About Me
Great Post on Lutheran Theology vs. Traditional Protestant Theology
1 comments Posted by Mr. T at 1:48 PMGreat post over on the 'Confessing Evangelical' Blog - major points quoted written by an Anglican Philip Cary BTW. This for me really hits the nail on the head as to why I became a Lutheran (vs. a Calvanist) - the basis of assurance that is not based on my faith (my work), but on Christ's word. The more I read about the Lutherans on their sacremental theology, the more this makes sense. Take a look.
http://www.confessingevangelical.com/?p=1237
Well I'm a day late, but better late than never. I just realized, or more accurately just remembered, that I can send emails to automatically post to my blog which has essentially laid dormant since I began my new job.
At any rate, yesterday was Reformation Day which commerates the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to door of the cathedral in Wittenberg which would be the spark that reignighted the recapturing of the gospel and change history profoundly. Solo del Gloria!
T
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
This gives new meaning to don't mess with Texas.
Apparently, the new law extends a person's right to stand their ground beyond the home to vehicles and workplaces, allowing the reasonable use of deadly force.
The reasonable use of lethal force will be allowed if an intruder is:
- Committing certain violent crimes, such as murder or sexual assault, or is attempting to commit such crimes
- Unlawfully trying to enter a protected place
- Unlawfully trying to remove a person from a protected placeWatch out y'all...
Texas signs new self-defense by gun law - Yahoo! News
Turn up the volume on this spot by ad house, Partizan meant to celebrate 60 years of collaboration between Shell and Ferrari. Shot in Rome, Monaco, Rio, Sydney, New York and Hong Kong. Very cool.
Classic. Thought I'd pass this along, and I can't believe it was in Slate. I see this all the time here in NYC - Yoga religion that is really just repacked self help.
I particularly liked the ending
The final step in the great journey of self-understanding the Yoga Journal editors have force-marched her on is realizing it's all about her "relationship with herself." Whitney Houston yoga: I found the greatest love of all—Me! It's the return of New Age Me-generation narcissism. And there's nothing worse than narcissism posing as humility.
Hey, if Buddhism and other Eastern traditions are about compassion, why not skip the scented bath, skip making amends with the self, skip realization of "the opportunity to embrace aparigraha or non-grasping." Instead, go down to the local soup kitchen or homeless shelter and help some people who don't have the resources to send flowers to themselves, people who actually need help. Rather than continuing the endless processes of anointing yourself with overly scented candlelit self-love.
After all this self-indulgence, it's almost refreshing to turn to a yoga magazine that offers stuff like, "BURN FAT FASTER!"
The entire article from Slate.com is clipped below - - -
Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2162283/
The Hostile New Age Takeover of Yoga
There's nothing worse than narcissism posing as humility.
By Ron Rosenbaum
Posted Wednesday, March 21, 2007, at 4:37 PM ET
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against yoga—or Eastern disciplines in general. In fact, I've done tai chi exercises for many years.
No, it's the commodification and rhetorical dumbing-down of yoga culture that gets to me. The way something that once was—and still can be—pure and purifying has been larded with mystical schlock. Once a counterweight to our sweaty striving for ego gratification, yoga has become an unctuous adjunct to it.
There is the exploitative and ever-proliferating "yoga media." The advent of yoga fashion (the yoga mat, the yoga-mat carrier, and yoga-class ensembles). And worst of all, the yoga rhetoric, that soothing syrupy "yoga-speak" that we all know and loathe.
It all adds up to what a friend recently called the "hostile New Age takeover of yoga." "New Age" culture being those scented-candle shrines to self-worship, the love-oneself lit of The Secret, the "applied kinesiology"-type medical and metaphysical quackery used to support a vast array of alternative-this or alternative-that magical-thinking workshops and spa weekends. At its best, it's harmless mental self-massage. At its worst, it's the kind of thinking that blames cancer victims for their disease because they didn't "manifest" enough positive vibes.
