Okay. Heck, I'll admit it. I'm a fan. I
mean, I just love this weird chick!
Last Sunday I was on my way to church
and, as is my custom, I tuned my car radio to National Public Radio's
On Being series, a weekly
discussion of topics in religion, ethics, and spirituality. The guest
interviewee that morning was the brilliant and fascinating Pastor
Nadia Bolz-Weber, the pastor of Denver's House For All Sinners and
Saints.
I've
been following Pastor Nadia for a while now as she's a fellow
Lutheran. But, as I sat stalled by an opening at the Burlington
Bristol Bridge, I suddenly had an excruciating feeling of inadequacy.
I listened to her witty and irreverent apologetics, and I thought to
myself, “Griff, you are such an amateur
compared to this woman! I mean, you're really a piker.”
It's
true. Rarely have I heard Lutheran doctrine expressed in so engaging
a way. I won't wax poetic about Pr. Nadia's comments. You can listen
to them yourself by clicking on the On
Being interview. Just
click Nadia.
(If
your computer won't let you listen, you can read the accompanying
article. On Being is
also a really good site just to check out!)
Here's
what I will say. Nadia Bolz-Weber has created a real church—a
religious community founded on Jesus' injunction to seek the lost. As
a shepherd, she has left the ninety and nine and gone in search of
the one lost sheep. House For All Sinners and Saints is looking for
the ex-junkies, the ex-cons, the LGBT's who don't feel welcome in
mainstream congregations, the multi-ethnic, and the ones who just
want something spiritual and genuine but can't wrap their inquisitive
brains around a fundamentalism at odds with their common sense. What
is amazing about this shepherd is that, while she seeks the lost, the
ninety and nine straight-arrow, conventional sheep seem to have
followed her too.
House
For All Sinners and Saints, as the name suggests, is built around a
fundamental doctrine of the Lutheran faith: Simul Justus et
Peccator. That's Latin for “At
the same time, justified and sinner.” This congregation understands
that the church is not a country club for saints, but a hospital for
sinners, and that everyone—regardless of outward appearance—is in
some way broken by the burden of being a human being living in our
beautiful but fallen world.
And
they're okay with this, because they know that Christ's love covers
us all.
Yet
here's what I really dig about Pr. Nadia: Unlike my man Garrison
Keillor, who, in his folksy, charming way has managed to make a
loving celebration of Lutherans' boring and timid conventionality,
Pr. Nadia has managed to make Lutheranism sound cool. And
believe me, as a life-long Lutheran, that's no small trick. This
tattooed, icon-covered iconoclast has made a 500 year old tradition
real, immediate, and meaningful.
House
For All has found a way to translate ancient Christian liturgy into
modern, relevant worship. My liturgical brain lights up when I hear
Pr. Nadia explain that only a love and understanding for the ancient
permits us to innovate with integrity. There's something reassuring
in knowing that our order of mass—however our individual
communities have tweeked it—still unites us sinners with all of the
saints who have experienced this worship throughout the centuries.
Some
time ago I turned my daughter on to Nadia's website. Now, my
daughter, like many of her highly inked, tech-savvy contemporaries,
is not exactly a regular church-goer. But, inspired by Pr. Nadia's
online sermons, she just told her mother and me that she is looking
into an emerging church congregation in her neighborhood.
And
for that alone I have to say, “Thanks, Nadia. I owe you one.”
* * *
Hey, Lutherans and Catholics! Help me out. Let's see if we can get Pope Francis to help us celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation by joining us at the communion table. Okay. I know. That's like asking Ann Coulter to join the ACLU, but it can't hurt to ask, can it? Just click my petition here
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