LOGIA
A JOURNAL OF LUTHERAN THEOLOGY
,., .
EPIPHANY/JANUARY 1993 VOLUME II, NUMBER 1
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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
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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
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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