Falling Through the Crack

Posted on September 7, 2010 by David Nuottila

‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”  Matthew 25:40

Jesus came to the door of our church today looking for some help.  He came with a friend who has this problem with substance abuse and it seems no one is willing to help him.  This isn’t the first time Jesus showed up like this, unexpected and with a friend, it happens quite often these days.  You see, I meet Jesus all over the city.  Most times he is by himself, waiting for the bus, or looking for some spare change to get a bite to eat.  Our Lord is quite a humble fellow.  Much of the time he makes little noise and if folks aren’t careful, they will completely overlook him as he blends into the faceless crowds downtown. 

Today Jesus and his friend were waiting for me on the steps at the side entrance of our church.  I have to say, his friend looked awful, especially for someone who has the pleasure of walking the streets with Christ the Lord.  As I sat next to him he kept muttering something about being sick and tired of being sick and tired.  You see, for as long as this gentleman can remember, he has been addicted to alcohol and crack cocaine.  His family has turned against him, sons and daughters, cousins and other relatives have no need for his foolishness.  That’s what happens you know, when your next high becomes your god.  Your world comes crashing in and you need God’s compassion and mercy more than ever.  I suppose that’s why Jesus brought him here.

I recognized him right off, both of them, Jesus and his friend.  His nickname is Red and he is a resident of our surrounding streets.  Believe it or not, his late wife was actually a member of our congregation years ago, until she went on to glory.  Maybe that’s why Red is so hard on himself.  Even though she died of natural causes, he assumes most of the blame for his wife’s passing.  To be honest, it wasn’t his fault, but I’m sure the booze and the drugs didn’t help matters much.  He’s told me at least that much before.

But today was different.  “Pastor”, he said, “I’m done. If I can’t get someone to help me today I’m just going to say goodbye.”  “You going away” I asked him?  “Yeah, going away, for good, dirt nap, I’m done, ending it.”  I wish I could say his comments caught me off guard, but I have seen this coming for some time now.  Red is a frequent flyer in the emergency rooms around town, and he might even have a jail cell or two with a welcome mat at the door in his honor.  He gets high, they pick him up, he dries out, they let him go.  It’s seems to be a never ending cycle.

I brought Red up to the office, Jesus came up too, and we made a few phone calls.  “Does he have insurance?  We don’t accept Medicaid”  “We don’t have a program for crack cocaine abuse.  Try so-and-so.”  …also a never ending cycle.  I wonder, if I had told the folks on the line that it was Jesus with the addiction problem, would they listen?  Would they help?

Finally, one of God’s people answered our call.  I could tell it was one of God’s people because they only asked questions about Jesus’ friend.  No mention of insurance, no questions about money.  No arm twisting, leg pulling or one single, minute little word about money of any kind.  (God’s people know that God will provide.)  “Bring him here.” They said, “We’ll get him in to see a doctor and also have a psych evaluation waiting.”

When I had hung up the phone I asked Red if this is what he really wanted.  He looked at me with empty eyes and nodded.  Finally, choking back a few tears he told me, “All I wanted was someone to take me serious.  Thank you.”  I drove Red to the doctor’s office in my pick-up, Jesus went along for the ride.  Thirty minutes later he was in the office of the person he needed to see.  Climbing back into my truck, I turned the key and headed off alone.  Jesus didn’t wait around; I suppose he had other pressing matters.  He is the Christ you know.

I had a few moments to think about what had just happened.  “All I wanted was someone to take me serious.”  The words stuck with me the entire ride back to the church.  Questions also came rushing in.  Who cares for those no one cares about?  Why is it that people with money can get help, but the helpless can’t because they have no money?  Like I said, questions…no answers.

Rounding the corner to my office I saw one more familiar sight.  Jesus was at the bus stop with a sign displaying but one word; “Hungry.”  Five dollars later our Lord had a meal, and my questions had answers.