One "manifestation" of this takeover is the shameless enlistment of yoga and elevated Eastern yogic philosophy for shamelessly material Western goals. Rather than an alternative, it's become an enabler. "Power yoga"! Yoga for success! Yoga for regime change! (Kidding.)
And then there's what you might call "Yoga for Supermarket Checkout Line Goals." Or as the cover story of Rodale's downmarket magazine YogaLife put it, yoga to: "BURN FAT FASTER!" (Subsidiary stories bannered on the YogaLife cover: "4 WAYS TO LOSE 5 POUNDS"; "ZEN SECRETS TO: HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS ... INSTANT CALM.")
Gotta love "Zen Secrets to Instant Calm," right? It goes right along with other cover lines like "Double Your Flexibility Today!" and "Heal Winter Skin Now!"
Clearly what the ancient inventors of yogic wisdom had in mind: Now! Instant! Today! Very Eastern, calm, and meditative right?
But even more insidious than the easily satirizable but at least down-to-earth and honest magazines like YogaLife—or ethereally serious ones like Yoga + Joyful Living (which coaches readers in "The Breath of Self-Understanding")—are the mainstream yoga publications such as Yoga Journal, one of the most popular, prosperous, and respectable yoga magazines.
In fact, my impetus for this examination of yoga media came from a sharp-witted woman I know who practices yoga but frankly concedes that—for her, anyway—it's less about Inner Peace than Outer Hotness. She called my attention to what she called an amazingly clueless—and ultimately cruel (to the writer)—decision by the editors of Yoga Journal to print a first-person story that was ostensibly about the yogic wisdom on forgiveness in relationships.
The story, which appeared in the December 2006 issue, was titled "Forgive Yourself." It's by this woman who tells us about an "intense" friendship she once had with a guy nearly 20 years ago, when they were 16. She says it was "never romantic," and it clearly wasn't—on his part.
Somehow she picked a fight with him—remember, this was 20 years ago. She defaced some "artwork" he'd done on the back of her jean jacket and danced with some other boys in an attempt to make him jealous.
She claims he gave her a "stricken" look.
Then, 20 years later, she starts to hound the guy. She claims she just happened to be going through some boxes and found a journal of his. She claims the journal convinced her that what she needed to do was apologize and ask his forgiveness. So she Google-stalks him, or, as she puts it: "With the help of an Internet search engine, I tracked him down and sent an e-mail. I told him I was sorry and that I hoped we could talk."
She "got no response but figured the e-mail address was out of date." Right.
Anyway she doesn't let that stop her. "After more digging"—by what methods we're not told—"I found a phone number and left a message on his machine."
Her message: "Wow, what a trip to hear your voice! … I missed you!"
He didn't call back.
But no response doesn't really mean no, to her. So, "a month later, in desperation, I sent him a short letter," in which she tells him, "You deserved better. I betrayed your love and friendship and I'm sorry. I made life worse for you and I regret it."
Doesn't regret it enough to stop pestering him now though. And notice how at first she'd disclaimed there was anything romantic, but now she's all "I betrayed your love." And then there's the poem: "I hope you can forgive me," she concludes the note, adding: "I included a poem I'd written for him some years earlier."
Restraining order time!
Instead he makes the mistake of responding. "About a month later an envelope arrived," she writes, "addressed in that familiar handwriting. I opened it with trembling hands and found a short note wrapped around my letter and poem."
"What part of no don't you understand?" his note said. "I never want to hear from you again." Cruel, true, but maybe "cruel to be kind."
"What part of no" does she not understand? Just about every single part of no there is.
What does this have to do with yoga wisdom and its Western use? One might think yoga would counsel acceptance of his feelings. Instead, she takes it as an invitation for further intense inward gazing. Her interpretation: He's afraid of being hurt again. He just doesn't understand her: He thought "I clearly hadn't changed if I was expecting him to give me something (forgiveness) along with everything I'd taken from him." (Don't worry, it took me several readings to figure this out too.)
