Stromata

Paul McCain, an Internet acquaintance and my son's boss, had an interesting observation about Lutheran pastors who leave Lutheranism here. The observations, and comments, are very interesting, but my first thought was down a slightly different path. I've known several of these men who have been Lutheran pastors and left for another denomination. In fact, my two predecessors here in Murphysboro both left to become Eastern Orthodox priests – and one of them, in a telephone call, informed me that he's more Lutheran now than he ever has been.

Personally, I think the root cause is that these men didn't really have faith in God for their daily lives. In 1 Corinthians 1:22, Paul mentions that "Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom." Another way of putting that is that most people look for proof, not faith. They want Jesus and the resurrection to be approved by a spectacular liturgy, by a long history, or by a voice of authority somewhere. To pay attention to what Jesus says in the Gospels, to trust in God's word, is not as attractive to some people as having someone in authority tell them what to do. So, they wander off to other denominations that will "prove" that they're right in one way or another.

In Romans 1:16, Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4 in a well-known verse, "the righteous shall live by faith." That not only has an inceptive connotation to it, but also a durative. By that I mean, the verse has an inceptive connotation to it, in that we are justified by faith and come to salvation by faith. But there is also a durative connotation to it, in that each and every morning when we get up we can only live life by trusting in God, and believing in his promises for each day and each moment. That's the most difficult task of Christian life, and sometimes beyond the habits and practice of the sinful human beings who are Lutheran pastors.