From the Bishop

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen  

A congregation in the Minneapolis Area Synod, ELCA is hurting. As a result of several media posts, including those from the Daily Caller and Fox News, Edina Community Lutheran Church (ECLC) has received threats to both property and person. The FBI and local police are involved and taking the threats seriously.

The media storm is a response to the congregation’s use of the “Sparkle Creed,” during worship on Sunday, June 25. The worship service was in the context of Pride Month, where events were held around the country to recognize and celebrate LGBTQIA persons. Edina Community Lutheran leaders believed this statement of faith aligned with their commitment to radical welcome, including their “joyful welcome, affirmation, and celebration of all … gender identities, expressions, and sexual orientations.”

In its social teaching, the ELCA affirms “we support human rights for all people, regardless of their biological sex, gender, or sexuality.” At the same time, we recognize the pain experienced by LGBTQIA persons as we see an increase in legislation to curtail their human rights.

“ECLC is a healthy, growing church – committed to ‘witnessing to God’s love and justice at God’s welcome table and in the world.’”

It is in this context that ECLC recited a statement of faith that included the affirmation of a nonbinary God, and a Savior – Jesus – who had two fathers. One can argue that, by calling this statement “a creed,” the congregation departed from the ELCA practice of reserving the term “creed” for creeds that have worldwide ecumenical consensus such as the Apostles’ Creed. (ELCA Constitution 2.04). While the ELCA also notes that “some congregations … are experimenting with new statements of belief, … a creed is a statement of faith of the whole church” (ELCA Principles for Worship, L-13, 2002).

Still, what is most stunning to me is that an element of a worship service could cause such a response – including threats to individuals and property. Can you imagine what such threats feel like? At this time, in this violence-prone society? Yes, one may object to the content of a “Sparkle Creed,” but would one threaten to physically harm someone over it?

LAST WEDNESDAY, ECLC leaders requested synod staff assistance to help them respond to this crisis. The church was also in the midst of hosting its annual Summer Youth Camp that week. As our synod staff entered the church that morning, children were singing and praying and smiling and rejoicing in the gift of Christian community. ECLC is a healthy, growing church – committed to “witnessing to God’s love and justice at God’s welcome table and in the world.”

Now, as you enter the coming week, I invite you to join me in praying:

• • • For the safety of Edina Community Lutheran Church and all its members
    • For the safety of all LGBTQIA persons and a commitment to their human rights
    • For all tempted to use violent speech or actions to address differences
    • For the ELCA and the Christian Church around the world – as we both affirm our ecumenical creeds and explore, together, new ways to speak the faith in our 21^st century context
    • For the health and vitality of Christ’s church, and the flourishing of God’s love in the world.

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

At his recent ordination, Leif Johnson, a tennis-coach-become-pastor, shared his thanks during the worship service. He thanked his church family, his tennis family, and his AA family. I admired his courage to include Alcoholics Anonymous. My admiration makes little sense since AA is all about courage – courage to be honest, to be vulnerable, to admit the things we’re powerless over, to hold the honesty of others in prayerful confidence.

As a pastor, I was always grateful when AA groups met in the church building. Even more, I was grateful when AA members were participants in the congregation. They inspired all of us with courage to be honest, vulnerable, and willing to ask for help.

“The synod has worked hard to foster peer groups among church leaders.”

In my first parish, an Al-Anon leader asked if she and I could start a 12-step group in our congregation – inviting people with all kinds of struggles to walk with each other. (Al-Anon is a mutual support organization for families or friends of those struggling with addiction.) At first, I believed my need for the group – which we named the Shalom Group – was primarily to help me as the mother of a newborn with Down Syndrome. Quickly, I recognized it was to help me deal with my own stuff – my perfectionism, concern about appearance, fear of failure.

I remember Don Juel, a New Testament professor at Luther Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary, who lamented that Lutheran congregations – though we preach grace – really expect our members to be a lot more like the elder brother than the prodigal son; to appear as if we’ve got it all together. It is hard to be honest; to be vulnerable.

A FAVORITE AUTHOR OF the synod staff is Peter Block. He writes that “the small group (3-12 members) is where transformation takes place.” He argues that the “task of leadership is to be intentional about the way we group people and the questions that we engage them in.