"I sat down and started to cry. I felt as if I'd been punched in the gut. What could I do now? How would I ever be able to move on?"
So, using her deep yogic intuition again she decides there is one way of "moving on": She can write a several-thousand-word article for Yoga Journal about him and her and how we all can learn something from this about "forgiveness."
"Moving on"? Somehow one wonders if she sent the article to him, perhaps with another poem. And an invitation to "journal" their way to a mutual understanding. Or maybe meet to discuss "closure"?
But look, it's not really her fault; we've all been there. As my sharp-witted friend, who is herself an editor, points out, it is here one has to question the deep yogic wisdom of the editors of Yoga Journal who don't seem to be able to—or want to—see what is going on and instead encourage the writer's "journey"—her quest, her stalking—of "self-discovery."
Thus, we get the classic Western women's magazine "relationship story" translated into Eastern yoga-speak. Indeed they give it prominent placement in the issue and subject their readers to the endless New Age clichés of pablum-dispensing yoga-wisdom "experts" who further encourage the hapless writer not to move on but to dwell endlessly, excruciatingly, on the microanalysis of the situation.
Instead of counseling her just to leave the poor guy alone, they direct her to dwell on her need to forgive herself: Some "research associate" at Stanford tells her "when people can't forgive, their stress levels increase which can contribute to cardiovascular problems."
The poor young woman! All she wants is help, and now she's told she's going to have a heart attack.
Another yogic savant, a "clinical psychologist with Elemental Yoga in Boston" even disses the poor guy and further encourages the writer's obsession, clearly getting the whole thing wrong: "He's the one that can't let go," the "yoga therapist" opines. Right. I guess he wrote that poem to himself.
More yogic "experts" are brought in to prescribe even more "work" on herself. Instead of advising her to leave the whole thing behind, and perhaps perform some act of compassion for someone who needs real help (the admirable Eastern tradition), the yoga experts advise her to enmesh herself in a tediously obsessive spiral of self-examination, which the magazine compounds by prescribing a five-step forgiveness ritual for achieving—you guessed it!—"closure."
The interminable ritual, which is the work of the purportedly steeped-in-yogic-wisdom editors, not the unfortunate writer, begins with "a ritual bath" complete with "scents" and "candles."
Then there's the inevitable "journal" in which you must write down all your "thoughts, feelings and memories." ... "What you learned ... what you'll change ... anything that comes into your head." It's a full-time job!
But that's not all there is to the endless forgiveness ritual (which, remember, is not about forgiving him but forgiving herself because he won't forgive her), there's the semi-demi witchcraft aspect: "Write down the patterns you seek to change in yourself; then burn what you've written." (They neglect to add, "Use this as reminder to change the batteries in your smoke detector.")
But it's not over, the endless ritual. You must next and last, "Send yourself flowers when you've completed letting go."
No premature floral deliveries, mind you. Only when you've "completed" letting go, which sending yourself flowers certainly signals. OK maybe one more poem, but that's it! This is the kind of misguided narcissism (it's always all about you; metaphorically, it's all sending flowers to yourself) that gives yoga, an ancient, honorable tradition, a bad name. This is what is meant by the "hostile New Age takeover of yoga." All this hectoring about the right way to feel. Yoga and other Eastern disciplines are supposed to work from the inside out and not depend on product placement candles, scented bath oils, and "yoga therapists."
And it's still not over! If the ritual bath and flower-sending don't do the trick, there's a "four-step practice rooted in Tibetan Buddhist philosophy that can take us through the process of making amends." You could spend a lifetime "moving on" from some imagined 20-year-old incident. Then move on to the next incredibly elaborate "Moving On" ceremony. You never get to move in, or move out.
The final step in the great journey of self-understanding the Yoga Journal editors have force-marched her on is realizing it's all about her "relationship with herself." Whitney Houston yoga: I found the greatest love of all—Me! It's the return of New Age Me-generation narcissism. And there's nothing worse than narcissism posing as humility.
