According to National Bishop Ray Schultz, the message that he has been taking across the country (for example, "A People Sent: Reflections on Mission in Context") is his articulation of the ELCIC's "mission theology", which provides "the background to how NCC [National Church Council] understands the blessing of same sex couples as a mission decision". Noteworthy is that the bishop's "mission theology" argument in support of the National Church Council's resolution concerning "mission to same sex couples" conveniently ignores and circumvents arguments that such a resolution is contrary to this church's constitution and teachings (For example, see the petition to the National Convention from Grace, Kelowna, the article "Flip-Flop at the Top", "Same-Sex Blessings - Two Year Later" (page 4 of recent (April) issue of The Forum, a publication of the Synod of Alberta and the Territories).
According to Article IV (Mission of the Church) in the ELCIC's constitution,
The mission of this church, as an expression of the universal Church and as an instrument of the Holy Spirit, is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with people in Canada and around the world through the proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the Sacraments and through service in Christ's name.
In his convention report, in the section entitled "Ecclesiology and Mission", Bishop Schultz declares that, as well as being the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the ELCIC, he, as bishop, "is the chief pastor of the ELCIC" and, as such, he "is responsible for articulating the mission of the church in its present context…" So what is this "mission theology" the ELCIC in its present context as articulated by Bishop Schultz in "A People Sent: Reflections on Mission in Context"? Note that the bishop's articulated "mission theology" superimposes a new, expanded understanding ("a new vision for mission that comes to terms with the world that is, not the world that was") upon this church's statement of mission as articulated in Article IV of our Constitution (above). The bishop's message in "A People Sent" is somewhat meandering. For example, he begins his presentation berating what he considers to be the "religious colonialism" of our Lutheran forbears who came to this country. From this portion of his talk, one concludes that he is saying that those who oppose same-sex blessings in this church are prejudiced, discriminatory and intolerant, a carry-over of the kind of "religious colonialism" thinking of our forbears. However, here is what we were able to discern as to the attributes of the ELCIC's "mission theology" from the bishop presentation, "A People Sent: Reflections on Mission in Context", and the questions these attributes raise:
The command: "We are going to be a church In Mission for Others."
- We ask: Not "In Mission for Christ to Others", that is, the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) to go out and spread the Gospel to all people, on Jesus' behalf, that is, for Him?
"This is our mission: to tell the story that we live with God in a relationship of grace: to assure people that neither our sin nor our virtue determines our place in God's kingdom."
- We ask: Does sin no longer separate us from God?
"No human act, not even making a decision for Jesus, or repenting of our sins, comes ahead of God's free gift of redeeming grace. Our mission is to tell that story in word and deed.
- We ask: Does Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" override Romans 6:12 "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires". Grace is always pre-eminent, but to deny the need for repentance is to teach universalism.
"Our Lutherans don't have the ability to recognize that Bible passages can be patched together to create almost any scenario or that those Bible passages reflect the culture and history and variety of social experiences of the people among whom they first were read".
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We ask if the bishop, like Marcus Borg in
Living the Questions, is saying that the Bible is not to be seen "as a divine product, the inerrant and infallible words of God" but rather "to be seen as a human product, a product of these ancient communities"?
"…many Lutherans don't know what constitutes faithful mission to gays and lesbians in the current culture…Chinese Christians have found ways to express the gospel that are specifically suited to their context and culture".
- We ask: Does this mean that the gospel and "what constitutes faithful mission" needs to be adapted and changed according to the culture of the day as it is expressed in different regions? Do the words of the hymn, "Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same" no longer apply?
"…our job is to shape our mission call in Canadian terms."
- We ask: No more in Christian terms to Canadian people?
"…when Jesus told the salvation story, he told it in words and images that people could understand in that particular time and place".
- We ask: Did that change the content of the gospel message of Jesus? Do truths change?
"The Main Thing for our church is to make sure that people hear the story of Jesus' faith as it applies to them in particular."
- We ask: Does that apply to their sin as well?
"Blessing (same-sex couples) is a relational act through which we proclaim the gospel. Our call to mission asks us: What is the relationship that will say to a gay or lesbian person 'You are a child of God'?"
