Preaching sanctification.

Recently I've heard repeated the accusation that Lutherans don't do a good job at preaching sanctification.  At least Lutherans who follow a proper distinction between Law and Gospel.  The accusation implies that Lutherans who let the Gospel predominate don't preach how to do good works (e.g. 3 steps to a more godly marriage, etc.).  And they're right.

But listen to how Luther preaches sanctification.

It is for this reason that your preaching will be something altogether new and foreign to the world, namely, that apart from faith in me all else in sin, regardless how good and holy the deed may be in the eyes of the world. On the other hand, for those who believe in me, all sins, regardless of how great and grievous they may be, are covered up and forgiven; yes everything that believers do, whether they eat or drink, wake or sleep, and so on, all good works are acceptable and pleasing before God. But as far as the godless and unbelievers are concerned, regardless of how good and holy they appear, are all sins, so that even when they take a bite of bread they incur displeasure and commit sin, and on Judgment Day they will have to give account of each vain word they have spoken (Luther's House Postils, The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, vol. 6, p. 100).

Sanctification is vocational. It's when Jesus, through His imputed righteousness given to the sinner through the means of grace, sanctifies your works. Ordinary works.  Everyday works.  You don't have to be trained to do them.  They aren't special, apart from the fact that the sin which stains them is covered up with Christ's righteousness. 

So how do you do good works?  Listen to a sermon, eat Jesus' body and drink His blood and believe that these are given for you.  Then go do something.  Anything.  As long as that something isn't returning to a life of sin, you're living the sanctified life.  You're doing good works. 

Sermon for Misericordias Domini (Easter 3)

John 10:11-16
Third Sunday of Easter—4/6/2008
Emmanuel Lutheran Church—Dwight, IL

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so I will seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness” (Ez 34:11-12).

It was also on a day of clouds and thick darkness that Jesus hung upon the cross. As the light of the sky failed on Good Friday, He who called Himself the Light of the world was drawing His last breaths. Yet at this same time, He was also fulfilling another name given to Him. For on that day of clouds and thick darkness, the Lord God made flesh was rescuing His people as a shepherd rescues his scattered sheep. This is no ordinary shepherd. And He seeks His sheep in no ordinary way. “I AM the Good Shepherd,” Jesus says. “The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” (v 11).

THIS SHEPHERD IS GOOD BECAUSE HE LAYS DOWN HIS LIFE ON THE CROSS

I.

Jesus makes a great distinction between what a shepherd does and what is done by a hired hand. “He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them” (v 12). He who is a hired hand cares more for his own life than for those of the sheep.

The reason why the hireling does what he does is because he is only on the job because of what he can get for himself. In contrast with the shepherd, the hireling doesn’t own the sheep; he has no vested interest in their well-being. The only thing the sheep are for him is a source of income.

The hired hand has only one interest in dealing with the sheep—payday. It’s no big deal if a sheep is injured or lost, as long as the dough keeps rolling in. He will still get paid if the sheep suffer—at the very worst he might lose his job. But he can always find another.

So when the wolf comes, the hired hand runs away and lives to be hired another day. “No need to put myself in harm’s way for the sake of these nasty animals.”

Shepherds are a recurring theme in Holy Scriptures. Another word used for shepherd is pastor. It’s also the name given to ministers of the Church, for they are given to shepherd God’s flock.

But often times Christians don’t like the idea of being sheep with a shepherd. In fact, many times they hate it. They would rather be employers who hire a ministry staff.

Christians find this prospect comfortable and attractive for the simple fact that, with a hireling, you can have control over him. You’re the boss and he’s your employee. You give him his job description, and he had better follow it (and you’ll make sure of it in his regular performance reviews). And if he does not meet your expectations, it’s simply a matter of firing him, because after all, you hired him.

This hire and fire mentality that’s found all too often in our churches is indicative of a deeper desire that’s found in each one of us. Because treating a pastor as a hireling isn’t just to have control over him—it’s to have control over God’s Word.

One very important aspect of the vocation of pastor and shepherd is to make you feel uncomfortable—uncomfortable with your sins, that is. A true servant of the Word is duty bound to preach the entirety of God’s Word, including His Law and repentance of sins.

But if you have a hireling—someone you’ve interviewed and screened—then you can be sure that he won’t ask you to change anything about your old, sinful life that you don’t want changed. And if he does, he’ll be looking for another job.

In my role as Circuit Counselor, I am called upon to help congregations through the call process. I remind them continually of the difference between calling a pastor and hiring an employee. You may have a hireling if you desire, I tell them. You may even choose to treat your called pastor as a hireling by demanding that he conduct the ministry according to your way. But, if you do, don’t be surprised if he’s nowhere to be found when the wolf comes.

