If he wins, the synod loses.

That’s why you should vote for Matt Harrison.

If he wins, the synod loses.

That’s why you should vote for Ben Ball.

If he wins, the synod loses.

That’s why you should vote for Joel Biermann.

If he wins, the synod loses. 

That’s why you shouldn’t vote at all. 

If he wins, the synod loses. 

I’ve been thinking about the waters we are swimming in as a church body right now. It has been a while since a synod presidential election has gone to a second ballot. The last time, the electors were all in the same room and there was no incumbent. I was told that everyone assumed Wenthe would get elected but that isn’t what happened. The church was surprised them, it will be surprised now no matter who is elected. 

As I’ve watched the convention cycle unfold I’ve returned to a piece i’ve shared bits of before, one where my father in the faith reminded the old synodical conference churches how good we are at teaching people to repent of each other’s sins but how quickly we fail to repent of our own. How, each of us, brings into the church our own collection of devils. We want to point out the flaws in each other and turn a blind eye to our own. We want to ask loudly—whose fault is it?—while conveniently not asking, or answering—what is my share of the fault?

I know my share of the fault, for which I have and continue to repent. I’ve played the game in private and in public. As the associate editor of the Forum Letter I made it known early on which candidate I supported. The short version is I support, and continue to support, Joel Biermann because when the questions our church body is asking have to do with pastoral formation, university education, and the role of men and women, both clergy and laity, in the church and in the world, Joel Biermann has more experience in all of those realms than any other candidate. He is also someone who understands robust and fruitful dialog, not only because he is the only candidate with an earned doctorate, but because he has spent time on the CTCR and with Lutherans and non-Lutherans at conferences speaking and listening. He also has the heart of a pastor, who serves in interim capacities while still being a professor. For him, theology is not just the stuff we think about, it shapes us for life in the world. 

That does not mean I like everything about him, or that I would always agree with him. It also does not mean that everything Matt Harrison and Ben Ball might stand for I would reject. I am one whose own piety leans more toward the liturgical traditions handed over to us. I believe pastors should be rigorously well trained theologically (even if I’m not convinced that such training is only, or best, done residentially). 

What I can say is this, I trust Joel Biermann, Matt Harrison, and Ben Ball to preach the same Jesus I do, the one who died and rose again, the one who sits at the right hand of the Father, who will come again to judge the living and the dead—including me. See, for all our quibbling, I can say about all the candidates what I cannot say about many other people—I trust them in the pulpit, I trust them at the altar. I have listened to two of them preach in person and have communed from their hands. Biermann at seminary; Matt Harrison as recently as the last SED  convention. I have heard Ball preach only as I’ve watched synod conventions from afar, but after July, I could probably say it about all three. Are they all sinners? Yes. Would they all admit it? Yes. All of them make the same confession I do, not just that the scriptures are the Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice, not just that the confessions contained in the Book of Concord are correct because they are true and faithful expositions of the scriptures, but that they are also, like me, poor miserable sinners. Matt Harrison, much to his credit, said so when he was first elected sixteen years ago. He hasn’t changed his tune since. 

Some of my own personal reading recently has had me also thinking about an idea put forward by Parker Palmer, that our epistemology, the way we know things, becomes our ethic, becomes the way we inhabit the world. I think he’s right, and not just because I’ve taught both or because I live in the world. But, I think we need to expand his point, not only that how we see things influences how we inhabit the world, how we speak of them makes a difference too.

We are on a third ballot and across the board, for every candidate, the one I’m voting for and those I would rather not see elected, everyone is talking about winning and losing. People are stoking fear of what will happen if this man or that man obtains the victory. 

If he wins, the synod loses.

That’s why you should vote for Matt Harrison.

If he wins, the synod loses.

That’s why you should vote for Ben Ball.

If he wins, the synod loses.

That’s why you should vote for Joel Biermann.

If he wins, the synod loses. 

That’s why you shouldn’t vote at all. 

If he wins, the synod loses. 

The truth is, if we frame it this way, no matter who the he is, the synod does lose. It loses the ability to see in the ministerium brothers who share more in common than they often realize. It loses the ability to see the poor miserable sinners that Christ shed his holy and precious blood for. It loses the ability to see those who support those sinners as children of the same heavenly Father, called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified by the same Spirit, brothers and sisters who live under Christ in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. 

Someone is going to get elected, but no matter who he is, we shouldn’t say he has won. This will only further divide a church body that is fractured despite the unity that is ours in Christ, a unity that is implicit or explicit every time we come to the rail and share our Lord’s body and blood whether we are kneeling at the same rail or not. 

Yes, we should vote. Go ahead, make the case for the person you think should lead the synod over the next three years. But do so with gentleness and respect, recognizing that if we are not careful we will bite and devour one another. That the words we use matter, the way we frame the conversation matters, the way we speak about this election matters and will influence how we treat one another and the candidates whether or not this goes to a fourth ballot. 

If he wins, the synod loses. 

If he is elected, we may not like it, but that doesn’t mean we have lost. We cannot lose, not because we all agree that the incarnate, crucified, and resurrected Christ is sitting on a throne, but because he actually is. His tomb is empty. He rose in victory over sin, death, and all the powers of hell.

He won, the synod cannot lose.