Copyright: © 1998 Paul F. Bosch.
This document may be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes with credit to the author and mention of the Lift Up Your Hearts web site http://www.worship.ca/ as the source.

Forty-five years ago, when I was a student in Seminary, one of my teachers was fond of saying something like this: "There is a type of distinctively Lutheran piety that, in trying to build a boat- house, wants to begin with the doctrine of justification-by-grace-through-faith. And you can't do it! To build a boat-house, you've got to begin, first, by knowing something about boat-house building: the laws of physics, the properties of wood and concrete, how your tools (a hammer, a saw, a carpenter's level) do their work, how the finished boat-house is supposed to serve your needs. Justification-by-grace-through-faith is surely crucial in the Christian life (I Corinthians 2:2 and all that) but you can't build a boat-house knowing only that..."

I now realize, although I didn't then, that what my professor was describing, in those days long ago, was precisely what I have been attempting to identify in many of these essays: the distinctively Lutheran sectarianism I have labelled "word-reductionist."

Word-reductionism, to recapitulate yet once again, focuses so exclusively on the Second Article of the Creed that it does not sufficiently honour the First Article; or, for that matter, the Third. Word-reductionism, in another way of speaking, attempts to build that boat-house without proper preparation: with piety alone, heedless of other considerations.

Now, I yield to no one in my devotion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, justification-by-grace-through-faith. Anyone who has seen me at worship (leading worship in the chancel or participating in the pew) can testify to that. My personal piety is deep and wide and heart-felt, and, I am told, an inspiration to others. I challenge anyone to challenge my piety.

And (Lord knows!) I am not here challenging your piety, or anyone else's piety! Only God can do that.

What I want to challenge, in these essays, is the assumption that piety can substitute for competence. To build a boat-house, you need more than piety; simply loving Jesus is not enough.

Surely loving Jesus is enough, if we are talking about your eternal salvation. (Hey, I'll take anyone as my sister or brother in Christ, when it comes to eternal salvation.)

But we are talking here, not about matters that affect your eternal salvation, but about building a boat-house. (I write these paragraphs on vacation in Ontario's cottage country.) And we could as easily be talking about the challenges of child-rearing, or about the ambiguities of politics, or about recipes for baking bread (a hobby of mine!) Or about liturgy. Or about church unity.

Which brings me to the ELCA's Concordat and its recent revision by the Martin Marty drafting team. (ELCA readers of these words will want to note that the ELCIC has embarked on a similar journey of faith, to be brought before Canadian Lutherans and Canadian Anglicans in 2001.)

Yes, I've read (marked! learned! inwardly digested!) the pertinent ELCA documents, including the minority report. And I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that the critics of the Concordat, and of its Martin Marty revision, are all the same "word reductionists" who dismiss liturgical proprieties as "mere adiaphora."

I would argue that there are many issues of great substance that every Christian community must address that have little or nothing to do with the doctrine of justification-by-grace- through-faith, I Corinthians 2:2 to the contrary notwithstanding. Among these are A) issues surrounding liturgical proprieties, and B) issues surrounding concerns for church polity and church unity.

So, for instance, in A): to stand, rather than to sit, for prayer and praise is not a Second Article concern; it's a First Article concern. (See essay 7, above). But it makes all the difference in faithful and lively worship. So also, in B): Church polity is a First Article concern. (As one wag puts it, "Where two or three are gathered in Jesus' name, there you will find...a president, a secretary, and a treasurer...")

Let's be fair: I'm sure the critics long for Christian unity as sincerely as I do; they've said as much, and I'm willing to believe them. But they want to build the boat-house with piety alone, without any other considerations.

Sure, satis est, and all that. "It is enough" for church unity to agree in the doctrine of the Gospel. The historic episcopate is surely not of the church's esse (being); maybe not even of the church's bene esse (well-being). But it is certainly of the church's plene esse (full being). And sure, it belongs to the First Article of the Creed, and the Third, not the Second.

No, the historic episcopate is surely not "necessary." But it is just as surely "necessary" for us to seize the opportunity presented to us in this revised Concordat, or future generations will judge us harshly. It's a gift to us American Lutherans, north and south of the border; we ought to take it.

I'd make no "magical historical" claims for the episcopacy; like everything else in this "vale of tears" (not excluding the church's liturgy!) it's a flawed and fractured thing. But most of Christian people, throughout most of Christian history (including not a few Lutherans!) have treasured it as a useful sign of unity. That's good enough for me!