Keynote Address by Deaconess Norma Cook Everist
Lutheran Deaconess Conference, Oklahoma City, July 15, 2011
How wonderful to be gathered together by the Spirit in community, shaped by our Creator God, reshaped into servanthood by Christ, the Servant. We already have begun our “shaping” last evening in the ways we greeted one another. Each time we gather, God reshapes the body as a whole, changing us, growing us, challenging us. And so, too, it will be during this time together this morning and the four interactive sessions that follow throughout these days of our conference. We begin by turning to our Triune God, thinking theologically about the foundations of our faith in regard to personhood, call, vocation, work, ministry, and service as part of the church’s vocation in the world. We spend most of our time during this session on the first three points in your booklet, also, after some discussion, giving good attention to the final four that relate to each of our four interactive sessions throughout our conference.
Shaped to Serve by Our Creator God
Who has God lovingly shaped us to be, wondrously created in great diversity to serve in God’s world?
Many of us in this room may have memorized Luther’s Small Catechism. And probably all of us here confess together regularly “The Apostles’ Creed,” in which we say in the First Article that we believe in the almighty God who is the Creator of heaven and earth.
From Luther’s Small Catechism, Explanation to the First Article: “ I believe that God has created me and all that exists. God has given me and still preserves my body and soul with all their powers. God provides me with food and clothing, home and family, daily work, and all I need from day to day. God also protects me in time of danger, and guards me from every evil.” This, we add, is due to God’s mercy and calls for our praise, service and thanksgiving.
Less familiar are words from Luther’s Large Catechism: “What kind of being is God? What does God do?” And how can we describe or portray God in a way that makes God known? “God made heaven and earth and there is no one else who could so create. I hold and believe that I am a creature of God.”[1]
Luther later says, “How few people believe this article. We all pass over it, hear it, recite it, but we neither see nor consider what the words enjoin on us. If we believed with our whole heart, we would also act accordingly and not swagger about and brag and boast as if we had life, riches, power, honor and such things of ourselves, as if we ourselves were to be feared and served.”
Now, as we have learned in the past few decades as feminist and womanist theologians, woman’s problem is often not swaggering and boasting in our work, but undervaluing our selves, our services and our shapes.[2] But still the First Article draws our attention. Luther: “Since everything we possess—and everything in heaven and on earth besides—is daily given and sustained by God, is inevitably follows that we are to love, thank and praise God without ceasing and devote all things to the service of God.” The Creating, Providing, Protecting God “daily guards and defends us against evil and misfortune, warding off all sorts of danger and disaster.”
Psalms phrases: Psalm 25 Make me to know your ways O Lord; teach me your paths,
Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long. (vs. 4-5)
Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted,
Relieve the troubles of my heart, and bring me out of my distress.
Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins. (vs. 16-18)
And so many other phrases, coming from the experiences of God’s people shaped in the midst of overwhelming adversity: “The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Ps. 27:1b)
And so how are we shaped to serve by our Creator God? In wondrous ways we are created in such diversity, lovingly shaped. There are all kinds of shapes and sizes among us as women and men. “God has created me, and all that exists.” God has created my shape for which I can give thanks and has shaped you, for which I give thanks. There is no need to compare, no call to dismiss and disdain. And yet, of course we do. Let us, these days, look at our own lovingly shaped hands. Mine have age spots and raised veins. Your fingers may be long or stubby. Some are arthritic, others misshapen through accident or illness, but I, we, are the created ones of the Caring Creator who loves our elbows and knees and bellies and brains. Look at yourself. Oh yes, of course, some of us, like me, could use more exercise, more rest, a healthier diet. That, too, is part of our calling. But we don’t wait until we are in just the right shape to serve. God has shaped us, and continues to shape us, get us in shape for service, as we are now, and all the days of our lives.
And did you hear that service is part of that explanation to the First Article: God’s merciful creating work calls for our praise, service and thanksgiving. We don’t serve in order to thank God. Rather, we have been made for holy work, as well as Sabbath rest. The Creation accounts show human beings as active participants in God’s created world. I know, we have those phrases from Genesis 3, after the Fall, “in toil” “by the sweat of your face” and concerning the labor of birth, “I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing.”
