No. 10. >> I have what may be a sensitive question in light of recent LCMS history. At the same time the issue I'm raising is both practical in nature and sorely in need of resolution. The topic concerns the civil events that come up from time to time. In my relatively small town, pastors take turns leading a prayer at the City Council meeting and in conducting baccalaureate services each year at the public high school. If the LCMS pastor did not participate, it would be noticed. And many would not understand. What should I do when my turn comes around? >>DR. JOEL D. BIERMANN: Oh, Joshua, Joshua. You know how to make a theologian squirm. This is not an easy thing. And one I would rather just say: Ah, go ask your circuit counselor and slough it off. But that would really be unfair and I would be failing to do my responsibility. Which would be sin, as I pointed out. So I need to address it. And I'll try. So there are several things to take into account. If we only had to do left hand, right hand stuff, I think it would be a relatively easy way to go. You would ask yourself the question: What is the need of the hour? What's going on here? Are there left hand needs that are being driven or is it right hand needs? And if I'm going to enter into the left hand realm and serve the left hand, how can I do it best? And that's pretty simple. And you can move forward. Let's just go with some concrete examples because it gets easier that way. Let's say for example, your town has built a new City Hall and you're in a smaller area and you have this City Hall and they want to dedicate this City Hall in a special ceremony. And they decide they should have a prayer at this dedication. And they ask you to do the prayer. So you make some questions and find out where is it going to be? What the setting is. And you find out is anybody else going to be involved in this? Any other clergy? They say: No. You're the only guy. We want you to come and do the prayer. It's your time. We like how you do things. Whatever. So you're going to come and do the prayer and there will be other things happening. So this is a civil event. No doubt about it. It's a civil event. And they've asked you to come and participate. So can you do that? You're going to get different answers. My answer is yes. But when you do it, I would say you're putting on your left hand hat. Now, they know you're a pastor come and they know you're come in the role of pastor. But you're putting on the left hand hat and entering into the left hand realm. So you can go there and deliver that prayer in service to the left hand. Now, let's think about this prayer a minute. What's the goal here? What's the agenda? I don't think your agenda is to go there and proclaim Christ. I know I'm going to catch flack for this. But I don't think that's your No. 1 agenda. I think your agenda is to go there and remind the left hand about what it's supposed to be doing. So you're going to remind them of their accountability to a greater Creator. That there is a God. They all know it. And they are accountable to him. So I think you should say things in your prayer like: Lord, let this City Council do its job well. Let this building be a place where justice is accomplished. And where what is fair and right and good for your people is carried out. And make the people who come here, remind them of their responsibility to you to be faithful in their tasks. And bring them to repentance when they fail. And thwart evil. That should be the gist of that prayer. I don't think you should go in there and talk about Jesus loves all of you and he's forgiven all of you. Because that's not the setting. That's what they get Sunday morning from you. And if you are faithful in that left hand realm and do what needs to be done in the left hand realm and speak for God to the left hand, hold them accountable, remind them of their responsibility. And be a messenger of God's truth in that place. I believe people will respect that and recognize the integrity that you bring to that situation. And you might well open up opportunities for more personal conversations with people where you do proclaim Christ specifically. Now, if they come walking into your church Sunday morning, that's a different game. Now you're doing the right hand thing. And now, yeah, you do the law and Gospel. Forgiveness. Proclaim Christ. But when you're entering into their world in the left hand, you're playing by their rules. It's a little different. So that's how I would approach that. Baccalaureate service. That's a different animal. Because baccalaureate services are notoriously ecumenical. And now you've brought in a whole other agenda. If we're just doing left hand, right hand stuff, it's not so hard. You ask yourself: Am I doing left hand work or right hand work? Do what's appropriate. Off I go. And sort things out. But now as soon as we start doing the ecumenical agenda or bringing in other pastors or other clergy or other religions, now we've got another issue going on and a big confusing complicated issue. And that's the problem of unionism or syncretism or accommodating other religions. And that we have to be careful of. Because we do not want to give the message or the impression that somehow what you believe really doesn't matter. We're all worshiping the same God. And it really doesn't matter if you're Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Methodist, Baptist or Catholic. Hey, it's the same God and we are all in this religion thing together. And we all love God and we all love people. We're all cool. That's the wrong message. And if you participate in a circumstance that's going to perpetuate that message, you need to think very carefully about: Do I really want to be here? Or am I somehow misrepresenting what the church stands for because I cannot disassociate myself from the church. You can't say I won't wear my collar. So what? You're still the pastor of that church. And people know it. And you can't disassociate yourself from that representation of Christ in that place. So you have to be very careful you're not giving a mixed message about what you are and what you stand for. Now, there are countless concrete examples you can think of and each one needs to be think of on its own merits. What are the left hand responsibilities? What are the left hand opportunities? What does the church need to do for the sake of the world at this time and place. Or -- and am I being faithful in the message I'm giving? Or am I giving a confused message? After September 11th there was this huge -- you know, 2001, the whole -- the terrorist attacks, there was this huge kind of resurgence of interest in the church. And people were turning to the church for answers. And the church needed to be there to give answers to the left hand. Is there a God? Yes. Does he care? Yes. Is he still in control? Yes. Those are the kinds of messages the church needed to be delivering. And calling people to repentance for their failure to pay attention to God. And delivering the Gospel to those who are looking for answers and who are hurt. The church needed to be there to do that. What settings were appropriate? Wow, man, that was a hot time. Some settings were definitely appropriate. Churches were appropriate. Public gatherings of people where they wanted to have a Word from the clergy. Those could be appropriate, too. But you had to be careful you didn't mix your message up by somehow looking like we're saying the same thing as everybody else. You can't do that, either. So these are not easy answers. And they are not simple answers or simple solutions. Because you have to take into account so many layers of things going on. Not only law-Gospel. Not only two realms. Not only two kingdoms. Because also you've got the whole promise of unionism and faithfulness to our call and not promoting idolatry. It gets tough. I would also say quite honestly, Joshua, I don't think the church -- our church, the LCMS, has really come to terms with the final answer on this thing. We've got some CTCR documents out which are really trying to deal with this. But even those usually leave more questions than answers when you get done with them. Simply because there's so many elements going on. I would say that the issues today in the 21st Century are not quite the same as they were in the 16th Century. And to sort of neatly take 16th Century answers and slap them onto the 21st Century doesn't always work. Because the pluralism in Luther's day would have meant you would have Calvinists, Lutherans and Catholics kind of in the same area. But even in Luther you would have the whole princedom would all go one direction. For us pluralism means Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Wiccans all together. Things are a lot more complicated today. We also have the issue of in Luther's day an area was very small. You didn't have mass media broadcasting images all over. And you didn't have the kind of mass participation in one event. You would have an event in a civic area meant people who could walk there would participate. And that was it. No one else was involved. Now you have the whole world watching civic events. And so the audience is different. And how we maintain integrity of proclaiming Christ alone as the only way of salvation. And standing for what is doctrinally correct while we engage the left hand realm and meet our responsibilities to help them be a good left hand and hold them accountable, today in the 21st Century, that's not easy. And I don't think we have yet come to terms with that fully. There needs to be a lot more discussion in our church body I believe about these issues. As together we sort out how we remain faithful and how we remain engaged. Because building walls and retreating behind the commune walls is not the answer. And neither is the answer accommodating ourselves to the culture and looking like: Hey, we're all just one big religious family here. That's not right, either. Now, how we find the truth between those two wrong extremes is not easy. But we have to find it. And we have to work our way forward. And here is probably the strongest admonition I will give: There needs to be a great deal of understanding and patience and love and fraternity among us as we try to find our way forward. Because different men will come up with different answers at different times. And what the pastor down the road decides what he can do in good conscience, maybe you don't think you can do. But don't look at your brother and say: He's wrong or he's a fool or he's being unfaithful. Because you don't know that. Go and talk to him. Find out what he's thinking. What's motivating him. Maybe share your concerns with him. Maybe he'll tell you: Hey, I know that. I'm very aware of that. But I also know I have a responsibility to serve my left hand and if I didn't do this, I would be neglecting my responsibility. That's wrong, too, isn't it? So you see, it's not always easy. And so different brothers, pastors, might have different answers what they would do in situations. Don't assume they are being unfaithful just because they come up with a different answer as we're working our way through this very difficult situation of how to be faithful and give a faithful witness in a very pluralistic culture. It's not an easy answer. And we need to do a lot more thinking and talking about this as we work our way forward and figuring out what this means. How to engage the culture. And to be faithful. And to meet the left hand realm needs even as we remain faithful in the right hand realm. Not an easy one. And I don't appreciate you putting me on the spot. But you're right. It needs to be asked.