No. 25. >> Your response makes so much sense. And it will be helpful to me as I prepare sermons and Bible classes. Now I would like to try a different question all together. One of the neighboring congregations here in Cleveland operates a Lutheran day school with a ton of rules. My question I guess is whether a Lutheran school is a left hand or a right hand thing. As I'm asking this question, I'm remembering hearing about a Lutheran High School in Racine, Wisconsin where the principal operated strictly on the basis of the Gospel. It seems to me one thing to correctly divide law and Gospel in response to an act. And yet, a completely different thing to establish policy on a corrective vision of law and Gospel. So again, is a Lutheran school a right hand or a left hand institution? >>DR. JOEL D. BIERMANN: All right, David, that's a good question. And the question about how does a school operate I think is quite relevant. And actually it's actually pretty is simple. I would say that -- or rather obviously, a school is a left hand thing. It's an institution of this world. And even the agenda of a school, even a Lutheran school, is primarily left hand stuff. You think about what goes on in a Lutheran day school. You're teaching geography and math and science and literature and history. You're teaching them things about this world with the goal of making these students good citizens. Sharp, well educated with the skills and the abilities so they can function well in this world. And be a blessing to the world around them. Luther talks about this all the time. Being a blessing to the nation and to the family and to the church. We want to create citizens who can do this. And so the vast majority of the school day is in -- occupied with the left hand stuff. Let me push this even further. Even Catechism instruction is primarily left hand stuff. You're teaching them about the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer. You're teaching them stuff they need to know to function well as good members of the church. The Gospel proclamation, Gospel is always about declaring forgiveness of sins. Gospel is the bold word of forgiveness that says. I forgive you your sins. That's Gospel. That's the Gospel. And if the Gospel is made to do anything else besides just being the bold declaration of God's favor through Christ, unmerited, if the Gospel is made to bear more than that in its task, we end up you ruining the Gospel. So if I'm going to try to run a school on the Gospel, I'm going to end up making the Gospel become a law. So you've got to love people. That's law, not Gospel. It sounds Gospel. But really not. Or you've got to be kind. Well, that's just law under the auspices or under the kind of pretexts of Gospel. Gospel does not work well for running an institution. Gospel works for delivering grace and for telling people where they stand with God. It's a wonderful gift. And I'm not trying to sell it short. I'm just saying: Don't make the Gospel do what it doesn't do. It doesn't run an institution. The law does that. So a school really is a left hand institution. And I don't think there's any value at all in trying to shove the Gospel in. Or trying to make the institution work by the Gospel. Now, does the Gospel have a place in a Lutheran school? Well, sure, the teacher on a regular basis, just running the classroom in classroom instruction is going to be lecturing and teaching all kinds of left hand stuff. Kids are going to misbehave. There's going to be discipline. Left hand stuff. There's going to be repentance. And there's going to be the delivery of forgiveness. And there's going to be the proclamation of what Christ has done. That will happen. It's kind of the undercurrent all the way through. The reality of who we are in Christ. And what it means to be God's forgiven people living in this world, that's there all the time. But this notion of running our school by the Gospel. Or this notion that we're not going to have any rules in this school because we're a Gospel place, to me that's missing the point all together. Because a school is just by definition an element of the left hand. Rules, structures, organization, authority. It's all part of it. And it's all fine. It's not a bad thing. It's just the way that God works in the ways of this world doing the task of equipping people for their responsibilities in their vocations. And also making sure that the Gospel is being proclaimed clearly when it can be. They are both there.