Reformation Repentance: A Challenge and Invitation from a Pastor in the Wilderness
My name is Mike Rusert, and I am an ELCA pastor and developer of a new community in the Minneapolis Area Synod. On this first day after the 500th anniversary of the nailing (or mailing) of the 95 Theses, I’m writing to offer both a challenge and an invitation to my sisters and brothers in the ELCA — for bishops and staffs, for seminary boards and faculty, for candidacy committees, for people in congregations and communities across the country, and for anyone else who wants to listen.
Here we stand at 500 years. The Reformation helped bring about significant developments in theology, philosophy, art, technology, and politics. It is definitely a movement worth celebrating. Here in Minnesota, we’ve had no problems marking what Martin Luther set in motion. Since January, there has been a conversation or workshop or concert about “why Luther and the Reformation matters” almost every other week. Yet, I believe if we really want to honor this 500th anniversary, we should do more repenting than celebrating. When I say repent, what I really mean is a shift — a “turning back” — in our way of being human and our way of being church. On this first day of a new 500 years, it’s time for us to turn our faces, together, from what we know and what is comfortable to the wilderness of a truly post-Christendom/post-Colonial church.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1 NRSV)
The Reformation was birthed amidst a time of disruption technologically, politically, and economically. Luther and other reformers, responding to the times, began their work with the intention of internal transformation and evolution of the Roman Catholic Church. Yet, those in power refused the reformers’ calls to “the wilderness” and the responsibility it required. The result was a schism and 30 of the bloodiest years of European history. Now, here we are 500 years later, and we too are in a time of uncannily similar disruption. The question is, can we respond boldly and as church together to transform and evolve, or do we await more schisms and a slow and painful death by attrition. It seems to me many of our practices, teachings, and decisions/non-decisions are a refusal to leave our Colonial/Christendom home. However well intentioned some of these actions may be, they are keeping us from experiencing the fullness of gospel freedom that the Spirit will show us.
In recognizing many are faithfully working in the mess of the wilderness, and in trust of the Spirit that calls all of us to reform, I offer my thoughts on some of the practices, teachings, and choices being made that I want to call us into repenting of together.
Is it first call or first compromise?
I find it ironic that the Reformation was fueled by leaders who were no longer willing to compromise or be compromised by unrighteous institutional practice. They were people who boldly claimed the freedom that is all of ours in Christ, and lived it into existence with communities through innovative thought, language, and technology. Yet, if I’m being honest, much of my experience of candidacy and seeking a first call was more an invitation to first compromise. It was an experience in which I felt little agency or invitation to imagination. Over and over again, I was invited to be open to where the Spirit may be calling me, but the repeated suggestions from synodical leadership and candidacy persons clearly indicated that the “spirit” meant “go where the institution needs you.” In the end, that is not where my call came from. In fact, I had to basically do everything wrong (i.e., restricting assignment and eventually exiting the traditional call process) according to the systems and practices in place in order to do what I am doing today (i.e., developing a new community, Intertwine Northeast, that is deeply wrestling with what it means to be church in a post-Christendom world and the work of decolonization that that requires). Sadly, I know my story is not all that unique.
I notice a strong spirit of anxiety and scarcity driving our candidacy and first call processes. I want existing communities across the country to have leaders who will faithfully love, serve, and lead alongside them, and many leaders are called and equipped for such positions. But many of us these days just aren’t. The message I’m hearing from Churchwide and our synod leadership right now, the ones saying “we’ll have X number of open calls in the next five years” is not the message that would inspire me to enroll in seminary, let alone invite someone else to consider it. It strikes me more as an S.O.S. Too much of our energy and resources are dedicated to patching holes on leaking ships when they ought to go towards building new ones. What we need is an inspired vision and pathways for developing leaders to be the faces of a new reformation. We need institutional, educational, and congregational leadership that refuse “too big to fail” and assume that it’s too important not to. We need leadership that practices holy imagination. One that embraces risk, encourages experimentation, and fosters relationships built on patient commitment and trust.
Worship in Spirit and Truth… For folks like me, it happens more often at First Ave then First Lutheran.
It’s time we repent our narrow understanding of worship. Today, the He’s and hymns and forms and formulas of worship all too often function more as tools to perpetuate Northern European culture, or scapegoating, or as opioids to comfort us in our “what we have done and left undone.” Is not worship in “spirit and truth” showing up in the world as our authentic selves and making space for others to do the same? Worship is really awe, and gratitude, and presence, and reconciliation. I love the line from Luke 19 where the Pharisees tell Jesus to stop the people from their shouting “Hosanna.” Jesus says that if they’re quiet the rocks will cry out. Rocks don’t have to turn to page 178 of their SBH, or LBW, or ELW to worship, they worship by simply being their authentic and whole rocky selves in relationship with the creation around them.
