LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 460

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460 ADDITIONAL THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS—OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

“God has placed the forgiveness of sins in baptism, the Lord’s Sup-
per, and the Word; in fact, he has placed it in the mouth of every Chris-
tian, to comfort and pronounce to you God's grace for the sake of
Christ's vicarious satisfaction. You can receive it nowhere else, for this
is tantamount to Christ himself speaking it with His own mouth.”!4
A vital and fundamental duty and responsibility of the royal

priesthood is to provide spiritual nurture tor their children. Paul re-
minds us of this duty when he instructs us to bring our children up
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). We have
an indication of how critical this family nurturing in the Christian
faith is with the example provided to us by St. Timothy (2 Tim.
1:5). St. Timothy received training from his mother and grand-
mother, learning Scriptures from them (2 Tim. 3:15).

Our Lutheran Confessions also emphasize the importance of
bringing children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We
recal] that two of the documents in the Book of Concord were
specifically prepared tor teaching children and others the Faith: the
Small and Large Catechisms. In his Large Catechism, Luther wrote,

Parents should consider that they ‘Owe obedience to God, and that,
above all, they should earnestly and faithfully discharge the duties of
their office, not only 10 provide for ihe material support of their chil-
dren, servants, subjects, etc., but especially 1o bring Ihem up to the
praise and honor of God. Therefore do not imagine that the parental of-
fice is a matter of your pleasure and whim. It is a strict commandment
and injunction of God, who holds you accountable for it... . God has
given and entrusted children to us with the command that we train and
govern them according to his will; otherwise God would have no need
of father and mother. Therefore Jel everybody know that it is his chief
duty, on pain of losing divine grace, to bring up his children in the fear
and knowledge of God, and if they are gifted, to give them opportunity
to learn and study so that they may be of service wherever they are
needed. .. . Think what deadly harm you do when you are negligent in
this respect and fail lc bring up your children to usefulness and piety
(LC Ten Commandments, 168-176; Tappert, p. 388-389).

The royal priesthood serves in a wide variety of ways

We nced to emphasize in our Synod, again and again, the great
challenge that lies before the laity of the church in the service they
can render in their day-to-day lives as Christians. They face vast
and enormous challenges in being Christians in a society that in-
creasingly looks down upon any person who is committed to the
Christian faith in anything other than a casual way. St. Peter artic-
ulated the Christian’s challenge centuries ago when he wrote, “Live
such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of
doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on
the day he visits us” (] Peter 2:12). Peter explains that it is “God’s
will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of fool-
ish men” (1 Peter 2:15). The royal priesthood is on the “front lines”
of our Synod’s mission work. These “front lines” are where they
work, shop, attend school, play and live. They are instructed by our
Lord through His Word to “.. . be prepared to give an answer to
everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you
have. But do this with gentleness and respect...” (1 Peter 3:15). If
anything. a word of encouragement to our pastors is needed that
they not become so defensive of the pastoral office that they lose
sight of the vast number of the opportunities the Lord provides to
the church through the royal priesthood.

The great opportunity for the sheep as they are faithful to their
Master, our Lord Jesus Christ, is to live their lives in such a way
that through humble. gentle witness to their Faith, others are
brought into the worshiping community to receive God’s great gifts
through the Word and Sacrament ministry of our congregations.
There is to be no “competition” between the royal priesthood and
the pastoral office but the greatest degree of mutual respect, love
and honor in a relationship that reflects the high calling of our pas-
tors as well as the noble status of the royal priesthood as God’s
chosen people, His holy nation. This is the great opportunity we
have together as the people of God, both pastors and laity, to serve

2001 Convention Workbook

one another in the church for the purpose of the great challenge our
Lord lays before us, to bring the Gospel into all the world.

The congregation and the royal priesthood

Finally, we need to emphasize the responsibility the royal
priesthood has for the work of the local congregation. Service to
the congregation as an elder, a Sunday School teacher, a church ot-
ficer, or a member of congregational boards and committees is ex-
tremely important for the ongoing health and vitality of our con-
gregations. Participating in the congregation’s programmatic
outreach plans, serving as a teacher for Vacation Bible School and
volunteering for work in our Synod’s mission programs are impor-
tant ways the royal priesthood can live out their calling in Christ.
As I mentioned, there are any number of pastors who can tell you
about the great challenge they face when it comes to encouraging
members to become more active in the work of the parish. The op-
portunities for serving the Lord are not limited to service in the
congregation, but on the other hand the service opportunities at the
local congregation are absolutely necessary if our congregations
are going to remain healthy and vital. Again, what a blessing we
have from our Lord as members of the royal priesthood.

What a marvelous partnership can be formed in the congrega-
tion’s ministry between pastor and his people as he equips, guides
and supports them as they use their blessings from the Lord in ser-
vice to the kingdom of God. A proper understanding of the role of
the pastor and the role ot the congregation serves to facilitate this
relationship. The pastor certainly is not the expert in every field of
endeavor, nor should he be. In our congregations, we have mem-
bers of the royal priesthood equipped with many skills and gifts
from our Lord that are extremely useful in the work of the parish.
Exciting and wonderful things happen in a parish that functions as
a team in service to our Lord. We must never give our lay members
the impression that they are somehow “second class” citizens in
the Kingdom of God. No, it’s quite the opposite. Holy Scripture
presents us with this picture.

The called servants of the Word, our pastors and other church
workers, are put in place by Christ to work with the royal priest-
hood in order to strengthen and to equip them for service to their
Lord in the variety of opportunities they have in their daily lives. I
have just mentioned a few of them in this section. Many more
could be mentioned as well. But the point is that the royal priest-
hood is called to serve the living God in their daily lives in a wide
variety of ways.

Conclusion

In this presentation, I have discussed the pastor’s calling to
serve Christ’s sheep, the pastor’s care for Christ’s flock, the con-
gregation’s responsibility to the pastor and finally then the congre-
gation’s responsibility to its pastor’s master, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Certainly much more can be said on each of these points.

The task given to the church to make disciples of all nations is
precisely why our Lord has established in His church the office of
the ministry and why He has declared that all the baptized are
“royal priests” and a “holy nation.” The church receives the bless-
ings of God with great thankfulness. Among these blessings are the
office of the ministry and the status of all Christians as royal priests
before God. May He ever bless the relationship between the shep-
herd and the sheep. May all of our pastors live lives worthy of their
high office and calling, daily thanking God for those congregations
of God’s redeemed people they are privileged to serve. May they
also model the selt-sacrificial love of the Good Shepherd, Jesus
Christ. And may His flock likewise receive their pastors as sent
from Christ, with true thanks to God. May the sheep of Christ live
their lives to the glory of God as spiritual priests and kings before
Him.

Finally, then, to conclude, we offer this blessing from Holy
Scripture, “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the