ROUGHLY EDITED COPY LUTHERAN CONFESSIONS LCPTP-12 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. P.O. Box 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 www.captionfirst.com *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *** >> NICK: Thank you. I'd like to ask another question on the same topic. How shall we understand the sacraments as means of grace? And how do we communicate this understanding to our congregation? >> DR. WARNECK: Nick, I'm happy that you raised that question because this phrase "means of grace" is so very meaningful and so very cherished among us in the Lutheran church. It's part of our ongoing vocabulary as Lutheran Christians. Our Lutheran Confessions encourage reference to the sacraments as, as you say, means of grace or signs of grace. Now, let's take the term "sign." When our confessions address that term, they always have in view the word of Christ. Thus, baptism is a washing by water and the word. The Lord's Supper is bread and wine, eating and drinking, but more, taking the body and blood of Christ according to his word. What is really stated here? The sacraments are signs of grace. They are signs of God's will toward us, his good and gracious will. And by virtue of their union, water, bread, and wine, with the word of Christ�these signs actually bear the promise of that word. The Scandinavian theologian, Holsten Fagerberg, comments, he says, "The word, which forms a union with the sign" -- bread, wine, water -- is a word of promise. The specific content of the promise is the assurance of the forgiveness of sins. And it is identical with the Gospel in the sense of promise." End of quote from Holsten Fagerberg. The apology states�-- the apology to the Augsburg Confession addresses this relationship of the sign to the word in this manner: It writes or it reads, "Therefore, the word offers the forgiveness of sins while the ceremony is a sort of picture or seal," as Paul calls it, "showing forth the promise." Melanchthon further clarifies the sign within what he calls the rite, presumably, the administration of the sacraments. He refers to baptism, the Lord's Supper and holy absolution and he comments, quote, "And God moves our hearts through the word and the rite at the same time so that they believe and receive faith just as Paul says. So faith comes from what is heard. For just as the word enters through the ear in order to strike the heart, so also the rite enters through the eye in order to move the heart. The word and the rite have the same effect." End of quote. St. Augustine put it well when he said that the sacrament is a visible word. And of course Dr.�Martin Luther reiterated that very term "visible word." Because the rite received by the eyes, as it were, is a picture of the word signifying the same thing as the word. Therefore, both have the same effect. Again, this matter is discussed at length in the apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article 13. Now, lest persons are misled, Nick, thinking that the sacrament as a means of grace act in some automatic manner or that visible signs themselves convey such grace irregardless of the response of the recipients of that grace through the sign, our Lutheran teachers stress two things. And, Nick, it's probably important that we stress these two points with people with whom we are explaining the nature of the sacraments. The first point, first, it is the word alone that offers forgiveness of sins. That distinction is made very advisably lest people attach some mystical quality to water or to the bread and wine, to the elements themselves. It is the word alone that offers forgiveness of sins. The second point here is that faith or the response of faith to that word is paramount, important. Always it is faith in the word of promise born in the sacrament which justifies. That is why it would be error in the first order for any to believe that we are justified by a ceremony without good disposition in our heart, that is, without faith, teaches the apology. Furthermore, we instruct our people that faith in this instance is not a feeling or impulse which we generate within. Rather, saving faith which appropriates the blessing of the word and promise is awakened and nourished by that very promise of the forgiveness of sins. To receive the quote "sign of promise" end of quote, one is required to have faith. The water, the bread and the wine and participation, the washing, the eating and drinking awakens attention to the word which works in a reciprocal manner awakening faith which appropriates the very blessing of that word. Somehow, Nick, it seems that it is well for us to attempt to make these points very clear with persons whom we are instructing and teaching about the sacraments. To summarize, the apology states, "Just as the word was given to awaken this faith, so also the sacrament was instituted in order that, as the outward form meets the eyes, it might move the heart to believe. For the Holy Spirit works through the word and the sacrament." Apology, article 24. Expressing the matter more down to earth, let us say, the signs -- water, bread and wine within the sacraments as rites -- catch the eye so that the heart is stirred to give attention to the word and the promise; whereby, faith is given and strengthened to appropriate what the word here gives, the forgiveness of sins. We have repeated ourselves here, as you observe, Nick, but for the sake of emphasis in order to suggest that you and other pastors might attempt to make clear the relationship of the visible signs to that word of promise in both baptism and the Lord's Supper. And I -- I hope our remarks will lead you in that direction, and I hope they are helpful. Now, Nick, we should also mention that the sacraments, like justification, are God's work exclusively. They are the exclusive action of God. They are sacred acts through which God provides what he has promised in his word. They express God's gracious disposition toward us. And through them he makes us partakers of his gifts. Baptism, for instance, is referred in the large catechism of Dr.