ELCA Assembly Hears Bible Study From Trinity Professor

ORLANDO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark A. Powell, professor of New
Testament at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio led the
first of a series of Bible studies at the 2005 Churchwide
Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of
the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 8-14 at the World Center Marriott
and Convention Center. About 2,300 people are participating,
including 1,018 ELCA voting members. The theme for the biennial
assembly is "Marked with the Cross of Christ Forever."
Powell explored the meaning of the assembly theme,
suggesting that "it means that we are going to die."
In explaining this, he went on to identify three parallel
points where Jesus' baptism and death come together.
At Jesus' baptism, the heavens "are ripped" apart; the
Spirit enters Jesus; and a voice proclaims Jesus to be God's son.
At Jesus' death, the curtain in the temple is "ripped"
apart; the Spirit leaves Jesus; and a voice - an army officer -
proclaims Jesus to be God's son.
"The two moments are similar," Powell said. "Jesus' baptism
is like his death, and his death is like his baptism."
He went on to describe the significance of the ripping image
in both stories.
"God will no longer live up in the clouds," Powell said.
"At baptism and at death, God removes the barriers. My sins can no
longer keep me from God."
At the same time, being so marked means that an old life
ends and a new one begins, said Powell. "The cross marks what
happens," and we "live a life in between" baptism and death.
The implications of that life are threefold, Powell stated.
First, "Let us be who we are - baptized people reconciled
with God by grace. Even when we don't get it right, we are still
reconciled by grace," he said.
For the church, that means that "the ELCA is not the sinless
church that always gets everything right," Powell said. "Let us
not forget that. Let's just be who we are."
Second, Powell suggested that during the time between, "Let
us try as best we can to be who we will be," which he described
as being "selfless servants, more interested in bearing each
other's burdens than sticking to our own priorities" and loving
God "with all our souls and hearts and minds," and our enemies as
ourselves.
"If we cannot be that right now, I suggest we might at least
practice," Powell told the assembly, receiving a resounding
applause. "Let us practice for our future so that it might not
be so big a shock!"
Finally, Powell suggested that being marked with the cross
of Christ is to recognize that "WE are marked."
"There is a commonality that baptism brings," he said.
"Baptism is our primary identification."
Powell closed his study by asking voting members to imagine
and discuss baptism as a "doorway that leads from your old life
apart from God, to the newness of life in Christ" in which
something is left behind and something new is encountered on the
other side.
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Information about the ELCA Churchwide Assembly is at http://www.elca.org/assembly/05 on the Web.

For more information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
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