TUEBOR: Honoring the Office of Holy Ministry

Pastor Roger James

2010-11-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

Father Hollywood: Intro to the Book of Concord (Viewer Discretion Advised)

2010-08-28T07:29:00.000-07:00

Father Hollywood: Intro to the Book of Concord (Viewer Discretion Advised)

Success

2010-08-15T14:23:00.001-07:00

Pr. Roger James
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Zion Lutheran Church
Marshall, Michigan

http://zionmarshall.org/mp3/2010/SERMON_2010_08_15.mp3

I love a parade

2010-08-15T14:17:00.000-07:00

"I respectfully disagree with the decision to invite deaconesses to process at the service for the installation of Synodical officers for the following reasons..."

http://concordiansisters.blogspot.com/2010/08/i-love-parade.html

BEICHTSPIEGEL

2009-03-04T13:47:00.000-08:00

There are other, somewhat simpler versions of "confessional mirrors", as well as this Pruefungs-Tafel from 1914, but the "teeth" of this particular Beichtspiegel ("confessional mirror") are particularly helpful in my Lenten devotions, not to mention regular self-examination for holy Communion and confession and absolution. This is the first time this particular Beichtspiegel has been made available online. If you find any typographical errors, please let me know in a comment below so that I may correct them.

This Beichtspiegel is published in The Brotherhood Prayer Book, Emmanuel Press, 2007 (www.emmanuelpress.us). The authors, Rev. Michael Frese and Rev. Benjamin Mayes, compiled this "confessional mirror" from the writings of the best American and German Lutheran father-confessors. The text is public domain and therefore may be formatted, copied, and distributed as much as you wish without copyright concerns. You also have the blessings, explicit permission, and even encouragement of the authors to do so. Though it is not required, please acknowledge the authors and The Brotherhood Prayer Book. However, if you modify this text in any way, which you may certainly do if you wish, kindly do NOT mention the source. May God bless your use of this Beichtspiegel with fruit according to His will.

Free Beichtspiegel download links:

PDF

MS Word

P.S. SPECIAL OFFER!

The text of this Beichtspiegel is from the paperback "Text Edition" of The Brotherhood Prayer Book. In connection with my posting of this Beichtspiegel text, Pr. Michael Frese has generously offered a big discount on the book during Lent. The regular price is $20, but they are willing to sell it to you at $14.00 plus $2.50 shipping/handling during this Lenten season. They will only accept a personal check for payment, however. Then you can have the psalms, propers, and the Beichtspiegel - all before Holy Week! To take advantage of this offer, simply write an email to emmanuelpress@gmail.com with the word "Beichtspiegel" in the subject line.

The Sacrament and the Church Under the Cross

2009-01-03T18:40:00.000-08:00

After discussing with a friend his options in an area of the country that does not have any orthodox Lutheran churches, I had the following thoughts.

If there was no Lutheran church in the area I live that is not in serious error to one degree or another, I would seek to attend whatever church publicly confesses the most essential doctrine of Christ's saving faith. This might be a church that is not Lutheran, since many Lutheran churches these days are Lutheran in name only.

What matters most is the means of grace. If there were no solid orthodox Lutheran congregation within reach, I would choose to attend a Lutheran church that has the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament, even if it is obvious that the members and even the pastor are not in agreement with me on various other issues. What will keep me and my family in the faith is not good preaching or orthodox liturgical niceties, but rather the basic food of the means of grace which creates and strengthens saving faith in me and my family.

This is not an excuse for staying in a heterodox church when an orthodox option exists within a practicable distance.

I could explain to my family (and have in the past) what is wrong with the preaching and teaching (in my own home after church), but I cannot by any means provide Christ's saving body and blood for myself or them in my home. If we did not at least occasionally have access to the public reading of God's Word and to the Sacrament of Christ's body and blood, it would potentially have much more serious consequences than any other error I could think of in a church. Even if the pastor is a rotten preacher or a scoundrel, if the reading of God's Word takes place through the Scripture readings, and the Sacrament is administered with confession of the true bodily presence of Christ, the Gospel will still be there in Word and Sacrament, with all of God's intended strength and purpose, to maintain and strengthen us in the true faith.

If I attended a non-Lutheran church because the Gospel is rightly preached there and is not confessed rightly at any local Lutheran church, I still would not "join" that non-Lutheran congregation because doing so would be a false confession. And, I would definitely never partake of "communion" at a church that does not confess the true bodily presence of Christ in the Sacrament. If the church does not confess the true bodily presence of Christ, it is only bread and wine that is offered and received, and it also would be wrong to make a false confession by partaking of such a symbolic perversion of Christ's Holy Supper.

But I also must confess that if it was impossible for my family to ever, in the foreseeable future, receive the Lord's Supper in a Lutheran church, I would consider the possibility of communing at a church that confesses the true bodily presence of Christ in the Sacrament. Obviously this would probably be an Eastern Orthodox or a Roman Catholic church. I realize, however, that many such parishes would likely (and rightly) not commune us unless we confessed agreement with them in doctrine.

I'm not saying I would definitely commune at such a church under such dire circumstances. I'm just saying I believe I would at least consider the possibility. Let me explain...

Christ comes to us in the most important, intimate, and faith-sustaining way through his bodily presence in the Sacrament of His body and blood, given for our salvation. Through all the perversions the Church has experienced throughout the centuries, Christ's true bodily presence in the Sacrament was always confessed, and was still given and received. Even when the cup was withheld from the laity, Christ's true body was still given and received. The continued administration of Christ's true body, sacrificed on the cross for the forgiveness of the sins of the world, is the one consistent thing for over 2000 years that has always remained to ensure that Christians have been preserved and strengthened in the true faith.

That is quite amazing to me, and I believe it shows Christ's endless love for his bride, the Church. The Church is, and always has been, full of sinners, errors, and faulty preachers. But we must seek Christ were He is most certainly found - that is in the Sacrament of His body and blood, given and shed for our forgiveness. That was Christ's last will and testament, and it is the very food of immortality He continues to provide in endless supply today wherever His true bodily presence in the Sacrament is confessed.

Thanks be to God that this is only a theoretical discussion for me. We attend a truly orthodox Confessional Lutheran church, and I agree with my pastor in doctrine and practice. I am open to correction in anything I have written above.

A Lutheran Manifesto

2008-09-28T14:45:00.000-07:00

Dear "men of Wittenberg",

I urge you to read this confessional statement carefully and, if you agree with it, affix your signature according to the instructions of the website. As I understand it, this statement is not meant to be all-inclusive of the problems in our synod, but it can serve as a starting point.

There has been much discussion about the Manifesto on the Brothers of John the Steadfast website, where I believe it was first published. Some of the negative comments I have read thus far are, in my opinion, inappropriate ad hominem arguments. Logically, it matters not how the manifesto was generated nor who generated it. What matters is whether or not it expresses true doctrine. I believe it does. Otherwise I wouldn't have signed it.

I have been praying for someone to write such a document, and I anticipate that it will be expanded and perfected through discussion.

Doctrine divides. This Manifesto is not unnecessarily divisive. It is true to the Lutheran Confessions. It is unifying. A unity based on anything short of this Manifesto is false unity. We need to boldly profess the truth in this age of anti-truth. Satan hates a faithful confession, and the Manifesto is a faithful confession. Let's turn up the volume! I urge every Lutheran blogger and online Lutheran discussion participant to post a link to the Manifesto wherever they can. Let us start the discussion that might expand this faithful confession to address all the matters that divide our synod. Let us, by the grace of God, "Honor the Office of Holy Ministry" as "men of Wittenberg" and "Brothers of John the Steadfast" by supporting pastors in Confessing the truth as expounded upon in this Lutheran Manifesto!

John Dewey and Confessional Pastors

2008-08-04T04:44:00.000-07:00

"How about just telling people about Jesus and away with the stupid pastor tricks? -Pastor Todd Wilken

Since the Brothers of John the Steadfast have linked to this blog, I will begin to post some things here once in a while. I turned down a column at BJS because life has handed me a lot right now. But informally jotting down thoughts, observations, and questions here is less scary a commitment than actually having a responsibility to write and publish a column at something that feels more like an actual publication.

Writing here, I do not feel like I am afflicting anyone.

Life is busy. I am 47, my kids are mostly teenagers, and my mother, who has increasingly advanced-stage Alzheimers, lives with us and causes my wife and me a fair degree of stress. I have also tentatively started another graduate degree in Educational Leadership at a Roman Catholic university, mainly because I have to take classes to keep my Michigan teaching certification. I am the only conservative dinosaur in my cohort.

So vocations can be challenging.

This summer, I took a class in curriculum development that has me thinking about another vocation, the Office of Holy Ministry, and with this post and a fair degree of trepidation, I would like to raise a question that has concerned me and a group of confessional youth that I took to a Lutheran youth conference this summer.

As a conservative educator, I have to incessantly fight against a great deal of liberal nonsense within public education. The Progressive Education movement of the 20th century left an infamous and perhaps indelible mark upon American education, and in many ways, its specious and septic ideas of "relevance" and "student-centered instruction" mirrors much of the church growth movement's "seeker-sensitive" theories that have deeply damaged so many American churches, even within the LCMS. These are problems that confessional Lutherans have rightly identified and eloquently opposed.

But admit it: Most of us grew up attending public schools or within institutions, even Lutheran schools, that had deeply imbibed the progressive beliefs of men like John Dewey. These institutions have gone about their business, either knowingly or unknowingly, with progressive assumptions as their guiding influence. I have even been told that the Concordia University system's various schools of education have already drunk deeply from the noxious wells of progressive thought. To quote an ex-administrator of the Concordia system who now works at Hillsdale College, "The Concordias don't know what they believe anymore!" And to make matters worse, the 20th century also saw the rise of a pervasive entertainment culture with similar assumptions that teaching and preaching are obligated to fulfill the progressive mandate to "make learning fun."

Let's be honest: The waters in which we swim have been muddied for many years now. Even though we confessional Lutherans like to think that we are immune to such thinking, we are not, and it would be prudent to remember Richard Feynman's two rules of science:

Don't fool yourself.
You are the easiest person to fool.

Alas, I am now rambling, not only because, like Steve Martin, I'm a ramblin' guy, but also due to my fear of asking a question, as it might actually seem like I am not honoring the holy ministry, and that would be pretty ironic for this blog, wouldn't it? But here it goes, and I will pose it to my fellow Brothers of John the Steadfast.

As I have already said, I was a group leader at a youth conference this summer, and my kids were bewildered that there seemed to be a change in the teaching style at this conference, a change from the previous conferences that they had attended. Confessional pastors were now joking around in excessive and awkward ways during the teaching times -- in ways that actually undermined the instruction -- and at least to my kids, in ways that insulted their intelligence and sense of propriety. To these teenagers, there seemed to be a failure by the pastors to remember the prudent distinctions of work, play, and worship.

These teens in my group, in the conversations that I heard, were bewildered as to why this goofy change had taken place in conferences that they had grown to love. One sixteen-year-old girl complained:

"At other conferences, the speakers might joke a few minutes, but then they would shift to teaching and the teaching was serious. I don't get why these speakers had to joke and goof around throughout the plenary sessions."

Again, these questions came from my youth, as I had never been to one of these conferences before, and these kids aren't whiners. They're smart and they spoke out of theological conviction.

So how should laymen respond to this problem? The temptation to listen to the likes of John Dewey and dumb things down in the name of being "student-centered" is always there for pastors and teachers alike, even for good guys like the confessional pastors at this conference. Should lay folks just pray, keep quiet, and hope that other pastors will address it?

Here is one more apparent example of John Dewey's influence that I noticed at the same conference. The evaluation sheet that was used in each class that we attended had a question like this: "Did this class meet needs in your life?" Or something like that. The organizers of the conference seemed to be asking the kids what they wanted to be taught. Was it relevant to them?

If this layman may be so bold, let me suggest that pastors need to go to the Word to define what the needs of youth are. Teenagers might flock to classes on sex, drugs, or rock and roll, as they always do, but they also need to go to classes like the one I attended on the Athanasian Creed, which was completely void of youth and also seemingly hidden in a small room that required the adults who attended to follow a maze of hallways and stairs. As I looked for the room, I heard some adults engage in the following exchange, as they also tried to find the classroom:

"Looking for the Athanasian Creed?"

"Yep," the other answered.

"I guess this is where they put talks that aren't about sex."

Are the Creeds now irrelevant to the needs of youth? How about the Augsburg Confesson? They are most certainly relevant to teens, although as a teenage male, I would have most certainly chosen sex over Philip Melanchthon. And that is why kids need adults and why we all need pastors, for regardless of what teenagers or anyone thinks they need, we all need the purity of the Gospel as so faithfully unpacked in our Confessions.

Therefore, confessional pastors who oversee such conferences and retreats should develop "knowledge-centered" curricula that are based upon the Lutheran Confessions, curricula that are decidedly not "student-centered." For when our youth are asked, "Do you find this class relevant to your life?" in evaluation forms, then I am afraid that Mr. John Dewey is in our midst.

If this layman may once again be bold, let me also suggest that pastors involved in youth ministry need to step up and reject the tenets of the Progressive Education movement and the expectations of our entertainment-driven culture. This will be difficult because, like fish not noticing the water in which they swim, cultural assumptions are often not explicit. We do not naturally think about or even notice the prevailing philosophical waters in which we swim.

Older pastors also need to act like bishops and give younger pastors needed correction if their joking around actually undermines the public teaching of the Word. To quote Pastor Klemet Preus,

"When we work, we work. When we play, we play. When we worship, we worship."

The temptation is always there to mix these things up. Recently, Issues, Etc. rightly ridiculed a pastor who started a motorcycle as a sermon illustration, and then accidentally drove it into the first few rows of pews. Although it is unlikely that confessional pastors would do such a silly thing, there are certainly varying degrees of foolishness.

Brothers, confessional pastors who teach our youth, please beware of the temptation to pander to kids in the name of relevance or hipness. The temptation is always standing at the door, and as a teacher myself, I have also at times failed in resisting it.

Blessings.

Missourian Ecclesiology

2008-05-06T06:37:00.000-07:00

Below are the theses that C. F. W. Walther defended in the Altenburg Debate, which is considered the first major crisis in Missouri Lutheranism. This was a disputation held April 1841 at Altenburg, Perry Co., Missouri, on questions of church polity that had agitated Saxon immigrants since deposition of M. Stephan Sr. The disputants were C. F. W. Walther and F. A. Marbach. Walther drew the constructive conclusions, partially modifying a position that Carl Vehse had taken. We DESPERATELY need disputations on the issues that are agitating deep divisions within our synod today.

I consider thesis VIII below to be the one Altenburg thesis that applies the most to our current crisis in Missouri. What constitutes the "common public confession" of members (congregations and pastors) of the LCMS? I would submit that as a result of a long history of neglected oversight, what is written on paper in Missouri does not represent the public confession of many members of the LCMS, or even of the corporation in Missouri. Many members have deviated from this confession, publicly preaching and teaching and practicing contrary to orthodoxy. Many have even removed "Lutheran" from their congregational names. The public confession of the corporation called the "LCMS" is no longer the "COMMON" public confession of churches maintaining membership in the corporation. The corporation is now even planting a large number of "mission" congregations which have no Lutheran identity, touting them as the "best practice" to emulate, and using our financial contributions to synod to do it. The corporation has thus abandoned its public confession, outwardly confessing a foreign protestant doctrine of missiology referred to as "Ablaze!" It is perhaps yet to be determined if the LCMS has reached the point of no return. I believe we need disputations on the issues that divide us "so that those who are proven may be made manifest." [1 Cor. 11:19] Is such a thing even possible in Missouri today?

Altenburg Theses

I. The true Church, in the most real and most perfect sense, is the totality (Gesamtheit) of all true believers, who from the beginning to the end of the world from among all peoples and tongues have been called and sanctified by the Holy Spirit through the Word. And since God alone knows these true believers (2 Tim. 2:19), the Church is also called invisible. No one belongs to this true Church who is not spiritually united with Christ, for it is the spiritual body of Jesus Christ.

II. The name of the true Church belongs also to all those visible companies of men among whom God's Word is purely taught and the holy Sacraments are administered according to the institution of Christ. True, in this Church there are godless men, hypocrites, and heretics, but they are not true members of it, nor do they constitute the Church.

III. The name Church, and, in a certain sense, the name true Church, belongs also to those visible companies of men who have united under the confession of a falsified faith and therefore have incurred the guilt of a partial departure from the truth; provided they possess so much of God's Word and the holy Sacraments in purity that children of God may thereby be born. When such companies are called true churches, it is not the intention to state that they are faithful, but only that they are real churches as opposed to all worldly organizations (Gemeinschaften).

IV. The name Church is not improperly applied to heterodox companies, but according to the manner of speech of the Word of God itself. It is also not immaterial that this high name is allowed to such communions, for out of this follows:

1. That members also of such companies may be saved; for without the Church there is no salvation.

V. 2. The outward separation of a heterodox company from an orthodox Church is not necessarily a separation from the universal Christian Church nor a relapse into heathenism and does not yet deprive that company of the name Church.

VI. 3. Even heterodox companies have church power; even among them the goods of the Church may be validly administered, the ministry established, the Sacraments validly administered, and the keys of the kingdom of heaven exercised.

