Senior Pastor's Letter January 2005

Christ the Servant Lutheran Church

January 2004 Letter

Pastor Peter Bastien, in Footnotes:

Dear Friends in Christ,

"It is our needs that interpret the world." (Friedrich Nietzsche)

The New Year is a time to look back and then ahead. Where have we been, where do we want to go? As I look back and yearn for forward (I think we - our ELCA have mostly been stalled in recent years) I am led to confess to you (with deep regret) that I am coming to agree with the Religious Right that schism in our churches (Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian — Roman Catholicism can't have schism, it is a basic problem, even flaw, in their ecclesiology) might be inevitable. But worse yet, I'm coming to wonder if schism might not be desirable! In all these denominations, ours included, the obsessive determination to avoid schism at all costs has led to a survival mode and ministry stalemate. Conservatives are angry, progressives are frustrated, no one is moving forward. Instead of being a vibrant voice for an alternative way for our world-and both sides in these disputes have real alternatives to offer human society, albeit very different ones—we are totally consumed with our internecine struggles. Is it not possible that it would be better to honestly and amicably admit that we can't work together, beg God to forgive us, and move on?

I believe there are four basic versions of Christianity around in the Church today: Protestant Conservatism (Fundamentalism); Protestant Liberalism (still fundamentally oriented on the Bible, but using modern methods of interpretation); Catholic Conservatism (oriented on the living hierarchy, centered in the Pope); Catholic Progressivism (centered on a sacramental humanism and a dynamic understanding of Tradition and ministry.) As you know, my heart is with the last of these versions of the Faith. My incarnational, sacramental faith is about a God who understands and participates in our impossible struggles to become fully human—God is not locked in alien laws or absolute metaphysics but is as free as the wind to respond. The Church becomes a Gospel-Place in our like responsiveness.

Pastor Peter Bastien

J. Christian Beker (one of our greatest students of Paul's theology) captures this well: "Paul's hermeneutic [form of interpretation] challenges every interpreter of the gospel to a similar task, to construct the relation between the center of the gospel and its necessary embodiment in contingent situations in such a way that the abiding word of the gospel can become a word on target for us."

For conservative Christians the overwhelming responsibility is to the past, to authority, to tradition. The best way for people to live is to conform to ancient truths. It is essentially, I believe, a law perspective. It is also a very authentic, viable, honest perspective. I do not disregard or dismiss it. It has a real claim on our attention. But I find that I cannot be there, do not belong there, cannot breathe there. I wish them well and admire their more humane voices—many of them, by the way, Lutheran voices.

For progressive Christians, the overwhelming responsibility is to people, to God's people embroiled in the absurdities and unpredictability of contingency. The Word must become a Word "on target for us." The Tradition (including the Bible) is not an absolute standard that can be returned to. This is an illusion. The Tradition is a living, on-going thing that must be renewed by being reinterpreted for the people of today. There is no absolute, eternally-valid law. There is only what we must do today, with fear and trembling, to bring about health and justice for actual, embedded human lives. The Bible and the Tradition give us a place to start, a conversation partner in the quest for (always partial, always contingent) truth. It is a conversation-starter, not a conversation-stopper. As we act out of love and compassion, the Holy Spirit will teach us what we need to do today.

So I struggle deeply as we stand on the verge of 2004. Where is God leading us? Schism is sin. Breaking the bond of unity breaks God's heart. But what if there is no unity? What if there is only stalemate, anger, and frustration? I will never initiate a divorce between us, but neither am I willing to silence the voice of the Gospel in order to hold off schism. I will try to keep lines of communication open, I will pray for a day of greater understanding, greater love—but maybe love requires honesty and a willingness to be apart for a while for the sake of spiritual integrity. Perhaps (I hope I am wrong) only by moving apart will we ever be able to come together. Please pray for the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Please pray for a way through current crises that will be healthy for us all.

Wishing you a blessed New Year,

—Pastor Bastien

Taken from Footnotes, January 2004

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CTS is a Reconciling in Christ Congregation and

a member of the Washington Metropolitan Synod of the ELCA

(Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).

We are located in Montgomery Village (Gaithersburg) Maryland