And so, work can be turned to drudgery, whether as a bank president or a ditch digger. It is not as so many think the kind of work we do that makes it service or not. We can indeed swagger about and brag and boast, or bemoan and belittle whatever our position in life. Rather it is our Creator God who as part of this creative activity shapes us to serve. The one who calls us forth from the dust, calls us forth for the joy of work: ministry. It’s in that word: “vocation.” In the shaping itself is the calling.
And did you catch those words from the Large Catechism? How do we make God known? Not just in the words that we say that accompany our service; although, make no mistake, words are important. In that very call to service for which we were created we portray God. What is the shape and form of the God being portrayed?
And I believe in the Providing and Protecting God. “The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Sometimes in the midst of our service, those “all sorts of danger and disaster” don’t seem to be warded off. We are called to work, shaped to serve in dangerous places. And the people among whom we serve don’t seem to be guarded from evil at all. What then? Well, more certainly then, we need to know that Creator God is still creating new ways to bring forth light in dark places, imaginative solutions to vexing problems, and life-giving care in the midst of a world dancing with death. And when you feel most exposed, most vulnerable, most troubled, distressed, afflicted, know that the power of the Protecting God has not been wrestled away. We can say: I believe in God the Creator who continues to shape us to serve.
Broken, Resistant, Alienated People Yet Loved Into New Life by Christ
When Systemic sin would overwhelm, how does Jesus shape us for ministries of reconciliation?
And so the vase shaped in the hands of the potter who created it has cracked. The body, lovingly given to us, is broken, in some way won’t work. The church, that body of Christ, is falling apart. And the world into which we go to serve each day? Well, things don’t seem to be improving, that’s for sure. When systemic sin would overwhelm, how does Jesus shape us for ministries of reconciliation?
We confess together in The Second Article of “The Apostles’ Creed” that we believe in Christ incarnate, the Suffering Servant, in the one who was put to death and is now alive, ascended, in the one who meets us wherever in the world we serve. On the other side of any barriers human beings erect in our systematic ways of oppressing, fearing, hating each other, Christ is already there.
In the Explanation in Luther’s Small Catechism: At great cost [Jesus] has saved and redeemed me—us—freed me from sin, death and the power of the devil. All this that I may be his own and serve…just as he is risen from the dead and lives and rules eternally. This is most certainly true!
And in Luther’s Large Catechism: “We learn that Jesus has completely given himself to us, withholding nothing. This article is very rich and far-reaching.” Listen to Luther’s nouns, descriptive phrases and especially the verbs, colorful and graphic 500 years ago, and visible, real in the places where we live and serve today: “entangled in sin;” “no counsel, no help;” “wrath;” “misery;” “wretchedness.” And then the Son of God in his unfathomable goodness had mercy on our misery and came. “Sin, death, and all evil” “have been routed.” He “swallowed up and devoured death.” Jesus has “snatched us,” “won us,” “made us free, “restored us.”
Christ has “brought us back from the devil to God, from death to life, from sin to righteousness and now keeps us safe there.” Luther ends, “The entire Gospel that we [proclaim] depends on the proper understanding of this article. ….it is so rich and broad that we can never learn it fully.”
So broad…and we have needed to broaden our concepts of salvation through Christ beyond a dead Jesus appeasing an angry Father God (I’ll come back to that under No. 5 below). For now, where are you? And where is Jesus? We who continue to be shaped by the Creating God are also twisted at every turn. And overwhelmed in a land that imprisons more people than any other nation on earth, particularly people of color, in an economic system that daily defrauds the poor (You should see what Luther has to say on that), and, if truth be told, by our own propensity…no, obsession….with acquiring and consuming.
Now, I want to be careful here. Ah, we know our Deaconess Litany well. “That we not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think nor deprecate ourselves in unbelief, calling common what you have called clean.”