VII. 4. Even heterodox companies are not to be dissolved, but reformed.

VIII. The orthodox Church is chiefly to be judged by the common, orthodox, public confession to which its members acknowledge and confess themselves to be pledged. CSM

J. F. Köstering, Auswanderung der sächsischen Lutheraner im Jahre 1838, ihre Niederlassung in Perry-Co., Missouri, und damit zusammenhängende interessante Nachrichten, nebst einem wahrheitsgetreuen Bericht von dem in den Gemeinden zu Altenburg und Frohna vorgefallenen sog. Chiliastenstreit in den Jahren 1856 und 1857 (St. Louis, 1867), pp. 51–52; W. O. Forster, Zion on the Mississippi (St. Louis, 1953), pp. 523–525.

Roll Call

2008-04-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

Who is coming to the demonstration in support of Issues, Etc. between 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on Monday, April 14 at the LCMS International Center, 1333 S. Kirkwood Road in St. Louis?

Pulling Back the Curtain: The Specious Siren Call of the Purple Palace

2008-04-12T15:43:00.001-07:00

I was just asked for permission to use this old TUEBOR post, and re-reading it this morning in light of the cancellation of Issues, Etc. has me thinking.

Pastor Wilken and Jeff Schwarz always exercised great prudence and restraint by never discussing synodical concerns on the air. Instead, Issues, Etc. simply equipped the priesthood of all believers through solid, engaging catechesis, and consequently, this enabled increasing numbers of laymen within the LCMS to see the very real contrast between what synodical officials say they believe and what they actually practice.

This is why Kieschnick cannot open up in even a semblance of pastoral concern for the thousands of Christians who have been hurt by the cancellation of this popular ministry. The programming of Issues, Etc. "pulled back the curtain" that now shrouds his Purple Palace in a seeming Lutheranism. Appearances and power are everything, so they had to axe Issues, Etc. for the sake of their "vision" or ideological goals -- yet claim that it was merely due to present financial constraints. They had to maintain the guise of still being Lutheran, and that meant that the Christ-centered, cross-focused message of Issues, Etc. could not be given as the reason for its cancellation.

Like the usurping Claudius in Hamlet, Kieschnick cannot come clean, so the sad fact of how two honorable men were fired because they faithfully taught the biblical doctrines that he, himself, is supposed to believe, teach, and confess -- this is an embarrassment that cannot be publicly acknowledged, even though he has at least, at the very minimum, allowed the public defaming of these two good men. Kieschnick must now hide behind the people he controls, the increasingly ludicrous excuse of financial constraints, and the hope that this public relations problem will simply go away with the passage of time, like it did with Pastor Wally Schulz.

As Kieschnick leads the LCMS to gradually and quietly reject its rich, confessional heritage, he must continue, like the Minister of Magic in Harry Potter who stubbornly denied the return of Voldamort, to say that the LCMS is united and orthodox: All is well in Missouri! Do not look behind the curtain! Stop talking about all this doctrine stuff! We need to focus on the mission! (See the direct quotations here.)

Mr. Kieschnick sounds exactly like the liberal leaders of the various liberal mainstream protestant church bodies over the past 30 years: ELCA, United Methodist Church, PCUSA, The Episcopal Church, et al. If you would read or listen to their convention speeches during the last few decades, this very same diction that Kieschnick spews has been the constant specious siren call of the liberal mainstreams that are now hemmoraging members by the tens of thousands: "Forget about our differences and all those concerns about doctrine. We need to love people. People are hurting and desperately in need of the Gospel!" Meet the new libs, same as the old libs.

If rebellion against the Office of Holy Ministry puts the Gospel at stake, then so do members of the Office of Holy Ministry who, supposedly in the name of the Gospel, point us to our own hand-wringing selves just as the mainstream liberals have done now for over 30 years ago. "Deeds, not creeds!" has been their constant battle cry.

But Issues, Etc. has warned us that, at this point in history, American Evangelicalism is following the exact same path to apostasy that the liberal churches chose 30 or 40 years ago, only now Rick Warren, probably Billy Graham's successor as media darling and Evangelical figurehead, is the one using the very same specious siren call of deeds, not creeds. And the wizards who sit behind desks in the Purple Palace are telling us to follow these very same siren voices. Kyrie Eleison!

Do not let anyone tell you otherwise: Kieschnick cancelled Issues, Etc. because Pastor Wilken and Jeff, like that little dog in the Wizard of Oz, were pulling back the curtain of the Purple Palace by equipping the priesthood of all believers. Kieschnick wants us all to run out from under God's Word, wringing our hands like some pious chicken little in the name of so-called compassion for the lost. But Pastor Wilken pointed us to the Gospel and reminded us of its power in this postmodern age.

Personally, Issues, Etc.'s Christ-centered, cross-focused message made me ten times more effective and compassionate as a lay witness than all of the Church Leadership Conferences at Willow Creek that I attended. Those who do not care about apologetics and doctrine do not really care about genuine Evangelism or the people to whom they witness. Their hearts and egos might race and swell with the numbers of those who come to their meetings, those whom St. Paul warned would seek teachers in accordance to their own desires, but it will not be on account of biblical Evangelism. The training and teaching that we received from Issues, Etc. was exactly what I needed in order to confess my faith as a fellow beggar in need of the same Gospel that I shared with non-Christians.

Kieschnick, by opposing the Christ-centred, cross-focused message of the New Testament and selling out to the Church Growth Movement, is turning the LCMS into the Gelded Church of the Reformation -- all in the name the name of mission or Evangelism. If we follow him by taking our cues from American Evangelicalism -- the new, Bible-believing liberals -- then the LCMS will tragically end up in the very same sad place that the old mainstream liberals are today, only by a different, more ironic route, one draped with a curtain that seems Lutheran.

I know not seems...
But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

Kyrie Eleison!

Issues, Etc.: Educating Congregations on the LCMS Mess

2008-03-30T14:58:00.000-07:00

Thought Closing words on Doctrine: The LCMS got this way due to years and years of no church discipline for aberrant teaching and practice.

The White Horse Inn Interview of Mollie Hemingway on Issues, Etc.

2008-03-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

An den Herrn Strand: "Misapprehension about the Size of the Issues, Etc. Audience"

2008-03-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

Mr. David L. Strand
Executive Director
Board for Communication
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Dear Mr. Strand:

I read with great sadness your explanation yesterday as to why you have canceled Issues, Etc., and today, after reading the Wall Street Journal article that has now brought your report into serious question at a national level, I am even more concerned about the veracity of your claims and the integrity of our synodical leadership.

I am writing you today about the supposed "misapprehension about the size of the Issues audience" that you mentioned in your statement yesterday. The most obvious omission in your statement and your grossest miscalculation of the Issues, Etc. audience, was your failure to even mention downloads of the program via iTunes podcast subscriptions. In fact, you don’t even mention podcasts!

I am one of probably thousands of Christians of all ages from around the world and in numerous denominations who received and enjoyed each and every hour of Issues, Etc. through automatic mp3 downloads with iTunes, the primary and most popular means through which its thousands of avid listeners received the programming. This was the chief reason I financially supported KFUO as a member of the Reformation Club.

I literally listened to each and every hour of Issues, Etc., but I never could listen live. I work during the week and care for my mother and my family after work; likewise, the Sunday night broadcasts were just too late for me, since we live in the eastern time zone. So I am one of the thousands of avid listeners that you failed to even acknowledge in your report yesterday, for you did not even consider podcast subscriptions at all. Mr. Strand, we count in the eyes of our Lord, and we should have counted in your eyes as well.

To put the best construction upon this conspicuous and telling omission, I must assume that you just don't know about podcasts or iTunes, the most popular means on Earth for people to receive podcasts and the method of downloading that was most prominently suggested on the Issues, Etc. web site. Not knowing about this would be amazingly ironic considering the position that you hold and the sad, apparently rash, uninformed action that you took last week -- the sudden and unannounced termination of a program that brought the life-giving message of Christ to thousands around the world.

If I were less charitable, I would simply conclude that you were deliberately trying to obfuscate your actions and protect yourself or those who control you. Sadly, this is the perception of many, and now that the termination has been further revealed in a Wall Street Journal article, your actions and the specious reasoning upon which you have based them are now known nationally. This is truly a sad day for the cause of Christ and for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, but it is NOT due to those of us who are merely asking honest questions.

Mr. Strand, even though you are not a pastor, I ask you to please be pastoral to God’s people, even when those ordained persons in positions of political power over you may not be. Have you not read some of the heartfelt comments on the Issues, Etc. petition which now has more than 5,200 signatures? Does that not tell you anything at all? As Atticus Finch said in To Kill a Mockingbird, there comes a time in every man’s life that will test him, perhaps profoundly, and how he handles and responds to that challenge will decide how he will be remembered. Frankly, this seems to be your time, Mr. Strand. Please be honest and open with God’s people! Do the right thing. Bring everything out into the light, for Christ commands us to do so.

I hope that you can provide Issues Etc.’s thousands of avid listeners more information, so that we can correct any false perceptions that you have given your brothers and sisters in Christ, and if necessary, humbly ask your forgiveness. I would at least like to know why you completely ignored podcast subscriptions in your report yesterday, for this is the primary means through which the vast majority of Issues, Etc.’s listeners -- thousands of Christians outside of the St. Louis area and around the world -- enjoyed this Christ-centered, cross-focused program.

I look forward to your response, and I pray that God would give you the grace to to clarify these matters in biblical openness and under and in the light of God’s Word.

Issues, Etc. Petition

2008-03-23T16:06:00.000-07:00

Holy Tuesday Treachery

2008-03-23T15:50:00.000-07:00

Some Music for Advent

2007-11-27T19:03:00.000-08:00

I know it is off topic for Honoring the Office of the Holy Ministry, but......

Back in the mid 90’s a good friend of mine, Victor Minetola, with a recording studio in his basement, came up with a great way for us to give out cheap Christmas presents: Record a Christmas tape!

He recently put three of the best that we did on his website: http://hyp0static.com/projects/projects

“Born in Bethlehem” was written by Victor (I wrote one stanza)

“The Coventry Carol” was arranged by Victor and me and is kind of what one ends up with when punk meets traditional hymns – but still respectful.

“A Fire is Started in Bethlehem” is my favorite.

I am playing guitar on all of the pieces.

It isn’t the Rapps, but it ain't too shabby.

God Speaks Through Real Mouths!

2007-11-10T15:04:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you, but I've always had the cinematic picture of God speaking to a bewildered Noah from the clouds, and Noah (played by John Huston) looking around to see where this mysterious voice (I think also played by him) is coming from until he recognizes it as the voice of God.

This is even more enforced by movies like George Burns in "Oh, God!" and the recent "Evan Almighty" where God (in this case Morgan Freeman) has to make repeated special miraculous appearances to convince the hearers that it is, indeed, God who is speaking to them.

Why do we think that when Scripture says God speaks to someone that it must be through some strange or miraculous means? I think it is because we think of God as some kind of distant deity who doesn't have a natural and constant means of connection to His people in this material world.

Alternately, some people think God exercises a special hot-line connection to them (or visa versa) through emotional experiences, signs, and/or wonders. Well, what do we Lutherans believe? In other words, what does Scripture have to say about this?

These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood... [Genesis 11:10]

These genealogies always seem to me like useless tidbits of Biblical trivia at first blush. However, let us consider Luther's commentary on this verse:

Even Abraham was almost swallowed up by the church of Nimrod; but he was called back by the voice of the Lord, who admonished him to separate from the ungodly race and to seek a new abode. I believe that this was done by Shem himself. Since he was the ruler of the church and had the promise concerning Christ, he was held in high esteem by his grandsons; for his ministry was in truth a ministry of God, and what he ordered, his grandsons received as the voice of God.

Thus when it is written that Rebecca consulted the Lord (Gen. 25:22), I think that she consulted Shem himself, whom the Lord wanted to be at the head of the church. For Shem died when Jacob and Esau were fifty years old; and when men who are full of the Holy Spirit speak, it is God who is speaking. At about this time the kingdom of Egypt had its beginning, for the account states that Abraham went down to Egypt.

Hence it is the main point of this chapter to have us realize where the church was at that time, by which fathers it was governed, and finally which fathers were contemporaries.

Luther's Works, Volume 2: Lectures on Genesis (Ge 11:10)

I searched for this Luther quote on my Luther's Works CD (Libronix) after hearing that Luther believed that when God spoke to Noah he did so through Methuselah. Perhaps it's speculative, but according to this theory, God through Adam confronted Cain with the sin of killing Abel, and Abraham was called by God through Shem to leave Ur and go to the promised land. Before we dismiss this as pure speculation, consider that God's Holy Word itself says:

For prophecy was not borne at any time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke being borne along by the Holy Spirit. [2 Peter, 1:21 - emphasis mine]

Apparently, throughout his commentaries on the Old Testament, at almost every point in history in which God spoke, Luther was able to find a patriarch who was alive and who could speak for God in His place. Peter obviously wouldn't have found this such a novel idea.

So perhaps it's not all that speculative. It is certainly a great comfort to know that God normally uses means to communicate with us. We aren't left (like the enthusiasts and charismatics in our midst think) to try to discern God's voice in superstitious signs and wonders, or in our own sinful hearts and minds.

God gives us parents, brothers, sisters, and godly friends; and He talks to us through them. How much more does he speak to us through the mouths of pastors, who are divinely called and ordained to be preachers and teachers of the Word of God. And, of course, we should always consult Scripture to affirm that what any and all of these messengers tell us is consistent with His infallible Word.

Therefore we ought and must constantly maintain this point, that God does not wish to deal with us otherwise than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. It is the devil himself whatsoever is extolled as Spirit without the Word and Sacraments. For God wished to appear even to Moses through the burning bush and spoken Word; and no prophet neither Elijah nor Elisha, received the Spirit without the Ten Commandments [or spoken Word]. Neither was John the Baptist conceived without the preceding word of Gabriel, nor did he leap in his mother’s womb without the voice of Mary. And Peter says, 2 Pet. 1, 21: The prophecy came not by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Without the outward Word, however, they were not holy, much less would the Holy Ghost have moved them to speak when they still were unholy [or profane]; for they were holy, says he, since the Holy Ghost spake through them.

[Luther, Smalkald Articles, Part III, Article VIII, 10-13]

...which takes us right back to the motto of this blog from the Large Catechism's explanation of the Fourth Commandment with regard to pastors:

Now, since they are fathers they are entitled to their honor, even above all others. ...those who would be Christians are under obligation in the sight of God to esteem them worthy of double honor who minister to their souls, that they deal well with them and provide for them. ...He who despises and casts this to the winds is not worthy ever to hear a word of God.

Jeff Schwarz for the President of Something

2007-11-08T19:34:00.000-08:00

Jeff Schwarz, producer par excellence of the radio show Issues, Etc. made a throw-a-way comment on running for president and his former vicar started a page on Facebook for him: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8048400700.

I'd vote for him. In one of his weaker moments he made me promise to take over for him if he should die. I suppose public office is a kind of death.

This is a stealth campaign, kind of like Fred Thompson.

There is talk of him running for Synodical President of the LCMS - which begs the question can a layman be SP of the LCMS?

Why not? I defy anyone to show me in sacred scripture the requirements to be Synodical President. Bishops, deacons and presbyters are mentioned, but not Synodical Presidents. So I suppose as it is not truly an office of the holy ministry, Jeff could certainly fill the role.

This is all done in jest of course, Rev. Matt Harrison should fill that role in 2010.

Blind Men, Beggars, Preaching and Those Who are Sent

2007-11-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

This morning I was on my way to church with the kids and was listening to the local Roman Catholic radio station (I've taken it on the chin on The Unknown Lutheran blog and back in the Beggars All days for my EWTN obsession - I know the fact that it beats the heck out of Joel Osteen, Robert Schuler and D. James Kennedy is no excuse - and when I hit the lotto there will be a Lutheran nationally broadcast radio and television network.).

A priest from Africa was preaching on Luke 19 (Zacchaeus and the sycamore tree) and was doing an admirable job of preaching the Gospel text - he emphasized what Jesus did in coming to Zacchaeus' house. Somehow he went outside of the gospel for the day and talked about the beggar mentioned in Luke 18:

As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by."
He called out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?"
"Lord, I want to see," he replied.
Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.

The priest followed up with these words, "We too must ask Jesus to heal our blindness and the blindness of others."

I started praying for a friend of mine, who simply fails to see that he needs to return to the Church. I prayed, "Lord, please help my friend to see." And something odd happened, my mind went to the following bible verse in Romans 10 - and it was odd, it was almost as if someone else was speaking to me.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

My friend certainly believed at one time. He is baptized. He went to Lutheran school. I have told him that he needs to return to the Church and I have told him why he needs to return. He is however blind and cannot see his need. He also doesn't realize that he is a beggar.

And I started thinking, could it be that my "preaching" to this man is in vain, because I am not sent? Or maybe he is so blind that the only way he will realize that he is a beggar and blind would be to bring him to where Jesus is walking by? How am I going to get him there? How I am going to get him to the place where I know that a man sent by Jesus is? Or maybe when I told him that he needed Jesus, did I do it all wrong?

After all of these mental gymnastics, I could only return to the fact that I was blind and still only see through the glass dimly. I am a beggar but, I have much to rejoice in, just as the man Jesus healed in Luke 18. I was only 1 mile from where I would soon meet Jesus in the words of Absolution, in the preaching of the Gospel and in the Sacrament of the Altar.

In the end, I can only tell the blind that they are blind. I can only tell the beggars I know where Jesus will be passing by. And I should continue to rejoice in the healing our Saviour has given me.

