded Old Testament authorities in America today, at least amongst us mainline Protestanters. So far we've covered the Flood, Pharaoh and the Ten Commandments, Job and Daniel. You know, the lighter side of that kind of stuff. I've got enough material floating around in my head to fill several months worth of sermons and Bible studies (cue the groans from our campus ministry students).

I've also had the chance to reconnect with good friends. Last night I took two of our ULC alums out to dinner and heard how they like their new life in graduate school at UMinn. This afternoon I met a fellow blogger, one I've admired for several years, and discovered she's as kind in person as she is online. I had coffee with some of the friends who are responsible for me & Kristin getting together, pictured right, and this morning we rejoiced together when we heard that a third member of that group had a healthy baby boy last night. And as soon as I get done REtyping this entry, I'm going to go to our 2003 Luther Seminary Class Reunion banquet, which I'm really excited to attend.

It's been a good conference, even if I've basically ignored my sister-in-law and her family while sleeping at their house (sorry, guys!) and missing my girls. Wisdom and Friendship - both are hard to come by, but both are that much sweeter when you can enjoy them in the highest quality. Blessings, everyone - and stay warm!

Peace,
Scott

Sermon for Reformation Sunday - "Grace, Faith & Freedom"

Today, a history lesson. Several, in fact. In late October 1517, a young priest and professor of Old Testament in Wittenberg, Saxony, wrote out 95 statements regarding the sale of indulgences and posted them publicly for debate. Legend has it that he posted the list of statements, commonly known as "theses," on the door of the Schlosskirche / Castle Church, where many public announcements were posted. Legend may or may not be true. What is true for certain is that this one priest was caught up in a web of courage and circumstance that led to a changing of an era.
What do you know about this thing we call "The Reformation?" Well, since this is a campus ministry, it seems that perhaps a pop quiz is in order. So, here goes.

1. True or False: Martin Luther was the first person bold enough to stand up to the Church and demand reform.

2. Martin Luther was a member of the _____________________ Order.
a. Augustinian
b. Benedictine
c. Jesuit
d. Franciscan

3. True or False: The Reformers were unified in their determination to change the church and their beliefs about how it should be changed.

4. The four "solas" or "alones" of the Reformation are __________ alone, ____________ alone, ____________ alone, and ____________ alone.

5. The tune for "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" was:
a. a common drinking song.
b. a Gregorian chant melody.
c. written by Luther himself.

6. Luther was sent to college in Erfurt to become:
a. a schoolteacher.
b. a miner.
c. a priest.
d. a lawyer.

7. True or False: Once the Roman church agreed not to persecute Protestants, everyone was free to choose whether they would be Protestant or Roman Catholic.

8. The Reformation ended:
a. when the Augsburg Confession was presented in 1530.
b. when Luther died in 1546.
c. when the Peace of Westphalia was signed in 1648.
d. it hasn't: the Reformation continues to this day.

9. True or False: In 1999 the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic church signed a Joint Document on the Doctrine of Justification, which outlined significant areas of agreement regarding the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ and a revoking of condemnations between the two churches that had stood for nearly 500 years.

10. The greatest and most important change brought about by the Reformation is:
a. translation of God's Word from original Latin, Greek and Hebrew to thousands of languages around the world, making it accessible to every ethnic group known to humankind.
b. worship in the local language, making an understanding of God's presence in the sacraments possible to all who come and see.
c. the revelation of the "priesthood of all believers," a major theological tenet of the Protestant church from that day to the present.
d. all of the above.

