Although this might seem like a rather picky point to make and even a rather narrow minded perspective, it is not. No one joins a church which has a split personality or more than one doctrinal and liturgical face. Do they? Maybe it was once possible to limit your sense of the Church to one congregation but not today. After all, we live in mobile world in which our people pack up and move many times throughout their lives. Furthermore, the differences between the various congregations of the seemingly same confession are not just window dressing differences but real and substantial. In a world in which people seem more and more interested in authenticity, which one is authentic?
Indeed, that is the problem. Which one is the real one? Lutherans have tried for a very long time to presume that there is no real face to Lutheranism -- they are all real and we even have a term for it. It is called adiaphora. We have adopted that term to mean that anything can go on Sunday morning -- within certain limited boundaries -- so long as the kernel of faith is preserved in theory. I do not buy it but it is the party line, so to speak. What this means is that Lutheranism presents itself in a variety of ways to those within the tradition and to those either interested or merely curious. The range is rather mind boggling. Some of us have bishops and some do not. Some have female clergy and some do not. Some confess the whole Book of Concord and some merely the Augsburg Confession. Some have adopted the Western version of sexual desire and gender identity and some have not. Some have praise bands and some have pipe organs. Some have pop gospel choruses and some have hymns. Some have an open table and some practice close(d) communion. Some have vestments and some have torn jeans and tees. I could go on. You get the point. So would the real Lutheran Church stand up? Que. They all stand. Ah. Duh.
Rome has an equally confusing face on Sundays. Some have Novus Ordo and some have Vetus Ordo. Some have reverence and tradition and some have casual informality all over the place. Some have pep talks on spirituality as sermons and some have, well, sermons. Some like Rome and the Pope and some want to keep both as far away from them as possible. Some kneel and some stand. Some hold out their hands and some wait for the Sacrament to be placed on their tongues. Some have altar rails and some are tearing them out. Some want a dictator pope and some want to introduce democracy into Rome. Some want married and female priests and some could leave it if ever showed signs of happening. Would the real Roman Catholic parish please stand up?
No matter where you stand on these issues, the truth is obvious. They all cannot be right or can they? Is Christianity more a state of mind than a liturgical identity or a creedal confession? I fear that those who may be interested in a Christianity neither lite nor paranoid will have to admit that not all the incarnations which display the name Lutheran are right or can have the same claim to fame. Eventually, we will have to resolve this (and so will Rome!). Even if we cannot muster the strength to resolve the untenable disparities for the sake of God and the people of God, then at least we need to resolve it for the sake of those who might be interested in trading the vacuous version of Christianity of the liberal left or no version at all from those who refused to teach it to their children into something authentic. At least I hope so...
3 comments:
How I wish there were no denominations at all, and that all believers would be one in spirit and truth, and strive to embrace “authentic” Christianity, as Christ taught us, and not seek our own disparate and contentious theological paths, insisting we are right all the time. There has always been little unity, both within denominations and between them. Not only disunity, but religious wars and persecution within the church bodies have created many forms of antagonism and grief through the centuries. Do we not, as Paul exclaimed, “preach the message of the Cross?” Yet, the elusive unity we seek is wishful thinking, and a dream that will never come true on this side of glory. As the first pages of One Corinthians are turned, we read how Paul was troubled in the very beginning as various groups of believers started forming into sectarian branches. The word of God seems clear in the fundamentals of the faith, yet men find areas to contend for the truth, developing doctrines from the fine points of scripture. True, Jesus spoke in figurative language as well as plainly, and it is true furthermore that in our imperfect minds we can draw false conclusions, and consciously mix truth and error. I have no answer for this. It is sin and pride that caused the church to fracture into many denominations. But it is what it is. The believer must still hold onto the revealed truth of God’s word, and must honestly admit to a lack of understanding of some of the things we read in Holy Writ. I think the Lord prefers we be honest with Him, and confess things we do not understand, including contentious doctrines, and trust that through the Holy Spirit, we will be lead to authentic Christianity. It begins with having a heart for God, and a love for His word.
Soli Deo Gloria
PM: “It is called adiaphora. We have adopted that term to mean that anything can go on Sunday morning -- within certain limited boundaries -- so long as the kernel of faith is preserved in theory.”
That’s not the definition given in SD.X:
1] Concerning ceremonies and church rites which are neither commanded nor forbidden in God’s Word, but are introduced into the Church with a good intention, for the sake of good order and propriety, or otherwise to maintain Christian discipline
4] …we present to the Christian reader this simple statement regarding the matter [in conformity with the Word of God]:
5] Namely, when under the title and pretext of external adiaphora such things are proposed as are in principle contrary to God’s Word (although painted another color), these are not to be regarded as adiaphora, in which one is free to act as he will, but must be avoided as things prohibited by God….
31] Thus [According to this doctrine] the churches will not condemn one another because of dissimilarity of ceremonies when, in Christian liberty, one has less or more of them, provided they are otherwise agreed with one another in the doctrine and all its articles, also in the right use of the holy Sacraments, according to the well-known saying: Dissonantia ieiunii non dissolvit consonantiam fidei; “Disagreement in fasting does not destroy agreement in the faith.”
There is nothing more "authentic Christianity" and catholic than the confessional Lutherans. No one else would dare claim: the desire to believe, teach, confess, practice the faith as the Church always has; without making things up, adding or subtracting to God's Word. Who else? No one would dare claim that! Who else celebrates the 2 Sacraments as Jesus instituted and the early Church practiced? Who else holds to male only clergy as God's Word states? Who else holds the Bible as holy, inerrent? Sadly, no one else. Of course that is not to say others are not Christian, but historically the confessional Lutherans are the truest form of the catholic Church in doctrine and practice. No one else is that close. We see since Genesis and forward, people won't leave wrong/bad teachings. What is truth? No surprise there are so many divisions. Learn history. Authentic Christianity can be found!
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