Monday, May 30, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Why Should and Can We Carry On Our Work Joyfully?
Why Should and Can We Carry On Our Work Joyfully Although We Have No Power But the Power of the Word?
The principal and most important motive is the following: because Christ has given His servants only this and no other power, and because even the holy apostles have appropri- ated to themselves no other power and therefore have seriously warned the servants of the Church against claiming every other power.
In the first place, Christ declares plainly and distinctly that His Church is not of the same nature as a temporal state. In reply to the question of Pilate whether He was the King of the Jews, etc., He uttered the great important words: “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But My kingdom is not from the world” [John 18:36]. He indicates the real, the true character of His kingdom, of His Church, by adding: “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice” [John 18:37]. It is also pertinent that Christ in other passages calls His kingdom a kingdom of heaven and that the holy apostles call it the house and city of God, the Jerusalem which is above, the free woman [Galatians 4:26], the Church of the firstborn which are written in heaven, and the like. Christ’s kingdom and the Church, accordingly, is a kingdom of truth, a spiritual, heavenly kingdom, a kingdom of God, in which only free citizens of the kingdom of heaven, members of the house of God, prophets, priests, and kings dwell.
Who, then, has the power in this kingdom? It is Jesus Christ alone. He declares this of Himself. He says: “I am a king” [John 18:37]. “I am the good shepherd” [John 10:11, 14]. “One is your Master, even Christ” [Matthew 23:8, 10 KJV]. The apostle calls Him the “head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” [Ephesians 1:22–23]. The means by which Christ exercises the power in His Church, though He has withdrawn His visible presence from it and sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, is clearly shown by the last declaration with which He parted from His disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” [Matthew 28:18–20]. Hence His Word, accompanied and sealed by the Holy Sacraments, is the means whereby Christ exercises power in His kingdom.
This is the “right scepter” with which He rules His people, this is the “rod and . . . staff” [Psalm 23:4] with which He feeds His flock. But Christ not only declares that He alone has the power in His Church and exercises it by His Word, but He also expressly denies to all others any other power, any other rule, any other authority to command in His Church. Not only does He say, as already stated, “For you have one instructor, the Christ” [Matthew 23:8; Luther Bibel], but He also adds: “And you are all brothers,” that is, in My Church, you are all equal, all subject to Me, and no one the lord and commander of the other.
In another passage He says to the disciples: “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant” [Mark 10:42–43].
What Christ hereby denied to the apostles, they never claimed for themselves. They demanded no submission except to Jesus Christ, namely, to His Word. They said: “We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. . . . For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” [2 Corinthians 4:2, 5]. When, therefore, St. Paul, toward the end of the first chapter of his Second Letter to the Corinthians [1:23], had used the expression that he had not come to Corinth in person because he wished to “spare” his Corinthians, it might have seemed to some as though the apostle were thereby making himself a lord who had the power to demand and grant dispensation according to his pleasure, to punish and to spare; in order that this wrong impression might not become fixed, he immediately adds: “Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy” [2 Corinthi- ans 1:24]. Again, when this same apostle had urged and admonished the congregation in Corinth to participate in a collection for the poor, he adds: “I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine” [2 Corinthians 8:8]. Before this, when the Corinthians paid more attention to the persons than to the Word preached by these persons, he had testified to them: “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed. . . . So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” [1 Corinthians 3:5, 21–23]. Even at the election and appointment of officers to care for the physical needs of the congregations, the apostles therefore did not claim the right to choose these men alone. When the deacons were to be elected at Jerusalem, the apostles addressed the congregation in this manner: “Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” [Acts 6:3–4]. Then we read: “And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen. . . . These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them” [Acts 6:5–6]. Again, when, according to the report in Acts 21, the belief spread in the congregation at Jerusalem that Paul was an enemy of the Mosaic Law, and when he on his journey finally arrived at Jerusalem, James and the elders did not wish to take the responsibility of deciding the matter upon themselves, nor to force the congregation to be satisfied with their decision, but all the elders unanimously declared: “What is it therefore? The multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come” [v. 22 KJV]. Again, when, according to Acts 15, a dispute arose among the Christians in Antioch about the question whether Christians who had formerly been Gentiles would have to be circumcised and Paul and Barnabas were unable to soothe the divided multitude, the congregations elected them and several others and sent them to Jerusalem as their delegates to secure counsel at the place where not only Peter and James but also the greatest number of converted and noted Jews lived. What happened? The apostles and elders meet to consider the matter; but they do not dare to exclude the congregation in this matter. All members meet. There is argument and counterargument. Finally, Peter and James arise and place the matter in the right light. A joint resolution is then passed and included in the synodical letter, in which we read: “The apostles and elders and brethren . . . . It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord” [vv. 23, 25 KJV]. Thus we see that the apostles did not at all claim any dominion over the congregation. Even in the most important councils, they granted the so-called laymen just as much right, just as much seat and deciding vote, as themselves.
