文章基本信息

标题：What we need
作者：Miller, David A
期刊名称：The Lutheran
印刷版ISSN：0024-743X
出版年度：2002
卷号：Aug 2002
出版社：Augsburg Fortress Publishers

What we need

Miller, David A

We live in tension with a culture that erodes our core identity

Lane Knouse moonlights for fun as an accordion player in German restaurants. His day job is pastor of two ELCA congregations in Lacon and Varna, Ill. And he has something our church needs much more of.

I met Knouse in June at the Central/Southern Illinois Synod assembly, and we began swapping stories of family joys and sorrows. With affection and pride, he described his teenage daughter, a recovering alcoholic who has struggled mightily for sobriety, and his son who just left home, needing to be on his own. He continued, sharing that his wife has begun to show signs of the incurable genetic disease that took her father's life.

"Funny," he said, "the crazier things get the calmer I become. I take every day as a blessing, and I know even if I lose my wife I'll spend eternity with her. Separations are only for a while."

The words flowed gently, as quiet as breath. But their power stopped my hyperactive tongue, which is the only appropriate response when you find yourself in the presence of true holiness.

Knouse's words felt anything but rehearsed. They bubbled naturally from a deeply formed idntity that shapes how he sees the particulars of his life. He knows that he and all he loves are anchored in the utter sufficiency of God's inexhaustible and unblinking love. And he lives as if life and God are found not by denying or escaping struggles but by taking the risk of loving, sharing whatever graces may be found amid life's victories and losses. Such is the nature of a truly Christian identity.

His words resonate with the message being sent to church leaders from this spring's synod assemblies. Assembly participants responded to two questions: What are the three most important factors in our society that have the greatest impact on the ELCA's mission? And, what are the three most essential things that we need to do to move effectively into the future?

This survey is part of a planning process initiated by ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson. The results aren't complete, but clear patterns have appeared (for a report see www.elca.org/planning). Secularization is a leading factor cited by most synod assemblies.

Secularization is the turning away from religious faith as a source of meaning and values. For the church this means the loss of its favored position within society. Congregations must compete for attention and often lose out to Sunday morning soccer games. For individuals, Christianity is just one option, and many live with no religious faith at all. Consumerism, relativism, materialism, individualism, pluralism and "me-ism" occupy the space once held by the church and its faith.

We live in tension with a culture that promotes violence, selfishness, promiscuity and vulgarity. This is confirmed nightly by the alien gods that bellow at us from our TV sets. They bombard us with messages that real life is found in what we consume, possess, achieve and in our freedom to pursue our happiness while ignoring the needs and humanity of billions.

This is not our faith. But these constant messages erode our core identity until faith becomes a suit of clothes we put on or throw off as circumstances dictate.

Faithfulness requires a deeply formed Christian identity that shapes how we see everything and orders all our allegiances. At the center of this identity is the ability to see and the willingness to respond to every situation as an invitation to share in the labor of God's love.

This makes Christians ask different questions-not what can I get out of this, but what is God's love up to here and now? What does the love of God call for in this place-and in the world I meet in the morning paper?

Knouse's words offered a glimpse, one manifestation, of a deeply formed Christian identity. The church will be relevant and strong only to the extent that it nourishes such identity and vision. Needed are ministries that explicitly help us see and name the love of God active in our lives and in the world-ministries that help us find joy in the risk of loving.