And those who are sent will continue to make sure that Jesus passes by, by the command and in the stead of our Lord Jesus Christ. This our Lord has promised until the end of time.

Wonderful News from Northern Europe! Pray for the Ordained in Finland

2007-10-28T17:58:00.000-07:00

Try holding -without reservation - to the Book of Concord in Finland..... and you'll end up renting out the local Seventh Day Adventist church for your divine service.

There may be great and wonderful Lutheran parishes and cathedrals there. And hey, if you are lodge member or having some kind of secular event, you may use it. If you are a pastor who stands on scripture and opposes the ordination of women, you must rent space elsewhere to feed your flock.

Rev. Markus Pöyry is such a man who stands on scripture and holds to the Book of Concord. He was a student at Fort Wayne and was supported by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation.

He was ordained in Gothenburg Sweden on October 20th. He will be serving Luukas-koinonia in Seinäjoki, Finland. St. Luke's has 50 members and is renting space from the local Seventh Day Adventist congregation, because there is, as it were, "no place for them in the inn".

Please pray for Pastor Markus and his flock. May our blessed Lord strengthen and preserve them and use their example to strengthen us all!

Happy Reformation Day Markus!

For pictures of the ordination go to:
http://www.luthersaatio.com/Vihkimys_kuvat_20071020.pdf

Is your Lutheran pastor trying to make you a Roman Catholic?

2007-10-22T16:29:00.000-07:00

I recently heard my pastor publicly accused of trying to make our church in Marshall, Michigan a 'Roman Catholic' church. The brothers and sisters in Christ who suggested this were, quite frankly, just plain silly. They have a grave need for catechesis, especially since several of them actually teach Sunday School.

The accusations reminded me of an Issues, Etc. interview from about three or four years ago in which my favorite regular guest on that fine program, Pastor Will Weedon, read some apposite quotations from the founding father of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, C.F.W. Walther.

I tried to find the episode, but couldn't, so I wrote Pastor Weedon, and he was kind enough to, amazingly, almost immediately send me the following:

No one would ever argue that C.F.W. Walther was a true Lutheran! This man who was so instrumental in the founding of the Missouri Synod wished to be nothing other than a faithful Lutheran. I’d like to offer for your consideration, then, some of his statements about the liturgy and the fear of being “too catholic”:

"It is too bad that such entirely different ceremonies prevail in our Synod, and that no liturgy at all has yet been introduced in many congregations. The prejudice especially against the responsive chanting of pastor and congregation is of course still very great with many people - this does not, however, alter the fact that it is very foolish. The pious church father Augustine said, “Qui cantat, bis orat - he who sings prays twice."
- C.F.W. Walther
Explanation of Thesis 17 in “The True Visible Church”

Below is an excerpt from a Reformation sermon delivered by C. F. W. Walther in 1858. Source is listed at bottom.

"It is true that of all the church bodies which have left the papacy, it is precisely the Lutheran Church which is accused of retaining many papal abuses and of having been the least successful in cleansing itself. It is pointed out, for example, that in our church priestly clothing, church ornamentation, pictures, altar, crucifixes, candles, confession, the sign of the cross, and the like are still apparent. But, my friends, whoever regards these innocent things as vestiges of the papacy knows neither what the papacy is, nor what the Bible teaches. The very fact that the Lutheran Reformation was not aimed at indifferent adiaphora, but retained those things which were in harmony with God's Word, shows that it was not a disorderly revolution, but a Biblical reformation; for whatever did not agree with God's Word was unrelentingly cleansed from the church by the Lutheran Reformation even though it seemed to glow with angelic holiness.

"The Lutheran Reformation, however, was complete not only in the destruction and tearing down of all the idols which had been erected in the church, but also in bringing forth its treasures and in setting up its truly sacred possessions. Luther followed not only the principle, "truth and nothing but the truth," but also the principle, "and the whole truth." Therefore, through his efforts, not only this and that truth, not just half the truth, but the whole truth of Holy Scripture was opened for the church, was used, and made the Christians' common possession. Not only did the Lutheran Reformation get all its doctrines out of the marble quarry of the written Word of God, but there is no doctrine of the Word of God which it did not place on the candlesticks of the church like a heavenly light in its purity. This includes the doctrine concerning God as well as the doctrine concerning man; the doctrine concerning the foundation of salvation as well as those concerning the means of salvation and the order of salvation; the doctrine concerning faith as well as those concerning love and hope. The whole counsel of God for man's salvation was clearly and purely brought to the light of day out of the gold mine of Scripture, beginning with the doctrine of justification; namely, that a man is righteous before God and can be saved only by grace through faith in Christ without the merits of works. This laid the foundation on which the whole Christian doctrinal edifice rises like a holy diamond temple. In its holy of holies the New Testament mercy seat of the holy sacraments and the absolution is enthroned."

(Excerpt of C. F. W. Walther's 1858 Reformation sermon published in "Gottesdienst: A Quarterly Journal of the Evangelical-Lutheran Liturgy" Michaelmas 2000, Volume 8 Number 3 (2000:3), p. 12. "Gottesdienst" provides us with more from the same sermon which they reprint from: "The Word of His Grace: Sermon Selections, C. F. W. Walther", Lake Mills, Iowa: Graphic Publishing, 1978, pp. 50-53.)

In an essay delivered to a district convention, Walther said:

“We refuse to be guided by those who are offended by our church customs. We adhere to them all the more firmly when someone wants to cause us to have a guilty conscience on account of them…. It is truly distressing that many of our fellow Christians find the difference between Lutheranism and Papism in outward things. It is a pity and a dreadful cowardice when one sacrifices the good ancient church customs to please the deluded American sects, lest they accuse us of being papistic (i.e., too catholic!). Indeed! Am I to be afraid of a Methodist, who perverts the saving Word, or be ashamed in the matter of my good cause, and not rather rejoice that the sects can tell by our ceremonies that I do not belong to them?”

We are not insisting that there be uniformity of perception or feeling or of taste among all believing Christians – neither dare anyone demand that all be minded as he is. Nevertheless it remains true that the Lutheran liturgy distinguishes Lutheran worship from the worship of other churches to such an extend that the houses of worship of the latter look like lecture halls in which the hearers are addressed or instructed (NOTE: if he were writing today, he’d no doubt add: they look like movie theatres in which the hearers are entertained!), while our churches are in truth houses of prayer in which Christians serve the great God publicly before the world. (Essays for the Church, Volume 1, p. 194 (St. Louis, CPH, 1992).

Thank you, Pastor Weedon!

Woof!

New Feed for Our Podcast

2007-10-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

Law & Gospel at Zion (Sermons, Bible Classes, Eric and Polly Rapp concerts, and even sound bites from Snoopy!)

Here is a new feed for our podcast:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/zionmarshall

Go to the "Advanced" menu of iTunes.
Select "Subscribe to Podcast."
Copy and paste the above feed.

Enjoy!

Bible Class on the Royal Priesthood: Lesson #3

2007-10-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." 1 Peter 2:9

Here is this week's Bible class on the Royal Priesthood:

http://www.zionmarshall.org/mp3/2007/BIBLECLASS_2007_10_14.mp3

Blessings.

Protecting My Family from False Doctrine and Bad Pastors

2007-10-14T03:27:00.000-07:00

I want to protect my family from false doctrine and bad pastors.

I know that this blog deals with honoring the Office of Holy Ministry, so it seems odd to be talking about bad pastors. But I have already acknowledged in a previous post ("The Spiritually Abused and the OHM", 7/2/07) that there are Lutheran pastors today, called and ordained servants of the Word, who are simply bad.

My family has been spiritually abused in the past by clergy who have, in the name of evangelism or 'compassion' for the lost, brushed aside the need for sound doctrine. So it was with great sadness, disappointment, and more than a few hairs standing up on the back of my neck that I read a disturbing series of contrasting quotations in an e-mail that I received this morning.

The following quotations contain language that I heard all of the time during our years in manipulative, abusive charismatic/Evangelical churches, and I thank Rev. Charles Hendrickson for pointing out the sharp contrast between them and those (further below) of C.F.W. Walther:

President Kieschnick:

"The church cannot afford to waste time on incessant internal purification at the expense of the lost in the world."
--Jerry Kieschnick, synodical president
http://www.lutheranchurch.ca/synod2002/fri-greetin gs.html

"We have not the luxury of time and energy spent on incessant internal purification at the expense of the eternal destiny of the souls of men and women for whom Christ died, but who know not His name and have accepted not His saving grace."
--Jerry Kieschnick, synodical president
http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/CTCR/pre sident_greetings.pdf

"My concern is that we can spend so much time in incessant internal purification that we do so at the expense of the eternal destiny of people who are dying every minute."
--Jerry Kieschnick, synodical president
http://www.wfn.org/2002/12/msg00199.html

"People, this is NOT a game. Our incessant internal purification at the expense of the eternal destiny of the souls of men and women for whom Christ died must stop!"
--Jerry Kieschnick, synodical president
http://www.jesusfirst.net/2002aug04.htm

President Walther:

"Many say, 'Instead of disputing over doctrine so much, we should much rather be concerned with souls and with leading them to Christ.' But all who speak in this way do not really know what they are saying or what they are doing. As foolish as it would be to scold a farmer for being concerned about sowing good seed and to demand of him simply to be concerned about a good harvest, so foolish it is to scold those who are concerned first and foremost with the doctrine, and to demand of them that they should rather seek to rescue souls. For just as the farmer who wants a good crop must first of all be concerned about good seed, so the church must above all be concerned about right doctrine if it would save souls."
--C. F. W. Walther, synodical president
"Our Common Task--The Saving of Souls," 1872
http://www.concordtx.org/vision.htm

Whether our Synod gains friends or makes enemies, wins honor or invites disgrace, grows or declines in numbers, brings peace or incites enmity, all this must be unimportant to us--just so our Synod may keep the jewel of purity of doctrine and knowledge. However, should our Synod ever grow indifferent toward purity of doctrine, through ingratitude forget this prize, or betray or barter it away to the false church, then let our church body perish and the name "Missourian" decay in disgrace.
--C.F.W. Walther, synodical president
First Sermon Delivered at the Opening of Synod,
1 Corinthians 1:4, 5
http://www.ctsfw.edu/library/files/pb/1517

Oh my dear friends of the Lutheran faith, confession, and conflict, do not be misled when today those are everywhere accused of lovelessness who still do not give up the battle for pure doctrine in our Church. . . . Oh my dear friends, let us indeed sorrow and lament over this: that false teachers constantly assail the pure doctrine in our Church and thus are at fault for the conflict and strife in the Church. However, let us never lament but rather extol and praise God that he always awakens men who fight against those false teachers, for, I repeat, this pertains to "the common salvation." . . . This conflict is one commanded us by God and is therefore certainly one blessed in time and in eternity. . . . Oh, therefore, let us never listen to those who praise and extol the conflict of the Reformation for the pure Gospel but want to know nothing of a similar conflict in our days.
--C. F. W. Walther, synodical president
"Why Dare and Can We Never Give Up
the Church's Struggle for the Pure Doctrine?" 1876

Pastors who brush aside the critical importance of sound doctrine in the name of 'compassion' for the lost have brushed aside God's Word and do not, in spite of all their pious platitudes, give a rat's behind for the unsaved. Show me a pastor who does not care about doctrine or apologetics, and I will show you a man who does not care about the lost. When they complain about others who are concerned about sound biblical teaching, they really are saying that they do not want to stand under the authority of God's Word. They do not want their doctrine or practice to be questioned.

As a lay person who almost rejected the Christian faith due to spiritual abuse at the hands of such men 'ablaze' with such a supposed 'compassion' for the lost, I became a Lutheran because of the explosively liberating doctrine of the Reformation. So now when I hear that pastors in the Missouri Synod are using the very same rationale to avoid standing under the authority of Holy Scripture, I realize that honoring the holy ministry is one thing, whereas honoring the specious, manipulative, and damnable teachings of truly bad pastors is another. The Office of Holy Ministry ends where pastors step out from underneath the authority of God's Word, even in the name of Evangelism.

Such teaching is a public, deadly evil, and I will, by God's grace, keep my wife and children far from such men.

"Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so." Acts 17:11

Blessings.

Paper Just Published by Rev. Joel Baseley, Emmanuel-Dearborn

2007-10-13T18:02:00.000-07:00

"The Lord, the Keys and the Church vis a vis Synodical Offices"

-or-

"The Department of Redundancy Department"

A paper delineating the Authority and Responsibilities of the mandated Office of the Keys, theologically diagnosing current synodical confusions with remedies suggested. It contains copious Walther quotes previously unavailable in English. This paper is deep and long, but isaddressed to every member of our church vis a vis their own responsibilities for the use of the Office of the Keys.

Available in three formats:

WordPerfect Filen (right click to download)
PDF - Full page/Full Text - For Reading on Screen
PDF - Printer Saver Version - Reader's Spread format - smaller print but uses less paper.

The Priesthood of all Believers: Lesson #2 (9/30/07)

2007-10-02T03:18:00.000-07:00

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." 1 Peter 2:9

Our second lesson on the Royal Priesthood last Sunday focused upon 1 Peter 2.

Here is the mp3 (9/30/07)

Lesson #1 Post (9/23/07)

Blessings.

Jokes & Preaching

2007-09-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

Pastor Petersen has a worthwhile post on humor in the pulpit over at Cyberstones, and I suppose it could be categorized under Pastor McCain's recent posts: "Because it Had to be Said."

I used to belong to a Lutheran church where sermons always seemed to begin with jokes, cheesy object lessons, or cutesy stories, and they ALWAYS seemed to undermine the death and life nature of Law and Gospel sermons.

Everyone had a good chuckle and relaxed, as nothing serious was to follow. (Do the professors at St. Louis actually teach their students to do this? Seriously. Do they?) Beginning sermons in this way seemed to be an attempt to be a good old boy and 'relevant' in an appeal to some country club style of populism.

Every Christian should be required to read Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death and consider how the terrible state of public discourse in our country might be influencing the pulpits in our churches!

Cyberbrethren: Pious Pretense and Attacks Against Faithful Shepherds

2007-09-29T04:18:00.000-07:00

Pastor Paul T. McCain makes this very wise observation:

Congregations that refuse to abide by the faithful preaching and teaching of God's Word and force a pastor out who is carrying out his ministry faithfully but not according to the whims of the wealthy members in the congregation...
who want him to marry their fornicating children who refuse to stop living together,
who demand he commune their relatives who have long ago abandoned their Lutheran confession,
who demand that the pastor stop calling on inactive members because he is irritating them,
who insist that the pastor accept as baptismal sponsors people who have no interest in seeing the child raised in the Lutheran faith,
who do not want their pastor talking about the differences between church bodies,
who never want to hear the Law preached too specifically,
who want their pastor to be, more or less, their hired hand,
...do not deserve another pastor and it is a shame when a church official allows them to receive another one!

Of course, those who attack and oppose faithful pastors do not really want a biblical pastor, like the one Pastor McCain describes above. And such sad, lost people will rarely force a pastor out honestly, for pretense and passive aggression are always their modi operandi. Instead, they write 'letters of concern' to district presidents or do their dirty work behind the scenes or through secret ballots.

They will not openly tell a district president why they are so dissatisfied with their pastor. Instead, they will point out that 'souls are leaving the church' because the pastor is not compassionate enough, caring enough, is not open to lay readers, blah, blah, blah. Frankly, I wonder how often domineering women or hen-pecked husbands are behind such attacks: "Youths oppress my people, women rule over them. O my people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path." Isaiah 3:12

May God give 'church officials' the wisdom and character to discern the truth that such disgruntled sheep are rebelling against their faithful shepherd because they are in open rebellion against Christ, our Good Shepherd. Such deceived people, more than anyone else, are in need of the faithful shepherding that they so despise. Their souls are in grave danger.

"The curses of the ungodly can be more pleasing to God than the hallalujahs of the pious." -Martin Luther

When Pastors Fail

2007-09-28T05:08:00.000-07:00

Pastor McCain:

Over the years I've observed as pastors are put out of office unjustly. I do not deny this happens. And that it happens, when it happens, it is a tragedy.

I have also observed as pastors are put out of their office due to their own foolish behavior and malfeasance in office. What is particularly upsetting to me is that pastors put of office due to their own fault will, more often than not, attempt to wrap themselves in the flag of "confessionalism" or "orthdoxy" and claim they are being persecuted.

Such pastors should not expect any sympathy when they fail to call on the sick, the shut-in and the dying, but instead think they have more important things to do. When they are cautioned about such behavior and ignore it and persist in it. Well, it's their own fault when finally they are asked to leave. A recent example: a pastor was asked by a family to visit mom, whom they had to put in a home. He said he would. He didn't. He was asked again. He said he would. He didn't. Foolish!

I'm not making this up. This happens, and is happening. Pastors simply failing to perform the basic duties of their office. I have experienced this first-hand with a pastor who was asked to leave after he failed to call on a person who was dying, after many requests, and this was merely one of many examples of this kind of behavior on his part. And recently another pastor who has been warned repeatedly over a good length of time, continues, defiantly, to persist in neglect of his duties.

So, pastors...you make it very hard for pastors who do face persecution for being truly faithful, when you, due to your own dumb fault, are asked to leave. Enough said.

And to all the pastor out there who are being faithful, who are performing the duties of your office. Thank you! God bless.

