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SYNOD-CHURCHWIDE CONSULTATION
Keynote Address
Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson
October 4, 2002

The ELCA in 2012

[Introductory remarks]

When the planning committee for this synod-churchwide consultation invited me to give the keynote address, I said, "Great! When will it be?" They answered, "Friday night after dinner, after a day of travel and a Conference of Bishops meeting" and then added, "We'd like you to share your vision for the next four years of the ELCA." When I pleaded to look at least ten years out, they agreed, and then said, "We want you to make it so compelling, so uniting, so clarifying that it's going to move us with great anticipation right to the churchwide assembly in Milwaukee and beyond." Prophesy, Bishop, prophesy!

At that point I quoted one of our teaching theologians who responded to my request that he describe the next 10 years of the ecumenical movement. He looked at me and said, "I'm not a prophet, nor a prophet's son, and I work for a nonprofit institution."

On this one thing, I trust we are in full agreement: we cannot see with any clarity where God is leading us if we do not know from whence we have come and to whom we belong. In fact, in my more skeptical moments, I sometimes wonder if our driving need to be involved in strategic planning and create memorable statements of mission, vision, and values is an attempt to fill a void created by our loss of identity, unity, and purpose.

Bishop Munib Younan and I recently had dinner with a prominent U.S. citizen who now lives in Berlin. When she was introduced to Bishop Younan, she suddenly stopped the conversation, kind of caught up with herself, and said, "You are a Palestinian and a Christian? How long have you been a Christian?" And with that gentle yet clear voice of his, he said, "Two thousand years. How long have you been a Christian?"

Three Lenses

We are looking ahead tonight through the lens of God's grace. As Joseph Sittler said so eloquently, grace is more than a holy hypodermic by which our sins are forgiven. Instead, it's the giftedness of all of life that has beneath it the magnitude of the Trinity. It's the wonder of life that causes us to stop and ask questions that transcend the moment. We look to God's future through the lens of Christ's death and resurrection as we hear and still believe the angel's announcement on that Easter morning: "You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth. He is not here; he is risen. He has gone ahead of you to Galilee. There he will meet you as he told you." [paraphrase of Mark 16:6-7]

Dare we think that a bishop's vision or a church's strategic planning process is any more than our attempt to catch up with what God is already doing in the world? It's our commitment to going to meet the crucified and risen Christ, who has gone ahead of us to meet us as he promised.

We also look ahead to God's future through the lens of Luther, the reformers, and the confessions, claiming again their wonderful gifts and themes–justification by grace through faith for Jesus' sake, the means of grace, the Christian vocation and Christian freedom, law and Gospel, two kingdoms. We recognize that if we say we are who they said we are–a reforming movement within the church catholic, through whom the Holy Spirit continues to work through the Gospel–then we look to the future not with fear and dread, but with a sense of expectant Advent hopefulness. We trust that the church we will be in 2012 isn't the church we are today.

We look to the future through the lenses of our predecessor church bodies. Now that we're fifteen years old, maybe it's time to refer to the predecessor church bodies not as PCBs that are somehow trying to contaminate this church, but rather look upon them with profound gratitude for the gifts that we have received from them: a deep respect for personal piety and at the same time grounding in Lutheran orthodoxy; a deep respect for the priesthood of all believers and at the same time great appreciation for the office of ordained ministry of Word and Sacrament; the gifts of being part of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church and at the same time gratitude for those local congregations that gather around Word and Sacrament.

So, we look to the future through the lens of Scripture, through our experiences of the prayers, the preaching, the teaching, the music, and the serving of all of those who, in our lives, have borne witness to us–borne witness to the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. So, before we look to the future, stand if you are able and join me in singing a great hymn of thanksgiving for these wonderful lenses through which we will look to God's future.

[Singing "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" (Lutheran Book of Worship #320)].

