The Word at Work, Winter 2014 Edition by Institute of Lutheran Theology

Word atWork

the

The magazine of the Institute of Lutheran Theology

Winter 2014 Vol. 3.3

Freeloaders on the Grace of God Dr. Jonathan Sorum – p4

Deep in the Flesh

Rev. Timothy Swenson – p7

Confessing the Confessions Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt – p18

Board of Directors Honorable G. Barry Anderson Associate Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court Rev. Dr. Fred Baltz Pastor, St Matthew Lutheran Church, Galena IL Dr. Eugene Bunkowske Emeritus Professor of Outreach, Concordia University, St. Paul Founder, Lutheran Society for Missiology Rev. John Bent Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church, Whitefish MT Debra Hesse Agribusiness Owner and Manager, Moses Lake WA Dr. Hans J. Hillerbrand Emeritus Professor of Religion, Duke University Rev. James T. Lehmann STS –Pastor, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Thomasboro IL NALC Executive Council Dr. Mark Mattes Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Grand View University Rev. Janine Rew-Werling Pastor, Hosanna Lutheran Church, Watertown SD Fred Schickedanz Real Estate Developer, Calgary Alberta Dr. Phil Wold Retired Physician, Mankato MN

Word atWork

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Letter from the President Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt

Freeloaders on the Grace of God Dr. Jonathan Sorum

God’s Christmas Invasion Rev. Douglas V. Morton

Deep in the Flesh Rev. Timothy Swenson

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Theron Hobbs Jr. Learns Trust in God’s Providence Dale Swenson

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Why the Commandments are First (Part 3) Dr. George H. Muedeking

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Confession and Absolution... do we really need both? Constance Sorenson

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Blown Away by God’s Promises Dr. Frederick Baltz

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Meeting God Face to Face in Jesus Leon Miles

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Confessing the Confessions: Why the Lutheran Confessions must be read as witnessing to a vibrant theological tradition. Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt

Staff Dennis Bielfeldt, President president@ilt.org Fred Baltz, Evangelism and Missions fbaltz@ilt.org Carl Deardoff, Communications cdeardoff@ilt.org Doug Dillner, Assoc. Dean of Academics and Registrar ddillner@ilt.org Threasa Hopkins, Executive Asst. to the President thopkins@ilt.org Leon Miles, Admissions and Business Office lmiles@ilt.org Doug Morton, Certificate Programs and Publications dmorton@ilt.org Denia Murrin, Support Staff dhaynes@ilt.org David Patterson, Librarian dpatterson@ilt.org Colleen Powers, Library Clerk Tom Sandersfeld, Development tsandersfeld@ilt.org Marsha Schmit, Admin. Asst. of Development mschmit@ilt.org Constance Sorenson, Congregational Services csorenson@ilt.org Jonathan Sorum, Dean of Academic Affairs jsorum@ilt.org Kara Swenson, Library Technician Timothy J. Swenson, Chaplain and Student Life tswenson@ilt.org Eric Swensson, Intl. Relationships and Marketing eswensson@ilt.org Pam Wells, Library Technician

Douglas V. Morton - Editor Marsha Schmit - Associate Editor Dale A. Swenson - Associate Editor Carl Deardoff - Graphic Design & Production

Institute of Lutheran Theology 910 4th Street, Brookings, SD 57006 Phone: 605-692-9337 Fax: 605-692-0884 Web Site: www.ilt.org

From the Office of the President

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:1-5; ESV).

For, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8; ESV). We do not need to climb up to God in order to find him. Rather, God comes to us in Jesus Christ and this Jesus Christ comes to us in the proclamation of Christ in Word and sacrament. This issue of the Word at Work brings home the reality of God’s great love for the world in the sending of Jesus Christ. It is God who is always the initiator. We remain the receivers.

