“All God’s children got a place in the choir.
Some sing low, and some sing higher.
Some shout sing loud on the telephone wire.
Some just clap their hands, or paws, and anything they can now.
Sooo... I have historically really enjoyed being a Lutheran. I was born this way. My dad was Lutheran and my mom converted from Catholic and surprisingly so did her parents. I was baptized in a Lutheran church but as my wife explained to me (and she is right) you are not baptized into a particular faith, you are baptized as a Chrsitian whether it is in a Lutheran church, a catholic church or even... even...a baptist church. I was baptized at Reformation Lutheran Church by a Pastor Beine (sp?) He baprtzed me “David Alan Becker” while my name is “Michael Alan Becker” so there remains a serious question about whether or not there is a spot for me in heaven. I grew up in St. Louis Hills and went to church and school at Ascension Lutheran on Eichelberger. Everyone, and I mean everyone else I knew was Catholic.
But for the Beckers, everyone was Lutheran and we were more specifically Missouri Synod Lutherans. This seemed fitting since we lived in Missouri and went to church in Missouri. It was only later that i found out that Missouri Synod Lutherans were not alone. there were other “Lutherans” as well. There was The American Lutheran Church, The Lutheran Church in America (Two different sects) as well as Wisconsin Lutherans, Norwegian Lutherans and a scad of others. But we were the biggest and baddest. We were... right about Luther and by extension about Christ. My Catholic friends did not study the Bible a lot and I learned that this was one of Luther’s problems with the Catholics. They had a lot of rules that did not make a lot of sense to them. They had priests and nuns who did not marry and later I learned were not supposed to have sex. Generally their dads did not go to church. The kids tended to be afraid of their priests and even more so of their nuns. Generally they were nice confused kids and they seemed just like me. And they were... and they still are. My first sign that something was amiss with my little religion was when I took my friend Carl Wolf to Vacation Bible School in the summer and they sent him home because he was Catholic. Huh?
I have never been a good Lutheran. As I learned our rules, our “doctrine” it seemed stupid, and supersticious and stupid, and small minded and stupid. Rules for rules sake. This lasted well into my 30s. I married a nice Lutheran girl I met in car pool on our way to our Lutheran High School. I had gone to Lutheran grade school. Without meaning to I had learned a lot of the Bible. it is amazing but just sitting in church every week and sitting in chapel every Wednesday at taking religion courses every day... the stuff sinks in. I didnt understand that i was being indoctrinated, but I was and I have been, and I am. Sadly, now I think that is a good thing and I am thankful for it. I did not think much about whether i would go to church when i grew up. I assumed I would not. When growing up in my house our father (and mother) made sure we went to church and Sunday school. My favorite phrases from my dad:
“My house, my rules.” and
“You have time to play, you have time to pray!” (this shouted up through the floor boards to my sleeping siblings while he beat on the ceiling with a broom handle or his fist. All of these memories I have been told and might now believe maybe never happened but it is honestly how I remember it). My dad was not a particularly religious guy. he owned his own business, cursed, was a strict disciplinarian with my brother and sister (who were 7 and 8 years older than I was) and was not home a lot because he was building a business. I did not understand he was also a thoughtful man. People sought out his counsel. So we went to church.
I went to a Lutheran College (Valparaiso) which did not work out. The nice Lutheran girl I was dating and I broke up because I was directionless and drinking. I was not going to church. I transferred to texas Christian University. I went to church there very occasionally. The nice Lutheran Girl and I got married. We got married in an LCA Church, not a Missouri Synod Church (so there is some argument about whether or not we are really married). The reason is that in the early 70’s the Missouri Synod suffered what I like to think of as a schism. There was talk of heresy and in our Seminary in St. Louis a large number of professors walked out (were fired) and there was a dispora of LCMS people. I believe it was the first time that a religion broke up and the conservatives were the ones who stayed and kept control. I dont know this is true but I have been told this and it kind of makes sense. So the LCMS swung to the right and my inlaws did not and they went to a church that was no longer and LCMS church. Still Lutheran, just not “true” Lutheran.
It seems that the church has, in my adultory, moved further and further one direction. Towards the right, towards intolerance, towards judgmental doctrinaire religiousity. And I am being kind. The great thing about Lutheranism as I have come to understand is the concept that we are “saved by grace and by grace alone”. It is not something that Lutherans own but it is one of the founding precepts of the Reformation. The idea that we can do nothing towards our own salvation but are saved by the Holy Spirit. The idea that because all of this was done for you that you shoul be moved to...be different. To be transformed. Even as a broken sinner that you can be a new creation, better. You can make a difference.
This Grace with a capital G is a great thing. It should be what the LCMS and indeed every Christian church leads with. Instead, my churchcurrently tends to lead with judgment and doctrine. We lead with what is wrong with other people. How we are different and more correct than “them”. Our church and it’s President go on national TV and testify before congress about the infringement on our freedom of religion. They line up with the Catholics and decry Obamacare and abortion and birth control and government and other Lutherans and anything else deemed unclean. We publish documents internally and for distribution instructing that we cannot be in ministry with other faiths, especially those that might have homosexual pastors. Because you see... decrying homesexuality, blaming abortion on other people is much more important than...well... I don’t know...saving souls.