In order to look ahead, we will always have to go back to the beginning–the beginning of our lives in faith–when God called you by name, washed you in the name of the Triune God, sealed you with the Holy Spirit, marked you with the cross of Christ forever. In that very beginning moment, when the seeds of faith were planted, God leaked the final verdict on our lives, and that verdict is "not guilty." Innocent, not by virtue of anything you or I are going to do, but because of what God in Christ has done for us. Baptism into Christ's death and resurrection, not the presiding bishop's ability to prophesy, becomes the lens through which we look to God's future tonight. And do we have a clearer statement of what that event means for our lives and the work of this church than that question we ask those who are going to affirm their baptism?

Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in Holy Baptism: to live among God's faithful people, to hear God's Word and share in the Lord's Supper, to proclaim the Good News of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people following the example of our Lord Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?

And the response is ... [congregation: "Yes, by the help of God."] Boy, the confirmands say it louder than that! And the response is: ... [congregation shouts: "Yes, by the help of God!] Amen!

The Baptismal River

So now, I'll be clear. One question, perhaps, after one year in office haunts me more than any other for this church, part of the Church catholic: through this church does one stream from those baptismal waters flow with five strong currents in it, or are we becoming a church from which tributaries are branching off? Well, this metaphor may not work; let me just tell you– down and dirty–what I'm talking about. Are we at a point where those who feel the call to be among God's faithful people in our ecumenical life will gather and become one tributary; and those that want to do that in the interfaith realm will become another tributary; those who say the center of our life is Word and Sacrament worship will forge another tributary to the river; and the evangelical fervor of those who want to proclaim the Good News of God in Christ become yet another branch; service another; and those working for justice and peace yet another? Suddenly we are not one church with a mighty baptismal river with five strong currents, but we are desperate tributaries, each moving in its own direction, never to meet again?

First current: living among God's faithful people

May one strong current in this baptismal river be that we are called to live among God's faithful people. In ten years, may that baptismal current pull us out of this culture's desire to privatize faith and leave it there, and pull us people of deep personal faith into public expression of that faith as we gather for public worship, public witness, and acts of mercy and justice. In ten years, may the ELCA be defined not by the issues that divide us, but by what unites us–the means of grace, the living faith, our sharing in God's mission in the world.

In 2012, may we look back on our ecumenical full communion agreements and wonder, "Why did we ever think that it was wise to start new congregations, prepare stewardship, education, worship resources, and prepare future leaders on our own, when we are doing it so much more effectively together?"

In ten years, may those who live out the unity of Christ in those local gathered assemblies also feel affirmed for their ecumenical work as they pray with other Christians and as congregations come together in shared Bible study, in shared food programs, in vacation Bible school?

And may we be looking back with gratitude on our two new full communion partners: the United Methodist Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church?

In 2012, may we be preparing with LWF [Lutheran World Federation] member churches and the Vatican for a huge celebration in 2017–the 500th anniversary of the reformation–when, together with Roman Catholic sisters and brothers, we will have come to a point of Eucharistic sharing and we will be together recognizing mutually the gifts of the reformation.

In ten years, may there be such a vibrant Lutheran World Federation–a communion of churches– that we in the ELCA are receiving as many missionaries from our global partners as we are sending. Every ELCA congregation has at least one global companion congregation, every synod has at least three companion synods, and the churchwide expression's work is to build relationships with those new emerging Christian communities in lands that today know not the name of Jesus.

But in ten years, may living among God's faithful people also be a mark of every household of faith in this church, where prayer, Scripture reading, and faith formation is the central work of those in the household.

In ten years, may living among God's faithful people no longer be descriptive of homogeneous enclaves gathered around Word and Sacrament, but those gatherings will be as diverse as the pluralistic culture in which we live.

In ten years, may the ELCA be swept up in the emerging ecumenism of global Christianity as it is now occurring in the Southern Hemisphere: Lutherans, pentecostals, Roman Catholics, and conservative evangelicals in the Spirit coming together to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and to build communities of justice and peace.

In ten years, may our living together among God's faithful people have deepened our understanding and appreciation of those of other faiths without at all minimizing our devotion to Jesus Christ.

