# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S364
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

364

IX. 2016 RESOLUTION 13-01A TASK FORCE REPORT

Many quotations could be provided here—indeed, the whole
of the ministry/Office portion of Walther provides extensive material from Luther and other orthodox theologians. Rather than reduplicate what we, as a Synod, have endorsed, we will provide only a
few quotations here.
First, in light of Psalm 110 and Ephesians 4:11–12, Luther
comments:
This is the way it is in Christendom, too. Before
anyone becomes a preacher or a bishop, he must
first be a Christian, a born priest. No pope or any
other man can make him a priest. But having been
born a priest through Baptism, a man thereupon
receives the office; and this is what makes a difference between him and other Christians. Out of the
multitude of Christians some must be selected who
shall lead the others by virtue of the special gifts
and aptitude which God gives them for the office.
Thus St. Paul writes (Eph. 4:11, 12): “And His gifts
were that some should be apostles, some prophets,
some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for
the equipment of the saints” (this means those who
are already Christians and baptized priests), “for
the work of the ministry, for the building up of the
body of Christ” (that is, the Christian congregation
or church).
For although we are all priests, this does not mean
that all of us can preach, teach, and rule. Certain
ones of the multitude must be selected and separated for such an office. And he who has such an office
is not a priest because of his office but a servant of
all the others, who are priests. When he is no longer
able to preach and serve, or if he no longer wants to
do so, he once more becomes a part of the common
multitude of Christians. His office is conveyed to
someone else, and he becomes a Christian like any
other.141
Luther here simply distinguishes the royal priesthood and the
Office of Public Ministry. The royal priesthood requires the public
ministry. Priests require “some” from among them who, “by virtue
of the special gifts and aptitude which God gives them,” serve in
the public Office.
With regard to the importance of maintaining both a vigorous, active proclamation of the Word by the laity and a distinctive
responsibility for the public ministry, Walther quotes Luther:
“The first Christians, mentioned in Acts, did not administer the Sacrament individually [insonderheit]
in the houses, but they came together. And though
they might have done it, such an example is no longer to be followed today, just as today it is not reasonable that we let all goods be shared communally
as they used to do. For now the Gospel is spread
throughout the world [öffentlich], with the Sacraments. But if a father wishes to teach the Word of
God to his family, that is right and should be done,
for it is God’s mandate that we should teach and
bring up our children and household; that is commanded to everyone. But the Sacrament is a public confession and should have public ministers,
2019 Convention Workbook

because, as Christ says, we should do it in remembrance of Him; that is, as St. Paul explains it, we
should show forth or preach the Lord’s death till He
comes [cf. 1 Corinthians 11:26]. And here [Paul]
also says that we should come together, and he severely rebukes those who, each in his own way, use
the Lord’s Supper individually. On the other hand,
it is not forbidden but rather commanded that everyone individually should instruct his household
in God’s Word, as well as himself, though no one
should baptize himself, etc. For there is a great
difference between a public office in the church
and [the office of] a father in his household.
Hence the two must neither be mingled into each
other nor be separated from each other. Since there
is neither an emergency nor a call here, we must
do nothing out of our own devotion without God’s
definite mandate, for no good will come from it.”142
Priesthood and Office “must neither be mingled into each
other nor be separated from each other”—thus Luther distinguishes priesthood and Office without divorcing them. The father (and
mother) is most certainly to teach. But there is a difference between
father and shepherd. Both are needed. Both proclaim Christ. Both
provide an external Word—the Gospel. Each does so in a manner
befitting his vocation. Only in an emergency may it be otherwise.
We earlier noted a technical distinction that Walther employs,
namely, a critical and helpful distinction between an abstract and a
concrete understanding of the Church’s office of preaching. In AC
XXVIII one sees the office both in its abstract dimension (since it
references the Church’s power of the keys) and its concrete dimension (since it speaks of the exercise of this power by the bishops).
Regarding AC XXVIII Walther says:
Here the authority of the Keys, which the Church
[Kirche] possesses and by which it administers the
Means of Grace, is identified with the authority of
the bishops, and to it the obtaining of the eternal
gifts is bound. But this is not because the eternal
gifts of Christ’s kingdom could in no wise be obtained without the administration of the Means of
Grace by persons in the office, but because God
desires ordinarily to impart these gifts to men only
in this way.143
Considering FC SD XII 30 and XI 29, where the Formula
speaks abstractly of the ministry as “the preached and heard Word”
(“proclaimed and heard” in KW 659), Walther says:
It is important to understand this because of those
who desire to make the pastoral office a Means
of Grace and coordinate it with the Word and Sacraments, as they assert that it is absolutely necessary for anyone to obtain salvation, so that no one
without the ministry of an ordained parish pastor
can either come to faith or obtain absolution of his
sins. But our church teaches this only of the oral
or enfleshed [leiblichen] Word in opposition to the
alleged inner word and every [other] form of enthusiasm [Enthusiasterei].144
LCMS theology has consistently emphasized this with a distinction between the ministry in a wide and a narrow sense. In Franz