We are gifted to have as part of the congregation I serve, people who look at the lessons and attempt to make the flowers aid in communicating the Gospel.  Last Sunday was Pentecost.  The liturgical color of the day is red, and so one would expect red carnations as part of the floral arrangements in worship.  Our floral designers go one better.

Pondering Pastor

I was asked by a friend to provide the link to the Clergy Letter Project.

The text of the letter:

Within the community of Christian believers there are areas of dispute and disagreement, including the proper way to interpret Holy Scripture. While virtually all Christians take the Bible seriously and hold it to be authoritative in matters of faith and practice, the overwhelming majority do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook. Many of the beloved stories found in the Bible – the Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the ark – convey timeless truths about God, human beings, and the proper relationship between Creator and creation expressed in the only form capable of transmitting these truths from generation to generation. Religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts.

We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as “one theory among others” is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. We believe that among God’s good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator. To argue that God’s loving plan of salvation for humanity precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of reason is to attempt to limit God, an act of hubris. We urge school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge. We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.

I’m a signator.

Pondering Pastor

Mormon Article of Faith #5

We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

Augsburg Confession Chief Article of Faith #5 - Concerning Ministry in the Church

So that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the gospel and administering the sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and the sacraments as though instruments the Holy Spirit is given, who effects faith where and when it pleases God in those who hear the gospel, that is to say, in those who hear that God, not on account of our own merits but on account of Christ justifies those who believe that they are received into grace on account of Christ. Galatians 3: “So that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” [The churches among us’ condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that the Holy Spirit comes to human beings without the external Word through their own preparations and works.

Augsburg Confession Chief Article of Faith #14 - Concerning Concerning Church Order

Concerning church order [the churches among us] teach that no one should teach publicly in the church or administer sacraments unless properly called.

Commentary

There is actually pretty common agreement here.  ELCA Lutherans ordain men and women.  I believe that Mormons do not allow women to “administer the ordinances”.  Nevertheless, Mormons and Lutherans agree that good church order is important.

Pondering Pastor

I know it exists, but it’s missing from a lot of places.

In a quick trip to the bank and grocery store this morning …

• The driver of a vehicle at the bank drive-through (parallel lane) suddenly cut out in front of me after I had pulled forward to make a turn and was waiting for a vehicle to pass.  I don’t think she saw me or the other vehicle.
• A shopper at the grocery store was talking on the cell phone (in his outside voice) while shopping, all through the checkout lane, through the transaction, out the door, and into his car.  (The bank has posted a sign asking that while conducting bank business you are not to be on the cell phone.  I guess this isn’t common sense any more.)
• Shopping carts were left in the parking lot (not in the corrals) to drift with the wind and slope.

I know it all happens all the time.  Is it so hard to forget that other people live around me?  Consideration for others who follow me isn’t that difficult.

I did have some nice conversations in the grocery store, even though that’s not why I go.

Pondering Pastor

I’m a bit nervous.

Tonight our “Theology on Tap” men’s group meets at a local pub.  Our topic is challenging, “Creationism, Intelligent Design, & Evolution”.  But that’s not the half of it.  Two local newspapers are sending reporters.  I’ve already done one interview for the background material.  It will be interesting to see how the newspaper reports it.

Pondering Pastor

Citizens in Maryland are in for “electioneering” from now until the November elections, and it isn’t related to the Presidential race.  Slots are on the ballot and the rhetoric will become quite tiresome.

The Baltimore Sun reports on May 6, 2008 that Governor O’Malley continues to push hard for slots in the state.  Excerpts from that article:

Mormon Article of Faith #4

We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Preliminary Comment

It’s not easy to compare directly this Mormon Article of Faith with something from the Augusburg Confession, first, because this is a continuation of Article #3 and there are very few definitions within this Article of Faith. It is a continuation of #3 because #4 lists the “laws and ordinances” of #3 (as “first principles and ordinances” in #4). Are they the same? For Mormons, obedience to these “laws and ordinances” are required for salvation. Therefore you will see in this post some of those Articles of Faith from the Augsburg Confession which seem to relate best to this Mormon Article of Faith.

Augsburg Confession Chief Article of Faith #6 - Concerning the New Obedience

Likewise [the churches among us] teach that this faith is bound to yield good fruits and that it ought to do good works commanded by God on account of God’s will and not so that we may trust in these works to merit justification before God. For forgiveness of sins and justification are taken hold of by faith, as the saying of Christ also testifies [Luke 17:10]: “When you have done all [things] … say, ‘We are worthless slaves.’” The authors of the ancient church teach the same. For Ambrose says: “It is established by God that whoever believes in Christ shall be saved without work, by faith alone, receiving the forgiveness of sins as a gift.”

Augsburg Confession Chief Article of Faith # 9 - Concerning Baptism

Concerning baptism, [the churches among us] teach that it is necessary for salvation, that the grace of God is offered through baptism, and that children should be baptized. They are received into the grace of God when they are offered to God through baptism. [The churches among us] condemn the Anabaptists who disapprove of the baptism of children and assert that children are saved without baptism.

