Rumor has it that on an early summer afternoon in 1934 Karl Barth took a snifter of fine brandy, five stout Brazilian cigars, a manual typewriter and a sheaf of paper and began to flesh out the essential draft of the “Theological Declaration of Barmen[i].” (It is also rumored that Barth finished the document that very afternoon. As a writer, this possibility is both inspiring and discouraging – sort of like being a guitarist, and watching Phil Keaggy or Eric Clapton play and wishing your hands and brain could coordinate just 1/10 as well.)
Many of us who were trained in English-speaking seminaries know that document as “The Barmen Declaration.” Barth wrote the document to record the conclusions of a three-day meeting of the Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Churches regarding how they would respond to Hitler’s national church. Those churches were under great pressure from the quickly emerging Nazi government to fall into line and pervert their professed faith in Christ into political and practical allegiance to the Reich Church and its object of worship, Adolf Hitler.
The Synod pushed back with a Declaration of remarkable clarity. They drew boundary lines regarding the extent to which they would allow a political entity to impinge upon their thinking and faith as confessing Christians. They stripped back to the basics of their common confession. In doing so, they determined that there was no room for another Lord in the Church, no matter how politically expedient providing that room might have been.
Period.
I know I am certainly not the first to encourage confessing Christians to take a fresh look at The Barmen Declaration during an election year. I also know that others with far larger platforms have already made the Declaration known to their constituents this year.
But we are a community defining itself as people of resilience, and especially as people of resilience who confess to be part of the Church of Jesus Christ. Part of our native strength lies in the fact that we know where our resilience, our renewal, is grounded. Barth summed it up brilliantly at the end of the first paragraph of the Barmen document:
In opposition to attempts to establish the unity of the German Evangelical Church by means of false doctrine, by the use of force and insincere practices, the Confessional Synod insists that the unity of the Evangelical Churches in Germany can come only from the Word of God in faith through the Holy Spirit. Thus alone is the Church renewed.[ii] (emphasis mine)
It is crucial, I think, that we remember the context of that gathering some 80+ years ago. Pastors were meeting with scholars for whom they had a growing sense of distrust. Scholars were meeting with pastors, wondering if they were breaking down their academic thinking to a level the pastors could understand. (Yes, perhaps condescendingly so.) Academics set aside ongoing battles with other academics as issues that had seemed life-and-death just months before paled against the threat of an ersatz “church” that would claim Christ only when convenient, and would otherwise know nothing of his character, redemption, methods and ministry.
They desperately needed the bottom line. They desperately needed something succinct and clear to say to the hundreds of thousands in their local congregations and parishes to restore and confirm their identity as the Church of Jesus Christ, not the church of the Third Reich. They needed to know where their strength came from and where their identity lay.
Only in the word of God. Only through faith in Jesus. Only through the Holy Spirit. Thus alone is the Church renewed.
As for them, so for us. Our resilience will not come in mere alignment with comfortable-to-us political platforms. That is not its source. We enter a season, and almost certainly a season that will extend far beyond the November election, where we will face the ongoing temptation to give in and define our identity according to the whims of talking head pundits who may know their politics well, but know neither Scripture nor the power of God.
And this year, it seems like that defining reality check of Jesus (see Matthew 22:19) has gone fuzzy to the church like never before. It doesn’t matter with which end of the political spectrum you identify. It’s a heated election. The results matter to all of us. If we are to be salt and light, we should probably vote.
But in the middle of all this, please take a moment now and then to remember who you are. Think about where your strength comes from. Think about where your identity lives.
And if your politics define your faith, and not the other way around, then I beg you to let God restore your identity, your resilience. That process probably won’t change your vote, but it may offer you a better frame of reference for building resilience in the community around you – just as it did for that group who met in Barmen so long ago, and just as it has for me.
–Steve Wamberg
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“Thus alone is the Church renewed.”
For your reference, here’s a look at that statement in the context of the introductory paragraphs of the Barmen Declaration:
- An Appeal to the Evangelical Congregations and Christians in Germany
- 01 The Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church met in Barmen, May. 29-31, 1934. Here representatives from all the German Confessional Churches met with one accord in the confession of the one Lord of the one, holy, apostolic Church. In fidelity to their Confession of Faith, members of Lutheran, Reformed, and United Churches sought a common message for the needed temptation of the church in our day. With gratitude to God they are convinced that they have been given a common word to utter. It was not their intention to found a new Church or to form a union. For nothing was farther from their minds and the abolition of the confessional status of our Churches. Their intention was, rather, to withstand in faith and unanimity the destruction of the Confession of Faith, and thus of the Evangelical Church in Germany. In opposition to attempts to establish the unity of the German Evangelical Church by means of false doctrine, by the use of force and insincere practices, the Confessional Synod insists that the unity of Evangelical Churches in Germany can come only from the Word of God in faith through the Holy Spirit. Thus alone is the Church renewed.
- 02 Therefore the Confessional Synod calls upon the congregations to range themselves behind it in prayer, and steadfastly to gather around those pastors and teachers who are loyal to the Confessions.
- 03 Be not deceived by loose talk, as if we meant to oppose the unity of the German nation! Do not listen to the seducers who pervert our intentions, as if we wanted to break up the unity of the German Evangelical Church or to forsake the Confessions of the Fathers!
- 04 Try the spirits whether they are of God! Prove also the words of the Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church to see whether they agree with Holy Scripture and with the Confessions of the Fathers. If you find that we are speaking contrary to Scripture, then do not listen to us! But if you find that we are taking our stand upon Scripture, then let no fear or temptation keep you from treading with us the path of faith and obedience to the Word of God, in order that God’s people be of one mind upon earth and that we in faith experience what he himself has said: “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” Therefore, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”[iii]
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[i] Here, Barmen is the German city that hosted the meeting, and not a guild of saloonkeepers. Just in case you were wondering.
[ii] http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/barmen.htm.
[iii] Ibid.