Lutherans are Universalists

A few years before my father died at age 93 he asked me what we Lutherans believe about heaven. This is from a man who grew me up in the Lutheran church. I told him that I really didn't know but would find out. I read Sittler, Luther, Robert Marshall, Martin Marty and others and the real answer is that we Lutherans have no idea if there is a heaven.

I go to church assemblies and meetings a lot. A while ago, I began a very unscientific survey of pastors.When I meet new people, especially pastors, I will introduce myself and then ask,"pastor, I believe Lutherans are Universalists. What do you believe?"

In the 10 or so years I have been doing this, nine out of ten pastors I meet agree  that Lutherans are universalists. With enthusiasm.

In the early 2000's, Lutheran theologian, Walter Bouman, was the scholar in residence at my church in Houston. Naturally, I asked Walter this question and he equivocated saying that he really didn't know but he lived in the trust that there is a heaven but could not say who got into heaven.

Then in 2005, Walter was diagnosed with terminal cancer and wrote an open letter to the church which was published in the November issue of The Lutheran. I have included it at the top of this blog. This wonderful letter from Walter to all of us contains much needed advice and you will note that in his dying days, Walter came to accept God's Universal Salvation.

Joseph Sittler writes:

The Bible really has nothing to say about eternal life. That sounds like a shocking statement, but it's literally true: there is not a single clear and concrete word in the Bible about life after death. It affirms that life with God is life with that which does not die. But any specification about life after death is steadily avoided by the biblical writers. 


Paul made an effort to address the question, but it's a bum effort: 'What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernal, perhaps of wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is alike, but there is one kind for men, another for animals , another for birds, and another for fish.' (1 Cor: 15: 36-39) He tries by natural analogy to say something. Interestingly, he never tried it again. 

Sighs too deep for words

Our hearts break for the senseless murders this weekend in Norway.

The violence was fueled by a highly combustible mixture of hate and fear. Before it was announced that the murderer was a right wing Norwegian who hated Muslims, you could sense that the right wing in our country was poised to cry out for revenge and violence against Muslims. In their mind, only Muslim terrorists could be capable of such terrible violence.

This thirst for blood is not the way of Brother Jesus.

In the time of Luther, the question was, "How can I find a gracious God?"

The question for our time is, "How can we find God in our enemies?"
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We can no more save ourselves from our enemies than we can save ourselves from sin . God’s amazing grace offers to save us from both.

nFalse prophets today cannot mention love of enemies . Listen to the voices on the right wing of our political and religious spectrum. Their thirst for blood is sickening.

They will tell you that  the way of Brother Jesus is impractical, idealistic, and out of touch with the "real world." The evidence of the "real world" totally repudiates such thinking.

In 1989, 13 nations – 1.7 billion people – 32% of humanity experienced non-violent revolutions. Add up all countries touched by major non-violent actions since 1986 the figure reaches 3.3 billion people – a staggering 64% of humanity. All this in the teeth of the right wing claim that – “non-violence does not work in the real world.”


No such irrelevancy is charged against the myth of redemptive violence even though evidence shows that violence almost never works. Imagine our world if the followers of Jesus had been successful in stopping the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003. A trillion dollar war would have been averted. We created more terrorists than we could ever kill and we will pay that price for a long time. 

God is all inclusive. Jesus says love your enemies because God does – Matt 5:45 – Luke 6:35. Much of what passes as religion denies the existence of such a God. Jesus became one of us not because judgment is an end but a beginning- not to consume but to purify – not to annihilate but to redeem. Jesus forgave sins – now you can repent.

God loves you – now you can lift your eyes to God

This is the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

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The rich and the poor

 The budget debate has a central moral dimension. Christians are asking how we protect “the least of these.” “What would Jesus cut?” “How do we share sacrifice?”


So said religious leaders who signed the  Circle of Protection document presented to President Obama yesterday, July 20, 2011.

Walking to the White House

Yesterday, ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson (purple shirt), Bread for the World (BFW) President, David Beckmann (right foreground), former BFW board member Tony Hall, and five other religious leaders met with President Obama to lobby on behalf of the poor and oppressed while the debate over debt and government spending rages in Washington, DC.

Last week, when Episcopal churches in New York City debated whether or not to officiate at same sex marriages, the issue made the front page of the New York Times. Yesterday's meeting with President Obama where our religious leaders demanded that the budget not be balanced on the backs of poor people barely made the news.

