Policy Revisions: The Incoherence of our Decisions

Dr. Michael Root offers an analysis of the  new Vision and Expectations currently working its way through the ELCA.  Click on the link above to read his article.

Broken Keys Pr. Ian Wolfe, St. Paul Lutheran Church at Maynard, Iowa has written a very useful article on the effect the Churchwide decisions has on the Office of the Keys.  You will find this article in the Lutheran Forum website at: http://www.lutheranforum.org/sexuality/broken-keys/

Call to Faithfulness (CTF) has moved from a website to a blogsite.  We did this for two reasons, first as an opportunity for more than one person to add their voice to the discussion.  There are so many issues facing the ELCA that we would benefit from this on-line conversation.  You will be able to read and respond to each new posting.  The blog will moderated so that offensive and/or inappropriate posts can be removed.  Second, this will save CTF a considerable sum each year that can be better used in other areas.

No One Can Serve Two Masters

Who are we serving in the ELCA?  There are several masters vying for our hearts, seeking to supplant the One Lord.  Some bow before the altar of ‘personal experience’.  They claim that there is no authority outside of what they have known and experienced.  There is no one who may sit in judgment over us as our experiences of the world are as valid as the next person.  We may set aside the Scriptures because they were written in another time, at another place, therefore they have no authority over us.  The witness of the Church throughout time may not speak to us either.  Those who worship the god of experience claim that no other time, no other experience, no other god may speak more than the moment of time in which we now live.  We hear the echo of the serpent’s voice, “you shall be like God..”

Others seek justice as their god.  The claim is made that Jesus came to set all things right, politically, economically, socially.  It is there for the responsibility of the Church to establish this justice in the world. There is little or no speaking of sinners redeemed.  Sadly, this kingdom looks very much like the politics of either the left or right.  It often cares little for people, seeing them as victims to be rescued.  Those who bend the knee to the god of justice see no salvation outside of this world and speak nothing of Jesus redeeming us from sin that we might belong to God forever.

We belong to God.  There can be no other way than this.  Our personal experiences may deceive and betray us.  We are not the wisest of the ages, nor may we reject the authority of Scripture as God’s Word.  We are not free to set aside the Tradition of the Church simply because it is not our personal experience.  Rather we are to humble ourselves before the Living Word and honor the witnesses of the ages.

If we do not speak first of salvation in Christ there is no justice.  What we may do in this life may place a bandage on the wounds of the world.  If we do not proclaim salvation and through that proclamation lead others to Christ, we will only bring a partial justice.  The fullness of justice is a world under the Lordship of Christ and His Holy Church.

Thoughts on the Final Draft of the ELCA’s Sexuality Statement

The end of a journey depends on the starting point as well as the turns taken while on the journey.  The final draft of  the ELCA’s sexuality statement arrives at its conclusions that are guaranteed to satisfy no one.  There are a varity of reasons for this disappointment, but their starting point insures the outcome.  The Task Force began with the assumption that all sexual orientations and gender understandings are created by God.  They do not go so far as to say that they are ‘good’ as reflected in the Creation accounts of Genesis, but neither do they say that some, if not all, sexual orientations and gender understandings are a part of a broken Creation.  The unspoken assumption appears to be that God has created all sexual and gender orientations as part of His purpose.  The underlying assumption that homosexual, transsexual, bi-sexual and other orientations are part of God’s intent lead the Task Force to the conclusion that the Church can bless unions between men and men and women and women.  If we accept the Task Force’s starting point the best we can hope for is the document they produced.

Can or Should We Stay?

One question that has been asked by many individuals and congregations has been, ‘Why should we stay?’  It is a good question to ask in light of the decisions made by the ELCA.  Does staying in the ELCA, even for a short time, mean that we support the votes of the 2009 Assembly?  No, it does not mean that we in any way support the path that the ELCA has chosen for itself.  We need to be clear that we do not support the decisions of the Churchwide Assembly, but we do not wish to just leave with no sense of where we should go.  It is important to remember that we are not alone in our rejection and resistance to the errors of the ELCA.  We need to gather, to be open in our concerns, to support and sustain one another as we discern the best way to serve God in this time of trial and confusion.  Our first and most important action is to continue to confess the faith as it has been given to us.  Let us continue to make the good confession in the face of an increasingly secular and hostile world, in faithful resistance to the ELCA which has chosen to walk away from the Tradition of the whole catholic Church.