The Ship “Concordia”

In January of this year, the captain of the Costa Concordia became one of the most hated men in Italy. The captain was arrested and charged with allowing an ocean liner with 4,200 passengers to run aground near the isle of Giglio. By his showing off, the liner came too close to the shore, where underwater rocks gashed a hole in the side that let in so much water, the ship tipped over as passengers scrambled to get to safety. Even worse, the crew and the captain left the ship before all the passengers were safely evacuated. Since this accident did not occur during a storm and the ship sank close to the isle, many people’s lives were saved.
Lutherans should know that “concordia” means “unity and peace in a common doctrine.” This word was part of the Lutheran creed, The Formula of Concord, and the word was also placed on the cover of the collected Lutheran creeds, namely, the Book of Concord. The creed and the book settled many disputes in the Lutheran Church 50 years after Luther’s death. It brought concord—peace and unity of beliefs—to the Lutherans of that day. These documents continue to be confessed by Lutherans who desire to be faithful to God’s Word.
The picture of the ship Concordia run aground with a hole in its side, unable to go anywhere, begs for an analogy.
During the past 100 years, many Lutheran churches, pastors, and members have steered their ship into the shoals of what they thought was a safe harbor. Instead of concord and faithfulness, they have run aground by accepting the wisdom of this world as truth, by abandoning Scripture as the source and norm of truth, and by scuttling their confession of the Book of Concord.
The gaping hole in the side of the Lutheran ship means that many who follow that captain will drown in unbelief and sink in despair and error. No life preserver will save them because they have not heard in many a year the life-saving message of the true Gospel about Jesus dying for their sins.
The captain of the ship Costa Concordia will very likely be tried and punished for putting his ship and passengers in such unnecessary danger. But the bishops, pastors, and other leaders of Lutheran church bodies that allow their members to worship Gaia and Sophia, who allow their hospitals to perform abortions, who have worked hard to destroy faith in what God has said in the Bible, who have used non-biblical truths to be expounded in their worship, who have fostered attitudes and practices contrary to God’s law—they are being praised as brave and loving men and women on the world stage. Perhaps they may not even recognize that their ship is run aground, that the crew does not care about the spiritual welfare of those in their care, that the passengers are dying in unbelief, or that the real Judge is not happy with them.
To continue the analogy, our Evangelical Lutheran Synod might be considered a lifeboat that rescues a few people from the sea of unbelief so that they can hear again the life-giving good news of Christ and correctly return to the understanding of the Bible and a Concordia-like confession of the Lutheran creeds.
Perhaps many would rather drown in their rejection of the Gospel than be “saved” in our boat; but perhaps our rescue boat ought to more diligently engage others with Jesus so that the life preserver of the Gospel may be grasped before the final tragedy occurs.
Theodore Gullixson is pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Madison, Wisconsin.