From
Living Theology in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church In America
Volume 1, Number 4
September 1996
The Church and Salvation
The body of Christ is the fullness of God (Ephesians
1:23). In our brokenness and suffering we speak eloquently of God’s mercy. In
our willingness to serve and witness we proclaim God’s goodness. In our varied
ministries and expressions we testify to God’s abundance.
This
issue of Let’s Talk is organized around Philip Hefner’s 1996 Hein Fry
Lectures which sought to answer the question, “How is the church necessary for
salvation?” Dr. Hefner’s response: by being a community available to God’s
possibilities for the future. Pr. Kwang-Ja Yu shares where the church is alive
and vital for her: in proclamation, service, and community. Bishop Kenneth Olsen
argues that the relationship of all the expressions of the church—congregation,
synod and churchwide—is valuable if not precisely necessary for salvation. Pr.
Ruben Duran shares his understanding of how mission in our synod is shaped by
word and sacrament. And Pr. Cheryl Stewart Pero urges us to pay close attention
to the questions that arise from the African American and lay perspectives on
church life.
A pastor
stands at the altar, gestures toward the loaf and says, “This is the body of
Christ.” She looks out to the gathered community and continues, “We are the
body of Christ.” After a pause, she concludes, “Be the body of Christ.” In
baptism and faith God gifts us with the Holy Spirit, through which we are the
body of Christ. At the same time we are the fullness of God in mercy and
mission, brokenness and courage, vitality and community.
Frederick Aigner
Pastor, Our Saviour’s,
Arlington Heights