As I make my way through Brian McLaren’s a Generous Orthodoxy, I see more and more proof that Mr. McLaren is at least part Lutheran, even though "Lutheran" fails to make it into his book’s paragraph-length subtitle. For one, he pays us Lutherans a nice complement:
If you want a feel for the richness of the phrase "Word of God," ask the Lutherans; it’s a secret that their own tradition seems to know without knowing what it means. – page 163
But I much prefer those hidden moments of unnamed Lutheranism, when he says something that is so darn Lutheran and yet he doesn’t name it as such. Perhaps he doesn’t know it is a Lutheran idea, or perhaps he’s in some sort of denial. Of course, there really isn’t any "Lutheran" idea at all – it all belongs to and comes from the Spirit, and these keen insights we apply to Luther and his followers are nothing more than Spirit-led insights into the Christian faith. (And such moments are not limited to Brian McLaren, of course. People of all stripes and creeds have such moments.) Well then, without further ado, here is yet another example of Brian McLaren’s Lutheran-ness:
But again, think about what truly biblical Christians . . . have done when they have understood the profitable purpose of Scripture. . . . [T]hey’ve done their work as teachers, farmers, bricklayers, nurses, scholars, mechanics, sellers, public servants, scientists, homemakers, cab drivers, and cooks with a special sense of purposes, love, and joy. Their "good works" included doing "good work" from day to day – whatever they did on the farm, in the office, in the home, in the classroom, or at the factory was seen as part of their holy, sacred vocation in God’s creation. – pages 165-166
In these words McLaren clearly summarizes Luther’s theology of vocation – an understanding of divine calling as something that happens daily and usually in (seemingly) ordinary ways, such as changing a baby’s diaper (Luther’s example). It isn’t just the priests who have vocations, Luther argued, but all who are baptized have a calling and a vocation.
So anyway, it seems to be that Brian McLaren has some Lutheran influences, and that this whole emergent church way of embracing a blessed ambiguity and an authentic real-ness in daily life – this whole perspective just resonates in a deep way with our Lutheran tradition. . . .
The Lutheran Zephyr 