Jesus said, “Very truly
I tell you anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in
by another way is a thief and a bandit. The
one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens the gate for him and the sheep hear his voice.
He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them and the
sheep follow him because they know his voice.
They will not follow a stranger but they will run from him because they
do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus
used this figure of speech with them but they did not understand what he was
saying to them. So again Jesus
said to them, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and bandits but the sheep did not
listen to them. I am the gate.
Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find
pasture. The thief comes in only
to steal and kill and destroy. I
came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
I look around and I see brothers and sisters in Christ.
Many of you I have known since 1977-78-79, in which summers in ’78
and ’79 I was here as interim while Pastor Bruce was in Philmont as Chaplain
at the scout ranch. All of us who
were around at that time are like everyone who was around at that time, now
25, 26, 27 years older than we were then.
Others of you I have known for thirteen years, since I came to be your
pastor. Others still for only a
few months, as you are only new to Grace Church in coming here.
I speak to you as your pastor and one who cares for the
sheep in this place, Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, in the body of Christ.
Everyone who is here this morning is, and doesn’t need
to be told it but we reaffirm it again every Sunday:
“A sinner by nature, sinful and unclean, has sinned against the Lord
and against our fellow human beings by thought, word, and deed; by what we
have done and by what we have left undone.”
Having heard you, and having made that same confession myself every
Sunday, I make bold on the basis of the pastoral office, to announce to you
and to myself God’s forgiveness. I
declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Other than the words of institution, “this is my body
given for you, this is my blood shed for you” and the accompanying words in
the Eucharistic prayer, I don’t say any words any more austere.
In fact I suspect that “I declare to you the entire forgiveness of
all your sins” is, at least on the personal and existential level, the most
difficult, the most terrifying, and the most blessed thing that I say to you,
and I say it every Sunday.
It, of course, means that everyone who walks in the door
to repent of his or her sins and to receive the Lord’s forgiveness is
welcome. There is not a “Saints
Only” sign out there in the sense of everyone who has no sins to account
for. You and I are both, all,
saints insofar as we are made holy by God in baptism.
But we are also, and at the same time, sinners.
At the same time saints and sinners, always penitent.
If you come to me as your pastor and you tell me that you
have been and are and will continue to be a thief because you think that
theory is justified on your account, then I will be obliged to tell you that
you have not read the Scriptures properly.
The commandment stands, “Thou shalt not steal.”
If you come to me and say, “I have lied about so-and-so
and I shall continue to lie about him or her until, if I am successful, I
shall destroy his reputation,” then I will say to you, “You must desist
immediately. You must repent of
your sins and account for your sin to the fellow or woman that you have
harmed, and cease and desist immediately.
Until then I cannot forgive you that sin if you insist on calling it
not-sin.”
You and I believe in the Holy Scripture as the Word of
God. As the confessions say,
“the norm and rule for faith and life.”
By “norm and rule for faith” is meant the content of what we
believe. By “the norm and rule
for life” is meant the conduct by which we live our lives.
This week there occurred in the Church Council of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which met in Chicago reviewing the
recommendations of the Task Force on Human Sexuality that were made in January
to which we as a congregation, as a Council, our Council responded.
What the Church Council (the national council) did was to say, in
effect, that we presently in the ELCA are reading the Scriptures two ways with
regard to the legitimacy and the authorizing of homosexual behavior.
The class Christian faith, held by, as Jim Nestingen observed in an
e-mail to me and to others this week, 99.9% of all Christians throughout all
time and presently is that the Bible says of homosexual behavior that it is
something that one must not do. The
Bible declares that sexual behavior is properly between a husband and a wife. Marriage is ordained by God, and thus blessed in such a way.
The alternate reading, the one to which the Church
Council in Chicago referred, says that in loving, caring, committed
relationships between persons of the same sex, the behavior is legitimate and
bishops and pastors may well, in their pastoral care of such couples, give a
tacit, or perhaps even an overt blessing.
The blessing, either tacit or overt, is not forbidden.
With regard to ordaining people who are practicing, that
is to say, exercising homosexual behavior in loving, caring, committed
long-term relationships, the Task Force had said, “Leave in place the
documents that say the Church will not ordain such a person, but selectively
enforce it,” meaning that bishops would have the option to look beyond, or
overlook, such behavior. That’s
what the Task Force said in January.
To that, Grace Church Council said, “The Council of
Grace Church strongly opposes that recommendation in that it has the effect of
a tacit change in policy by allowing the church to refrain from disciplining
those who do not comply with vision and expectation document, or those who
tacitly or overtly endorse the blessing of gay or lesbian relationships.
The standards for ordination and ministry are plain and are set
according to the Holy Scripture and the historic teachings of the Church.
Let the current documents remain in force and enforce them.
Marriage is constituted by a man and a woman, a relationship so
ordained of God. To bless or
endorse any other kind of relationship, either overtly or tacitly, is to
intrude into the Church what is plainly labeled sin by Scripture.
It would be at that point, in effect, to call sin a virtue.”
The Church Council of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, which
represents you, my brothers and sisters, sent that to the Synod as its
statement concerning it.
What the Church Council of the Church did was to provide
a means for the overt blessing of a person who was a practicing gay or lesbian
in a so-called committed relationship to be properly ordained if it’s
approved by the Bishop, approved by the Synod Council, and then approved by
majority vote of the Council of Bishops.
That must not pass in August at the Assembly.
But as Bob Benne, theologian at Roanoke College, observed earlier this
week, it is the first one, the one which says there are two alternative
readings of the Scripture, one which says you can’t do this and the other
which says things have now come to the point where we ought to be able to do
this. There are two alternative
readings of the Scripture. And on
that basis the Bishops can say we ought to live with this tension and be in
unity. Unity is the focus.
Both Benne and the theologian-philosopher who lives with
me, Marianna, have rightly said that what the current movement does is to put
the present argument on the status with the Word of God; the arguments from
humanity of the last 25-30 years on a par with what the Scripture teaches as
the Word of God, using, if you will, the language of disputants in a lawsuit
that both, in effect, are equal parties, then we will simply abide the
disagreement within the Church.
Benne correctly observes that one has to pay attention to
what the Good Shepherd teaches, to what the Scripture teaches in these
matters. I don’t know that I
have ever preached a sermon at Grace Church about this.
I have referenced it now and again, but to be honest the church has
never taken a stand like the National Church Council wants us to take.
I, and I think I speak for the council of this church, am unalterably
opposed to revising the teachings of the Church concerning these matters.
One is obliged, who is ordained to the Scriptures, to have the stole
around your neck, to preach and teach what the Word of God teaches and
preaches. The Word of God does
not so preach and teach as the ELCA Church Council put forward this week.
In August, I will be in attendance at that assembly.
I will vote against this. I
will do everything in my power, in the meantime, to get others to do so as
well.
Let me remind you how I began. No one is unwelcome at Grace Church. We are, in that sense, a welcoming church.
But we cannot call “good” what the Scripture calls “sin.”
The Gatekeeper will not allow it.
And we are finally accountable to the Lord and to the Scriptures rather
than to bishops who choose not to take a stand or a Church Council which
points us in the wrong direction.
Your conscience and mind has validity insofar as, like
that of Martin Luther, it is “captive to the Word of God.”
Amen.