Ending at the beginning
September 19, 2025
I started my ministry as presiding bishop with these four emphases: We are church. We are Lutheran. We are church together. We are church for the sake of the world. I will end as I began.
We are church. There is no other institution on earth whose reason for being is the proclamation of the gospel. “It is also taught that at all times there must be and remain one holy, Christian church. It is the assembly of all believers among whom the gospel is purely preached and the holy sacraments are administered according to the gospel” (Augsburg Confession, Article VII). That’s it. The works we do in service to the world are important, but they are not the essence of the church. The ELCA does not exist in order to work for justice. Rather, because we are nourished by word and sacraments, the ELCA is free and empowered to do so.
The church is also marvelously intricate and interconnected. “We, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another” (Romans 12:5). There is no such thing as a solitary Christian. God’s love for us through Christ and poured into our hearts by the Spirit is for each of us. But each of us is just one member of the body of Christ. We understand the church in the same way. “This church shall seek to function as people of God through congregations, synods, and the churchwide organization, all of which shall be interdependent. Each part, while fully the church, recognizes that it is not the whole church and therefore lives in an interdependent relationship with the others” (ELCA “Constitutions, Bylaws and Continuing Resolutions” 8.11.).
Be assured that the season for the ELCA is not over. God hasn’t finished with this church yet.
We are Lutheran. The average Lutheran in the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is a woman in Tanzania. There are more Lutherans in Ethiopia, Indonesia and Madagascar than there are in the ELCA. The LWF has 150 member churches in 99 countries. What binds us together? Certainly not one culture or cuisine. Rather, it is the clear witness of the gospel that sets us free. “It is taught that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God through our merit, work, or satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God out of grace for Christ’s sake through faith …” (Augsburg Confession, Article IV).
This is revolutionary. The standards of the world by which we are measured, or we measure others, are a figment. We don’t claim perfection for the church. We’re not there. But as Martin Luther said, “This life therefore is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified” (“Defense and Explanation of All the Articles”). We know there is law and gospel, that we are saint and sinner, that we are bound and free, and we entrust that all to God.
We are church together. Paul wrote that we do not live to ourselves. We live in a time when fear is used to separate us. This is the tool of every authoritarian regime. The church is different. The Spirit calls, gathers and keeps the whole church on earth. We belong to God, we belong to each other, and we belong to the world.
We are church for the sake of the world. We are not only freed from sin, we are freed for service to the neighbor. Here is where the essence of the church—the proclamation of the gospel—gives power and shape to the work we do in Jesus’ name. We are church for the sake of the world not out of obligation or for reward but out of love.
So there it is, dear church, my farewell address. We each have this ministry for a season. My season as presiding bishop has ended. Bishop-elect Yehiel Curry’s season is about to begin. Pray for him, his family and the churchwide staff.
But be assured that the season for the ELCA is not over. God hasn’t finished with this church yet.
