I'm reminded of Dr. King's statement that if the Church doesn't recapture its prophetic zeal, it becomes an irrelevant social club without spiritual or moral authority. The context of King's words here is that the Church can neither be master nor servant of the state; but must be a guide and critic of the state.
To be critic and guide cannot seek to be master of the state; as though the Church should be in charge over the state; and neither can it mean being an instrument, acting in a servile way, to the state. By "state" we can also talk about prevailing political attitudes, and the ever-shifting tides of political allegiances.
When the state is most favorable toward the Church, that is arguably the most important time for the Church to be critical of the state.
The Church must never become a mere cultural component of the status quo.
The Church must never forsake her allegiance to Christ above all else; and therefore can never relinquish the cross in favor of something else.
The Church, if it looks like the world, makes itself irrelevant.
And it doesn't matter if "the world" in this case is "conservative" or "liberal"; the comforts of power and the enjoyment of glory exist regardless of political divisions. Because human beings, even when we believe our cause just and good, are still sinners. The devil doesn't take a day off; my flesh doesn't stop being rotten. I must at every moment of life be bothered by the discomfort of God's commandments and confront my own in-built wrongness; and at the same time be comforted by the Good News of God's grace, love, and forgiveness through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Moralistic sermons, sermons without power, can be found just about anywhere. I remember some in my old very NOT mainline Pentecostal church; and I've encountered them since becoming Lutheran, in both the ELCA and AALC. Granted I've heard much fewer of these in a Lutheran context. They're easy sermons, sermons that are probably be the least offensive, the least challenging, and can leave us all feeling like we're all basically decent people and that we just need to be happy comfortable and be basically decent. And while "be decent" probably isn't a terrible message, it's not going to do much to seriously challenge us, or disrupt our cozy self-image of ourselves, or provoke us to get down on our knees in repentance; nor comfort us with the Gospel. It's not going to be a proclamation of hope in an increasingly hope-starved world; and it's not going to be a proclamation of justice, neither of the justice we have before God through faith in Christ nor the justice to which we are called in living outwardly toward our neighbors and communities and toward the least of these in our midst.
Sometimes I need to be hit over the head a couple times, figuratively, with the word: Wake up, you've gotten complacent. Reminded that sometimes, yeah, I am just phoning in my confession--and while God's grace is abundant, real grace means real sin. I'm a real sinner, I need real mercy, I need real confession. And that also means I need to be reminded of the comfort I can only find in God's word, the comfort of grace, the comfort of Christ and the love of God--I'm forgiven. And now I need to forgive others, I need to turn the other cheek, I need to seek first God's kingdom, I need to love my neighbor, and serve the least of these. I need to deny myself and take up my cross--day in and day out.
I shouldn't be comfortable, rather I must understand that discipleship is not easy. Following Jesus is not "be nice and be happy" but "come and die".
-CryptoLutheran
