What My Neighbor Believes: Lutheranism (Part One)

This morn­ing, I hap­pened upon a post at The Truth In Con­text enti­tled “Lutheran vs. Reformed.” The author, Alan, dis­cussed the dif­fer­ences between Lutheran and Reformed churches, invit­ing com­men­tary and dis­cus­sion in an effort to assist his read­ers in their under­stand­ing of the topic.

His com­ments on Lutheranism inspired me to respond, given that, until a lit­tle more than a year ago, I was a life­long mem­ber of and extremely active par­tic­i­pant in the Lutheran church. I am not and have never been a pas­tor, nor have I attended or grad­u­ated from sem­i­nary. Rather, my knowl­edge is based purely upon my nearly life­long tenure as a mem­ber and employee of, and leader within, the church.

Dif­fer­ent Types of Lutherans

The dan­ger in talk­ing about Lutheranism is that there are dif­fer­ent kinds of Lutheran churches and their beliefs and prac­tices vary widely. Much of what Alan described applies only to the Lutheran Church Mis­souri Synod (LCMS), an extremely con­ser­v­a­tive group that clings, in my opin­ion, to out­dated notions about every­thing from the sta­tus of women in the church (they nei­ther vote in con­gre­ga­tional elec­tions nor hold posi­tions of lead­er­ship that would require them to lead or teach men, and they may not serve as ordained pas­tors) to ques­tions of sex­ual ori­en­ta­tion (it is believed to be a sin­ful lifestyle choice) to views on bap­tism, com­mu­nion, wor­ship styles, etc.

The Evan­gel­i­cal Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Amer­ica was formed in 1988 when the Amer­i­can Lutheran Church (in which I was raised), Lutheran Church in Amer­ica, and Asso­ci­a­tion of Evan­gel­i­cal Lutheran Churches banded together to form one uni­fied church. The LCMS did not join, opt­ing to con­tinue oper­at­ing inde­pen­dently, apart from the ELCA.

In con­trast to the LCMS, the ELCA and its pre­de­ces­sor ALC, has 0rdained women since 1970. More­over, women serve in all kinds of lead­er­ship posi­tions all the way from Sun­day School teacher to pas­tor to bishop.

Alan accu­rately states that the ELCA rec­og­nizes only two sacra­ments: Bap­tism and Holy Com­mu­nion. In the Lutheran church, sacra­ments are defined as spe­cific acts hav­ing three characteristics:

• They are acts we are told in Scrip­ture to perform;
• Those acts that bring us some­thing promised in Scrip­ture as a result of those acts;
• Those acts con­tain an earthly element.

Holy Bap­tism

Regard­ing bap­tism, Alan said:

Bap­tism in the Lutheran view is effi­ca­cious. This is why they bap­tize infants. Bap­tism regen­er­ates one and brings them into sal­va­tion. This is often referred to as Bap­tismal Regeneration.

Mar­tin Luther said: “In bap­tism God for­gives sin, deliv­ers from death and the devil, and gives ever­last­ing sal­va­tion to all who believe in what God has promised.”

Bap­tism is a sacra­ment because:

• Jesus told us to go “to all peo­ples every­where and make them my dis­ci­ples; bap­tize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19);

• Bap­tism is a gift given for­ever, through which God promises never to desert or dis­own us; and

• Bap­tism is accom­plished through the earthly ele­ment of water.

In the ELCA, bap­tism is seen as a require­ment for sal­va­tion, but a parent’s act of pre­sent­ing his/her child for bap­tism is not the end of the road. We are all born with and must exer­cise free will. Thus, the ELCA believes in Affir­ma­tion of Bap­tism, more com­monly known as Con­fir­ma­tion. After two years of instruc­tion, young adults (eighth graders) pub­licly con­fess their belief and affirm their infant bap­tism, tak­ing their place as vot­ing mem­bers of the congregation.

If a young per­son was not bap­tized ear­lier in his/her life, he/she can be bap­tized when­ever he/she expresses a desire for the sacra­ment, includ­ing con­tem­po­ra­ne­ously with his/her Confirmation.

Some of the most mean­ing­ful and poignant wor­ship expe­ri­ences dur­ing my many years of church mem­ber­ship occurred when adults were bap­tized because adult bap­tism in the Lutheran church is a rare event, moti­vated by an individual’s desire to for­mally acknowl­edge and pro­fess his/her belief.

The Bible doesn’t tell us specif­i­cally how to bap­tize. The Greek New Tes­ta­ment word “bap­tizo” means “to wash.” So dif­fer­ent churches have dif­fer­ent prac­tices. Some believe that bap­tism must be accom­plished by immer­sion, but Luther­ans do not.

Bap­tism takes place at an eight-sided font, with water placed on the bap­tism candidate’s fore­head, as the pas­tor declares that he or she is bap­tized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Luther­ans accept any method or bap­tism by which water and God’s word are used. There­fore, if an indi­vid­ual is bap­tized in another church, that bap­tism will be rec­og­nized and accepted at the time that per­son expresses a desire to join the Lutheran church. The con­verse is not true. Many Protes­tant churches who believe that immer­sion is required will not acknowl­edge a for­mer Lutheran’s infant bap­tism. In order to join one of those con­gre­ga­tions, the can­di­date will be expected to undergo another bap­tism by immer­sion, i.e., be re-baptized. That, of course, vio­lates the Lutheran belief in one bap­tism, as expressed in, for exam­ple, the Apos­tles’ Creed.

Why do Luther­ans bap­tize infants?

