What My Neighbor Believes: Lutheranism (Part Two)

The focus of most reli­gious belief sys­tems is upon what hap­pens after our earthly life ends. Although advice is dis­pensed on the issue of how to live har­mo­niously in this life, there is also a sig­nif­i­cant amount of energy devoted to teach­ing fol­low­ers how to attain immortality.

The Lutheran church is no excep­tion. What does the Lutheran church say about death and life after earthly death? 1 Corinthi­ans 15:1–58 is an excel­lent start­ing point from which to under­stand Lutheran teach­ing on the subject.

Nine Myths About the Lutheran View of Death and Life After Death

Life here on earth is bet­ter than death, thus, the phys­i­cal body must be kept alive at all costs.

Luther­ans believe in eter­nal life beyond the grave. There­fore, the church teaches that the qual­ity of life must be con­sid­ered in rela­tion­ship to pre­serv­ing it. Heroic mea­sures to keep a phys­i­cal body alive may not always be appro­pri­ate. How­ever, if you are look­ing for bright-line rules on this topic, you won’t find them any­where in the Evan­gel­i­cal Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) offi­cial posi­tion statements.

The Sacra­ment of Holy Com­mu­nion is the same as “last rites” so it must be given when a per­son is dying.

Holy Com­mu­nion is cel­e­brated on a reg­u­lar basis as part of the wor­ship ser­vice. The Lutheran church does not use the term “last rites.” There is, how­ever, a spe­cial ser­vice called “The Com­men­da­tion of the Dying” which can be used when a per­son is close to death and loved ones are gath­ered around the bed­side. If a per­son who is close to death is phys­i­cally able to receive Holy Com­mu­nion, it can be pro­vided either by an ordained min­is­ter or layper­son. If not, it is com­mon for Lutheran pas­tors to use oil to anoint the per­son who is dying, mak­ing the sign of the cross on that person’s fore­head and reaf­firm­ing his or her bap­tism. Scrip­ture is read, prayers recited, hymns sung, etc., depend­ing upon the desires of the fam­ily and wishes, to the extent known, of the per­son who is gravely ill.

The body of the deceased must be present dur­ing the funeral.

There is no offi­cial stance about the dis­po­si­tion of the phys­i­cal body, i.e., cre­ma­tion vs. bur­ial, beyond a belief that it must be car­ried out respect­fully. There is noth­ing done to or for the body dur­ing the funeral ser­vice and the cas­ket lid may be open or closed, depend­ing upon the wishes of the deceased and his or her sur­vivors. The funeral is sup­posed to be a cel­e­bra­tion of the deceased’s life designed to pro­vide com­fort and encour­age­ment to his or her loved ones.

The phys­i­cal body should be pre­served using meth­ods such as embalm­ing, water­tight vaults, air sealed cas­kets, and other measures.

Based upon the writ­ings of Paul, the Lutheran church teaches that believ­ers will not spend eter­nity in their earthly phys­i­cal bod­ies. Rather, believ­ers will be given a glo­ri­fied body. There­fore, it is accept­able to des­ig­nate that the phys­i­cal body be donated to a med­ical school or research facil­ity, cre­mated, or embalmed, and there is no pro­hi­bi­tion on organ donation.

There are things that can be done for the deceased. For instance, pray­ing for dead peo­ple can influ­ence where they spend eter­nal life.

Luther­ans do not try to influ­ence where dead peo­ple will spend eter­nity. The Lutheran church believes in free will. The choice to believe and be bap­tized is made dur­ing one’s earthly life. At the time of death, one’s fate is deter­mined and one is either saved or not saved. The out­come can­not be changed after death by any good works or prayers — it is lit­er­ally too late for the decedent’s sur­vivors to do any­thing to assist that individual.

There­fore, there is no Bap­tism for the Dead or other sim­i­lar rit­ual. Addi­tion­ally, at a Lutheran funeral, no prayers are ever offered for the deceased. Prayers are recited in thanks­giv­ing and appre­ci­a­tion for the decedent’s life, the impact he or she had on oth­ers dur­ing his or her life, and for com­fort and solace for those who are left to mourn. But you will never hear a Lutheran pas­tor pray for a dead person.

Orga­ni­za­tions other than churches may par­tic­i­pate in the Order for the Bur­ial of the Dead.

It is always prefer­able for the funeral or memo­r­ial ser­vice of a bap­tized mem­ber of the Lutheran church to be held in the church (sanc­tu­ary), rather than in a funeral home or other loca­tion, in keep­ing with the impor­tance the church held in the deceased’s life. How­ever, it is not a requirement.

While Luther­ans do not object to Masonic orders and other lodges hold­ing memo­r­ial ser­vices for deceased mem­bers, they must be sep­a­rate and apart from Lutheran Order for the Bur­ial of the Dead and may never be held in the sanctuary.

Eter­nal life is achieved by liv­ing a good life here on earth.

Eph­esians 2:8–9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” The for­give­ness of sins is a gift freely given through Jesus Christ’s ulti­mate sac­ri­fice on the cross. It is only because of that gift that bap­tized believ­ers can have eter­nal life after this earthly life ends.

Human beings have an immor­tal soul which does not die, but goes off to heaven at the moment of death.

Luther­ans believe that there is no sep­a­ra­tion of soul, mind, and body. When death comes, it is a com­plete death — there is noth­ing that remains and returns to God. Believ­ers die as Jesus did and will have a new body and life given to them just as Jesus did when he emerged from the grave on Easter morning.

Dead peo­ple wait in the grave (or some­where) until judg­ment day.

Eter­nity does not have the dimen­sions of time or space. Heaven and hell are not thought of as places, but, rather, as states of being. Those who have died may have already gained eter­nal life. There is no way for us to know.

Sug­gested fur­ther read­ing: Prepa­ra­tion for Dis­ci­ple­ship: A Hand­book for New Chris­tians by Jerry Schmalenberger

Invi­ta­tion to Serve as a Guest Blogger

I invite you to con­tribute to an ongo­ing dis­cus­sion On the Hori­zon about the var­i­ous belief sys­tems and, more par­tic­u­larly, what the many dif­fer­ent churches believe and teach. The invi­ta­tion extends to those who, like me, are spir­i­tu­ally walk­ing beyond the walls of orga­nized reli­gion and 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!

Next week: What My Neigh­bor Believes: Jehovah’s Witnesses

Tech­no­rati Tags: Lutheranism, What My Neigh­bor Believes

You might also like:

• What My Neighbor Believes: Lutheranism (Part One)
• What My Neighbor Believes: Wicca (Part Two)
• What My Neighbor Believes: Wicca (Part One)
• What My Neighbor Believes: Jehovah’s Witnesses