What Makes Us Stand Out as a Church? Part 3

Now, I will be entering a territory where it is a bit more sticky, for now I must venture into denominational identity.

This is a rather tricky area given that Jesus prayed that all his followers be one (John 17).  Of course, should we like to split some hairs here, Jesus prays that we may be one as He and the Father--and I am sure we could add the Spirit here--are one.  Thinking about this in Trinitarian terms, the oneness we perhaps are called to have is a oneness of relationship in the confusing way God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three in one and one in three.  So there!

Yet, even if we are called to be in relationship, we must define ourselves.  Again, this is a rather tricky sort of thing to do in this day and age.  Every time a person or entity defines itself, it puts someone on the outside.  There is "me" and then there is "not me".  There is a strong vein running through the ELCA right now that insists all are welcome...all have a place.  Well, that's technically an impossibility.  If we define ourselves as Christian, then those who do not believe in Christ don't have a place.  They must first come to believe, and then they will actually feel welcome.  If we define ourselves as understanding that Christ is present in the Sacrament "in, with, and under the bread and the wine," then those who believe otherwise (transubstantiation, memorial presence) don't have a place.  If we define ourselves as having salvation by grace alone (Romans 3), then those who believe salvation is a combination of grace and works (James 2:24) do not have a place.  It doesn't mean we cannot fellowship with folks who believe differently or that we cannot worship together, but it does mean their ideas conflict with our own and are not considered to be true.

And yet, even though we cause conflict by articulating our beliefs, we must define ourselves.  If we do not define ourselves, we are nothing more than an amorphous entity floating around in the midst of an amorphous culture that doesn't know who it is or what it is supposed to do.  We must say, "This is what we believe."  And, we must also be willing to defend our beliefs and understandings and articulate them in a manner others can understand them.

For Lutherans, we must always begin with the understanding we are first and foremost Christian, and it is within that faith we define our core beliefs and understandings. 

From this starting point, our self-definition as Lutheran Christians turns to the Augsburg Confession, Smalcald Articles, and other documents found within the Book of Concord.  Within these pages, we get the foundational articles of the Lutheran faith and identity.  We get guidance on how to interpret scripture.  We come to understand the lens through which we look.  In short, we get our worldview.

Oh, I can hear the criticism start now:

The AC was written 500 years ago and the issues it was addressing then are not the same issues we are addressing now!  (The same thing could be said of Scripture, except we must extend the dates back millenia instead of centuries.)

The Book of Concord was written by a bunch of white men who had no concept of what (pick your particular subjective group here) go through!

This stuff was written by those who were in elite positions of the establishment, so they have little concern for the perspective of the poor, the marginalized, etc.!

All well and good.  But utterly unsatisfactory criticism; for the task of the Lutheran theologian is to take the concepts raised in the Book of Concord and the documents within and apply them to said situations.  The Book of Concord is the starting point with understanding Lutheran identity, and it moves outward toward such issues.  Not the other way around.

It is these basic fundamentals  (funny, no matter how much I or anyone like Timothy Keller or other thinkers articulate this, many within the Lutheran Church continue to say, "Those fundamentalist Christians out there..." instead of actually seeing that they themselves are fundamentalists) which help us stand out as a people of faith. 

Unfortunately, I would argue that many have forgotten these fundamentals and are persuaded by many of the trendy theologies: the resurgence of the social gospel/social justice movement, liberation theologies, ethnic and gender driven theologies, etc.  I have no problem with folks delving into such theologies and being influenced by them; however, these are not the things that set us apart as Lutherans.  Our confessions do.