We bap­tize a baby because it is a gift that we give that child. It is a gift that the child need not under­stand or deserve. Just as the par­ents adopt a tiny baby with­out ask­ing the baby if he/she wants it, or just as giv­ing a Christ­mas gift to a tiny infant long before he/she under­stands what Christ­mas is or what grand­par­ents are or any­thing like that, so, too, God adopts and gives a gift at the bap­tismal service.

Prepa­ra­tion for Dis­ci­ple­ship: A Hand­book for New Chris­tians
by Jerry Schmalenberger

Holy Com­mu­nion

Alan said:

The Lutheran view of com­mu­nion is called “Con­sub­stan­ti­a­tion” as opposed to the Roman Catholic “Tran­sub­stan­ti­a­tion.” In the Roman view the bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Christ, wor­thy of wor­ship, which they do, they actu­ally wor­ship the ele­ments. In Lutheran doc­trine the bread and wine are the body and blood in a “mys­te­ri­ous” man­ner, they do not try and explain it save to say that Christ is in, with, and under the ele­ments and they do not wor­ship the ele­ments. They also prac­tice close com­mu­nion, mean­ing one must be exam­ined by clergy and agree with their stance on the sup­per before partaking.

Mar­tin Luther said that when we com­mune, the Tri­une God is present “in, through and under the ele­ments [bread and wine].” In the Lutheran church, Holy Com­mu­nion is a sacra­ment because:

• Jesus told his dis­ci­ples to eat and drink in this fashion;
• Jesus promised the for­give­ness of sins and his pres­ence with us when we com­mune; and
• It con­tains the earthly ele­ments of bread and wine.

The LCMS prac­tices “closed” com­mu­nion. That means that not only must you be a Lutheran Chris­t­ian, you must be a mem­ber of the LCMS in order to participate.

ELCA churches adopt no such require­ment. Com­mu­nion is offered to “all bap­tized believ­ers” who want to com­mune. Whether or not they belong at the com­mu­nion rail receiv­ing the sacra­ment is a mat­ter left to them and God.

Cor­po­rate con­fes­sion takes place early in the ser­vice. It is called the Order for Con­fes­sion and For­give­ness. There­fore, by the time the sacra­ment is admin­is­tered, all wor­shipers have had an oppor­tu­nity both to con­fess and declare their beliefs via recita­tion of The Apos­tles’ Creed, which gen­er­ally occurs imme­di­ately after the post-sermon hymn.

In the ALC, some churches announced in advance on which Sun­days Holy Com­mu­nion would be offered and required all those who planned to com­mune to meet with the pas­tor in advance to pre­pare. My con­gre­ga­tion never did that. I believe that prac­tice was a hold-over from the old Roman Catholic and, in some instances, LCMS, tra­di­tions. How­ever, I do remem­ber the days when Holy Com­mu­nion was only cel­e­brated once per month and, later, every other Sun­day. It was in the 1980’s when I was on staff that a deci­sion was made to offer the sacra­ment at one of the var­i­ous wor­ship time each week so that mem­bers who wished to could com­mune at least once per week would have that oppor­tu­nity. That was a com­pro­mise, as some folks believed it should be cel­e­brated dur­ing each and every wor­ship service.

Social Jus­tice

As to more con­tem­po­rary issues, includ­ing sex­ual ori­en­ta­tion, the LCMS and many other churches aren’t even study­ing or ana­lyz­ing the ques­tions. The ELCA has, how­ever, been wrestling with con­cerns since at least 1990. If mem­ory serves, it was in that year that five churches in California’s Bay Area defied the bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod and the church as a whole by pro­ceed­ing with ordi­na­tion of recent sem­i­nary grad­u­ates who refused to hide their ori­en­ta­tion and/or take a vow of celibacy in light of their authen­tic selves. The then-bishop decided that, rather than just exil­ing those con­gre­ga­tions from the Synod, the church would begin a “five-year dia­logue” in order to lis­ten to each other’s view­points, under­stand one another’s dif­fer­ing per­spec­tives, and try to achieve consensus.

The ELCA is still look­ing for con­sen­sus. Dur­ing its 2005 Church­wide Assem­bly in Florida there was protest on the floor over the issue. There have been classes taught, posi­tion papers drafted, etc. The issue will be at the fore­front dur­ing the church’s next assem­bly, sched­uled for 2009.

Thus far, each time the mat­ter has been sched­uled for a final vote on the ques­tions of whether gay, les­bian, bisex­ual, and trans­gen­dered per­sons should be ordained and able to marry within the church, the church lead­ers has avoided the vote.

Why? Because it is, like many other soci­etal issues, one which does not lend itself to compromise.

Church lead­ers know that this issue is the one that will irrev­o­ca­bly divide the ELCA into two sep­a­rate, new churches. And that real­ity scares them because it will have far-reaching con­se­quences, pri­mar­ily financial.

The ELCA’s fail­ure to coura­geously take a bold stand in favor of social jus­tice was one of the pri­mary rea­sons why I left the church.

Invi­ta­tion to Serve as a Guest Blogger

This dis­cus­sion has inspired me to issue an invi­ta­tion to fel­low blog­gers to con­tribute to an ongo­ing dis­cus­sion On the Hori­zon. Would you like to pub­lish an arti­cle here, explain­ing your par­tic­u­lar belief sys­tem? I am inter­ested to hear about what the many var­i­ous churches believe and teach, but the invi­ta­tion extends to those who, like me, are spir­i­tu­ally walk­ing beyond the walls of orga­nized reli­gion. More­over, I would love to hear from per­sons of all dif­fer­ent faiths, not just Chris­tians, in order to fur­ther our knowl­edge and tol­er­ance of each other’s under­stand­ing of and approach to spir­i­tu­al­ity and belief.

Send your con­tri­bu­tion to admin at hope­ful­spirit dot com!

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