When William Penn received a large land grant from the King of England in the 1680s, he invited all those who suffered religious persecution to come to this land named Penns Woods. Pennsylvania was founded on the basis of religious freedom. Among those who came were not only Penns own Quakers from England. Along with family came numerous Germans from the Lutheran and Reformed Protestant traditions. They lived in predominantly Roman Catholic southern Germany, near Heidelberg and the Rhine Palatinate. Among these immigrants were some of my own ancestors. Consequently, my ancestors have been Lutherans for hundreds of years. As a young college student I came into contact with numerous Christian traditions, but I continued to remain a Lutheran because to be Lutheran is to be faithful to the core teachings of Scripture and the church all the way back to the apostles and Jesus Christ himself. What I have attended seminary I particularly pursued the study of Lutheran theological orthodoxy. I continued my studies through graduate degrees in theology as well as through 26 years as a parish pastor. And as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America drifted further and further away from the teachings of biblically orthodox Christianity and the Lutheran confessions I became outspoken, and served in our variety of leadership capacities among those who sought to reform the church. The situation in the 1990s and after was in many ways parallel to that which we find in our American today. Political correctness had overtaken the Bible. Denominational leaders sought to centralize power and impose strange doctrines and practices upon us which sharply conflicted with the Bible and the great traditions of the church. This same dynamic was occurring in all the mainline denominations in America. As a reform leader I met regularly with leaders of other mainline denominational reform groups, and saw how we struggled with the same problems. Unfortunately, most clergy and laity within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America remained silent and did not protest what was happening to the church. It was easier to just accept and endure these radical changes. More and more frequently I saw faithful pastors being harassed, reprimanded, silenced, recriminated and removed from their congregations, and from the roster of ordained clergy. In my case they simply waited until my small urban congregation was forced to close, thanked me for my faithful service and devotion to the ministry, then told me that since I did not agree with their faithless decisions, there are no longer was no place for me as pastor of a congregation. That happened four and a half years ago. For a while I considered affiliating with the more conservative Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. However, Missouri Synod congregations are sparse in Pennsylvania and I found more problems of a different sort in Missouri. So I came to believe that I could not be content within the Missouri Synod. Of course, being a confessional Lutheran my theological convictions could not be reconciled by becoming part of the free church tradition, or any of the mainline denominations. That left me stuck in a theological and spiritual wilderness. First I needed to deal with my own grief at the loss of our congregation I had served for 18 years. But now I see that just as my own theological forbear Pastor Charles Porterfield Krauth became involved in the reformation of Lutheran congregations in Pennsylvania and adjacent states in the mid-19th century, that is again our task today. When Pastor Henry Melchior Muhlenberg arrived from Halle in 1745 to eventually become patriarch of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America he found sheep who had no shepherds. The German immigrants had no pastors and so he traveled from place to place, preaching the word and celebrating the sacraments in homes in barns or wherever the people could gather - with a variety of hymnals and service books. We are experiencing the same spiritual wasteland in Pennsylvania today. Today, there are few new Lutheran options other than derelict Evangelical Church in America congregations. The spiritually thirsty cry out for spiritual food and for Gods mercy. God is merciful. Jesus Christ must again be proclaimed as Lord. The Holy Spirit calls us to restore the church to this naked land. Through the Holy Spirit let us lift each other up and consider the will of God. Amen.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 19:38:45 +0000
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