The Priesthood of all Believers, Lesson #1

2007-09-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

"The doctrine of the Royal Priesthood is often used as an excuse to do away with any form of distinction between people. Particularly, it sets up an antagonism between the clergy and the laity, so that they are at odds with one another. This occurs time and time again. Whenever our own church body, the Missouri Synod, has addressed the Royal Priesthood in the past, it has been because there had been some type of antagonism between clergy and laity, which is sad because there is so much joy in this doctrine that is lost because it is only seen in terms of conflict." -Rev. Roger James, 9/23/07

Last Sunday, my pastor said these words as he began a new year-long Sunday Bible class series, an in-depth study of the Royal Priesthood of Believers. (Lesson #1 in mp3)

Erich and I will do our best to faithfully record all of these classes and then post them here. You can also automatically receive them by subscribing to our church's podcast, Law & Gospel at Zion.

Blessings.

Quote for the Day

2007-08-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

"Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you."

-Hebrews 13:17

Which family ought we focus upon?

2007-08-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

"Your family can never be a lasting source of peace."

-Roger James

What would James Dobson tells us to focus upon? Judging from the Focus on the Family web site, he probably would not point us to Jesus Christ crucified upon the cross.

My pastor's sermon on Sunday (16 minutes) has me thinking about the idolatry of family or 'family values' among American churches.

Praise God that Jesus is a Savior who divides and offers us true peace!

Pastor Stuckwisch: Catechesis, Confession, and Admittance to the Holy Communion

2007-08-18T05:44:00.000-07:00

"...In any case, I am more and more convinced that admittance to the Holy Communion has to be a function of active pastoral care, including the conscientious exercise of church discipline across the board. Such pastoral care ought to mean the communing of those who are baptized and being catechized in the one true faith, whereas church discipline should not require the exclusion of those disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ from His Table."

Read the whole thing.

October 5-7 Youth Retreat in Marshall, Michigan!

2007-08-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

One way we are honoring the office of holy ministry is by organizing youth retreats for our congregation under the authority of our pastor. We have been very careful every step of the way to get our pastor's approval for what we're doing and how we do it. Most pastors don't have the time to organize such events. Ask your pastor what you can do to help him. Perhaps one way is simply by helping to organize the youth of your congregation to attend our retreat!

For all the information on this year's retreat, go to our retreat blog.

Roman Catholic Bishop tells us to...

2007-08-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

Call God ‘Allah’ to ease relations!

'Allah' is the word for 'God' in Arabic and I assume Arabic-speaking Christians use the word, but the idea of non-Arabic speaking believers in the Triune God using the word seems foolish, as imprudent as supposedly Lutheran pastors participating in the Yankee Stadium affair. The 'allah' of Islam is not the one true God.

Once again, Roman Catholicism seems to join C.S. Lewis is suggesting that Tash is Aslan and Aslan is Tash.

Ministers of the Gospel, please remember what a wiser Roman Catholic, G.K. Chesteron, once told wrote: "Tolerance is the virtue of the man with no convictions!"

Tash, the Inexorable

Issues, Etc. Coming to Detroit

2007-08-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

...along with Angus Menuge and Jeff Kloha for an Apologetics Conference at Emmanuel-Dearborn on September 23. Free admission. More information at http://emmanueldearborn.org/. Click on the poster to enlarge it a little.

Sound Bite: Korah's Rebellion Today

2007-08-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

Pastor Roger James on attacks against the Office of Holy Ministry

(4 minutes, 31 seconds)

Pastor Roger James: Bible Class on Acts 11 & OHM

2007-08-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

Today, my pastor taught on Acts 11 and discussed what a biblical elder is (verse 30) and explained, among other things, the qualifications of an elder (pastor) and the importance of the Office of Holy Ministry.

Towards the end of class, I asked him what is at stake today as the Office of Holy Ministry is attacked, as Korah attacked Moses in Numbers 16:3:

You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?

Here is an mp3 of Pastor James' Bible class, one part of this week's podcast, Law & Gospel at Zion.

Quote for the Day: Charles H. Spurgeon

2007-07-31T06:26:00.000-07:00

"Never play at preaching, nor beat about the bush; get at it, and always mean business."

-Charles H. Spurgeon

Loose Cannons & the OHM

2007-07-29T12:20:00.000-07:00

This morning during a Bible class on Acts 11, my pastor mentioned that the first century church had to deal with 'loose cannons' -- those who traveled around the country preaching a variety of doctrines. One person subsequently asked him how the Office of Holy Ministry protects God's people from the 'loose cannons' of our own day. Here is his answer:

Bible Class Soundbite:
"Loose Cannons" (7.5 minutes)

Note the size of the rope in the above picture that holds that cannon in place, guarding against the danger of hundreds of pounds rolling or even tumbling toward sailors while at sea. The expression 'loose cannon' intrigued me, so I looked it up online:

"...an irresponsible and reckless individual whose behaviour (either intended or unintended) endangers the group he or she belongs to. The term originates in the Age of Sail, and wooden men-of-war. When a storm began, all cannons had to be securely fastened and tied in place; otherwise, they would roll uncontrollably around the deck, causing havoc. A loose cannon, weighing hundreds of kilograms, would crush anything and anyone in its path, and possibly even break a hole in the hull, thus endangering the seaworthiness of the whole ship..." -Wikipedia.org

There have always been loose cannons among God's people, folks like Korah, who also had to be 'tied down' by God, in a rather frightful way:

"Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—became insolent and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, 'You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD's assembly?' When Moses heard this, he fell on his face. [...] The ground that was under them split open; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. " (Numbers 16:1-4, 31-33)

The Reformation saw the likes of Korah in folks like Thomas Münzer, and sadly, there are also many today who rise up against the called and ordained servants of the Lord in the Office of Holy Ministry, even in Lutheran churches, and say the very same things. Without being called and ordained, they rise up in rebellion. At times, Korah really does sound like a baby-boomer.

So if folks like Korah might be called loose cannons, what would those ropes be in the 'ship' of Christ's Church?

As a Lutheran laymen with a family that I very much want protected from being rolled over by 500 pound cannons, I look first to Article 14 of the Augsburg Confession: "Of Ecclesiastical Order they teach that no one should publicly teach in the Church or administer the Sacraments unless he be regularly called."

Martin Chemnitz also adds:

It is true that all Christians have a general call to proclaim the Gospel of God, Romans 10:9, to speak the Word of God among themselves, Eph. 5:19; to admonish each other from the Word of God, Col. 3:16; to reprove, Eph. 5:11 [and] to comfort, 1 Th. 4:18. And family heads are enjoined [to do] this with the special command that they give their households the instruction of the Lord. Eph 6:4. But the public ministry of the Word and of the Sacraments in the church is not entrusted to all Christians in general, as we have already shown, 1 Co 12:28; Eph 4:12. For a special or particular call is required for this, Ro 10:15. [p. 29, Ministry, Word, and Sacraments: An Enchiridion]

The rope which holds cannons in place that might otherwise damage or even sink a church is indeed found in Article 14; this rope firmly secures hundreds of pounds of enthusiast cannon, as we believe, teach, and confess its truth.

In these dark days, how cool is that God not only told us where we would find His spirit (in the external Word and Sacrament), but he also points us to this divinely appointed office through which we may confidently receive them!

May God continue to protect my family, your family, and all of us from latter-day Korahs, Thomas Münzers, or in other words, the innumerable loose cannons of our day!

TUEBOR!

A Plug for My Pastor's Podcast

2007-07-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

I have just recently resurrected Law and Gospel at Zion, my pastor's sermon podcast, and we presently only have seven subscribers. I received some kind feedback from one subscriber, Pastor Fleming up at Our Savior in Grand Rapids, who mentioned while passing through Hillsdale that he has greatly appreciated listening to Pastor James' sermons.

If you are looking for some good sermons to listen to as a supplement to your normal Word intake, I would strongly recommend subscribing. Also, if you are one of the four unknown subscribers (Erich and I are two), it would be fun to know who you are!

Here is a link with feed and subscription info.

And here is a random picture (click for larger view) of Pastor James enjoying one of Erich's hamburgers with Mark, the world's tallest historian, looking on:

Blessings.

Another Pearl from Pr. Weedon...

2007-07-26T12:26:00.000-07:00

Posted on Weedon's Blog:

Hymn on St. James' Day

O Lord, for James, we praise You,
Who fell to Herod's sword;
He drank the cup of suff'ring
And thus fulfilled Your word.
Lord, curb our vain impatience
For glory and for fame,
Equip us for such suff'rings
As glorify Your name.
LSB 518:21

Young Pastors Need Special Encouragement

2007-07-26T04:03:00.001-07:00

St. James the Hoosier (Pr. Jim Roemke) writes:

Confessional pastors need to unite in hospitality and brotherly love toward new pastors. With one of the biggest classes between the seminaries in years, this is a perfect opportunity to reach out to an impressionable and scarred group of tomorrow's pastors.

Here's a post on this from his blog:

That ol' sinful nature

As a new and young pastor I often do not "feel" like I'm really a pastor. I worried about this a lot before ordination. How could I possibly minister to my "elders" with God's Law and His Gospel? Would my congregation take me seriously?

Now that I am out here, I have found the most amazing reversal of my expectations. My beloved parish has no problem accepting me and has always shown the utmost respect for the Office and for me. What is really surprising is other pastors. I feel so out of place whenever there is a gathering of pastors. Some don't speak to me at all (a few have actually ignored me when I spoke to them!) Some are a bit condescending. Some act suspicious of the "new guy." But, overall, most don't seem to want to take any time at all to even acknowledge me.

I have to say, that ol' sinful nature really gets hurt by this. I want to be accepted by my older brothers. I really want to just sit down and talk with them openly and honestly. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple around me who have been just great.

To other newbies, has this been your experience? Am I overreacting? Is this unusual? Is there something wrong with me?

Check out the comments as well.

Pastors, Finish the Race!

2007-07-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

The below two YouTube videos are from the Academy Award winner for best film of 1982, Chariots of Fire, and if you haven't seen it yet, you ought to. Based upon a true story, the film has a scene (included in the first video below) in which the Prince of Wales is trying to pressure Eric Liddell (pictured right), a strict Scottish Presbyterian, to run in the Olympic Games on a Sunday, which was against his convictions.

After he continues to refuse to run on Sunday, to compromise his convictions, one member of the British Athletic Committee admits that they had attempted to separate Erich Liddell the runner from Erich Liddel the Christian, and since Liddell was a thoroughly integrated man of Christian conviction, it was not only wrong, but futile:

He did have us beaten, and thank God he did! The lad, as you call him, is a true man of principle and a true athlete. His speed is only an extension of his life, his force. We sought to sever his running from himself.

The United Kingdom could not have the runner without the Christian, as Liddell's running was a mere extension of his Christian faith.

But I wonder how much 'conflict resolution' in churches today looks the same as the meeting (in the first video) below, for I am afraid that much of such 'counseling' in the secular world is based upon the proposition that all conflicts can be resolve because of an implicit acceptance of some type of egalitarianism rooted in relativism. I pray that such thinking has not made its way into the Church!

Romans 12 has much good counsel that can guide our behavior toward those with whom we disagree, but regarding liberal 'conflict resolution' techniques, verse 18 is directly applicable:

"If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men!"

If possible are the two key words here. There will be times when pastors will find themselves up against the wall and must, by God's grace, stand fast to their Confession. Do not compromise! Most good pastors are certainly willing to compromise in adiaphora, but any attempts by groups or individuals to manipulate or pressure God's ministers into compromising their biblical convictions regarding the ministry of Word and Sacrament ought to be publicly exposed as evil and opposed by all of God's people.

Dear pastors, please stand firm and true in the ministry to which Christ has called you -- for our sake and the sake of our children and grandchildren!

Please finish the race!

"I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

-2 Timothy 4:1-7

Hey, Preacherman James!

2007-07-23T06:06:00.000-07:00

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or at least Weird Al Yankovic seems to thinks so.

I hope that this is alright with Eric and Polly Rapp, but they now have their first cover band out here in the south-central part of the state. Some of Tim and Erich's kiddos, who call themselves 'Lutheran Chicks', have adopted and sang the Rapps' "Hey, Preacherman" to our own beloved pastor, Roger James.

Here is an mp3 and here are the lyrics:

Hey, Pastor James!

Hey, Pastor James, you give us the Gospel,
It brings salvation to those who believe!
Hey, Pastor James, you give us the Gospel,
You tell us were sinners and Christ died for me!

We want to know what you did last week on your summer vacation,
What you saw and where you went and who you visited!
But wait to tell us after the words that give salvation,
How He lived and how He died for me on the cross!

Hey, Pastor James, you give us the Gospel,
You give us the Good News of God's Only Son!
Hey, Pastor James, you give us the Gospel,
You give us His Body and give us His blood!

We love to see you in the front teaching Bible classes,
You answer all our questions and help us understand!
Standing up to read aloud and adjusting your eyeglasses,
That troublesome Revelation's no longer a mystery!

Hey, Pastor James, you give us the Gospel,
Not with human wisdom, you tell it to us straight!
Hey, Pastor James, you give us the Gospel,
You let us know we're foolish and lead us to the gate!

We're always looking forward to the next youth activity,
Now that Catechism's over, this is all we have!
We always have some question for 'Ask the Pastor Night',
You're ready with an answer and the answer is always right!

Hey, Pastor James, you give us the Gospel,
You tell us of Jesus who bore all the blame!
Hey, Pastor James, you give us the Gospel,
When you preach the Gospel, you never are ashamed!

Spiritual Care for Pastors

2007-07-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

I found the link to this organization on the LCMS Word Relief and Human Care website. Here's how they describe their mission:

The primary purpose of this organization shall be to provide ongoing spiritual care opportunities for Lutheran pastors. Participants will be refreshed and equipped as a result of their participation in a program of soul care grounded in Holy Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions. The Center provides a safe environment for clergy to reflect on their own spiritual health and offers a program carefully crafted to help them review and enhance their professional competencies and skills. Doxology strengthens pastors so they can more faithfully pastor others.

Program Objectives:

The program curriculum:

Provides resources, insights, teaching, admonition, encouragement, new tools and strategies needed to move beyond “survival functioning in pastoral ministry” to joyful service in the pastoral life and calling.
Provides opportunities for immediate and ongoing care to nurture and encourage pastors whose personal lives may have been burdened by stress and isolation or wounded by sin, depression, conflict, fear, or hopelessness.
Yields critical insights to enhance the pedagogy of spiritual care and counsel.
Benefits from team casuistry and the experience of fellow pastors enrolled in this renewal experience.

Pastors participating in DOXOLOGY will:

Prize and embrace their identity as called and ordained servants of God.
Explore the art of spiritual care and enhance their skills as physicians of the soul so as to help those entrusted to their care to find health and healing in God through His gracious Word and Sacraments.
Choose to benefit from individual spiritual care and personal counsel for restoration by Christ’s healing and peace.
Establish and maintain meaningful professional relationships with peers through personal interaction.
Return to their parish renewed, strengthened, and equipped in their vocation to preach, teach, and administer God’s Holy sacraments faithfully.

Also check out their Resources page. Looks like great stuff!

Who Ever Thought it Would be Cool to Hang Out with the Ordained?

2007-07-20T20:07:00.000-07:00

First a quick comment: Pastor Weedon must be the favorite pastor of the HTOOHM clan. If one of us isn't mentioning him in a post, there are probably some emails flying around between us. Once again it is Will Weedon's fault that something is written in the Lutheran Blogosphere.

I returned from the fatherland and was catching up on my Issues Etc. listening and I got around to listening to the Pastor Weedon sermon on the July 9th episode (http://www.kfuoam.org/mp3/Issues7/Issues_Etc_Jul_09a.mp3).

After I listened to it, I shot Pastor Weedon an email complimenting him on the sermon.

I have a dream, and that dream is to hit the Lotto and start the Lutheran version of EWTN and I wrote Pastor Weedon that he has to take on the Father Corapi role (see this post on TUL for a further explanation: http://theunknownlutheran.blogspot.com/2007/03/yes-i-do-watch-ewtn.html)

So the correspondence starts about the mutual bad habit of EWTN watching and I started rambling on about the show "Life on the Rock"

Is Fr. Mark (Note: I was wrong as you can see by the picture - Will, please comment on Fr. Francis) the one that hosts "Life on the Rock"? You ever watch that show? Priests and Friars playing basketball hanging out with the "youth" on the big comfy couch - the "Friar-Cam". Between 18 and 20, I hung out in the rectory of an RC parish in Detroit - I was at Wayne State during the days and working midnights and when I couldn't sleep I hung out there with some friends. The priest was really cool and would just sit around and talk to us and tell about cool stuff like exorcisms. "Life on the Rock" kind of reminds me of that.... I almost converted to the church of papacy at the time, but Fr. left for another parish and the next priest wasn't so nice.

The point is that "Life on the Rock" is absolutely the cheesiest show featuring the ordained ever, but I miss this kind of experience. I miss hanging out at the church and talking freely with the ordained.

Ironically - all of the other young men hanging out with me when I was that age did not have their own father present in their lives. Our fathers were either drunk, or on to new families, or recent immigrants that didn't quite assimilate into american life. I think that is what made the hours of hanging out there special. I remember one day in which I was very tired - I hadn't slept for a few days and Fr. told me to pray more and it would help me sleep. He cared. He let us hang out. He had something interesting to say. That's what fathers do.

