Posted on 08/27/2009 6:13:07 PM PDT by lightman
The Ministerium In Schism, A Church Divided
A week from the first vote in Minnesota that altered the landscape of the ECLA forever, I have had some time for a few reflections. I don't pass myself off as some deep thinking theologian, nor do my words reflect anything other than that of the parish pastor. A parish pastor who day in and day out ministers to the people, preaches the Word and administers the sacraments, and understands he is simul justus et peccator, at one and same time sinner and saint.
There are many of us, in fact probably a great majority, who simply cannot comprehend what happened last week. I was a voting member and I am not sure I understand. But we do know that the decisions made will ripple down and probably signals the end of the ELCA as a potent denomination in American Lutheranism.
I am not getting into the scriptural debates that have raged for the entire life of the ELCA on this issue. I think in all reality we have been operating with two diferent hermeneutics of scriptural interpretaion for a long, long time. It is why we have been obsessed with this for the entire life of the ELCA. Last week, I really wanted to talk about world hunger. About caring for the homeless. About why our church has lost half a million members in six years. About evangelism. There was little, if any , discussion on these topics. I do want to say this.
Most of us who struggle with this are not extremists on either side. We do not demonize those who think differently from us, nor do we hate people because of their sexual orientation. Many of us have gay friends and know people who struggle with sexual identity. As a pastor for 21 years, I have counseled many people who struggle in that arena. I have not judged them, nor condemned them, but tried to share God's love in all things.
The fallout is massive, and deep. I am hearing from pastors and laypeople across this nation, and life has changed for many in these days. Because I was a voting member and shared my convinctions, my phone is ringing with those who want to talk who saw me on the web. But the commen theme is life has changed forever. And we all know that theologically we have crossed the Rubicon. We can't go back, only forward. We know many will leave. We know many will go to other churches, other faith expressions. This is not just about pastors and their polity, but it is about the layperson who is confused and struggling in this time. About the congregation in the midwest who has had people leave already. About pastors who wonders what their church does stand for.
The Ministerium is in schism, and our house, our church is divided. Pray for everyone involved, from laypeople to Bishops, and for the simple parish pastors who must now minister in the midst of a church founded on protest, that is in protest, and indeed in schism. Whether His house through the ELCA can still stand remains to be seen.
Being compassionate, and accepting of each other as Americans, is a whole different story than blatant politics which have destroyed this church. Last week, there was a militancy that frightened me , not from the tradtional side, but from those desiring change. At all costs, even that of seeking unity, they pushed, and pushed, and pushed, until finally out of fatigue, the question was called.
I am not assailing the motives of any on either side, but stating that the church of sola scriptura just sold her theology down the river. When we say the Holy Spirit is doing a "new thing", we better be darn sure that is grounded in our scripture, in our confessions, and in our life together. I am not sure that happened. I am not sure a simply majority vote, which leaves half the church opposed, if not more, is right.
Luther wrote in his Commentary on John:
The Holy Spirit establishes a wide difference among teachers and gives the right rule by which the spirits are to be tested. He wants to say that there are two kinds of teachers. There are some who speak on their own authority; that is, they evolve their message from their own reasoning or religious zeal and judgment. The Holy Spirit is not to be that kind of preacher; for He will not speak on His own authority… In this way Christ sets bounds for the message of the Holy Spirit Himself. He is not to preach anything new or anything else than Christ and His Word. Thus we have a sure guide and touchstone for judging the false spirits.1
Is a social issue the Word? Is the Holy Spirit doing a new thing when it is unbound from the Word? Where do we go from here? What makes our generation so enlightened, so confident, so self-important that we know better?
And I certainly hope that those doing a victory lap will pause to recognize that the question still needs to be answered as to whether this new thing is theologically grounded, confessionally sound, wedded to the Word, or simply our best guess on social policy in American culture. Some may see this as the price that needs to be paid for change. Maybe the cost is just too high, and I wonder if anyone is having buyers remorse?
Pastor Jeff Ruby Status Confessionis, ELCA pastor
Luther, M. (1999, c1961). Vol. 24: Luther's works, vol. 24 : Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 14-16 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (24:362). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House
Yes, I do know that there is more than one Lutheran Church. So, this means that a person who is Lutheran can stay in the religion, simply switch to a different Lutheran church?
When I joined the Missouri Synod, I had to complete about a ten week course dealing with the Lutheran Confessions. While many ELCA congregations remain true to the foundational Confessions, the synod as a whole doesn't and individual Lutherans are expected to study the orthodox Lutheran faith prior to becoming LCMS members.
The LCMS doesn't recognize the ELCA as being an orthodox Lutheran church.
OK, OK.........don't leave us hanging...........and the name of the Church is..........????
Yes ma'am........we're on the job. Note the recent instruction on homosexuals in the priesthood, the visitation of seminaries and the recent "outing" of many members of the lavender mafia.
In one sense, however, the Church will never be cleaned up. There will always be scandals and crises. Since the time of Judas, the Church has been continually beset by one form of scandal or another. It goes with the job and Jesus promised us as much.
If it isn't shirtlifters, it'll be heretics or money changers.
That is a loaded phrase. What does it mean to you?
I'm just am asking for clarity.
Does it mean the same as if I were to say "true Lutheran" one that preaches the word.
I try not to talk that way but it still happens.
(chuckling)
You’re absolutely right. The wheat and the tares grow together in the same field. I pray all churches will work to get rid of the tares in their midst.
They’re more fundamental type churches that do a good job of preaching the word but don’t believe much in the Holy Spirit working today and He always has. They don’t delve much into the gifts, etc.
Oh, man...when Christ said, "Feed my Sheep," he wasn't talking about world hunger!
See also, "Where there is no vision, the people perish."
This is why my church is in trouble.
Thank you for the info.
The ELCA has become over some time polluted by a sect of idolaters veiled in humanitarianism driven by an extremely politically left secular culture.
The recent convention was stacked with political activists and they out numbered the true Christians.
Now these radicals have taken a huge stride in their own minds and furthering God's Kingdom has become a lower priority.
Love of self and worldly recognition rules their hearts.
God has been lowered to the level of a stage prop as another freeper told me.
God revels in these situations his glory is soon to be revealed in this.
Just a side note.
They don’t even know they are radicals because they are spiritually blind.
Into the pit they go.
As to Lutheran's from the ELCA joining the Roman Catholic Church, while I know that some will, I will repeat what one ELCA friend told me.
I asked him where he would go, and listed a few possibilities (for him personally the LCMS isn't one). He said he could not be a Catholic, since that would put him in a similar situation as he is in now. In short, he doesn't trust that the Catholic Church in the US will remain faithful to the Gospel.
The Catholic Church in the US will split sooner or later.
In our case, however, the split will be between those who choose to obey the authority of the Church and those who seek their own way. I predict that within the next few years a renegade group of bishops and congregations will break with that authority and form a new, democratically-run, “American catholic church”, and that this “church” will receive the blessings, endorsements, and financial support of the U.S. government, large corporations, and Hollywood. This new “church” will proclaim itself the true Catholic Church and will be recognized as such by all the major global religious bodies. Females and homosexuals will be ordained to its priesthood and college of bishops; abortion, contraception, euthanasia, and homosexual “marriage” will be celebrated as sacraments; and its worship will be joyful, participatory, and sensual.
Many FReepers, including many current FReeper Catholics, will join this new Church, because it “it just feels right” and because of its permissive attitudes toward sex outside of marriage, divorce and remarriage, and the accumulation of wealth. (And of course there are more than a few non-Catholic FReepers out there who are sharpening their knives for the kill even as we speak.) Eventually, the opinion of the average American (including many of you reading this post right now) will become openly hostile towards the “old Catholic Church”, which will be increasingly depicted in the news and entertainment media as something like the Ku Klux Klan. There will probably be some abortion clinic bombings or other acts of “Catholic fundamentalism” to drive the point home. And, after one or two abortion doctors get capped, the government will heed the voice of the people and the international community and begin to legally persecute the Church as a sponsor of terrorism.
But it won’t matter. No matter what the Bad Guys do, the Catholic Church will remain, surviving and spreading the Gospel as it always has. There will always be those of us who refuse to betray the teaching handed down by the apostles to the Pope and the bishops in union with him in favor of the Prosperity Gospel or the Happy-Clappy Church of What’s Heppening Now or, God help us, the American Catholic Church. Even if they kill us all, nuke the Vatican, and bulldoze every Catholic church in the world, they can’t prevail against the Church; if we die, the rocks and stones (intelligent computers?) will sing in our places.
Tell your friend not to worry. He should find a bishop who refuses to yield one inch to the forces of the enemy and stick with him. Such bishops are easy to find: just look for the ones the media hates the most and you can’t go wrong.
As for Team Chan, we’re sticking with the Pope and the Lord that he represents here on Earth no matter how many people go over to the Enemy.
His fears are just what you said.
See, in the ELCA there is a remnant that remains faithful. He doesn’t want to join the RCC only to have the same situation
Re, #53. You, my friend, are a prophet.
Christ, I hope not.
And I mean that as a prayer, not as blasphemy.
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