�Martin Luther as an act whereby God baptizes us. The pastor, of course, officiates at the baptism of a child or adults. But the reality is that through that word of promise conveyed in the sacrament, it is God who baptizes, Luther wants to emphasize. God is the active one. And we are simply serving that action of God when we administer the sacrament for our people and in the presence of the congregation. The sacraments are a form of the Gospel and the promise in action, if you will. No one states this dynamic of the sacrament as a very action of God better than Dr.�Luther when he writes in another paragraph, he states, "To be baptized in God's name is to be baptized not by human beings but by God himself. Although it is performed by human hands, it is, nevertheless, truly God's own act. From this fact everyone can easily conclude that it is of much greater value than the work of any human beings or a saint. For what human work can possibly be greater than God's work?" I don't know about you, Nick, I think that Luther puts that so well that it was worth referring to that statement. Now, let me suggest this, Nick: You have opportunity to welcome persons from many diverse backgrounds into classes which introduce these good folks to the Christian faith. We call these adult classes in our part of the country or the pastor's information class. But we conduct those classes in our parishes, as I'm sure you do, periodically through the year. And let me suggest that what really grabs these persons in this area of the sacraments is this exciting notion that baptism today on this Sunday and the Lord's Supper in which our people participate and partake on this Sunday God is acting here and now. Somehow many people have been conditioned to view the sacraments as rites or ceremonies in the past, as just random signs or symbols of an action that God has done in the past. I want to assure you, Nick�-- and perhaps you have made this discovery already, and I'd just like to affirm it, if so�-- when persons discover that at the administration of baptism or the Lord's Supper the Lord is acting now in the lives of these people today, once that grabs them, they are owners of an insight that will carry them very far. And it's one of the reasons that persons appreciate being introduced to the sacraments in the Lutheran church. When they arrive at the understanding that the Almighty and powerful God is right here and now acting graciously for them and for others to seal unto them his gift of the forgiveness of their sins, this is nothing short of exciting and even exhilarating. They're convinced about the surety, as expressed by Melanchthon in these words, "When we are baptized, when we eat the Lord's body, when we are absolved, our hearts should firmly believe that God really forgives us for Christ's sake." That's how Melanchthon put it centuries ago. And in our present congregational life, Nick, as you observed, the same God is working as present and powerfully as ever when we handle His word as He instructed us in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. For good reasons then, Lutheran pastors will keep the sacraments before the people. Maybe we should point to just a couple of ways and means to which you and your brothers probably could add. But I just feel constrained to suggest a couple of things. Periodically, because the sacraments are of such importance, maybe we ought to have a sermon that addresses one or another aspect of baptism and the Lord's Supper. We don't have to do this every Sunday, but maybe at junctures through the year. It might be well to help our congregations focus on the sacraments and their meaning. Secondly, Luther's treatment of the sacraments in the small catechism we might bring to light and pursue and share either in messages or in brief little teaching moments in our public worship services. The sacraments may be subjects of classes and small groups. Why focus only on the serendipity topics when our people gather together? Let's give them the substance of the Gospel in the sacraments and have those for study and discussion. Here's another venue: In premarital counseling the pastor has opportunity to relate how the use of the sacraments can be a strength to love and marriage as a couple live as heirs together of the grace of life. Wouldn't it be wonderful if a Lutheran pastor pointed a young man and young woman so very much in love to the sustaining of that love together at the Lord's table and their taking of his holy supper? Messages can be published in the church papers, certainly periodically. And we can prepare some standing materials that are available in an ongoing way for inquirers and also for our own people. These materials, I submit, Nick, should be readily available for people inquiring about the sacrament or those who are preparing to be at the Lord's table and take of his blessings. So those would be a few suggestions to which the list may be expanded certainly. The point is we should not go week to week and month to month and year in and year out without ever helping our people recover what a cherished treasure the sacraments are. We want to keep them in front of the people and their ongoing Christian life in the church. *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***