LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 14

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14

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18. Worship: koinonia, freedom, catholicity, and the limits of
love. Questions of liturgical diversity and uniformity need to be
set within the context of the distinction between faith and love.
Faith is freed by the Gospel from all works of self-justification,
but faith is not freed from the Gospel or the means that Christ has
instituted to bestow the Gospel (the pure preaching of this Good
News and the right administration of the Sacraments according to the divine Word; see AC VII). Preaching and Sacraments
require form, and this form is catholic rather than sectarian or
self-invented. Lutherans gratefully inherited the Western liturgical
tradition filtered through the sieve of justification by faith alone,
and we honor it as our heritage (AC XXIV). Lutherans make a
distinction between what Christ has mandated and what His Word
prohibits. In between the two are “adiaphora” or “middle things,”
which are neither commanded nor forbidden by God. The middle category of adiaphora does not mean that these matters are
unimportant or indifferent; they are to be evaluated by how they
confess the truth of the Gospel and Sacraments. In times when a
clear confession is called for, the Formula of Concord reminds us,
matters of adiaphora may cease to be adiaphora (see FC SD X).
Ludwig Adolph Petri notes that mission “must abstain from establishing confessions, accepting new customs in the divine service,
uniting separated confessions, and the like. As soon as mission
begins to do something like that, it is manifestly in the wrong, for
none of those tasks is charged or relegated to mission.”19 This is
to say that matters of liturgical practice are not best left to the
individual but should reflect our confessional consensus so that
both the freedom of faith and the love for brothers and sisters is
maintained. Love is always given to patience and deference to
the weakness of the fellow believer (see Romans 14), but it may
never be used as an excuse to compromise the truth of our confession. Liturgical diversity within the larger catholic context will
be guided by the need to maintain unity in both faith and love
(see FC SD X 9).
19. Visitation. Sometime after his first missionary journey,
“Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Let us return and visit the brothers in
every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see
how they are’ ” (Acts 15:36). So the Church today—following also
the example of the apostles, Luther, Melanchthon, and others—
engages in evangelical visitation, appointing people to the task
so that we encourage and assist one another in the confession of
Christ before the world. In our Synod, we come alongside one
another to advise one another from the Word of God. The focus
of our visitation of one another is faithfulness both to the mission of Christ through the Church to the world and to our clear
confession of Christ’s saving work. Visitors are enjoined to come
to the pastors and congregations and mission stations as a brotherly adviser, reminding them of the joy of serving in the mission
and ministry of the Church. Visitation is a continuing task in the
Church, carried out through all segments of the Church’s life
together. When we visit our partners around the world, it must
also be in the same Christ-centered spirit as the Lord’s apostle
who, before his visitation with them, writes to the Romans, “I
long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to
strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by
each other’s faith, both yours and mine” (Rom. 1:11–12).
20. Two kingdoms/discipleship. Luther observed that the kingdom of Christ is one of hearing, while the kingdom of the world
is one of seeing. Discussions of the place of the church in the
public square inevitably lead us to reflect on how the triune God
2019 Convention Workbook

is active in His creation. Luther’s teaching on the two kingdoms
does not segregate God’s activity into the holy sphere of church
leaving the world to its autonomous devices. God is at work in the
world in two different ways, with different means and with different ends. Hence, Luther can use the imagery of the ear to indicate
God’s right-hand governance whereby He causes His Gospel to
be preached to bring sinners to faith in Christ and through faith
inherit eternal life. On the other hand, the left-handed work of
God is identified with the eye, with seeing. In this kingdom,
God uses Law to measure and curb human behavior so that His
creation is not plunged into total chaos and so that this world,
subjected to futility (Rom. 8:20), is preserved until the Last Day.
Authorities in the kingdom of God’s left hand evaluate on the
basis of evidence that is observable. Here distributive justice is the
order of the day. But in the kingdom of His right hand, God’s verdict is the absolution, the proclamation of a forgiveness of sins not
achieved by merit or worth. When the two kingdoms are mixed
or muddled, Law and Gospel are confused.
Lutherans are concerned to keep the teaching of the two kingdoms straight and clear for the sake of the Gospel, which alone
gives forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation. Luther fumed that
the devil is incessantly seeking to “brew and cook” the two kingdoms together.20 Satan would like nothing better than to dupe
folks into believing that salvation comes through secular government or conversely that the Church is the institution to establish
civil righteousness in the world. Either confusion displaces Christ
and leaves sinners in despair.
The teaching of the two kingdoms is necessary for the sake of
the Gospel. This teaching guards us from turning the Gospel into
a political ideology. The Gospel works eschatologically, not politically, as it bestows pardon to sinners and establishes peace with
God. It is a faith-creating word of promise heard with the ear,
trusted in the heart, and confessed with the tongue. Christians,
who live by faith in this promise, also live in this world where
we use our eyes to see, to discern, to evaluate. The realm of the
political is not to be dismissed as ungodly or unworthy of the
Christian’s involvement. God is at work here too. But He is at
work here to protect and preserve His creation, making it a dominion where life can flourish. God’s left-handed work is not to be
confused with salvation, but it is a good gift of daily bread to be
received with thanksgiving by those who know the truth.
So Lutherans neither put their trust in political processes nor
do they eschew political involvement. The teaching of the two
kingdoms is an indispensable gift in an age beset by temptations
both to secularism and sectarianism.
21. Stewardship. The question of stewardship begins not with
what I have but with what the Lord has given me. Therefore,
stewardship begins with the gifts of the triune God. This is reflective of the way that the apostle Paul deals with stewardship in
2 Corinthians 8. Paul does not start with an assessment of the
resources of the congregation or with legalistic instructions about
how much they should be doing to meet their quota. Rather, he
begins with God’s grace, with God’s undeserved gift in Christ.
Christians give not to win God’s favor but on account of His prior
gift, salvation in Christ Jesus. In 2 Corinthians, stewardship is connected with assisting those in need, in showing mercy.
This is the pattern of Christian stewardship. Just as in Romans
12, Paul makes his appeal to Christians that they present their
bodies as living sacrifices by the mercies of God, so here Paul
wants his hearers to know first of all about God’s grace. Anchored