In ten years, may the life in the ELCA be so joyful and generous that the average ELCA member gives 5.5 percent of their income on a Sunday on their way to a tithe, and the average congregation gives 15 percent of its income to the synod, and the average synod gives 57 percent of its support in mission to the ELCA–don't lower yours, Milwaukee Synod–and the ELCA is such a good steward of vital ministries that at the end of every fiscal year it reinvests the eight million in surplus back into synodical and congregational grants!

In ten years, when Thrivent comes to this banquet, it's to beg us to take more of their money to invest in our mission, and it's to promise us that they will use the ELCA logo on their napkins and folders.

Second current: hearing God's Word and sharing in the Lord's Supper

The second current that flows mightily through the baptismal waters is that we will hear God's Word and share in the Lord's Supper. May that current flow so mightily through this church that in ten years the presiding bishop averages 55 e-mails and letters a day, all asking one question: "What's the matter with those members of your church, bishop? Are they all drunk?" and I will have a standard e-mail response: "Drunk? No, they're each telling the mighty deeds of God in their own language. We have become a Pentecost church!" And we will be telling the mighty deeds of God by that day in 48 different languages on every Sunday.

In ten years, may every seminary graduate know not only Greek and Hebrew, but be fluent in Spanish as well, and may our eight seminaries be bursting with students preparing for lay rostered ministries, becoming evangelists. They've had to add buildings, they're involved in distance learning, and they are centers of ecumenical learning as well as preparations for a church in an apostolic age.

In the year 2012, may the four Hanson children who are now in their 20s be in worship every Sunday not because they have matured and become like us, but because worship has matured in the rhythms and the language of their speech, so that in song and dance and prayer and preaching they hear the Good News of Jesus Christ in words and rhythms that belong to their lives and not just ours.

By 2012, may every liturgy in every congregation be a liturgy of Word and Sacrament. May we be celebrating baptisms not in our own congregations, but at ecumenical services in the community, reminding all in this public act of witness that we do not baptize people Lutheran– we together baptize people into the Body of Christ for the sake of Christ in the world.

In ten years, may we never have heard for five years the words "worship wars," because back in 2002 we woke up to the fact that the issue in worship wars is not praise bands versus pipe organs or printed bulletins versus projected screens. The agitation is that somehow we'd become a church in which only 30 percent of the members are in weekly worship. So by 2012, the agitation in congregations was between the 60 percent who were faithful in worship and their confrontation of the 40 percent not yet so faithful.

In ten years, may every ELCA pastor not use the word "Gospel" in her or his preaching. That's an insider word that serves insiders to the faith well, but for those outside the faith it has no content. May the preaching be so Gospel-centered that in the proclamation of the Good News of God's love and salvation in Christ Jesus, crucified and risen, is heard as good news and through that good news the Holy Spirit is bringing people to faith. And, by the way, in that proclamation may not one sermon be read from a manuscript.

By 2012, may what is true of so many today in this church be true of all: that the members of this church live every day in the Word and in prayer, at least 28 percent will be in a weekly Bible study, every one of our rostered leaders will be in a weekly text study, and pastors will be teaching classes on the Lutheran doctrine of the Word and Lutheran principles of biblical hermeneutics, and people will actually take the class!

Third current: proclaiming the Good News in word and deed

The third current flowing through this mighty baptismal water is that we are called to proclaim the Good News of God in Christ through word and deed.

By 2012 when, on a Saturday night, you take a break and turn on "Prairie Home Companion," Garrison Keillor will be referring to us as "those bold, formerly shy, Lutherans." In fact, Pastor Engquist and the members of his congregation have become so bold in their proclamation of the Good News of God in Christ through word and deed that they've had to add a lay evangelist, they've had to add an associate pastor, and now they're ready to start a new congregation on the edge of town, which Pastor Engquist announced at the annual meeting, will be done with one of their full communion partners.