We know the depths of despair, but what means we go to deny them, lest the depression, creeping up like a shadowy figure from behind, overcome me. It is facing the demons with the one who has already conquered them, all of them, that we dare to have the waters of baptism really wash us clean, to be transformed, reshaped re- configured by the cross, and made alive, really alive, through Christ’s resurrection.
So who is this Jesus to you? And how does he live in your body? (We’ll come back to incarnational theology in a few minutes, too.) For that matter, who is Jesus to a grown up woman? Friend? Companion? Brother? And how is he the one who literally comes between, or rather, walks among, you and those among whom you are privileged to serve? Christ has freed me that I may be his own and serve him, serve all of those in whom he also chooses to dwell. The stranger at the door? Jesus is there before I hear the knock. The friend upon whom I depend, maybe too much? Jesus is in the midst of that friendship, ready to continually shape it appropriately. The faith community I both love and can’t stand when I’m way too tired? Jesus, well, you think about it. Where is Jesus in the midst of that crowd? Whom is he serving? How?
What does being saved for service really mean? Saved from what? Remember those verbs from that medieval man: routed, swallowed up, devoured, snatched, won, made free, restored? Which one fits the shape of the situation you are in? Imagine for a moment…… really, draw a picture in your mind, or, better yet, let one simply come to you. What shape would being saved take in that situation? What might change? Or not? How might, how is, Christ snatching you up, even while the danger whirls around? What victory has already been won? How are you being made more free? For what are you being restored? For what service are you, even in the midst of this, being called?
What are the barriers to our service? To our work? What, who, stands in the way? Where do you experience resistance? Who just seems to get in the way? How? (Really, picture your situation in your mind.) “If only….” Then I could serve. Then ministry could really happen here. But in that very place, that very predicament, those very people, there is Christ. In the resistance is the call to ministry.
We are being loved each day, unconditionally loved. For service Christ has set us free. We who have been reconciled to God and to each other today, forever, are called to vocations of reconciliation.
Reshaped by the Spirit into the Body of Christ
Knowing the Spirit’s power is unlimited, how do we together dare to reshape the world?
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting,” we say in the Third Article of the “Apostles’ Creed.” Ok, I know, I “can’t by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts and sanctified and kept me in true faith.”….. “In the same way Christ calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it united with Jesus….”
“Day after day” after day after day, “God fully forgives me my sins and the sins of all believers.” And yes, it is most certainly true: God raises us and all the dead and in Christ gives eternal life.
This stretches the shape of our service way beyond any elasticity we can imagine. We are shaped in a global form. This ministry to which we are called, and in which we are forgiven and for which we are freed day after day after day, is never some little thing, some hobby, some insignificant effort, for we are part of the church’s ministry. And the church is really called to Christ’s mission. It’s not so much that the church has a mission, but that Christ has a mission into which we are graciously called. In participating in Christ’s mission, Christ builds the church.
Large Catechism: “The word ecclesia means “an assembly.” “The house [building] should not be called a church except for the single reason that the group of people assembles there.” This “holy flock”…. “is called together by the Holy Spirit in one faith, mind and understanding. It possesses a variety of gifts, yet is united in love without sect or schism.” The Holy Spirit causes “the church daily to grow and become strong in the faith and the fruits of the Spirit.”
Now we could wonder if Martin Luther had taken a look around at the church, but of course he had. He was in the middle of things big time. And so, the Large Catechism goes on, “Further, in this Christian church we have the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness is needed constantly” for the church is a messy business, a divisive enterprise, a disappointing people. And loved, eternally loved by God. Our calling is to love this church that, through Christ’s love alone, loves us.
