Dear Trinity (10/20/24)

both/and

Dear Trinity, Jesus’ grace. 

This month is the 507th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, sparked in October of 1517 by the public confession of an out-of-the-way and often out-of-sorts monk named Br. Martin Luther. At our worst, the Lutheran tradition can be kind of culturally  bound, doctrinally stuffy, and relationally parochial. What are we like at our best?

Missionally confessional. We are a confessing church. Sure, those confessions are in books and creeds, but at our best, they are on our lips! At our best, we joyfully bear witness to the best news ever: God says he is not counting our sins against us, for Christ’s sake! 2 Corinthians 5.19

Evangelically catholic: We are not a grouchy group of dissidents. The hammer Luther used to nail up the 95 Theses was not a destroying hammer, but a repairing one! Christ has one church, of which we are a part, not apart. Are there sad divisions and inaccurate teachings and misguided movements? Always! But, we have the Word and Spirit to continually reform and renew us. How we need these!

Biblically charismatic: We are not either/or people, but both/and people! There is no better both/and then the Word & Spirit. What God has joined together, let no one put asunder. 

My Swedish friends, Magnus Persson and Kerstin Oderhem represent for me the best of our tradition. Magnus wrote about it in his book titled, Reclaiming the Reformation, from 1517 Publishing. Here is the blurb I wrote to help publicize it to an American audience:

“Like a marriage vow renewal manual, in Reclaiming the Reformation, Magnus Persson attempts to woo the bride of Christ back from her pragmatic wandering for relevance and her experimental dalliances with the spirit of the age. Persson is spacious without compromise, and particular without parochialism. I found myself repeating, “Amen. Amen! May it be so!” May the solid solas of the Reformation be the fuel, and may the living, breathing, renewing Spirit be the fire that ends up rekindling in us the fire of his love.”

I hope you can join us for worship this Sunday as we welcome our Swedish friends.

Jesus’ peace, Nathan

Here is a link to Magnus preaching in English:

Here is a link to a conversation Magnus and I had a while back:

I dagens avsnitt har vi kontakt med Los Angeles. I detta lite längre avsnitt på engelska så samtalar Magnus med Nathan Hoff, präst i Trinity Lutheran Church, San Pedro. Vi avslutar vår serie med att samtala om unga människors behov av dekonstruktion och rekonstruktion av deras kristna tro. Nathan har arbetat mycket med dessa frågor och ger oss exempel på hur man kan vandra tillsammans med unga människor för att hjälpa dem finna svar och forma en hållbar tro.