Grace Notes 2022-08-31

The vote at the Congregation Meeting, Sunday, August 28, to affiliate with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod passed by the required two-thirds margin. It would certainly be desirable if all such votes could be unanimous, but that often does not happen. Roughly 20 percent of the voters were not in favor of the decision. It should go without saying, but everyone matters!

I want to challenge us to think in other ways than there being winners and losers. I don’t think that is how a local expression of the Body of Christ tries to discern God’s will. Instead, we study God’s Word for direction. We commit ourselves to prayer. We try to open ourselves to the Holy Spirit’s leading. And grounded in all of this, we carry on discussions and have deliberations.

Wouldn’t it be great if in everything I just mentioned we built a consensus and were of a unanimous mind concerning a decision or a course of action? We certainly would always hope and work for this. And this possibility for people of faith should never be discounted. But as we all know this does not always happen. Perhaps it seldom happens?

We must not be discouraged by this. If we take ‘original sin’ seriously, as a part of the fallen world each one of us is fallible. The Apostle Paul states it this way in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror dimly.” This helps to explain why despite our best intentions we will not always see eye to eye on things.

Voting sometimes becomes necessary as a last resort in being able to move forward. And with some courses of action, it is wise that a two-thirds majority be required. This in itself does not ensure that the right discernment was made, rather, it is the imperfect means for settling on a course of action believed by many to be God’s leading. Our harmony will depend on humility and respect for the good intentions of others, and then a willingness to accept the less than perfect means for discernment as we seek to be faithful to the Lord of His Church.

Since You Asked…

What is meant by the term “catholic” as when we confess, “I believe in the holy catholic Church?”

The term “catholic” means whole and refers to a church which receives the Christian faith intact without alteration or selection of matters of the faith. The opposite of catholic is heretic, one who picks and chooses which parts of the faith to accept. Thus “catholic” is more specific than “Christian” and is not a synonym for “ecumenical” or “worldwide”. (from “Manual on the Liturgy” companion to the LBW, from Augsburg Pub.)

- often when the “C” is capitalized “Catholic” is referring to the Roman Catholic Church, and when the “c” is lower case “catholic” is referring to the Church receiving the whole of the faith.