Thousands of Lutherans Challenged to 'Communicate Hope'

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lutherans in the United States are known for their songs, theology and potlucks.  They're known for their social services, refugee resettlement and disaster response.  They may not be so well-known for their bold, public witness of Jesus Christ in their own neighborhoods, speaker after speaker told Global Mission Event (GME) participants.  The theme is "Communicate Hope" at the four GMEs of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) this year.
     Three thousand mission-minded ELCA members have already met the missionaries they support around the world in July.  The church's Division for Global Mission hosted three similar events July 9-12 at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, Wis.; July 16-19 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y.; and July 23-26 at San Jose State University, San Jose, Calif.  A fourth event will be held Oct. 30- Nov. 1 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
     "A cosmic tug of war is taking place," said the Rev. James Kenneth Echols, president of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, during the opening worship service.  "We experience the tug of despair on this world and its people, as hope loses ground."
     Hunger, disease, crime, war and the production of weapons illustrate the world's despair, said Echols.  The recent brutal murder of an African-American man in Texas is a sign that "racism is alive and well in this country."
     "If hope is to hold its own in this cosmic tug of war, then who will communicate hope?" he asked.  "The hope the world needs is not only external and material, but it is also internal and spiritual."
     "The good news is that we gather as the hope-filled people of God ... people claiming Jesus Christ as their savior," said Echols, challenging the Lutherans to proclaim their faith boldly.  "We love Jesus deep down in our hearts, but we struggle to express that with our voices....  May God give us strength in this tug of war."
     Monsignor Patrick A.B. Anthony, director of the Pastoral Centre, St. Lucia, led Bible studies during the events.  He is president for the Caribbean region of the World Association for Christian Communication.
     "The media tend to give us a way of reading that is not the way to read sacred writings," said Anthony.  When we read a newspaper, magazine or textbook, we expect to get facts, he said.  "The Bible is not a book about facts; it is a book about truths."
     "We are reading the stories of God's love," said Anthony.  He instructed the group to read, meditate, pray and contemplate when they read the Bible.  In the stories they will be able to read their own fears addressed, he said.
     "The word of God is life ... the witness of Christians who have gone before us," said Anthony, stressing that many were cowards who were inspired by God to do miraculous things.  "We must be prepared to be transformed."
     The Lutheran church in the east African nation of Ethiopia has grown from 870,000 in 1990 to 2.3 million today.  The Rev. Wakseyoum Idossa of the Ethiopian Evangelical (Lutheran) Church Mekane Yesus attributed that growth to the work of God's Holy Spirit, the holistic ministry of the church and a backlash to years of political suppression of religion.
     "The closing of churches has resulted in a hunger for the word of God," he said in the events' keynote address.  "The more Christians were persecuted, the more they grew in numbers."
     Through years of drought and starvation, the church distributed food and "communicated hope," said Idossa.  "The church must realize that the greatest need for people is salvation," he said.  "We have done our best to communicate hope and to meet their needs for many years....  Now in those areas we have many strong congregations."
     Idossa said, "God has given us a wonderful time to communicate hope." Churches in the United States have the facilities and the resources to communicate hope through every medium, he said.  "We don't have the facilities or the resources, but we have the Holy Spirit."
     "Communicating hope was central in the life of Jesus Christ.  It must also be central for Christ's church," said Idossa.  "How can the love of Jesus in our hearts flow to others unless we talk it out?"  He added, "Communicating hope is a responsibility."
     Communicating hope may be illegal for the Rev. Twila K. Schock, an ELCA missionary at the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy in Russia, she said during the events' closing worship service.  That ministry is under the umbrella of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as a military chaplaincy.
     Under a new religion law designed to discourage "foreign" religions from flooding Russia, only churches registered during the communist era will be recognized.  Honoring that law, the U.S. Embassy has directed the Protestant chaplaincy to not engage Russians.
     "I, an ELCA pastor, will agree not to preach the gospel," said Schock.  She still intends to communicate hope to Russian pensioners who have grown to rely on the chaplaincy's weekday soup kitchen.
     "How does a bowl of peasant soup communicate hope to the Russian people?"  Schock cited the words of Jesus in the Christian Bible that if the people are not allowed to praise God, God will make the rocks cry out in praise.  "The soup cries out in our stead, and the grandmothers of Russia are not deaf to this cry," she said.
     "This is the gospel.  We can be silenced by laws, but somehow God will proclaim that message," said Schock.  "Our promise of eternal life will be made known."

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director 1-773-380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html