LCMS President’s Remarks to the ELCA Assembly
Address by President Gerald Kieschnick, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, to the ELCA Churchwide Assembly,
Minneapolis, Minnesota
August 22, 2009,
Presiding Bishop Hanson, Members of the Assembly, Special Guests, Friends in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Over the years of my life and ministry, these words from St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 have become especially meaningful:
God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting mankind’s sins against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:19-21, ESV)
What a blessing it is to know that our sin is forgiven, removed from us as far as the east is from the west, because of the atoning sacrifice of Christ on Calvary’s cross. And what a humbling privilege and huge responsibility it is to know that God is making his appeal, through people like you and like me, people with feet of clay, that the world might be reconciled to God through faith in Christ.
I bring you these greetings on behalf of the 2.4 million members of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod at a difficult time in the world and in the church. Economic pressures bring great burdens. Strife finds its way into the LCMS, the ELCA, worldwide Lutheranism, and the Christian Church as a whole. Mankind’s inhumanity to mankind manifests itself in global unrest and worldwide terrorism. Peace is often elusive, both in the world and in the church, as sin and Satan continue to rear their ugly heads in both venues.
Lutherans are no strangers to discord and divisiveness. The Lutheran church was born under such conditions. Yet we also know the path to concord, expressed in these rather straight forward words in The Formula of Concord, written during a notable time of doctrinal controversy and discord in the church. Hear these words from the Kolb-Wengert translation:
“For these controversies are not merely misunderstandings or semantic arguments, where someone might think that one group had not sufficiently grasped what the other group was trying to say or that the tensions were based upon only a few specific words of relatively little consequence. Rather, these controversies deal with important and significant matters, and they are of such a nature that the positions of the erring party neither could nor should be tolerated in the church of God, much less be excused or defended.
“Therefore, necessity demands explanation of these disputed articles on the basis of God’s Word and reliable writings, so that those with a proper Christian understanding could recognize which position regarding the points under dispute is in accord with God’s Word and the Christian Augsburg Confession and which is not, and so that Christians of good will, who are concerned about the truth, might protect and guard themselves from the errors and corruptions that have appeared among us.”
The writers of this Formula pledged themselves, and I quote, “to the prophetic and apostolic writings of the Old and New Testaments, as to the pure, clear fountain of Israel, which alone is the one true guiding principle, according to which all teachers and teachings are to be judged and evaluated.” Discord can become concord when Christian individuals and Christian church bodies are faithful to the Holy Scriptures, which reveal the Gospel of God’s grace, forgiveness, and salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
The very fact that I represent a denomination known as The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod at an assembly of a denomination known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America bears witness to the fact that, sadly and regrettably, in spite of the holy Word and mercy of our God, the Confessions affirmed by the constitutions of both our church bodies, and the faithful example of those who have gone before us, schisms remain, not only in the Christian church, but also in the Lutheran church. We have doctrinal differences that separate us. That is no secret.
I speak these next words in deep humility, with a heavy heart and no desire whatsoever to offend. The decisions by this assembly to grant non-celibate homosexual ministers the privilege of serving as rostered leaders in the ELCA and the affirmation of same gender unions as pleasing to God will undoubtedly cause additional stress and disharmony within the ELCA. It will also negatively affect the relationships between our two church bodies. The current division between our churches threatens to become a chasm. This grieves my heart and the hearts of all in the ELCA, the LCMS, and other Christian church bodies throughout the world who do not see these decisions as compatible with the Word of God, or in agreement with the consensus of 2000 years of Christian theological affirmation regarding what Scripture teaches about human sexuality. Simply stated, this matter is fundamentally related to significant differences in how we understand the authority of Holy Scripture and the interpretation of God’s revealed and infallible Word.
Only by the mercy of our Almighty God does hope remain for us poor, miserable sinners. By His grace, through Word and Sacraments, the evangelical witness and authentic message of sin and grace, Law and Gospel, must resound to a troubled world so desperately in need of His love in Christ.
May God grant each of us sensitivity, humility, boldness, courage, faithfulness, and forgiveness as we continue to strive toward God-pleasing harmony and concord in what we believe, teach, and confess. We have much to accomplish in the mission our Lord Jesus has entrusted to us.
May God have mercy upon us all, and grant us His peace in Christ.
I’m very impressed. Good words.
You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination. Leviticus 18:21-23
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, I Corinthians 6:9
But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. I Timothy 1:8-11
According to the Bible, homosexuality is an abomination, contrary to sound teaching and homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God.
According to ELCA, homosexuality is an acceptable practice, consistent with sound teaching and homosexuals are worthy to help usher in the kingdom of God by serving as church leaders.