Of course the church and its ministries often do not look like places of harmony and peaceful collegiality. Dietrich Bonhoeffer warns against shaping a wish dream of what we think human community should be.[3] We may hurt each other the most inside the church. We make demands on one another. We fail to hear the others’ cries of pain. As the love of God restores communion between God and humans in Christ, so too, the human community is transformed into a living reality of love. The Spirit places us within the divine community so that members of the community no longer see one another as claim (demand) but as gift.[4] When we are most disillusioned the resurrection becomes most real.[5]
Einar Billing in his little book, Our Calling, says that vocation is rooted in the forgiveness of sins. “When it began to dawn on Luther that just as certainly as the call to God’s kingdom seeks to lift us infinitely above everything that our everyday duties by themselves could give us, just that certainly the call does not take us away from these duties but more deeply into them, then work became calling,”….“The Reformation idea of the call is something entirely new.”[6]
Luther (Large Catechism): “God forgives us, and we forgive, bear with and aid one another.” “God has appointed a community on earth, though which God speaks and does all God’s work.” We are shaped to serve by the Holy Spirit through Christ’s body, the Church. You know that, don’t you? Reflect, now, and throughout the days of this conference, specifically: through whom (individuals and faith communities) have you been shaped to serve? Who do you look like? Sound like? Whose ministry style shines through you? And, yes, your ministry, by God’s grace, is shaping other servants daily. Don’t worry, or be overly awed about that. Just give thanks for this amazing and yet ordinary way the Holy Spirit shapes new servants.
The Holy Spirit shapes us to serve by sanctifying us, making us holy, and I know we shy away from that term. We’re not Methodist enough, or Baptist enough. No matter, Luther uses “sanctification” here. “To this article I cannot give a better title than ‘Sanctification.’” The Holy Spirit effects our sanctification through the communion of saints, the Christian church, the forgiveness of sins. For Luther sanctification, which is an ongoing work, even though Christ’s work is complete, is deeply connected with belief.
In his Christmas story, Luther, referring to St. Bernard, talked about the incarnation this way: There are three miracles: that God and human beings should be joined, that Mary conceived, and that Mary should have such faith as to believe that this mystery would be accomplished in her. If she had not believed she could not have conceived.[7] Christ’s incarnation takes shape in many ways. All of us, women and men, are called not to violence and death, but to life-giving ministries and to the service of midwifery, helping others give birth to ideas and projects that are already inside of them. How is the labor going?
Knowing the Spirit’s power is unlimited, how do we together dare to reshape the world? Audacious? Of course! But we’re talking about power here. Holy power. The power of the Spirit in action in the world, for goodness sake. Do you believe that? It’s all a matter of believing in the Holy Spirit.
And the Spirit’s power is unlimited. I have spoken before about the world’s concept of power, hierarchical, competitive power. Ministry is not a competitive sport. And so the Spirit cleans out from among us all such tendencies to go one up or one down. Power itself has been transformed. If you have more power, I won’t have less. In the Spirit’s economy, I will have more. Your gifts enhance my own. Your being shaped for service puts me in better shape. If the student grows in intellect, contributing more insight to the whole classroom, the teacher’s knowledge increases as well. If the people, among whom the deaconess or diaconal minister serves, grow in their abilities to serve, network, and advocate for justice, ministry is multiplied. If pastors and all ministerial leaders genuinely appreciate the gifts of the laity as they carry out their ministries in daily life, walking with and supporting them, mission and ministry in the world beyond the church doors is Spirit-led in all directions. Believe that, my sisters and brothers.
We have a relational God who created human beings for interdependence. Core to human sin is our propensity to betray one another, break trust, refuse to labor together. Christ died betrayed, forsaken, and alone. As resurrection people, not only are we reconciled to God but also to one another. The Spirit re-creates us to live and work in community as partners in ministries of reconciliation in a hurting and hurtful world. Letty Russell describes how by grace we live into God’s promised future, the God who is Creator, Liberator, and Advocate.[8] This is indeed Good News.
Discussion Time
Contextual, Embodied, Inductive, Interactive, Constructive Theology
How can diaconal ministry be dialogical and interactive, put simply: service that is shaped by people?
Gwayanweng Kiki, a Ph. D. candidate at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia, from the Evangelical Lutheran Church, of Papua New Guinea (ELPNG), wrote a doctoral thesis: “Wokabout Karikulum: A Community Praxis for Theological Training in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea.”
