A Different Kind of Religion

This goes way back to some discussions with Steve from Stupid Church People. Now I don't claim that Lutheranism fixes everything. You'll find the same human flaws in the Lutheran Church that you find everywhere else. But I would like to make the claim that it is virtually a different religion from what goes on at a megachurch. (Steve, feel free to mentally add "or so we believe" after any statement.)

The difference comes down to two of the fundamental questions that define religious communities as communities: "Who are we?" and "What are we doing?" The Lutheran answer is sacramental, which makes the Lutheran understanding of "church" different from that of evangelicalism different in kind rather than in degree.

"Who are we?" Our definition as Christians is baptismal. In baptism, we believe that God forgave our sin, thus defining us as his family, binding us both to himself and to each other. Because this sacrament is God's word and work rather than ours, it's not something we can undo or unmake any more than you can undo your earthly family. You can run from it and reject it, but you can't unmake it.

"What are we doing?" Evangelicals go to the megachurch to get jazzed on praise & worship, hear some healthy principles for living, engage in some kind of activity/workshop, or get connected to some kind of small group? Lutherans go to church to hear the Gospel and celebrate the Lord's Supper. Forgiveness is at the root of both, and is shaped in different ways. Lutheran preaching is preaching Christ and declaring peace in his name. It prepares us for the Lord's Supper, in which we believe Jesus himself gives us his body and blood to eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. If God creates creates and defines the community through baptism, then he sustains it through the Supper.

So why's this make it a different religion?

First of all, it defines the church service as the place where Christ meets his people to forgive their sins, to give them his gifts. This makes the very idea of leaving church to get closer to Jesus absurd to a Lutheran, though this thought is frequent among disaffected evangelicals. Do I find Jesus giving me his body and blood elsewhere? No. Was I baptized into reading the Bible by myself? No. And at the same time, this sacramental definition of the church to some degree trivializes the institutional aspects--so maybe the last pastor was a jerk, the denominational bureaucrats are conniving politicians, and the guy in the pew next to me is a fake. Well, they're not the reason we're here. They don't define us. The Lutheran Church is not a cult of personality, whereas megachurches by definition have to be.

Second, it defines pastoral ministry completely differently. Ministry in evangelicalism has become about spearheading programs and launching sweet new ideas to rack up the numbers. The sacramental character of the Lutheran church leads to an understanding of the pastor as a steward of the mysteries of God. He might be an unfaithful servant, but he remains a servant nonetheless. One way or another, his fundamental job is to preach the Gospel and administer the sacraments, and his relationship to the people as "shepherd" is to give them God's gifts through those things. Lutheran pastoral activity is about proclaiming the forgiveness of sins, serving people at the Supper and directing them to a life defined by their baptism. That requires that he both knows and loves his people--not the faceless mass of people, but the actual individuals in the pew. That's why Lutherans who know their faith tend to be so opposed to the Church Growth Movement infecting some parts of our synod. They see how it takes the ministry and redefines it to be about programs and numbers instead of preaching and administering the sacraments. They see how it takes the pastor and removes him from his role of shepherd, which requires that personal touch, and turns him into a distant celebrity.

Third, it defines the congregation as forgiven sinners. Not sinners in various degrees of self-improvement, but sinners who need to be forgiven every Sunday. I don't think Lutheranism encourages the kind of fake piety associated with evangelicalism because we don't pretend that Christians don't sin. We preach it, teach it, and confess it at the beginning of every service. Not witnessing to five unsaved friends or belonging to a small group isn't what makes you a bad Christian--denying that you are a real sinner in need of real forgiveness is. Despising the sacraments (which is the same thing) is. And at the same time, it makes revelations of gross hypocrisy less earth-shattering--we always knew there were sinners here, so it's no big shock that sometimes some of them fall in the most scandalous way. It doesn't make it hurt less, but it doesn't cause us to question our whole religion because we never were told religion wouldn't be like that.

Fourth, it finds the power of God in the mundane and the weak. Just bread and wine? Just water? Well, that's where the kingdom of God is, and I'll one-up you--those things only are what they are because the Son of God died on a cross, and that's where you really see God's power and glory. Not in the Culture War of the Religious Right. Not in the messianic promises of Democratic presidential candidates. Not in Christian pop stars. And not in the power, popularity, or prestige of your CEO-pastor.

And as a fifth, minor point, it eliminates the need for "Christian trinkets," a.k.a. "Protestant relics." God has defined me as his own and sanctified my life in baptism. I don't need a "Tickle me Jesus," a "Lord's Gym" T-shirt, or a salvation board game to be a real Christian. I need God's word in baptism, I need Christ's body and blood, and I need to hear what he says about himself and me. That's why there's no Lutheran antecedent to Lifeway.

You'll never understand the Lutheran Church just by looking at it as "liturgical" (by the way, our liturgy beats anything Marty Haugen ever dreamed up) or at its tendency for smaller, more intimate congregations. Even those things are outgrowths of its sacramental character. And sure, you'll find Lutheran churches that have pretty much lost any sense of what it means to be Lutheran. You'll find the same flawed, annoying people. You'll find groupthink and power politics. But those things aren't what make the Lutheran Church what it is. Those things fade into the background when you see Jesus' sacramental activity and presence in and underneath it all. A faithless pastor might be a puppet of Satan--but that's all he is. A puppet. The sacraments he serves are still Christ's, the Lord's words, "Your sins are forgiven" and "This is my body" remain true, and so his word and presence in the Gospel, baptism and the Supper remain larger and greater than any surface problem the Church could ever have.