“Godly Grief and Accountability in Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians” A Sermon for the Harvard Luther

“Godly Grief and Accountability in Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians”

Sermon for The Harvard Lutheran Community in Response to United Lutheran Seminary, 2 Corinthians 7: 1-16

Samantha Melton, Harvard Divinity School, MDiv ‘19

Sacramental Imagination, Spring 2018, Potts

**Please Note: This version of the sermon is not available with full footnotes and academic citations. If you would like a copy with full citations, please feel free to email me for a copy.

Reading

A reading from Second Corinthians Chapter Seven (NRSV):

“Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.Make room in your hearts for us; we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.I often boast about you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with consolation; I am overjoyed in all our affliction. For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted in every way—disputes without and fears within. But God, who consoles the downcast, consoled us by the arrival of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was consoled about you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it (though I did regret it, for I see that I grieved you with that letter, though only briefly). Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance; for you felt a godly grief, so that you were not harmed in any way by us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves guiltless in the matter. So although I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong, nor on account of the one who was wronged, but in order that your zeal for us might be made known to you before God.In this we find comfort. In addition to our own consolation, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his mind has been set at rest by all of you. For if I have been somewhat boastful about you to him, I was not disgraced; but just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus has proved true as well. And his heart goes out all the more to you, as he remembers the obedience of all of you, and how you welcomed him with fear and trembling. I rejoice, because I have complete confidence in you.”

Glory to you Oh, God.

Sermon

I first would like to provide a trigger warning for so-called ‘reparative therapy’ and LGBTQ+ discrimination, so please remember to care for yourselves this morning.

As we know, Lutherans are no stranger to rebellion, revolt, and revolution and in fact, I would argue that it is an innate feature of our tradition. So much so, that our denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) often finds itself sitting across the table from one another in moments of contention and the past couple of weeks have been no different for us.

I could never begin to sum up the controversy that has been unraveling at United Lutheran Seminary (ULS) over the inauguration of its first president, Theresa Latini, in a few short minutes, and in fact it may take me days to explain away the very insider baseball politics of the seminary. But, what you do need to know is that, United, has found itself wrapped in this strange saga of scandal since hiring Latini. It was recently revealed that Latini is a former founder of a so-called ‘reparative’ therapy advocacy group and though she has publically repented for her work history in the past, during the hiring process at United, it has since become clear that she did not reveal her history to the Board or community.

The main problem with her history lies in the fact that United Lutheran Seminary is a Reconciling in Christ (RIC) seminary, meaning it is formally publically welcoming and affirming to members of the LGBTQ+ community. In short, the controversy has been steeped in, what we might say is at best, a failure to remain transparent, and at worst, an act of intentionally deceptive hiring tactics by the Board itself. The Board of Trustees handling of the scandal has been lackluster to put it softly, which has ignited an outcry from students, faculty, staff, and alumni. The news as rippled throughout the ELCA, spanning the length of the country and has consumed much of the denomination’s educational community. In fact, just a few weeks ago, I proudly joined these voices outcry with my fellow Lutheran siblings at both Harvard Divinity School and Union Theological Seminary by authoring a letter to the Board calling for the immediate resignation of President Latini and The Board’s Chairperson. And last week, our demands were met as the Board voted to let Latini go and eight Board Members followed by filing their resignations, yet there was no rejoicing.

For those of us that come from lectionary traditions, our Gospel reading today, written from Paul to the Corinthians and found in Second Corinthians Chapter Seven is in fact, never read out aloud on a Sunday morning in the three year lectionary cycle. Not once from the pulpit, do we have the opportunity to hear Paul’s plea for ‘godly grief’ and repentance. For a tradition, that prides itself on grace and justice working together for reconciliation it is nothing less than a travesty that we so rarely mirror Paul’s words in this sanctuary.

In the NRSV Bible, this section of text is titled “Paul’s Joy at the Church's Repentance,” and takes place just after Paul calls out his fellow siblings in the church through a letter that we hear him proclaim: “For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it (though I did regret it, for I see that I grieved you with that letter, though only briefly). Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance; for you felt a godly grief, so that you were not harmed in any way by us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.” … “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.” But, what exactly is this godly grief that Paul is speaking of? Perhaps it is more helpful to think of godly grief as godly pain, anguish even, or my favorite, godly trouble. Here, Paul is clueing us into what reconciliation and grace-filled justice looks like in a Christian community when it stirs up godly trouble.

What makes this godly trouble, is that Paul calls the Corinthians to a justice filled space where repentance is necessary, but he does so only after naming them Beloved. He addresses them in the first verse of this chapter saying, “beloved, let us cleanse ourselves…” He still names them as one of God’s children, loves them, and names them as such, through a gentle reminder of their baptism, but moves on to describe the very duality of the promise and challenge that comes in baptism.

I don’t think that you have to be particularly clued into the controversy surrounding United and President Latini to know that our society loves calling people out. A simple scroll through Facebook and twitter and article comment sections shows us how much we love calling out our neighbor’s wrongdoings. And while no, Paul isn’t naming this as a bad thing to do, in fact he is saying quite the opposite; there is a need to call out and name injustices and the institutions and individuals that perpetuate them, but perhaps Paul is mirroring for us what it means to do this in a restorative manner. Paul here, is naming his community as beloved, recognizing that his letter did not make them feel so good, it caused some godly anguish as he says, all while recognizing that it is still good because their repentance led to their recognition of injustices. Such repentance begins the healing process through reconciliation within the community, yet originates in recognizing and calling our siblings in Christ as God’s beloved children.

The controversy at United has been played out on a campus that is not mine, but within a community that is very much mine. As a queer Lutheran seminarian, this saga simply acts as a reminder that this church has a historical hate towards bodies like mine. And though the church voted in 2009 to ordain openly identifying members of the LGBTQ+ community, the actions of the Board located within a supposed open and affirming seminary, stand as a deep reminder that I was never supposed to be standing in this pulpit. It is a reminder that still over 90% of this church will not consider extending a call to me. It is reminder that my trans* Lutheran siblings are waiting decades for a congregation to call them, while churches continue to perpetuate the mediocrity of this denomination’s stance on social justice issues through their own hiring processes. It is a reminder that this system was created to ensure that queer bodies, black bodies, brown bodies, native bodies, poor bodies, disabled bodies, and just plain different bodies, were never supposed to have a seat at this table.

And yet with all this standing as blatant reminders to this church, perhaps the most bothersome, is the Board’s comparison of Latini’s repentance to the life of the Apostle Paul. It is the continued weaponization of Paul’s words toward the queer community from an apparent ‘welcoming seminary’ that is most painful in this controversy. The queer community at United, the queer community here at Harvard, and the greater queer Lutheran community are here to say that Latini’s repentance is not anything like the apostle Paul’s. Repentance in the name of self-preservation is the opposite of Gospel-filled repentance and our queer Lutherans and allies are here today to reclaim those words of reconciliation offered by Paul. As Paul may say, we are here to stir up some godly trouble in the process.

Though many have argued that Latini has repented for her prior work, it must be stated that she only publicly repented after intense demand from students and alumni to do so. And to be clear here, we wouldn’t be Lutheran if we didn’t believe fully in the power of Gospel-centered repentance and potential for change in the lives of Christians. But, the power of that repentance can not be found in red tape envelopes, it can not be found buried in piles of paperwork in the corner office, or on the fifth page of google. It is found posted on public bulletin boards, proclaimed from the rooftops, and tweeted from the hands of the repenting. Repentance is the engine that drives one to proclaim the Gospel and as Paul has said, such words are not spoken, “on account of the one who did the wrong, nor on account of the one who was wronged, but in order that your zeal for us might be made known to you before God.” For it is in this type of repentance that “we find comfort.”

As The Rev. Lura Groen has so aptly reminded us that the primary difference in the life of Paul and the situation at United is that Paul, “who persecuted the early Jesus followers before his conversion,” used his history as the guiding post for his witness and testimony. Where is the repentance, where is the public acknowledgment of Latini’s past, where is all of this at United? The so-called repentance we have heard from United has been the opposite of what Paul has called for. United and Latini’s repentance was only initiated because they got caught and it is precisely because they got caught that they offered their Paul shows us that the constant concealing of one’s wrongdoings in not how repentance operates within a community of faith, and as a queer community, even just as Lutherans, we must demand that the actions of this institution are named and authentically publicly repented for.

As we started by recalling the innate rebellion of the Lutheran tradition, we must also recognize that concealing our history as Lutherans is just as innate to our tradition. We have historically and continually worked incredibly hard to conceal our own history of violence against the marginalized, both as an institution and as individual practitioners. Though Paul reminds us that we are blessed with the Grace of God, but as he also tells us that our sorriness does not excuse us, our grief is not godly unless it leads to full repentance and visible acts of reconciliation.