We have our work cut out for us. The Church of Jesus Christ has a special option for the poor. The people in the pews must hear this Good News preached on a regular basis. We will respond. Our leaders know this and are doing their part. Now it is up to us.

Who wrote the bible?

150 CE						Second Peter
120 CE					Luke/Acts	Barnabas Hermas
100 CE				John	John’s Ltr John’s Rev	1st  Clmt 1st Peter
90 CE		Matthew			Ephesians
80 CE		Q2	Mark		Colossians
70 CE		Pronouncement Stories
60 CE					Paul’s Letters
50 CE	Q1	Miracle Stories
40 CE		Oral Tradition
30 CE	Jesus Died	Lore Teachings
20 CE	Jesus in Galilee
	Galilee	Northern Palestine	Southern Syria	Northern Syria	Greece Asia Minor	Rome

There are many people who will tell you that God wrote the Bible and they will beat you over the head with their interpretation of the Bible. Many more people are really turned off by this "God said it, I believe it, case closed" bumper sticker mentality.

Lutherans and others have done serious scholarship on the subject and I think it is important that we are clear about our position on the Bible. The diagram above is one that I put together from Burton Mack's book, "Who wrote the New Testament."

It is commonly accepted that Jesus was murdered around 33 CE. For the next 30 years, there is no written record of the life and teachings of Jesus. An oral record was created by various Jesus cults and societies. Many scholars speculate that two documents existed but have since been long lost that were written records. They are called Q1 and Q2.  "Q" is the first letter of the word "quelle" which is German for "Source."

Paul's letters are the first written evidence of Jesus and Paul was not an eyewitness to the life and death of Jesus. Mathew, Mark and Luke are thought to have been based on the Q documents because they are so similar. No one knows who wrote the Gospels and ascribing the names Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is simply something that happened over time. We know that the author of Luke is the author of Acts because he says so in the first chapter of Acts.

The Bible is a collection of various documents that were written over a very long period. From the chart above, you will see that the books and letters in the New Testament were written to various audiences over a period of 100 years. The books and stories in the Old Testament were written over a period of thousands of years and many were changed over time. The book of Job, for example is an ancient fable that was split in two and someone inserted a middle part.

In the 4th century, Constantine appointed a bishop named Eusebius to cobble together a single volume which would be the Bible. This list of documents is called the canon and various versions exist. The Roman Catholics, for example, include several books that Lutherans do not. Scholars and theologians debate to this day whether or not the canon is closed.

The point is that all of the documents were written by men and women and almost none are historically accurate and certainly none are books of science or geology.

It is also not arguable that the Bible has been used over the centuries for nefarious reasons. Slavery was defended on the basis of scripture and today, homosexuals are castigated from holy scripture.

Luther was clear about the use of scripture. He said that scripture is one way that the Great Mystery reveals itself to us. There are other ways. Music (Lutheran great, J.S. Bach, is often called the fifth evangelist), art, literature, poetry are others. The book of James is so full of great arguments for works righteousness that Luther said it was an epistle of straw and should be removed from the canon and be replaced with a letter written by his buddy Melanchthon. Luther opposed works righteousness.

What is the most famous verse in the Bible?

For more than 30 years I have been speaking to church groups - mostly Lutheran - about hunger and poverty.  Before the Q&A part of my presentation, I noticed that one bible verse would always be quoted before a question was asked. So I changed the way I introduced the topic by asking the question - what is the most famous verse in the bible?

Often people would say - John 3:16. One time a man jumped up and said "God helps those who help themselves!" (I think Ben Franklin said that.)  No one ever quoted Jesus' words about care and concern for the poor. But I could always trust that this one verse would be quoted - hence I called it the most famous verse in the bible.

Actually, this famous verse appears 4 times in scripture. Three times in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John, and once in Deuteronomy. In the Gospel accounts it appears in the story of the anointing at Bethany where a woman anoints Jesus' feet with precious oil. In Luke, there is a story of a woman anointing Jesus' feet with her tears and hair but that is another story.

In the anointing at Bethany, it is believed that Jesus was quoting the verse in Deuteronomy when he responded to the disciples (in John's account, it was Judas alone) complaint that the woman should have taken the money she spent on the expensive oil and given it to the poor.

Have you guessed yet?

The most famous verse in the bible is "the poor you will always have with you."

When I talk to people about the role of the church of Jesus Christ in care and concern for the poor, this famous verse is quoted in a perverse belief that Jesus was condemning the poor to poverty. It is shocking that this belief exists but it does.

