MEDITATION FOR PASTOR’S MATIN SERVICE = PSALM 130

 

 

Beloved in the Lord, grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and from the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.

 

Psalm 130 describes well the feelings of many a heart on the occasion of many a sorrow, “Out of the depths have I cried to you, O Lord, Lord hear my voice; let your ear consider well the voice of my supplication.”

 

I have, ever since I read the submission of the National Church Council to our National Church Convention, been in the depths and the grief has been as deep and as penetrating as if I were mourning for the loss of one I loved dearly. I am indeed mourning for the loss of the church on earth that I have known and loved from my beginnings. This grief is even more intense than that which I endured when this same church in convention gave away the college that I and others had striven with might and main to build and uphold for this same church.

 

The pain and grief on that occasion was heightened by the iniquity that was so marked. “If you, O Lord, were to note what was is done amiss, O Lord who could stand?” I will never forget the deceit and the deception. The one who had been named to be the parliamentarian for the whole convention, came to me and told me that he had been replaced as parliamentarian for the corporation meeting because some one had found out that that he would rule the motion to transfer to be unconstitutional, as it indeed was.

 

But that loss and the grief that accompanied it was never so intense as the grief that I now experience over the motion to allow this church to follow the same path of the United Church of Canada, the path that led them to become one of the fastest declining churches in the west, the path set before us by the Lutheran’s concerned lobby and their supporters, the path to reinterpret scripture and the whole of life and of the family and sexuality as we have known it from the beginning.

 

When I showed the proposal to my church council chairperson, an engineer and a most productive, skilled and creative professional, he remarked that he thought the recommendation to be the most divisive one that could possibly have been set before the church. I have another friend, also a gifted and very able businessman, a delegate to the convention, who phoned me the morning after, expressing his deep sorrow and his judgment that this was the most divisive motion possible. I agree with them. I also believe it to be couched in the language and the spirit of deception.

 

We have been told that this resolution is simply being presented for consideration. The Bishop and the church council cannot hide behind such verbiage. When you present as divisive a resolution as the one under consideration you do so with the firm conviction that it is best for the church. Our Bishop, when elected, did not say where he stood on this matter. Later on, when confronted by the Alberta Synod council, he allowed that he was personally in favor both of the blessing and the ordination of homosexual people living in that relationship. This resolution is being highly recommended and the least we can expect is that our leaders acknowledge frankly what is being done and be willing to let posterity make its judgment in that light.

 

We have been told that this resolution is primarily one of pastoral concern and not one of doctrinal integrity. In the same breath we are told that it will indeed involve changing our teaching on sexuality and marriage and the family, and invalidating one of our primary statements. There are according to Carl Braaten seven principles of Lutheran theology: canonical, confessional, ecumenical, christological, sacramental, law- gospel and two kingdoms principles. This resolution deeply impacts on every one of those principles.

 

In our previous formal conversations on this matter, the only voice that has been purposely avoided is the voice of those who have been healed of their same sex orientation. Our confessions speak loudly about the terrified conscience and robbing Christ of his glory. If we cannot even acknowledge the healing power of Christ in our midst we cannot live up to any of the principles of our theology.

 

We have been told that this resolution will allow congregations to bless same sex relationships following the prescribed order outlined. What it does not tell us is that having blessed these relationships there is no longer any reason to withhold the right of ordination for the same. We will, in a short time, be following the same course of action taken by the Episcopal Church in the US.

 

Indeed, it is highly likely, that in the midst of the current legal processes occurring in our country, every pastor and congregation which does not bless will be legally liable, since the church has in essence approved the  blessing of those relationships and adopted a rite for the same.

 

We have been told that this resolution will not effect any of our ecumenical relationships. The day after the resolution became public one of our pastor’s e-mailed Ishmael Noko asking him for whatever assistance he could provide for our pastors and congregations in the midst of this crisis. Ishmael was shocked to hear what had transpired.

 

Even though there are a large number of churches in the LWF who do not  wish to even be involved in discussions about this matter, the LWF did establish a committee to discuss and examine marriage and the family and sexuality. The first meeting of the committee is to take place in April. Two Canadians have been appointed to sit on this committee. Our church has gone ahead and made significant decisions on this matter at the executive and governance levels without any consultation with our partners. Having asked for this consultative process we, this small fledgling church, have demonstrated a certain arrogance and ignorance, and a complete lack of concern for any and all of our ecumenical partners in the Lutheran family, not to speak of the entire Christian family to whom most of this would constitute a breach of confidence and faith.

 

We have been told that this resolution was based on submissions. We are told that twenty-nine persons were asked and twenty responded, but no one presented the traditional church’s teaching on marriage and the family. I know that a large number of discerning and competent pastors and teachers were not asked. If the voices of those who were healed from same sex orientation have been excluded from official conversations, it is not at all surprising that those who with conviction hold to the traditional teaching of Scripture, Confessions, the Ecumenical Witness and the witness of nature and reason would be basically ignored. The document talks about recognizing a diversity of opinions. There was only one opinion presented.

 

We have been told that “doing nothing is not an option” and that we may lose a few members over it. There seems to be absolutely no recognition of the deep agony and despair present in the hearts of so many pastors in our church over the incessant demands of Lutherans Concerned and their supporters to change the church and to reconfigure it into an organization designed to preach the gospel of tolerance and to conform to the culture around us, leaving behind such achronisms as repentance, the renewal of our minds and the call to holiness of living.

 

“Out of the depths have I cried to thee, O Lord.”  My grief seems to know no end. But in the midst of it I did receive an email from Japan, out of the blue, encouraging me and calling me a soldier of Christ.

 

We are dealing with two irreconcilable positions and no one seems prepared to face that reality. Rather than face that reality squarely we now wish to make sure that every congregation will have the opportunity to fight and squabble over this irreconcilable issue, while the pastors continue in a fellowship where no theological issue of substance can even be discussed and debated because of the irreconcilable differences.

 

When Abraham and Lot came up out of Egypt, their herdsman fought and there was no solution. Abraham decided that he and Lot should go their separate ways, and they did, with Lot being given the first choice. Abraham went with his flocks and Lot with his. Would it not be marvelous if we let God make the choice among us, each going our own way, each with our share of the possession, and leaving it in God’s hands to bless whom he would and in the way he would. 

 

I do not know what the solution is. I do know that, even if my pain never goes away, I will never depart from the Scriptural witness on this or on any other issue, and that the canonical, confessional, ecumenical, christological, sacramental, law-gospel and  two kingdoms principles are my meat and drink from which I shall never depart. Nor will I ever, God willing, embark on any journey that would rob Christ of his glory and negate my witness to his marvelous grace of forgiveness and his sole sufficiency. Lord have mercy! Christ have mercy! Lord have mercy!

 

“Out of the depths have I called to you, O Lord; Lord hear my voice; let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication. If you Lord were to note what is done amiss, O Lord, who could stand? For there is forgiveness with you; therefore you shall be feared.”

 

Amen