Last Sunday I worshiped at Fabric – an ELCA community centered in weekly worship and weekly participation in “fabric groups,” small groups where folks can “follow their instinct for community, … share, care, trust, and grow with others (a lot better than the hiding, resentment, 2^nd guessing, and worry that sneak in when we try to go it alone!).”

“Lutheran congregations really expect our members to be a lot more like the elder brother than the prodigal son.”

As you read this, I encourage you to reflect honestly on your daily life. Are you part of a small group? The synod has worked hard to foster peer groups among church leaders. Pastor John Hulden can help you get one started. Further, we encourage congregational leaders to provide opportunities (like my 12-Step Shalom Group) for members to participate in small groups.

I promise to join you in that honest reflection. And, I promise to pray for God’s help, guidance, and courage as we each seek a small group where we can be honest, learn to trust, lean into growth, and know that we’re not alone.

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

Theologian Douglas John Hall writes, “I wouldn’t have become a theologian (perhaps I wouldn’t have remained a Christian) had I not been introduced to Martin Luther.” I might say I wouldn’t have remained a Christian had it not been for Luther’s Theology of the Cross.

Martin Luther said that the theology of the cross is about “calling a thing what it really is.” The theology of the cross is an honest theology, a humble theology – unwilling to speak for God or claim more than one knows; unwilling to gloss over sin, doubt, evil, or despair; unwilling to explain suffering away with sayings like “everything happens for a reason” or “it’s all part of God’s plan.”

“To call a thing what it is the beginning of liberation.”

We don’t deny suffering, but we do believe that God bears our suffering. When God says to Moses, “I know their suffering,” it means that “God so enters into their suffering … that God takes that suffering into the divine self and bears it there,” according to the late Luther Seminary faculty member Terry Fretheim.

And, that “taking suffering into the divine self” is most profoundly revealed in Jesus. It is most profoundly revealed in his passion and death, the focus of the week ahead, the center of the Christian faith.

We are free to call a thing what it is because we are tethered in a relationship that will never let us go.

TO CALL A THING what it is the beginning of liberation. This is true not only in our personal suffering and pain, but also in our work for justice. We can speak honestly of sin and greed. We can name what the doctrine of discovery did, what Christian nationalism is, what the legacy of white supremacy continues to do. We can name how human greed is intricately related to a climate in crisis.

Whether you’re quoting James Baldwin or Mr. Rogers, the truth is that you cannot address that which you do not name.

We call a thing what it is.

YES, I’M PROBABLY A Christian because of the theology of the cross, a theology that calls a thing what it is.

And, dear friends of Christ, of all the things named for us in the theology of the cross this is one of the most important. Pay close attention:

• This is your name: Beloved child of God. This is God calling a thing what it is – calling you what you are.
• You are a beloved child.
• In your fullest, authentic, beautiful, and broken self, you are loved, embraced, forgiven; you are set free from all the self-talk and other-talk that binds you with names that are not beloved child of God.
• God knows you. God calls you beloved.

May the Spirit move among us this Holy Week that we might experience anew the depth of God’s love and our belovedness.

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

When my mother died in 2012, we received several sympathy cards from women we didn’t know. They were all members with mom in Bible Study “circles.” Mom rarely missed her ALC/ELCA Bible study each month, and she joined a new circle whenever she moved to a new town.

In the article “The Evangelical-Mainline Divide: Two Questions,” one of the questions author David Hollinger raises is why have mainline religious leaders failed to more directly challenge evangelical ideas about the Bible.

“Luther spoke of scripture as the manger in which we find Christ.”

Hollinger argues that, since the mid-twentieth century, mainline Christianity has devoted “remarkably little attention to Biblical hermeneutics.” Indeed, it seemed that mainline religious leaders “had chosen not to plant [their] flag in the Bible.”

AS PEOPLE SHAPED by Luther’s emphasis on “Sola Scriptura,” it is hard to think we’ve abandoned our place in the public square – leaving it up to the fundamentalist theologians to define the role of scripture in the Christian faith.

We affirm that scripture is the norm of our faith and life. As the word of God, scripture is a means for God to speak to us and a means for us to commune with God.

“In the past two weeks, I heard a pastor lament that there are fewer attending Tuesday night Bible study now.”