Every once and a while, I hang out with my own pastor, but in reality he isn't there to be my pal or the father figure I never had. A lot of care needs to be taken in such relationships, because the truth is that I am sin sick and it is his job to give me the medicine I need. Sometimes, I don't like the taste of that medicine - but without it, I only have death to look forward to. The guy I like to drink a few beers with, may need to hold me down and give me a strong dose of the Law.

The moral of my rambling is this: Basketball playing clergy, reality TV show clergy, drinking some beers with your pastor, the hippest guy in the room is wearing a black shirt with a white collar - it is awesome to have someone ordained to call your friend or father figure, but the bottom line is that he is not there to fill your need for any human relationship. He is there to bring you Jesus.

Well, this explains a few things...

2007-07-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

Heh, heh.

Urbanus Rhegius: Preaching the Reformation

2007-07-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

Pastor Weedon writes:

"In the 16th century, this little volume [Ministry, Word, and Sacraments: An Enchiridion by Martin Chemnitz] was published with another one in a single binding. The other was Urbanus Rhegius' Formulae quaedem caute - translated for us into English as Preaching the Reformation by Scott Hendrix.

It showed the pastors how to speak with caution on a wide range of topics - from the Mass to the Saints to Repentance to Good Works. It was the primarily homiletical textbook of the era. It would be great for our pastors and laity to not only be familiar with Chemnitz' little handbook, but also with Rhegius'.

From the intro:

For years now, with great distress, I have seen in many parts of Germany how often laity have been seriously offended by that confused, inept, and imprudent way of speaking when certain thoughtless know-it-alls, with an inflated estimation of their own knowledge, take no notice of what they say, how they say it, or to whom they are speaking. I will give a few examples of these offensive formulations that corrupt the minds of the laity and drive many away from the Gospel...

Ordination: Ears, Thumbs, and Toes

2007-07-18T06:54:00.000-07:00

I am currently reading the Old Testament from beginning to end, and I have run into a curious ceremony that I did some research on in order to try to make sense of it. It is first mentioned in Exodus in the ordination of Aaron and then repeated in Leviticus, which is where I am now.

Exodus 29:20: Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.

Leviticus 8:23: And he slew it; and Moses took of the blood of it, and put it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot.

From a Jewish website I obtained this interesting historical reference in which Philo comments on the significance of this ordination ceremony for the priests:

“The fully consecrated [for the priesthood] must be pure in words and actions and in his whole life; for words are judged by hearing, the hand is the symbol of action, and the foot of the pilgrimage of life” (Philo, On the Life of Moses, 2:150, as quoted in The Torah: A Modern Commentary, ed. W. Gunther Plaut, p. 804).

This reminds me of the qualifications for the office of holy ministry, especially those given in 1 Timothy 3. But there is a further reference to this strange ceremony later in Leviticus which has nothing to do with ordination. This third reference is what sent me to studying. It is part of the cleansing of Lepers:

Leviticus 14:14: And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot.

Of course, the question that hit me when I got to this verse is, why is this strange "ordination ceremony" applied to lepers? Here I believe we are drawn to the fuller meaning of this strange ceremony as it applies to Christ. The leper signifies the sinner. Here we are looking simply at the action of the blood of atonement as an Old Testament means of grace. I believe the blood is applied to the very tips of these extremities (both to lepers and to Aaron) showing that the cleansing brought by the blood of Christ extends over the entire Christian - that it is all inclusive and sufficient.

But why not bathe them, head to toe, in the blood of the sacrifice? Or how about just applying the blood to the leprosy? I believe the application only to the tips of these extremities represents the forensic nature of justification as an imputation - that is, a declaration of righteousness. And, of course, the declaration of God accomplishes what it says: the entire sinner is covered, and cleansed, by the atonement. Think of the response of Jesus to Peter when he says "not just my feet, but my hands and head also!" He whom the cleansing and sanctifying power of Jesus in His redemption has touched is altogether clean and holy in the sight of God.

Applying this back to the consecration for the OHM, we see that it is Christ's all-inclusive atoning sacrifice that sanctifies the pastor in the same way in which he then serves in his calling to apply the all-inclusive/sufficient means of grace to us lepers (sinners) as well - passing on what he has received, just as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4:

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures...

And here we see true apostolic succession - the passing on of the pure doctrine of grace from man to man.

Thanks be to God!

The Emperor's New Clothes: Talking About Our Problems

2007-07-18T06:52:00.000-07:00

I just left some long-winded comments at my 'Secret Ballots' post. Rather than afflict our main page, I just provide you with its introduction:

My questioning the practice of secret ballots has had me thinking about how Christians interact with each other or fail to interact with each other due to our frailty and sin. Secret ballots seem like a small, petty issue, but I am really considering what it means for a congregation to walk in the Light together. I am now even noticing what I am calling 'biblical openness' in Martin Chemnitz!

I am very glad that the comments to this post have clarified things, not only to this blog's readers but also in my own mind. Yes, I can now see the need for exceptions: Because of the hardness of the hearts of those whom Solar calls 'political' and also for the sake of the innocent who might suffer at their hands, we should sometimes permit secret ballots on a conditional basis; but from the beginning it has not been this way, to paraphrase Matthew 19:8.

I continue to think that in so many of our relations with one another, we are hiding behind unbiblical fig leaves, and though due to our frailty they are sometimes necessary, we need to acknowledge that from the beginning it has not been this way...

Read the rest here.

I welcome your comments.

Chemnitz's Little Book & the Voice of the Shepherd

2007-07-17T23:34:00.000-07:00

Here is something that I read today that, I think, applies to what Erich wrote about hearing the Voice of the Shepherd and also a post over at Cyberstones.

Interesting enough, I also think that it relates to what I have been writing about the Light of Christ and what I am calling 'biblical openness'; notice how Chemnitz says that everyone should know what questions will be asked during the biannual examinations of pastors, and what is most interesting is that he says that the laity should also know what is included in these exams of pastors, "according to which also the hearers might judge whether their pastors follow the true voice of Christ, the only Chief Shepherd, or if they speak with the voice of a stranger, Jn. 10:3-5."

Really great stuff:

And since God instituted the ministry for this reason and used it to this end, that the Body of Christ, that is, His church might be built, and ever grow, unto the identifying of itself, Eph 4:16, they that are in the ministry must, with all concern, diligence, and faithfulness, be God’s colaborers, plant, and water, 1 Co 3:6-9, that the Word of God might dwell among us richly in all wisdom, CL 3:16, and all manner or tares of false, erroneous doctrine be rooted up and kept away from these churches by the grace of God, Mt 15:1-13; Acts 20:28-31.

For that reason and in view of this it is decreed in the Christian church order of our illustrious prince and ruler, Lord Julius, duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg, that the examinations be held not only when someone is to be accepted and received into the church ministry, but that the superintendents twice a year examine the pastors assigned to their supervision, so that it might at one and the same time be an indoctrination and instruction regarding the basis and true meaning of the pure doctrine, and how less-learned pastors might arrange their studies, guard against false doctrine, and set the doctrine before their hearer in plain and simple terms, so that through such examinations the whole church, both preachers and hearers, might be edified under divine blessing with great profit and benefit.

But in order that equality might be preserved in the examinations and the less-learned be able the better to prepare themselves for them, it was resolved in the church consistory, with the gracious previous form of examination --- like that in the consistory --- used with those who are to be ordained and received into the church ministry be published in written for, so that the superintendents might be able to follow it in the annual visitations.

...also it [this little book] is written in German so that the laity might read and know what is discussed in examinations and what is the model in the chief heads of salutary doctrine, according to which also the hearers might judge whether their pastors follow the true voice of Christ, the only Chief Shepherd, or if they speak with the voice of a stranger, Jn. 10:3-5.

-Martin Chemnitz in Ministry, Word, and Sacramanets: An Enchiridian. Trans. Luther Poellot. St. Louis: CPH, 1981. Pages 16-17.

How this sounds long ago in a galaxy far, far away! How truly blessed are those Christians who have pastors that would heartily welcome such examinations!

Blessings.

Eric & Polly!

2007-07-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

On Weedon's Blog:

wm cwirla said...
"The MI couple rocks!"

Of course, we already knew that!

Thomas á Kempis Weighes In...

2007-07-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

Often I comment on a post and then realize it has become a post of its own. Here is one such comment:

I think it is a very healthy thing to pretend that all private discussions are public, thinking "what if my mother (pastor, friends, family, neighbor, etc.) were listening?"

I'm reminded of many stories I've heard (and even experienced first-hand) of people being greatly hurt by hearing conversations that occurred when the speakers didn't know that others really were listening.

All our words and even our private thoughts are heard by our Father in Heaven. That in itself should be enough to temper all our doings.

With that in mind, listen to Thomas á Kempis, in The Imitation of Christ:

The Tenth Chapter

Avoiding Idle Talk

SHUN the gossip of men as much as possible, for discussion of worldly affairs, even though sincere, is a great distraction inasmuch as we are quickly ensnared and captivated by vanity.

Many a time I wish that I had held my peace and had not associated with men. Why, indeed, do we converse and gossip among ourselves when we so seldom part without a troubled conscience? We do so because we seek comfort from one another's conversation and wish to ease the mind wearied by diverse thoughts. Hence, we talk and think quite fondly of things we like very much or of things we dislike intensely. But, sad to say, we often talk vainly and to no purpose; for this external pleasure effectively bars inward and divine consolation.

Therefore we must watch and pray lest time pass idly.

When the right and opportune moment comes for speaking, say something that will edify.

Bad habits and indifference to spiritual progress do much to remove the guard from the tongue. Devout conversation on spiritual matters, on the contrary, is a great aid to spiritual progress, especially when persons of the same mind and spirit associate together in God.

And again, listen to this:

Chapter 9

On Obedience and Discipline

It is an excellent thing to live under obedience to a superior, and not to be one's own master. It is much safer to obey than to rule. Many live under obedience more of necessity than of love and such people are often discontented and complaining. They will never attain freedom of mind unless they submit with their whole heart for the love of God. Go where you please, but nowhere will you find rest except in humble obedience under the rule of a superior. Preference for other places and desire for change have unsettled many.

Everyone gladly does whatever he most likes, and likes best those who think as he does; but if God is to dwell among us we must sometimes yield our own opinion for the sake of peace. Who is so wise that he knows all things? So do not place too much reliance on the rightness of your own view but be ready to consider the views of others. If your opinion is sound, and you forego it for the love of God and follow that of another, you will win great merit. I have often heard that is safer to accept advice than to give it. It may even come about that each of two opinions is good; but to refuse to come to an agreement with others when reason or occasion demand it is a sign of pride and obstinacy.

Thomas á Kempis' last name was Hämerken, "Little Hammer." I consider him a big hammer, because his writings convict me of so much that is sinful within me. For that reason I find it beneficial to read him.

Sean: More Thoughts on Children's Sermons

2007-07-16T05:06:00.001-07:00

Our resident hot Lutheran posted some more good thoughts on children's sermons that might add some additional clarity to our discussion at Eric's post.

Here is his Hot Lutheran on Hot Lutheran Action post in its entirety:

Childrens' Sermons and Regular Sermons

The childrens' sermon comes from a philosophy that would say "we must target and minister to groups individually and specially if we are to be effective or if we are to do the will of God". The Church, rather, ministers as Christ instituted it: Word and Sacrament ministry, which is targeted at everyone and is effective on everyone. It is not subjective to various groups, but objective for all groups. We all have the same problem: we are sinners.

It's ironic, but in the attempt to make someone feel included, doing "special" things for "special" people actually makes them and everyone else excluded.

To tell someone "pay attention, this part of the service is especially for you" also inherently says "the rest of the service is not especially for you".

The liturgy IS for children. Hymns ARE for children. The lection IS for children. The sermon [proper] IS for children. The prayers ARE for children. The confession & absolution IS for children. Baptism IS for children. As is evident by numerous debates in Church history, the Supper IS also to be for children, even if the details of how we are to practice that belief are not agreed upon.

The point is that the WHOLE service is for the WHOLE congregation.

Let us not tell the children what they will not like, what they will not understand, what they will not appreciate, or what they will not benefit from. I have little doubt that children frequently learn more, understand more, appreciate more, and practice more than their elder brothers and sisters in Christ, who lack an excuse for their inability to pay attention. *cue Luther rant about dogs and the insolent German people*

One pastor was thinking out loud one day to me about struggling with a coming service. It was pentecost (therefore a longer service), confirmation, a Divine Service, and there were many announcements to make also. In order to keep the service under an hour [sic], "cuts" needed to be made. This pastor considered out loud how "Well, I certainly can't cut communion, and I don't want to skip these special liturgical elements that I have decided to use... and I won't cut the children's sermon." In the end, the ingredients [double sic] he chose to cut were parts of the ordinary, propers, hymn stanzas, and prayers.

Instead of cutting "special" things meant to target specific people, perhaps it would be better to keep more of the objective and primary parts of the service. PERHAPS, if anything is to be cut down, it should be the sermon. Many pastors seem to think (and indeed say) that the reason people come or don't come to Church is the sermon. I am not so sure that the sermon is the most important part of the service. Certainly, as they say, no one goes to the parking lot singing the pastor's sermon.... Even if you have heard a dissapointing, long and boring, or confusing sermon, you still have everything else: God's Word in the lectionary, liturgy, and hymnody. His Word of forgiveness pronounced by the pastor. His precious life-giving Body and Blood put in your very mouth.

Liturgy and hymns are concise. Nothing is more concise than the sacraments (all three, if you will). Peter's sermon on Pentecost was certainly concise, and definetely effective.

As a related plug, I would strongly recommend Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance by Os Guinness. Sean's points on doing things special, in addition to making me think of the Dana Carvey's Church Lady, also made me think of what Os Guinness said in this fine little book: By attempting to be so very relevant, the church has become completely irrelevant. You can listen to his 2004 Issues, Etc. interview on this book HERE.

And here, of course, is the very finest example of 'cultural relevance' in Christian worship services -- compliments of the Simpsons:

Praying for One's Pastors and Leaders

2007-07-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

It appears that LCMS Synodical President Kieschnick was re-elected.

When I was in the LCMS, I bashed him as often as I could.

I am in my second year of being in the WELS and to be brutally frank - I have continued to bash him.

I'm done now. We all need to be done now. We should pray for him and pray that he does well and leads in a way that is true to the Scriptures and the Confessions. And in the spririt of this blog I put out the call for less Kieschnick bashing and more praying. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't speak the truth in love and even cut with the Law - but the club we confessionals have been using ain't working folks. We need to pray. We need to pray that in the course of the next three years his eyes are opened and that a return to Lutheran orthodoxy rises up amongst all of us.

However, this is no reason we cannot think ahead is there?

Rev. Matt Harrison.

The LCMS has a real talent in this man. Street cred as the leader of LCMS Human Care and more important the man can preach- I mean an honest to goodness Lutheran sermon that Walther would be proud of!!!

Be patient. Three years isn't that long.

Who knows - my WELS exile may be over by then.

More on Apostolicity and the OHM

2007-07-15T05:40:00.000-07:00

Pr. Weedon suggested Sasse's very fine essay on the whole notion of apostolic succession in the We Confess series published by CPH. I've finished reading it again, and will here give my own brief summary of his arguments.

Sasse begins by pointing out that there are three aspects of "apostolicity" to debate: apostolicitas originis, successionis, doctrinae.

Then he argues that all churches claim apostolicity of origin, pointing out that:

"Whether any church has its origin in the church of the New Testament or not is simply a matter of faith."

Ultimately this is a question of apostolicity of doctrine, because:

"The answer has to do with whether I consider the doctrine of my church to be apostolic."

Next he destroys the idea that any particular apostolicity of succession can be demonstrated, giving a cursory history of the attempts to create lists and the different purposes those lists were created for. He also quotes the Didache (15:1) which gives advice to congregations in case there are no wandering apostles, prophets, or teachers among them: "Elect therefore for yourselves bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord..."

This alone shows that the emphasis on an unbroken succession of consecration of bishops is a relatively modern construct. Rather, what has always been debated in the church is apostolicity of doctrine.

Sasse spends some time on sola Scriptura in which he acknowledges that Paul speaks of the receiving and passing on of a tradition (1 Cor. 11:23 and 15:3):

In the New Testament we do have tradition in the sense of the message of the Gospel, or some particular message, being faithfully kept and handed on (1 Tim. 6:29), without addition or subtraction (Rev. 22:18-19). This "tradition," however, whether it be the oral proclamation of the apostles or whether it was already written down, has nothing to do with a tradition which was later placed in opposition to Scripture. The apostolic witness cannot be divided into what was preached and what was written down. these are one and the same. The authentic doctrinal tradition of the church in the sense of the New Testament is never anything else that the living transmission of this witness in preaching and instruction. It can never be an independent source of revelation. Authentic apostolic succession, then, is always and only the succession of doctrine. It may be known by its identity with the witness of the apostles in the New Testament. In this way, the content of what is proclaimed by any and every church is to be weighed.

There is indeed also a succession of teachers who have faithfully proclaimed the apostolic message. But who these surely are only God knows, just as He alone "knows those who are His," who are truly His church [2 Tim 2:19].

And here is where what I wrote in the post below becomes the first principle from which I know that our pastor has apostolicity:

The question of whether or not a pastor is a valid pastor is answered rightly only by whether or not he preaches the true Gospel. The Augsburg Confession states that the "Church" is found where the Word is preached in its purity and the Sacraments are rightly administered. How do we define pure Word and Sacrament? - that taught and practiced according to the one pure fount and source of God's revelation: SCRIPTURE, interpreted according to the central doctrine of Christianity that separates us from ALL other religions.

