Being Lutheran series - Introduction

Being Lutheran?

As a young boy growing up in the Lutheran Church, I thought being Lutheran was about 6 or 7 things, and these were not always good:

1. Being Lutheran meant being from a German background, because everyone I met at my considerable sized Lutheran church, had German names or had married someone who had a German sounding name....

2. Being Lutheran meant sitting orderly in hard wooden pews, facing the front watching a man in a white dress (I know it is an alb... but as a young boy it looks like a dress), with a scarf...talk a lot.

3. Being Lutheran meant not liking other church denominations or saying they were not quite right...yes, because of sport, I had friends who went to other Christian churches, but when it came to religion, we didn't really mix...we did our thing, and they did theirs.

4. Being Lutheran meant participating in a worship service where I was told what to say, even though I didn't completely understand it, or it used words I would never use elsewhere. 

5. Being Lutheran meant not being overly emotional, unless you disagreed with something or someone.

6. Being Lutheran meant aiming to pass confirmation, by repeating verbatim the catechism and some bible verses so I could fully participate in worship by drinking some wine and eating some white wafer.

7. Being Lutheran meant having people who I knew in the community because I saw them at church.

What about you growing up, what is being Lutheran meant for you...good and bad?

Then overtime by being part of the Lutheran church I began to see and understand that being Lutheran was about something deeper...something more spiritual....and about a different approach to life than how many people in society lived....and that being Lutheran meant I was Christian....

Martin Luther, the person who has inspired the Lutheran Church for many years, as he tussled with being a Christian...by looking at the people in the church and looking at the bible....discovered an important focus on being a Christian and therefore a Lutheran...a key but not the only text, that opened up his understanding of what it means to be a Christian and therefore a Lutheran....is found in Romans 1:16-17

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.   For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”   (NIV)

I am proud of the good news! It is God’s powerful way of saving all people who have faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.  The good news tells how God accepts everyone who has faith, but only those who have faith. It is just as the Scriptures say, “The people God accepts because of their faith will live.”   (CEV) 

Being a Lutheran is about the Gospel, that God is doing the saving and heavy lifting so all people (not some) can be saved through faith....

How does this affect your understanding of being Lutheran?

2023  - Prepared by Pastor Richard Schwedes

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