Hey, if Buddhism and other Eastern traditions are about compassion, why not skip the scented bath, skip making amends with the self, skip realization of "the opportunity to embrace aparigraha or non-grasping." Instead, go down to the local soup kitchen or homeless shelter and help some people who don't have the resources to send flowers to themselves, people who actually need help. Rather than continuing the endless processes of anointing yourself with overly scented candlelit self-love.
After all this self-indulgence, it's almost refreshing to turn to a yoga magazine that offers stuff like, "BURN FAT FASTER!"
Ron Rosenbaum's most recent book is The Shakespeare Wars.
Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2162283/
Black Snake Moan
So I went to see Black Snake Moan on Friday with my boys Jonathan and Tim. Timmy really wanted to see Reno 9-11, but Jonathan and I were able to persuade him that Black Snake Moan was the way to go. With a name like Black Snake Moan, not a lot of persuading was needed.
Thoughts - in a nutshell - this is a fantastic movie. Best movie I've seen all year, though I haven't seen a whole lot of movies this year.
We had a mixed crowd of movie-goers with everyone from the tragically hip, urban hip hop types, wall street yuppies and most everything in between. Interesting mix to say the least.
Two Qualifications:
1) I'm a blues FANATIC and the sound track done on Fat Possum records is incrdeible.
Why do I like the blues? Simply, because the blues keeps it real in the realest of ways. The blues is about human weakness, sadness and at times redemption. The blues calls a thing a thing and doesn't try to cover up the rhythms of struggle that play in our world. The blues understands the human condition, understands struggle and understands weakness - and doesn't apologize for any of it.
2) I'm also a gospel junkie with a low anthropology.
What does that mean? It means that I don't think people are intrinsically good, but that we're all broken and in need of rescue. It means that I believe we we always act in our own self interest unless something external breaks in and pulls in a different direction. It means that even when this rescue happens, we will resist it and will continue to resist it the rest of our days. It means our rescue is totally undeserved and comes 100% at the expense of another. It also means that our continued resistance once rescued (or our continued desire to serve ourselves), does not make us any less rescued.
How does this relate to Black Snake Moan?
This movie (in my ever so humble opinion) is about
Powerlessness
The need for rescue
External redemption/rescue that is actively resisted and not deserved
Redemption/change in light of the rescue
Continued struggle despite being freed
I thought maybe I'd break down each of those points, but alas I'm too lazy. Check out the flick and see if you agree.
What happens to people is that when they get to a state of betterment in their lives, instead of feeling satisfied, they feel discontent,' says Farson. 'It's the theory of rising expectations.
... or the human condition - ie we're never satisfied (Mick Jagger).
Click for Link
As a former smoker, and general skeptic (if not adversary) of moralizing legalistics seeking to legislate morality, I'm strangely sympathetic to these prisoners.
No smoking in prison? Come on.
Click for link to CNN
As the night progressed they started saying, 'Look, we'll give up if you let us have some tobacco. If you do that, we'll go back to our cell,'' Carlton said. 'They got them some cigarettes, they smoked them and went back to their cell and locked themselves back in.'"
Check out this interview with the director of Black Snake Moan...
"We're bound to each other" | Salon Arts & Entertainment:
I'm exploring something that has nothing to do with race or gender. I'm the crazy girl on the end of that chain. I'm the one who felt I was losing control of my mind and my body because I was not tethered to anyone. And I needed to be snapped back. I needed my father, who died at 49 of a heart attack, to tell me, 'It's gonna be OK, and you're not alone. Everybody goes crazy at certain times in their life. You're entitled to some happiness, you're entitled to some unconditional love. And it will never stop. You will constantly be getting punched in the gut, being exploited, being judged.
Interesting article from today's Boston Globe. I've yet to read that McCullough book on Truman, but it's on my short list.
