After my talk, I retired back to my hotel room and decided to have a drink at the bar before I retired for the evening. As I was sitting there, I heard a group of about six middle-aged men talking about church, preaching, and pastoral work. The barkeep told me they were Lutheran pastors attending a conference in town.
So, I introduced myself to them. They were cordial and I invited them to come to the Lutheran men’s retreat being held in Poynette this coming May. Then one of them declared, “We’re not Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) pastors, we’re Wisconsin Synod Lutherans (WELS). I remember telling them that I considered this a great opportunity to talk with WELS pastor. Although I had served in city with a WELS congregation for nine years, I had never met their pastor. While we had invited him to our local clergy association, he never attended.
Then one of them said they had “doctrinal issues” with other Lutherans (including Episcopalians). I told him that while we may have “doctrinal issues” with one another at least we can come together, as St, Paul suggested in his Letter to the Romans, because of a simple declaration. Paul said, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9) Not enough, I was told. First we must have unity in doctrine. Now I don’t want to pick on Wisconsin Synod Lutherans because I have to admit that I have run into this with other Christian denominations over the years.
Now I have to confess that I have prayed with Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and even non-believers who were just being careful. How can this be that some Christians cannot or will not pray with other Christians? I have to admit that every time this has happened to me I have felt, well, discriminated against. While I am not being excluded on the basis of my color, race, gender or sexual preference, I have still felt a nagging sense of being excluded on the basis of my belief because I didn’t believe exactly as someone else did!
The next day, I got online and went to their church’s website. Under “Questions and Answers,” I found this: “What’s the difference between WELS and other Lutherans?” They answer that that Christ's prayer in John 17 is that his followers be brought to complete unity in order to let the world know that God the Father sent him as our Savior (vv. 20-23). They also call to the questioners attention that “God also cautions us to avoid false teachers (e.g. Romans 16:17) and people whose lives do not follow his Word (1 Corinthians 5:11).”
Yes, that is true and I can agree – so far – that we Christians need unity and ought to beware of false teachers and evil persons. But they go further: “So we believe that Christ intends us to be united in doctrine and practice with other Christians before we join in proclaiming the gospel of Christ, gather together around the Lord's Table, or engage in other forms of church fellowship (my emphasis). This is the faith that Christ has given us, and it is the key difference between WELS and many other Lutheran church bodies.” (From the WELS website at: http://www.wels.net/about-wels/doctrinal-statements).
This is the faith Christ has given us? Now I am not a scholar of the New Testament, but in my reading of what Jesus said and did this is NOT the faith that he gave us! This is divisive, discriminatory and simply untrue. But what does this look like to those who are not Christians? They must think we are nuts! We certainly would not look like a group of people others may want to join unless exclusion and separation was what they were looking for.
And this exclusion and separation among Christians is not just to limited to musty “doctrinal matters;” it goes to deep levels of the human community like who can be married or buried and who cannot? Which child will be baptized and which one will not? It goes against human nature by limiting leadership roles to only those who are male or restricting those who can partake in the Lord’s Supper. Exclusion and separation do not build community.
The night ended and I sadly departed having been unsuccessful in gaining their acceptance of my comments or me. These were not bad or evil men, but on the day in which I was celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I had the feeling I was being discriminated against. This is not something a white middle class guy like me has experienced very often – if ever! Maybe this is part of what discrimination, segregation and apartheid are all about – if you look and act like one of us, then we may accept you.
The gospels tell us Jesus intentionally broke the “unity” rules of both his religion and society by talking to women, eating with sinners and healing lepers. Sure, Jesus wanted unity, but not at the expense of marginalizing those deeply in need of a loving and forgiving God! Yes, Lord, I do pray that we all would be one – the “oneness” of loving inclusion that you died for!
No comments:
Post a Comment