Sights and Insights
Devotion for Nov. 30, 2021
You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forward I make you hear new things, hidden things that you have not known. They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, so that you could not say, “I already knew them.” – Isaiah 48:6-7 (NRSV)
As I write this, I am sitting in the airport waiting to return from a long weekend of continuing education. I’ve spent the past few days in San Antonio, attending the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion as well as the Society for Biblical Literature. The meeting is full of panels presenting cutting edge discussions of every topic imaginable related to religion in any way. I attended several notable panels giving a variety of new insights, some of which may make their way into St. Matthew in some way or another. Here is a sampling of some highlights:
- One paper suggested ways to re-introduce the term diakonia to North American Lutheran churches. In the rest of the world, Lutherans use diakonia to refer to the ministries of serving the needs of society. Deacons, then, are ministers called to lead the program of diakonia. In North America, the word dropped away, and so we use terms like “social ministry,” but this is too narrow of a term and has less of a biblical rooting.
- Many of the Lutheran events recalled that 2021 is the 500th anniversary of the Diet of Worms. A common theme was that the Diet of Worms points to a core aspect of the Lutheran Reformation was the importance of continuing to attempt dialogue, even in the most polarized of situations. Dialogue may or may not lead to agreement, but it is always worth trying to talk through differences to see if it is possible to find ways of holding some sort of common ground.
- There was a wonderful panel discussion in the Lutheran group about the digital impact on worship on global Lutheran churches, and theological considerations for moving forward.
- Outside of the Lutheran sphere, I attended an excellent presentation on mountaintop removal, loss of a sense of place, and the need for lament.
A first theme you might notice is how many Lutheran-specific panels I included on this list. In part that is because I went to nearly all of the Lutheran-specific events; it is also because the Lutheran-specific ones are the easiest to explain how they directly relate to ministry. The second theme that might become apparent if you read the list closely is the ways that the papers speak to the ways that the church speaks its message into the world, not only as a matter of evangelism but even more through naming the challenges of life and speaking of God’s presence within those needs. As one presenter noted, people around us are longing to make sense of everything going on. The church needs to listen to what they are saying and then help interpret for them how God is at work in the issues that fill their lives. The church needs to learn, in other words, how to walk across the street, listen to what is going on, and give insight. This is not the same thing as insisting that the church knows all of the answers. Rather, the church has insights on how to identify God in the world around us. Sharing those insights is a skill we all can be sharpening.