Why Reformation? Why spend a Sunday commemorating what was, in many ways, the darkest, bloodiest and most misunderstood era in the body of Christ? Is it a feast to commemorate Martin Luther? NO. Reformation Sunday is not about Luther – at least, not specifically. What we commemorate today is rather the gifts God revealed to the whole church through the work of the Reformers.
First, GRACE. Jesus says, "Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the Son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." We cannot come before God this day on the merit of the things we do. The power that brings us here today is not dependent upon our good works, our moral clarity or our own spiritual ideas. What brings us here today, to gather before God in worship and praise, is the grace of Jesus Christ alone. No other power in heaven or on earth can free us from our bondage to sin, death and the power of evil. No other power in heaven or on earth can heal the wounds we cause to ourselves, to each other, and most importantly, the wounds we inflicted on the Son of God when we demanded his death rather than accept God's forgiveness. As Paul writes in Ephesians 2.8, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…" The church at times over the centuries has buried the power of grace under the weight of our good works: today we celebrate the means by which God has used reformation to restore the power of grace, calling us in and gathering us together when no other power or person could have done it.
Second, FAITH. Paul also writes in Romans 3, "…we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law." Again, at times throughout history, our church has fallen victim to the false belief that God's law can save us from our sins, that if we just work hard enough, live well enough, all will be right and every reward God has for God's people will be ours. Those of us who've been working through the book of Job in our weekly Bible study know how that worked out for Job – the upright man who was so conscientious he offered sacrifices for his children on the off chance that they might have sinned. Through the work of Reformers of every age, God has reminded the church again and again that our works cannot save us – the gift of salvation is already ours in Jesus Christ, the blessed Son of his loving Father. And here's an important distinction: even faith in Jesus can become an idol if we're not careful. Some would have you believe that you must pray a certain prayer or attain a certain level of belief before you are saved. Folks, if the Reformation taught us anything, it is that the power of superstition and fear are constantly at work, even in the places where God would meet us in faith. In Christ you have all you need, and the only thing that can sever that relationship is your refusal to acknowledge the gift God has already given to you in Jesus. "Since all have sinned," Paul writes, "[we] are now justified by God's grace as a gift." In other words, you and God are okay, right now: believe it, because it's true.
Finally, FREEDOM. On this day we celebrate the gift of freedom, and not in some über-patriotic blather about 'spreading democracy' or some such nonsense. When we children of the Reformation talk about freedom, we mean true freedom, bestowed upon us by God and by God alone. In the grace and mercy of Christ you and I have been set free from the tyranny of sin, death and, especially, self-delusion. We are free from any demand the world can place upon us to justify our existence, because by grace through faith we have been convinced that we are God's beloved children, and we need no other rationale for our existence. Think of a child beginning to question her parents about how she came to be: how will good parents answer their child's questions? "Well, we loved each other, and we wanted a child to love also, and so in our love and God's care you were born." Some of you may not have had earthly parents who feel this way about you, but I can promise you that you have a heavenly parent who does love you, even more deeply and passionately than all our words can describe. If we are assured of this love, what power in heaven or earth could harm us? AND, since that great love has swept us up into itself, we are now free of every chain this earthly life might attempt to throw upon us. But here is the final great gift of this freedom: we are now free to live, not for ourselves, but for the loving God who created us and our brothers and sisters who surround us. As Luther once wrote, "Although I am an unworthy and condemned [person], my God has given me in Christ all the riches of righteousness and salvation without any merit on my part, out of pure, free mercy, so that from now on I need nothing except faith which believes that this is true. Why should I not therefore freely, joyfully, with all my heart and with an eager will do all things which I know are pleasing and acceptable to my neighbor, just as Christ offered himself to me; I will do nothing in this life except what I see is necessary, profitable and salutary to my neighbor, since through faith I have an abundance of all good things in Christ.
Friends, we don't come to this day to celebrate a rebellion – we come to this day to celebrate a renewal. The reformers believed that the church, reformed, is always being reformed, and so we gather today as reformers ourselves, the spiritual descendants of all those who have gone before us. We give thanks for all those whose work has changed the church and called us back to faith in Christ, and we joyfully bow our necks to take up the yoke and continue the work all of God's reformers have begun. Brothers and sisters, my fellow children of the Reformation, your lives have been swept into an ongoing story of grace, faith and freedom: God bless you as you continue the work of Reformation from this day forward. Amen.

Eine Gut YouTube Video fur Reformation Sonntag

Just a few folks you might know will be celebrating today - take a listen!

One FYI, however: Garrison Keillor is NOT Lutheran - he's Episcopalian. He just plays a Lutheran on National Public Radio - sometimes with painful accuracy...

Wednesday Night Reflection: "Remember"

Jeremiah 31.31-36: The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ³²It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, master');" onmouseout="return nd();">^* says the Lord. ³³But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

I had a terrible day with my girls yesterday.

Since I'd been out of town at our Synod Theological Conference Sunday night through Tuesday afternoon, I stayed home yesterday to watch the girls and catch up on some home chores. But the catching up didn't really happen until our nanny came at 2:30, and here's why. First, Ainsley refused to sleep at naptime. She decided, instead, to jump off her bed onto the floor for a few minutes, then empty out a drawer onto the floor. Wash, rinse, repeat. For 45 minutes. Why, one might ask, would Daddy allow this to go on for 45 minutes? Because Alanna has suddenly developed an aversion to heretofore-beloved swing. She fell asleep in my arms three times, and each time I put her into the swing, she promptly went into "meltdown" mode and was screaming bloody murder by the time I reached the top of the stairs to check on Ainsley. I wound up holding one screaming three month-old and consoling a screaming toddler who wanted to be held but couldn't be. For 20 minutes. Not fun.

Today? I don't remember yesterday. I don't mean that I've forgotten what happened: what I mean is that it doesn't have anything to do with how I treated our girls this morning. We love our children, and in that love their less-than-stellar moments aren't what we remember.

