In November Ed Schroeder turned 70. This may be shocking to some of you
(as aging tends to shock us all from time to time) whose lives have crossed
paths with Ed's, whether it was on the farm, at Valparaiso, at Seminex or
during the Crossings years. No matter when your life intersected with
Ed's, one thing is sure--you haven't forgotten the encounter. No one will
ever accuse Ed of shyness or an unwillingness to seize the day. His energy
and enthusiasm for life and work seem to transcend the ticking of the
clock. Even in retirement Ed and Marie have lived and worked in Australia,
Ethiopia, Brazil, Lithuania and Indonesia. Of course, this doesn't
include his usual U.S. teaching gigs and his writing for the Crossings
website that reaches a global audience.
I wasn't around for the grand theological experiment at Valparaiso in the late 50s and early 60s, which was the genesis of what today we know as Crossings. Nor was I there for the Seminex years' experiences of the valley of the shadow of death and of the mountain top. But my life has been profoundly impacted by his writing and teaching (to say nothing of following him through airports in various parts of the world and having him thrust me into situations I couldn't handle until, finally, I could). So it is my great pleasure to offer this tribute to my teacher and friend, Edward H. Schroeder, on behalf of the Crossings community. I remember the first Crossings class I took with Ed. We'd just moved to St. Louis, I didn't know a soul, wasn't even a Lutheran, but I decided to check out this lay theology course. I walked into Good Shepherd in Hazelwood and into a room with three men I'd never met before. I'd never heard of law and gospel or theology of the cross, but as I listened I knew I wanted and needed to hear more. My brain, which when left to its own devices works much like an Impressionist painting, balked at all that linear thinking, but I kept coming back. Ed and I had a few "heated" discussions. If I'd been younger I'd probably have slunk away assuming I wasn't smart enough to take him on, but I was just old enough and ornery enough to enjoy a good fight.
In the end, it's been his commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and his willingness to walk into new situations with new people and stretch himself to teach the Good News in a way that they can hear, which has garnered my respect. Besides teaching college and seminary students and lay folk in congregations across the U.S., he's spent a week in the middle of the outback in Australia teaching Aboriginal Lutheran pastors, led worship in the international terminal of the San Francisco airport before boarding a plane for Korea, and no doubt touched the lives of many of you in some corner of the world far from St. Louis. Ed's always ready, as Peter says, to give a reason for the hope that is in him.
Ed's willingness to explore new territory with his Bible and Book of Concord in hand hasn't been confined to people and geography. He's also tackled topics with which the church continues to struggle. The one closest to my heart is the ordination of women. When I was first taking Crossings classes, before I went to seminary, one evening he handed me two pieces he'd written about women's ordination. The first was his presentation to the 1976 ELIM Assembly called "Whose Church Is It? - Receiving Women Pastors" (this is available on the Crossings website http://www.crossings.org/thursday/2000/thur0713.shtml). The second was his senior thesis from college about why women shouldn't be ordained (this is not available on the Crossings website!). A little lesson in theological growth.
Another issue Ed's confronted not only on paper but by his actions is homosexuality. His "One Lutheran's Agenda in Today's Homosexuality Discussion" http://www.crossings.org/thursday/1999/thur0128.shtml offers seven theses for the ELCA to attend to in this matter. He and Marie are members of the St. Louis chapter of Lutherans Concerned and board members of Other Sheep, an international Christian ministry with and for sexual minorities.
The issue that has engaged him for some time and will be the focus of his research next spring when he is Senior Mission Scholar at the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven, CT is how Christianity and particularly Lutheranism interacts with and continues to do mission in light of the religious pluralism of our world today. "Why Jesus?" has been the title of classes he's taught as well as articles he's written http://www.crossings.org/thursday/1999/thur0812.shtml about the significance/uniqueness of Jesus Christ in our global village.
The rest of this newsletter is devoted to Ed's own writing. As I began this project, I assumed I could dissect some of Ed's most significant writings and extract the essence in sound bytes to be offered here. But as I re-read his work with an editorial eye, I found it impossible to pull out paragraphs without pulling apart his prose. It is his fat-free, tightly reasoned arguments along with his farm boy lingo that make his writing and teaching so effective. So here is, in its entirety, a presentation Ed gave to the Salt Lake Ministerial Association on March 4, 1991. It's called "Care and Redemption of all that You (God) Have Made -- Laity in Ministry to the World: God's Secret Weapon for Reforming the Church and the World." I believe that the points he makes in this presentation are critical for doing mission from a Lutheran perspective in the 21st century and our post-Christendom world.
robin j morgan
