LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 319

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

319

THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Men have frequently used women sexually and exploitatively,
for example, in pornography, prostitution, and other anonymous
sexual relationships, as well as in more long-term relationships and
even within marriage. Men have abandoned their children without
support or involvement more frequently than women. Men tend to
be less inclined than their wives to attend church or Bible study
or to provide spiritual direction and nurture for children. While
churches have focused appropriate attention on the role of women
in home, church, and society, we should not ignore the significant problem of declining responsibility by men in each of these
spheres of human life. Male abdication of responsibility in home,
church, and society is at crisis levels.78
Women may also have some troubling tendencies more frequently than men. Recent studies indicate that women initiate divorce more often than men. Women seem more likely to reject any
need for men than men are to reject any need for women. Increasing numbers of women intentionally choose to have and raise children without a husband.79
Such observations may help us to understand better certain portions of Scripture. Some passages are viewed as offensive because
they are not egalitarian between the sexes. Men are told to honor
women as the weaker sex and to love women sacrificially. Husbands are commanded to care for their wives’ material needs and
told that they are to raise their children with gentleness. Such commands are fitting in light of a male potential for abuse, neglect of
children, and abdication of responsibility toward women and children.
Wives are cautioned not to take over the spiritual authority and
responsibility of their husbands. Instead they are to support and
encourage their husband’s Christ-centered leadership. Given the
increasing tendency by men to avoid such responsibility, this, too,
seems particularly relevant.
In these ways, men, often disinclined toward matters of the
home and of spiritual things, are compelled to take responsibility
for these very things as husbands and fathers. Women are reminded
not to neglect what only they can do and be as wives and mothers.
However, where men are absent or persistently abdicate spiritual
responsibility, women then must accept the full responsibility of
spiritual leadership in the home. Morever, male abdication of responsibility should not be used as an argument against women’s
responsible leadership in home and church.
Submission to Christ
A Christian husband and father is called to submit to Christ,
not only as any Christian would be called, but also because he is
responsible for setting a pattern of submission in his household
(1 Cor 11:3). In faithful, submissive love for Christ and according
to His own example, the husband loves his wife as Christ loves
His bride, the church (Eph 5:25). He provides a leadership of love,
establishing a caring, safe environment for his wife and children.
A Christian woman’s willingness to honor and recognize her husband’s leadership occurs with the recognition that her submission
is following the pattern of the submission of her husband to Christ
(1 Cor 11:3). In her respect for her husband’s sacrificial leadership, she exhibits the perfect submission of the Bride of Christ to
Christ’s own loving sacrifice (Eph 5:22–24). As warp and weft
threads in a tapestry of divine love, both husband and wife are
therefore submitting to Christ and making a home for their children
in which Christ and His loving self-sacrifice are at the center. Both
are living in submission, which is but another description of a life
that does “nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider[s] others better than yourselves” (Phil 2:3)—which
is to say: both are living in the way of Christ Jesus.80

Clarifications
The foregoing study and practical implications affirm the ongoing validity of several theological emphases, including the
priesthood of all believers, the order of creation, the meaning of
vocation, and the third use of the Law. Each of these teachings
deserves a brief explanation.
Priesthood of all believers
“Let everyone, therefore, who knows himself to be a Christian,
be assured of this, that we are all equally priests …” says Martin Luther, reminding us of the biblical teaching we call by such
names as “the priesthood of all believers” the “spiritual priesthood,” or “the universal priesthood” (see 1 Pet 2:5, 1 Pet 2:9. Rev
1:5–6).81 This teaching is anchored in the truth that there is but one
true and perfect priest, the Great High Priest, Jesus Christ. By His
atoning work, we are baptized into the holy priesthood to pray for,
teach, and forgive one another in our daily lives.82 Above all, this
priesthood is a matter of sacrificing ourselves—the whole of our
lives—to God, which is a calling not only for those ordained to the
pastoral ministry, but to all believers.83 To be a priest of God is to
have all the rights and responsibilities of priests—and this is true
of all the baptized, male or female.84 Every woman as well as every
man has this calling equally, for all are baptized into Christ. This
shows itself in the common life of the church, particularly in prayer
and praise: “Let the Word of Christ dwell in [all of!] you richly,
as you teach and admonish one another and as you sing psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts toward
God” (Col 3:16).
Order of creation 85
The “order of creation,” as we have presented it here, is the
basic and important truth that what God has done in the creation of
the world continues to be relevant and paradigmatic for today—and
until the end of time. The order of creation may be compared and
contrasted with the “order of redemption” or the Biblical idea of a
“new creation.”86 Through our redemption in Christ Jesus, we are
a new creation and “the old is gone” (2 Cor 5:17). This reminds us
that none of our human differences—race, age, intellect, sex, and
so forth—are relevant to our baptismal regeneration, our redemption in Christ, our membership in the Body of Christ, or our responsibility to serve Christ and one another.
We are aware that the idea “order of creation” is not an expression used in the Bible and that it may be used in various ways,
some of which are objectionable from and even contrary to a Lutheran theological perspective. Future study of this terminology, its
history, its potential for misunderstanding, and its value as a means
of communicating biblical truth effectively may be of benefit. What
is emphasized here, however, is that redemption does not diminish the importance of God’s work of creation. His created design
has continuing significance in the lives of men and women today.87
Different created traits enable God’s redeemed humanity to live
rightly within the order of creation.
As noted above, God’s creation as “male and female” informs
our identity as God’s redeemed children. Our inherent identity includes our sexuality, for we are embodied creatures. God’s creation
of marriage, beginning with our first parents, provides a pattern
(paradigm) for what marriage will always be. The responsibilities
God gives to us as humanity in community and in our personal
individuality continue to reflect the pattern begun with creation:
we are to be fruitful and to exercise responsible stewardship of the
world God has made. The husband should recognize his very body/
flesh in his wife and so care for her sacrificially, respecting her as
a fellow heir to the kingdom and supporting her use of the spiritual

2010 Convention Workbook

2010 Convention.indb 319

4/15/10 2:40 PM