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Commentary: A Presbyterian in Lutheranland

Commentary by Peggy Hedden, The Layman, Posted Thursday, October 1, 2009

There was the deep and confident affirmation that “Jesus Christ is Risen!” There were the stirring hymns of faith. There was the joy of being together in worship and deliberating with others in the unity of truth, love and peace. And there were the palpable energy and excitement of going forth boldly without knowing the final destination but sure that the Lord goes before to prepare the way.

Lutheran CORE Chairman the Rev. Paull Spring speaks at the convocation.


 
If I had been writing on the 2005 and subsequent convocations of the New Wineskins movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA), these are things I would have noted that made it stand out from all other PCUSA gatherings that I had attended in two decades. But the above observations are about the recent Lutheran CORE (Coalition for Renewal) assembly that I attended in Fishers, Ind., where more than 1,200 Lutherans came from across the country.
 
Before many more years pass, there may be similar convocations among other denominations in North America and everywhere else where Satan seeks to obliterate the Body of Jesus Christ by conforming it to the thinking of the world rather than the Word of God, even if the presenting issue is not the current one of approving homosexual behavior.
 
In August of this year, the national body of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) followed the path of several other American churches and voted to change the teaching and practice on marriage and sexual behavior to recognize same-sex unions for church blessing and to allow pastors to be in same-sex relationships.
 
The ruptures common to the United Church of Christ, Episcopal Church of America and PCUSA were noted by a speaker at the Lutheran gathering, Ryan Schwarz, an attorney from Washington, D.C. 
 
“God is reforming the Churches of the Reformation,” he declared, pointing out lessons to be learned so that Lutherans could act wisely but also with confidence rather than fear.   

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A first lesson, he said, is to recognize clearly what has happened. And the assembled Lutherans responded with a standing ovation when another speaker, Bishop Paull Spring, stated that the ELCA’s August actions are “heresy.” I am sure that applause arose from the relief of having the thing called by its proper name at last, after the years of deliberate muddling and minimizing by officials and leaders about what was happening. Certainly, that is how I felt as a Presbyterian when the 2001 General Assembly, unable to affirm the singular saving Lordship of Jesus Christ, was publicly called “apostate.”   
 
The applause also arose, I think, to encourage Lutheran CORE leaders to continue to speak the truth boldly in the days and months ahead. As C.S. Lewis said, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on condition. Pilate was merciful til it became risky.” 
 
A second lesson to be learned from the battle in other denominations, Schwarz and Spring said, is the need to respond quickly and decisively. Some in the renewal efforts of the Episcopal Church regret the dissipation of support that has occurred over the five years it has taken to agree on how to go forward after Bishop Gene Robinson was elected. Hence, the one-year deadline for Lutheran CORE to report to the September 2010 convocation on its recommended way to re-vision the Lutheran Church. 
 
For many of us Presbyterians, the year to respond was 2006 and the event was the adoption of the Peace, Unity and Purity Report and its Authoritative Interpretation by the General Assembly. That was when the New Wineskins group was tasked to report within a year on a way forward, including dismissal from the denomination. For others of us Presbyterians, that year has not, and may never come. 
 
The Lutherans last week, too, recognized that many members and congregations will decide to remain in the Evangelical Lutheran Church for faithful reasons. And Lutheran CORE is inviting both those remaining and those staying to work together in the common task of proclaiming the Gospel. Exactly what kind of structure(s) will accommodate both groups remains to be tried in Lutheran circles, as it is now being tested in Presbyterian ones. In November 2006, Presbyterian renewal group leaders met and discussed the faithfulness of leaving and of staying; they parted in agreement that both choices could be faithful. And several paths have been opened to Presbyterians – congregations have joined New Wineskins and its non-geographic presbytery, others have joined other denominations, others are working with Presbyterian Global Fellowship and Presbyterians for Renewal to create a space within the PCUSA where congregations faithful to the traditional understanding of Scriptures and the Confessions can be accommodated.
 
Before the decisions of both the Presbyterian and Lutheran national bodies, as well as before Episcopalians and the UCC ones, there had been a long history of efforts to forestall the decisions by the national denomination that precipitated the crisis. Those of us in the PCUSA can date the efforts from at least 1965 (when the Presbyterian Lay Committee was formed) and name many of the 17-plus groups formed over the years to renew one or more areas of national confession or ministry that was weakening.
 
In the late 1970s these deficiencies coalesced around the deviation from Biblical teaching on sexual morality; they occurred at later times in the other denominations. However, for all, the roots are identical – fundamentally different understandings of the authority of the Bible, the person and work of Jesus Christ, and the nature of the human condition.
 
The truth articulated by the PLC in its 2005 enquiry: “Can Two Faiths Embrace One Future?” was echoed by former Bishop Kenneth Sauer and others last weekend. There are, they said, two churches within the ELCA, one emphasizing Bible and theology, the other culture and experience. “Pious calls to unity” cannot patch over the deep divide.  Peace, love and truth must all share the table.   
  
One major difference between the Lutheran and other denominations that have divided on these issues is that of property. Because each Lutheran congregation provides specific steps that can be taken to leave the denomination with its property and because the national Lutheran constitution declares that property belongs to the local congregation, that concern was muted in the Indiana meeting. However, repercussions for ethnic-specific congregations dependent on national funding and for bishops who oppose the August actions of the ELCA are expected. In response, the assembly pledged financial support for immigrant congregations. Pastors from African immigrant and Hispanic congregations have publicly decried the new national policies, and two spoke at Fishers in solidarity with Lutheran CORE.
 
A defining characteristic throughout the Sept. 25-26 proceedings in Indiana was the focus on looking ahead, rather than behind. No long analysis of what had gone wrong over the last 20 or more years. No long laments over failed leadership or processes. No proffering of hope that “we will do it better next assembly.” Rather, with gratitude for the nearly 500-year-old Lutheran tradition, the speakers and participants eagerly began preparing themselves for the glorious task of moving with God along the new and unknown road as He continues to lead His Church forward.
 
In Presbyterian circles, we have a similar tradition to look back at as we go ahead:  “Reformed and always being reformed by the Word of God.” But even that motto is interpreted to mean very different things on either side of our great divide. 
 
Thus it has been. Thus it will be. So we must continue to resist the devil as we work for the Lord. Remembering Genesis 3:1-7 and quoting C. S. Lewis from The Silver Chair, “And the lesson of it all is, your Highness, that those Northern Witches always mean the same thing, but in every age they have a different plan for getting it.” We can go forward because we know we have the God who is the same – yesterday, today and tomorrow – and His promises and power are sure. 

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