What is that central doctrine? That THE ONE TRUE GOD is the God who saved me ALL BY HIMSELF, with no help from me or anybody else. All my sins are imputed to Christ, and all His righteousness is imputed to me. That's the only God I can have faith in! The One with pure monergistic grace - something ALL the other "Christian" denominations deny.

Lutheranism alone teaches the pure monergistic grace of God in Christ Jesus. This is what sets us apart from all others. How do I know the voice of the Shepherd? When I hear Him tell me my sins are forgiven - unconditionally. Anyone who claims to speak the Word of the Shepherd yet preaches a synergistic salvation is a false shepherd. All Roman Catholic priests preach a synergistic salvation. Therefore they are false shepherds - not members of the apostolic succession. The Apostle Paul preached salvation by faith alone, "and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

Secret Ballots and the OHM

2007-07-14T05:41:00.000-07:00

"The mask you wear before men will do you no good before Him. He wants to see you as you are, He wants to be gracious to you... He wants to love you."
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together

Does your congregation or church body allow secret ballots in its meetings, assemblies, or conventions?

Do you think that this practice is biblical?

It deeply concerns me when brothers and sisters in Christ demand secret ballots, for I have never heard of a single good reason for the practice, and frankly, they seem completely counter to biblical Christianity and dangerous to the health of a congregation.

Let me explain.

The whole democratization of American Christianity puzzles me. Lutheran churches have adopted practices like voters' assemblies and congregational meetings, and the way such meetings are sometimes run, with secret ballots, seems to be clear evidence of, and I hate to use this term, a dysfunctional church.

The fact that Christians are sometimes unwilling to publicly say what they think and submit it to God's Word for brotherly discussion, evaluation, and if necessary, correction, -- this is counter to the Christian faith and fellowship and is a very dangerous practice in the life of a congregation.

Here are some initial reasons for this assertion:

1. Perhaps those who want secret ballots are afraid of being mistreated or ridiculed for having certain opinions. In this case, those with differing views might need to change or even repent. Even if we are right, we are called to correct our brothers and sisters "in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:1-5, NASB)

Secrecy can foster an 'Us vs. Them' mentality among brothers and sisters in Christ and allow both fear and suspicion to undermine genuine fellowship. Secret ballots allow Christians to continue in fear and suspicion of each other.

2. Perhaps Christians want secret ballots because they cannot explain their opinions in the light of God's Word and are therefore, at best, basing their votes upon subjective feelings. Or graver still, maybe they know that what they are voting for is not in accord with God's Word. Such situations are, of course, not good for the congregation or the voters themselves, for such voters who wish to affect the life of a congregation behind the curtain of secrecy are merely being "tossed about by every wind of doctrine" and their unbiblical voices are affecting the life of the congregation without the possibility of correction that openness provides. This is very dangerous situation, for decisions about Christ's Church are made out of emotion or sin, rather than out faith in God and His Word. (Ephesians 4:14-16, NASB)

3. Perhaps those who want their votes to be secret just don't like the pastor because he faithfully preaches and teaches God's Word in undiluted Law and Gospel. If this is the case, then I would even say that such opposition to the Office of Holy Ministry is demonic in nature and needs to be brought to the Light and then seriously and tenaciously opposed by God's people. Such voters need to be brought to repentance, and the use of secret ballots in this case is endangering their souls.

4. Perhaps there is some hidden, unbiblical agenda, coordinated in political conventicles. It is no secret that people bring the political ways of this world into Christ's Church, and this is also a dangerous situation that must be rooted out by God's people, for Jesus said, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life!" (John 8:12, NASB)

Every public matter in the life of a church should be brought forth and dealt with openly under the Light of God's Word. Satan is, as Samwise Gamgee called Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, a slinker, and as we learned from Screwtape, the Father of Lies thrives upon secrecy. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that members of a congregation stand together under Holy Scripture and its faithful exposition in the Office of Holy Ministry. We must expose the slinker for what he is, even as he attempts to work his mischief through secrecy in the midst of a congregation.

The Father of Lies wants to hold God's people in the bondage of false belief. We know that this is certainly true, so out of Christian love and concern for those who wish secret ballots, we must reject such secrecy and ask for a biblical openness. But Christians should not seek such openness for political purposes, but rather, out of a desire for true Christian fellowship. The Gospel of Christ calls believers to openness and honesty in our relationships with God and with each other, so that we might enjoy peace and true fellowship of the Spirit through God's Word.

Christians are called to walk in the light, and because of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, we can, indeed, take off our masks and bring everything out into the light where it can be approved, corrected, healed, or forgiven.

In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther explains that in the sixth petition of the Lord's Prayer, we are instructed to pray "that God would guard and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not deceive us, nor seduce us into misbelief, despair, and other great shame and vice." Misbelief or false belief is, indeed, a grave sin to which we are constantly tempted; and it is a sin of which we must repent. Tragically, however, secret ballots help us keep this sin hidden, where correction cannot take place through biblical catehesis or where the healing power of Christ's blood cannot be applied through Holy Absolution. And as Dietrich Bonhoeffer so astutely observed in Life Together, "He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone." Therefore, Christian charity for our brothers and sisters demands that we reject the continued practice of secrecy.

Indeed, secret ballots seem to fly in the face of both the nature of Christ (especially in the Gospel of John with its emphasis on light and darkness) and the biblical doctrine of Christian fellowship, through which we are called to 'walk in the Light'. Secret ballots can be used as masks that enable us to avoid the Light of our Lord, so that we do not have to explain our decisions, enter into fruitful dialogue with our brothers and sisters in Christ, or submit ourselves to the Light of God's Word and the Office of Holy Ministry. Secret ballots are one disturbing symptom of sickness in the life of a congregation, one tactic of the enemy's gorilla warfare of darkness against the Light of God's Word.

Today the 63rd Convention of my church body, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, commences at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. The word synod means 'walking together', but how can we join arms in our journey together if we hide them behind our backs in fear and suspicion? Or how can we possibly obey God's command:

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:1-3, NASB)

How is Christian fellowship in the 'unity of the Spirit' under God's Word even possible when we have moved from an open, biblical "Here we stand" approach to witness and fellowship, to a political, individualist "Here I... it's none of your business!"

In conclusion, I would suggest that the continued worldly secrecy in relations between brothers and sisters in Christ is clear evidence that our churches have imbibed political ways of relating to each other that are based upon ungodly concepts of power and individualism, rather than upon a biblical understanding of Christian fellowship that teaches us to bear one another's burdens and speak the truth of God's Word to each other in love.

This widespread infection of political and individualist thinking needs to be marked and rejected by pastors, boards of elders, and church councils for the sake of Christ and His Church. We must not be "conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we would may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:2).

Pax Christi.

Pastor Inqvist's Trip to Orlando

2007-07-12T07:02:00.000-07:00

Issues, Etc. Soundbite: 'I get nothing out of my pastor's worship services!'

2007-07-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

The Rev. William Weedon, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, Illinois, during an April 18, 2004 interview on KFUO's Issues, Etc., recalls one circuit counselor's very wise, pastoral response to a lady's impassioned complaint about the office of holy ministry in her church.

Interview Sound Bite:
"I just get nothing out of my pastor's worship services!" (2:29)

Entire Interview:
Myths About Worship - Hour 1
Myths About Worship - Hour 2

The Beichtspiegel and the OHM

2007-07-11T02:42:00.000-07:00

Here is a beichtspiegel (confessional mirror) written by Dr. Ken Korby [clicking on the link will download the pdf version]. For those who are not familiar with what a "beichtspiegel" is, it is used as an aid in preparing for confession and absolution. This brief one by Korby would be easy to print off for members of the congregation to use. It is formated as a single sheet to be folded in half. There is also an excellent beichtspiegel printed in the back of the Brotherhood Prayer Book [BPB]. It's too bad one was not included in the LSB. I mention the beichtspiegel here on this blog with special reference to the following questions.

Third Commandment:

Do I spend time complaining about the worship, the pastor or other people?
Have I destroyed the blessing of the divine service for myself and others with frivolous criticism?

Fourth Commandment:

Has the fear and love of God shaped my honor and obedience to parents and others in authority?
Have I trusted God to bless me and make my life good when I submit to the authority of parents and those over me, or have I been angry with them, rebelling, fighting against them because I was afraid I was not getting what I had a right to get?
Have I been insolent, sullen and disrespectful to my parents, teachers, employers or other authorities over me?
Have I been on good behavior when they are present and mocking them when they are absent?
Have I given honor and respect to the pastoral office?
Have I helped those who carry responsibilities in governing? Do I pray for parents, leaders of the nations, schools and church? Do I grumble about work given me to do?
Have I helped make it easier for those who carry responsibilities for governing?

Is My Pastor Valid and Due the Honor of the OHM

2007-07-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

I saw this article earlier today. The Pope's Words are hogwash. Basically the Pope (the "Antichrist" according to our Lutheran Confessions) is saying that if your pastor didn't have hands laid upon him by someone in direct succession (all having hands laid upon them) from the apostles, your pastor is not valid and you do not have the means of grace. Of course this is nothing new to Roman Catholic dogma.

It's as if the pastoral ministry is something that is only valid if you have the direct validation of a member of the club who had it from a member of the club who had it from a member of the club. Have all members of the club been good judges of whether or not someone should be allowed to join the club? I think not! Ordination is necessary, but apostolic succession is not. And "ordination" is not the laying on of hands. The laying on of hands is simply a tradition. You could lay your feet on someone and achieve the same thing.

The question of whether or not a pastor is a valid pastor is answered rightly only by whether or not he preaches the true Gospel. The Augsburg Confession states that the "Church" is found where the Word is preached in its purity and the Sacraments are rightly administered. How do we define pure Word and Sacrament? - that taught and practiced according to the one pure fount and source of God's revelation: SCRIPTURE, interpreted according to the central doctrine of Christianity that separates us from ALL other religions.

What is that central doctrine? That THE ONE TRUE GOD is the God who saved me ALL BY HIMSELF, with no help from me or anybody else. All my sins are imputed to Christ, and all His righteousness is imputed to me. That's the only God I can have faith in! The One with pure monergistic grace - something ALL the other "Christian" denominations deny.

Lutheranism alone teaches the pure monergistic grace of God in Christ Jesus. This is what sets us apart from all others. How do I know the voice of the Shepherd? When I hear Him tell me my sins are forgiven - unconditionally. Anyone who claims to speak the Word of the Shepherd yet preaches a synergistic salvation is a false shepherd. All Roman Catholic priests preach a synergistic salvation. Therefore they are false shepherds - not members of the apostolic succession. The Apostle Paul preached salvation by faith alone, "and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

This question of whether or not Lutherans have the office of holy ministry must be addressed more adequately by us. It's at the heart of the questions many who are tempted to Rome or Constantinople are struggling with. All arguments regarding this ends up being circular in some respect, whether from the Roman, Eastern, or Lutheran perspective. But we need to do a better job of articulating our position.

I really hope that Pr. Bender might consider switching the topic of next year's CCA symposium to the OHM. If the participants do as good a job with the OHM topic as they did on this year's topic of the church, the result will be a tremendous blessing to us all.

Follow-up post here.

Screwtape and the Office of Holy Ministry

2007-07-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

Almost immediately after Pastor Thomas Zimmerman of Concordia Theological Seminary preached at our church last week about a very discouraged Elijah, as described in 1 Kings 19, I came into possession of a very strange letter written by someone called Screwtape to a junior devil by the name of Wormwood.

Perhaps this intercepted letter might provide us some helpful intelligence on how the devil attempts to discourage pastors, much like Elijah was tempted after his big day at Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:20-46).

And so, I pass this odd correspondence along to you for your consideration:

My dear Wormwood:

I am beginning to suspect that you do not realize the significance of your present assignment, for he has been set apart by the Enemy for a particularly dangerous purpose, and his case, therefore, demands our special attention.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of paying particular attention to those vermin, like your present patient, that the Enemy foolishly chooses as His miserable instruments, those called 'pastors' within His ranks, for they continue to do so much regretable damage to our glorious cause. It really is quite aggravating, for after all, it is only the Enemy's unfair advantage over us that makes these ridiculous specimens so dangerous in His hands.

And all the Enemy does is smile down at them, as they stumble through their ridiculous duties, parroting whatever He tells them. I will not even mention the absurd way that He carries on about those detestable multitudes that are lost to us through these loathsome servants of His. And then there are the ridiculous, repugnant ways that He uses these pastors, first that abhorrent Voice and then -- and this is almost too revolting to mention -- that water, bread, and wine, which are somehow joined with that, again, that infuriating Voice! Oh, Wormwood, to be undone by that which is so common, illogical, and unspiritual, all the while with that irritating smile beaming down upon them all. One would think that the Enemy actually likes the miserable creatures.

Do not suppose that the Enemy's very different smiles and infuriating laughter that He directs at us mean that this ridiculous magic show is merely a bad joke, for we must consider the grave results that it has rendered against us for nearly 2,000 years. We can be certain that Our Father Below, a true spirit of spirits, would never bear the indignity of working with either these ridiculous creatures who have, like dogs, collars around their necks, or the very vulgar matter that they distribute with their grubby little hands. Such matters can infuriate even the most experienced of tempters.

Such continued indignities certainly demand our redoubled efforts, Wormwood, so let me point out a few fundamental tactics that have proved useful with these vile creatures. These are tricks of our own that have worked particularly well for apprentice tempters like yourself, simple techniques that we initially tried with that crude showoff Elijah, who unfortunately eluded us after that regrettable setback at Mount Carmel. We have now employed these same tactics in other cases with great success for centuries, thus rendering many of these set-apart servants of the Enemy completely useless to Him, and consequently, delivering innumerably more of these two-footed beasts safely into the eager hands of Our Father Below:
*
“Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, ‘So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.’" (1 Kings 19:1-2)

First and foremost, Wormwood, you must avoid frontal assaults. You must work in secret, preferably behind the facade of the thoroughly amusing piousness that so many of our people in the Enemy's camp wear with pride. Try to find some domineering wives and hen-pecked husbands, like the Ahab and Jezebel that even now, our master continues to relish below. There are thousands of these useful specimens within the Enemy's camp, and if you really wish to truly enjoy your patient, then by all means find yourself such a couple with an abundance of that most helpful and amusing of our virtues: niceness. Even I smile to think of the deeds done for Our Father Below in the name of the Enemy.

*
“And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree...” (1 Kings 19:3-4a)

Secondly, isolate the scoundrels. By all means, keep your patient away from other Christians, especially those who are also set apart by the Enemy as stewards of his box of tricks. Keep him far from all those in the Enemy's camp who might ask him questions that would make your patient begin to think about what they call 'truth'. Remember how the Enemy asked that showoff at Carmel such unfortunate questions: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

You must also remember that Light and the lucidity that the Enemy's mere whispers can bring to your patient must be continually guarded against. Keep your patient alone and focused on the difficulties that surround him, and by all means, get him to believe that such debilitating solitude is a part of his calling.

Keep those who would hinder or even undo our work by, as the Enemy puts it, 'loving' your patient, far, far from him. Secret ballots in voters' assemblies, backroom elder meetings, late-night phone calls 'out of concern', or nasty petitions drawn up in conventicles -- all of these things can and should be utilized, for they all help to isolate your patient 'for his own good' and for the supposed good of the Enemy's camp. In short, keep your patient and his charges in dark confusion or chaos. And Wormwood, it is so very delicious to get the little beasts to actually think that they are being 'bold' or 'compassionate' or 'prudent' in doing these things! Keeping everyone in the dark like this while feeding their little egos will further our cause in countless ways and increase your own amusement immeasurably!

But by all means, beware of the Light that comes whenever the Enemy gets his little beasts to think and discuss all matters openly and in submission to his infuriating Voice, for then, Wormwood, all is lost. This situation should be your greatest fear, for the Light that the Enemy then brings to bear upon our purposes can foil all of our best efforts! Therefore, isolate, isolate, isolate!

*
"He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, ‘Arise, eat.’ Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again." (1 Kings 19:4)

You must also learn to use your patient's fatigue. Be sure to work on him when he is most weary, perhaps on Mondays or after particularly nasty church council or congregational meetings. Our near success with that showoff at Mount Carmel illustrates how effectively fatigue can be used against the Enemy's servants; it is at these times that you will most often succeed in getting your patient to dwell upon himself and his present difficulties, rather than that Hedonist who called him, who is likely to simply offer the beast good food and sound sleep. Above all, Wormwood, use your patient's fatigue and troubles to keep his mind in turmoil and away from that other Mountain that we dare not even mention. Timing is everything, so be sure to move against your patient when he is most weak and tired.

*
"And he requested for himself that he might die, and said, 'It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers!'" (1 Kings 19:4b)

Finally, you must utilize this isolation and fatigue to accomplish that most important, and frankly, most deliciously satisfying accomplishment of all: False belief! You will find that in your patient's times of loneliness and weakness, that he will believe just about anything. Even I smile as I fondly recall how we got that showoff at Carmel to whine about not being better than his fathers. As long as you can point your patient to himself and his troubles, instead of that other Mount that we do not name, then you will most likely succeed with him.
Now let me give you one final warning. As we saw after Mount Carmel, all of our best efforts can fail with one whisper of the Enemy. The show off! Therefore, we can never rest. Never assume that your patient is safely won, for even our best of servants, like that miserable traitor Saul, is evidence enough of the Enemy's unfair advantage over us. He is always so undignified, so unethical, and so scandalously unspiritual! Remember: secrecy, isolation, fatigue, and false belief!

I need not mention what penalties will undoubtedly await you, if any future incompetence allows your patient to once again escape into that disgusting Light, that which even Our Father Below dare not look upon.

Your affectionate uncle,

Screwtape

The "Call"

2007-07-09T14:31:00.000-07:00

I question the godliness of the current call process which can be used as an escape route for a pastor who finds himself in a difficult position shepherding a difficult flock, or who may just be tired of his current situation. It is too easy to just place yourself on a call list or go back to seminary to learn or teach. I do not consider this a valid reason to resign one's current call. In my opinion, such personal motives show a sinful lack of fortitude. We are all called to suffer in our vocations.

It might seem at this point that I am just "pastor-bashing." That is not my intent. Keep reading and you will see why I think this is connected to the topic of this blog.

What has happened to the attitude pastors like my great-grandfather had, who shepherded the same congregation for 50 years? I can't even tell you how many pastors we've had at my congregation since he retired in 1946.

I believe this is another example of the secular culture affecting church culture. It seems an inalienable right in today's culture to switch jobs every few years. Loyalty and perseverance are virtues which have gone out the window. Now what matters seems to be moving around incessantly until you "find the right fit." Then we wonder why congregations get the mistaken attitude that pastors are employees under their authority, hired to entertain them with what their tickling ears want to hear. I believe the freedom pastors express in moving about from job to job has fed the problem that exists in honoring the office of holy ministry. I believe the clerical collar and liturgical stole have lost some meaning as well due to the freedom expressed by the current call process.

I'm not saying there aren't ever valid reasons to move pastors around, but I believe our current call process needs a severe overhaul. The decision to move needs to be one made by the advice and counsel of those in authority. It should least of all be a personal decision.

Pastors, please, PLEASE, consider your call a long-term commitment. We sheep need continuity!

Sermon Soundbite: The Pastoral Ministry Today

2007-07-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

Rev. Thomas Zimmerman
Admissions Office
Concordia Theological Seminary

Sound Bite:
The office of holy ministry today

Entire sermon (13:47)

Text: Luke 10:1-20

Quote for the Day: Martin Luther

2007-07-07T23:00:00.000-07:00

I hope, indeed, that believers, those who want to be called Christians, know very well that the spiritual estate [the office of the ministry] has been established and instituted by God, not with gold or silver but with the precious blood and bitter death of his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ [1 Pet. 1:18-19]...

He paid dearly that men might everywhere have this office of preaching, baptizing, loosing, binding, giving the sacrament, comforting, warning, and exhorting with God's word, and whatever else belongs to the pastoral office...

Indeed, it is only because of the spiritual estate that the world stands and abides at all; if it were not for this estate, the world would long since have gone down to destruction.

Martin Luther
qtd. in Why I am a Lutheran by Daniel Preus, pp. 168-169

What's Wrong With a Lamb's Message?

2007-07-07T06:41:00.000-07:00

One of the comments from my last post - from my wife - asked what is wrong with a lamb's message. I must admit that I just threw that in there as an example of something confessional Lutherans seem to disagree with. I got this idea just from reading other blogs. Can someone more knowledgeable give an answer to this question? Why do confessional Lutherans have an aversion to a lamb's message?

Quote for the Day: Rev. Daniel Preus

2007-07-03T14:42:00.000-07:00

When pastors and laypeople truly understand the nature of the office of the holy ministry, God is gloried by His people and Zion experiences God's peace.

Daniel Preus
Why I am a Lutheran, p. 177

What about the Middle-of-the-Road Pastor?

2007-07-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

The point of this blog is to, as Erich put it below, is to "search out how we should honor the office of Holy Ministry and the individuals who hold it." The assumption seems to be that one's pastor is strongly confessional so that the angle is how a layman should support his pastor in his difficulties and pressures coming from his own congregation, maybe his circuit, as well as the ways of the world.

But what if one has a pastor who is ‘middle of the road’? He doesn’t do anything crazy, like dress up in a wookie costume; he doesn’t have a praise band; he does the liturgy and preaches from the lectionary.

But maybe he does little things that would make a confessional Lutheran wince: He doesn't do the liturgy straight from the hymnal, but tinkers with it a little and prints the entire service out in the bulletin. He does a 'lambs message' during the service. He doesn't offer a set time for private confession and absolution although he would give it to you if asked. Maybe you've heard him say, "I'm not a theologian," by which he probably means "I'm not an academic." Maybe his sermons don't measure up to the good examples reviewed on Issues, Etc., but you do hear the gospel. Maybe there are countless other things that might give a confessional blogger cause for concern, but again, as Erich says below, "There are very few biblical reasons to remove a pastor from office... Unless a pastor is guilty of one of these offenses, it is not Christian to oppose him. And not only are we not to oppose him, we are to honor him!"

Well, shouldn't this guy be honored too then? I suppose a response would be, 'Just leave. Find another church," but would that be right, if we are to take seriously the Fourth Commandment as it is expounded by the Large Catechism? I'm not going to leave my temporal father just because he didn't do as good a job as my best friend's father down the road. Nobody's perfect.

Perhaps the best way to honor this pastor is to gently admonish him. How does a layman do that? I'm not sure I'm as interested in hearing an answer from a pastor because he is not in the same situation. His view will always be as one pastor to another. I'd rather hear an answer from a layman. How should a layman confront his pastor on such matters?

The Spritually Abused and the OHM

2007-07-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. James 1:17

Please do not misunderstand the title of this blog. There are certainly times to question and confront pastors in a way consistent with the Fourth Commandment. In fact, we are commanded to do so, especially husbands and fathers, as the heads of our respective households.

In the late 1990's, my wife and I were manipulated and spiritually abused by our 'Lutheran' pastor who would scream threats from the pulpit that if anyone questioned whether the Holy Spirit was speaking through him, that the 'Angel of Death' would come for us and our children. At times he could be winsome and funny, but other times he would flip some switch and then tears would roll down his face and words flow out of his mouth that made him sound like a prophet.

There is a violation involved in spiritual abuse that is much like child abuse. Spiritual fathers are not supposed to use and abuse the souls that have been entrusted to them. It is embarrassing to admit that I fell for such things back then, but I did. Christians who have not been taught to discern, through biblical catechesis, are 'tossed this way and that by every wind of doctrine' and are, more often than not, vulnerable to such deception.

When people, by God's grace, escape toxic, abusive faith systems -- churches or groups that they had assumed were Christian because they bore or used the name of Jesus -- then these dear refugees might very well be filled with fear and/or anger at the mere suggestion that pastors be honored. Yeah, right!

There are quite a few books today about spiritual abuse, but most of them have therapeutic or self-help approaches to recovery that are not principally catechetical. There might be much truth and helpful advice, but good law & Gospel preaching, life-giving catechesis, and the right administration of the sacraments are not identified as the chief antidote to the spiritual wounds and despair that the abused carry with them.

In fact, if one reads online forums for the spiritual abused, there is often a great deal of anger or contempt toward 'organized religion' which makes it very difficult to speak to the abused about, for example, the need for the office of holy ministry. Those who do not completely leave the church often end up in home churches or fellowship groups that have no formally trained and ordained clergy and where they might just encounter more weirdness or perhaps even more abuse. The Who's Won't Get Fool Again comes to mind: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

As far as I know, there are no books that gently introduce Reformation theology as 'a balm in Gilead' to this particular hurting and hidden audience. To Christians who have been abused by individuals within the office of holy ministry, such a book could show, in part, that the OHM is a good gift from God, one that can and should bring healing and forgiveness to them. I am convinced that such a book is needed today.

To those readers who might have that fear and/or anger towards pastors that I mentioned earlier, let me say this: I know that many men within the ranks of the office of holy ministry have let parishioners down or even used them to their own selfish ends. I know that spiritual abuse occurs, for I have experienced it myself. But the abuse of something does not invalidate its proper use, and the office of holy ministry is a great and wonderful gift of God to all of us, through which Christ can bring us his healing and forgiveness.

"A bruised reed He will not break and
a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish."
Isaiah 42:3

The Pastoral Office and the Lutheran Blogosphere

2007-06-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

Originally published on May 1, 2007 at www.theunknownlutheran.blogspot.com.

Ok, let's just admit the problem.

When you were a kid and the garbage man drove by in his garbage truck, you wanted to be a garbage man.

Can you imagine being a fireman? They drive the cool truck around and most of the day they hang out with the boys playing cards and taking turns cooking in the kitchen.

Or see the cool plane in the sky? Man it would be awesome to fly one.

So you are older now. You have three cubicle walls you face everyday, maybe 3.5 if you are lucky. Or you are working on an assembly line somewhere. Or you see this patient or that client about some issue that they have, that probably isn't so serious anyway.

Some time in the last five years you finally woke up from the beer induced stupor of your college years and realized that you are baptized. You started planning your early/late church attendance around the communion schedule. You managed to get your sorry carcass to confession. Then you found another church that offers communion at every divine service. You finally read the Book of Concord and have built a small library of theological books. The 12 years of Lutheran school, no longer seems so Lutheran anymore. And every morning on the way to work you say to yourself, "I wish I was a pastor. I wish I could baptize. I wish I could preach. I wish I could put our Lord's Body and Blood into the mouths of my brothers and sisters in Christ. I wish I could absolve. I wish I could commend the dying."

And in truth, you are the same kid, sitting on the front porch wanting to be a garbage man.... Only looking at the big truck and not noticing the dirty work that goes into filling it.

A former Lutheran pastor once told me: "Most times, I preach the sermon that I need to hear."

I have just done the same.

Meet Eric and Polly Rapp: 'Hey, Preacher Man!'

2007-06-29T17:52:00.000-07:00

Hey, preacher man, give me the Gospel,

It brings salvation to those who believe!

Hey, preacher man, give me the Gospel,

Tell me I'm a sinner and Christ died for me!

I don't want to know what you did last week on your summer vacation,

What you saw and where you went or how much it cost!

Instead won't you tell me all the words that give me salvation,

How He lived and how He died for me on the cross!

Hey, preacher man, give me the Gospel,

Give me the good news of God's only Son!

Hey, preacher man, give me the Gospel,

Give me His body and give me His blood!

I don't want to hear about new ideas you learned while in seminary,

Higher critics and Marcus Borg or John Shelby Spong!

Please don't invite those learned men to preach in our sanctuary,

They're wise to men but fools to God, and such fools are wrong!

Hey, preacher man, give me the Gospel,

Not human wisdom, just tell it to me straight!

Hey, preach man, give me the Gospel,

Let me know I'm foolish and lead me to the gate!

I don't want to hear an opinion piece on the news of political parties

Democrat or Republican, to Him it's all the same!

Please don't tell me how I have to vote to earn the Father's favor,

There's nothing I can do for that, 'cause Christ did everything!

Hey, preacher man, give me the Gospel,

Tell me of the God-Man who bore all the blame!

Hey, preacher man, give me the Gospel,

When you preach the Gospel, you shouldn't be ashamed!

~Eric Rapp

Meet Eric and Polly Rapp!

Web Site

Erich's Blog

I never thought, in my wildest dreams, that I would be hearing beautiful music like this--a song--you know, you ask the average Christian artist, "Oh, can you write a song about the scripture's doctrine of vocation?" and they'd laugh in your face. You've managed to do it ... and beautifully so!... I will say without qualification ... you express [the Gospel] as clearly and ... more eloquently and succinctly than I manage to do on the air most times.... I cannot say "thank you" in grand enough terms for you guys' taking what you guys have heard on this program and putting it so beautifully to music. Thank you to both of you!" ~Pastor Todd Wilken, Issues, Etc., May 25, 2007

"You guys are GREAT! Keep up the music!!!!" ~Pastor William Weedon, May 22, 2007

The Daunting Task Pastors Face

2007-06-29T09:28:00.000-07:00

Erich warned us in his last post that "today's laity typically thinks of the pastor as an employee under the congregation's authority, hired to entertain them with what their tickling ears want to hear."

Several years ago, I heard a pastor read a quotation about the difficulties and temptations of the Office of Holy Ministry. Apparently, this pastor had been installed by his old professor and mentor, John T. Pless, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions and Director of Field Education at Concordia Theological Seminary.

Pastor Pless read some very wise, biblical words of warning to him:

We are going to ordain you to this ministry, and we want your vow that you will stick to it. This is not a temporary job assignment but a way of life that we need lived out in our community.

We know you are launched on the same difficult belief venture in the same dangerous world as we are. We know your emotions are as fickle as ours, and your mind is as tricky as ours. That is why we are going to ordain you and why we are going to exact a vow from you. We know there will be days and months, maybe even years, when we won’t feel like believing anything and won’t want to hear it from you. And we know there will be days and weeks and maybe even years when you won’t feel like saying it. It doesn’t matter. Do it!

You are ordained to this ministry, vowed to it. There may be times when we come to you as a committee or delegation and demand that you tell us something else than what we are telling you now. Promise right now that you won’t give in to what we demand of you.

You are not the minister of our changing desires, or our secularized hopes for something better. With these vows of ordination we are lashing you to the mast of Word and sacrament so you will be unable to respond to the siren voices. There are many other things to be done in this wrecked world, and we are going to be doing at least some of them, but if we don’t know the foundational realities with which we are dealing - God, kingdom, gospel - we are going to end up living futile, fantasy lives.

Your task is to keep telling the basic story, representing the presence of the Spirit, insisting on the priority of God, speaking the biblical words of command, promise, and invitation. (Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor, p. 145)

As we consider how we might 'support, encourage, and defend' our pastors, it might be good for us to remember the daunting task that they face in their ministry of preaching Law and Gospel.

The Old Adam is in each of us, and we all might be tempted to sing the siren song once in a while. Sometimes we would hear what we want, rather than what we need. Praise God for men who ignore the sirens, and may God's grace continue to sustain them!

Blessings.

Honoring Spiritual Fathers Under the 4th Commandment

2007-06-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

In the Large Catechism, which we are all bound to as Lutherans to accept as a right exposition of the Word of God, Luther provides this explanation of how to apply the Fourth Commandment to our treatment of pastors [emphases mine]:

158] Thus we have two kinds of fathers presented in this commandment, fathers in blood and fathers in office, or those to whom belongs the care of the family, and those to whom belongs the care of the country. Besides these there are yet spiritual fathers; not like those in the Papacy, who have indeed had themselves called thus, but have performed no function of the paternal office. For those only are called spiritual fathers who govern and guide us by the Word of God; 159] as St. Paul boasts his fatherhood 1 Cor. 4, 15, where he says: In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel. Now, 160] since they are fathers they are entitled to their honor, even above all others. But here it is bestowed least; for the way which the world knows for honoring them is to drive them out of the country and to grudge them a piece of bread, and, in short, they must be (as says St. Paul, 1 Cor. 4, 13) as the filth of the world and everybody's refuse and footrag.

161] Yet there is need that this also be urged upon the populace, that those who would be Christians are under obligation in the sight Of God to esteem them worthy of double honor who minister to their souls, that they deal well with them and provide for them. For that, God is willing to add to you sufficient blessing and will not let you come to want. 162] But in this matter every one refuses and resists, and all are afraid that they will perish from bodily want, and cannot now support one respectable preacher, where formerly they filled ten fat paunches. 163] In this we also deserve that God deprive us of His Word and blessing, and again allow preachers of lies to arise to lead us to the devil, and, in addition, to drain our sweat and blood.

164] But those who keep in sight God's will and commandment have the promise that everything which they bestow upon temporal and spiritual fathers, and whatever they do to honor them, shall be richly recompensed to them, so that they shall have, not bread, clothing, and money for a year or two, but long life, support, and peace, and shall be eternally rich and blessed. 165] Therefore only do what is your duty, and let God take care how He is to support you and provide for you sufficiently. Since He has promised it, and has never yet lied, He will not be found lying to you.

166] This ought indeed to encourage us, and give us hearts that would melt in pleasure and love toward those to whom we owe honor, so that we would raise our hands and joyfully thank God who has given us such promises, for which we ought to run to the ends of the world [to the remotest parts of India]. For although the whole world should combine, it could not add an hour to our life or give us a single grain from the earth. But God wishes to give you all exceeding abundantly according to your heart's desire. He who despises and casts this to the winds is not worthy ever to hear a word of God. This has now been stated more than enough for all who belong under this commandment.

Let me reiterate: "Those who would be Christians are under obligation in the sight Of God to esteem them worthy of double honor who minister to their souls, that they deal well with them and provide for them. And he who despises and casts this to the winds is not worthy ever to hear a word of God."

That's a pretty uncommon sentiment in today's egalitarian culture. Today's laity typically thinks of the pastor as an employee under the congregation's authority, hired to entertain them with what their tickling ears want to hear. While the congregation has the collective authority to call a pastor, once called he is to be considered "worthy of double honor." There are very few biblical reasons to remove a pastor from office, which is reflected in most congregational constitutions. Unless a pastor is guilty of one of these offenses, it is not Christian to oppose him. And not only are we not to oppose him, we are to honor him!

