by Bishop Bill Gohl
"Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective" articulates the teaching of the ELCA on the church's relation to society and its public presence and responsibilities. The statement begins with the claim that the witness of the church in society flows from its identity as a community that lives from and for the gospel. It sets forth the basic affirmations that structure how faith is active in a love that calls for justice in relationships and structures of society. The statement also identifies as basic commitments the church's institutional witness in society, the baptismal vocation of individual Christians, and the church as a community of moral deliberation. This documents was the first social statement, adopted by the ELCA in 1991.
Read Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective in its entirety here.
Read Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective in its entirety here.
Pastor Roger Willer, Director for Theological Ethics in our churchwide organization, speaking to the Women of the ELCA, introduced our Social Statement on Church in Society (1991) by telling this little vignette: "My mother used to talk about a good Lutheran boy she knew while growing up who had, 'can you believe it, gone into politics?!' When I asked her why that was hard to believe, she said that she had been taught in church that it was misguided, even shocking, that Lutherans would get involved in that 'messy' business." It was part of a "kingdom" with which Christians should have little to do; a reference to Luther's idea that God governs the world through two different kingdoms or governances. The first is the kingdom of Christ while the second is the kingdom of the civil realm. God governs both, but in different ways. This leads to a question: What is the appropriate way for Lutheran Christians to be active in society where the idea of talking publicly about politics and religion is verboten?
Because the Gospel of Jesus Christ liberates us from sin, death, and evil, the church as the body of Christ is freed to "love the neighbor" (Matthew 22:36). This includes all of us because all of the baptized are the church. The church's identity is to confess and teach both law and gospel as the living word of the triune God. Therefore it is God's activity in the world that inevitably leads us to "participation in society and care of the earth with all its creatures." This participation involves a commitment to justice (Amos 5:24). Lutherans preach, teach and confess that God is at work in the civil realm primarily through the activity of the law. Family, education, economy, government, and other social structures are the ways God restrains evil, protects from harm, and encourages the common good. Christians are to respect the God-given integrity and tasks of these structures. Yet, since sin permeates them, too, they fall short of God's intention for justice, peace, and care of creation.
In relation to the world, Lutheran Christians understand that the church, the body of Christ, is in, but not from the world. The church, by faith, takes part in the healing activity of God announced and embodied in Jesus; and still we wait for the fulfillment of the whole creation and so lives in a tension between two ages — the present age and the age to come. Christians share a common destiny with the whole world in the coming reign of God and yet can never be fully at home in the world as it is. Christians must always be restless.
God's restless church is called to serve and advocate; that is, to speak on behalf of and with those in need, in responding to particular circumstances or situations. Such situations are diverse. They include disasters, poverty, various forms of discrimination, social policies, economic arrangements, and more. When appropriate, like the prophets of scripture, the church must challenge the culture, expose the power of sin and idolatry, and speak out in solidarity with and amplify the voices of the poor and powerless.
The baptismal vocation of every Christian is to participate in society by doing good in our places of responsibility — marriage, family, work, school, volunteer associations, community organizations, political parties, and so forth. This is a primary way that God works through the church in the public arena.
For this reason, congregations and other places of ministry are to be committed to sustaining our baptismal vocations. Part of our identity and task as ELCA Christians is to be a "community of moral deliberation." This community looks together to Scripture as the normative source and to the best knowledge available in the secular realm when it deliberates toward good actions and policies.
Christians fulfill their vocation diversely and have many different gifts, so we often disagree, passionately! Yet, united with Christ, we can celebrate this diversity and, in Christ we are free to be communities of lively deliberation. The way we talk and with whom we talk is critical. Deliberation means reading Scripture for its wisdom and it means considering facts together, but especially with those who may disagree with our own conclusions or observations. Still, right deliberation should include the voices of those who have particular interests at stake, those who suffer from the consequences, and those who have been marginalized – often by the church – from the conversation. We are not voices for the voiceless, at our best, we are a safe place that lifts up a platform for everyone to be heard. This is how the Holy Spirit comes to be heard.