Former Dean of Duke Divinity School, Richard Hays reminds us that, “when Paul uses the verb “reconcile” with God as its subject,” such as he does in the earlier chapter of Second Corinthians, “he is declaring that God has launched a dramatic new diplomatic initiative to overcome human alienation and to establish new and peaceful relationships.” Paul is inviting the Corinthians and us into such a process, a process that draws us into reconciliation with God at the center to rebuild peaceful relationships with one another.

As the community at United begins the very long path towards restoration, perhaps they have offered us an opportunity to engage in complex questions of grace and justice and to investigate how we practice forgiveness, while still holding the institution and individuals accountable while inciting Godly grief. From the Apostle Paul, we learn that forgiveness is not the absence of accountability, but as Lutherans situated here at Harvard, what might this look like for us?

I hope that this is a question that you continue to carry throughout your week, particularly as members of a community situated in what many would consider the very the archetype of an institution. I wonder how we may reconcile the pain and hurt that institutions like ours continue to inflict on others, while existing within the very system itself? For those of us that have experienced this very real pain and hurt from institutions firsthand, I wonder how we practice forgiveness while still holding our colleagues and classmates and superiors accountable? And perhaps more importantly, what are we willing to risk today to do so?

I would never claim that I have the answer to these incredibly difficult and complex problems, but I do believe wholeheartedly that the answer lies somewhere in the power of God’s grace. I believe in a God of grace and forgiveness that is not absent of accountability and justice and that ultimately seeks reconciliation. As Lutherans, this grace and forgiveness, accountability and justice, is deeply rooted in our baptismal promise. For it is at the font that God names us beloved and challenges us, calling us to repentance. And so, I leave you today by reading our thanksgiving of baptism and hope that as you hear these words embedded in the liturgy each week you will be reminded of Paul’s radical call to us:

“Blessing and glory be to you,

O God of abundant mercy, for your word that flows with life-giving waters:

for the story of the fountain that gushed from the rock,

for the memory of the Jordan that immersed your Son in our sorrows,

for the living rivers that flow from the cross,

for the reconciling waters of baptism around which we gather.

We bless you, O God, for water and the word.”

Amen. 

Bibliography

The Bible. New Revised Standard Version. Edited by Bruce Metzger. (1989). 2 Corinthians 7.

Brown, Elise. (2018) “Letter to the ULS Community.” https://www.facebook.com/elise. brown.522/posts/10156247915189637?pnref=story.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. (2009). “A Social Statement on Human Sexuality.” http://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository /SexualitySS.pdf

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. (2006). “Thanksgiving for Baptism” in Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Augsburg Fortress Press.

Groen, Lura. (2018).“Meeting at United Lutheran Seminary Regarding Dr. Latini.” http: //luragroen.blogspot.com/2018/02/tw-conversion-therapy-general-church_28.html

Groen, Lura. (2018). “Spiritual Abuse at the Meeting at ULS Regarding Latini.” http:// luragroen.blogspot.com/2018/03/reflections-on-meeting-at-uls-regarding.html

Hays, Richard. (2012) “Reconciliation: The Heart of the Gospel” in Duke Divinity Magazine. https://divinity.duke.edu/sites/divinity.duke.edu/files/divinity-magazine/DukeDivinityMag_Spring12.WEB_.pdf

Smith, Peter. (2018). “Lutheran seminary faces leadership crisis over presidents past LGBTQ beliefs,” in The Pittsburg Post Gazettee. http://www.post-gazette.com /local/region/2018/03/06/Lutheran-seminary-faces-leadership-crisis-over-president-s-past-LGBTQ-beliefs/stories/201803060124

United Lutherans Seminary. (2017). “Tradition of Reconiciling in Christ Predates the Formation of United Lutheran Semianry.” https://unitedlutheranseminary.edu/about/reconciling-in-christ/

United Lutheran Seminary Board of Trustees. (2018) “United Lutheran Seminary Statements.”

• March 1st Statement. https://unitedlutheranseminary.edu/statement-board- trustees-march-2nd/

• March 7th Statement. https://unitedlutheranseminary.edu/march-7-2018/

• March 14th Statement. https://unitedlutheranseminary.edu/uls-board-letter-march-14th/