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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 359

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

IX. 2016 RESOLUTION 13-01A TASK FORCE REPORT
Here, then, we are again assured that a Christian
does not only have the right and power to teach the
Word of God but also that he is in duty bound to do
so at the peril of losing his soul and God’s grace.
You may say: ‘But how? If he has not been called
to do so, as yourself have often taught, he dare
not preach.’ To this I reply: Here you must place a
Christian in two places. First he is in a place where
there are no Christians, he needs no other call
than that he is a Christian, inwardly called by God
and anointed. There he owes it to the erring heathen
or non-Christians to preach and teach [them] the
Gospel, out of obligation of Christian love, even
though no Christian has called him to do so.
But this does not make the Office of Public Ministry optional:
In the second place, if he [the Christian] is where
there are other Christians who have the same
power and right as he, he should not put himself
forward but should let others call and put him forth
so that he might preach and teach in the place and
at the mandate of the others.96
After all, adds Luther in this quotation: “It is true: All Christians are priests, but they are not all parish pastors.” Pastors are
“entrusted with an office and a parish” and “the call and mandate
that makes parish pastors and preachers.”97
Although Walther does not add it, Luther goes on in That a
Christian Assembly Has the Right to Judge All Teaching to say:
Indeed, a Christian has so much power that he may
and even should make an appearance and teach
among Christians—without a call from men—
when he becomes aware that there is a lack of teachers, provided he does it in a decent and becoming
manner. This was clearly described by St. Paul in
1 Corinthians 14[:30], when he says, “If something
is revealed to someone else sitting by, let the first
be silent.” Do you see what St. Paul does here? He
tells the teacher to be silent and withdraw from the
midst of the Christians; and he lets the listener appear, even without a call. All this is done because
need knows no command.98
In C&O Walther then adds additional Luther material about the
Sacrament of the Altar. Luther distinguishes between the responsibility of fathers to teach the Word to their family and the administration of the Lord’s Supper. The father should teach his family the
Word—in obedience to God’s command. “But the Sacrament is a
public confession and should have public ministers.” So, it is not
to be shared in private settings by private individuals. “Hence the
two [the public office and the father’s priestly responsibility] must
neither be mingled into each other nor separated from each other.”99
Luther’s thought progresses distinctively. First, every Christian possesses the Word and is an anointed priest, so it is the Christian’s duty to spread the Word. If he is the only Christian around, he
is called to preach out of brotherly love by God Himself. And, even
if he is not called by others to preach, if there is a lack of teachers
“among Christians,” he should teach them “provided he does it in a
decent and becoming manner.” This also requires that all believers
have the duty to learn the Word so that they share it in truth.

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The complementary nature of priesthood and Office is unfolded throughout C&O, but with particular clarity in Thesis VII on the
Office. After asserting that the public Office exercises “the rights of
the spiritual priesthood” “on behalf of the congregation,”100 Walther
reviews the previous theses and their scriptural foundation at that
point before adding:
Here I may only remind the reader that Holy Scripture presents the Church—that is, the believers—
as the Bride of the Lord and as the mistress of the
household to whom the keys have been entrusted
and with them the right of and access to all rooms,
sacred things, and treasures of the house of God as
well as the authority to appoint stewards [Haushalter] over these. According to Holy Scripture every
true Christian is a spiritual priest and therefore is
entitled and called not only to use the Means of
Grace for himself but also to impart them to those
who as yet do not have them and therefore also do
not yet possess with him the rights of the priesthood. However, in the place where all possess
these rights, no one may exalt himself over the others or exercise them over against the others. But in
all places where Christians live together, the rights
of the priesthood are to be administered publicly
on behalf of the fellowship only by those who have
been called by the fellowship in the manner prescribed by God.101
And finally, in the catalog of quotations from church teachers supporting Thesis VII, Walther provides a noteworthy quotation
from Johann Gerhard:
Wherever the same relation exists [as it does in
that all members of the church are equally royal
priests], the same right also exists. But absolution,
which any layman may announce to a dying person from the Gospel, and Baptism, which a layman
may administer in an emergency, namely, when no
ordered minister of the Church can be obtained,
stand in the same relation. Hence there exists here
also the same right. Laymen act properly when they
instruct or comfort a congregation that is without a
regular shepherd or sick people or those who in any
way are afflicted, as in times of a siege, pestilence,
persecution, etc.102
Gerhard assumes that a called member of the Office of Public
Ministry normally provides the Means of Grace for a congregation.
Emergency is defined as “when no ordered minister of the Church
can be obtained.” He defends as proper not only the absolution and
Baptism provided by laymen in an emergency, but also their teaching in “a congregation that is without a regular shepherd.”103
Before leaving Walther, Roland Ziegler, in a study of the royal
priesthood, reminds us that Walther emphasizes in his sermons the
responsibility of the priesthood of all Christians. It is not so much
a question of rights, rather it is a question of duty. The Christian
cannot escape the spiritual responsibility he has for his neighbor:
My dear ones, if we meet a person lying helpless in
physical misery, wounded and beaten, we consider
it our duty to get to work and not first to wait for the
regular physician. We bind up his wounds and take
2019 Convention Workbook