Apology or Submission?

It was reported that Pastor Rob Morris, and LCMS pastor, apologized to his church for participating in a memorial service or vigil for the children killed in Newtown.  He apologized for not only participating in the memorial but for pronouncing the benediction.  Pastor Morris was not a casual bystander, but had experienced the grief of a member family by officiating at the burial of their child who was one of those who been shot and killed.  What puzzles me is what he has done that requires an apology?  

President Harrison of the LCMS stated that even though Pastor Morris had made it clear that the event was not a religious service it was clear to him that it was.  He wrote:

Nevertheless, the presence of prayers and religious readings, as well as the fact that other clergy were vested for their participation, led me to conclude that this was in fact joint worship with other religions (as previously defined by the Synod). I could draw no conclusion other than that this was a step beyond the bounds of practice allowed by the Scriptures, our Lutheran Confessions, and the constitution of our Synod, which seeks to uphold both.

He went on to state his reasons for demanding an apology.

I asked Pastor Morris to apologize for taking part in this service. I did this for several reasons:

1.      I believe his participation violated the limits set by Scripture regarding joint worship, particularly with those who reject Jesus (Romans 16:17), and was thus a violation of Article VI of the LCMS Constitution.

2.      Pastor Morris’s participation gave offense in the Synod, something we are to avoid, even if we are doing something we believe might be appropriate (1 Corinthians 8).

3.      I most sincerely desire to avoid deep and public contention in the Synod. Our mission is too vital, our fellowship too fragile for a drawn out controversy.

Pastor Morris apologized and President Harrison stated, I accept his apology.  Here is my first problem with this process.  It would appear that the language used by President Harrison simply attempts to fudge the issue.  If Pastor Morris is truly guilty of violating Scripture as President Harrison claims, then he needs not to apologize but to confess his sin.  We do not apologize to God when we sin, we confess our sin and then seek God’s forgiveness not God’s acceptance of our apology. 

After the apology how was the relationship between Pastor Morris and the LCMS and President Harrison changed?  The demand of President Harrison for an apology apparently addresses a deeper issue, namely that Pastor Morris was “disobedient.”  He had disobeyed Scripture, the policy of the LCMS and the President of LCMS.  Apologies have different significance depending on whether it is in response to a demand by an authority or to a genuine concern to heal a relationship.  This requirement that Pastor Morris apologize was a call to acknowledge his disobedience and was therefore a call for an act of submission to authority.  This apology is a demand by an authoritarian hierarchy for a member to tow the line, come back into the fold as an obedient servant, not of God, but of the organizational structures.  The concern is not for the person, but for the so called integrity of the institution.  Submission that requires obedience to authority whether it is the Church or the President of the Church has no place for grace.  This type of submission is very different to submission to the Gospel.

Even though President Harrison has not used the word “faith,” his statement implies that the underlying issue is a matter of faith.  If this analysis is accurate, then the LCMS is on the slippery slope to becoming a pre-reformation church.  The reformers were very clear that they could not accept the Roman Catholic understanding of faith.  The Roman Catholic Church focused on faith as assent. This view raised the question, who informs the Christian what he or she has to assent to?  For the reformers the logical answer was the Church and by extension, the Pope.   Luther faced this understanding of faith as assent when he was called upon to recant his statements.  When he refused to obey and assent to the authority of the Church and Pope he faced the wrath of the church and was seen as a heretic.  For Luther faith in the New Testament was a relational word that simply meant trust, trusting God in Jesus the Christ.  As trust faith was a gift.  Faith as trust was evidenced in the submission to the gospel which brings joy and freedom. Submission to the authority, even that of the church, only leads to humiliation, the loss of self and bondage as Paul so eloquently states in his Epistle to the Galatians.

My concern is that the action of the LCMS and its President comes dangerously close to what Luther and the other reformers rejected.  What is needed is not an apology from Pastor Morris, but rather a new Lutheran reformation of the Lutheran church.