Lutheran Theologians Focus on the Cross and Mission

TECHNY, Ill. (ELCA) -- Lutherans believe that God reconciled all conflicts with human beings by becoming human in Jesus Christ, by being executed on a cross and by rising from the dead. The cross was the focal point for theologians of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) gathered here Aug. 18-20.
About 60 members of the ELCA who teach theology in colleges and seminaries met with six bishops and about 10 staff members of the ELCA's churchwide offices in Chicago. The Convocation of Teaching Theologians, hosted by the ELCA Division for Ministry, addressed "The Theology of the Cross in the Mission of the Church."
"The theology of the cross is a way of doing theology that says we start with God's self-revelation to us in weakness and in the cross, which is the beginning of victory," said Dr. L. DeAne Lagerquist, associate professor of religion, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn. She chaired the consultation's planning committee.
"It's important that the teaching theologians come together and teach one another and come to know one another in a way that, if you will, puts flesh on the institution," said Lagerquist. "We come to know one another as people, not only as views that are reported in some disembodied way," she said.
"The theology of the cross is an important element of Lutheran theology and therefore an important contribution of the Lutheran church," said the Rev. H. Frederick Reisz Jr., president of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, S.C. "I am Lutheran because life is irrational, paradoxical and complex," he said.
"Divine power is shown in weakness," said Reisz. "Christ is Savior, Servant and Lord." Lutheran theology accepts such seeming contradictions because "it elevates revelation over reason, while not banishing reason. We let God be God," he said.
"Being theologians of the cross shapes the mission of the church. We preach Christ crucified and risen," said Reisz. "Our mission includes honesty," he said, to look at the suffering of the world through God's grace.
"We are called to accompany others and be accompanied as we all are accompanied by Christ, who bears the prints of the nails," said Reisz.
"The cross is a reality of what God has done for us," said Dr. Diane L. Jacobson, professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn. "The theology of the cross gives us a glimpse into the divine heart ... God's will for us," she said.
"What distinguishes God from humanity is God's compassion ... God's tilt toward grace and forgiveness," said Jacobson. "God's character is revealed in the details."
"God takes up the lament" of human suffering, she said. Human suffering and human logic cannot bridge the gap between God and humans.
"By itself, the crucifixion of Christ would have been a shocking catastrophe," said the Rev. James W. Aageson, associate professor of religion, Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn. The death of Christ seems tragic and foolish, he said, and anything but saving.
Some Christians have used the cross "to justify injustice," saying that some should follow Christ's example by suffering, said Aageson. He called such teaching "a misuse of Christ's example, to further one's own status."
When Christ's suffering is seen as God's act, making human suffering pointless, the theology of the cross has a powerful message of hope for today's world, said Aageson. "Ethics is the arena where much of Christian theology is taking place in America," he said.
"The cross reveals our suffering for what it is -- a curse -- and opens us up for God's proper work -- a blessing," said the Rev. Timothy J. Wengert, professor of Reformation history, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. "Only God can make a blessing out of a curse."
"We are stuck in a world where suffering knows no end," said Wengert. "The theology of the cross has good news, not solutions," he said. "Our senseless suffering has a point in God."
Wengert shared several personal examples of suffering and of his struggles to believe in God. "God is bigger than this world's evil ... even bigger than our doubts," he concluded.
"In the midst of plenty" and relative comfort, a theology of the cross still has meaning, said Dr. Mary M. Solberg, assistant professor of religion, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minn. Christians cannot ignore those who live on the social, economic and geographic margins, she said.
"Are we under the illusion that there are no more crosses today? I certainly hope not," she said. "God did not guarantee safety, nor prescribe suffering."
The theology of the cross critiques how people treat each other, said Solberg, while showing us we cannot save ourselves. "Proclaim God's love," she said.
Participants formed nine thematic groups: congregational life, ecumenism, evangelism, higher education, interfaith relations, middle America, the oppressed, theological education, and worship and proclamation. Each group met three times during the weekend to discuss theology of the cross from the perspective of its theme and to draft a brief "address to the Church."
"The theology of the cross is properly at the center of our mission and identity," said Dr. Kathryn L. Johnson, professor of historical theology, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., summarizing the groups' reports. "The theology of the cross is a gift of the Lutheran church to the Church catholic," she said. "It's something the Church would be impoverished without."
Worship is the focus for living a theology of the cross, said Johnson. Theology can shape Christian relationships around a "communal identity."
The groups also identified "truth-telling" as an important part of theology, she said. Christians seek the truth, speak the truth, hear the truth and avoid distortions of the truth.
Three participants provided closing reflections: the Rev. Andrea F. DeGroot-Nesdahl, bishop of the ELCA's South Dakota Synod, Sioux Falls; Dr. Gabriel Fackre, Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre, Mass.; and the Rev. Theodore I. Zimmerman, ELCA missionary and professor, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Hong Kong.
"There is a sense in this group that, as a church, we are not looking at the cross today," said DeGroot-Nesdahl. "Why isn't there a focal point, and why isn't it the cross?"
DeGroot-Nesdahl encouraged more meetings like the consultation, involving more Lutheran theologians. Coming together deepens trust among colleagues, she said, and increases the odds of theology permeating the church. "How do we get practical about these deep-held beliefs in our lives?"
The bishop noted that she often gets letters from seminary faculties on specific issues facing the church. DeGroot-Nesdahl said she hopes to get letters about the theology of the cross and similar topics.
"Theology of the cross is inseparable from other Lutheran refrains, such a 'justification by grace through faith,'" said Fackre, a member of the United Church of Christ. He pointed out several interpretations of the theology that he heard at the consultation.
"God finds you in the place where you least expect it," said Fackre. Though Jesus died on the cross, God is "more alive than dead," he said.
Mission means being vulnerable in a culture of strength, action and violence, bearing pain but not seeking it, said Fackre. The theology of the cross is evident in Lutheran ethics, he said.
"I hope there can be conversations like this in China," said Zimmerman. There is a burgeoning future for Christianity and the Lutheran church in China, he said.
Chinese theologians are beginning to look at the Reformation teachings of 16th-century Europe, said Zimmerman. A country founded on cultural revolution will look at the writings of Martin Luther differently than America, he said,