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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 372

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372

IX. 2016 RESOLUTION 13-01A TASK FORCE REPORT

48 AE 13:315.
49 “Christ is a priest, therefore Christians are priests, as Psalm 22 [:22]
states: ‘I will tell of thy name to my brethren.’ Again, ‘God, your God, has
anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows’ [Ps. 45:7]. That
we are his brethren is true only because of the new birth. Wherefore we are
priests, as he is Priest, sons as he is Son, kings as he is King” (AE 40:20).
50 Luther (AE 40:14) sharply distinguishes between the priesthood of
the NT and the “abomination” of the Roman Catholic priesthood: “The
gospel and all of Scripture present Christ as the high priest, who alone and
once for all by offering himself has taken away the sins of all men and
accomplished their sanctification for all eternity. For once and for all he
entered into the holy place through his own blood, thus securing an eternal
redemption [Heb. 9:12, 28; 10:12, 14]. Thus, no other sacrifice remains
for our sins than his, and, by putting our trust altogether in it, we are saved
from sin without any merits or works of our own. Of this sacrifice and
offering he has instituted a perpetual remembrance in that he intends to
have it proclaimed in the sacrament of the altar and thereby have faith in it
strengthened” (AE 40:14).
51 It is noteworthy that Lutheran theology affirms that the power of
the keys belongs both to the church as a whole (“principally and without
mediation”) and to the ministers the church calls. This is evident in the
Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, and also in references to
Matthew 18:18–20 in Lutheran services of ordination and installation for
the Office of Public Ministry.
52 The validity of the term function, when applied to the Office of
Public Ministry (see below) or such aspects of ministry as preaching,
teaching, and sacramental administration, is sometimes debated in our
circles especially when it appears to result in what is felt to be an overly
functional view of the ministry—as if the only biblical requirement is that
someone preach publicly, not that Christ has established an office, held
by a person, holding the responsibility to preach and teach the Gospel and
administer the Sacraments.
53 Lewis W. Spitz, “The Universal Priesthood of Believers,” Abiding
Word, vol. 1, ed. Theodore Laetsch (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing
House, 1946), 322.
54 Cyprian, Treatise I, “On the Unity of the Church,” Ante-Nicene
Fathers, vol. 5, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donald (Peabody, MA:
Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1995), 423.6.
55 “[T]he priestly office of Christ is to constitute a new and different kind of priesthood, quite different from that of the Old Testament, of
Aaron and his descendants” (AE 13:306).
56 Comment on Ps. 110:4, AE 13:307.
57 Sermons on the First Epistle of St. Peter, AE 30:53. He continues
(53–54): “Now Christ is the High and Chief Priest anointed by God Himself. He also sacrificed His own body for us, which is the highest function
of the priestly office. Then He prayed for us on the cross. In the third
place, He also proclaimed the Gospel and taught all men to know God
and Him Himself. These three offices He also gave to all of us. Consequently, since He is the Priest and we are His brothers, all Christians have
the authority, the command, and the obligation to preach, to come before
God, to pray for one another, and to offer themselves as a sacrifice to God.
Nevertheless, no one should undertake to preach or to declare the Word of
God unless he is a priest.” AE 30:53–54.
58 The Misuse of the Mass (1521), AE 36:138. On this, see also Hellmut Lieberg, Amt und Ordination bei Luther und Melanchthon (Göttingen:
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1962), 40–47.
59 AE 13:333.
60 Theology and Practice of Prayer: A Lutheran View (CTCR 2011),
37, http://www.lcms.org/Document.fdoc?src=lcm&id=1745.
61 Theology and Practice of Prayer, 14. Italics added.
62 See Luther on the Second Commandment, SC and LC (e.g., 3,
10–11, 15, 17–19, KW 441–443).

2019 Convention Workbook

63 The verb ἐξαγγέλλω (exangellō) here, indicates the publication of
an announcement or passing on a report. It is not one of the terms typically used for public preaching, which are κηρύσσω (kēryssō) or εὐαγγελίζω
(euangelizō).
64 This is its only NT usage, although the verb also appears in the
shorter of two poorly attested variant endings of Mark’s Gospel. Neither
variant ending appears in the oldest biblical manuscripts. In the verse
immediately after Mark 16:8 in the shorter of the two variants, ἐξαγγέλλω is
used and is typically translated simply as announced or reported. “But they
[the fearful women who witnessed the empty tomb] announced/reported
to Peter and those around him all they had been told/commanded” (Mark
16:9 variant).
65 AE 30:64–65.
66 AE 30:65.
67 Lewis Spitz, “The Universal Priesthood of Believers,” 339.
68 AE 52:143.
69 Note that there is no evidence that the dispersed Christians who
preached and spoke the Word held any public Office of Preaching. Indeed,
Acts 8:1 states that the apostles remained in Jerusalem and were not
dispersed.
70 Tr, KW 341.69.
71 Although both linguistically and historically one may argue for a
translation of communio sanctorum as sharing in holy things rather than
communion of saints, this is not, finally, the way the other confessions take
the expression.
72 LC I, 91, KW 399; LC I, 88, KW 398.
73 Ap VII & VIII, 8–11, KW 175.
74 LC II, 47–48, KW 436–437.
75 In Exodus 28:36 the OT priests are marked as holy to the Lord on
their foreheads. So also, in Baptism we are marked on our foreheads with
the holy cross.
76 KW here has “of brothers and sisters.” KW 319.45.
77 SA III 4, Tappert 310; emphasis added. On this, Ziegler notes that
although the mutual conversation and consolation is not mentioned in Tr,
69–72, “this is, historically and systematically the background of Luther’s
remark.” Ziegler, “Priesthood and Office,” 10.
78 Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation (St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 2017), 27. Emphasis added.
79 Translation from Luther’s Small Catechism (St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 1986), 11.
80 “Das Evangelium aber ist ja nicht allein den Geistlichen gegeben,
sondern allgemein, darum stehen all Christen im Erbe Christi und sind
geistlich.” Quoted in Hellmut Lieberg, Amt und Ordination bei Luther und
Melanchthon (Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1962), 44. The term
geistlich is literally “spiritual” in English but occurs here in its derived
sense as a member of the spiritual or clerical estate. See AE 44:127: “It
is pure invention that pope, bishop, priests, and monks are called the
spiritual estate while princes, lords, artisans, and farmers are called the
temporal estate. … for baptism, gospel, and faith alone make us spiritual
and a Christian people.” See also: Thomas Winger, “The Priesthood of the
Baptised: The Testimony of Luther, Peter, Humpty Dumpty, and a Goat,”
in You, My People, Shall Be Holy (St. Catharines, Ontario: Concordia
Lutheran Theological Seminary, 2013), 326–329.
81 AE 13:333.
82 AE 39:310.
83 Ibid.
84 See pages 32–39 in the 1986 translation, included in Luther’s Small
Catechism with Explanation (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House,
1991).
85 In this sermon of 1528 Luther accents the responsibility of parents
in partnering with pastors to catechize the young. “Every father of a family
is a bishop in his house and the wife a bishopess. Therefore remember