Liberated by God's Grace

2017 – 500 years of Reformation

Anne Burghardt

• Publisher: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9783374047406
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

In these four booklets, theologians from all parts of the world reflect on the main theme and three sub-themes (Liberated by God's Grace: Salvation—Not for Sale; Human Beings—Not for Sale; Creation—Not for Sale) of the Lutheran World Federation's commemoration of the 500thAnniversary of the Reformation.This collection of essays provides profound insights into the crucial issues and challenges daily faced by the members of the worldwide Lutheran communion in very diverse contexts. The theological concept ofjustification by God's grace and its consequences for different dimensions of life serve as the main guiding principles for the essays, each one of which is accompanied by three questions that invite to further contextual reflection on the subject.This work comes in a boxed set of four booklets, which can only be purchased together: Booklet 1: Liberated by God´s Grace – 500 years of ReformationBooklet 2: Salvation – Not for SaleBooklet 3: Human Beings – Not for SaleBooklet 4: Creation – Not for SaleA German translation will be published next year.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Lutheran World Federation.

LIBERATED BY GOD’S GRACE

Edited by

Anne Burghardt

Bibliographic information published by the German National Library

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;

detailed bibliographic data are available on the internet at http://dnd.dnd.de

© The Lutheran World Federation

This work, including all of its parts, is protected by copyright.

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Editorial assistance: Department for Theology and Public Witness

Layout: Department for Theology and Public Witness

Design: LWF-Office for Communication Services

E-Book: Zeilenwert GmbH 2017

Published by Evangelische Verlangsanstalt GmbH, Leipzig, Germany, under the auspices of

The Lutheran World Federation

150, rte de Ferney, PO Box 2100

CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland

Parallel editions in German and Spanish

ISBN 978-3-374-04740-6

CONTENTS

Cover

Title

Imprint

Preface

Martin Junge

Introduction

Anne Burghardt

Liberated by God’s Grace – From What, To What?

Gottfried Brakemeier

The Church and the Public Space. A Lutheran Interpretation

Kjell Nordstokke

The Liberating Word of God. Reflections on the Lutheran Understanding of Holy Scripture

Hans-Peter Grosshans

Implementing Gender Justice: An Asian Perspective

Au Sze Ngui

Education and the Reformation

Elżbieta Byrtek

Freed by God’s Love to Change the World: A Youth Perspective

Monica M. Villarreal

Liberated by God’s Grace: Grace and Peace. An Anglican Perspective

Timothy J. Harris

Bible Study: Isaiah 55:1-2

Zephania Kameeta

List of Contributors

PREFACE

Martin Junge

The year 2017 marks the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. Churches in the Lutheran tradition take 31 October 1517 as the starting point of the Reformation. It was on that date that Martin Luther is said to have nailed his Ninety-five Theses opposing the sale of indulgences and what he perceived to be clerical abuses attached to this practice on the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg. Since then, the Reformation has made an impressive journey. Today, Lutheran churches can be found in all four corners of the globe, with a steadily growing number of Lutherans living in the global South. The Lutheran World Federation, a world-wide communion comprising 144 churches, today represents over 70 million Lutherans in seventy-nine countries.

The churches’ diverse formative experiences, social and cultural backgrounds make it virtually impossible to talk about “the” Lutheran identity. For some churches, the year 1517 does not necessarily have special significance since they associate different dates with the beginning of the Reformation. For several LWF member churches, for instance, the introduction of Christianity in their local context represents the key date that is being remembered as constitutive of their self-understanding and identity. However, the commemoration of this quincentennial anniversary offers an excellent opportunity for all Lutheran churches to reflect on the ongoing relevance of the questions that triggered the Reformation and to discern its societal impact.

The four booklets included in this collection aim to contribute to such an in-depth review. The discussion is shaped around the overarching theme of the 500th Anniversary and the Twelfth Assembly, “Liberated by God’s Grace,” with its three sub-themes that help to elaborate different aspects of the main theme: “Salvation – Not for Sale,” “Human Beings – Not for Sale,” and “Creation – Not for Sale.” The booklets include essays by bishops, pastors, academics, members of the LWF Council, representatives of different LWF networks and ecumenical partners from all LWF regions. The wide range of authors and topics gives the reader a glimpse of the wide variety within the communion and some aspects of the LWF’s programmatic work. The three questions at the end of each essay seek to encourage further reflection and discussion.

It is our hope that these booklets can be used in bilateral discussions between partner churches to trigger a dialogue on the message and role of churches in different contexts. Furthermore, they will hopefully provide significant impulses for our deliberations as we prepare for the Twelfth Assembly that will take place in 2017 at Windhoek, Namibia.

Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have contributed an essay to this publication and for making these comprehensive and meaningfully diverse. I would like to encourage readers carefully to study these booklets and hope that they will lead to meaningful and worthwhile conversations on their content.

INTRODUCTION

Anne Burghardt

“Liberated by God’s Grace” – the Lutheran World Federation’s main theme for the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation – is closely linked to the doctrine of justification by faith which, in the Lutheran tradition, has also been called “the doctrine by which the church stands or falls” (articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae). The central insight of this doctrine, namely that in Christ God’s grace is given to us as a free and unconditional gift, evokes a response of gratitude, expressing itself in the loving and caring engagement with human beings and the whole of creation. This understanding is as pertinent today as it was in Luther’s times and continues to impact all aspects of theology. The essays in this booklet explore the topicality and influence of this Reformation insight from different perspectives.