We Lutherans believe that the Bible truly matters. But, it doesn’t matter as much as the Word made Flesh. It doesn’t matter as much as Jesus. To quote Marcus Borg, “Jesus is the norm of the Bible. When the Bible and what we see in Jesus conflict, as they sometimes do, Jesus trumps the Bible. … In Jesus, Christians see more clearly than anywhere else the character and passion of God.”

Luther spoke of scripture as the manger in which we find Christ. How can we share this biblical hermeneutic more powerfully and publicly?

OUR NEW ELCA Vice President, Imran Siddiqui, met with the Conference of Bishops last week. One of the concerns he shared about the ELCA is that Lutherans and other mainline Protestants have too often “left the field” to the voices of evangelical fundamentalists. Too often, that voice is the only theological perspective which takes up space in the public square.

I’m not sure if there will ever be a resurgence of Bible study “circles.” Yet, I’m praying for a resurgence of another kind. In this hybrid space between “all online” to “all in person,” could Zoom Bible studies help keep us “steadfast in God’s word”?

“The Bible truly matters. But, it doesn’t matter as much as the Word made Flesh.”

In the past two weeks, I heard a pastor lament that there are fewer attending Tuesday night Bible study now that they moved from zoom to in person. Another pastor wonders if her expertise in leading online Bible study could be a resource for other congregations seeking to deeper grounding in God’s word.

Perhaps a flourishing of Zoom Bible studies might help us commune with God, strengthen community, and help us hear God speaking. And, perhaps, it would better prepare twenty-first century Lutherans to speak in the public square about Scripture’s power to help Christians “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.”

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

Grace and Vocation. Two words. And, yet, if you know them well, you’re probably a Lutheran. Much of Lutheran theology can be captured in these two words. (Though, if you were Martin Luther, you would explain them with at least two million more words.)

Think about the baptismal service. It’s all grace – the radical welcome of God; our loving union with Christ; all a free, unconditional gift from God.

“Are we living out our vocations each day, so the neighbor is served?”

And, then, knowing that we’ve been joined to the Light of the world, we are called, given a vocation: “Let your light so shine before others.”

For Luther, the most important way we share the light of Christ is through our many vocations – all done in service to the neighbor. Am I serving the neighbor in my vocations as grandmother, mom, wife, friend, bishop?

THERE ARE TWO overarching questions about vocation. First, are our vocations a means to love the neighbor? Vocation – because it’s a call from God – must have serving the neighbor as its primary goal.

Second, we ask: Are we living out our vocations each day, so the neighbor is served? I can have a great calling as a bishop; but if I lead with impatience, envy, pride, then the neighbor is not served. Two simple questions: Are our vocations a means to love the neighbor? And, do we live them out each day so the neighbor is served?

“Are our vocations a means to love the neighbor?”

Finally (which, I guess, is really a third overarching question), does our love for the neighbor include seeking justice? God calls us not only to acts of compassion but to acts of advocacy – speaking up in the public square so all our neighbors experience justice and equity. That is love for the neighbor in the public square.

Grace and Vocation. Both shape and form the Christian life. And yet, at both the beginning and the end (and everyday in between) grace is the final word. For we’ve been joined to the Light that nothing can overcome.

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

What images and metaphors do you use to describe your congregation? Scripture provides a few: the body of Christ, the flock of the good shepherd, the vine and the branches.

At our recent Bishops Academy, Bishop Kurt Kusserow invited us to think more deeply about the metaphors we use – especially the “built-in success meters” inherent in each.

Angela Harrison, a relative of George Floyd, participates in a panel of George Floyd Square Memorial leaders, with ELCA bishops from around the country. San Pablo/Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, hosted the conversation.

“If the specter of the decline in the ELCA is not the final measure of the efficacy of God’s work in the world, we need to find new metaphors to guide us.”

We know what a healthy body looks like. There are metrics we use: heart rate, blood pressure, weight, infection, fitness. When we look out over our congregation and see just a handful of worshipers scattered across a vast sanctuary, we may sense we “don’t meet the metrics of success.”

And, when we look across the whole ELCA, our concerns deepen. At its beginning in 1988, the ELCA had five million members. Today, it has three million. And, not only are the numbers declining, but the church’s structures are becoming more fragile.

