Lutherans

Out of a shared tradition, we are not all the same.

Lutherans differ in the ways that other Christians differ among themselves. They take different starting points; they emphasize one aspect of scripture to the subrogation or exclusion of others. Likely, Lutherans also vary because as Lutheranism spread across Europe from the early sixteenth century, it took on nationalist characteristics. By the time Lutherans came as immigrants in part they embodied reform movements, including pietism, but also the imprint of state churches varying among the nations.

One mark of Lutheran homogeneity in the United States has been the steady merger of disparate Lutheran bodies with one another as national origins and doctrinal disputes have faded. Of course also observable is that every time a group merges, some individuals and congregations go off elsewhere. Splintering seems a human side effect of merging.

Recently, in a theological discussion group of six couples, Pat Sween has twice asked, ‘What distinguishes Lutherans from other Christians?’ The group consists of four ordained Lutheran clergy, at least three children of pastors, assorted spouses, and all of us Lutherans for life. We should get a good answer. However, the answer both times has been the same. ‘There is no purely distinguishing Lutheran characteristic.’

That is not my experience.

When you look at the catechetical works of Lutheranism, specific teachings emerge beyond just confessing the Apostles and Nicene creeds on a regular basis. Notable teachings follow.
1. Justification. Faith, not anything we do, sets us right with God.
2. Faith. Neither is faith a good work that we do, but what God’s spirit creates in us through Grace.
3. Grace. Grace, due to the all-powerful love of God, restores us to the original blessed relationship with God.
4. Sin. Sin constantly sets us apart from God, a power ultimately overcome through God’s love as enacted by the exemplary life and teaching of Jesus, the Christ (from the Greek, “the anointed one;” i.e., “the Messiah.”
5. Righteousness. Righteousness is the quality of God, a creative and sustaining uprightness to which God calls us, but to which we as humans can only aspire because of sin, and never fully attain on our own.
6. Kingdom of God. God’s kingly rule exists in differing dimensions, as an eternal universality and as the work of God through the invisible church and in the secular world throughout history.
7. Church. The whole people of God at work in the world constitute the church of which individual or denominational polities we may take to be members of the universal in any contemporary setting.
8. Sacraments. The two sacraments, created by God as told in scripture, are special means of Grace. By Baptism, the Church welcomes us as participants in God’s work. By the Eucharist (Lord’s Supper), the Lord our God refreshes and strengthens us for community with one another and service in the world. Both sacraments are acts of God’s love and tokens of our commitment.
9. Vocation. Every person has the potential to serve God’s purposes by serving one another through their capacities (gifts) and role or position attained in the world.

10. Hermeneutics. Here the fundamental problem is to understand the sources of the past in their own environment and so to adequately perceive their meaning and applicability for the present. Martin Luther’s own struggles with faith took him to a reliance on Grace, especially as expressed in Paul’s letter, Romans, as evidenced by the triad ‘Grace alone, Faith alone, Word alone.’ He understood that word alone, however, through a particular hermeneutic.
a. In matters of Faith, scripture alone has authority to constitute the source of divine revelation.
b. The Biblical scriptures come from God through the Church; because of this history, scripture requires interpretation. See also Scope Note above.
c. God speaks to us through scripture in both Law and Gospel, each found in both Old and New Testaments and sometimes the same verse carrying both. Law is that which accuses and judges us. Gospel is that which comforts and saves us.
d. Scripture, in both Testaments, reveals Jesus Christ to us.
e. Scripture interprets scripture in light of the Bible’s central themes and motifs.
f. The Bible as a whole presents God as gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love.
g. We understand scripture in its plain sense; that is, verses within their complete textual framework as they seemed obvious when heard by their original listeners or readers.
h. Interpretation is a public act: through the Scripture, God speaks to the whole people, the whole Church.

More could be said of hermeneutics here. I am especially indebted for this section to “How Can Lutheran Insights Open Up the Bible,” Opening the Book of Faith: Lutheran insights for Bible study (2008) by Diane Jacobson, Mark Allan Powell, and Stanley N. Olson, pages 20-45.

Often, Lutherans worry that they benefit from “cheap grace,” because a loving God so freely forgives them. Consequently, they either feel guilty or try harder. Or they may think themselves better than others, a problem exacerbated by seeing Luther and all who came in his wake as central in history. Luther, himself, often presented matters of faith in terms of paradoxes with which we must live – we are free, slave to all.

I have tried to summarize these matters in as holistic and inclusive a manner as I so briefly can. Of course, this is not all, but I hope this little background is helpful to what follows. I have waited too long, and cannot go no further at this point.

Lutherans, I believe, may not all agree, but they may want to do so.