“Pastor, I Heard God Speak to Me”

By Rev. George Borghardt

God did what? How did He speak to you? What did He say? I must not have done a great job of hiding my unbelief, because Troy just repeated himself in the same southern drawl. “Pastor, you’re gonna think I’m crazy, but I heard God call my name in church on Sunday.”

“You did?” I said, trying to sound as pastoral as possible while at the same time wondering if Troy had indeed fallen off his rocker. Shifting in my chair, I suddenly was very uncomfortable. Could Troy hear that I was stumbling over words?

Don’t get me wrong. God can speak to people directly and without means. In fact, the Scriptures are full of God bursting into our world with His words and promises. He spoke to the patriarchs in Genesis. He spoke to Moses and the prophets. God can do anything He wants. That’s the neat thing about Him being God.

“Wha...what did God say, Troy?”

While God can speak to us, there’s no promise that God will speak to us without an y means. In fact, He doesn’t need to speak to us that way because He has spoken through His Son—through the Word made flesh. In the external Word and Sacraments, God delivers all that His Son, the Word of God, won for us by His holy life and bitter sufferings and death. The promise of the delivery of God’s forgiveness rests on the Word and Sacraments. Whether Troy had heard God or not would be determined by what Troy had heard.

“Well, Pastor, you know how the Bible can’t possibly have an error? And you know how God can’t lie? You know how you taught us that God speaks to us through His Word?”

“Yes. What did God say to you?” I repeated.

We sinners think that God is talking to us all the time. That’s our own personal idolatry. Our gods tell us to do all sorts of things, and nearly all of them tell us to do things we already want to do. If we want a big TV, it’s amazing how we hear our god telling us that we should have a big TV. We feel that God wants us to do this or God wants us to do that. It may be something completely ungodly, but we can convince ourselves that God wants us to do it. Why? Simply because we feel like He is. That’s our own personal idolatry. Don’t be deceived. Idolatry is common even amongst the baptized.

“So, well, you know, Pastor, how God’s Word says, ‘He who hears you hears Me’?”

That’s Luke 10:16! Even better, Troy. Don’t just quote the Bible, Troy. Quote a good verse! God speaks to us through His Word. His Word is outside us. He comes to us in church through the preaching and teaching of His Word.

When you hear your pastor preach the Law, you are hearing Christ preaching. When your pastor preaches the Gospel, Christ is preaching to you. When your pastor gives you the Lord’s Supper, that’s Christ teaching you and feeding you. When your pastor absolves you in the stead and by the command of Jesus, the catechism says that is “just as valid and certain as Christ was dealing with us Himself.” Is the pastor special? No. Christ is speaking to you through the Word. Your pastor is just, well, to put it bluntly, a delivery boy.

“Well, Sunday at Communion, I heard God call me by name and say...” He paused, and I was again struck with great uncertainty. What exactly did he think God had said to him? Did he think God was telling him to build a new church or something crazy? Did he think God had told him do something insane?

“Well, Pastor, Jesus said, ‘Troy, take and eat, the body of Christ given for you.’ When I heard you call my name, Pastor, I realized that Christ was calling me by name. Then, Christ fed me His body and blood.”

I let out a sigh of relief. Troy wasn’t the idolater; I was. I had forgotten that God speaks to us through the external, preached Word. I was the one who doubted God’s Word and promises. God had indeed spoken to Troy. Jesus had called him by name. Jesus had forgiven him all of His sins. Christ even put His body and blood into Troy’s mouth. God had delivered His gifts to Troy through his pastor.

What happened to Troy happens to you every Sunday morning in the Divine Service. God takes His Word and speaks it into your ears through His servant, your pastor. Your pastor is His mouthpiece, His instrument, for delivering the Word and Sacraments to you. God spoke to Troy through his clueless pastor. Christ certainly speaks to you too through the mouth of your faithful one.

Just for fun, go see your pastor after church and pull a “Troy.” Tell your pastor that God has spoken to you through his preaching. Not only will you get a chance to have a little fun with your pastor, but you’ll also get to give him a little joy by speaking God’s Word into his ears.

Rev. George Borghardt III fumbles and bumbles his way thr ough life as assistant pastor at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Conroe,Texas. He is also the Higher Things Executive of Internet Services. Check out his blog at http://blog.higher things.org/borghardt/.You can e-mail him at revborghardt@sanctus.org.