Deuteronomy 15:11 reads There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. 


Lutherans in the 21st century will be relevant when we make it clear by our words and actions that care and concern for the poor and oppressed are central to the Good News of Jesus Christ.


In fact the theme of the churchwide assembly of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) is "Freed in Christ to Serve."

Do not be afraid

Jesus often tells us not to be afraid yet fear is a very powerful motivator in our world. The church has used fear very successfully for centuries to maintain power over people. I live in a ghetto. It is a ghetto of wealth, power, and influence. It is an intellectual ghetto.  It amazes me how fear of hell influences so many people in my world.

I was recently asked by one of my friends (an Episcopalian) if I believed in hell. When I said that I didn't, he asked why I went to church. In his mind, the only reason for the existence of the church is to keep people out of hell. My friend's opinion is not an isolated one. This belief that the church is for the avoidance of hell is a dead end street. It is depressing and fills you with fear because you never know if you are good enough for "heaven." Luther's struggle with this very question led him to realize that this fear of hell is exactly what Jesus came to conquer.

Does hell exist? Of course it does and it is the hell here on earth that is of our own making. In Vietnam, I was exposed to the hell of war. As a director of an agency helping victims of child abuse, I saw hell up close. The best descriptions of this hell are not to be found in scripture. Shakespeare penned one of the best descriptions of hell that  I know of when MacBeth realizes that he has created his own hell by living a life of self aggrandizement at the expense of others. This is from the 5th act, 5th scene.


To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
    Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
    To the last syllable of recorded time,
    And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
    The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
    Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
    That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
    And then is heard no more: it is a tale
    Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
    Signifying nothing. 


A sampling of other artists' descriptions of hell include:


Picasso's Guernica
Spielberg's Shindler's List
O'Neil's Long Day's Journey into Night
Twain's The War Prayer




A life lived in service to others is a life free from fear and hell. This is the message of Jesus and Lutherans in the 21st century are relevant when we spread this good news of Jesus Christ.


Do not fear.

The Atonement - Who Killed Jesus

To be relevant in the 21st century, Lutherans should be clear about the atonement.

If you "google" atonement you will find that many people have written extensively on the subject. I've read much of this stuff and what strikes me is that people use a lot of words to obfuscate what they really want to say. Books have been written on the atonement and there just isn't that much to say about it. 

When you strip away the blathering, the atonement comes down to one essential question. Who killed Jesus?

The answer is - "we killed Jesus"

Listed below are several of the atonement theories and you will note that all but one (the Liberation theory) attributes the murder of Jesus to God. Why anyone would worship such a God remains a mystery to me. Lutherans in the 21st century  must clean up our language and speak clearly about the atonement. Our hymnody is filled with blood lust and revenge and ransom language. Granted the new hymnal has cleaned up a lot of it but we need to repudiate all but the liberation theories of the atonement.

The Satisfaction Theory

• Developed by medieval theologian Anselm
• Also known as the Blood Theory
• God chooses to intervene so that sinners can avoid  punishment even tho they are guilty
• Because we are incapable of saving ourselves - no effort on human’s part means God does the killing
• The atheistic refusal to worship such a monster is an act of pure religion

The Love Theory or Christus Victor

• God reveals God’s love for us by sending God’s Son to identify with us and to offer his life as proof of the depth of God’s love.
• John 3:16
• God is the initiator of Jesus’ death.
• This is child abuse.

The Representational Theory

• Jesus becomes one of us so completely that he takes on all our sin and becomes the greatest of all sinners. Luther helped promulgate this theory.
• Still a Christology from above. God is responsible for the death of Jesus.
• God still commits an unconscionable sin.

The Liberation Theory

• Christology from below repudiates the notion that God killed Jesus.
• The powers that be killed Jesus
• Jesus did not come down from heaven to undergo birth from a virgin’s womb
• He experienced rebirth through the baptism of John.
• God did not incarnate Him – He incarnated God.

Why did the “powers that be” kill Jesus?

• Jesus hammered out the first consistent critique of the domination system since the world began.
• Virtually everything Jesus said or did involved unmasking the domination system
• Jesus was setting the captives free and the captors were not happy
• Jesus death was consistent with his life
• He shows that God is not just liberating
• He shows the consequences of following such a God in a world organized for exploitation and greed.
• If you want to follow me – deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me.
• SERVICE TO OTHERS – this is the essence of who we/Christ are.

