January 6, 2012

GENEVA – The current financial and ecological crises will not be overcome by continuing to please the markets, says The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) General Secretary Rev. Martin Junge in his 2012 New Year Message.

Junge urges instead resolve to address justice issues within the human family in his reflections on Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians (12:9), also the Moravian tradition watchword for 2012: "My power is made perfect in weakness." The LWF general secretary points out that human beings' pursuit of power and control over creation and the financial systems "is pushing humanity closer and closer to the abyss of ecological disaster." Unlike Paul, who recognized his weakness and trusted God would transform this into power, human beings have difficulty understanding their vulnerability and dependence on God, their neighbor and creation.

Junge cites two examples of this lack of self-awareness – the international community's failure to tackle the ominous threat of climate change and the inability to effectively deal with a global financial crisis that highlights the futile attempts to live on non-existent resources. "We ought to recognize how carefully humankind has been woven into the fragile fabric of ecological systems and acknowledge our interdependence with the whole of God's creation," he stresses.

He says the biblical message that power is found in weakness is a dynamic reminder that the church's mission should be focused on the marginalized sections of society including God's creation which has been wounded by human action.

Weakness as the entry point for God's empowering action connects well with the Christmas story just celebrated, where God comes as a vulnerable baby born to a migrant couple without shelter in a village remote from the political powers of the day, he says.

Junge points out the strong link also to Christian interpretation of Jesus' crucifixion, which instead of signifying the cross as the humiliating symbol of the powerful, portrays it as "the expression of God's most intimate communion with the vulnerable human condition … the ‘God with us.'" For the Lutheran communion, the 2012 watchword "comes to us as people liberated by God's grace, and as a communion of churches that holds together the vision of living and working together for a just, peaceful and reconciled world," states the general secretary, referring to the vision statement of the LWF Strategy 2012-2017.

"A church faithfully engaged in God's mission will seek to empower humanity and creation. By understanding the weakness, fragility and interdependence of human beings, the church will also learn to trust in God's perfecting power," he adds.

The full text of Rev. Junge's 2012 New Year Message can be found at http://www.lwf-assembly2003.org/lwf-interspire/link.php?M=2227&N=586&L=135&F=T.

Lutheran World Information