Ex-presidents' big payday - The Boston Globe:
WHEN HARRY Truman left the White House in 1953, historian David McCullough records, "he had no income or support of any kind from the federal government other than his Army pension of $112.56 a month. He was provided with no government funds for secretarial help or office space, not a penny of expense money." To tide him over for the transition back to private life, Truman had to take out a bank loan. One of the reasons he and his wife moved back into their far-from-elegant old house in Independence, Mo., "was that financially they had little other choice."
Nevertheless, Truman refused to cash in on his celebrity and influence as a former president. He turned down lucrative offers, such as the one from a Florida real estate developer inviting him to become "chairman, officer, or stockholder, at a figure of not less than $100,000." He wouldn't make commercial endorsements, accept "consulting" fees, or engage in lobbying. He wouldn't even take the free car that
Toyota offered him as a gesture of improved Japanese-American relations."I could never lend myself to any transaction, however respectable," Truman later wrote, "that would commercialize on the prestige and dignity of the office of the presidency." He did sell the rights to his memoirs for a handsome sum to Life magazine. But he turned down every other enticement to trade on his former position for private gain.
Half a century later, Truman's rectitude seems as quaint and obsolete as George Washington's wooden teeth.
I have absolutely no comment on this one. I ran across this online last year, and just dug it up for your viewing pleasure. Crazy is a severe understatement. This guy definitely qualifies for the "No Moderation" label. Apparently he was on public access in LA during the 90's.
One of my favorite lines, "You Satan, huh? Who created yo ass, Satan??"
Yes, yes it does.
I particularly liked Rick's connection between making the law-gospel distinction and the assurance of salvation. I can totally relate. If I look to my own performance (vs looking to the performance of Christ alone - on the cross) than I only become discouraged and doubting b/c I know I'll never pull it off.
Click for Rick Richtie's thoughts on Law - Gospel
"When I discovered Systematic Theology, and especially the distinction between Law and Gospel, I was able to recover the assurance I had lost earlier. I was able to return to my previous conviction that Christ's death could get me into heaven despite my sin, or flabby repentance. Let's be clear about this. There are probably not very many people who imagine that Christ's death didn't pay for all the sins of those he suffered for. What goes into question is whether faith in that is enough to keep the connection despite sins."
Thought I'd post this b/c it is such a good summary of glory theology vs. cross theology - - - Tom
A Theology of Glory and a Theology of the Cross by Don Matzat:
Living in a theology of the Cross never makes you any "better" than anyone else. Every day in every way you are not getting better and better. In fact, the preaching of Law and Gospel will not lead you to an awareness of your holiness, but rather to greater awareness of the depth of your sin. As a result, you will develop an ever-increasing faith in and appreciation for the redeeming work of Jesus Christ.Your witness will focus upon the work of the Cross, not upon your experience of getting saved, sanctified, or becoming more spiritual. You have taken no step toward God or arrived at any higher level of holiness. You don’t talk about your spirituality. You talk about the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
When dealing with these issues on the radio, I often encounter opposition. People will fight to defend their theology of glory. I often challenge them to share their testimony without ever talking about themselves. I have developed the pet phrase, "This thing called Christianity – it’s not about you!"
Martin Luther accurately defined sin as man turning in on himself. While a theology of glory continues to turn you to yourself as you measure your growth in holiness against a plethora of spiritual experiences, the theology of the Cross turns you away from yourself. As a result of the conviction of the Law, you forsake your own good works and spiritual experiences and cling to the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Growing up in the southern part of northern Virginia before it became "gentrified", this takes me back. Yee haa!
Horn Swoggled has some great Lutheran satire - think of it as the Onion for the Wittenberg crowd.
Nondenominational Church: "Did We Say Lutherans?"
A non-denominational church in St. Louis has fired its marketing director after a series of online advertisements featured the headline, "Lutherans welcome." Ever since the ads appeared on relevant blogs and other websites, the church has been beseiged by people who believe things. " We want to reach out to people of all denominations," said Pastor Don Shallows of Big Life Community Church. "We also have ads targeting unhappy Methodists, unhappy Baptists, and even unhappy Muslims.