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I am a Christain but…

Posted on September 6, 2010 by David Nuottila

“I am a Christian, but I don’t have to go to church to have a relationship with God.”  This is the phrase that all too often changes the course of conversation once people find out that I am a pastor.  Each time I hear this phrase I cringe and wonder if such folks really believe they can be faithful Christians on their own.  Usually it means that this person does not feel the necessity to attend worship services on Sunday morning.  Other times it serves as an indicator of a past or present issue a person has within his/her congregation.  In either case, the statement cannot be anymore false.  To be a Christian means living within a relationship, not simply with God, but with other faithful Christians as well.

The Communion of Saints

Just as families grow larger with the birth of each new child, so too does God’s family of faith grow with the baptism of each new Christian.  Through baptism, God gathers people into community with one another, living together as members of the body of Christ.  This is not simply a relationship we share with members of our congregation.  It isn’t just a relationship we have with Christians of our time.  This relationship is one that is shared with all of God’s people for all time.  As we express in our liturgy, “God has made us his people through our baptism into Christ.”  Through water and the Word, God frees us from sin and unites us in relationship with the Christian family.  As Christian people, therefore, God calls us to live together in faithfulness.  Through times of prosperity and through times of great difficulty, Christians enjoy a kinship unlike any other in this world, one filled with God’s unfailing love.  Being a Christian is also a way of life.  Following our baptismal vows, Christians worship together, pray together, study God’s Word together and share fellowship together.  When church family members fall short (and we all do), others come to their aid and support them with the love and compassion of Christ.  God does not intend for his people to live in isolation; the Christian life cannot be lived out alone.  Each member of the body depends on the others to live and thrive as God’s people of faith.  Denying this relationship means denying the One who calls and institutes the relationship also.

Keeping the Sabbath Holy

We often read in the gospels that Jesus had the custom of reading and teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath day.  Jesus did not set this pattern for worship, and he did not set this pattern for people to learn of the ways of God.  This pattern was established for us by the very hand of God with the third commandment.  God said, “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.”   Notice that Jesus’ Sabbath custom did not include spending the day alone.  He went to the synagogue and joined God’s gathered family for worship and immersed himself in the community of God.  In worship God speaks to his people through liturgy, song and sermon.  We share stories of our faith with one another, share the peace of Christ, and strengthen one another in love just as God strengthens us with his love through the feast of the bread of life.  For Christians, keeping the Sabbath holy; therefore, also means immersing one’s self in the community gathered by God for worship, publically offering thanks and praise to God and participating in the banquet of bread and wine that is a foretaste of the feast to come.

Christ at the Center of Life

Finally, to be a Christian, that is a follower of Jesus Christ, one must always keep Christ at the center of his/her life.  To do this one must strive to live as Jesus lived and obey his two great commandments.  Jesus teaches that we are to love God with all our heart, mind and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves.  God gathers us, God feeds us, and God sends us in mission to the world; not to live in isolation, but to be living examples of faithful people living in the community of Christ Jesus.  Dismissing God’s call to gather with other Christians and be a fellow worker for the sake of the gospel replaces Christ and puts the self at the center of life.  Those with the false notion of being Christian on their own do so with an unrealized intention of being in control of the relationship.  They end up serving their interests before God’s interest, and eventually fall even farther away from the church and their relationship with God and his people.  Living for the sake of the world and its empty promises brings false hope.  Those who seek only to live as Christians on their terms live in denial of the promises of God and the fellowship of God’s people.

So why this article now?  Well, as I look around and see those vacant seats in our church each week, and hear other pastors tell of the same emptiness, I pray for those who are not with us, especially those who profess to be Christians on their own.  And what about those of us who attend worship each week and participate regularly in the life of the church, are we inviting friends and neighbors to join us in this relationship?  We all know people who say they are Christian, but don’t feel the need to go to church.  Such a statement is our invitation to be inviting.  The next time someone tells you they don’t need to attend worship in order to express their love for God, invite them anyway.  Worship is not hardship; it is a Christian’s pleasure, a right and good thing to do.  Invite them to come and see what they are missing.

