ELCA NEWS SERVICE
October 30, 2006
'Freedom' is Heart of Reformation Says ELCA Presiding Bishop, LWF President
06-163-JB
PILIS, Hungary (ELCA) -- Preaching to more than 200 people
in a Lutheran congregation here Oct. 29, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson
reminded members and visitors that freedom is a gift from God
given through Jesus Christ, and that the gospel message is that
Christians cannot achieve freedom on their own.
Hanson, who serves as presiding bishop of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America and president of the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF), focused his sermon on St. Paul's letter to the
Galatians in the New Testament.
Hanson is on an eight-day official visit to Lutheran
churches in this country and in Romania in his LWF role. His
wife, Ione, is accompanying him.
He was the guest preacher at the Lutheran Church in Pilis, a
congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary, an
LWF member. Hanson spoke on Reformation Sunday, a day in which
Lutherans commemorate the start of the Protestant Reformation,
inspired by the writings and teaching of Martin Luther, a 16th
century German theologian.
The LWF president, speaking through an interpreter, began by
telling the congregation that the LWF is a global communion of
140 Lutheran churches in 78 countries. "You (are part of) 66
million Lutherans in the LWF as you worship today," he said.
During the visit he said he had witnessed the strength of
the Hungarian people. The visit coincided with the 50th
anniversary of the unsuccessful 1956 revolt against Communist
rule, which resulted in the deaths of many Hungarians and led to
decades of repression.
The freedom that many people speak of today is not the same
as the freedom Christ gives, Hanson said.
As he meets with Lutheran church leaders around the world,
Hanson said, they often talk about a "prosperity gospel" preached
by evangelists. They promise that if people ask Jesus to enter
their lives, he will make them wealthy. Such a gospel is
attractive to people who live in poverty. Such a gospel message
must be challenged, Hanson said.
"If the gospel is not announcing that Jesus Christ is risen
for us ... that is not the gospel. It's just talk," Hanson said.
The gospel calls Christians to speak the truth about their
own lives and to be free to speak the truth about our world, he
said. "We must say 'no' to the deception that weapons and
violence will achieve freedom or that wealth will make us free,"
Hanson said.
Writing in "The Freedom of a Christian," Hanson said, Luther
said that in Christ, Christians are free and servants at the same
time, and that "we are free to serve our neighbor."
"That means in our whole lives we are set free to live under
the cross, bearing witness to God's love as we serve our
neighbors. The way of the cross is often one of suffering for
the sake of the neighbor," Hanson said.
Hanson compared the text to the lives of most Hungarians
under Communist rule, which ended in 1989. "You in Hungary know
the way of the cross. You kept the gospel alive during years of
repression," he said.
The LWF's mission in the world is similar, "free in Christ
for the sake of the neighbor," Hanson said. He cited such
examples as providing medical care to Palestinians through
Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem and working for a two-
state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; working for
human rights where there are repressive governments; speaking up
about HIV and AIDS; helping to rebuild people's lives in parts of
Africa that have suffered through war; and working with people of
other faiths to end hunger in the world.
"We will stand with those who mourn, those who are meek and
those who yearn for justice. This is the promise of the gospel.
This is the heart of the Reformation," Hanson concluded.
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Information about the Lutheran World Federation is at
http://www.lutheranworld.org on the Web.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog
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