In ten years, this church will no longer need resolutions at synod and churchwide assemblies calling for an evangelism strategy, because proclaiming the Good News of God in Christ will be the vocation of all the baptized. In fact, in ten years the expectation in every congregation is, as it is in one I heard of recently, that on every Sunday every member brings to worship one unchurched friend, and when you fail to do that, you stand up and apologize to the rest of the members for your failure. We are church of Law and Gospel.

In ten years, may there be at least six lay evangelists in every synod. May we have congregations and leaders mentoring others in evangelical witness and outreach, and may every synod embrace what one of our synods does as a rural evangelism strategy. In this town, members of every Christian congregation come together with their membership lists and the town directory. They go through every family in that town, coding those who are active members of one of their churches, and when they're done, those without a code by their name become the shared mission field for that ecumenical evangelical outreach.

In ten years, every ELCA congregation, synod and churchwide council meeting will begin by members spending half an hour sharing stories of the signs of God at work in their lives, their ministries, their communities, their world, and then gather around Scripture, intercession, prayers of thanksgiving, and at the end they'll say, "My goodness; we just engaged in the act of witnessing." And they will be right. Like Peter and John before the Senhedrin, may the members of this church tell all that they have seen and heard because they can't keep it to themselves.

In ten years, telling the Good News of God in Christ will be as joyful and spontaneous as is our sharing the good news of the birth of a grandchild.

In ten years, those with a passion for justice will not hesitate to speak the name of Jesus, and those with a longing that everyone have a personal living relationship with Jesus will realize you can't have such a relationship if you are not engaged in the struggles for justice as well. And we will ask ourselves if the Good News we are proclaiming is not good news to the poor, then maybe it's not the Good News of God's mercy in Jesus the Christ.

In 2012, may the first question asked by reporters of the presiding bishop not be regarding the ELCA's controversies on sexuality, but may it be, "How has the ELCA managed to grow from 5.1 to 5.9 million members, starting 100 new mission starts a year, a third of them in communities of color, among those in poverty and those whose primary language isn't English, and at the same time redeveloping 100 congregations a year while still expanding their ecumenical and global partnerships?" Yes, Lord, someone ask me that question!

Fourth current: serving all people

The fourth current that flows through these mighty baptismal waters is that we will serve all people following the example of our Lord Jesus.

In ten years, may this country recognize what we already realize today: that Lutheran Services in America is the biggest nonprofit provider of social services in this country.

In 2012, may ministry among those in poverty not be a program that this church tried back in the '90s that moved on to other things, but be descriptive of this church's ongoing public commitment to be in public ministry with those who live in poverty throughout the world, working together to bring an end to poverty.

In ten years, adults will be looking upon high school and college students as the leaders in this church, beckoning us to come join them in acts of service in urban neighborhoods, Indian reservations, Central America, and rural communities.

By 2012, the Hunger Appeal will be at 25 million dollars because members recognize then what we know now: that appeals such as ours are in fact reducing hunger in the world and deaths related to malnutrition.

Serving all people will mean we will have confronted racism and all the isms that stand in the way of our living out that commitment.

And in ten years, every ELCA congregation will be recognized as a place where children are safe and respected, and become the teachers as Jesus said they were, teaching us how to receive the gift of God's reign.

And by 2012, serving all people will include tending to God's creation and God's creatures so that caring for the environment is more than simply recycling, but it's altering our consumptive and competitive way of living.

Fifth current: striving for justice and peace

And there is a fifth strong current that flows through these baptismal waters that calls us to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.

Oh, that by 2012 justice will be more than something that's called for after three 2-minute speeches [in assemblies]: three 2-minute speeches for, three 2-minute speeches against; raise your green cards and red cards and see if we're going to be about justice or not.

Nor will justice be heard as a few aging members simply longing for the good old days of the '60s. And I say, what's wrong with longing for the '60s, anyway? But justice and peace will be the vocation, the way of life, of all the baptized. Yes, in this church we will be having lively debates regarding what we mean by justice–restorative justice, distributive justice, retributive justice–and yet what will not be open to debate is whether the people of God can be about God's work of bringing justice to God's creation.