CFW Walther, 1848 Synod Address in At Home in the House of My Fathers
Monday, May 23, 2011
The Church's "mouth must be filled with the gospel."
Therefore if the Church is to fulfill its task on earth, its mouth must be filled with the Gospel, and it must be diligent to open that mouth wide. It must not allow itself, through want of success, to set aside the preaching of the Gospel in order to pursue other means. What cannot be redeemed through the Gospel certainly cannot be redeemed. Would to dear God that He preserve our Synod so that we let it be our proper task to proclaim the Gospel near and far. Then, for our part, we will we assist in gathering the scattered children of God and preparing them for the kingdom that has been prepared for them from the foundation of the world.
F. Pfotenhauer in At Home in the House of My Fathers, 747.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Regent Leo MacKay congratulates Rast
Here's a photo I took just after Chairman Graumann announced to Larry that he was chosen seminary president at Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne. This occurred about 9:00 a.m. in Luther Hall where the regents had been meeting and the election took place.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Luther on Honoring Mom
To fatherhood and motherhood God has given the special distinction, above all estates that are beneath it, that he commands us not simply to love our parents but also to honor them. With respect to brothers, sisters, and neighbors in general he commands nothing higher than that we love them. Thus he distinguishes father and mother above all other persons on earth, and places them next to himself. For it is a much greater thing to honor than to love. Honor includes not only love but also deference, humility, and modesty, directed (so to speak) toward a majesty hidden within them. It requires us not only to address them affectionately and reverently, but above all to show by our actions, both of heart and of body, that we respect them very highly and that next to God we give them the very highest place. For anyone whom we are whole-heartedly to honor, we must truly regard as high and great.
Young people must therefore be taught to revere their parents as God’s representatives, and to remember that, however lowly, poor, feeble, and eccentric they may be, they are their own father and mother, given them by God. They are not to be deprived of their honor because of their ways or their failings. Therefore, we are not to think of their persons, whatever they are, but of the will of God, who has created and ordained them to be our parents. In other respects, indeed, we are all equal in the sight of God, but among ourselves there must be this sort of inequality and proper distinctions. God therefore commands you to be careful to obey me as your father and to acknowledge my authority.
First, then, learn what this commandment requires concerning honor to parents. You are to esteem and prize them as the most precious treasure on earth.
Luther, Large Catechism, 4th Commandment
Saturday, May 7, 2011
+C.F.W. Walther+ d. May 7th 1887
Can we, therefore, my brethren, be depressed because we in our American pastorates are endowed with no other power than the power of the Word and especially because no other power has been granted to this assembly? Most assuredly not. This very fact must arouse us to perform the duties of our office and to carry on our present labors with great joy; for in this manner, the Church also among us preserves its true character, its character of a kingdom of heaven. In this manner, Christ remains among us as what He is, the only Lord, the only Head, the only Master; and our office and labor preserves the true apostolic form. How could we lust for a power which Christ has denied us, which no apostle has claimed, and which would deprive our congregations of the character of a true church and of the true apostolic form?
C.F.W. Walther in At Home in the House of My Fathers, p. 6
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