Bishop and Christian*, July 2014

Independence Day is a great reminder of everything with which the Lord has blessed us in this country. We have the freedom to gather as congregations of Christians in this country, to share freely the Faith that has been handed down to us for the salvation of all people, and the material blessings to easily do that. While that material blessing has caused us multiple problems (e.g., materialism, greed, laziness, a feeling of rights and entitlement), it has also been used widely to provide for the work of the Gospel here and around the world. These are some of the many blessings for which we give thanks to God.

And yet, the very notion of independence has caused us problems as well. Though we celebrate our independence from monarchs who would determine the form and content of our worship, a vacuum of independence will be filled by dependence of one sort or another. In other words, as that important theologian, Bob Dylan, put it, “You gotta serve somebody.” If it’s not a king, then it might be a president. If it’s not a president, then it might be capitalistic or socialistic greed. But whatever it is, it usually ends up as service to the Almighty “I”. I have rights (very often severed from responsibilities); I have choices (very often severed from consequences); I’ll have things my way, and you can’t tell me otherwise. And when political and individual independence begins to merge with religious independence, and blur the lines between the two, very bad things can happen.

For example, when Christians desire independence from the authority of God’s Law, it usually results in independence from God’s Gospel as well, and then our Faith begins to look little different from the dominant American spirituality of “live and let live” with its complete redefinition of Christian love. Or, Christians declare independence from the Scriptures, directly and indirectly. Even among us, who claim a very high place for the Scriptures, sometimes people will hear what the Scriptures say, believe that the Scriptures say something relevant, and show by their actions that they simply don’t care. Even when Scriptural arguments are presented, some say, “That all makes sense; I just don’t agree.”

Independence in the Church is not a good thing, understood, as it generally is, to be independence from anything higher than my own self-willed choices and decisions. This results in a lack of respect for others, perhaps especially before the altar at the Lord’s Supper, where we confess and show most clearly that we are one Body, dependent upon Christ our Head and each other, the other members of Christ.

So in this month when we celebrate Independence Day for the United States, let us also celebrate the fact that we are completely dependent upon God and His mercy in Jesus Christ for everything we are and everything we have.

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.”

 

Quote for the Month

“God has given an independent will neither to you nor to anybody else, for self-will comes from the devil and Adam. These two turned their will, received from God, into a will of their own; for a free will is one which has no desires of its own but constantly looks to the will of God. In this way it then also succeeds in remaining free, clinging and cleaving to nothing. Now you notice that in this petition [The Third Petition of the Lord’s Prayer] God bids us pray against ourselves, thereby teaching us that we have no greater enemy than ourselves. Our will is the greatest power within us. But we must pray against it: O Father, let me not so fall as to do things according to my own will. Break my will. Restrain my will. Let come what may, only let my lot be determined not by my will but only by Thy will; for so it is in heaven, where there is no self-will. Let it be so also on earth. Putting this prayer into practice is very painful to human nature.” (Martin Luther, What Luther Says [St. Louis: Concordia, 1959], 4655)

 

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.”