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Does Changing the Name Protect the Innocent?

Posted on September 3, 2010 by David Nuottila

In the age political correctness and inclusivity, there seems to be a bulls-eye painted on the back of the church when it comes to traditional language used to express the Christian faith.  Gone are the days when pronouns could be used freely as a part of liturgy, in sermons and in prayers.  Pastors, professors and even Sunday school teachers must now be on guard as they prepare lessons and manuscripts, carefully applying correct verbiage lest someone become offended.  To be open and honest, I agree that when we speak of persons within the church and world, we need to use language that is both welcoming and sensitive to human issues.  But when we are speaking of God, there is a language central to the tradition of Christian faith and cannot be ignored.  I am speaking of the Trinitarian name of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Recently I picked up an article in our local paper concerning the matter of church language, especially when speaking about the name of God.  Columnist Dan Munday asks the question, [when speaking about God], “Does language matter?”  The context of the story is a funeral hosted by a congregation that uses so-called inclusive language throughout.  In the column, the pastor explains that, because some women my feel uncomfortable when calling God “Father” due to their broken relationships with earthly fathers, it is better to choose other words to address God, rather than Father.  More on that in a moment.

In many churchly circles, and for the sake of being inclusive, some have suggested that the Church replace the Trinitarian language of “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” with other formulae such as “Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier,” or perhaps “wisdom, liberator and comforter.”  The difficulty here is that, while these words accurately describe instances of God’s activity in people’s lives, they do not serve as Trinitarian names for God.  The acts of creating, redeeming and sanctifying are all acts of God.  Just as the Father is confessed to be creator, so too is the Son (…All things came into being through him…John 1:3).  God redeemed humankind from sin through the sacrifice of his own Son Jesus, yet it is God who is the redeemer, not exclusively Jesus.  And while we receive faith and forgiveness as gifts of the Holy Spirit at baptism, it is God who sanctifies.  To speak of the Father as Creator, the Son as Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit as Sanctifier would be speaking in modalist terms for God and denying the three distinct persons united in the one true God.

God is reveals himself to us through Scripture as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).  We confess this to be true through the creeds and Lutheran Confessions.  If one believes and confesses Jesus as God’s Son, then conversely we must also be faithful in confessing the first person of the godhead to be the Father, for it is Jesus himself who reveals this person of God as his Father.  Making substitutions for the sake of inclusivity or other agenda would be in effect refusing God’s revelation of the Trinity as recorded in the gospel.  Jesus enjoyed a close loving relationship with his heavenly Father.  It is the same relationship we, as children of God enjoy through our baptism into Christ.  Wouldn’t pastors, professors and Sunday school teachers be doing better service to offer sound teaching, using the example of Jesus and his Father as the example of what true fatherhood is?

Certainly there are people, male and female, who have suffered abuses at the hands of their earthly father.  We need to be sensitive to these issues and offer compassion as best we can.  Those who suffer abuses at the hands of earthly fathers come away with a distorted view of what true fatherhood is.  Not all earthly fathers are bad, and certainly not all are good; but fatherhood, as revealed in Scripture and lived out through the relationship of Jesus and his heavenly Father is one of God’s good gifts.  It is the Christian’s duty to teach about true fatherhood that is the love our heavenly Father has for all of his people.  God is our Father, and to allow those who are betrayed by earthly fathers to continue with a distorted view of fatherhood is not offering compassion, but rather it hinders the child from his/her proper relationship with God.

The human family lives in a fallen broken world where many suffer abuses.  Yet, God’s family of faith is not of this world; we share a much different relationship with our heavenly Father.  For these and many other reasons, when we speak of our human struggle to live a godly life, we ought to use language of inclusivity for one another.  But when we speak language about God we must continue to use the language of faith; speaking of God as through the relationships that he has revealed to us, that of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Anything else would fall short of the mark.