In ten years we, with Lutherans throughout the world, will be engaged in what Will Herzfeld called, just a few days before his death, "acts of evangelical defiance." In the name of the risen Christ will be confronting evil–stopping the exponential growth of HIV/AIDS, quitting our abandonment of refugees and our imprisonment of those in our land without proper credentials–so that we will no longer fear the stranger or abandon the poor.

In 2012, may historians be writing the chapter on how peace was achieved in the Middle East, and may one chapter in that book refer to Bishop Munib Younan, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan (and Palestine), who called Muslims and Jews and Christians throughout the world, with the ELCA giving strong leadership, so that peace was achieved. And in December 2004, Bishop Munib Younan, Jewish and Muslim leaders traveled together to Oslo, Norway, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.

By 2012, "In the City for Good" will be joined by "In the Country for Good"–not as slogans, but as ways of life restoring communities of faith throughout this land.

And by that day, may it be the presiding bishop of the ELCA, not Jerry Falwell, who is the first one called by commentators to respond to the latest crisis in public policy.

In ten years, may it be the practice in every congregation to gather the faithful for an hour on Sunday morning simply to say, "How did it go with you this week? Where were you engaged in God's world as a steward of God's creation? How did it go bearing witness to the love of God in Christ Jesus? Where did you confront evil this week and cast it out in the name of the risen Christ? and How did you manage to stay detached from the world and the values of this culture and its consumptive and competitive living?" And then together pray for God's Spirit to guide them as they live out their many vocations in the week.

In 2012, "Church in Society" won't simply be a division in Chicago, but it will be a description of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America–a public church in public worship and public witness.

And, in ten years, when the presiding bishop is asked to give a vision for the future of the church, it will be 15 minutes in length and after breakfast.

So, I managed to share a vision of the church in ten years, and never mentioned sexuality. What kind of denial or fog is this guy in, anyway? Could it be because in ten years we will look back on the studies on sexuality and wonder why, in 2002, we were so anxious and so certain that this question would divide the church, when now we look back and realize the Holy Spirit was at work. People listened to God speaking in Scripture. People listened to one another. They listened to the experience of people who are gay and lesbian, and at the 2005 Churchwide Assembly we adopted a resolution that did not divide this church, that reflected where we were as a church, and this church has resolved to stay united in Christ in God's mission in the world. And we look back and realize those conversations in 2002, 2003, and 2004 in fact prepared us for the subsequent difficult and challenging issues that followed in the years to come, deepening our resolve to listen to God's speech, to one another, and then to deliberate publicly and openly and speak with clarity.

But in ten years some things did not change. We continued to be a church of forgiven sinners. We remained a Christ-centered, Spirit-filled community, gathered around the means of grace, a confessional church, a reforming movement in the Church catholic. So, in 2012 we sent out an invitation to the whole church to gather at the river – to gather at this wonderfully strong baptismal river, with its five vibrant currents. And at that great gathering at the river we gave thanks to God for those congregational, synodical and churchwide leaders who gathered back in October 2002 to share their living faith in Christ, their love for this church, and their vision for the future which God will hold in store for us.

So, in anticipation of their great thanksgiving for your work this weekend, will you stand and join with me in singing.

[Singing "Shall We Gather at the River." (With One Voice #690)]

Closing prayer

Good and gracious and holy God, we thank you that you have gathered us at the river, that there we have drowned to the powers of sin, death and the devil, and been raised to new life in Christ in the community that bears Christ's name and presence in the world. Thank you for this church, for the gifts of the Spirit that you have given us, for the privilege of being part of the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Send your Holy Spirit. Continue to stir us, awaken us, that we might be signs of the risen Christ in the world and caught up in your work for the sake of the world. Give us rest this night, that we may arise to a new day which you give us as a gift of your grace, to serve you in joy and thankfulness. Amen.

Thank you very much.

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