This coming Sunday is Reformation Sunday for those of us in the Protestant vein of the Church. While I have a deep love for all things Luther, and while we will indeed celebrate Dr. Martin's part in the incredible events of his time, Reformation Sunday is not about the reformers. It isn't even about the period we commonly call "The Reformation," although of course that time does figure into what we say and do each week in worship. What we celebrate, primarily, is the ongoing reformation of God's church: the continuing revelation of the gospel in ways that surprise, transform, and equip us for the times in which we live. We do not celebrate a period that ended 400 years ago: we celebrate the work of the Spirit which continues to reform the church today.

Our reading from Jeremiah is one such example of what it is we celebrate. In Luther's time, the church (and by that I mean "WE the church") had come to believe that God was continually angry at sinners, and our primary means of grace was propitiating our angry God through acts of penance and, frankly, superstitious practices like buying indulgences and donating huge gifts to the church (which would earn grace in return). But the Spirit revealed to the reformers that God is indeed merciful, beyond our understanding. One of my former seminary professors says that Jeremiah's words reminded him of being told not to play ball in the house as a child. Of course, he did play ball in the house, and soon a vase that was a wedding gift to his parents lay at his feet, shattered beyond repair. God looks at the pieces of that vase, at the damage we have done to ourselves and to our relationship with God, and chooses grace for our future. "I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sins no more." These are not the words of a furious tyrant who must be appeased: these are the words of a loving parent who knows full well the sins of the child - but God our loving parent chooses grace and forgiveness, and we, God's children, can do nothing to earn that love or make it more than what it already is.

Instead of our sin, God remembers the love in which we were created. We do not fear an angry, judgmental tyrant who must be appeased. We are loved by our Creator, who calls us to remember the ways in which we have been loved in the past. This is the great gift of the ongoing reformation of the church: the call of God to remember, always, that in our baptism we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs according to God's promise.



Remember, always, that God remembers you: not because of the sins you've committed, but out of love for the child of wonder, the child of God, that you are. Amen.

The Friday Five: Options Edition

Sally has the Friday Five for RevGals & Pals today:

There is so much going on this weekend that I thought I'd provide an options Friday 5!!!!
First Superbowl ( someone explain to this Brit the significance)- love it or hate it?5 reasons please!!!!!
Second, Candlemas/ Imbloc/ Groundhog day/ St Brigid's day- all of these fall on either the 1st or 2nd February.
1. Do you celebrate one or more of these?
2. How?
3. Is this a bit of fun or deeply significant?
4. Are festivals/ Saints days important to you?
5.Name your favourite Saints day/ celebration.
Bonus- 2nd Feburary is also my Birthday- I will donate £1.00 for every comment on my Friday Five Post to the Methodist Relief and Development Fund.

Okay, first, the Super Bowl (note the spelling correction):
1. It's the epitome of 21st Century American sport - flash and brutality combined. Used to be the World Series, but we're not the same country we were 50 years ago. It's no coincidence that American football uses military terms like "blitz," "attack" and "protection." Where do you think "shock and awe" comes from?
2. The showbiz aspect of the event cannot be overemphasized. The majority of Americans can't even afford tickets to the game, but it's still a sellout every time. The game itself matters little - it's all show, baby.
3. Commercials, commercials, commercials. Again, it's the glitter and the show that matters.
4. Halftime? A chance to see if artists can still rock (Prince, U2, Aerosmith) or if they flop (Paul McCartney, Janet Jackson before the infamous malfunction).
5. There are some of us who actually love football - we watch because it's the last game we'll get to see until August.

Now, as to saints' days, etc. I hadn't heard of Imbolc until you mentioned it today, Sally, though I had heard the name Candlemas but had no idea what it signified. Needless to say, it's not a high day on the Johnson family calendar. Neither is Groundhog Day - seems like the oddest little "holiday" I know. For my money, the best thing about Groundhog Day is the movie of the same name starring Bill Murray.
I do have some interest in Celtic and Irish festivals, just because the culture fascinates me - so mark me down on the "bit of fun" side of things. There is some concern for me about idolatry, but no more so than for my love of Tolkien - the artistic, ethical and moral truths behind the stories are what draws me to these myths and legends, while faith in the triune God is what gives me life itself.
Our American Lutheran church doesn't celebrate many saints' days, though there are some pockets of "high church" Lutheranism around the country who do celebrate them in many different ways. For Lutherans, the most celebrated festival day would be Reformation Day, 31 October (yes, All Saints' Eve), which is the day we believe Martin Luther first posted the 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Saxony in 1517. Lots of us love to "do it up" for Reformation Day (or Reformation Sunday, the last Sunday in October each year) - we wear red (represents the Holy Spirit and the martyrs of the church), we sing Luther hymns (especially "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God") and we preach about ecclesia reforma semper reformanda - "the church, reformed, is constantly reforming."
We do celebrate other festivals, especially All Saints' Sunday, Pentecost, Holy Trinity and Christ the King. But for Lutherans, Reformation Sunday is a big deal.
Thanks, Sally - this was fun!