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Theological Reflection vs. Theological Defection

Posted on September 2, 2010 by David Nuottila

For those who have had the experience of leaving their office and daily routine behind for any length of time, it is easy to imagine the avalanche that falls upon one’s desk as they return.  This week has been one such experience.  Last week I journeyed to Columbus, Ohio with several colleagues in order to attend a Lutheran theological conference.   It has been eight days now since the close of that gathering, and nearly a week since the conclusion of the constituting convocation of the North American Lutheran Church.  These were two separate events held at different venues; I attended both.  Finally, five days into the work week I am able to clear my desk of its clutter and my mind of its distractions, and begin pondering all I had heard and seen in Ohio.

To be honest, the theological conference was absolutely amazing and refreshing.  Each presentation was filled with sound orthodox and traditional teaching, something missing in my experiences within the ELCA for some time now.  Our finest Lutheran theologians gathered in one place to offer their insight and wisdom concerning matters of faith.  Presenters included the likes of Dr. Carl Braaten, Dr. Robert Benne and Dr. Robert W. Jenson along with several others.  Topics included The Authority and Interpretation of the Bible in the Church, Speaking To, Of and For the Triune God, and You Cannot Be the Church of Christ without Christ.  I believe that all who attended the conference came to hear these theologians speak a word of truth concerning God’s revelation to us through Christ.  Sadly, the ELCA has marginalized these learned professors in favor of a new and progressive less than traditionally orthodox voice.

But let’s not kid ourselves, even as so many rostered leaders and lay persons came to hear the voice of orthodoxy and tradition, nearly all were also gathered in Ohio because our denomination has taken a drastic left turn, discounting centuries of consistent biblical teaching and Christian Church doctrine.  Some traveled great distances to be there, others only a few miles, yet the distance covered by most between the newly adopted ELCA teaching and orthodoxy was certainly expansive.

As for my experience?  Well, like I said earlier, today is my first chance to reflect on the conference.  Actually, I believe that in the quietness of last night the impact of the message I heard and the theological implications concerning our denomination’s current malaise fell on me like a ton of bricks.  I’ll post my comments on each lecture in coming days.  But as I read over the notes I took, and weigh them in contrast to events following the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, I begin to realize just how far our church has wandered.  Who could have imagined that our ELCA would actually engage in a blasphemous attempt to worship such as the Rite of Reception held on July 25, 2010 in San Francisco?  Even the thought of ELCA bishops attending a service which includes a prayer to the goddess Sophia, or our mother whose “wisdom unfolds from deep with us” leaves me utterly dismayed…no, angry. 

I can’t help but fearfully wonder where our church will be in a few more years, especially since it has turned away the theologians who once trained our pastors and other rostered leaders.  Events such as these leave me with a sick feeling in my gut and a heart breaking at the loss of the tradition and witness that has been handed down through the apostles.  These feelings won’t soon go away.

These are my opinions and I own them.  Anyone who would like to draw their own conclusions might want to listen to the audio recordings of each lecture.  They are posted on Lutheran CORE’s website.

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Three Questions…Three Answers

Posted on August 31, 2010 by David Nuottila

I read with great pause and concern an article written by former ELCA Presiding Bishop Herbert Chilstrom.  It is an article addressed to pastors, congregations and other individuals asking them why they are leaving the ELCA.  The issue of most concern for me is that in asking his three questions, Bp. Chilstrom also provides the answers, which he must presume are uniform for all who are opting out.  Dare I say, Bishop Chilstrom’s answers fall very short in explaining the difficulty so many confessional Lutherans have with the current direction of the ELCA.  I do not agree with the resolutions on human sexuality adopted by the ELCA in August 2009; however, I have not opted to leave the ELCA either.  Regardless, I know many who have.  Having attended the recent NALC constituting convocation, and speaking only for myself, I will answer Bp. Chilstrom’s questions based on my experiences.