Kiki, pastor and teacher, cares about returning to an indigenous epistemology. He believes the current theological educational system of the ELPNG has adopted a wealth of Western educational philosophies on knowing, learning and teaching but comparatively few on Papua New Guinea indigenous ways of knowing. Recently graduated and now teaching at Martin Luther Seminary, in Lae, he provides contextual methods that are deeply rooted within dynamically living communities.[9]
Perhaps we have come full circle. Jesus walked about with his disciples. This is not to dismiss classical methods; the problem emerges when they dominate, overshadow, and diminish local ways of knowing so that we cannot see the churches and theological implications and methods right in front of us.
Abigail Schumacher was a Diaconal Ministry candidate at Wartburg Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, U.S.A. She would be the first to tell you she was not the strongest student at the seminary. She lives with spina bifida and therefore uses a wheel chair. In our class, “Diaconal Ministry Theology and Formation,” she took her turn to lead a brief biblical devotion as we worked our way through Luke. Her text was Luke 5:17-26, the familiar story of some men carrying a paralyzed man to the place where Jesus was teaching. Trying to lay him before Jesus, but finding no way because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”
The issue is who has authority to say “your sins are forgiven.” I asked Abigail what she saw in the text. I thought she might say, “Stand up and walk,” but rather she said, “it was about the friends,” the friends who cared enough to bring their friend, through the inaccessible barriers, to Jesus. Embodied theology. I had heard the text many times, but when Abigail embodied the text, I heard it in an entirely new way.
We can think about integrative theological approaches in a number of ways:
Contextual Theology Gwayanweng Kiki does notreject his own culture but begins there in relevant terms, concepts and experiences. In doing contextual theology—not just about people but with people—participants are not merely spectators or audience; all are subject, not object. The context shapes how we do ministry. The context shapes our way of knowing, our very way of thinking theologically
Embodied Theology Abigail embodies her theology. Actually, so does everyone; some people simply are not aware they do. The Creator God made us to live not simply abstractly but in bodies. The Incarnate Christ put on flesh and dwelled among us, the Body of Christ, as the church and individually members of it. Our shapes matter, oh, not as advertisements say they matter. Our bodily shape carries the incarnate Christ. Our bodies shape the way we discern theologically the service to which we are called.
Inductive Theology We begin with mission and ministry, issues in the lives of people, churches and society. It is not just a matter of having the “right” theology in our heads and then going out to serve, hoping we remember some. That’s doing theology deductively. To do theology inductively means we start with service. Thinking theologically from the practice of ministry leads us again to biblical, systematic and historical theology. Learning leads to mission leads to learning leads to mission. Doing theology from all directions, we return to Christ the center.
Interactive Theology, or Relational Theology, or Doing in the Vernacular When people are able to think and talk about God in their own language, not just Swahili or French or English, but also farming, medicine, computers, or parenting, they never stop doing theology and that is good! We need to listen well and to learn how people think theologically about the human predicament, grace, salvation, church, and vocation. We really don’t know each other’s languages and that’s ok, but we can respect our different ways of conceptualizing, speaking relating, and thereby talk about deep matters of faith and life, and serve together relationally, doing interactive theology all the while. We will be doing that together in our first small group session as we listen to each other’s ways of doing ministries in their own “languages,” interactively beings shaped to serve by one another.
Constructive Theology This does not mean simply making theology up. Quite the contrary. It is about taking what one learned through the classical disciplines and integrating that learning with the ministry God has called us to do. Through this integration we grow in theology and ministerial leadership. God continues to construct us, shape us, and that is a theological work as well as a work of ministry.[10]
Freedom from is Freedom for: Calling as Rooted in the Incarnation, Cross and Resurrection
How do the many Images of salvation give shape to multiple callings to ministry?
If our calling (our vocatio) is rooted in the forgiveness of sins, how are we freed for ministry? In our second small group session we will be shaped to serve by thinking about our stations (roles and relationships) and our vocation (callings/vocation)
Theologian Letty Russell wrote that Jesus did not say to the blind person, “You can walk,” nor to the person who could not walk, “You can see.”[11] Christ met people on the road in the midst of their lives and asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus cared about people, the societal problems related to human need, and God’s saving justice in the world in which they lived.
