Too much respect for. . .

There was a time when a family came to me desiring to have Baptist friends and family serve as sponsors (what many call godparents) for their first born child.  There was no amount of conversation that could dissuade them of their choice.  So I met with the sponsors.  I listened to them uneasily try to affirm their support for this decision to baptize a child which they could not do for themselves.  Then I put it too them in this way.  "I have too much respect for you as Baptists to deny what you believe in order to accommodate this family's request for you to affirm something you clearly reject."  The family and friends almost sighed with relief.  They were serious enough Christians to know that standing at the font and signaling their affirmation of what would take place there with this baby flew square in the face of everything they believed about deciding for God.  They only way they could preserve their integrity was to deny that anything was happening in that baptism except make believe.  And so they politely declined.

I only wish that we Lutherans had enough integrity not to ask of these Baptists that they swallow hard and say "I will" to something they knew in their heart of hearts they could do.  But that is the problem.  We Lutherans have some kind of strange angst about what we believe, teach, and confess that is completely alien to our Confessions.  There we plainly state that we hold to catholic doctrine and practice or will gladly change our belief and our usages.  But that is largely gone and it has been replaced with a strange distance from what we said we believed and one that would allow us to deny the core of that belief.  I wish someone could say of us Lutherans I have too much respect for you as Lutherans to deny what you believe and welcome to the Lord's altar those who believe nothing is there but a snack.  Yet that is the problem.  We instinctively believe that withholding the Sacrament from those who believe there is no sacrament is somehow unwelcoming and unfriendly.  It is just the opposite.

The most unfriendly thing we can do is to deny what is our core conviction for the sake of some feigned friendliness or fake hospitality at the altar rail.  We actually do believe what the Scriptures say.  Baptism now saves you.  Whatsoever sins you forgive on earth are forgiven in heaven.  This is My body and this is My blood.  Scripture is not an opinion but that voice that decides our opinion.  We believe those things.  Why are we so quick to deny our belief and invite those who do not hold to infant baptism or water that saves?  Why do we act like confession and absolution are some kind of ancient and long ago abandoned superstitious practice?  Why do we insist that everyone gets to decide for themselves what the bread is or is not, what the wine is or is not, and if they feel like consuming whatever it is or is not?  Why must we apologize for what Scripture clearly teaches about salvation by grace, God's order in the family and home, the worth and value of children, the creation of all things and their redemption, and the Gospel that is not do unto others as you would have them do unto you?

Do we really think the radical Protestants have more integrity than we do?  Do we really believe that our doctrine is private and should be kept a private matter while welcoming those who argue against what we believe, teach, and confess?  Do we really believe that God's will is the reconciled diversity in which there is no truth or the compromised Biblical order of life in which gender is fluid and sexual desire simply repackaged lust and sensuality?  If we do, then we need to wake up and smell the roses.  Integrity says that what we believe is formed by Scripture and how we practice flows from what we believe.  Anything other than this is a falsehood or, worse, a lie.  I am not saying we need to be mean about it.  But I am also not saying that we should feel so uncomfortable about the whole thing that we would deny the once and eternal truth for the sake of somebody's feelings.  We ought to have at least the theological integrity of the Baptists who know they should not be standing at the font holding a baby.