Augsburg Confession Chief Article of Faith # 12 - Concerning Repentance

Concerning repentance [the churches among us] teach that those who have fallen after baptism can receive forgiveness of sins whenever they are brought to repentance and that the church should impart absolution to those who return to repentance. Now, properly speaking, repentance consists of two parts: one is contrition or the terrors that strike the consciences when sin is recognized; the other is faith, which is brought to life by the gospel or absolution. This faith believes that sins are forgiven on account of Christ, consoles the conscience, and liberates it from terrors. Thereupon good works, which are the fruit of repentance, should follow. [The churches among us] condemn both the Anabaptists, who deny that those who have once been justified can lose the Holy Spirit, and also those who contend that some may attain such perfection in this life that they cannot sin. Also condemned are the Novatians who were unwilling to absolve those who had fallen and returned to repentance after baptism. Also rejected are those who do not teach that forgiveness of sins comes through faith but command us to merit grace through our own satisfactions.

Augsburg Confession Chief Article of Faith # 20 - Concerning Faith and Good Works

The article in the Augsburg Confession about Faith and Good Works is 40 sentences long. I’m not reproducing it in its entirety here right now.

… Therefore, all who trust that they merit grace by works despise the merit and grace of Christ and seek a way to God without Christ through human powers, since Christ has said about himself: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” … Beyond this, our people teach that it is necessary to do good works, nto that we should count on meriting grace through them but because it the will of God. …

Commentary

The Mormon 4^th Article of Faith, from the Christian perspective is quite inadequate. It is understandable, because in part what is lacking comes from erroneous LDS theology, especially about the nature or understanding of God. First, a clarification. The dictionary’s first definition of “ordinance” is “an authoritative rule or law; a decree or command”. I’ll keep that in mind as I proceed, but allow that Joseph Smith did indeed indicate that this Article of Faith includes “first principles” in addition to ordinances. (With the 3^rd Article of Faith addressing “laws and ordinances of the Gospel”, just what does “first principle” mean and what weight does it carry?)

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ must be a principle, because there is no command in the New Testament about faith. In fact, faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit. But, based on the 3^rd Article of Faith, faith in Jesus Christ is not necessary … only obedience to the “laws and the ordinances of the Gospel”. (Circular logic is required to include faith as a “law and ordinance of the Gospel). Therefore, it is puzzling to me that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ appears here.

Next: “repentance”. The New Testament is full of references to repentance and it could be understood as a command of Jesus.

Next: “Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins”. Immersion is implied but not commanded anywhere in scripture. Lutherans (of which I am one) have held that the amount of water is not important since it is God who acts in Baptism, and it is apparent that the gifts of the Holy Spirit have been bestowed on those who have been baptized by methods short of immersion. Immersion is to be preferred, but to raise it to the level of a “command” seems to be excessive and not clearly supported by scripture. It is interesting to note that those churches that do not baptize infants emphasize that “immersion” is necessary. Lutherans baptize infants.

Next: “laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Spirit”. Again, reading the New Testament, I would suggest that the laying on of hands is not a necessary detail. In the book of Acts we see the Holy Spirit being given by God with and without the laying on of hands. It would seem that the act is not a necessary requirement for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, I find it interesting that the Articles of Faith exclude two important commandments of Jesus Christ. The first absence is puzzling to me because LDS is well known for its missionary work. From Matthew 28: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” It is clear that this is a command “ordinance” of Jesus.

The missing (from the Articles of Faith) commandment of Jesus Christ is around what Christians call the Eucharist or Holy Communion. In 3 of the 4 Gospels and in one of Paul’s letters, that command to “do this in remembrance of me” is recalled … consuming the body and blood of Jesus Christ. This is a tremendously significant absence in the Mormon Articles of Faith.

Pondering Pastor

Click here for part 1 of this series

Click here for part 2 of this series

Click here for part 3 of this series

It seems that anything we can do to reduce the distance our food needs to travel before we consume it is a good way to reduce that food’s carbon footprint.  A new study described at LiveScience.com suggests that doesn’t play as important a role as the type of food we choose.

Substituting chicken, fish or vegetables for red meat can help combat climate change, a new study suggests.

In fact, putting these foods on the dinner table does more to reduce carbon emissions than eating locally grown food, researchers report in the May 15 issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

The production phase is responsible for 83 percent of the average U.S. household’s greenhouse-gas burden with regard to food, while transportation accounts for only 11 percent, the new study found. The production of red meat, the researchers conclude, is almost 150 percent more greenhouse-gas-intensive than chicken or fish.

“We suggest that dietary shift can be a more effective means of lowering an average household’s food-related climate footprint than ‘buying local,’” the researchers write. “Shifting less than one day per week’s worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more greenhouse-gas reduction than buying all locally sourced food.”

Actually, it makes sense.

