Think
of the situations that produce heroes, those who by definition are noted for courageous acts or nobility of character. In a world
that reveres Robin Hood, Batman, celebrities, and pro athletes, where are the
Christian (not necessarily biblical) heroes? Aren’t Christians still called to
be heroes in the sense of unfaltering witnesses to—even martyrs for—their faith in this 21st-century
world of Hyphenated-Americans, Right vs. Left, Black vs. White, gender fluidity pronouns, “nones,” and social-media
morality?
Once upon a time in the 19th century, in the days when “American” Lutheranism was taking shape, the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod was a growing church body (the ELCA is an offshoot, and so retains a few strands of its mitochondrial DNA) that would become the third largest Lutheran group in the nation by 1918, a particularly difficult time for German-speaking immigrants because of the first World War involving Germany. In 1862, however, the General Synod (as it came to be known), the first national Lutheran body to be formed in the U.S., was, like the rest of the country, feeling the turbulence of the Civil War—and like the country, it, too, became polarized over the issues of slavery, politics, and war…and split.
The General Synod met in May 1862 for the first time since the beginning of the Civil War and adopted a resolution reflecting the attitude of Northern Lutherans on “the State of the Country” (“…we recognize this unhappy war as a righteous judgment of God, visited upon us because of the individual and national sins, of which we have been guilty…”) for presentation to President Lincoln.
Once upon a time in the 19th century, in the days when “American” Lutheranism was taking shape, the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod was a growing church body (the ELCA is an offshoot, and so retains a few strands of its mitochondrial DNA) that would become the third largest Lutheran group in the nation by 1918, a particularly difficult time for German-speaking immigrants because of the first World War involving Germany. In 1862, however, the General Synod (as it came to be known), the first national Lutheran body to be formed in the U.S., was, like the rest of the country, feeling the turbulence of the Civil War—and like the country, it, too, became polarized over the issues of slavery, politics, and war…and split.
The General Synod met in May 1862 for the first time since the beginning of the Civil War and adopted a resolution reflecting the attitude of Northern Lutherans on “the State of the Country” (“…we recognize this unhappy war as a righteous judgment of God, visited upon us because of the individual and national sins, of which we have been guilty…”) for presentation to President Lincoln.
I
have few human heroes; I could count them on one hand. I place Lincoln in the
company of the Apostle Paul, Martin Luther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Martin
Luther King. Men of faith. Men of substance. Men of sacrifice.
President
Lincoln responded to the General Synod’s resolution, graciously and eloquently.
I cannot even begin to imagine the burden he carried in his heart and soul as the
nation was disintegrating all around him, Americans killing each other in hate.
His response, unedited (my underlining for emphasis):
“I welcome here the
representatives of the Evangelical Lutherans of the United States. I accept
with gratitude their assurances of the sympathy and support of that
enlightened, influential, and loyal class of my fellow-citizens in an important
crisis which involves, in my judgment, not only the civil and religious
liberties of our own dear land, but in a large degree the civil and religious
liberties of mankind in many countries and through many ages. You well know,
gentlemen, and the world knows, how reluctantly I accepted this issue of battle
forced upon me, on my advent to this place, by the internal enemies of our
country. You all know, the world knows the forces and the resources the public
agents have brought into employment to sustain a Government against which there
has been brought not one complaint of real injury committed against society, at
home or abroad. You all may recollect that in taking up the sword thus
forced into our hands this Government appealed to the prayers of the pious and
the good, and declared that it placed its whole dependence upon the favor of
God. I now humbly and reverently in your presence, reiterate the
acknowledgement of that dependence, not doubting that, if it shall please
the Divine Being who determines the destinies of nations that this shall remain
a united people, they will, humbly seeking the Divine guidance, make their
prolonged national existence a source of new benefits to themselves and their
successors, and to all classes and conditions of mankind.”
I am
writing this on Martin Luther King Jr Day. In August 1963, a century after
Lincoln’s response to the General Synod, Dr. King penned a response also, to 8 white Christian and Jewish leaders that had called him out in
a newspaper ad. He
had been put in jail in Birmingham, Alabama, for leading nonviolent demonstrations against segregation. King writes
(again, my underlining):
“There was a time when the church
was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced
when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the
church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of
popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society.
Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed
and immediately sought to convict them for being ‘disturbers of the peace’ and ‘outside
agitators.’ But they went on with the conviction that they were ‘a colony of
heaven’ and had to obey God rather than man.”
As a
Christian—especially as a pastor—I must daily recharge the courage of my
convictions through prayer and the promises of God’s Word. The Church by design
has no seat in government, making it difficult for Christian men (and women) since
the 1st century to respond, as Peter did to the authorities in Acts
5:29, with “one must obey God rather than
men,” all the while knowing that some, like Lincoln, Bonhoeffer, and Dr. King, were
killed for their convictions.
Our own Lutheran Confessions (Augsburg
Confession, Article 28) remind us that the power of the sword is given to the
governing authority; the necessity for obedience ceases when it commands
something which can only be done in sin.
More about this next month…
In the meantime, may the Lord
bless you and keep you,