WE WHO LEAD AND care for congregations and synods are anxious. By most metrics, we are not successful. And, it is to that anxiety that Bishop Kusserow spoke most powerfully. Referring to the Small Catechism and the Augsburg Confession, he called us back to our faith: It is “God who calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth,” and this “one holy Church is to continue forever.”

If we stand on the promise that the church is God’s work, an abiding work for the sake of the world, then we may need to look for new images to describe Christian community. If the specter of the decline in the ELCA is not the final measure of the efficacy of God’s work in the world, we need to find new metaphors to guide us.

“When we look out over our congregation and see just a handful of worshipers scattered across a vast sanctuary, we may sense we ‘don’t meet the metrics of success.’”

Bishop Kusserow suggested the image of “women watching and witnessing.” In the Gospels, women were present at the most significant moments: birth, crucifixion, burial, resurrection. They did not turn away. They watched; and they told the story.

Rostered leaders at Holy Trinity Lutheran, Minneapolis, shared reflections on the 2020 Uprising in the congregation’s neighborhood. The Third District Police Precinct was located just one block from Holy Trinity. Many of the buildings surrounding Holy Trinity were destroyed.

The success meter for “watching and witnessing” is radically different from that of a healthy grapevine. The women saw events – not of their own making. They watched and told others about things external to themselves. And, though small in number, their witness mattered.

THE DAY BEFORE Bishop Kusserow gave his lecture, the bishops spent time with the “keepers of George Floyd Square,” primarily women who gather twice daily in the square to bear witness to the cruelty of racism and the vision of God’s justice. Perhaps, they are the Mary Magdalenes of today. And, perhaps, they might inspire us to recognize a new image of church:

• a gathering of people who watch, not turning away from the agony of the world, but bringing it to God; and
• a gathering of people who witness, sharing the hope and vision of redemption by God’s grace.

God fill us with strength and hope as we participate in God’s abiding work through the church.

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

If you ever catch yourself wondering if you should vote in the next election, spend a few days with our Lutheran partners from Leipzig. Last week, several leaders from our synod had that very experience.

We were blessed with the company of five remarkable leaders from the Leipzig District of the Church of Saxony, including its new Superintendent (read “bishop”) Sebastian Feydt. Together, we went to the George Floyd Square Memorial, accompanied by its executive director, Jeanelle Austin. We went to Holy Trinity Lutheran to learn about “permeable church walls” and how the summer of 2020 transformed the congregation. At the synod office, we learned about neighboring practices from Kelly Chatman, director of the Center for Leadership and Neighborhood Engagement (CLNE), and Nick Tangen of the synod staff.

Representatives of the Leipzig District of the Church of Saxony visit the George Floyd Square Memorial

During our conversations our Leipzig friends expressed an almost existential angst about our need to vote – a fundamental cornerstone of democracy.

In all of these places, we experienced a whirl of emotions – sadness, shock, discomfort, gratitude, hope. At the end of our visit, one particular emotion kept churning within me. It was this feeling of urgency whenever we spoke about the upcoming election. During our conversations our Leipzig friends expressed an almost existential angst about our need to vote – a fundamental cornerstone of democracy. They know what it meant to live in a non-democratic state, born and raised in Soviet occupied East Germany. And, they know how easily democracy can crumble – and what kind of sacrifice is required to rebuild it.

In one of our discussions, someone recommended we read Putin’s People. There, I learned how close Vladimir Putin lived to Leipzig – serving as a KGB officer only 63 miles away in Dresden. I also learned that the collapse of the Berlin wall was a turning point in Putin’s life.

IN HIS BOOK, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder offers 20 key suggestions for all who are concerned about the threats to democracy and want to make a positive difference. And, one of those suggestions is “Learn from peers in other countries.” Others include: be a patriot, defend institutions, practice professional ethics, believe in truth. (The book is a mere 110 pages, so the other 15 are easy to find.)

Leipzig District representatives listen to Jeanelle Austin, executive director of the George Floyd Square Memorial.

As our synod is focused on faith practices and neighboring practices, perhaps Snyder’s book can be one resource for all of us on “democracy practices.” Another resource will be the ELCA’s social statement on civic activity and faith to be completed by the 2025 assembly.

“Perhaps Timothy Snyder’s book can be one resource for all of us on “‘democracy practices.’”

