Newsletter August 2013

The theme of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s 2013 churchwide assembly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in August was the same as the theme for the 25^th anniversary of the ELCA this year: “Always Being Made Knew. 25 Years Together in Christ.”  This is based on 2^nd Corinthians 5:17 “So if anyone is in Christ there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; behold everything has become new!”

25 years ago the “Commission for a New Lutheran Church” came up with a new structure and a new name for the merger of the American Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church in America, and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches.  Lots of things familiar to us today were new to us back then, new synods, new partnerships, new names and titles.  Now in this 25^th anniversary year the church is stilling doing new things.  For the first time in the history of the Northwestern Minnesota Synod the synod assembly re-elected a bishop last June.  All who came before were one-termers.   Now in August the churchwide assembly has elected a new presiding bishop, Elizabeth Eaton from the Northeastern Ohio Synod, who is the first woman, the first non-Scandinavian, and the first person from outside the Upper Midwest to hold the office.  This is a new thing.

But this new call to serve the next six years as our presiding bishop is the call to a ministry that goes all the way back to the apostles.  Yes, she will be the public face of the ELCA on the national stage.  Yes, she will represent us to other Christian denominations, which should be interesting for those denominations that still do not ordain women.  And yes, she will be the chief administrative officer of the church, although the presiding bishop in the ELCA has little of the power that bishops in some other denominations have.  The ELCA is still essentially a union of congregations where the congregation is the basic unit of the church along with the synod and churchwide.   At every level the call to serve is the call to preach the gospel as the apostles did in the first century, as the reformers did in the 16^th century, and as her immediate predecessor has done in the 21^st century.

Following after the ELCA’s anniversary theme verse (5:17) in 2^nd Corinthians is this verse: “So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us, we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (v.20) and “God…has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” (v.18).

This ministry of reconciliation has been given to the whole church which makes all of us baptized believers in Christ ambassadors for Christ.  The Sunday School teacher working with a handful of students is an ambassador for Christ to her students.  The youth on a mission trip doing some work in the name of Christ is an ambassador for Christ to that community.  The father leading a prayer at the dinner table is an ambassador for Christ to his family.  Although the pastors and the bishops have unique roles to play in the life of the church, the ministry of reconciliation with God through faith in Jesus Christ has been given to all of us.  You are an ambassador for Christ as a baptized believer.

This ministry of reconciliation is much older than the ELCA, whose history is a mere blip on the time line of the whole church.  It goes right back to the commission of Jesus who sent out his apostles “to preach the kingdom of God and to heal” (Luke 9:2) and they “went through the villages bringing the gospel and curing diseases everywhere.” (Luke 9:6)

The ministry of reconciliation is much broader than the ELCA or its bishops and pastors.  All of us are called to “put in a good word for Jesus” as one wise old bishop used to counsel his pastors.  In Luke 8 there is the vivid story of Jesus’ encounter with the wild man of the Gerasenes.  After Jesus healed him the man wanted to join the apostles in literally following Jesus from place to place.  But Jesus said, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.”  So he went home “proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.” (Luke 8:39)  He was an ambassador for Christ as much as Peter, Paul, James, and John were.

So whether someone is the presiding bishop with a corner office in a tall building in Chicago or leading a Bible study in a small church basement in Minnesota, the ministry of reconciliation has been entrusted to them.  We are all called to do what we can so people everywhere can experience the new creation that comes when anyone is in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith.