I had a strange phone call from a
former member of Bethany this morning. She wanted to know whether
something she was considering doing was against the teachings of our
Church.
That's a question for your Baptist
preacher or your Roman Catholic priest, not your Lutheran pastor. The
Lutheran Church is not principally about ethics, not about doing
what's right. The Lutheran Church is about forgiveness.
That's what was most strange about this
conversation. This long lost member hadn't been to church here (or
anywhere else, presumably) for almost a decade. And yet she was
worried about doing something that might be contrary to what
Lutherans teach.
What Lutherans teach is Law and Gospel.
What Lutherans preach is Christ crucified. We do, of course teach
ethics or righteous works done for the good of one's neighbor. But
those are not the core of who we are and what we believe. Those are
at the periphery. And if you miss the center, it's pointless to
dabble in the peripherals.
What's the core? The Divine Service.
On Sunday mornings, when God gathers
His people together, He gives the gifts that we cannot live without.
He gives sinners forgiveness that transforms them into saints. He
gives dead people life. He gives people who cannot do anything good
apart from His intervention the full righteousness of Jesus.
This former member is not alone in her
thinking. Lots of people think this way. How many times have you
thought about someone, “Sure he doesn't go to church, but at least
he's not into really bad sins like others are.” “Sure my kids
don't go to church, but at least they don't (do drugs/shack up
without marriage/hit their wives/get too drunk too often/end up in
the police blotter).”
That's not Christianity. That's not
Lutheran. That's works righteousness. The point of the Church is not
to keep you from sinning. The point of the Church is to deliver
forgiveness. If you don't go to church where God gives us
forgiveness, life, and salvation, no amount of avoiding “big”
sins can help you. It's not sin that damns us. Jesus died for all
sins. It's unbelief that damns. And rejecting God's gifts in the
Divine Service by skipping church is unbelief. Telling God “no”
is unbelief.
At the end of this odd phone
conversation, I didn't care what she chose to do with her moral
quandary. All I wanted was for her to be receiving the gifts of God
again.
