Mary E. Hinkle
Teoksen Signs of Belonging: Luther's Marks of the Church and the Christian Life (Lutheran Voices) tekijä
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Mary E. Hinkle is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and an associate professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota
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These practices, or signs, are open and public to believer and nonbeliever alike – our church doors are open to all. Each sign is connected to the Bible and the earliest history of the church. The first mark, the Word, refers to the scriptures as well as Christ, the Word Incarnate. “Where you hear this word preached, believed, professed, and lived,” Luther writes, “there you find Christian holy people.” The second mark, baptism, has been practiced by the church since its earliest days. God saves us not through acts we accomplish but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Sign 3, Holy Communion, is seen in Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper in the gospels and in Corinthians: “do this in remembrance of me.”
Not only did Christ possess the power to physically heal but also to forgive our sins, sign 4. He even gave his disciples the authority to do so, and this is still a central part of our worship. When Luther lists sign 5, the Office of Ministry, as part of the church, he means there are people (our ministers), designated by the church to proclaim the Word of God, administer Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, and to announce the forgiveness of sins. “Sixth,” Luther writes, “the holy Christian people are recognized by prayer, public praise, and thanksgiving to God.” He commends any “prayers or songs which are intelligible and from which we can learn, and by means of which we can mend our ways.” This made me giggle a bit. I guess nonsense syllables like “sha na na” don’t cut it. The seventh mark, the Holy Cross, means the church is recognized by the suffering it endures as a result of following the Crucified One. Luther says that these seven true marks of the church are the way the Holy Spirit makes Christians holy and breathes into us the life of the risen Christ.
That, succinctly, is it. As opposed to Roman Catholicism, we do not have additional sacraments, deify Mary or the saints, or make individual confession to a priest. And unlike Protestant fundamentalists, we do not handle snakes, speak in tongues, promise a “gospel of financial wealth,” nor is the ELCA a political mouthpiece for any political party.
Read this book to delve more deeply into Luther’s seven signs of the church. It is a short, very easy book to read. After you read it, you will look at worship differently and be able to identify and treasure each mark of the church, right here at Epiphany. To me, Lutherans have the best theology on the block and we become better servants when we continually challenge ourselves to learn all we can about it.… (lisätietoja)