Author Archives: prwinterstein

Bishop and Christian*, June 2014

How does the Church grow? What causes people who formerly did not believe to believe and be joined to the Church of Christ? Before we can answer that question, we have to understand the state or nature of people who do not believe that Christ is the Son of God sent into this world for our forgiveness and salvation. Someone who does not believe that (and we were all such at one point or another) cannot be enticed or attracted into the Faith. He or she cannot be argued into the Faith. A sinner without faith in Christ is blind, dead, and an enemy of God (see John 3:18, 36; Romans 3:9ff.; 8:6-8). Dead people cannot raise themselves and sinners do not seek or choose God by themselves. It is the Word of God alone—Jesus crucified for sinners—by which the Holy Spirit gives faith and makes new creatures out of old ones. Luther said it this way in the Small Catechism: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel…” (see Romans 10:8-17). “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven,” Jesus said (John 3:27). With this in mind, the job of those who belong to Jesus is rather simple (though not always easy): continue to hear this Jesus as He speaks to us and gives us life; and to serve our neighbors in the places God has put us. That’s what happens in Acts 2:42-47: the Christians (only, at this time, 3000+) gathered continually around the Apostles’ doctrine (which Jesus had given them); this Word created union among the forgiven sinners; they received the breaking of the bread (Luke’s shorthand for the Holy Communion); and they gathered to offer their common prayers to their common Father. Out of these four things in which they shared, came the clear fruit of caring for anyone who had need. And as they did these things, as they were strengthened in faith toward God and in fervent love toward one another, God did what He promised: He added to their number day by day (2:47).

The what of the Church’s growth is laid out in Acts; the how often is not. We know that the Apostles preached; we know that the Christians who were scattered by persecution took the Word of Jesus with them and preached it in their new locations. But the specific methods of evangelism are never laid out for us. Peter instructs Christians, honoring Christ the Lord as holy, always to be prepared “to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” and to do it with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). But when will those opportunities come? What will they look like? In open persecution and suffering, for sure (1 Peter 3:13-14); but in our current culture of open worship and relative comfort, we cannot predict when the opportunity to make a defense will come. But when it does, Peter says we should be ready. How can you be ready? Simply by knowing and considering the hope that is within you: Jesus, and the redemption of our bodies, for “in this hope we were saved” (Romans 8:24). Knowing what the Lord has done for us, hearing it week by week and day by day, the Word of the Lord will dwell in us richly and we cannot help but be ready. The Lord’s own words will prepare us for when those words will need to come out of our mouths.

But on a very practical level, how are people joined to the outward organization we call Faith Lutheran Church? The order is, very generally, something like this: you, the members of the Body of Christ in this place, come into contact with those who do not believe in Christ (family, friends, co-workers, classmates, etc.). In one way or another, your prior relationship with that person will lead to an opportunity for you to give a defense for the hope that is within you. When you have the chance, invite the person to hear the Word of God with you on a Sunday morning. If the Divine Service is foreign to him or her, you have the opportunity to guide them through. Some will continue to hear the Word of God. As the Holy Spirit works, they may want to know more and that is where my inquiry/information class comes in. If you brought the person to hear God’s Word, offer to go with them to the class (essentially, you are their “sponsor” if they move forward in this process). Those in whom the Holy Spirit creates faith will move either toward baptism or a profession of faith, with you as their guides and sponsors. Those who hear, in whom faith is created, who call on the name of the Lord for salvation, are baptized or confirmed, and then they join the congregation of the faithful, whom God continues to feed with His Word and now with His Son’s Body and Blood. Although people come to faith in different circumstances, although they all have different histories and experiences, the decisive moments are always the same: faith and baptism. Usually adults are taught and then baptized, while infants and children are baptized and then taught. But both baptism and teaching (instruction in the Christian Faith) belong together, as Jesus instructs His Apostles in Matthew 28:19-20.

I encourage you to consider this movement and work of the Holy Spirit in your own relationships, and to keep in mind Thursday, September 11 (tentatively) as the day when a new information/inquiry class will begin. All we can do is be faithful, bear witness, and provide for the proclamation of the Word. God will do the work of granting faith and converting. He is faithful and He will surely do it.

 

Pr. Winterstein

 

*St. Augustine (354-430 AD), Bishop of Hippo in North Africa, said, “For you I am a bishop [overseer]; with you I am a Christian.”

Life Together

Besides our own body, our spouse, and our temporal property, we have one more treasure that is indispensable to us, namely our honor and good reputation. …

Next, [the Eighth Commandment] extends much further when it is applied to spiritual jurisdiction or administration.  Here, too, all people bear false witness against their neighbors.  Wherever there are upright preachers and Christians, they must endure having the world call them heretics, apostates, even seditious and desperate scoundrels.  Moreover, the Word of God must undergo the most shameful and spiteful persecution and blasphemy; it is contradicted, perverted, misused, and misinterpreted.  But let this pass; it is the blind world’s nature to condemn and persecute the truth and the children of God and yet consider this no sin.

The third aspect of this commandment, which applies to all of us, forbids all sins of the tongue by which we may injure or offend our neighbor.  “Bearing false witness” is nothing but a work of the tongue.  God wants to hold in check whatever is done with the tongue against a neighbor.  This applies to false preachers with their blasphemous teaching, to false judges and witnesses with their rulings in court and their lying and malicious talk outside of court.  It applies especially to the detestable, shameless vice of backbiting or slander by which the devil rides us.  Of this much could be said.  It is a common, pernicious plague that everyone would rather hear evil than good about their neighbors.  Even though we ourselves are evil, we cannot tolerate it when anyone speaks evil of us; instead we want to hear the whole world say golden things of us.  Yet we cannot bear it when someone says the best things about others.  …

Therefore God forbids you to speak evil about another, even though, to your certain knowledge, that person is guilty.  Even less may you do so if you are not really sure and have it only from hearsay.  But you say: “Why shouldn’t I say it if it is the truth?”  Answer: “Why don’t you bring it before the proper judge?”  “Oh, I can’t prove it publicly; I might be called a liar and sent away in disgrace.”  Ah, my dear, now do you smell the roast?  If you do not trust yourself to stand before the persons appointed for such tasks and make your charges, then hold your tongue.  If you know something, keep it to yourself and do not tell others.  For when you repeat a story that you cannot prove, even though it is true, you appear as a liar.  Besides, you act like a knave, for no one should be deprived of his honor and good name unless these have first been taken away from the person publicly. … For honor and good name are easily taken away but not easily restored. …

Let this be the your rule, then, that you should not be quick to spread slander and gossip about your neighbors but admonish them privately so that they may improve.  Likewise, do the same when others tell you what this or that person has done.  Instruct them, if they saw the wrongdoing, to go and reprove the individual personally or otherwise to hold their tongue.

You can also learn this lesson from the day-to-day running of a household.  This is what the master of the house does: when he sees a servant not doing what he is supposed to do, he speaks to him personally.  If he were so foolish as to let the servant sit at home while he went out into the streets to complain to his neighbors, he would no doubt be told: “You fool, it’s none of our business!  Why don’t you tell him yourself?”  See, that would be the proper, brotherly thing to do, for the evil would be corrected and your neighbor’s honor preserved. …

Thus in our relations with one another all of us should veil whatever is dishonorable and weak in our neighbors, and do whatever we can to serve, assist, and promote their good name.  On the other hand, we should prevent everything that may contribute to their disgrace.  It is a particularly fine, noble virtue to put the best construction on all we may hear about our neighbors (as long as it is not an evil that is publicly known), and to defend them against the poisonous tongues of those who are busily trying to pry out and pounce on something to criticize in their neighbor, misconstruing and twisting things in the worst way.  At present this is happening especially to the precious Word of God and to its preachers. … There is nothing around us or in us that can do greater good or greater harm in temporal or spiritual matters than the tongue, although it is the smallest and weakest member. [Large Catechism, Eighth Commandment, Kolb/Wengert ed., 420ff.; also, here]

Pr. Winterstein

 

Bishop and Christian*, May 2014

Ritual and Ceremony
I know that some (most? all?) of you have wondered about some of the things you see me do around the altar. (This is a good chance for me to remind you that you can ask me any question at any time, and I would be happy to talk with you about it!) Perhaps you’ve rarely, if ever, seen some of those things, and they seem foreign, or even wrong. Let me give a general explanation of my action around the altar, and then use some specific examples about which you may have questions.

Why ritual or ceremony at all? Why not just the words? The words are the most important, right? Yes, the words are most important, because they’re God’s words to us about who we are and who He is, especially in Christ. But it would be impossible for the pastor to move around in the chancel (the front area of the church around the altar) without doing something. The question is, what should that something be? And what does it have to do with the words that are being spoken or sung? The first thing I should say is that I don’t do things just because someone told me to do them. I want to know why, just as you do. So I start at the beginning and ask myself, “What is it that I believe is happening during the Divine Service?” What is happening is that our Lord Himself is meeting us to speak to us and to deliver the forgiveness of sins by the means which He has chosen: usually the Absolution and the Sacrament of the Altar, though occasionally also Baptism. He gathers His people together around Himself, and then sends them out again to be salt and light in the places He has put them, according to their unique vocations. This weekly rhythm has been the rhythm of the Catholic (universal) Church since the Book of Acts (Acts 2:1, 42-45; 20:7; also, 1 Corinthians 16:2; Revelation 1:10).

With that in mind, how should our actions go along with what we say is happening? Because there are really only two options: our actions will reflect our words and our confession, or our words and confession will change to reflect our actions. Can these words or actions simply become unthinking repetition? Sure; but that’s true with anything we do continually. Should we think about what we’re doing when we drive the same route back and forth to work or school every day? Yes! But that doesn’t mean we always do. Positively, knowing by heart the words and actions of the liturgy allows us to reflect more deeply on what these things mean for us. The words are the main thing—only the Word gives life—but our actions are like the scaffolding that support the words.

