Nebraska Synod ELCA

Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
—Matthew 28:18-20—

The Church is the congregation of saints,
in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.
—Augsburg Confession, Article VII: On the Church—

Beloved in Christ,
This month marks the end of our yearlong “Go and…” emphasis. What a year it’s been! We’ve prayed, listened, shared our stories, served with our neighbors, asked, been honest, been present, rested, had THE conversation, been intentional, and told THE story. Now this month we bring it home with a last invitation: Go and BE THE CHURCH.

Wait a minute, you might be asking: wasn’t that what we’ve been doing all along? Shouldn’t the church pray, listen, share, serve, and all the rest? Of course we should. But there’s a distinction that comes with that word “church” that embodies and informs all of what we’ve been about this year, and that distinction is worth remembering.

“Church” comes from the Greek word ecclesia, which in its ancient forms referred to a group of citizens called together periodically to conduct the business of a city or other political entity. Etymologically, it combines the prefix “ek” meaning “out of” and the verb “kaleo” meaning “to call” – literally, an ecclesia is “the called out people,” those who gathered in a specific time and place for a specific purpose. Thousands of years after the word first surfaced in ancient Greece, its reference has shifted from political to religious bodies, but the ecclesia remains exactly what it always has been: a people who are called out for a specific purpose.

In her report to the ELCA Church Council last April, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reminded us of that purpose:

“At the risk of sounding over dramatic I believe that the ELCA is experiencing something of an identity crisis. Of course we work to feed the hungry, advocate for justice, welcome the stranger (Matthew 25:31-46)but that is not unique to the church. We serve the Word. Everything else we do flows from that but does not supplant it. The Gospel and our call to give the Gospel free course in the world is the main thing. We are not a NGO, we are not a social service organization. We are church. If we stray from our unique purpose our witness is diluted and our identity is lost.”

Some of you reading this will remember Bishop Eaton’s four points of emphasis: We are Church, We are Lutheran, We are Church Together, We are Church for the Sake of the World. All of it, including our shared identity as Lutherans, flows from that first identity as church – ecclesia – a called-out people who are transformed by the Gospel and sustained by the Sacraments.

It really comes down to this: a church is not something we have, a church is something we are. We are the congregation of saints in which the Gospel is preached and the Sacraments are administered. We are a people called out by God’s mission to work and serve together, shaped and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit. We are the church, friends. We have been all along. Let’s keep being God’s church together, now and always.

Yours in Christ,
Bishop Scott Alan Johnson