In his article “Liberated by God’s Grace – From What, To What?” Gottfried Brakemeier argues that in today’s world the concept of grace/mercy is becoming increasingly suspect. A world without grace would end up being an inhumane world. A theology centered on justification by faith holds on to the concept of grace since, in biblical terms, justification promises God’s unconditional acceptance of human beings. Showing love is the response to God’s abundant love for human beings, not an attempt to “earn” God’s love by “good deeds.” Referring to Luther’s writing “On the Freedom of a Christian, 1520,” Brakemeier shows how Luther’s two sentences, “A Christian is a free lord of all, and subject to none” and “A Christian is the most dutiful servant of all and subject to everyone”1 belong closely together.

“A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.”2 This is his [Luther’s] first sentence. Anyone who has God as lord cannot serve other lords (cf. Mt 6:24). Serving God frees us from serving humans. All pressures fall away as soon as people entrust themselves in faith to God’s grace. However, this freedom would be thoroughly misunderstood as arbitrariness. So Luther adds: “A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all and subject to all.”3 That is his second sentence. The two belong together. Freedom destroys itself if it is not in a position to take on obligations. Above all, however, love is betrayed. It is essentially “serving the neighbor.” Without diakonia, faith also becomes false as there is no “Christian” faith that does not take action in love (Gal 5:6).4

The rediscovery of the gospel’s liberating message, which Luther discovered through his profound study of the Holy Scriptures, was at the center of the Reformation. This powerful and liberating message needs to be heard anew at different times and in different contexts. In his essay, Hans-Peter Grosshans, a member of the LWF’s hermeneutics network, points to the diversity of human life and the fact that through the medium of the Holy Scriptures God speaks to individuals’ and communities’ concrete lives.

Hearing God’s Word is therefore not followed by some sort of imperial anti-individuation process but by a song praising the manifold grace of God (1 Pet 4:10), expressed in the diverse and many-hued lives of Christians and churches – in “the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:21).5

The fact that the significance of hearing and understanding the Word of God has been highlighted since the beginning of the Reformation gave rise to many new translations of the Bible which, in several cases, noticeably impacted the further development of certain national languages. Comprehending the actual meaning of the text has a lot to do with the hermeneutical key that is being used. Elżbieta Byrtek describes the importance of education in Lutheran churches throughout the centuries, which originated in the desire more widely to engage with the Scriptures and their meaning. True engagement with the Scriptures implies posing questions, listening to different “readings” and voicing one’s concerns and doubts.

Faith that is not afraid of posing questions, seeking answers and staying in dialogue with those who do not share one’s own opinion, is a living faith, one that will be able to survive in today’s multilateral and complex world. A world where “right” answers given by external authorities do not necessarily speak to people but where Christians, liberated by God’s grace, have a responsibility to talk about this grace to others and to be ready to engage in difficult dialogues.6

The Reformation was a catalyst for the renewed understanding of the church’s role in society. Luther valued ordinary work, both in- and outside the home. Thus everyday work acquired a new dignity since he explicitly considered it to be an essential part of serving both God and the neighbor. This perception laid a fruitful basis to the later concepts of active citizenship. In his article about the church’s calling in society, Kjell Nordstokke points out that, according to Luther, God has called the church to be a “living word” in the world.

The call to be “a living word” is an exhortation to active citizenship. Luther radically changed the understanding of Christian vocation, shifting the focus from the internal life of the church, to serving in the world – being Christian citizens who love and care for their neighbor.7

Using the example of Norway, Norstokke identifies four areas of action for diakonia: loving one’s neighbor; creating inclusive communities; caring for creation; and struggling for justice.

In 2013, the LWF approved the Gender Justice Policy (GJP), a document that helps to raise awareness about questions pertaining to inclusiveness and gender roles in the churches. Using the example of the Murut people of Sabah, Malaysia, Au Sze Ngui describes how the liberating power of the gospel has brought about a change in the perception of gender roles among the Muruts. In her article, she also draws on the theological argumentation and methodology outlined in the GJP. Ngui explains how the Christian understanding of the equality of all human beings before God has empowered Murut women in the church to take on responsibilities that traditionally would have been within the male domain. She refers to the gospel’s liberating power when it comes to revisiting certain traditions, which despite the rhetoric that is sometimes being used, do not correspond to the actual message of the gospel.

Liberation from the bondage of sin is the beginning of our striving for justice: we are free; we are forgiven; we are the recipients of God’s grace. We are free to change and to change the world. There are many examples of how Christianity has been an agent of change by supporting the revision of some “traditional” practices.8

“Freed by God’s Love to Change the World” is the motto of the LWF’s Global Young Reformers Network that was formed within the framework of the commemoration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. Inspired by this motto, Monica Villarreal picks up the question about faith’s liberating power from the perspective of youth. Being liberated, being freed by God always implies the question what we are actually liberated or freed from and to. Villarreal quotes Caroline Huth from Arg...

Table of contents

• Cover
• LIBERATED BY GOD’S GRACE
• SALVATION – NOT FOR SALE
• HUMAN BEINGS – NOT FOR SALE
• CREATION – NOT FOR SALE
• Footnotes