Full Text for Called & Ordained: Reflections on the New Testament View of the Office of the Ministry (Text)

LOGIA A JOURNAL OF LUTHERAN THEOLOGY ,., . EPIPHANY/JANUARY 1993 VOLUME II, NUMBER 1 • CONTENTS fN CORRESPONDENCE ..............................................................................................................................................................2 , ARTICLES Church & Ministry Part I: Exegetical and Historical Treatment By Jobst Schone .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 • The Integrity ofthe Christological Character ofthe Office ofthe Ministry By David P. Scaer ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 15 ",' Called & Ordained: Reflections on the New Testament View of the Office ofthe Ministry By William W einrich ................................................................................................................................................................................ 20 Forgiveness ofSins & Restoration to Office By James A. Nestingen .............................................................................................................................................................................. 28 A Call for Manuscripts ............................................................................................................................................................................. 32 The Office ofthe Holy Ministry in the Life ofthe Church: A View from the Parish By Roger D. Pittelko ................................................................................................................................................................................. 33 ,-,' REVIEWS ..........................................................................................................................................................................................41 Review Essay: A Famine in Lutheranism The Goal of the Gospel: God's Purpose in Saving You. By Philip M. Bickel and Robert L. Nordlie ~ Evangelicalism and the Liturgical Movement and Their Effects on Lutheran Worship. By Charles J. Evanson ) Why Catholics Can't Sing. By Thomas Day Teaching God's Children His Teaching: A Guide for the Study ofLuther's Catechism. By Robert Kolb The Healing Presence: Spiritual Exercises for Healing, Wellness and Recovery. By Thomas A. Droege Anatomy ofa Merger: People, Dynamics, and Decisions that Shaped the ELCA. By Edgar R. Trexler VI LOGIA FORUM ..........................................................................................................................................................................49 IfWe Confess Our Sins ...• Oreos • Tinker, Tinker· certus sermo • All the World's a Stage? Wheels within Wheels· Public Worship and Concord· Logomachy • Luther's Hausandacht Lay Celebration of the Sacrament of the Altar • To the Diaspora • Sexuality as Aliquid in Homine Change for Change's Sake· When the First Article Cannot Come First 1 Called & Ordained Reflections on the New Testament View of the Office of the Ministry WILLIAM W EINRICH . q; INTRODUCTION QUESTIONS CON CERNING THE OFFICE OF THE MINISTRY HAVE become urgent and "front stage" in the Lutheran Church. To a considerable degree the Lutheran com­ munity has throughout its history been relatively free from internal disagreement on the question of church and ministry. There have, of course, been occasions when the question was raised and became important. For the Missouri Synod the dis­ pute surrounding Bishop Stephan and the disagreement between Walther and Grabau are examples. Today the situa­ tion is different. The issue of church and ministry is a vital question and arises through practical issues which confront the church: the ministry of women, the role of the laity, the ques­ tion of "lay ministry," the concern for the most "effective" evangelistic structuring of the church. Social and cultural con­ texts no doubt playa role as well. The church lives increasingly in a pluralism which is egalitarian and dominated by the notion of personal autonomy. In a context like that, pastors easily become redefined as helpers, fadlitators, therapeutic spe­ cialists, and administrative overseers. Nonetheless, serious questions attend the issue of church and ministry. A cavalier view that polity is mere adiaphora and therefore of no serious significance will likely not be alive to the evangelical, christological, and even trinitarian implica­ tions in discussions concerning ecclesial and liturgical struc­ ture.l-I m'll does the church give itself voice? In what way is the church in continuity with its apostolic beginnings? Is the church essentially apostolic or prophetic? Such questions are not merely doctrinal questions. They are also questions of structure and of form. Despite the popularity in some quarters of separating form and substance, the fact remains that to be communicated-and that is the nub of continuity-substance -- . ABOUT THE AUTHOR WILLTAl'vl WEINl1.1CH is Professor of Early Church History and Patristic Studies and Dean of Graduate Studies at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. This study was first presented at the First Annua.1 St. Matthias Day Theological Forum held at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Dearborn , Michigan on St. Matthias Day, 1992. It was later revised and presented at the Lutheran Free Conference, held at Trinity Lutheran Church, St. Francis, Minnesota on Reformation Day, 1992. 20 ~ --- must take on a form. Is there a basic form or pattern which itself connotes the substance which it conveys? I think the anwer to this question is "yes. " In the following I hope to give some New Testament resonance to that answer. In New Testament and early church studies, the question concerning the formation of office in the church still very much occupies scholarship. Much depends on where one begins and what one allows. An instructive and influential example are the conclusions of Ernst Kasemann concerning the place of office in the theology of Paul. According to Kiise­ mann, any link between Christo logy and ecclesiology is alien to Paul, and where that link occurs, one finds "early catholicism." The Letter to the Ephesians is an example of the latter: Here even the connection between ecclesiology and chris­ tology is given a sacramental basis ... The church grows as it were out of Baptism, and in the celebra tion of the Lord's Supper it is constantly reunited out of all the dispersion to which its members are subject in everyday life . . .. As the sole actor, Christ mediates himself to those for whom he died and over whom he chooses now to reign . The sacra­ mental presence of Christ in the church for the world­ that is the central motif of the early catholic doctrine of redemption. For this the "saving facts," the Incarnation, the Cross and the Resurrection, form the presupposition. l Such a view will have immediate consequences for what one is able to say about Paul's view of office, and Kiisemann draws the full implications: There is for Paul no extension of the earthly Jesus in the church as the earthly deputy of the exalted one. It is just where he speaks of the Body of Christ that christology and ecclesiology are not interchangeable.... The contrast [between Paul and "early catholicism"] is especially clear when it comes to the concept of ecclesiastical office. Char­ acteristically, the genuine letters of Paul mention neither ordination nor the presbytery, but leave the functions of the church to charismatics and address every Christian as a charismatic. . . . To put it pointedly, but without exag­ geration, the Pauline church is composed of nothing but laymen, who nevertheless are all, within their possibilities, at the same time priests and officeholders, that is, instru­ ments of the Spirit for the enactment of the Gospel in the everyday world.2 21 CALLED & ORDAINED Kasemann's depiction of the primitive church is distinctly egalitarian and rests considerably upon 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 according to which all Christians are Spirit-bearers having cer­ tain xapL