Reminder to both ELCA and LCMS from the Apostle Paul: Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
Peace, J.
I would like to know why the LCMS President would even address the ELCA which is not in fellowship with LCMS?
Perry,
The LCMS President addresses the ELCA CWA every time it is held. That is because the LCMS and ELCA do cooperate in certain things (at least until this last CWA, as I believe alot of the cooperation will end). It is good for him to speak, because those who are still faithful there need to see that there are good Lutheran options for them. The ELCA can no longer be thought of as a church from a denominational standpoint, although there are certainly still Christians in it. Those Christians need the LCMS President’s witness.
I know he had to be “diplomatic” and speak in Christian love, but I don’t think his message was strong enough. He should have spoken plainly and should have said that the ELCA is in direct opposition of the Word of God and can no longer be considered a Christian denomination.
McCain response to Rev. Greene: Respectfully, I know there are some who feel this way, but I think President Kieschnick’s remarks were measured and careful, and we have to remember that he was speaking to an assembly that had a lot of hurting people in it as a result of the vote. I’ve heard from many who heard Dr. Kieschnick loudly and clearly. He offended many and comforted many with his remarks. I should say, rather, the Law/Gospel message he delivered was well received and heard very clearly, either as a stern word of rebuke and judgment or as a word of hope and comfort. I truly do not think we are able to comprehend the emotionally charged atmosphere in which he delivered his remarks and thus we have a hard time appreciating that what we might perceive to have been “soft” was not, in any way, mistaken to be other than what it was. He afflicted the comfortable, and comforted the afflicted. That’s my .02
I was a voting member at the Assembly, one of the 1/3 who tried to proclaim and confess the Word faithfully. You have no idea the pain, the betrayal, and the sense of utter abandonment (not by God, but by our church body) among that 1/3 that tried with every last breath to call our church back to faithfulness. It’s Monday morning and it still hurts beyond description. I understand that some in the LC-MS do not agree with President Kieschnick, and many think he should have slammed us with the hammer of the Law, but as one who was there and has had his church abandon the faith once delivered, and the faithful, before his very eyes, I can tell you that we already knew the power of the Law. We had been broken and convicted on Friday, we needed to hear the Gospel, and President Kieschnick gave us (the 1/3) the Gospel, even as he stood with us in confessing the faith against our own denomination. Please, for the love of Christ and your faithful brother’s and sisters in the ELCA, please try to understand where we were and what we needed to hear in that moment. You may disagree, but know from our perspective that in that moment the LC-MS gave their greatest witness to the faith, and acted pastorally far beyond what we in the ELCA could have ever hoped for. Sorry for rambling, I’m still sorting our what happened and what it means. I for one am an ELCA voting member who thanks President Kieschnick for the Gospel, and I think he deserved the standing ovation the 1/3 gave him. – Rev. Michael Johnson
P.S. Please, at this time simply pray for us and comfort us, don’t beat us while we’re down with the Law or WO or Historical-Criticism. We need you to bring us the Good News, please bring the Good News.
Rev. Johnson, we have been praying for the ELCA and will continue to do so.
God’s Peace be with you.
I was not a voting member this year (I was in 2005) but I did attend the Good Soil worship on Wednesday night of the CWA. To say it was a moving service is an understatement. To the 1000 plus in attendance it reverberated with the spirit of Christ! From the processional with celebratory banners and baptismal sprinkles, to the hymns sung with gusto, to the reading of the Gospel (Jesus calms the Sea of Galilee then asks the disciples “why are you afraid, do you have so little faith?”), to the dynamic yet graceful sermon by Rev. Barbara Lundblad who echoed these words of our Lord, “Why are so many people afraid of inclusion?” We prayed for at least 10 minutes and didn’t leave out a single living thing on this planet. We shared the Peace of Christ with people we knew and did not know in a spirit of joy. We gave offering and shared the meal. Finally, after almost 2 hours, the Crucifix recessed to the strains of “Sent forth with God’s blessing, a new faith professing”. And though this celebration worship came to an end, the life affirming spirit of Christ propels us and the whole church forward.
To all those who can’t bring themselves to embrace the changes of the past week in the
ELCA (with regard to inclusion for gay and lesbian members of our church) I respectfully ask that you try one thing: simply let go of your fear. Fear is darkness and death and has no place in the life of the church.
We need not fear gay and lesbian people. God has created them of the same stuff as everyone else and placed them in our very families. They rightfully deserve the same acceptance that we all expect. God is always about love; and God’s spirit can not, and will not, be contained by fearfulness. So just…..let it go. It’s okay. You’ll be safe with Christ and you’ll be reconciled with your brothers and sisters. It’s a beautiful way to live. Peace