When the devil besets you with serious temptations and sins, a hireling will refuse to deal with the sin, but instead try to make you feel better about yourself to mask the disease that lies underneath. When the world attacks your faith in Jesus, a hireling will answer with pious platitudes, but nothing of substance. When your own sinful flesh feels the ravages of its own sin through disease and illness as you lie in the hospital bed, a hireling will more likely be found on the golf course spending the paycheck you gave him, rather than at your side with Christ’s body and blood.

II.

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (vv 14-16). The Good Shepherd is the one who Shepherds the sheep by laying down His life for them in order to bring them back to His fold.

The Good Shepherd is not a hireling because He knows His own. And because He knows His own, He lays down His life for them.

The hireling does not own the sheep, but Jesus, the Good Shepherd, purchased and won you, along with the whole world, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death—so that you may be His own.

Jesus has a vested interest in you because He invested His whole life in you. You are the reason He became flesh. You are the reason that He healed the sick and raised the dead. You are the reason He suffered and died. Jesus’ payday was not the payday of a hireling, but when He paid for your sins by suffering and dying.

He now knows you just as He knows His own Father. You are His family. You are His beloved.

And so He placed Himself between you and the wolf by willingly laying down His life. This Jesus is no hired hand.

You are one of His beloved sheep, and you have been brought into His fold through His life laid down. But though He laid down His life for you, that was not the end, for He took it back up again. And He now lives to lay it down for you another day—but in a different way.

For Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep sends out undershepherds—His called and ordained pastors—to lay down for you, not their own lives, but the life of Jesus.

Through their preaching, you learn of Christ’s life—the life He lived, the life He laid down, the life He took back up, the life He now lives, risen from the dead in the flesh, seated at God’s Right Hand, delivering immeasurable gifts to His beloved flock.

Through the Holy Absolution spoken by His undershepherds, Christ the Good Shepherd takes the devils temptations and your sins head-on. No sin is beyond the Absolution spoken by the voice of the Good Shepherd. And though it is uncomfortable to confess your failings, the Good Shepherd offers surpassing comfort. The prophet writes, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice” (Ez 34:15-16).

And because this Shepherd is superabundantly gracious, He also lays His life down on your tongue with the bread and wine of the Sacrament. And where Christ’s life is, there is also forgiveness and salvation.

Through these, as through instruments, Jesus calls His wayward sheep. Those who hear His voice in the Church’s preaching and in the Sacraments know that He calls to them. In the one flock of the holy Christian Church, the sheep hear the voice of the one great Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Heb 13:20-21).

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.


Rev. Jacob Ehrhard
VD+MA

More than just contemporary v. traditional

At our Northern Illinois District General Pastoral Conference in February of this year, a comment was made by one of the presenters that I think slipped by about 98% of the attendees.  It needed to be heard by more.

It went something along the lines of:

The great divide in the Church over the next 100 years is not going to be along the lines of contemporary and traditional, but along the lines of incarnational, sacramental, and liturgical churches, and gnosticizing churches.

The former are churches whose worship and piety are shaped and formed by the One who was Incarnate, the God who became flesh.  He is the One who comes to us in sacramental means, attaching Himself to tangible substances like water, bread, wine, and words.  Because He visits His people in earthy ways, the worship is arranged liturgically, that is, worship arranged in such a way as to best deliver the gifts that are washed, eaten, drunk, and heard.

Gnosticizing* churches, on the other hand, seek to encounter God outside of His Incarnation, through "spiritual" means that are apart from the divinely ordained sacraments.  It may even be that Christ's Incarnation is denied--either explicitly or implicitly.  For an example of the gnosticizing tendencies found even within the LCMS, look here. 

Look at the worship and piety of your church.  Does it confess that God is a God of flesh in Jesus Christ?  Does it confess that the enfleshed One is also the One who comes to His people in earthy means?  Does the liturgy convey Christ to you through His divinely established means? 

Or does it look at the Incarnation of Jesus Christ as an interesting historical footnote, looking past the God made flesh for some sort of spiritual revelation?  Does it search for revelation through experience, emotion, or feelings?  Does the liturgy of your church point you back toward yourself to find spiritual fulfillment?

JWE
VD+MA

*Gnosticism is an ancient philosophy/theology that became influential in the Christian Church even at the time of the Apostles.  Some believe that John's Gospel is a treatise against gnosticizing movements in the Church.  The name comes from the Greek, gnosis, which means knowledge.  A gnostic is one who searches for a secret spiritual knowledge that is unobtainable through fleshly, earthly means.  For more information, see the article on Gnosticism from the Lutheran Cyclopedia.

Proposal #18

Warning: LCMS politics are found herein.

