What I wish the ELCA Bishop would write to the church

Siblings in Christ,

As a denomination with German roots, named after a theologian whose writings and style were used as propaganda tools by the Third Reich, we are inheritors of a messy legacy. During World War II, our German churches felt compelled to place the American flag prominently in sanctuaries and on grounds in an effort to prove they were not their cousins overseas. As the same time, far too many of our Lutheran siblings in Germany became a part of the Nazi Church, providing “Christian” cover for the genocide of 17,000,000 people — largely Jewish people, Soviets, Poles, Roma, Serbs, disabled people, members of the LGBTQIA+ community and others who did not fit their narrow definition of whose lives mattered. In opposition to the Nazi church and the regime it propped up stood the Confessing Church, which included leaders such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Reinhold Niebuhr.

As we look back, we know who stood on the right side of history. We know who stood on the side of Christ, who embodied Jesus’ command to pick up his cross and follow. We also know what it cost.

We are, again, at a crossroads, where we have the opportunity to choose what is safe or what is Christ-like. To align ourselves with power or the one who died on the cross. We must decide where we stand. As a denomination that has apologized for so much, including the way the words of our namesake, Martin Luther, have been historically used to cause harm to Jewish people as well as our support of the Doctrine of Discovery, we must remember that after repentance we are called to sin no more.

Let me be clear, to remain silent in the face of mass deportations is sin.

To remain silent when our transgender siblings are having not only their rights, but their very humanity stripped away is sin.

To remain silent when women are being denied lifesaving medical care is sin.

To remain silent when civil rights are being stripped away and it is not only legal, but encouraged to only pass power to white men, is sin.

We have not been bold enough in these proclamations, and, once again, we must repent and commit to sinning no more.

The scripture readings for this Sunday tell us so much about who Jesus is, who we are called to be, and how we are called to respond at this moment in history.

In Luke chapter 4, Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

As followers of Jesus, with whom he left the Holy spirit, whom we are called to emulate, it is upon us to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the forgiveness of debts and the return of land (as was required in the year of the Lord’s favor).

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul writes that we are the body of Christ. We cannot function as we ought without every member of the body present and at its best. If the hand is deported, we are broken or we are deported, for we have need of that hand. If the foot loses access to appropriate care, we are all harmed, because we need that foot. If any one part of the body is in prison, is denied what it needs to function at its best — food, a living wage, medical care, love, compassion… it harms the whole.

What this administration is doing is harming the body of Christ; it is standing against who Jesus is, what Jesus taught, and what he died for.

As Lutheran Christians we believe that we cannot earn God’s love, that we receive it through God’s unending grace. We are also called, as Bonhoeffer wrote, to not cheapen that grace, but to make it costly.

We will be asked time and time again to take a risk. We will be asked what God’s grace is worth to us.

Is it worth risking growth, membership, tithes, reputations, power and privilege to stand in the face of fascism, to stand between the oppressed and the machine oppressing us?

As the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we say, it is worth that and more. It is worth everything.