In 1991, the passage of Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective responded to the need for a functional theological framework for how ELCA Christians could collect our voices to speak to the issues and injustices of society. My sense is that for this day and in these times we are living in, we should all revisit such a theological framework, and collect our voices again.
"As love and support are given you, you in turn must render love and support to Christ in his needy ones. You must feel with sorrow all the dishonor done to Christ in his holy Word, all the misery of Christendom, all the unjust suffering of the innocent, with which the world is everywhere filled to overflowing. You must fight, work, pray, and — if you cannot do more — have heartfelt sympathy." – Martin Luther, from "The Blessed Sacrament of the Holy and True Body of Christ, and the Brotherhoods," Edited by E. Theodore Bachmann, Luther's Works, Volume 35: Word and Sacrament I (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1960).
NB: This blog post borrows and lifts heavily from an April 2010 Lutheran Woman Today article by Pastor Willer summarizing Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective.
In relation to the world, Lutheran Christians understand that the church, the body of Christ, is in, but not from the world. The church, by faith, takes part in the healing activity of God announced and embodied in Jesus; and still we wait for the fulfillment of the whole creation and so lives in a tension between two ages — the present age and the age to come. Christians share a common destiny with the whole world in the coming reign of God and yet can never be fully at home in the world as it is. Christians must always be restless.
God's restless church is called to serve and advocate; that is, to speak on behalf of and with those in need, in responding to particular circumstances or situations. Such situations are diverse. They include disasters, poverty, various forms of discrimination, social policies, economic arrangements, and more. When appropriate, like the prophets of scripture, the church must challenge the culture, expose the power of sin and idolatry, and speak out in solidarity with and amplify the voices of the poor and powerless.
The baptismal vocation of every Christian is to participate in society by doing good in our places of responsibility — marriage, family, work, school, volunteer associations, community organizations, political parties, and so forth. This is a primary way that God works through the church in the public arena.
For this reason, congregations and other places of ministry are to be committed to sustaining our baptismal vocations. Part of our identity and task as ELCA Christians is to be a "community of moral deliberation." This community looks together to Scripture as the normative source and to the best knowledge available in the secular realm when it deliberates toward good actions and policies.
Christians fulfill their vocation diversely and have many different gifts, so we often disagree, passionately! Yet, united with Christ, we can celebrate this diversity and, in Christ we are free to be communities of lively deliberation. The way we talk and with whom we talk is critical. Deliberation means reading Scripture for its wisdom and it means considering facts together, but especially with those who may disagree with our own conclusions or observations. Still, right deliberation should include the voices of those who have particular interests at stake, those who suffer from the consequences, and those who have been marginalized – often by the church – from the conversation. We are not voices for the voiceless, at our best, we are a safe place that lifts up a platform for everyone to be heard. This is how the Holy Spirit comes to be heard.
In 1991, the passage of Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective responded to the need for a functional theological framework for how ELCA Christians could collect our voices to speak to the issues and injustices of society. My sense is that for this day and in these times we are living in, we should all revisit such a theological framework, and collect our voices again.
"As love and support are given you, you in turn must render love and support to Christ in his needy ones. You must feel with sorrow all the dishonor done to Christ in his holy Word, all the misery of Christendom, all the unjust suffering of the innocent, with which the world is everywhere filled to overflowing. You must fight, work, pray, and — if you cannot do more — have heartfelt sympathy." – Martin Luther, from "The Blessed Sacrament of the Holy and True Body of Christ, and the Brotherhoods," Edited by E. Theodore Bachmann, Luther's Works, Volume 35: Word and Sacrament I (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1960).
NB: This blog post borrows and lifts heavily from an April 2010 Lutheran Woman Today article by Pastor Willer summarizing Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective.