LIFE Called and Ordained - p.5 The Gospel Ministry—In the Lutheran Confessions - p.8 Confessing the Name of the Triune God - p.10 The Keys: Christ’s Word of Law and Gospel - p.12 Living by Faith - p.14 In the Field - p.16 WORLD of the For the October 1999. Volume Three, Number Four F E A T U R E S 3 From the President 4 Letters to the Editor 5 Called & Ordained by the Rev. Chad L. Bird Pastor, St. Paul Lutheran Church Wellston, Okla. Those who, in the stead and by the mandate of Christ, absolve, preach, catechize, and celebrate the Sacrament are His priestly ministers. 8 The Gospel Ministry —In the Lutheran Confessions by the Rev. Prof. Kurt Marquart Assoc. Professor Systematic Theology Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne, Ind. The Lutheran Confessions maintain the full integrity of the public ministry of the New Testament. 10 Confessing the Name of the Triune God by Elizabeth A. Fluegel Research Director LCMS Office of Government Information Washington, D.C. The task of handling eternal things is that of the Christian pastor. He is called to preserve and preach unspoiled, undisturbed and undis- torted the image of the Eternal One: the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 12 The Keys: Christ’s Word of Law & Gospel by the Rev. Prof. Lawrence Rast Asst. Professor Historical Theology Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne, Ind. The keys carry the Gospel, in the broad sense, forward, condemning self-assured people of their sin and assuring the contrite of their forgiveness. 14 Living by Faith by the Rev. Scott Klemsz Publisher, For the Life of the World and Director of Admission & Public Relations Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne, Ind. For the men and women of the former Soviet Union, living by faith is more than an act of personal devotion or piety—it is the reality of their lives. 16 In the Field by Pam Knepper Managing Editor For the Life of the World Features the Rev. David Mumme, Pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church, Marseilles, Ill. For theLIFE WORLDofthe PRESIDENT Rev. Dr. Dean O. Wenthe PUBLISHER Rev. Scott Klemsz MANAGING EDITOR Pam Knepper ART DIRECTOR Steve Blakey For the Life of the World is published quarterly by Concordia Theological Seminary Press, 6600 North Clinton Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46825. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher of For the Life of the World. Copyright 1999. Printed in the United States. Postage paid at Fort Wayne, Indiana. To be added to our mailing list please call 219/452-2150 or e-mail Rev. Scott Klemsz at CTSNews. For the Life of the World is mailed to all pastors and congregations of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in the United States and Canada and to anyone interested in the work of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind. page 6 page 12 CONTENTS page 8 page 14 page 16 page 10 For the Life of the World2 T he topic of the Gospel Ministry is unfolded in the progression from Article V through Article XIV toArticle XXVIII of theAugs- burg Confession. Many people think that Article V of the Preaching Office deals only with Gospel-functions, not with the Gospel-pro- claiming office. But this is a mistake.What is divine- ly instituted here is the one office of “ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the sacra- ments” (Latin). The office exists for the Gospel. That is its sole purpose. This is the glorious evangelical distinctiveness of the church of the Augsburg Con- fession. In both Rome and Geneva, the ministry is heavily Law-dominated. By contrast, it is typical of our Confession to see the pastor as the personal rep- resentative of Jesus the friend of sinners—come to seek and to save the lost. This means that the Gospel (including the sacraments) does not receive its power or validity from the office holders, from church bureaucracies, or from proper transmission or ordination rites. Quite the contrary—the ministry receives all of its power from the Gospel itself, which alone is the power of God for salvation. Article XIV tells us very tersely how one gets into that Gospel-preaching office, namely, by way of a proper call, that is, by a call from God through the church. Since the church consists of hearers and preachers together—not one set without the other— hearers and preachers act together in calling a quali- fied man into the office. Is ordination divine or human? That depends on whether one means theo- logical substance or ritual form. Since the office is divine, putting a man into it is part of the divine institution. This is the theological substance of the act, which is normally a process that includes sever- al facets. These can include the candidate’s fitness, his selection, and his investiture for his field of ser- vice in a public service of the church. In this sense “call” and “ordination” are synonyms.And to under- score the divinity of the Gospel-preaching office— 8 TheGospel In theLutheran Confe By the For the Life of the World Our Lutheran Confessions maintain the full integrity of the public ministry of the New Testament, and guard this evangelical highway, as it were, against the ditches of Roman priest-craft and hierarchicalism on the one hand, and of popular Protestant mob-rule and secular democratism on the other. as opposed to the humanly invented order of mass-sacrifi- cers—Apology XIII is pre- pared to call ordination into that holy office a “sacrament.” But there is no divinely prescribed ritual by which such entry into the ministry is accomplished. The laying on of hands is an apostolic custom with rich Old Testament background, and should on no account be omitted; but it is not as such a divine institution or a sacrament. Finally,Article XXVIII spells out the proper work of pastors or bishops. The power of the keys or of the church or of bishops (these terms are used inter- changeably) is exercised only by preaching, teach- ing, absolving and retaining, and administering the sacraments. There is no divinely established chain of command or pecking order here. Christ rules His church by the Gospel, and His and His church’s ministers are the divinely appointed bearers of that Gospel. That bishops “may make regulations” for good order, which ought to be kept for the sake of peace and unity, must be understood in contrast to the princely pretensions of the Roman bishops. In the evangelical context there is no place for a lordly imposition of decisions by the pastor, from on high, as it were, on a purely passive flock. Neither, of course, may the flock tyrannize the pastor. In mat- ters neither commanded nor forbidden in the Word of God, both pastor and people are free, and neither has any right to command or prescribe anything to the other. Everything here must be done in mutual love, consent, and accommodation. “Love is empress in ceremonies,” said Luther. The most detailed discussion of the ministry in the Confessions is that of the Treatise of the Power and Primacy of the Pope. Two important truths are enshrined here. One is that the Keys of the Kingdom belong not to particular persons or to pastors only, but to the church as such, “originally and immediately.” The church is the Bride of Christ, and therefore the rightful owner, together with Her Divine Husband, of all spiritual treasures. The min- isters administer the treasures, which the church owns. The second corresponding truth is that Christ builds His church on this Gospel and these sacra- ments preached and administered by His appointed ministers. This Gospel-preaching-and-confessing, not St. Peter as a person, is the Rock (Par. 25). The next paragraph interprets the “ministry” of Eph- esians 4:12 as belonging to the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers—not as in modern translations where pastors are supposed to “equip” the laity for “ministry.” All in all, our Lutheran Confessions maintain the full integrity of the public ministry of the New Testament, and guard this evangelical highway, as it were, against the ditches of Roman priest-craft and hierarchicalism on the one hand, and of popular Protestant mob-rule and secular democratism on the other. The Rev. Prof. Kurt Marquart is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind. 9 Ministry I essions Rev. Prof. Kurt Marquart OCTOBER 1999