Synod—The Way Together

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What is a synod, anyway?  This is different from a senate, which is an assembly or council possessing high deliberative and legislative functions for a group of people.  A synod is a governing council of a church body, and the word synod comes from Greek words that mean “together on the way.” 

Different church groups use the word synod differently—in the Roman Catholic Church, a synod is an assembly of bishops.  The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is the name of an entire Christian denomination.  And in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the smaller judicatories are geographical areas known as synods, of which there are 65 in the ELCA.   Where we live is called Central States Synod, made up of 146 congregations just like ours. 

Every year, each congregation sends voting members to the assembly, together with rostered leaders like pastors and deacons who are serving in congregations or various other capacities like hospitals or campus ministries, as well as retired rostered leaders.  That annual meeting was yesterday, held by Zoom, and locally we had a gathering at Bethel Lutheran Church, just so that we didn’t have to each sit in a room alone.  I attended as a voting member, along with our current council president, Cayce Morice.  For getting up early and sitting through six hours of Zoom meeting on a Saturday, please give her a round of applause.  

Every year I like to take some time to remember why we do this: the meetings and the resolutions and the parliamentary procedure, which is not my favorite thing about ministry but I show up anyway because this is how we live out our call as disciples of Jesus. 

Jesus calls us to follow him on the way, to bring healing to the world through physical healing of bodies and even bringing the dead to life, as we heard in the Gospel lesson today, as well as the healing of communities and restoring relationships between people, which is what Jesus does when he “eats with tax collectors and sinners.”  We’re invited into this work, and we gather together and support ministry in the best way we can with the resources we have, and we have considerable resources. 

We are blessed to live in a country that allows religious groups to gather, to purchase property, to hire leaders and staff to support our mission.  Because of this privilege, we have constitutions to incorporate our congregations—and our synods—as legal entities; our congregation is accountable to civic institutions, which means we can’t just do anything we want.  If abuse happens within this congregation, a civil institution can hold us accountable. 

Another privilege we enjoy is that as a religious organization, we don’t have to pay property taxes on our building.  This is a significant gift because that frees up money to use for other things, like funding ministries and hiring leaders to guide our efforts.  You might show up once a month, but there’s someone here leading worship every single Sunday of the year.  It’s usually me, but I also take vacation time and leave town to visit family, so sometimes there is someone else leading worship here, but one thing I can assure you: I’ve never been alone in worship. 

And to support congregations, we work together.  Bishop Donna Simon spoke about the ways synod staff serve the congregations of this synod.  The bishop’s report referenced an “iceberg model” of what a synod does, meaning there’s stuff you see: candidacy, mobility, and roster matters; education (bishop’s convocation, boundary training for rostered leaders); training for lay an rostered leaders; synod-wide confirmation class (kids and adults!); overseeing mission congregations; supporting congregational vitality. 

And there’s stuff you don’t see: raising money for mission (grants, donor relationships, etc.); care of lay and rostered leaders; supporting congregations/ministries with difficult matters; act when trust and/or laws have been broken; strengthening ecumenical partnerships (“The future of the church is ecumenical…breaking down the walls that have separated like-minded Christians for years.”)

Bishop Donna said: “The synod exists to resource congregations and ministries.” And also: “God is doing something with the church.”  Change is always processed as loss; yes, it’s hard but we can’t ignore it.  The synod has set a goal to train 100 lay leaders, send more people to seminary, and increase number of rostered ministers in our synod. 

We also heard from a representative of the ELCA, Adam DeHoek, who works with ELCA Research and Statistics.  Among the activities of the ELCA, Mr. DeHoek mentioned: children’s ministries throughout ELCA are being supported by grants to create safe, joyful spaces.  Talking about Understanding Faith and Civic Life, ELCA social statement.  ELCA World Hunger worked in 58 countries.  Daily Bread grants to build up feeding ministries in congregations.  Lutheran Disaster Response served neighbors in 51 countries.  Mission Support fuels ministry in ELCA, like young adult ministry, campus ministries.  Church Property Resource Hub—courses and resources, success stories, support forum with others addressing property stewardship. 

Mr. DeHoek also brought a video from the ELCA Churchwide unit, since we are a connected church in three expressions: congregations, synods, and the churchwide organization. He said the ELCA is a connected church—stronger together, as one church.  The video featured our new Presiding Bishop Yehiel Curry who lifted up the ways the ELCA boldly lives out its mission in the world.  Can do things via partnerships—congregations working with food pantries.  Bishop Curry traveled to the Holy Land to participate in the consecration and installation of the new bishop Rev. Imam Haddad Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land, prayed with Bishop Haddad in a chapel in Beit Jalla, Palestine, where Bishop Haddad had prayed as a child. The theme of this year’s assembly was Life Together, which is also the title of a book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian in the early 1900s who was executed by the Gestapo just before the end of World War II.  Bonhoeffer was a gifted theologian and teacher, and for speaking out against Hitler’s regime, he put himself at risk and ended up in hiding, teaching at a secret Lutheran seminary for a while.  It was during that time that he wrote this book about Christian community. 

That context is important to make sense of his words.  Bonhoeffer wrote,

“It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians.  Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies.  At the end all his disciples deserted him.  On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers.  For this cause he had come, to bring peace ot the enemies of God.  So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes.  There is [their] commission, [their] work.”[1] 

He writes that it’s easy to forget that the fellowship of Christians is a gift of grace that may be taken from us at any time.  We gather because of God, and what threatens Christian community the most, in Bonhoeffer’s estimation, is the threat of our own ideals: that we gather to make ourselves happy, to feel comfortable, or to elevate our position in society.  Bonhoeffer says clearly: “Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ.  No Christian community is more or less than this.  …We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ.”[2] 

Being here together, gathering together as a synod assembly, these are gifts of God’s grace.  May God give us the wisdom to receive these gifts with humility and gratitude. 

Amen.

Pastor Cheryl

[1] Page 17.

[2] Page 21.