From the ELCA Churchwide Assembly

“Remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall — think of it,

ALWAYS.” 

 Mahatma Gandhi

Here is an excerpt from Bishop Hanson's sermon at the Churchwide Assembly. Lutherans will be relevant in the 21st Century when we follow his advice to move out of our sanctuaries and into the public square to act in the way of truth and love.

Finally Jesus caused such disruption with God’s gracious

word of promise that the cry, “How can this be?” turned into

shouts of “This must not be. Crucify him! Crucify him!” Even

the angel’s announcement on Easter morning, “He is not here. He

is risen” left Jesus’ followers fearful and bewildered, asking,

“How can this be? How can it be that not even death has the final

word with us?”

But it is tempting for us to stay there, is it not? It is tempting

for us as the ELCA to be content as a “How can this be” church,

a community that finds its comfort zone among the ponderers.

Skepticism becomes our first response when someone tells us of

God’s disrupting, interrupting grace in their life. Suspicion

becomes is our first posture toward our neighbor.

So are we ready for the Holy Spirit to move us with Mary?

I believe that, as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we

are being moved by the power of the Holy Spirit to sing Mary’s

song of God’s disrupting, dislocating, relocating power.

Oh, yes, I believe the Holy Spirit is moving us to sing Mary’s

Magnificat not only in the security of our sanctuaries, but also in

the public square. It will take the Spirit’s power to embolden us

to sing of God scattering the proud in the thoughts of their hearts

and bringing down the powerful from their thrones.

In the midst of the gridlock over the debt ceiling and debt

reduction debate, I went to Washington, D.C., to join other

religious leaders in singing Mary’s song about God’s promise to

fill the hungry with good things. But, I can tell you, the refrains

of Mary’s song were not resounding throughout those halls of

power. There seemed to be more willingness to dismantle

programs than to draw a circle of protection around those

programs that serve the hungry, the homeless, the most vulnerable

in our land and around the world.

Friends, you know and I know that religious leaders singing

Mary’s song are not packing people into sports stadiums for

so-called religious rallies. In a consumer-oriented, competitive,

what-has-God-done-for-me- lately? religious marketplace, we are

not going to hear much about God dismantling structures that

marginalize and exclude people in poverty or those whose race or

gender or citizenship or sexual orientation, physical or mental

abilities or health make them unwanted, unnoticed.

But that is Mary’s song, and it is Mary’s song that the Holy

Spirit will give you the courage and voice to sing. It is Mary’s

song of God bringing the despised and the marginalized, the

outcast and the downcast, the defeated and the denied, and even

the dead into a new place. The place where God is building the

new creation—the new community in Christ.

When we have been disrupted by God’s grace, when we have

been dislocated, when we have been knocked off balance by

God’s word of judgment and left wondering, “How can this be?”

the Holy Spirit moves us. The Holy Spirit relocates us into God’s

abundant mercy, into a community of faith that with Mary

believes “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

Oh yes, this is who we are as the Evangelical Lutheran

Church in America—a community freed in Christ to serve. So let

this assembly unfold. Come, Holy Spirit. Come with your

power, Holy Spirit. Move us as you moved Mary. Move us to

sing, to live Mary’s song. Move us to faith. Move us to a living,

daring confidence in God’s grace. Move us to respond with

Mary, “Here am I—here we are. Let it be to me—let it be to us,

the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, according to your

word.”

So, like Mary, are we ready to be moved by the power of the

Holy Spirit? Don’t forget—by adjournment Friday, we will have

given our answer. Amen.

Do the right thing

Do the right thing. Easy to say. Not so easy to determine.

We Lutherans, however, are comfortable when we struggle with this problem. We are not moralistic. We know that right behavior does not determine our value before God and we embrace a profound sense of moral ambiguity.

We understand that faith is trust in God. It is not the acceptance of a set of teachings. The consequence of faith is service to neighbor. God’s radical adoption of a sinner by grace leads to a radical freedom. Freedom from coercive requirements and a freedom to serve others, especially the poor and oppressed.

I remember when the old LCA (Lutheran Church in America) was debating whether or not the church should stop investing in companies that did business in apartheid South Africa. Emotions ran high. The treasurer of the LCA at the time was an executive with Mobil Oil who did business in South Africa. He argued that his company did more for the victims of apartheid by doing business there than if they stopped doing business there. His argument was compelling to me. He was a leader in the church I love and he was a good man. Certainly, with his business sense and knowledge of the world, he and his company would do the right thing.

However, the LCA voted to withdraw all of our investments from companies doing business in South Africa.

Why?

We listened to the VICTIMS of apartheid who begged and pleaded that the churches of the world stop supporting companies doing business with that corrupt and immoral government. We, the Lutheran Church in America, did the right thing because we stood in solidarity with the poor and oppressed.

Now the question is – where does Jim Shields get off telling us what the right thing to do is? Good question. Welcome to the world of moral ambiguity.

I believe that the church must be a community of moral deliberation. There are no moral absolutes and we have to participate in this messy world.

Regarding the issue of homosexuality, our church conducted a twenty year study of human sexuality and produced a policy that was adopted by two thirds of the church wide assembly. With that foundation, the church wide assembly approved the ordination of homosexuals in committed relationships.

Emotions ran high during this debate and a few of our members have chosen to leave the church.

But did we do the right thing?

I say yes because our policy favors the victims of what I see is an injustice. Some members of Christ the King are homosexual. Some members have children who are homosexual. Rebecca and I have known these people and their children for many years. They are wonderful people. When we heard homosexuals being described with words like, “unnatural”, “abomination”, “sinful”, and deviant, our hearts broke. We could never use those words to describe the people in our midst who we know and love. Yet these beautiful people had to sit in silence while some factions in our church used horrendous language to describe their sexual orientation.

We do the right thing when we speak out on behalf of the poor and oppressed.

You did it to me

When asked why she devoted her life to serving the poor, Mother Theresa said her answer contained five simple words.

Lutherans in the 21st century are relevant when we focus on service to the poor. The work that we do in this country through Lutheran Social Services and worldwide through The Lutheran World Federation keeps us grounded. We can do more through our existing agencies.

In this world hatred is not dispelled by hatred; by love alone is hatred dispelled. This is an eternal law.

This eternal truth is from the Buddhist canon. 

Jesus said the same thing in fewer words.

Love your enemies.

or

Love one another.

There can be no argument that the three statements say the same thing about an eternal truth.

We all understand what we mean by eternal truth. Never changing, applicable to all human conditions, unconditional, from God.

The problem comes when we use the word "eternal" as an adjective for life. Just what is "eternal life?" The church has taken possession of this term and linked it to something that has to do with life beyond the grave. I don't think that the biblical writers had this in mind. 

Lutherans will be relevant in the 21st century when we admit that the Church of  Jesus Christ has almost nothing to say about life beyond the grave. We have a lot to say about those eternal truths which affect us here in God's Kingdom on earth. We have nothing to say about God's Kingdom in heaven. We trust that to God.