Dear Partners in Mission:
We find ourselves this week already in the second month of 2025, a year that promised to bring change and uncertainty and has delivered. The incoming administration has issued an unprecedented flurry of new executive orders, many of which will impact our ministries and communities. And we are unsure of what that all will be and mean. Our ministry leaders are reading, learning, and preparing to respond as needed, particularly responding to communities that are targeted by these orders. This attention includes those related to immigration processes and the way in which ICE interacts with houses of worship, as well as long established Lutheran refugee and humanitarian services that have had funds cut off (and on and uncertain) and are now the subject of social media attack.
A significant conversation that has arisen again in our nation is the role of pastors and preachers in relation to the political estate. Bishop Budde’s sermon on January 21 at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Diocese of Washington (D.C.) (often referred to as the “National Cathedral”) reinvigorated this conversation. Despite a long history of presidents being addressed in this space, Budde’s direct address to the incoming president asking for mercy has met with a strong response, including both much praise and great criticism. The criticism has ranged from the usual “don’t mix religion with politics” to outright accusation that Budde misrepresented the teachings of Jesus.
Reflecting on this, my experience as bishop now for 9 years, and in conversation with others has led me to two not-so-novel thoughts…
- In general the complaints received about pastors and politics usually arise when the political ideology of the individual is challenged by the preached Word. In short, if I agree or the preaching doesn’t challenge my worldview, I don’t complain.
- While admonishing pastors to not address political issues from the pulpit, the political estate, regardless of partisan ideology, has no restraint in proclaiming their interpretation of scripture and using the bible as justification for their decisions.
These thoughts lead to more questions, namely, who is allowed to speak and whose interpretation is valid? Preachers are trained in scriptural study and interpretation. They are taught to bring a way of seeing the world through the biblical lens and connect that to the lived existence of their parishioners. For Lutherans this is the framework of Law and Gospel.
If preachers refrain from acknowledging current issues in our world (I am not speaking of advocating for candidates, although many have), do not advocate for us to stand up for the marginalized as God does throughout scripture, do not remind us of our communal sinfulness, do not articulate the futility of seeking our own righteousness, then they are failing to preach in our Lutheran tradition.
Additionally, if the political estate continues to weigh in with their interpretation of scripture and the teachings of Jesus unchallenged, at some point the question will be if the Church is allowed to interpret scripture and preach the gospel. The Church’s thousands of years of wrestling with scripture while nations rise and fall will be forgotten. Christian Nationalism will arise in which the state is the arbiter of biblical interpretation.
So what are we to do? First and foremost we are to continue to gather for Word and Sacrament. We are to hear the Word proclaimed to us in the lectionary texts and the preached Word. We are to listen hard to scripture and experience how it convicts us in failing to follow even the first commandment, driving us to the need for the gospel. We are to learn and educate ourselves and our communities on who is impacted by the decisions of our leaders, including how the members of our NT-NL congregations are being affected by our leaders choices. We are to then speak when the political estate oversteps into the work of the church proclaiming the Word in its truth. Most of all we are to keep our eyes on Jesus and remember his command in Matthew 25:40 and his life giving death and resurrection.
#TogetherinMission, #Juntosenmision,
Bishop Gronberg