Adiaphora

So, here we are in Thanksgiving Week and life continues to roll forward. I have to say I've had some interesting experiences in the last week or so. On Friday night I ventured out with some friends to San Francisco. We visited the neighborhoods known as "Little Italy" or "North Beach" and Chinatown. It was a grand evening ... I tasted things that I never knew I could find. I even ate a "Phily Cheesesteak" and ordered it with the "traditional" CheezWiz. (I confirmed with my friend Scott who is from Pennsylvania that indeed the "true" Phily Cheese is made with CheezWiz, not that provolone that I was introduced to in my Midwestern version of the sandwich).

So, today I got an interesting email from my mom asking if I could site any kind of theological standing for having natural plants in the altar area of a worship space. Oh, my. Now, that's the kind of thing that we should be studying here at seminary! See, the topic came up because apparently her church got a letter from the Fire Marshall reminding them of a law that states that churches cannot have live trees with lights on them (something to do with unattended buildings and fire hazards ... makes sense) so apparently there is a grand discussion happening that surrounds the issue. I guess the debate must be "Live Tree vs. Lights on Tree" and apparently people are camping on both sides. So, my final comment in my response to my mom was, I guess the real question is "which is more important, arguing about adiaphora or doing the work that Christ has called us to do?" Of course, the question got me thinking, so if anyone can come up with a solid theological reasoning for live plants/trees in altar areas, let me know. The best I could arrive at was that we could draw a metaphor between the "living plant" and the "Living Word" but I admit, that was quite a stretch ... I also commented that I'm pretty sure it was not something Luther ever wrote about in his 53 volumes now cataloged as Luther's Works, but I have to admit, I haven't read every page.

Well, in researching the topic, I came across a quiz that seemed fun ... it at least reminded me that I am Lutheran in my stance on the Eucharist ...

Eucharistic theology created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Luther You are Martin Luther. You'll stick with the words of Scripture, and defend this with earthy expressions. You believe this is a necessary consequence of an orthodox Christology. You believe that the bread and wine are the Body and Blood of Christ, but aren't too sure about where he goes after the meal, and so you don't accept reservation of the Blessed Sacrament or Eucharistic devotions. Luther 88% Calvin 81% Orthodox 75% Zwingli 69% Catholic 25% Unitarian 13% Well, I reckon that this post has certainly been enough adiaphora for now ... maybe more later in the week after I have thanked God for the many blessings showered on me and recovered from my early morning flight tomorrow.