I close with a quote from Snyder’s book that seems to reflect a deep truth in Scripture’s Ten Commandments and Luther’s Catechism: “The U.S. political system was designed to mitigate the consequences of our real imperfections, not to celebrate our imaginary perfection.”

Our vote is a key investment in promoting life and curbing the impact of our real imperfections.

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

Founded in 1988, we will soon celebrate the 35^th anniversary of the ELCA, formed by the merger of three predecessor bodies – the AELC, the ALC, and the LCA. However, even before the anniversary celebrations begin – and you are planning one, right? – the ELCA will launch a process to “reconsider the purpose and structure of our church.”

“The ALC existed for only 27 years; the LCA for 25 years.”

The ELCA was formed after the Commission for a New Lutheran Church worked for five years to develop the foundational documents for the ELCA. The Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church, established at the August 2022 churchwide assembly, will bring its recommendations in 2025.

We may wonder if it’s too soon for such reconsideration of our foundational documents. And yet, the ALC existed for only 27 years; the LCA for 25 years. Even more, Lutherans are part of a reformation movement often described as semper reformanda – the church reformed, always being reformed.

SO, HOW DOES THE ELCA need to change? In what ways does our church need to be reformed? The pace of change in society continues to accelerate. Even a cursory review of the ELCA social statements published since 1988 points to the issues facing the church: climate change, peace, racism, sexism, economics, education, health care, genetics. The action of the churchwide assembly named at least one call for reform: “reconsider the purpose and structure, … being particularly attentive to our shared commitment to dismantle racism….”

This is important work, holy work. One way the Minneapolis Area Synod can support this process is through our commitment to regular prayer. Of course, not every one of our three million ELCA members nationwide can serve on the commission. But all of us can pray.

“The pace of change in society continues to accelerate.”

We pray for the church council as it selects commission members. Council members begin this discernment process at the church council meeting beginning November 10.

We pray for the churchwide staff as they support the commission’s work. And we pray for the conference of bishops and church council members as they serve as conversation partners with the commission in its work.

I love the ELCA – even with its significant flaws. Deeply rooted in the Gospel and engaged in the world, we begin this process, resting in Luther’s reminder that our “faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace.” And we keep on praying.

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen  

In 1991, the ELCA approved “A Social Statement on Abortion” that provides for our church one of the finest articulations of ethical discernment on an issue that is, once again, tearing our country, our congregations, even our families apart. I recommend it to you as a foundation for your thoughts and actions in light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

The social statement speaks to both public policies and personal decisions. It recognizes that “what is legal is not necessarily moral, and what is moral should not necessarily be enacted into law.” Thus, one must read more than just the statement’s public policy sections to understand our church’s moral teaching on this issue.

Regarding public policy, the statement supports the role of government in regulating abortion. The statement continues that “in cases where the life of the mother is threatened, where pregnancy results from rape or incest, or where the embryo or fetus has lethal abnormalities incompatible with life, abortion prior to viability should not be prohibited by law or by lack of public funding of abortions for low-income women.” The overturning of Roe v. Wade means that abortion laws are now determined by individual states. And, some states have already made all abortions (including those listed above) illegal.

“Like each one of us, I bring my own, narrow, lived experience to this conversation.”

Regarding personal, ethical discernment, the statement reads: “Because we believe that God is the creator of life, the number of induced abortions is a source of deep concern to this church. … The strong Christian presumption is to preserve and protect life. Abortion ought to be an option only of last resort.”

Neither Scripture nor the Lutheran Confessions tell us when “life begins.” Jesus calls us to love our neighbor, to love our enemy, to love the person in need. He doesn’t address the question of when a fetus becomes a living neighbor. Surely, when the fetus becomes viable – around 23 weeks – but what about when brain functioning begins in the first 12 weeks?

MUCH HAS CHANGED since 1991. Birth control methods have expanded and become more acceptable. Abortion rates in the U.S. have decreased – but were still estimated to be 625,000 in 2019 (CDC). Genetic testing allows greater knowledge about “lethal abnormalities incompatible with life.” On the other hand, genetic testing also means that “suddenly, a new power [is] thrust into the hands of ordinary people – the power to decide what kind of life is worth bringing into the world.” Do you choose to keep an embryo with a genetic risk of breast cancer? Of schizophrenia? (See “The Last Children of Down Syndrome,” The Atlantic, December 2020.)