I'm a delegate to this summer's 2010 LCMS convention.  As such, I have been given the duty to review the proposals of Synod President Kieschnick's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synod Structure and Governance (BRTFSSG).  There are a total of 21 proposals of varying length and depth of suggested change.  Buried toward the end of the proposals is the one that I've come to refer to as the bread and butter of the BRTFSSG, proposal #18.  This particular proposal is what will be the real change in structure and governance, and, in my opinion, the reason why this task force was first appointed.

From the Summary of BRTFSSG Recommendations:

Recommendation #18: Realign the National Synod Ministries around Two Mission Commissions

The national Synod shall be realigned around two mission commissions:

• Commission on International Mission
• Commission on National Mission

Under this realignment, several areas of responsibility that currently are managed from the national office shall be transferred to the Synod’s districts and/or other entities.

In short, this recommendation is to undo the entire structure of elected and appointed boards of the synod and in its place establish two commissions.  These commissions would be placed in charge of all international activities of the synod in the former commission and all domestic activities for the latter commission.  These two commissions would be headed by an executive director who would report to an individual above them, the Chief Mission Officer (CMO) who would report to the synod president.  Additionally the CMO would be appointed by the synod president.

While the proposal gives much lip service to preserving the congregational principle, i.e. encouraging congregations to be the driving force behind the mission activities of our synod, it is clear to anyone who reads this proposal that it is designed to do precisely the opposite.  Instead of giving the congregations the freedom and authority to be the driving force of the missions of the LCMS, it creates a centralized, top-down governance that will function fairly independently from the congregations of the synod for three to four years.  The congregations' only job, then, is to hire or fire the synod president every convention cycle.

Why should this proposal not be adopted?

There are many reasons why this proposal should not be adopted, and many of those reasons have been written about by others.  But I'll offer a reason that I don't think I've heard before.

This article, found in the synod-run newspaper, The Reporter, makes the case that the next generation has little love for institutional forms.  In fact, the article says,

Cook said that many emerging Christians have "a lot of apathy for institution and hierarchy" and regard institutional forms of the church to be ineffective and unworkable.

The irony is that, while the institution of the national synod is telling congregations that they need to become less institutional and hierarchical (read: pastor-led ministry) for the sake of reaching the lost, the national synod is planning to make itself an even more rigid institution and also to install a hierarchy that has never been found before in the LCMS. 

The national synod and proposal #18 have it exactly backwards.  The national synod needs to become less centralized and return the task of the mission to the congregations--both international and domestic.  If proposal #18 passes, I can almost guarantee that it will be obsolete in 10 years, as the current generation passes away to a new generation.

Instead, the national synod should be what it was intended to be: an advisory body.  Pay for our seminaries and our church work college students, publish books, and show the congregations where missions need to be done.

Then let the congregations and individual Christians get together to get things done.  For an example, see the Haiti Mission Project.  My sister and some friends got together and decided that they wanted to do some good for orphans in Haiti.  They formed a not-for-profit organization and have done a variety of things for the people and churches of Haiti.  And they didn't have to funnel resources through a national office. 

I believe that this example is the way that missions will be done in the coming years, not by feeding and growing the bureaucracy. 

Sermon for Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday
Words of Institution; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32
1 April, 2010
Emmanuel Lutheran Church—Dwight, IL


In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

     Maundy Thursday is so named because of the new commandment (mandate) that Jesus gives His disciples: “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (Jn 13:34). Yet the new commandment also comes with a new covenant, or a new testament--a new promise. It is the testament of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, which He gives to His disciples on the same night when He was betrayed, in order that they may know just how He loves them, and to enable them to love one another in the same way.

     So Maundy Thursday is also Holy Thursday, the Thursday when our Lord gives us a command and a promise by which we keep it holy.

3.

     It is no coincidence that Jesus instituted the New Testament of His body and blood on the night in which the Passover was celebrated. The Passover was that ancient Jewish ceremony celebrated in the Old Testament that commemorated their deliverance from bondage in Egypt. Yet at the same time, the meal was much more, for it also pointed forward to the ultimate Passover, when all mankind is delivered from bondage to sin.

     There are relatively few instructions found in Scripture as to how the Passover is to be celebrated. Most of the instructions have to do with the choosing and preparation of the lamb—one year old, without blemish, cooked whole with no broken bones, roasted over a fire, leftovers were to be burned. The Passover dinner recalled the sacrificial lamb whose blood marked them as God’s own when the Lord passed over their houses with His final plague.

     The other instructions for the meal—unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and eating fully dressed—recalled the haste with which they were called to leave the bitterness of their slavery.

     But in addition to being a meal of remembrance, recalling Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, the Passover was also a meal of preparation for Christ’s Passover.

     The Passover is what we call a type of Christ. The meal and ceremonies in each Passover celebration foreshadow the things that will happen to Christ, the Lamb of God.