We who have been transformed by the power of the Spirit each meet Jesus in our own need, and in the midst of society’s need. If the human problem is brokenness, the good news is that Jesus makes us whole. If the human problem is alienation, the good news is God reconciles and restores relationships. If the human problem is guilt, the good news is that God through Jesus Christ forgives. If the human problem is being lost, the good news is that the Good Shepherd looks for and finds the lost. If the human problem is death, Jesus Christ has brought new life. If the human problem is judgment, the good news in Jesus Christ is unconditional acceptance. If the human problem is bondage, the good news is that Jesus brings freedom.[12]
There are many images of the human predicament, just as there are many images of Christ’s work of salvation of humanity through his incarnation, ministry, death and resurrection. We can start from either direction: the stories of human lives and people hungering for the grace of God, or with Scriptural images.[13] We often limit ourselves to the image of guilt and forgiveness, but guilt might not be the shape of a particular person’s problem. Images of God’s work of Salvation in the Pauline Epistles include: Captivity/Freedom; Death/Life; Darkness/Light; Ignorance/Understanding; Alienation/Belonging; Division/Unity; Meaninglessness/Call; Uselessness/Gifts; Boastfulness/Grace; Sin/Forgiveness; Judgment/Mercy; Disobedience/Salvation; Destruction/Rescue; Persecution, Suffering/Patience, Consolation, Joy; No Value/Bought; Atonement/Blood Sacrifice; Legal Record/Erasure; Old Yeast/Unleavened Bread; Inertia/Standing, Walking; Decay/Fruit; Unclothed/Clothed; Weakness/Strength; Poverty/Riches. What if we were to explore the rest of the Epistles, Acts and the Gospels?
The Good News is for human beings in the plural; not just “me and Jesus.” The Epistle images which I have explored make it clear that “forgiveness,” “life,” “reconciliation,” “freedom,” and more, are plural concepts meant for communal life in Christ. This new life together is unachievable, unattainable on our own. Gospel is gift.
Shaped for Service for Justice: Thinking Theologically Beginning with the Issues of the World
How do we listen carefully, dig deeply, discern theologically and together choose ministry options?
We have been concentrating on our own shapes and vocations. But what if we started from the other direction? It is true that by being part of God’s mission, God shapes the church. So too, the issues of the world, the unhealed hurts, the outrageous insults upon the earth, the unthinkable violence, the prevailing and increasing injustices, the persistent systemic sins call us to service. We are literally shaped to serve by the people among whom we are called to serve. We grow in wisdom and insight, and skill through being engaged in ministry.
Think for a moment about a local or global issue or event that has almost overwhelmed you. You may have been in the midst of it, or witnessing through the news: The disaster of Katrina or the Joplin tornado, or a violent murder in a family. (I refuse to call that a domestic dispute.) For us it was the riots/rebellions in Detroit decades ago. (Oh, how I wish I could say things are all better there now, or that racism is over….hardly!) The kind of event after which you know things will never be the same. The kind of issue that calls you to action. Where were you? What issue troubles you? Perhaps it is a whole community or state in the midst of debate, taking a stand because of unjust action (I think of the state of Wisconsin). How do you know what to do? How do you discern the call to ministry when you don’t even yet know the scope of the problem, the “shape” of the issues as they unfold?
During our third small group time, we shall engage in a process with our table groups, taking an issue, in the news or in one’s context and step by step see how we are shaped to serve. The temptation is to move too quickly from “Here’s the problem” to “Here’s what we should do,” rather than carefully attending, listening to voices that might not be heard, digging deeper, seeing what might not at first be visible. To be truly shaped by the world’s need, we need to look evil in the face and not succumb, and then let ourselves be shaped biblically and theologically so that our ministry is indeed in the image of God. Then, and only then, can we explore ministry options, and act. Yes, act. Ministry merely planned is not ministry. But shaped by the call of the world to service, and empowered by the Spirit, it’s absolutely amazing where we might go.[14]
Mutual Accountability not as Law (judgment) but as Gospel (Gift)
How do we build one another up in Christ, challenging each other to grow for a lifetime of service?
