Dear Friends in Christ,
In this pastoral letter, I am going to take apart a comment made years ago by Pastor Connie Parvey, an early feminist theologian in the Lutheran tradition. (But this statement is not about feminism per se.)
–”Christianity is universal.” This is why we Lutherans insist on being called catholic. Most people think “catholic” is the name of a large, indeed the largest, Christian denomination, the Roman Catholic Church, but the word “catholic” is actually a reminder that Christ’s Church is bigger than any denomination. Our concerns tend to be parochial; God’s love is universal.
–”It was not a call to join a new religion in a culture where religions were as multiple as the popular magazines of our time. Rather it was a call to join the company of the God of creation, the maker of heaven and earth, the sovereign Lord of both nature and history, in the work of transforming the very society in which men lived.” I am a loyal Lutheran, but I do not think Lutheranism is the true church. I think thinking that is a temptation to be avoided. We can be true to the Church only so long as we refuse to see ourselves as the true church. The work of transforming society begins here. We give up all our chauvinism (nationalism, sexism, religious absolutism, racism–the list goes on–), and instead find ways to be universal. Another word for catholic, besides “universal,” would therefore be: INCLUSIVE.
–”It did not guarantee fertility or success.” I continually talk to Christians, indeed, I continue to be a Christian, frustrated by the Way of the Cross. Martin Luther understood that Christianity is a minority report. We call for a world of justice where people live by the love ethic, but then we get impatient when that world does not arrive. We have to understand that things would be significantly worse if the voices of people of compassion were not there.
–”Its sole affirmation was the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection and of God’s call to all…to share in his death and resurrection, and so to live in the Spirit.” Christ’s death and resurrection, and God’s call, are not historical isolates. They are spiritual possibilities. God is offering us a new life, lived by the values of the Kingdom. We access this by faith. Faith then becomes life. We lean into God’s Kingdom.
When we celebrate Thanksgiving later this month, we will be tempted to be thankful primarily for “harvest home,” for our material blessings. But I think what we most need to be thankful for is this call to a universal spirituality, a call from the God of Love, who invites us to share in Christ’s new life and to live by the Spirit of God’s inclusive justice.
Yours in Christ,
–Pastor Bastien
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