LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1962, Page 37

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DOCTRINAL-DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS 37

of Synod not to administer Holy Communion to mem-
bers of . . . lodges, nor to admit such persons to com-
municant membership. ... A pastor will sometimes
encounter exceptional cases in which he is called upon
to administer Holy Communion to a person who is still
outwardly connected with such a lodge. Such excep-
tional cases, however, are normally limited to those
instances in which the individual has renounced, to his
pastor and/or the church council, the unchristian or
anti-Christian teaching of the lodge of which he is
a member. In such cases the pastor shall consult with
his brethren in the ministry or with officials of Synod,
as the case may require.”

Why has the Synod this lodge policy, which is dis-
tasteful to lodge members and to some of the members
of our churches and sometimes even to pastors?

Because the Synod is a confessional church, loyal
to the Lutheran Confessions, which recognize the pro-
phetic and apostolic writings of the Holy Scriptures as
the pure fountain of Israel, from which all doctrine
should be drawn, and the standard by which all doc-
trines and teachers are to be judged; because our
Synod, together with our confessions, recognizes the
Gospel, the doctrine of justification by grace for Christ’s
sake through faith, as the chief article taught in
Scripture.

The Synod has from her very beginning recognized
many features of the lodges which she combated as
unscriptural and antiscriptural. Above all things, the
Synod has recognized that the religion of the lodges,
insofar as it recognizes and teaches a way of salvation,
is diametrically opposed to the Gospel, because it is
a religion of salvation by works. As a confessional
church, loyal to her Confessions, the Synod has through
the struggles of many decades, at times stumbling, at
times faltering, but with her eyes on the one hand on
the nature of the lodges and on the other on the Scrip-
tures and on her Confessions, arrived at the lodge policy
which is stated in the synodical Handbook, 14.03. As
a confessional church she could not conscientiously hold
any other policy.

It is up to the congregations and their pastors, who
constitute the Synod, to carry this policy conscientiously
into practice that we may not be a confessional church
in name only but in deed and truth, walking uprightly
according to the truth of the Gospel, which we believe
and confess.

Vili

Our Witness to a Pagan World
(Based on the Book of Jonah)

Martin L. Koehneke
Concordia Teachers College, River Forest

The Book of Jonah was written, as is true of all the
Biblical books, “for our learning that we through pa-
tience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
(Rom. 15: 4)

On this last day of the convention it is a good thing
for us to remember the Last Day, when our Lord shall

call on us to give an account for the manner in which
we witnessed to a pagan world in His name. The Book
of Jonah, “written for our learning,” has much to teach
us. May His Holy Spirit cause us to be teachable this
morning!

If I am to read this book of the prophet Jonah with
profit, I must read it reverently as if my name were
Jonah and Jonah’s were mine. I am Jonah. I so often
act just as Jonah did. Jonah’s God is my God, and God
deals with me as He dealt with Jonah.

As I studied this book for this meditation, I could
not escape the conclusion that my beloved Synod could
profit much if she would become Jonah for these mo-
ments and “read herself into” this dramatic situation
recorded “for our learning.” So Jonah becomes Mis-
souri, and Jonah’s God becomes Missouri’s God.

When you build this bridge into this book, this is
what happens:

I. Missouri Receives Its Commission

II. Missouri in Flight

III. Missouri Overtaken by Turbulence

IV. Missouri Is Censured

V. Missouri Is Spared

VI. Missouri at Prayer
VII. Missouri Goes to Preach to the Pagan World
VII. Missouri Finds Receptive Hearts

IX. Missouri Is Amazed and Mortified

X. Missouri Stands Corrected

I. Missouri Receives Its Commission

Now the word of the Lord came to Missouri, a son
of the Reformation, saying: “Arise, go to this pagan
world, and cry against it; for its wickedness is come
up before Me” (see Jonah 1:2). “Go ye into all the
world, and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark
16:15). “As My Father hath sent Me, even so send
I you. ... Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted
unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are
retained.” (John 20:21, 23)

How “pagan” is this “pagan world,” Missouri? Let
your God answer that question for you, as He does in
Romans 1: “Since they consider themselves too high and
mighty to acknowledge God, He allowed them to become
the slaves of their degenerate minds and to perform
unmentionable deeds. They become filled with wicked-
ness, rottenness, greed, and malice; their minds became
steeped in envy, murder, quarrelsomeness, deceitfulness,
and spite. They became whisperers-behind-doors, stab-
bers-in-the-back, God-haters; they overflowed with
insolent pride and boastfulness, and their minds teemed
with diabolical invention. They scoffed at duty to par-
ents; they mocked at learning, recognized no obligations
of honor, lost all natural affection, and had no use for
mercy. More than this—being well aware of God’s
pronouncement that all who do these things deserve
to die, they not only continued their own practices but
did not hesitate to give their thorough approval to others
who did the same.” (Romans 1: 28-32 Phillips)