As a Deaconess Community we have adopted for ourselves ways to hold each other accountable in our lifelong discernment of God’s calling to faith and service in Christ. Some Area Conferences regularly do this, perhaps in an annual retreat setting. Others give each woman a sister time at one Area Conference meeting throughout the year. For others it is more informal and situational, during a deaconess’ time of crisis or change of location.
This year the LDC board asked that we do this together here at Annual Conference in our fourth small group session which will be on Sunday morning. In our booklet, I’ve titled that session, (pages 5 and 6), “Discernment and Mutual Accountability.” It will be for some a time to taste for the first time, or the first time in a long time, how this can be a positive experience, a “mutual experience” of encouragement. For others of you it will be an opportunity to do this process in yet another way, as a whole conference together.
Now, obviously, we can’t do that “as a whole” with dozens and dozens of people. So, in preparation for Sunday morning, I invite each of us to pray, and perhaps to spend some quiet time thinking about the questions on page 5 and 6. It’s not a quiz. No one will take off points if all the blanks aren’t filled in “correctly.” After all, only you and God really know about your life. Accountability is not Law (judgment) but Gospel (gift).
As we come together for that session Sunday morning, you will have two choices. 1) You may have selected in advance one other person with whom to do this process. (Pairs work best here because of the time, but it could possibly be a triad.) You two will have covenanted to work together for that time. Or 2) You may come without having selected anyone in advance. That’s how it is most often in our ministry setting, not necessarily living close by a known, trusted confidante. In this case, we will pair off and work together in that more random way, trusting the Spirit’s work among us, even though we might not know each other well.
For now, I will say a few things about accountability. Accountability is often thought of as a one-way hierarchical arrangement.[15] Like preparing a lesson for a pop quiz or worrying that a supervisor will say our work is not good enough, people live in a continuing state of anxiety. Or voices from the past hang over us like a cloud, “Be a good girl, now,” or “Try to act…” or “Work harder.”
However, living on this side of the Resurrection, as Pentecost people, we dare to look at “accountability” as “God’s Promise Keeping.” Biblically, historically, and within our own relationships, we will break promises, forget to follow through. We will be unfaithful. But we believe that God is faithful. We believe that we can now live together fully, joyfully in the promises of God. We are no longer judged; nor do we need to judge one another. Our relationship to God and to one another is continuous. In the power of God’s promise keeping, we receive one another no longer in anxious fear, but with joy and promise, as gift. Our vocation, our calling is rooted in the forgiveness of sins, so we are now freed for the gift of mutual discernment and mutual accountability.
Accountability is to bear with one another. To bear is to hold, to support, to sustain, to drive, to push. It is also to suffer, to endure. We carry each other in our hearts and in our minds. We are shaped by one another and help one another find the form and shape of our present and future calling, not just at the time of consecration, or at the time of a potential new call, but through all the decades of life, whether 20 or 90. We are not alone; Christ is with us, among us, between us. We’re in this together. [16]
Discussion
POSTSCRIPT NOT NECESSARILY FOR CONCURRENT USE
How do we learn collegiality and mutual accountability? By being colleagues and by being mutually accountable.[17] Make no mistake! This does not mean people are unclear about who does what or who is accountable to whom. On the contrary, when our identities are deeply rooted in Christ, we are free to assume any number of roles for upbuiding the body. In contrast, when our identity is in our role, we often feel we must defend it at all costs. When we set a trustworthy environment, we teach and learn collegiality from one another in our specific roles through clear communication, meaningful exchange of ideas around a shared vision, and by consistently following through on those ideas so that mission is put into action.