Scapegoating

This picture was taken by my daughter Issabella at a bullfight in Spain. She and husband Ted are finishing a year in Barcellona. Her blog is a wonderful description of Spain and her latest post inspired me to ponder Rene Girard's theory of scapegoating. Read Issabella's post - A wonderful nightmare in Sevilla - first.

With apologies to Professor Girard, I have outlined his scapegoating mechanism below. Included are comments by Walter Wink who linked Girard's thesis to atonement theories. Wink postulates that Jesus entire ministry was opposition to systems of dominance and that God did not kill Jesus - as most theories of the atonement say - but WE killed Jesus through the domination systems that continue to this day.

Rene’ Girard’s theory of the Scapegoat

It is clear that the domination system is founded on violence but not why.

Human origins of violence

1. We lacked instinctual breaking mechanisms – wolves will spare a defeated rival
2. Humans fell headlong into endless spirals of violence
3. We survived – Girard believes – because we discovered a mechanism that could perform a final killing  of a surrogate victim

Scapegoat

1. Usually randomly chosen
2. Disabled, old, or marginal
3. No one would seek to avenge – but everyone agrees is to blame
4. Regarded as odious – monstrous but because his death brings reconciliation he is a savior, a god, a cult figure

This is the origin of

• Religion
• gods
• Sacrifice
• Ritual
• Myth

Mimetic desire

1. We become human by learning from others
2. Imitate (mimesis) by desiring what they desire
3. In itself this is good
4. This defines value

Mimetic rivalry

1. But in a world of scarcity this is problematic
2. Be like me – but when you reach to take it  - don’t be like me
3. Conflict ensues
4. Girard believes Oedipal conflict is more simply explained this way than Freud’s

Crisis of distinctions occurs

1. When the differences that formerly separated potential rivals are dissolved as a result of both desiring the same thing –
2. Social distinctions which preserved order collapse
3. Students seize the admin bldg
4. Soldiers refuse to obey orders
5. Mill workers shut down a plant

Collapse can be avoided if society can find a scapegoat

The necessary victim

1. Can be a foreigner, an eccentric, a communist, a witch , a homosexual,a prophet
2. The fiction of the scapegoat’s guilt must be maintained  regardless of the real truth
3. Caiaphas – it is expedient that one man die and that the whole nation not perish (John 11:50)

Sacralizing the victim

1. Victim is rendered sacred as compensation for sacrificial death
2. Sometimes elevated to divinity
3. Not only is violence survived it is the impetus for
1. Development of religion and myth
2. Legislation
3. Human culture

Sacrificial repetition

1. Subsequent sacrifices repeat in strictly controlled ritual the primordial structure of the scapegoat mechanism
2. Internal aggressions are thus diverted and expended ritually
3. Social fabric is preserved
4. Religion is organized violence in the service of social tranquility
5. Kierkegaard – the ethical expression of what Abraham did is  - murder
6. Religious expression is - sacrifice

Girard’s conclusion

1. The Christian Gospel is the counterforce to this power – it reveals the immortal lie.
2. There is nothing unique about the suffering and death of Jesus
3. What is astonishing is that contrary to other myths – the gospel myth denounces the verdict passed by the powers that be
4. The gospels are at great pains to show that the charges against Jesus do not hold water
5. This is done to reveal the scapegoating mechanism

What went wrong

1. The earliest Christians were not able to sustain this intensity
2. The dimmed it by confusing God’s intention to expose the scapegoating mechanism with God’s intention for Jesus to die.
3. This took the powers off the hook

What is wrong with this kind of God?

1. Jesus simply declared people forgiven confident that he spoke the mind of God.
2. Why then is a sacrificial victim necessary to make forgiveness possible?
3. Does not the death of Jesus reveal that all such sacrifices are unnecessary?

Walter Wink on Rene’ Girard

1. Not all myths are lies masking events of generative violence. Some myths (sacred stories) reveal the truth.
2. Scapegoat myth is just a subset of redemptive violence
3. Paul betrays an ambivalence toward sacrifice  - Christ is the end of sacrificing by exposing the scapegoat mechanism BUT he goes on the say that Christ is the final sacrifice whose death was required by God.
4. Christianity has suffered ever since.
5. Our sacred stories do not have a monopoly on the criticism of violence

But in fairness to Girard, the other sacred stories (myths) do not raise the scapegoating mechanism to consciousness