1. “What is it about sex that pushed you over the edge?”

Bishop Chilstrom’s insistence that the main issue is human sexuality clearly shows that he out of touch with the issue.  It isn’t a question about human sexuality, it is a question concerning the authority of Holy Scripture.  God clearly reveals to us in Genesis his model for human intimacy and sexual relationships (Genesis 2:21-24).  This model is later affirmed by Jesus in the tenth chapter of Mark.  Citing this, I know some will quickly bring up issues of divorce and adultery, but I will not go there with this post as the issue for Bp. Chilstrom’s question is in regards to sexual relationships.

Jesus affirms God’s model for sexual relationships between males and females in Genesis, yet nowhere in Scripture is there affirmation for same gendered sexual relationships.  Rather, through Scripture God declares such relationships sinful.   Understanding this, current ELCA policy according to the social statement “Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust” places human knowledge and experience ahead of biblical teaching, stating that the biblical authors did not have sufficient understanding of human sexual orientation.  Such statements speak of teaching other than what has been handed down throughout the great tradition of the Church in an attempt to conform Scripture to our society, rather than society to Scripture.

2.  “Why are you organizing new churches?”

Yes, there are many Lutheran bodies within the United States, and some might welcome persons or congregations who decide to leave the ELCA.  But why hasn’t there been any question as to why these “existing other” Lutheran churches came into being?  It goes without saying that the ordination of women is one issue that keeps ELCA members from joining LCMS or WELS.  Other Lutheran bodies in the U.S. are just as staunch in their doctrine and may prohibit former ELCA Lutherans from joining.  Several other Lutheran bodies (AFLC for instance) also do not recognize the ordination of women, others have loose congregational structures that do not fit the model of the three expressions of the Church (Congregation, Synod, Churchwide) as currently practiced by the ELCA.  So for many people, a new Lutheran church, confessional in its doctrine, congregationally focused and mission driven appears to be the answer.

 3.  “Third, what will you say to your sons and daughters, sisters and brothers and others in your churches when they tell you they are homosexual?”

First of all, I am dismayed that Bp. Chilstrom would ask such a question.  Given that many whom he addresses with this article are ordained pastors, I would expect a little more professionalism and discretion.  Speaking again only for myself, the answer I must give to Bp. Chilstrom’s question is; “I don’t know.”  I could supply several hypothetical answers, but they serve no real purpose, which neither by the way does this hypothetical question asked by our former bishop.  Questions such as these only become argumentative in nature and pit one side against another.  I can say, however, until I am faced with such a dilemma, or asked to provide pastoral care for another in such a situation, I can’t imagine what I would say, but it wouldn’t change the fact that I love my children, siblings, family and friends deeply.

In concluding his article, Bp. Chilstrom says [in forming the ELCA] “We believed we could be a church where we held to the essentials and allowed for differences on non-essentials.”  What is at the heart of the matter for those leaving the ELCA is that the authority of Holy Scripture IS essential.  The Bible is not simply a book about Jesus.  Lutherans confess that Scripture is “the authoritative source and norm for our faith, life and proclamation.”  Christians cannot and must not allow human experience and idealism to assume such authority, which is what the passage and adoption of “Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust” and its four associated ministry policies accomplishes.

I fear I have lost friends due to my position on these matters, and that grieves my heart more than anyone will know.  I also understand that many whom I love do not share the same confession of faith as I, nor do they embrace the great tradition and orthodoxy of the Church as do I.  Many are choosing to leave the ELCA, but I do not speak for them.  I have not decided to leave and I speak only for myself.  Yes, I believe the ELCA to be a church in grievous error, and I pray that God will deliver us from this false teaching.  But I love my church; I love its members, and because I love God with all my heart, mind and strength these I do to the best of my ability and I ask God to help and guide me.

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