Does Being Lutheran Still Matter?

By Pastor Ronald Boelte

We have just celebrated Reformation Sunday in our churches. It is the one holiday that as a church we can claim a direct connection to, but does it matter? For those of us who still claim to be Lutheran in this world of many different denominations and many different faiths, this question may seem not to matter. However, how would you answer someone if they asked you, "Why are you a Lutheran?" Would you be able to answer in such a way that it would Matter?

This week I read a letter from Rev. Paul T. McCain that asked this very question. Does being Lutheran still Matter? The answers that he got were predictable. They ranged from "you better believe it matters", to "it doesn't really matter."

I got to wondering this week how many of you would answer this question and if you could defend the answer no matter how you answered it.

Rev. McCain's conclusion was that in this country and indeed the world:

• "1) that being and remaining Lutheran matters more than ever, 
• 2) the reasons why this fact is so important are unclear (at best) to most people." 

He goes on to say that this is the answer, "To be Lutheran is to be a person who says, ‘This is what God's Word, the Bible, teaches. This and nothing else is true and correct. This understanding and teaching and confession of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.... This truth is what needs to be told, widely, clearly, far and wide.'" He continues by saying "that we live in a world where most people say that "truth is something relative and impossible to know for sure.'" We should see that being Lutheran does matter in a world faced with so much uncertainty about past, present, and future. Confessions of our belief in the truth revealed to us by God in His Holy Scriptures is more important than ever. Saying that I am Lutheran identifies me with the Confessions that Martin Luther taught, "One Faith, one Word, one Baptism. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me."