As a 67-year-old white woman with financial resources who raised a son with Down Syndrome, I – like each one of us – bring my own, narrow, lived experience to this conversation. In the U.S. in 2014, 49% percent of women who had an abortion lived below the poverty line, with another 26% very close to poverty (NY Times, December 2021). Theirs is a very different lived experience than mine.

“‘What is legal is not necessarily moral, and what is moral should not necessarily be enacted into law.’”

The ELCA social statement is clear about this diversity of experience: “We recognize that conscientious decisions need to be made in relation to difficult circumstances that vary greatly. What is determined to be a morally responsible decision in one situation may not be in another. … We have the responsibility to make the best possible decisions in light of the information available to us and our sense of accountability to God, neighbor, and self. In these decisions, we must ultimately rely on the grace of God.”

May we be the kind of church willing to walk with all people as they face such moments in their lives. For, I believe, it is the community of faith – providing care and moral wisdom – that can embrace us and guide us. Even more, it is the community that proclaims God’s grace, a grace that holds and redeems in ALL moments of our lives.

With all of this in mind, I encourage you to take a deep breath and pray with me:

“Giver of Life. May we be the kind of church willing to walk compassionately with all people as they face complicated and painful moral decisions in their lives. Amen.”

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

I distinctly remember a job interview when I served as pastor at Trinity Lutheran in Moorhead. When I asked the applicant why she wanted to work in a church, she replied, “I think it will really help my faith.”

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about her remarks. Sunday was Pentecost – the birthday of the church – the day the Spirit miraculously transformed fearful disciples into a loving community boldly sent to share the good news of Christ, … even to the ends of the earth.

And the Spirit is still at work. Our synod assembly in April was filled with signs of the Spirit’s ongoing presence:

• We celebrated the news that $680,000 had been raised to start the Lutheran University Nigeria – a critical ministry in a country where only 40 percent of eligible students can find a spot in college.
• We rejoiced to welcome Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Minneapolis as the newest ELCA congregation.

“In the five weeks since our synod assembly, we have also seen powerful signs of the church’s brokenness.”

And yet, in the same five weeks, we have seen powerful signs of the church’s brokenness, including the Sierra Pacific Synod’s Assembly where 56% of those gathered voted to remove their bishop from office (a vote that did not meet the required two-thirds majority). And, yesterday, we heard that our Presiding Bishop has initiated formal disciplinary charges against Bishop Megan Rohrer.

The events in Sierra Pacific point ever more vividly to the racism and bias that infect the ELCA. Our responses on social media and elsewhere reveal how easy it is to amplify bad news and partial truths. We are broken.

IN HIS LATEST book, Do I Stay Christian?, Brian McLaren (our 2015 synod assembly speaker) starts out by retelling the story of the church’s brokenness – particularly the greed, power, fear, patriarchy, racism, and discrimination that have shaped it.

But then he tells the story of two sisters – Catholic nuns who face excommunication (and the loss of all earthly possessions) because of their challenges to the church. Still, they choose to continue speaking up until the church chooses to remove them – with both grace and defiance.

And, McClaren responds to their courage, writing, “Knowing what I see and know now (about Christian history), I will remain present to my [Christian] community, neither minimizing its faults nor hating it for its faults. … [I will join those who] stay with a good-natured but firm defiance, determined to keep our integrity and speak our truth as best we can, … staying centered in genuine humility and love.”

“Martin Luther is realistic about the ‘institutional church,’ recognizing that the ‘visible church’ is a human institution marred by error, a reflection of the sinner/saints who lead it.”

The church itself – whether it’s Trinity Lutheran in Moorhead or another congregation – will not always be a place where faith is strengthened. We may (likely) be hurt by the church’s sin and brokenness. Martin Luther is realistic about the “institutional church,” recognizing that the “visible church” is a human institution marred by error, a reflection of the sinner/saints who lead it. Yet, and still, the visible church is the incarnational vessel where, in Word and Sacraments, we receive the Christ and balm of the Gospel.

So, we speak up – with defiance and humility. We hold our church accountable – our ELCA, our synod, our congregation. We repent and seek reconciliation. And, we pray, “Come, Holy Spirit.”