Session One

Tying in the Draft Statement to the Youth Study

 

Lines 126-133: "In our understanding of God’s incarnation and our recognition of the amazing gift of our bodies, Lutherans do not ignore or underestimate the brokenness of our relationships to God or to each other. As Lutherans, we do not turn away from the sinful realities of the world or of our own actions, however difficult or painful they may be. A Lutheran diagnosis of the human condition is very realistic. We all are entangled in sin and turned in on ourselves. We constantly seek our own self-gratification and self-promotion at the expense of others. In short, we turn away from God and in so doing, also turn away from the good of our neighbor."

Lines 135-140: "We do not despair, however, because we are justified through God’s grace. God accepts and redeems humankind and reconciles the creation in Jesus Christ, who was crucified and is risen. This is the very center of our faith. Christians understand that through the life, crucifixion, and resurrection of the incarnate Christ, God seeks to gather everything in love (John 3:16-17). It is therefore as people who know ourselves to be simultaneously sinful and justified that we seek to live faithfully."

Lines 153-157: "When we honestly examine the extent to which we are ensnared—individually and collectively—in patterns of self-serving, exploitation, abuse, and shame, we experience the power of the theological function of the law to reveal to us the brokenness of our relationship with God. Knowing that we can do nothing to bring about our own salvation, Lutherans reject the notion that we can perfect either ourselves or society."

Lines 159-162: "We dare to believe, however, that God forgives and accepts humankind in all its sinful messiness, reconciling the whole of creation in the crucified and risen Christ, the Word become flesh. Christians understand that through Christ, God seeks to embrace and reconcile everything in this universe, including human sexuality."

Lines 164-168: "As Christians, therefore, we experience at the same time both God’s grace and our own sinfulness. As Lutherans we understand ourselves—individually and communally—as simultaneously righteous (saved by God’s grace alone) and sinful (convicted by the law). We live within the paradox that in our sexuality, as in other aspects of life, we always will find both our own sinfulness and God’s grace."

Lines 187-190: "In other words, we are radically freed in Christ and we are called in that freedom to love and serve our neighbor. It is only in the freedom from preoccupation with the self and from the crushing burden of unworthiness before the perfection of God’s law that such concern for the neighbor becomes possible."