For the sake of the world. . .

I will admit for a long time having shelved the ecumenical task of the churches to a less than urgent status.  After all, when the ELCA Lutherans have so far departed from their confession that they are more at ease with those who share none of it than they are with those who confess it still, you have to wonder if it is worth it all.  For good or for ill, both the ELCA and Missouri seem to be at peace having little or nothing to do with each other.  I get it.  It is easier.  

And there are those who would apply the same strictures to life with in each of those bodies.  There are those who hang on in a liberal body, having refused to follow the lead of the national body and living within the comfort of their own locale (and the hope that the worst will not occur in their own back yard). They are mistaken, of course.  There is little hope for the ELCA to change back into anything that it once was.  But they have found a corner in which to live for a time.  There are those who hang on in a conservative body, distancing themselves from the rest of their church in order to carve out some safe space within a tolerant district or congregation.  They might be less mistaken in their hope since the trajectory overall has been a slower or quicker pace toward liberalization among nearly all church bodies.  Indeed, the LCMS is the one which has formally and, to most observers, successfully turned back the liberal tide.  But this is not the ecumenism of which I speak.

The second thoughts I have are in view of what happens when conservative and orthodox Christians lose their voice in the larger Christian conversation.  Yes, we do have a witness against what those who have thrown Scripture and the catholic doctrinal and liturgical legacy under the bus.  We also have a witness against the world which typically makes little or no distinction between orthodox and heretical Christian views or bodies.  I do think there is value in the ecumenical conversation for several reasons.  One may surprise you.  We know ourselves better when we must define ourselves to others.  Some of the best of Lutheran conversation was when we were serious in our dialogue with serious Roman Catholics and Orthodox and even Protestants.  It broke down not because we lost our voice but it became clear that Lutherans were not headed down the same path and we could not speak as one.  Nonetheless, much of what eventually silenced the conversation between, for example, the ELCA and Missouri was portended already in the ecumenical conversations in which we were engaged.  Having to define yourself to others is not a wasted or bad thing but a fruitful endeavor even for yourself.

In addition, we gain from a critique from others.  Half of all arguments around the world are based on misunderstandings or vagaries that beg for clarity.  We are often clearer in our own minds than we are in conversation with others.  It does not hurt us to have someone ask what this means or what this has to do with that.  They also gain from us.  The honest admission in the early days of the ELCA embrace of sex and gender decisions was telling -- they admitted that they had departed from Lutheran confession and practice and even catholic teaching in choosing to regularize same sex marriage and open the clergy to those who claimed and practiced such once forbidden desires and gender feelings.  That is not a bad thing to have someone point out that you are not doing or believing as you once did.   

Finally, the world will hear only one side of the Christian story without the voices of those who confess along with the saints who have gone before.  It is worth remembering that people are not living comfortably outside the Church because they do not know what Christianity is but because they they think they already know, have decided that what they already know is either not worth it or does not apply, and have rejected Christian truth.  While this is their perception, it is not the reality.  They have a stereotyped version of Christianity which has been corrupted by those who have disdained the Scriptures and the witness of the saints.  How will they know this unless we are still at the table protesting those who give Christianity a false identity?  The ecumenical conversation is one that happens outside the echo chamber of Christian bodies or the world apart from this witness and it is worth our time and effort to continue to engage and to speak for Christ and in His name to those not yet of His kingdom.  We can and we really do accomplish this by the effective work of the ecumenical conversation.

So long ago I barely remember, I was the single LCMS observer at the table when Episcopalians and LCA Lutherans were talking together.  This happened along the Hudson River when I was so green it was embarrassing.  One of the things I discovered is that the Lutherans had a doctrinally sound understanding of the Real Presence but our practice sucked.  When it came to planning the first inter-communion between those in dialogue, the Lutheran participants said their people would not commune unless individual cups were used and the Episcopalians said their people would not commune unless the chalice was used.  All of a sudden my Lutheran smugness at having a solid confessional identity was shaken by the reality that sometimes people without the words are doing a better job of living them out than we were.  By the way, one of the sticking points was not simply how people would commune but how you would deal with the reliquae from so many little bitty cups.  Sadly, some Lutherans revealed how shallow their orthodoxy by admitting that they did not even think about what was done with what remains of the Sacrament.  Ouch.  That was an ecumenical conversation in which I learned as much about Lutherans as I did about Episcopalians!