LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 308

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

308

6.

7.

8.

9.

THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
long-term support to those who experience SSA or GD but
wish to remain celibate and otherwise honor God’s design
and live in His Church. The call to love, and to love even
enemies, also makes caring for families in crisis over these
issues, as well as even for unrepentant LGBTQ+, a further
obligation and priority.
Scripture enjoins a specific form of male headship and
sketches components of “masculine” and “feminine”
identities as part of our creatureliness (Ephesians 5, etc.).
Yet after the fall, human beings continue to develop—and
be wounded by—forms of “patriarchy,” “masculinity,” and
“femininity” corrupted by sin. Love and commitment to the
whole truth thus also demands addressing the wounds, in
part by identifying the corruptions and the concepts and
practices necessary to continually counter them in a fallen
world.
God created one humanity with a common nature (Genesis
1), and He gives a common identity and unity in Christ and
Church (Ephesians 2). Yet God Himself also forms the
“one man” itself into a diversity of “nations” (ethnē) with
distinct cultures and identities (Acts 17:26)—dynamics
which appear in “racial” communities as well. Further, God
preserves such identities in the Church Militant (Acts 2)
and Triumphant (Revelation 7)—receiving and raising us as
the real, historical, embodied people we are (Rom. 1:16;
2:9–11; 1 Corinthians 15). Thus, on the one hand, our
identity and unity in Christ, Church, and human nature
should displace and transform all others as the most
foundational. Yet we should also recognize the reality of
our diverse ethnic and racial identities and join God in
promoting the good and addressing the evil done on their
account.
These claims press toward a biblical form of building
community by an “inclusion” (embrace) of “diversity” that
also builds on our commonalities as human beings and as
Church. This cannot mean forcing a community or church
body to match some “ideal” demographic (only God can
thus simply “re-design” the world). Yet it does call for a
real effort to build relationships and address barriers and
sins we have imposed. It also means refusing to emphasize
commonalities in a way that excludes differences or treats
(also) highlighting difference as the enemy of unity. Yet
vice versa, it likewise means refusing to embrace diversity
and particular identities in ways that deny our foundational
identity and commonalities in Christ, Church, and human
nature.
God commands us to love and do justice to all (Matt. 5:44–
48; 22:35–40; Micah 6:8). Across Scripture, justice is
linked to righteousness as the “right-ordering” of “inner”
heart, mind, and judgments and “outward” words, actions,
relationships, and world toward the specific “peace”
[shalom] and good God has willed for each and for all (Ex.
9:27; Isaiah 11:4; 28:17; 30:18; 45:19; Jer. 10:24; Psalm
9:4–8; 85:12–13; 98:9; Isaiah 1:27–28; 10:1–4; 33:5–6;
Gen. 18:19; Prov. 12:5; Psalm 18:20–24; 37:30; Deut.
16:18; 1 Kings 3:28; 10:9; Jer. 22:15–16; 1 Samuel 1–7;
Judges 18:7; Ex. 21:1f.; 24:3f.; Deut. 4:8; Isaiah 32:15–18;
54:13–14; Psalm 85; Jer. 9:24; Hos. 2:19–20; 12:6; Zech.
7:9; Micah 6:8). This love and justice in turn is first given

2023 Convention Workbook

to us in justification and then pursued and participated in as
sanctification. Thus, love, justice, and righteousness should
be received and pursued by God’s people because it is the
will of God.
10. At the same time, Scripture also underscores that love,
justice, righteousness, and peace are central to the Gospel
of Jesus and the gifts and kingdom He brings (Jer. 23:5–6;
Isaiah 42:1–4, 6–7; 61:1–2a; Luke 4:16–21; Matt. 12:1–
21). Thus, we must preach and participate in this whole
Gospel and reign of God in Christ—and accordingly,
identify and pursue love, justice, etc. as central to our
mission as Christians and as Church.
11. As part of love and justice, Scripture commands that we
take all individual responsibility for ourselves that we can
(2 Thessalonians 3). But Scripture also attests forces that
undermine our individual abilities. These include
misfortune, illness, death, and disability (Neh. 5:1–3; Obad.
1:12; James 1:27), as well as the oppressive actions of
others (Isaiah 3:5). Yet they also include what are often
called “structures,” i.e., realities that begin with intentional
actions but persist and have effects beyond them, e.g.,
collective mindsets, practices, and laws (Exodus 1–3; Neh.
5:4–12; Amos 3:10; Luke 16:19f.; Isaiah 10:1).
Furthermore, God commands to both individuals and
communities the responsibility to counter these forces,
including by countervailing structures—for instance, in
Israel, a release from debt slavery every seven years (Ex.
21:1), harvesting practices that leave food for the poor and
immigrant (Lev. 23:22), a community-wide tithe used to
create a “food bank” at the Temple (Deut. 14:28–29), a
community-wide refusal to charge the poor interest on
loans or sell them food at a profit (Lev. 25:35–37), and
more.
12. Thus, a special focus on and action for the least advantaged
is essential to true love, justice, and righteousness (cf. Ex.
22:21; Deut. 24:14–22; Proverbs 29; Isaiah 1:16–17; 10:1–
4; Jer. 7:5–7; 9:23–24; Job 29:11–17); yet to be just, this
focus must not become the “favoritism” that simply ignores
the needs of others involved or automatically sides with
anyone without considering the specific facts of each case
(Lev. 19:25; Ex. 23:3; Acts 10:34).
13. Today, for many, “equity” means a “similar outcome”
between all people that we are to engineer by re-imagining,
dismantling, and reconstructing the world. In Scripture,
such a complete (re)design of reality is God’s alone,
reserved in its ultimate form to the Last Day. Yet Scripture
enjoins its own definition of “equity”: treating all people
with fairness by giving each their right and due according
to the just order God wills for the present (Psalm 9:8; 75:2;
Prov. 1:3; 2:9). Thus, “equity” includes everything that
belongs to the present justice of God, especially “deciding
with equity for the poor” (Isaiah 11:4f.) yet also with
“equity to all” (Psalm 67:4; 98:9; 2 Sam. 8:15). This
“fairness” (or “equality,” isotes, 2 Cor. 8:13–15) includes
mutual sharing so that need is continually met from
abundance and “the one who gathered much did not have
too much, and the one who gathered little had no lack”—a
norm focused on outcome but not sameness or statistical
parity per se.