"But when we say 'Lutherans welcome,' we're not actually referring to people who believe Lutheran teaching. That's going a bit too far."
Since the Google ads began appearing on Lutheran websites, the 1,000-member congregation has been plagued by controversy. It started when a small group of Lutherans grumbled about a 10-week message series on Biblical parenting, because it didn't center on the cross of Christ.
When church leaders ignored their complaints, the Lutherans enlisted several Roman Catholics, and began openly making the sign of the cross at the conclusion of prayers.
aka When spoiled rich girls dont get the correct color car for..
Props to my boy Jonathan Hansen for sending this link to me. I think how often I react to God in the same way this girl reacted to her father.
What advances the sinner on the way to righteousness? The utter futility of human work in contributing toward this advance has now been exposed....
- Gerhard Forde from On Being a Theologian of the Cross
Jonathan Hansen - my dear friend and brother sent this to me this morning and what an encouraging word about failure - specifically about that great paradox of how when we lose we win.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Tom
Since it is Monday, I thought this might be appropriate.
Please be patient (not like anyone is reading anyway), b/c I'm not done editing this new template.
"The first commandment assumes that before you had God, He had you."
- - Patrick Miller via Pastor Priest.
Check out this amazing thread on one of my favorite sites - adventure rider. This guy is a fantastic storyteller. Short story - guy enters the Paris-Dakar rally, which for all you not in the know is a race across the North African desert and is prob. the most dangerous and thrilling road race on the planet. All types of vehicles race in this thing - motorcycles, rally cars, trucks, huge Unimogs, etc... Think Mad Max across the desert. These guys and girls are straight up Chuck Norris tough.
Anyway, Guy crashes. Guy gets airlifted to the Canary Islands and the medical adventure begins. Good times and a GREAT read.
Dakar crash - ADVrider
Buy this book. Amazing, and important - run don't walk to your nearest store or just click this link!
Interesting article from today's NY Times - makes me think of the old adage, "When you're pointing the finger, you've got 3 pointing back at you." I always hated that saying.
Click here for article
This is a great post by Uwe Simeon-Netto from Concordia Theological Seminary in St. Louis talking about the problems of Lutherans not stepping up in the public realm. He equates some of the problem a the loss of Two Kingdom theology. I think his criticism is fair and that often Lutherans huddle up too much.
Most non Lutherans I've talked with are blown away and hungry for the gospel and specifically for the Lutheran - biblical views on sin, the human condition and on the forgiveness of sins.
Simul Justus et Peccator
T
We Are Needed
Are Lutherans afraid to take on the world?
(from the November 2006 issue of the Lutheran Witness)
By Uwe Siemon-Netto
Here’s a question for my fellow Lutherans: When did we all become Old Order Mennonites? I am not joking. Only eleven years short of the Reformation’s 500th anniversary I seriously wonder how Lutheran we still are.
How come we don’t engage this warped postmodern world in which we live? How come we don’t face it head-on? Could it be that Lutherans don’t like dirtying their hands much in politics and in the major media, even though this is precisely what our theology tells us we should do?
Some Old Order Mennonites forbid political office to Christians. Well, they are entitled to their views. They don’t vote either, neither do they drink and make merry, go to the movies or laze around South Beach.
But that’s not the Lutheran way. Lutherans are expected to follow the Augsburg Confession, which roundly condemns in article 16 “those who do not locate evangelical perfection in the fear of God and in faith, but place it in forsaking political office.”
By the time you read this column the 2006 mid-term elections will probably be over. I don’t have to be a clairvoyant to predict right now that once again Lutherans will be woefully underrepresented among the 535 members of Congress. They always are. In the 109th Congress, only 20 of Lutherans held seats – 16 from the ELCA, three from the LCMS, and one solitary man from WELS.
On the other hand, there were 44 Episcopalians, whose church is a mere quarter as big as the three Lutheran denominations put together.