Some specific examples: Genuflecting (kneeling on one knee and bowing): You may see me do this during the Nicene Creed when we confess the words: “and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man” (Lutheran Service Book, 191). This mystery of God becoming a man is beyond our understanding; to help me reflect on the words, the motion of kneeling reminds me of the astounding fact that this has actually happened. I also genuflect while I receive the Body and Blood of Christ, since we all come as beggars before the altar of the Lord, and He graciously gives Himself to us for our salvation. Which leads to something else you may have wondered about, Communing myself and consuming the hosts (bread) and wine that is left after the congregation has communed: I do not commune myself because I think that I am the only one worthy to do it, or anything like that. But distributing the Sacrament is part of my vocation, so I, the pastor, distribute it also to myself, the sinner in need of mercy. This is not a new thing in Lutheran churches. Luther wrote in 1523: “Then, while the Agnus Dei is sung, let him [the celebrant] communicate, first himself and then the people” (American Edition of Luther’s Works, 53:29). And because we really believe that, as He says, Christ’s Body and Blood are actually and truly present along with the bread and the wine, we want to reverently dispose of the elements that are left over after everyone has communed. So that we don’t need to worry about questions to which the Lord has not given us the answers (e.g., how long are the Body and Blood present?), I consume the hosts and often the wine. If there is too much wine, the Altar Guild pours it into the piscina (a special drain that goes directly into the earth, rather than into the sewer). They also rinse the individual glasses before they throw them away, because it is not reverent toward wine that has been used to convey the Blood of Christ to simply throw it into the garbage. Chanting: I know that people have opinions (some strong) on this one way or the other. My usual practice is this (keeping in mind that nothing I do will please everyone all the time): I chant most things on the festivals of the Church (Christmas, Easter, Transfiguration, Ascension, etc.). When there is no communion, I tend to chant only the things that have chanted congregational responses (e.g., around the Gospel reading), and on non-festival Sundays, I often do not chant the Proper Preface and the Words of Institution. Here is my rationale for chanting: first, a melody helps me to remember the part! I have forgotten words occasionally when I’m not chanting. So it is, in part, a practical help to me. Also, it helps others remember the words more readily, as we all know from having the words of particular songs stuck in our ears. This is especially helpful for the confirmation students. Also, even if you don’t prefer chanting, a sung liturgy is more festive than a spoken liturgy. If we (The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) had heard the pastor’s parts chanted from 1941 (when The Lutheran Hymnal was produced), it would seem normal to us. Unfortunately, the pastor’s chant parts were not printed in that hymnal, and they were not published until 1944, three years after the hymnal came out! So if congregations started using the liturgy without the pastor’s chanted parts in 1941, it is unlikely they would have started using them three years later. That’s one historical reason why chanting seems foreign to many of our congregations. Chasubles: This is the vestment (the proper name for liturgical clothing, rather than robe or gown) that pastors have long worn at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. “Chasuble” comes from a Latin word that means “little house” because of the way it is worn. Perhaps it seems that pastors would wear such decorative vestments to bring attention to themselves. I suggest that it is exactly the opposite. If I were wearing my own clothes (suit and tie, jeans and t-shirt, slacks and polo shirt), they would do exactly that: bring attention to me, because they’re my clothes. I would choose what to wear, and I might choose something different each day or week. I would have to think each Sunday about what I am wearing. Vestments certainly can be ostentatious and flamboyant (though I have two chasubles from eBay and one as a gift, so I don’t think that applies to mine), but their whole point is to cover up the man and direct attention, instead, to the Office which he occupies. The man is interchangeable; any pastor can wear the same chasuble, and he is covered up. (This is also, incidentally, the same reason I wear a clerical collar every day: because that’s the usual uniform for the pastor, and even if they confuse me for a Roman priest, they know the sort of things I’m about.) What matters is what the pastor is there to do, which is deliver the forgiveness of sins which Jesus accomplished by His death and resurrection. The vestments point to that, which is why they are the same color as the liturgical season.

Finally, the objection to many of these things is that they are “Catholic,” that is “Roman Catholic.” They are indeed catholic, which is a Greek word meaning “according to the whole” or “universal.” What is called the Lutheran Church (actually, the Church of the Augsburg Confession) is not a sect or a new church, but the reformed Western Catholic Church. Otherwise, we would allow that the Roman Church is the true universal church. We do not. But beyond that, if we refused to do anything that looked Roman, we would have to get rid of the liturgy, readings, hymns, candles, altars, pulpits, Lord’s Supper, baptism, and nearly everything else with which we are comfortable. Though outwardly, our ritual and ceremony may look similar to much of the Roman Church, the theology that runs beneath it is very different. (And, as a Roman priest friend of mine told me, he could not remember the liturgy being chanted in his lifetime; it was only two Advents ago that the Roman liturgy was revised and chant was encouraged. Not to mention that the Roman Church has never chanted the Words of Institution. This was a Lutheran innovation to make sure that the congregation could hear these priceless Gospel words.)

Hopefully that gives you a better idea about some of the things I do and the reasons for them. Feel free to stop by and ask any other questions you might have. I hope that the actions you may choose to do during the liturgy cause you to think more deeply about what Christ is doing in our midst week by week.

Pr. Winterstein

 
*St. Augustine (354-430 AD), Bishop of Hippo in North Africa, said, “For you I am a bishop [overseer]; with you I am a Christian.”