And what does it mean to "honor?" Again, here is the Large Catechism:

105] To this estate of fatherhood and motherhood God has given the special distinction above all estates that are beneath it that He not simply commands us to love our parents, but to honor them. For with respect to brothers, sisters, and our neighbors in general He commands nothing higher than that we love them, so that He separates and distinguishes father and mother above all other persons upon earth, and places them at His side. 106] For it is a far higher thing to honor than to love one, inasmuch as it comprehends not only love, but also modesty, humility, and deference as to a majesty there hidden, 107] and requires not only that they be addressed kindly and with reverence, but, most of all, that both in heart and with the body we so act as to show that we esteem them very highly, and that, next to God, we regard them as the very highest. For one whom we are to honor from the heart we must truly regard as high and great.

...They are not to be deprived of their honor because of their conduct or their failings. Therefore we are not to regard their persons, how they may be, but the will of God who has thus created and ordained. In other respects we are, indeed, all alike in the eyes of God; but among us there must necessarily be such inequality and ordered difference, and therefore God commands it to be observed, that you obey me as your father, and that I have the supremacy.

...110] Furthermore, that also in our words we observe modesty toward them, do not accost them roughly, haughtily, and defiantly, but yield to them and be silent, even though they go too far.

There we have the purpose of this blog, to search out how we should honor the Office of Holy Ministry, and the individuals who hold it.

But what about those who don't?

137] Whence come so many knaves that must daily be hanged, beheaded, broken upon the wheel, but from disobedience [to parents], because they will not submit to discipline in kindness, so that, by the punishment of God, they bring it about that we behold their misfortune and grief? For it seldom happens that such perverse people die a natural or timely death.

But the godly and obedient have this blessing, that they live long in pleasant quietness, and see their children's children (as said above) to the third and fourth generation.

138] Thus experience also teaches, that where there are honorable, old families who fare well and have many children, they owe their origin to the fact, to be sure, that some of them were brought up well and were regardful of their parents. On the other hand, it is written of the wicked, Ps. 109, 13: Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. 139] Therefore heed well how great a thing in God's sight obedience is, since He so highly esteems it, is so highly pleased with it, and rewards it so richly, and besides enforces punishment so rigorously on those who act contrariwise.
...149] Whoever will not be influenced by this and inclined to godliness we hand over to the hangman and to the skeleton-man, i.e., death [death the all-subduer, the teacher of wicked children]. Therefore let every one who allows himself to be advised remember that God is not making sport, and know that it is God who speaks with you and demands obedience. If you obey Him, you are His dear child; but if you despise to do it, then take shame, misery, and grief for your reward.

Notice, however, that it is not our job to carry out this sentence of God on those who disobey this commandment. They bring upon themselves misery and grief. So long as we are able, we should admonish and rebuke our fellow Christian brothers and sisters such that they learn to obey this commandment, and so they do not bring the judgment of God upon themselves and upon their congregations. We need to speak the truth in Love.

"In case you haven't noticed, it is now uncool to sound like you know what you're talking about or believe strongly in what you're, like, saying..."

2007-06-28T12:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a very funny mp3 that relates to Pastor McCain's post below. I recieved it this winter from my student teacher. Listen to the whole thing.

Heh, heh.

Blessings.

Beggars All on the OHM: The Wisdom from Èowyn

2007-06-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

I will copy and paste/post this from the dank and dusty Beggars All archives due to its Lord of the Rings spin and the related topic:

"Women of this country learned long ago
that those without swords may still die upon them.
I fear neither death nor pain."
- Èowyn

If you haven't done so already, go on over to Cyberbrethren and read Pastor Paul T. McCain's post on "pastors" who spout lines like these: "I'm not really into theology" or "I'm no theologian, but..."

I don't know if it's disrespectful to call a member of the Holy Ministry a theological stud muffin or a confessional Jedi Master, but either way, Rev. McCain regularly says things that really need to be said, and in this post he is right on target. Go on over there and read the whole thing, but if you don't want to make the trip, I've quoted his entire post below.

Why do I have the picture of Èowyn above? Because I want to paraphrase her words in order to add something to Rev. McCain's thoughts:

"The laity of this country learned long ago
that those without swords may still die upon them."

I sadly have to agree with Pastor McCain's post. There are many pastors who brush aside the meat, potatoes, and veggies of sound doctrinal teaching as well as Law & Gospel preaching because they would rather give their people the jelly donut snacks of theraputic, moralistic pep rally talks. And if this is true among clergy, how much more is this true among the laity.

I think that this pretentious, patronizing, and populist aw shucks, I just wanna love the Lord approach to the Word has deep historic roots in America, and folks like Mark Noll and Os Guinness have eloquently described this serious problem.

But life in American Evangelicalism and, alas, in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has taught me that if I, as shepherd of my family, am unwilling to learn to use the sword of the Spirit to discern truth and protect my family -- if I am unwilling to take up and learn to use the sword myself -- then we, like the women of Rohan, could very well die upon the sword of the Spirit as it is twisted by the Enemy. I am responsible.

Here are Pastor McCain's thoughts:

"I'm not really into theology."

"I'm no theologian, but..."

These are two phrases that drive me bonkers. Let me explain.

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have heard a pastor preface his remarks this way. It is a sort of defensive weapon in an argument -- "Well, I'm no theologian, but..." -- and then the pastor proceeds to regale the listener with his theological opinion, or is that a non-theological theological opinion?

Am I supposed to be impressed by an aw shucks I'm basically a simple bumpkin approach to speaking truths about our Lord and His Word? Count me out!

Now don't get me wrong. I am just as turned off as you are by pastors who have this compulsion to use jargon, to throw around Greek, Hebrew, Latin or German terms to wow and amaze their listeners. They love to toss out technical terminology. No, those aren't theologians either; in many cases, they are insecure little boys who have not gained confidence in what they think they believe, so they have to resort to rhetorical game-playing to try to "wow" their audiences.

The best theologian/pastors are men who can preach clearly and simply so that the most unlearned layman in the church can understand what they are talking about.

Am I suggesting pastors are to be ethereal eggheads whose heads are so far buried in weighty tomes they have no concept what life in the real world is like? Of course not!

So let me now say this: If a pastor says to you, "I'm no theologian, but..." -- you should look him politely in the eye, interrupt him gently, and ask, "Oh, pastor, if you are not a theologian, should you be a pastor?"

Or if a pastor ever says to you, "I'm not really into theology..." -- again, politely but immediately interrupt and say, "You aren't? That's really a distressing thing to hear a pastor say. If my doctor ever told me that he is not really into medicine, I would find a new doctor."

I am dead serious. We have got to work at stopping this horrible nonsense! Think for a moment about it:
You go to a doctor, ask his opinion, and he says, "Well, I'm no medical expert, but..."
Or you go to your bank to ask a financial question, and the person you talk to says, "Well, I'm no financial expert, but..."
Or the pharmacist: "Well, I'm not really into chemistry, but..."
Or the mechanic: "I'm no mechanical expert, but..."
What would you do? Would you hang around to hear his opinion? Would you pay it any attention, if he offered it? Of course not! You might smile politely and nod, but you would walk away thinking, "I'm not going back to him, that's for sure!”

If a pastor is not a theologian, he should not be a pastor. Similarly, a pastor who is an incompetent teacher should not be a pastor. How many times have we experienced a pastor who cannot teach a Bible class well to save his life? If he cannot, then he should never have been certified to be a pastor. The Scriptures say that a man must be "apt to teach" in order to be a pastor.

Now, mind you, I am not suggesting that all pastors necessarily are experts in all facets of academic scholarship concerning theology. But a theologian is not a professor at a seminary or a researcher at some institute. Ivory tower academics speculating about theology are not necessarily theologians. A Ph.D. is not the qualification to be a theologian.

Perhaps part of our problem is that we have mistakenly equated theologian with academic. But pick up most any academic theological journal and ask yourself, "What in here is really going to serve the teaching of the Gospel?" Sadly, much academic theology today is just playing to the guild of scholars. That is not necessarily theology and the academics doing this are not necessarily theologians.

Pastors must be theologians. Theologians are men who rightly divide God's Word, properly, carefully and faithfully distinguishing Law and Gospel, faithfully preaching and teaching that Word and fulfilling the duties of their office as pastor: caring for the souls entrusted to them with the Word of God.

Accept no substitutes! Oh, yes, but...you know, well, mind you, I'm no theologian!

Arghhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Herzlich Willkommen!

2007-06-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Sean, Erich, and Eric!

Hey, maybe one fruit of our discussion/study here will be a song composed by Eric about the Office of Holy Ministry as vocation. ;-) More Than Enough -- the song on vocation in general -- is certainly my favorite!

Blessings.

Sean the Hot Lutheran: The Office of Holy Ministry

2007-06-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

The Hot Michigander Organist writes:

My father and I have been talking a few times recently about our frustrations with the Office of Holy Ministry, or at least with some of its "officers". On his side, a pastor is promoting questionable programs that are un-Lutheran and encourage some false teachings. Certainly, he is promoting a contemporary worship program that is contrary to the liturgical service of God. He would like to see my former congregation become a mega-church, much like another LCMS congregation down the road. He is setting himself up as the "CEO" pastor, and has not had a large amount of success thusfar. My father thinks the problem is that Pastors are taught that they are God's voice to the world, and that without them, God's work and will would not be done. As a result, this builds an ego and leads to a lot of abuse. In the case of my former congregation, I think that's probably right on the money.

The one thing is, pastors ARE God's voice to His people. They are the called and ordained servants of the Word. They act "in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ". I want nothing less from a pastor. I think the unfortunate problem comes when pastors cease to perform their duties as Christ's minister and instead do their own "ministry" for God. The Church acknowledges that pastors are leaders of their congregations only as Christ is a leader of the whole Church. Christ was a shepherd, a very slave to His flock. Pastors too are slaves to us, the laypersons. Their shackles are the Divine Service. It is in the context of the liturgy that Christ gives himself in Word and Sacrament, through His called and ordained servant. It is in the liturgy where God's work is done. (Gottesdienst: Divine SERVICE or WORK... these things make so much sense! :)

No wonder the first thing a CEO-style pastor will do is to change the Divine Service: The liturgy is their handcuff. They are bound by it to serve the laity and not themselves. The one place where a step-by-step set of instructions does not exist for the Christ's ministry in the Divine Service is in the sermon. There most certainly is a framework in place however that indicates a Christian sermon: It preaches Christ, and Him crucified for sinners. It has Law, which shows man his sin, and it has Gospel which brings Christ to remedy that sin. The Lectionary is no accident or option as well. It is no surprise to me that the Lectionary and solid Christo-centric and Law/Gospel preaching are all thrown out quickly by the CEO pastor also. Free from the "shackles" of the liturgy and Christian preaching, they may take the "Divine Service" in any direction they choose, such as the theology of glory-even their own glory.

This brings us to my side of the issue: pastors who are being forced from their congregation. Perhaps it's not a lack of respect for the Office of Holy Ministry after all. Maybe congregations don't want their pastor to be their slave. Maybe congregations don't want Christ to serve them? It seems clear to me that any pastor who insists on the historic liturgy, especially when they insist on the many ceremonies that accompany it, is willfully and intentionally asking to be shackled. To be bound and chained to Christ and His cross, and stripped of their own glory. They donn vestments that hide themselves, showing only the Office they hold. They do not choose their own words, but instead speak only Christ's Words. Their Benediction, Pax, and Verba are not their own, but are Christ's. They may not speak their own comforting words, no matter how deeply they as individuals care for their parishioners. They speak only the comforting Words of Christ.

If this sort of pastor would insist that I do or consider something, I would listen because I know it is of God. If I have any doubt, this is the sort of pastor who would direct me to our Confessions and ultimately to Holy Scripture. He is worthy of our respect and trust, because we are not really respecting or trusting him at all. We trust and respect Christ, and therefore we respect His Office, wherever it is truly carried out.

I have experience with the former sort of pastor that my father is dealing with. These pastors make their demands on God's people as well. When one questions or has doubt, they are not directed to Holy Scripture or to the Lutheran Confessions, but are called names, put down, dismissed, or directed to human reason or emotional appeal. These pastors are not Christ's ministers. They are their own. What to do with one who has a call and yet builds his own glory instead of being a slave? I have no idea. I find comfort in Christ's Words that He gives to Timothy through His true minister: "Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity."

The enemies of Christ seek to depose His ministers, while the enemies of Christ seek to lift up and support the pastors who will not be slaves to God's people. I would not be like them. It is a terrible and tragic thing to unseat one who has a proper call. I pray that Christ's ministers be received joyfully as slaves among God's people, who so desperately need the gifts of Christ. I pray that Christians not despise the shackles which bind our pastors to be Christ for us. I pray that I may continue to receive Christ freely and often from one of His true ministers, a slave to me, for I am the CEO: the CEO of sinners.

Indeed. Regarding CEO or Bill Hybels wannabes, I do acknowledge that there are times to question pastors. The thing is, however, the confessional types who simply unpack God's Law and Gospel and faithfully administer the Sacraments seem to welcome questions regarding the Scriptures, for they stand under God's Word.

Blessings.

Tim

This Blog

2007-06-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

Remember in the film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, when Gimli attempts to destroy the one Ring of Power with an 'Argh' and a swift whack of his battle axe? He landed flat on his back with his battle axe in pieces.

Frodo, the Ringbearer, needed to deal with that Ring, and his nine companions could merely offer their support, help, and protection. Tolkien scholars, like Bradley Birzer, have pointed out the prophet, priest, and king imagery in Gandalf, Frodo, and Aragorn, and this morning I see that many faithful Lutheran clergy, much like Frodo Baggins in his role of the Ringbearer, are called to carry a weight that the Apostle Paul spoke of in 1 Corinthians 4:13: "We have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things."

How might laymen honor and help those called to 'bear the Ring' of the ministry of Word and Sacrament? This blog will attempt to foster a fruitful public discussion on the role of laity in the support, encouragement, and defense of faithful ordained ministers of Word and Sacrament who refuse to bow the knee to the idols of our day.

Tim

TUEBOR: Honoring the Office of Holy Ministry

Pastor Roger James

Father Hollywood: Intro to the Book of Concord (Viewer Discretion Advised)

Success

Pr. Roger JamesTwelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Zion Lutheran ChurchMarshall, Michiganhttp://zionmarshall.org/mp3/2010/SERMON_2010_08_15.mp3

I love a parade

BEICHTSPIEGEL

The Sacrament and the Church Under the Cross

A Lutheran Manifesto

John Dewey and Confessional Pastors

Missourian Ecclesiology

Roll Call

Pulling Back the Curtain: The Specious Siren Call of the Purple Palace

Issues, Etc.: Educating Congregations on the LCMS Mess

The White Horse Inn Interview of Mollie Hemingway on Issues, Etc.

An den Herrn Strand: "Misapprehension about the Size of the Issues, Etc. Audience"

Issues, Etc. Petition

Holy Tuesday Treachery

Some Music for Advent

God Speaks Through Real Mouths!

Jeff Schwarz for the President of Something

Blind Men, Beggars, Preaching and Those Who are Sent

Wonderful News from Northern Europe! Pray for the Ordained in Finland

Is your Lutheran pastor trying to make you a Roman Catholic?

New Feed for Our Podcast

Bible Class on the Royal Priesthood: Lesson #3

Protecting My Family from False Doctrine and Bad Pastors

Paper Just Published by Rev. Joel Baseley, Emmanuel-Dearborn

The Priesthood of all Believers: Lesson #2 (9/30/07)

Jokes & Preaching

Cyberbrethren: Pious Pretense and Attacks Against Faithful Shepherds

When Pastors Fail

The Priesthood of all Believers, Lesson #1

Quote for the Day

Which family ought we focus upon?

Pastor Stuckwisch: Catechesis, Confession, and Admittance to the Holy Communion

October 5-7 Youth Retreat in Marshall, Michigan!

Roman Catholic Bishop tells us to...

Issues, Etc. Coming to Detroit

Sound Bite: Korah's Rebellion Today

Pastor Roger James: Bible Class on Acts 11 & OHM

Quote for the Day: Charles H. Spurgeon

Loose Cannons & the OHM

A Plug for My Pastor's Podcast

Another Pearl from Pr. Weedon...

Young Pastors Need Special Encouragement

That ol' sinful nature

Pastors, Finish the Race!

Hey, Preacherman James!

Spiritual Care for Pastors

Program Objectives:

The program curriculum:

Pastors participating in DOXOLOGY will:

Who Ever Thought it Would be Cool to Hang Out with the Ordained?

Well, this explains a few things...

Urbanus Rhegius: Preaching the Reformation

Ordination: Ears, Thumbs, and Toes

The Emperor's New Clothes: Talking About Our Problems

Chemnitz's Little Book & the Voice of the Shepherd

Eric & Polly!

Thomas á Kempis Weighes In...

Sean: More Thoughts on Children's Sermons

Childrens' Sermons and Regular Sermons

Praying for One's Pastors and Leaders

More on Apostolicity and the OHM

Secret Ballots and the OHM

Pastor Inqvist's Trip to Orlando

Issues, Etc. Soundbite: 'I get nothing out of my pastor's worship services!'

The Beichtspiegel and the OHM

Is My Pastor Valid and Due the Honor of the OHM

Screwtape and the Office of Holy Ministry

The "Call"

Sermon Soundbite: The Pastoral Ministry Today

Quote for the Day: Martin Luther

What's Wrong With a Lamb's Message?

Quote for the Day: Rev. Daniel Preus

What about the Middle-of-the-Road Pastor?

The Spritually Abused and the OHM

The Pastoral Office and the Lutheran Blogosphere

Pr. Roger James
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Zion Lutheran Church
Marshall, Michigan

http://zionmarshall.org/mp3/2010/SERMON_2010_08_15.mp3