The Lutheran, February 2009
A monthly column by Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson
Jesus is with us always
Trust in Christ's promise during anxious times
As I write these reflections on New Year’s Day 2009, the refrains of “Joy to the World” are muted by anxiety about the growing effects of a declining economy and the tragic escalation of violence in the Middle East. Statistics fuel this anxiety and seem to dominate our daily lives: the rise and fall of the stock market, and the number of jobs lost, mortgages foreclosed, rockets launched and war casualties. It is challenging to move beyond numbers to consider the human lives involved.
Within the life of the church, data provide one picture of our priorities and even of our vitality. It is appropriate to pay attention to worship attendance, membership — including our racial, ethnic and age diversity — average giving, and the percentage of congregations’ budgets that support mission beyond the congregation. These data, however, cannot tell the whole story. They cannot tell the story of those who come to faith through hearing the good news of Jesus Christ, the healing of relationships through the prayers and pastoral care of parishioners, or even of a congregation’s bold decision to sustain mission in the midst of a downturn.
Our tumultuous economy already has had some impact on giving to congregations, synods, churchwide ministries, and partner institutions and agencies. Some express anxiety about the impact of Churchwide Assembly decisions on human sexuality on the unity of this church and our capacity to grow as an evangelizing people engaged in God’s mission for the world. Anxiety leads to conversations about “how do we survive” rather than urgent prayers for a revival in this church.
In a Christian Century article about his experience as a pastor serving a small-membership congregation with low expectations, Richard Bliese, president of Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., wrote that “a devastating lack of mission afflicted the congregation. The church had little sense of ministry to the unchurched, the marginalized, the poor or those not of European origin. Survival became the bottom line — its mission.”
What happened in that congregation? The process was messy and they made mistakes, but they discovered that a small congregation is not necessarily a premature, illegitimate, malnourished or incomplete version of a “real” church. Through prayer, Bible study and fellowship, they claimed their identity as a community of disciples and apostles, equipped and sent to do God’s mission and share Christ’s love. They built a multicultural community, which Bliese wrote was as difficult as learning a new language and “not for the faint of heart.”
As they gathered as a eucharistic community around word and bread and wine — Christ’s very presence — they became a sacramental presence of God’s grace and love in the larger community, especially for those who live on the margins of society. What a marvelous vision for every ELCA congregation.
Christ’s word of promise to us is, “I am with you always.” That promise holds us together when our congregations — large or small, poor or rich, rural or urban — feel stretched thin or fragmented, overwhelmed or ill-equipped to meet the world in generous service and self-giving mission. Yet this word was Jesus’ Great Commission spoken to disciples anxious about an uncertain future and it is his command to us.
God often sent messengers to announce to the faint of heart, “Be not afraid.” We need to hear that word today and announce it to others. By doing so, we hold back the walls of anxiety and provide space for God to do a new thing, as radical a new thing as delivering a people from slavery in Egypt, becoming human in Jesus the Christ, revealing God’s redeeming love on a cross, or raising Jesus from the dead.
As individuals, congregations, the churchwide organization, and institutions and agencies, we are bold to declare: “Marked with the cross of Christ forever we are claimed, gathered, sent for the sake of the world."