If anyone
has reason to be confident in their Lutheran pedigree I have more. Baptized as
an infant, bearing a German surname, a Lutheran born of Lutherans, as to
education Lutheran grade school, high school, college, and seminary, as to
employment nine years a Lutheran school teacher & youth director, and
Lutheran pastor for twenty-five. Of course the same could be said of other
things as well. Years spent in Bible Study Fellowship, giving more than a
tithe, status as a deacon or elder, or even quiet and unassuming piety. It is a
sign of our separation from the surpassing value of knowing Christ that even
humility can be a source of pride. But when we count our status as Christians in a culture shaped by
Christianity as rubbish we might forsake labels of
conservative or liberal, progressive or orthodox and cease being churches that compete for clients by claiming to be better at making disciples or providing more programs than the big box down the street. When the surpassing
value of knowing Christ means I skip a meal to provide food for someone who is
starving, when the debate over health care remembers the children who suffer
because parents are poor, when living a moral life is not an option or an obligation
but a reflection of Christ then we can we have come close to knowing the Christ. Truth is we can only share in Christ’s sufferings
when we can no longer follow the crucified by taking up a cross that is
comfortable.
Difficult lesson: forgo comfort for Christ.
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