Tuesday Lectionary Thoughts

Isaiah 9.1-4
1. "the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." Light and Epiphany go together like ham & cheese. Peanut butter & bananas. Pretzels & Nutella. 'scuse me a second - I need a snack...
2. One historical reminder from earlier in Isaiah is that Judah found itself under a yoke of oppression because they bought their "freedom" from the Assyrians to protect his reign from Israel and her co-conspirators. (see Second Kings ch. 15-17). God said "do not fear human conspiracy," but Ahaz made self-protective deals and thus sealed the fate of Judah as well.
3. Continuing through Isaiah 9.7 gives us the "Wonderful Counselor" text that is so familiar from Advent readings. Possibly this was kept out of the pericope to keep the focus on Matthew and the "land of Zebulun & Naphtali" connection.

Psalm 27
1. There are a ton of hymns with this psalm at their core - might be a good Sunday to sing the psalm in an entirely different way.
2. 27.13 is not in this year's pericope, though it was in the past. The "land of the living" is the opposite of Sheol, a place of darkness & shadows = God's light intrudes where darkness reigns.
3. This is one of the more poetic psalms - our local text study group spent some time talking about the beauty of what God provides "in the shelter of the sanctuary" (ELW translation), and also the evil that comes when we do evil to one another in the holy place.

First Corinthians 1.10-18
1. Baptism is not Paul's goal (and all the Lutherans gasped in horror) - for Paul, baptism serves as a means for PROCLAMATION. Paul's ministry was focused on the spread of the gospel and the planting of churches, not initiation rites and sacramental theology. There is some evidence that baptism was far more visionary and far less initiatory in the early centuries of the church.
2. I had a note to myself to preach a series involving last week's epistle, this week and next week, since the first chapter of First Corinthians is so potent. Due to the liturgical schedule and our move, I elected not to do it this year, but I might in 2011 (once I convince myself that 2011 is a real date. Sheesh this new millenium bit is a lot to handle sometimes!).

Matthew 4.13-25
1. Ties to John's ministry:
a. there's a chiasm with 3.1-2, where John and Jesus proclaim, but John decreases while Jesus increases.
b. the word used for John's arrest, "paradidomai," is the same word used when Judas "hands over" Jesus at the end of the gospel.
c. In Matthew 14.13, Jesus also withdraws "anachoreo" when John is killed.
2. Ties to Isaiah: Nazareth is in the land of Zebulun, Capernaum is in the land of Naphtali.
3. M. Eugene Boring draws a parallel between the Exodus and Jesus:
Israel = Red Sea birth - Wilderness Wandering - Nation
Jesus = Baptism - Wilderness Temptation - Messianic Community

Big Long Wrap-Up Thought: Fishing with nets is not fly-fishing, and what Jesus does to the disciples, though Norman Maclean suggests otherwise in A River Runs Through It. Fishing with nets is disruptive, intrusive and non-coercive; so, also, is faith that comes through the intrusion of the Holy Spirit. Boring, again, says that Jesus is "not filling a vacuum or meeting an obvious need." I don't know how that fits with modern faith, though - most intrusive forms of evangelism tend to be pretty offensive to me these days. Somehow I think character might be wrapped up in it as well: I'm certainly not Jesus, nor have I met Him face to face, but I have met folks whose faith and discipleship has shaken up my own. Maybe that's the disruptive part of living in the church today.

And Yes, He's Got Coffee

In just over an hour, CBS will air a two-hour special called "In God's Name." It's supposed to be a conversation with several religious leaders from around the world, including ELCA Presiding Bishop and Lutheran World Relief President Mark Hanson.

Newsweek ran a picture of some of these leaders this week. There were shots of the Orthodox Archbishop in all his liturgical finery, a wonderful shot of the Dalai Lama, and then there was a shot of Hanson. In a suit. Walking down the street. Stainless steel coffee mug in hand.

I think someone at Newsweek is having some fun on us...

"Hoc Est Meum Corpum" means "Hoc Est Meum Corpum!"

Eucharistic theology created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Luther You are Martin Luther. You'll stick with the words of Scripture, and defend this with earthy expressions. You believe this is a necessary consequence of an orthodox Christology. You believe that the bread and wine are the Body and Blood of Christ, but aren't too sure about where he goes after the meal, and so you don't accept reservation of the Blessed Sacrament or Eucharistic devotions. Luther 88% Orthodox 63% Calvin 38% Catholic 31% Zwingli 13% Unitarian 0%