In the past two decades, I’ve had more significant spiritual experiences at First Ave concerts than I have in church buildings, and unfortunately, I’m not alone. Pew’s most recent poll indicates that 27% of Americans identify as Spiritual But Not Religious. And yeah, this may in some sense be old news, but sometimes I feel like we don’t take it seriously. These SBNR folks aren’t doing spirituality with training wheels. They are experiencing worship through moments of presence, connection, and gratitude. They don’t need our sanctuaries and liturgies to experience them. They find them in concert venues, the woods, yoga studios, and in marches for justice. They find healing and inspiration through podcasts, recovery groups, and instagram accounts. What if our way of being church shifted to make room for these stories of worship to be shared, created, and experienced together rather than pretending their existence is just a fad?
It’s Time to Crucify the White Savior
This section is specifically written to my white sisters and brothers. It is time to repent for our worshiping and playing the White Savior. It’s time to stop making people of color a means to our own end of “diversity.” Too often when we do this, we practice forms of cultural appropriation that are bent towards drawing the person of color in only to ask them to assimilate to the majority white culture. The question is not how many people of color are in our community or how we get ‘them’ in, the question is how are we deconstructing racist ways of thinking and being in ourselves and in our communities. How are we waking up to and honoring the reality that the church of many nations already exists!
This call to repentance is not simply about apologizing. We’re already good at the apology part (e.g., “The Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery” that passed at the 2017 Churchwide Assembly). Bearing the fruits of repentance comes only when we shift our way of behaving. It happens when we move from loving with words and speech to love in action and in truth (1 John 3:18). Vance Blackfox, a theologian out of LSTC, wrote a reflection on said repudiation that drives this love-through-continuity-of-action point home. Taking action begins with radical listening. It entails learning about systemic racism, privilege, and white supremacy. When we learn how all of us participate and benefit from these injustices, we can then assume our responsibility in ending them through individual change and collective action.
And those of us who claim to be more “woke” than others, it’s time for us to repent for our ego-driven shaming and scapegoating of those who aren’t as far along in the work as we are. Transformation happens through the power of together, not through fighting fire with fire.
No More Deconstructing for the Sake of Destruction
I’m repenting of deconstructing Christian thought and practice for the sake of destruction. There are too many who are too quick to perform surface level critiques of Christianity, as if what it meant to be Christian simply meant being the caricature presented in popular culture (i.e., the angry, judgmental, and racist homophobe who believes the earth is 6000 years old). I strongly believe there is a deep wisdom and beauty in our traditions and practices. I believe there is a deep power and relevance that the Christian story and the contributions of reformers like Luther can speak into our current circumstances. One of the greatest gifts of the reformation was the re-emergence of paradox (e.g., sinner-saint, law-gospel, faith-works, etc.). Paradox holds things in tension and creates listening space. And if our world needs anything now, it needs to learn how to listen and hold two truths in tension. We don’t have to assume shame for the past; we have to take responsibility through creative and reconciling action in the present. We have to live this story of “ecclesia semper reformanda est” (the church must always be reformed).
We are people called to be and lead into the wilderness. These wilderness moments call for deep listening and discerning. They also call for bold action for the potential of new life (aka, promise). I know many are working faithfully through the destructive and creative chaos of this wilderness. But still many of us are ruled by fear or selfishness, and therefore continue to refuse to leave country, kindred, and father’s house to the land the Spirit would lead us into. This is urgent. We do not have time to wait. I trust that this 500th anniversary, 500 years from now, will be the marking of a new reformation. The question is are you going to be a part of it, or will you stay with your kindred and the familiarity of your country and father’s house while missing out on the promise.
Postscript — Thank You and Invitation
I write this out of commitment and gratitude for the tradition and the people to which I belong. And I say thank you to the people who’ve walked with me through this ten year deconstruction phase of my journey. My family, friends, professors, communities, churches, and Minneapolis Synod staffers who’ve gone with me into the wilderness and practiced patience, and love, and commitment through it all. Entering into the discomfort together is leading to new life and possibility.
I invite you to check out Intertwine Northeast online or in person if you are in the Minneapolis area. We began experimenting and gathering people in March of 2016. The learnings and feedback we’ve received over the past year and a half are now informing a launch 2.0 process. Many of the people who’ve connected through our experimentation now seem themselves as “Intertwiners”, and we are working together to create the community for others. Our first gathering out of this launch process will be on December 10. Watch for an event invitation to be posted on our Meetup and Facebook in the coming days. Support our community and other new starts, experiments, and unconventional leaders across the country (including the conversations and work of the growing Decolonizing Lutheranism movement) as we wrestle with what the future of church can look like today. We need trust and nourishment from our Mother church in the form of resources, prayer, and encouragement as we trail-blaze in the wilderness.
