# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1848_S31
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 31 —

That all of you, my dear brothers in Christ, have come here with the
heartfelt prayer to God for such fruit from our work here, and with the holy
resolve to keep such fruit, above all, firmly in view as the goal of your
activity as members of this body — of that I do not doubt for a moment. Yet
perhaps all of us, some more, some less, are troubled by one thought: the
concern that our deliberations might easily remain fruitless. I mean the
thought that, under the constitution by which our synodical association
exists, we have only the power to deliberate — that we possess only the
authority of the Word and of persuasion. According to our Constitution we
have no right to issue decrees, to enact laws and ordinances, or to hand
down, in any matter that imposes something upon the congregations, a
judicial ruling to which they would have to submit unconditionally. Our
Constitution in no way makes us a kind of consistory [Konsistorium], in no
way the supreme court of our congregations. Rather, it leaves them complete
freedom in everything, with nothing excepted but the Word of God, faith, and
love. Under our constitution we do not stand over our congregations, but
stand within them and at their side. What then? Has this not already
deprived us of almost any possibility of exerting a thorough, wholesome
influence upon our congregations? Have we not, by adopting a constitution
such as ours, made ourselves into a mere shadow of a synod? Should we not,
under conditions such as we have entered into, wear ourselves out with
labors that may easily be entirely lost, since no one is compelled to comply
with our resolutions?

To this you will surely all answer with me decisively: No! You need no
proof of it from anyone, least of all from me. I hope, however, that you
will now gladly lend me your ear as I try, in opening this year's sessions,
to direct your thoughts for a few moments further toward the subject
raised. Indeed, no one among us surely recognizes more keenly than I do
myself how utterly unfit I am to stand up and teach in this venerable
assembly, in the midst of teachers; yet it falls to me, by virtue of the
office which you once laid upon me as the least among you, to take up the
word; and I hope, too, through a few remarks which I can offer only
according to the measure of my understanding and the extremely hurried
preparation allowed me, to give you at least an impulse to think further on
this important subject yourselves.

The question I now intend to answer briefly is this:

Why should and can we carry on our work with joy, even though we
possess no power but the power of the Word?

The first and most important reason for this is that Christ gave His
servants this power and no other, and that even the holy apostles claimed no
other for themselves, and therefore earnestly warned the servants of the
church against claiming any other power.

First, Christ declares clearly and plainly that His church does not have
the character of a worldly state. In answer to Pilate's question whether he
was King of the Jews, He spoke, among other things, the great and important
word: "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my
servants would fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews