ROUGHLY EDITED COPY LUTHERAN PASTORAL THEOLOGY & PRACTICE LPTP-28 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. *** >> JOSH: Professor, I'm wondering about commune discipline. Is it ever appropriate to deny communion to a member? And, if so, how would I do that without splitting our congregation? >> PROF. SENKBEIL: Josh, I'm very happy you asked the question exactly as you did. Because it shows an excellent pastoral attitude. Which faithful pastor, after all, would want to be responsible for splitting his congregation? And yet at the same time, as you pointed out, you want to be faithful in administering the sacrament. So on what occasion would we want to urge a person not to commune or to refrain from communing? This really belongs to faithful care of the entire flock. I'm going to refer you really to a foundational text here where St. Paul instructs some pastors from the area of Ephesus in the 20th chapter of Acts, verse 28. It's a very familiar verse. And I'm sure you heard it before. "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which He obtained with His own blood." Two focal points there: Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, that is, those who are looking out for the welfare of the entire flock. Now, I believe you and I have talked about this before. Out there on the range, whether one is a cattleman or a sheep herder, it's important to pay attention to the animals that you're in charge of. And it's also true when it comes to being a spiritual shepherd. Sometimes, in case of ranching or sheep herding, one has to pay particular attention to the individual numbers of the flock or of the herd, as the case may be. Those selected animals need special attention to their individual needs, their particular ailments. And sometimes they need special medicines. Sometimes they need a special diet. Sometimes it isn't even healthy for that particular animal to eat the regular diet. And so it is now when we come to the question of asking people not to commune. We must put this whole issue, of course, in the broader context of the fact that, by very definition, the members of the congregation, baptized Christians who share a common faith, are invited to partake of the Lord's gifts including the sacrament of the altar from that particular altar. Also, we must remember that no individual pastor can ever exercise excommunication of any individual member of the congregation. That's a prerogative that beginnings to the entire flock. After all, the office of the keys is given to the church. And the pastors merely exercise that office. They do not have that right in and of themselves. However, the faithful pastor will be concerned about the welfare of every individual within his flock. And so on certain occasions it might be necessary to exercise what the church has called for centuries and centuries the minor ban, if you will, that is, asking people, pastorly, gently, and tenderly, not to commune for a time so that something might be addressed in their life. Now, what might this be? Well, it could be a case of where someone has an incorrect understanding regarding Christian doctrine or regarding particularly the sacrament itself. So that during this period of instruction that person would be gently brought to a common confession that the church professes. Or, more particularly, probably more generally, more realistically, it would be a situation where a person is harboring in his or her heart some hatred or anger against another member of the congregation or even within the public community, in other words, engaging in an activity or behavior are or even an attitude which is unChristian by nature. And to partake of the sacrament in that spiritual condition of impenitence would defile the sacrament. It would profane the holy thing, those mysteries of God which are given to us to steward and to administer. And so for a time a pastor might gently and lovingly discuss with an individual the practice of not taking communion until this particular problem is addressed, always with a goal toward restitution. Now a word of caution. You mentioned the danger of splitting the congregation. And you're absolutely right. In fact, this whole area belongs to the area of Christian discipline. Christian discipline is something, unfortunately, that has really fallen into disuse and�-- in broader circles within Christendom in general and even in our own midst in recent generations. And so there must be some careful teaching that is done, I would say certainly, in general, regarding the importance of Christian faith and life and the way that they are related to one another, that faithful Christian living flows out of faithful Christian believing. Now, when there's a problem in the Christian living area, that must be addressed lovingly on the part of the entire congregation. And Christians then ought to expect this. Just as within our households, we discipline the children that we love, so also then within the flock, there would be a concern for everyone's welfare. Dr.�Walther, in his pastoral theology, which he wrote, probably as you're aware, over 100 years ago in the 19th century, made these remarks regarding church discipline. He said, "The faithful pastor must be careful in the area of church discipline. Because, if the congregation is not used to the exercise of church discipline, this could indeed destroy that congregation." It could, as you say, end up splitting the congregation. People could ultimately end up not even hearing the Gospel because of this practice of church discipline. So he says one must remember that the marks of the church are the preaching of the Gospel, the administration of the sacraments. Church discipline, on the other hand, is not one of the mark of the church. It rather is in the realm of a faithful practice. So, in order to engage in faithful practice, what do you do? Well, you teach doctrine. You teach the doctrine of the church. You teach the doctrine of the word of God and the faithful administration of the sacraments. On the basis of that solid foundation then, you can go on to instruct about the importance of the practice of church discipline. So a rather lengthy answer to a simple question. But I hope it helps you to understand both the importance of faithful admonishment of erring Christians and the careful administration of the means of grace. But also, above all, through all, and really over all, the importance of faithful public teaching regarding all of these things. *** 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. ***