     In every way, Jesus is the fulfillment and completion of the Passover. He is the Lamb who was chosen by God, without the blemish of sin. He is the one whose whole body was roasted on the cross as He suffered the torments of hell. His blood marked the posts of the cross, signaling that He has died in place of everyone else who deserved to be there. The bitter tears of our slavery to sin are wiped dry by His suffering. And from the cross begins the journey of all who would be His disciples.

     So St. Paul calls Christ our pascha. “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor 5:7). Jesus is the end of the Passover.

     With Christ’s death also dies the Old Covenant (or the Old Testament) of the Jewish rituals and feasts, for there can be no greater Passover Lamb than the One who hung upon the cross. But Jesus doesn’t leave a void in the place of the Old Covenant, but He institutes a New Covenant in its place.

2.

     “Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them and said: ‘Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.’


     “In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it all of you; this cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me’” (Words of Institution).

     With these words, Jesus institutes a New Testament. It is not, however, a new Passover. Remember that the Passover is fulfilled and completed in Christ’s death. The Lord’s Supper is exactly as He says it is: something new. It is, as the Small Catechism teaches, the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, given under bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to each and to drink (SC: Sacrament of the Altar).

     It has been a recent innovation among certain Protestant churches around this time of year to celebrate a Jewish Seder to more fully understand the Sacrament. But this goal cannot be accomplished by a so-called “Christian Seder” for a variety of reasons.

     First, as I said, Seders in the Christian Church are recent innovations dating back to only about 30 years ago. If it took the Christian Church over 1,900 years to incorporate Seders into its piety, then they probably don’t offer too much in the way of learning more about the Sacrament.

     Second, we really know very little about how Passovers were celebrated at the time of Jesus. We have the basic requirements that are outlined in Exodus 12—the lamb and its preparation, bitter herbs, unleavened bread, and eating fully dressed. The rest of the ceremony—which is imbued with Christian meaning—comes not from biblical sources, but from rabbinical tradition. And rabbinical tradition is the tradition of the Pharisees—the same who wanted Jesus silenced and put to death.

     Lastly, many of the ceremonies that purportedly help to understand how Jesus celebrated Passover are from the last 500 years, and not from the time of Christ at all.

     To try to more fully appreciate Christ and His Supper by returning to the Old Covenant of the Passover is a bit like meeting your wife at the door and bending down to kiss her shadow. Why fixate on the representation when you have the real thing right in front of you?

     The better way to more fully appreciate the Sacrament Christ institutes on this night is to meditate on His words, just as we are taught to do in the Small Catechism. (LSB, p. 326; begin with third question)

     What is the benefit of this eating and drinking? These words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there also is life and salvation.

     How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things? Certainly not just eating and drinking do these things, but the words written here: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” These words, along with the bodily eating and drinking, are the main thing in the Sacrament. Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say: “forgiveness of sins.”

    Who receives this Sacrament worthily? Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training. But that person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” But anyone who does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared, for the words “for you” require all hearts to believe.

     Notice how every question about the Lord’s Supper returns to the Words of Christ. These words promise that the reality to which the Passover pointed—Jesus Christ on the cross—are given to us in the Sacrament.

1.

     Finally, as the Small Catechism teaches, the person who is worthy and well prepared is the person who has faith in the words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” How do you know if you’re worthy and well prepared? By examination.

     Examination happens in two ways. First there is examination by the pastor. Each year our young catechumens are confirmed and admitted to the Sacrament, but before that happens, each one is examined. Even now our catechumens are preparing for their examinations. In a few weeks, they will individually be asked what they believe concerning sin and forgiveness, the Holy Trinity, prayer, and the Sacraments of Baptism, Absolution, and the Supper. Only after they have confessed their faith are they admitted to the Sacrament.

     The same is true of visitors to this congregation. If that person is a member of another Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod congregation, we assume in good faith that another pastor in agreement with our confession has made that examination. But in the case of those who are outside of our confession, we ask nothing more than we ask of all our catechumens before they are admitted to the Altar—examination by the pastor and, if needed, a time of teaching.

     Pastoral examination usually happens only when someone is newly admitted to the Altar, and perhaps from time to time, but the second way of examination should take place each time you go to the Sacrament—self-examination.

     St. Paul writes, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself” (1 Cor 11:28-29).

     One very simple way to examine yourself is by reading through the Christian Questions with Their Answers in the Small Catechism. This evening, we’ll examine ourselves together.

(Read Christian Questions with Their Answers responsively; LSB p. 329-330)

IN THIS SACRAMENT, JESUS SHOWS YOU WITH WHAT KIND OF LOVE HE HAS LOVED YOU—A LOVE THAT CAUSED HIM TO GIVE UP HIS BODY AND POUR OUT HIS BLOOD  IN YOUR PLACE

This is the love that forgives sins, given to you so that you might give it to others.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.


Rev. Jacob Ehrhard
VD+MA