Pondering Pastor

In the “everything-that-happens-is-because-God-caused-it-to-happen” theology (that has advocates like Westboro Baptist Church) it seems that God wants to run Eight Belles in a heavenly race.  This, from the Baltimore Sun:

Yesterday morning, the filly’s trainer, Larry Jones, his eyes puffy and swollen from a near sleepless night, stood outside his barn still disbelieving.  “I keep looking, and she ain’t in there,” he said. “She ain’t coming back. As to why, we’d like to think God wanted her in his stable. He gave us signs all along the way that we were in the race we were supposed to be in. He [God] put her in that race and let her run a great race, and then he took her. “I know God doesn’t make mistakes. There’s a reason for this. I just don’t know what it is yet.”

This is the kind of theology that results in diabetic children dying because their parents rely on prayer rather than the God-given talents of physicians, pharmachologists, scientists, and others.

This is the kind of theology that ignores that there are consequences to human decisions.  (Did the jockey pull Eight Belles up short too quick?)  Did Eight Belles have an unknown previous injury?  Should we even be racing horses at all?

This is the kind of theology that is as fatalistic as believing that God has abandoned the world.

This is the kind of theology that ignores significant portions of Scripture.

Pondering Pastor

Mormon Articles of Faith #3

We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

Augsburg Confession Chief Article of Faith #3 - Concerning the Son of God

Likewise [the churches among us] teach that the Word, that is, the Son of God, took upon himself human nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary so that there might be two natures, divine and human, inseparably conjoined in the unity of one person, one Christ, truly God and truly a human being “born of the Virgin Mary,” who truly “suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried” that he might reconcile the Father to us and be a sacrifice not only for original guilt but also for all actual sins of human beings. He also “descended into hell, and on the third day he was” truly “resurrected.” Thereafter, “he ascended into heaven” in order to “sit at the right hand of the Father,” and he will reign forever and have dominion over all creatures. He will sanctify those who believe in him by sending into their hearts the Holy Spirit, who will rule, console, and make them alive and defend them against the devil and the power of sin. The same Christ will publicly “return to judge the living and the dead …,” according to the Apostles’ Creed.

Augsburg Confession Chief Article of Faith #4 - Concerning Justification

Likewise [the churches among us] teach that human beings cannot be justified before God by their own powers, merits, or works. But they are justified as a gift on account of Christ through faith when they believe that they are received into grace and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by his death made satisfaction for our sins. God reckons this faith as righteousness (Romans 3 and 4).

Commentary

The numbering of the two Articles of Faith diverge a bit here, but that is to be expected. There is no evidence I know about that suggests that Smith used Luther in the formulation of the Mormon Articles of Faith.

Much of the Augsburg Confession Article 3 relates better to Article 1 of the Mormon Articles of Faith, but admittedly, even that requires considerable additional reading to understand what Mormons claim about Jesus. The Augsburg Confession there quotes liberally from the Apostles’ Creed. I’ll not spend any more time here looking at this particular comparison. See installment #1 of this series for more detail.

The Mormon Article of Faith uses the term “Atonement of Christ”, but then immediately discounts what Lutherans (and most Christians) understand “atonement” to mean. As a theological term, atonement means “the doctrine concerning the reconciliation of God and humankind, esp. as accomplished through the life, suffering, and death of Christ.” In the Mormon Article of Faith, there is nothing explicitly stated that is accomplished by Christ. There was already salvation through adherence to the law before Christ. If salvation depends upon what we do to follow the law, then what is different in the means of salvation pre-Jesus to post-Jesus? What results in reconciliation of God and humankind for Mormons is “obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel”, made possible through Christ. It is not until the next Mormon Article of Faith that we even get to what those “laws and ordinances of the Gospel” are thought to be. The Mormon Article of Faith could have left off the “atonement of Christ” and nothing would have been changed because what follows negates the first part of the statement. (I’ll be blasted on that one, but I see nothing in the Articles of faith that would suggest that for Mormons Christ is either necessary or sufficient.)

Notice that the Augsburg Confession clearly indicates that “human beings cannot be justified before God by their own powers, merits, or works.” This would include obedience to any “laws and ordinances” that might be described in the Gospels. The term “grace” in the Augsburg Confession in fact signals that the forgiveness of sins is undeserved by humans and is “on account of Christ”. This is the appropriate understanding of “atonement of Christ”. Mormon Article of Faith #3 misses the mark in that the atonement of Christ is not sufficient in itself … it requires obedience. For Lutherans, even faith is considered a gift of the Holy Spirit, therefore there is no ability to lay claim to an accomplished reconciliation.

It is true that various Christian denominations differ on the understanding of human participation in salvation through obedience. Lutherans are careful to emphasize grace and God’s action as opposed to human action. Many claim we go to far. Obedience is a response to salvation. For Lutherans, it is not a condition required for salvation. Lutherans do not have a once “forgiven always forgiven” understanding as will be seen in future installments.

Pondering Pastor

Click here for part 1 of this series

Click here for part 2 of this series