Christ the Cornerstone: Lutheranism and the Papacy
I Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14

The Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Pope are in a meeting in Rome. The ELCA Bishop notices a "fancy shmancy" phone on a side table in the Pope's private chambers. "What's that phone for?" he asks. "It's my direct line to the Lord!" the Pope replies.

The Lutheran pastor is doubtful, but the Pope insists that he tries it out and, indeed, he is connected to the Lord and chats away with Him for a while. After he hangs up, the Pastor says, "Thank you very much. This is great! But listen, I want to pay for the charges I have used up." The Pope doesn't want to take the money, but finally gives in, checks the counter and says: All right! The charge was 50,000 Lira," which the Lutheran Bishop, with your benevolence dollars, gladly pays.

A couple of weeks later, the Pope is in Chicago on an official visit to ELCA headquarters. In the Presiding Bishop's chambers he sees the identical phone he has with a direct line to the Lord. The Pope asks if he could use it, because there were some urgent matters he needed to consult with Him about. The Presiding Bishop gladly hands him the phone and the Pope chats away. After he hangs up, he says, "Now I also want to pay for my charges on your phone." The Pastor looks on the counter and says: "Fifty cents!" The Pope looks surprised: "Why so cheap?" The Bishop smiles: "Local call."

On Wednesday, 75% of the front page and the entire front section of the Detroit Free Press was devoted to the election of Pope Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany. I don't watch television, but I'm sure most of you saw and heard what I read about: the white smoke and the bells ringing as well as the crowd chanting, "We have a new pope." This morning already he has been inaugurated at St. Peter's in Rome.

So, as Lutherans, should this matter to us? After all, you've heard me say we are catholic too -- catholic with a small c, as we say in the creed, which means "universal." "Big C Catholics," Roman Catholics, are distinguished from small c catholics like us, by their acceptance of the authority of the pope. In May of last year, Lutherans and Roman Catholics released the final draft of a joint document called "The Church as Koinonia of Salvation: Its Structures and Ministries." It is the product of the tenth round of dialogue between the two churches. More than five years ago Lutherans and Roman Catholics signed a joint agreement on the doctrine of justification by grace through faith -- the primary theological issue that divided the church during the Reformation and led to the formation of Protestantism. We have agreed that this same issue that divided us over 500 years ago no longer need to be church dividing today. This latest document tests whether the idea of living together in community (that's what koinonia means) is helpful in addressing the issues that still divide us. It encourages leaders and laity of both churches to live out the unity we already have through greater collaboration: to pray together, to share in retreats, study, prayer services, weddings, evangelism, and social ministry efforts, working toward the possibility of full communion. So what does all this mean in terms of our relationship to the Pope? Do these dialogues mean that the Pope's authority has any bearing on us and what we do? Is he to have any influence on how we are to think?

During the time of the Reformation, the pope at the moment was Leo X. Without going into detail, let me just say he was as corrupt as they come.ⁱ Even a "Big C" Catholic historian declared that "the ascent of this man in an hour of crisis to the chair of St. Peter, was one of the most severe trials to which God ever subjected the Church."ⁱⁱ Says one commentator, "Pope Leo makes the proclivities of modern corruption look like child's play. Some politicians sell their conscience to the highest campaign contributors; Pope Leo on the other hand had the gall to sell guaranteed seating in the kingdom of heaven, and then to divert the profits to support a lifestyle that makes today's rich and famous seem like 'paragons of frugality.'"ⁱⁱⁱ

Luther dared to speak out against these abuses of the papacy. But historian Martin Marty claims that the pope's immorality and depravity were not Luther's primary concern. The corruption supplied ammunition for argument. But the primary concern was the corrupt teaching of the papal church. The reformers believed that the Roman church had re-directed God's channels of grace through a priestly system that had gone too far. It prevented the free flow of God's righteousness among people. [God's grace through Christ] was dammed up or diverted. ^iv

Luther, as I know you've heard many times before, was radical. Imagine you're a Christian living in sixteenth century Europe. All your life you've been trained to believe that the church holds the keys to the kingdom of heaven. If you do not accept the power and the authority of the church, as vested in its priests, its cardinals, its bishops, its popes, if you question their role as mediators between heaven and earth, then your soul is in mortal danger.^v