- We ask: Are they not also called to repentance like the rest of us?
"This time its same sex couples who are asking for grace. The main question therefore must be: Why would we not share the gospel in their context? That is what Jesus did".
- We ask: Are we not talking here about Bonhoeffer's "Cheap Grace", that is, "the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything they say, and so everything can remain as it was before…let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world's standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin"?.
"For Jesus, eternal life wasn't what comes after death. For Jesus, life consists of what [is] on this side of the grave"
- We ask: No more "I believe…in the life everlasting" (Apostles' Creed)?
"Issues in the public domain seem to be harder to see as mission" - issues such as controversy about the future of the Canadian Wheat Board, an extended softwood lumber dispute with the U.S., the crisis over mad-cow disease, and monitoring companies that don't obey the law in other countries and bring them to the attention of the Canadian government.
- We ask: Is mission now exclusively social ministry (advocacy theology)?
"We can't help that the politics, culture and social attitudes of our regions shape the way we receive and believe the gospel".
- We ask: Does the gospel message need to be adjusted to the "culture and social attitudes of our regions"? Is the bishop voicing support for the "Emerging Church" whereby we must water down the absolutes of Scripture or compromise the gospel message in order to communicate or witness to the modern culture?
Although the bishop cited Luke 5:32, "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance", he offers a new definition of repentance, according to which, Jesus "wasn't talking about remorse, or guilt or regret".
- We ask: Does this mean that we are abandoning the traditional, orthodox Lutheran meaning of repentance as "nothing else than to recognize sin truly, to be heartily sorrowful for it, and to abstain from it" (Article V (Concerning Law and Gospel), the Solid Declaration, The Book of Concord, Kolb & Wengert, p. 582)?
"People won't hear the gospel unless it's spoken directly to the life conditions in which they find themselves, whether we approve of those conditions or not".
- We ask: What happened to the law making us aware that we need salvation through Christ?
"God often has called upon the chosen to act against their own strongest instincts".
- We ask: Isn't it the case of God calling us to combat sin? ["So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Romans 7:21-25]
"This is the question to answer: Can the gospel be advanced by blessing same sex couples?"
- We ask: Can the blessing of any sin advance the gospel? ["Whosoever abrogates the law, must of necessity abrogate sin also…If there be no sin, then Christ is nothing…Hence you may see, that the Devil intends, by this Ghostly Gambold to take away, not so much the law, as Christ, the fulfiller of the law" - Martin Luther (1539), "Against the Antinomians"]
"The National Church's job is to maintain a big-picture vision of mission for this church: to see the different shapes of mission in different settings"
- We ask: What happened to the Preamble of our congregational constitutions, "Recognizing that the Church of Jesus Christ and its unity 'is found in the assembly of believers among whom the Gospel is preached in its purity'"? Instead, we are being asked to "celebrate diversity" which means "respecting those who interpret the Gospel differently" (from: rationale for the motion, "Pastoral and Congregational Discretion Regarding the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions", passed at the 2006 Eastern Synod Convention).
The National Church "wants to ensure that we adopt a mission commitment that leaves room for synods and congregations to make decisions specific to the needs of their region"
- We ask: Will each synod and congregation be making up its own theology and different interpretations of the Gospel, thereby fracturing the unity of the Church of Jesus Christ (as per the Preamble to congregational constitutions as cited above)?
"The national Division for Mission was discontinued (in 1997) and mission programming for congregations was assigned to the synods…This resolution simply acknowledges that, in some quarters, those most actively seeking ministry are same sex couples, and permits those synods to make appropriate provision."
- We ask: Is it no longer the great commission of Jesus in Matthew 28: 19-20 within each Synod?
Following his presentation on April 22nd at Hope Lutheran Church, Calgary, Bishop Schultz said that he would defy anyone to disagree with his Lutheran "mission theology". Does anyone object?
WE OBJECT! It appears that Bishop Schultz wants our Lutheran Church to become another United Church of Canada. WE OBJECT!
Dr. Ron Voss, St. Peter's Cochrane, AB
Rev. Dr. Lothar Schwabe, Sherwood Park, AB
