LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1986, Sheet 96

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

94 BIBLE STUDY AND DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS

(1 Cor. 1:9 RSV). It is to the new Israel, saints, holy ones,
men and women linked to Christ, set apart for God’s holy
purposes that St. Peter writes a moving and powerful
word, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the won-
derful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into
His marvelous light. Once you were no people but now you
are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now
you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:9-10 RSV).

It cannot be stated emphatically enough that the pres-
ent day demands a bold direction and radically altered
view of what it means to be laity, the priesthood of be-
lievers, the people of God, alive in Christ! Prevailing at-
titudes and notions about the laity and their vocation must
be informed by a thoroughly Biblical and Confessional per-
spective, not by the swiftly moving and ever changing cur-
rents of our culture, no matter how compelling they may
appear.

We have too easily been tricked into believing that lay-
people are second class citizens. We are far too hasty to
embrace the secular notion that the term “laity” distin-
guishes men and women from a professional class which
supposedly knows more, is always better educated, knows
the answers to all of life’s tough questions. These erroneous
views lead us to an unfortunate misunderstanding of the
place and function of the offices identified in the New Tes-
tament, which are intended to serve the Lord and all His
people. St. Paul corrects and informs our thinking when
he writes to the Ephesians, “And his gifts were that some
should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some
pastors and teachers, to equip the saints,” and now note
well, “for the work of ministry, for building up the body of
Christ” (Eph. 4:11-12 RSV).

Let it be said clearly that the notion that the doctrine
of the priesthood of all believers erases the distinction be-
tween the laity and the pastoral office is not valid. But
neither is it valid to believe that this doctrine allows us to
hold to a false distinction which supports a synodical caste
system which creates second class citizens of the laity, or
others who are not numbered among the clergy.

Further, the warped and distorted view of the high call-
ing of the laity is fueled by the readiness of talented, gifted,
and able men and women to “give up their birthright,” and
hide behind the weak and sometimes timid expression,
“Oh, P'm just a layperson!” This is neither God’s idea, nor
is it God’s theology.

Luther and the reformers possessed a clear conception
of the Biblical doctrine of the priesthood of all believers.
Their persistent emphasis supported the view that every
Christian, through the merits of Jesus Christ, could come
boldly into the Father’s presence, every Christian man or
woman was a priest in the eyes of God. This affirmation
was a strong frontal attack on the false dichotomies ex-
istent in the church that fixed the lines between laity and
clergy, and as a result distorted the faith and practice of
the church.

In his manifesto To the Christian Nobility of the German
Nation Luther asserts, “All Christians are truly priests
and there is no distinction among them except as to of-
fice... . Everybody who is baptized may maintain that he

has been consecrated as a priest, bishop, or pope-

For the sake of order alone people are set apart by the
congregation, ‘ministers’ who are not mediators between
God and the congregation or God and people but ‘ministers
of the Word.’ ”

C. F. W. Walther and the founding fathers of the Synod
held faithfully to the theology of the reformers. In his work
The Form of a Christian Congregation, Walther cites Lu-
ther to support the view that all believing Christians are
kings and priests before God because they are Christ’s
brethren and brethren of one another. Power and position,
the marks by which a society measures greatness, matter
not one wit. He writes:

In short, God does not want to be bound to a multitude, to
greatness, height, power and what is personable among men,
but He wants to be one with those who love and keep His Word,
even if they are mere stableboys. What does He care for ex-
alted, great, and mighty lords? He alone is the Greatest, High-
est, and Mightiest. . . . We have here the Lord Himself, exalted
over all angels and creatures. It is He who says that they all

should have the same power, keys, and office, even only two
ordinary Christians gathered in His name.

So committed was Walther to this principle that he
placed his ministry to the people of his parish above his
responsibilities as president of a fledgling Synod. Ina mov-
ing letter written to Pastor William Sihler on May 10, 1849,
he wrote:

Now I come to a matter which I write last, because it is
very painful for me. It will most likely be completely impossible
for me to take part in the forthcoming convention of our Synod.
For more than a month we have had a cholera epidemic here,
and every week it is more destructive. It was not until yes-
terday, however, that I had the first case of death in my con-
gregation on account of the plague. A healthy, lively girl of 16
died after 14 hours of illness. But in the city, in general, the
plague is raging to such an extent that, wherever one is, one
constantly sees the hearse coming and going. Whole families
have died, and especially some parts of the city (where the
Germans and the Irish live) are so hard hit that the residents
live in constant fear and dread. Some die after two or four
hours of the disease, right after they had felt their healthiest
and strongest. The sick usually retain consciousness to the
last moment, and thus there is always a little hour of grace
to hear God’s Word and to be fortified with the Holy Sacra-
ment. ... So as much as I will lose thereby and as much as I
thereby place a burden on you, you will see yourself that |
cannot with good conscience sacrifice my immediate duties
toward the congregation entrusted to me in favor of my love
for our Synod.

What a pastor! What a love for his people! What a model
for pastors, teachers, and others at work in the parishes
of the Synod. No, you are not just a layman, 4 laywoman,
a youth delegate, a teacher, a pastor. Paul’s word to the
Galatians indicates much more. “In Christ Jesus you are
all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither
Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is
neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus”
(Gal. 3:26-28 RSV).

In Christ the radical distinction between Jew and Gen-
tile, Greek and Roman, male and female, laity and clergy
is once and for all transcended. The circle of our partici-
pation in the family of God is now drawn from a new
center-—Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior of all. What a mar-
velous privilege for you, what a marvelous privilege for
me!

i
i