And so we might begin to imagine what an impression it must have made upon the faithful when Luther stood up before the congregation and walked over to the baptismal font to declare: "Whoever comes here to be baptized can boast of being consecrated priest, bishop and pope." In other words, Luther implies, each and every one of us has the same standing before God as the Pope himself. It's our faith that has set us free, and we do not need the hierarchy of the church to guarantee a safe passage into heaven.^vi

Now, with that said, we must also say again that, especially in the forty years since the Second Vatican Council, enormous strides have taken place in on-going dialogue between Lutherans and Roman Catholics. Let's remember again that we agree that our value before God depends not on our own goodness, but on God's goodness. Here's what our most recent joint document said about the papacy: Lutherans encouraged Roman Catholics to explore how the universal ministry of the [papacy] can be reformed to more visibly serve the gospel. And Roman Catholics encouraged Lutherans to embrace the idea of a pope for the sake of unity in service to the Gospel. ^vii Notice that the common denominator here is "service to the Gospel." For Lutherans, the basis of the true unity of the church is the Gospel of Word and Sacraments. Lutherans find this compatible with the papal office. The papal office can serve very well as a symbol and servant of the universal unity of the communities of faith working for the transformation of the world. But we still reach an impasse in the dialogue on one point. Lutherans do not believe that the highest office in the church possesses the infallibility of the Spirit at work through the means of grace. Such a claim, we fear, inherently leads to the abuse of power in both church and world. So that's where we are stuck.^viii

But ELCA Lutherans are at an impasse with Christians at the other end of the spectrum as well, and for the same reasons. Some say that after the Reformation, some Protestants rejected papal authority and claims of infallibility, but then substituted a paper pope: the Bible. Focusing on the words of Scripture as inerrant and infallible, without taking into consideration the context of these words, and without reading them through the lens of the Living Word -- Jesus himself -- presents similar dangers. This too can lead to the abuse of power in both church and world. Some call this approach toward Scripture, having, in effect, a "paper pope," "bibliolatry," or making of the Bible an idol. In the ELCA, we cling to the ultimate authority of the risen Christ as the Living Word of God communicated through the Holy Scriptures, and experienced in the community gathered around Word and Sacrament.

Luther compared the Bible to the manger that held the Christ child. We don't worship the manger, with its nicks and nails and rough edges. We worship the Christ, that which the manger holds. We embrace the Holy Scriptures as the authoritative source and norm for our faith and life -- certainly. But we don't worship the Holy Scriptures. We worship the crucified and risen Christ, to which the Scriptures point.^ix Luther taught that we read Scripture through a particular lens, and that lens is "That which conveys Christ." And so those passages that convey the Gospel of Christ bear more weight than others that don't bear witness to Jesus. We might use the same lens to discern how to listen to the pope or even to the evangelists we hear on television and radio: "What conveys Christ?"

Lutheran theologian Carl Braaten says it this way: "The power of this church of Christ is the power of the cross, not that of inerrant writings, infallible authorities, immutable dogmas or absolute principles. It is the power of the cross that levels the ground on which all people and all structures stand in the church, so that all may become servants one of another, none lording it over the rest." ^x

One of the strides we have made ecumenically these last forty years is that in worship, almost all liturgical churches, including Roman Catholic and Lutheran, follow the same lectionary. And so today, for example, we are reading the same lessons that our Roman brothers and sisters are reading as they celebrate the inauguration of the new pope. And so, coincidentally -- or NOT -- today we are all reminded of who and what is most important. We are reminded that, regardless of what structure or form or authority the human side of the church embraces, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. (John 14:6) We are reminded in our second lesson that Christ is the cornerstone -- the LIVING stone in which we put our trust. (I Peter 2:4-7) And we all, in the meantime, are declared to be a royal priesthood?in order that we may proclaim the mighty acts of the One who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. (I Peter 2:9)

To that end, our ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson and the General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation Rev. Dr. Ishmael Noko have publicly pledged to support the new pope. It is appropriate, they say, "for Christians to be united in prayer that God may bless, strengthen and guide him as a heavy mantle of responsibility is now being put upon him.^xi And so may we at Holy Cross join our leaders in prayer for this new chapter in the life of the church. AMEN.

Pastor Dana Runestad
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
24 April 2005
Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Livonia, Michigan

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