I am not whining. I don’t blame others. There is no anti-Lutheran pogrom afoot in the United States. Nobody keeps Lutherans out of politics deliberately, as there is nobody preventing Lutherans from reaching the most influential positions in journalism – nobody, that is, than Lutherans themselves.
I have heard it say that the Hate-the-Hun hysteria after World Wear I sent Lutherans into the catacombs, including Lutherans who are not even of German descent. Is that why there hasn’t been a Lutheran President of the United States? Well, Dwight D. Eisenhower was a two-term president. He wasn’t a Lutheran, but he was of German origin, and nobody held that against him.
So what’s the matter with us? Are we embarrassed by our identity? Sometimes it seems that way. There are Lutherans who want to be just mainline Protestants. Then there are Lutherans who want to be no different from Baptists. Then there are Lutherans who think like the late Rev. James D. Ford, Chaplain of the House of Representatives. “Lutheran, that’s boring,” he was overheard saying dismissively when somebody mentioned his denomination.
When I was at seminary, it was fashionable for Lutherans to call themselves beer-drinking Episcopalians. And when I went back to Germany recently I was stunned that even at a meeting of allegedly confessional Lutherans a participant suggested that we had better do away with our two kingdoms doctrine.
Well, if we did that Chaplain Ford would indeed be right: What a boring lot we would be! Imagine Lutherans without the liberating knowledge of being citizens of two realms, the spiritual and, yes, the unredeemed secular kingdom, where we must involve ourselves; where we must roll up our sleeves and act according to natural reason; where we lovingly serve our neighbors by performing our chores to the best of our abilities.
Imagine living without the knowledge while we do our duty in this sinful world we always have Christ’s right-hand kingdom to turn to for forgiveness and grace! Imagine going through life without the certitude of being at the same time sinners and acquitted! Who would want to get out of bed in the morning under those circumstances? Who would want to take care of their children, mend somebody else’s car, drill somebody’s tooth, or draw a cool beer for a thirsty man?
Who would run for public office --- oops, isn’t that where Lutherans have become as squeamish as the Old Order Mennonites? Perhaps at the very moment you are reading this, a ground-breaking forum will be held Nov. 3-4 on the Campus of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. It will try to address precisely this issue – the reluctance of Lutherans in America to confront our increasingly complicated reality.
Called to Engage the Postmodern World – The Lutheran Voice in Contemporary America, reads the title of this two-day conference, which surpasses the usual scope of a divinity school. Consider the theme one of the lectures: “Where is Luther now that we need him?” asks Dr. Harold O.J. Brown, a renowned professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC, and co-founder of the initiative Evangelicals and Catholics Together.
Indeed, where is Luther? Where is Luther’s pragmatic voice in this confused global environment where everybody from radical Muslims to befuddled, wayward Episcopalians seems to be “cooking and brewing the kingdoms together,” to use Luther’s dictum; he saw the devil at work where this occurs.
We Lutherans have it all – the right doctrine, even the right institutions. We have excellent schools that could prepare the next generation to take on the world. We have universities that could produce the best and most responsible journalists if only they woke up to that need. We have people with money – if only they’d put it where Luther’s mouth was.
Luther’s voice should come with an American accent, proposes Dr. Mark A. Noll, the great evangelical historian teaching at the University of Notre Dame, who as the keynote speaker at the Concordia Forum emphasizes the “Need for a Lutheran Perspective on Christianity and Politics.”
It’s more than a dozen years that Noll and similar great minds have told the oldest Protestant tradition that it was time to open up its theological treasure chest, knowing that if you share spiritual gems they do not diminish but actually multiply.
Here’s what Noll says about Luther: “In his voice we hear uncommon resonances of the voice of God.” If this is so – and I believe it is – then it is time for all of us to stop playing Amish, quit the sidelines, open our ears, listen to Luther, roll up our sleeves and start dirtying our hands. We are needed.
--0--
Dr. Uwe Siemon-Netto is director of the Concordia Seminary Institute on Lay Vocation, St. Louis.