There are many Scriptural passages one could use for all of these points. Gwen Sayler will break open the Scriptures tomorrow morning for us. But one presented itself relentlessly in my morning devotions when I was preparing this keynote some weeks ago. Acts 4:31-37 and 5:1-11. Acts 4 has become part of the church’s foundation as to what it means to live together in community, accountability as bearing one another: Pentecost: “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name of Barnabas (which means son of encouragement). He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”
But then, Chapter 5 begins with a “But.” The story of Ananias and Sapphira is probably the ultimate of being called to accountability: “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You did not lie to us, but to God!” And he fell down and died. And Sapphira, not even knowing her husband had died and had already been carried out and buried…not much grief work there…has a similar inquisition: “Tell me whether you and your husband sold the land for such and such a price.” She answers, “Yes….” Peter accusingly questions, “How is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out.” And “immediately she fell down at his feet and died” and she was carried out and buried.” “And great fear seized the whole church and all who heard of these things.” So much for accountability in the community of faith. Fear indeed!
Being part of a community of faith and service to Christ is a powerful commitment. The Holy Spirit is in our midst. But fear not one another. It is God’s good pleasure that we are a discerning, accountable community. Paraphrasing Acts 2:43-47: We are in awe. And we who believe together do spend much time together in worship, breaking bread together with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day, God is growing this community and calls us not to new ways of judging one another, but by grace to the joy of mutual care and bearing of each other’s burdens and mutual promise keeping that we may be continually shaped to serve.
[1] Luther’s Small Catechism and Large Catechism may be found, among other places, in the Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, edited and translated by Theodore G. Tappert.(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959) 337-461. Summary Excerpts of The Large Catechism are by Norma Cook Everist as prepared for Everist and Nelvin Vos, Connections: Faith and Life (Chicago: Evangelical Lutheran Church In America, 1997) Third edition for ELCA website now in editorial stage for 2012. [2] Among so many books, I recommend a new one by Arnfridur Gudmundsdottir, an Iclandic Lutheran theologian: Meeting God at the Cross: Christ, the Cross, and the Feminist Critique. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010) [3] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together. (New York: Harper and Row, 1954), 26-28. [4] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Communion of Saints, trans. James Schaef (New York: Harper and Row, 1960) 106-120. [5] Norma Cook Everist and Craig L. Nessan, Transforming Leadership. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008), 14. [6] Einar Billing, Our Calling, translated from the Swedish by Conrad Bergendoff. (Rock Island: Augustana Press, 1958), 6-7. [7] Martin Luther, Christmas Book, translated and arranged by Roland H. Bainton. (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1948), 22-23. [8] Letty M. Russell, The Future of Partnership (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1979), 26-27, 32-33, 51. [9] Kiki’s thesis has recently been published. Gwayanweng Kiki, A Community Praxis Training in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea. (Koln, Germany: Lamabertg Academic Press, 2009) [10] See Norma Cook Everist, “Integrative Theological Formation” in Karen L. Bloomquist, ed., Lutheran World Federation, Theological Practices that Matter.(Minneapolis: Lutheran University Press, 2009), 169-179.s [11] Letter M. Russell, Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective: A Theology (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1974) 53. [12] Norma Cook Everist and Craig L. Nessan, editors, Forming an Evangelizing People (Dubuque, Iowa: Wartburg Theological Seminary, 2005) 20. [13] See Norma Cook Everist, “Transformed for Daily Life: Ministry of the Baptized” in Everist and Craig Nessan, Transforming Leadership: New Vision for a Church in Mission (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008), 198-212; and Norma Cook Everist, “Learn to Share Christ in the Languages of People’s Daily Lives” In Everist, ed, Christian Education as Evangelism (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), 122-133. [14] This process is one I use often with groups, particularly in case studies in seminary. After using it over 18 months in a series of regional retreats for the Women of the ELCA, it was published in 2002 by the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It is available for downloading for use on the ELCA website under “Called to Deal with Difficult Issues” or under the same name on the Women of the ELCA website. [15] Norma Cook Everist and Nelvin Vos, Where in the World Are You? Connecting Faith and Daily Life. (Bethesda, Md: Alban, 1996), 89. [16] Everist and Vos, Chapter 10, “Holding Each Other Accountable,” in Where in the World are You? 87-96. [17] Russell, The Future of Partnership, 13-20.