I sometimes look for apologetics material on YouTube vidoes or other platforms, listening to excerpts from podcasts or programs especially dedicated to the question of rational arguments for the existence of God, commentary on the Scriptures or on some aspect of Catholic practice or Church life. I was doing that this morning when I came across this doozy. It’s a video of a Lutheran minister of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) leading his congregation in worship at their church.

Now, I confess I know little to nothing about the ELCA. I have a vague understanding that they are a more “liberal” branch of the Lutheran family. I had no idea how extreme they went. I cannot say that this minister and his congregation, and the practice he recommends for receiving communion, or the prayers he prayed are indicative of other ELCA churches. But this guy is so extreme as to be comical, if it weren’t so horrific. The blasphemy and bad teaching he promotes is beyond belief. Again, I knew this sort of stuff was out there, and I’m sure there are examples of it among a handful of Catholic priests and deacons who have no regard for Church teaching and practice. But this is just too much.

Perhaps others are more familiar with the ELCA who can let me know if this is normal for an ELCA congregation and pastor. I hope it is not. But if it is, the ELCA has lost its way. I would love to see a baptism administered by an ELCA minister to see what form and matter they use. As director of the OCIA in one of the parishes I serve, we are obliged to confirm that someone wanting to enter into full communion with the Church is or is not baptized. It doesn’t matter in what Christian tradition or, indeed, what other circumstances, they were baptized, so long as the minister or one baptizinig used the proper form and matter. The form for baptism are the words: “So-and-so, I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” and that he does this using the proper matter, which is water being poured over the person’s head. Listening to this video, I have to wonder if an ELCA baptism counts as a valid baptism.

First, the minister informs them that they are going to have holy communion at this service. To prepare them for this, he explains that the table behind him (altar) is not his table or the congregation’s table, but it is God’s table. As such, no one is excluded from receiving communion. He explains that, even if you don’t believe what Lutherans believe, even if you are a Christian from another tradition, or even if you are a person who is not baptized – all are welcome to receive communion. This is a problem. Receiving Holy Communion in the Catholic Church means that you are identifying yourself with Christ, with His Church, and with the apostolic faith of that Church. It means you are “in communion” with those gathered in this place to affirm their faith in Jesus and in His identity and mission to redeem humankind. How can one be “in communion” with a Christian congregation if that person doesn’t believe in the Christian revelation? How can one be “in communion” with the members of the Body of Christ, which is the Church, if one is not baptized, the very sacrament that makes us members of His Body? I might understand if the pastor invited all those who were baptized Christians, regardless of the Christian tradition to which they belong. I still would not receive communion in an ELCA church or any non-Catholic church because I do not believe what they teach. To me, to receive communion means, at minimum, that I believe what that church teaches and that I am trying to live according to the moral principles of the gospel. If I can’t say that, I don’t receive communion. The only Church I can say that about is the Catholic Church.

But to open up communion to any and everybody is disrespecting the Body and Blood of Christ and is disrespecting the identity and mission of Jesus, because to receive holy communion is to participate in the redemptive mission of Jesus Christ. Okay, at least it is for Catholics. I don’t know what the ELCA teaches about communion. Even still, this is holy communion in a Christian church. To receive holy communion in that church one must, I presume, be able and willing to identify one’s self as a Christian, as one who is united with Christ and with those others in the congregation who believe Christ to be our Savior. Except in extraordinary circumstances, a non-baptized person cannot say that. A person who doesn’t believe in the identity and mission of Jesus cannot say that. Receiving holy communion is an act that communicates to others that I am united with Christ by virtue of my faith and my baptism and my dedication to the life of the gospel; I am united with all those gathered here who are also united with Christ; I believe what my church teaches about holy communion. This pastor is inviting all those who do and who do not take such a stand to make the statement that they do. Again, I’m not pretending to know much about the ELCA and what they believe about holy communion. But, surely, being a baptized Christian who is trying (even if too often failing) to live the life of the gospel is a minimum requirement for receiving holy communion. If not in the ELCA, or any other Christian tradition, it ought to be. Otherwise, what’s so holy about this communion? St. Justin Martyr, in his description of the Mass in the middle of the second century, listed three requirements for being worthy of receiving Holy Communion: that one is baptized; that one believes what the Church teaches; and that one is trying to live the life of the gospel. Clearly, there are no such expectations in the ELCA.

Then we come to the part of the Eucharistic Prayer shown in the video excerpt. I don’t know if this is the formal prayer found in the Lutheran missal or if the minister is improvising, but it clearly goes off the rails in so many places:

“On the night in which he was betrayed, which is to say when he was arrested, while the powers and principality of empire, supremacy, and dominance raged, Jesus our beautiful Savior, a brown-skinned radical, a healer, a community organizer, a protester, gathered people in, welcomed their fears and longings, and invited them, all of them, into love and belonging.”

Wow! Just … Wow! This must be one of the most self-serving, insipid prayers I’ve ever heard. This pastor is turning Jesus into an image of himself and his political/social/cultural agenda. Community organizer? Really? Does this minister think Jesus’ identity and mission on Earth was to be a community organizer? Does he think Jesus was crucified because He was brown-skinned? Actually, he prolly does. What, I wonder, does He think Jesus protested against. Empire? Supremacy? Dominance? What about sin? Does he think Jesus maybe had one or two things to say about sin? About our alienation from God? Rather than a Savior, a Redeemer, this pastor makes Jesus out to be a very human reflection of his own priorities. His image of Jesus is a man – sorry, human – who merely wanted to transform the world into something that better reflects this pastor’s idea of justice, equity (not equality), and inclusion. Well, if that is what Jesus was about, He failed miserably. Because the Romans gave up not one inch of their territory or one iota of their dominance or supremacy. They executed Jesus which, I suppose, put an end to the work of this “community organizer.” Oh, and by the way, Jesus also failed miserably as a community organizer, since pretty much everyone fled when the going got rough.

Let’s be clear, also: Jesus did not welcome people’s fears. He conquered them. Neither did He invite people into “love and belonging,” whatever that means. He invited people to follow Him, who is love, so that we might become adopted sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. But this pastor has a problem with the idea of a heavenly Father. For he calls for the congregation to “pray as Jesus taught us”:

“Our Holy Parent, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kin-dom come, thy will be done …”

What? No! Jesus did not teach us to pray to “Our Holy Parent.” He taught His disciples to pray to “Our Father.” So, this is a lie. He is calling us to pray as Jesus taught us, and then He changes how Jesus taught us to address God. Why? Well, naturally, so none of the mothers in the congregation are offended. Is that what’s important? That the mothers not be offended? Why would the mothers be offended? Having faith in the divinity of Jesus, why would they be offended that Jesus called God “Father”? I would think that anyone would be happy to follow the practice and teaching of their Lord. But that might be the problem. Jesus is not the Lord in the minds and hearts of this congregation, or at least of its pastor. No, Jesus is the brown-skinned guy, the community organizer, the protester. In other words, Jesus is just like all of the others who worked to organize campaigns to overthrow those systems He regarded as being imperial, supremacist, and dominant. Only, in this regard, Jesus failed spectacularly. The Romans would continue to subjugate the people of their empire for another 300 years.

“Kin-dom,” it seems, is a neologism created to avoid saying “kingdom,” because kingdoms imply a king, a ruler, and no doubt an oppressive, cisgender White male ruler. Is Christ our king? Apparently, not in this guy’s mind. Instread, Christ died as a social worker who failed in His one mission: to overcome the oppressive Romans and replace them with a kumbaya community, where all are “kin.”

Finally, I don’t know who “Pastor Warren” is, the guy commenting on this pastor’s prayers and actions. Do I think he’s a bit harsh in his judgment? I think he comes across as too eager and too aggressive. Do I think he’s wrong? Not necessarily. God is love, but God is also truth, and God is also justice. You cannot mess with the truth that God has revealed to us and expect God not to take notice and bring some form of His justice onto this people. Do I think people will get sick and die? Not necessarily, but it’s not really my call. It certainly is within the realm of possibilities that sickness and death may be part of God’s judgment on blasphemers. And much of this counts as blasphemy. But that’s God’s call. He hasn’t decided to share with me His divine will for particular circumstances, just His divine will for the hope of those who follow Jesus, stay close to Him, unite their sufferings with Christ, and put their faith in the joy of the resurrection. His divine will for those (which I hope include the members of this pastor’s congregation, the pastor, and me) is to share eternally in the very nature of God.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.