The Institute of Lutheran Theology Theology ultimately points to Jesus exists for the very purpose of We do not need to climb up educating pastors, teachers, and Christ, the Word made flesh. to God in order to find him. other church workers so they • The Christ who came for Rather, God comes to us in may proclaim the Word made us over 2000 years ago. flesh in Jesus Christ. We offer our Jesus Christ and this Jesus • The Christ who continues Christ comes to us in the magazine to you free of charge. to come for us in If you like it, please share it with proclamation of Christ in Word and sacrament. friends and family. If you are so Word and sacrament. • The Christ who comes for moved, please consider a small us at the end of the Age. offering to help us continue to publish and deliver the Word at Work free of charge. This issue of the Word at Work is dedicated to proclaiming the truth that it is God who first comes for us without our help. This God continues to In Christ, come for us in the Word of the Gospel. God didn’t wait until the world “got its act together” before he acted. Nor does he wait today. Rather, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem President those who were under the law, so that we might Institute of Lutheran Theology receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5; ESV). Again, “while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6; ESV). 3

Freeloaders on the Grace of God by Dr. Jonathan Sorum

Common sense tells us that worship is something we do for God. When we gather for worship, we come before God to praise and thank him. We present ourselves to him and dedicate ourselves to his service. We give him our offerings to be used for his glory. We think of worship as our response to God’s grace.

Lord’s Supper. In unfathomable mercy, Jesus makes his own body and blood available to us in bread and wine, so that when we eat and drink, we have him, God’s own Son, as ours. Even our prayer, praise and thanksgiving doesn’t come from us; as we pray and sing God’s Word it is the Spirit himself who is putting the prayers of Jesus into our mouths and making us certain we are heard. As Scripture turns that on its head: Worship is not for the offering, it doesn’t really belong in the something we do for God, but something God So faith is a public event, worship service. We aren’t offering anything to does for us. It is true that God accommodated God. We are giving ourselves and our gifts to not an inward and private himself to his people’s need to give him someother people, to serve them by proclaiming the thing when he gave Israel detailed instructions one. Faith means being gospel and helping those in need. In worship for offering sacrifices. But he never told them the traffic is all one-way. We good-for-nothing publicly identified with why they should sacrifice and he made it clear sinners are crowned as kings and queens and Jesus by being part of his they weren’t giving him anything that wasn’t almade into heirs of the kingdom of God! God ready his (Psalm 50:10). And in the end, Jesus church. Faith means not created the Sabbath for his people--one day abolished the whole system. “God is Spirit,” out of the week in which they did no work at being ashamed of joining he told the Samaritan woman, “and those who that they would continually experience the sinners who freeload on all--so worship him must worship in spirit and truth” the reality of being his people just because God the grace of God. (John 4:24). True worship is God pouring out chose them, not because of anything they had his Spirit, so that people know his only Son. done. The Sabbath is for rejoicing in his favor To worship in spirit and in truth is to be mere and being renewed by his word of decision, receivers, freeloaders on the grace of God. which calls us out of the nothingness of sin and re-creates us new as people who live by his Word alone. The arrow of worship is from God to us, not at all from us to God. We call worship a “service,” not because we serve God, but because Remember the Sabbath God serves us. The reading and proclaiming of God’s Word is So--remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy! That is to say, you need Jesus’ own presence by the power of the Spirit, transferring us to be part of the church, which means first of all that you need to from slavery to sin and death into the freedom he has as God’s be at worship every Sunday. Life comes from the vine, but if you own Son. The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is just that--the are a branch cut off from the vine, you will die. Jesus said, “Abide

About the cover: Rev. David Wollan distributes communion during his graduation & ordination service as his son (pictured right) helps.

in me,” and the way we abide in him is to come to worship to receive his Word of promise and the Lord’s Supper (John 15:1-6). You might say, “I don’t need to go to worship. I can believe without going to church.” But do you see what has happened? You are thinking of worship, or “going to church” as something you do. Of course no one is saved by doing the “good work” of attending worship. But worship is not a good work. It is where we finally stop doing works of any kind and just receive. We receive the one baptism for the forgiveness of sins, the end of us and the beginning of living by his promise alone. We receive the Word of God--Jesus himself by the power of the Holy Spirit--coming to us lost sinners and carrying us into God’s glorious future. We receive the true body and blood of our Lord and so have a foretaste of God’s future here and now. We receive the inexpressible privilege of taking everything to our Father in heaven.

means he is found at a specific location in this world, namely, where his people gather to hear the Word of Jesus and receive his Supper. You can actually get physical directions to the place where Jesus is--he is in that building down the street where the church gathers around the proclaimed Word and the sacraments. He is physically, bodily present there. Here he is!

But if worship is just one more thing we have to do, then it takes its place with everything else we do. And the Enemy, who never rests and whose only aim is to steal our Sabbath rest from us, presents us with endless lists of things we could be doing instead. We could be sleeping in, or surfing the internet or playing golf. We could be working, we could be shopping, we could be just relaxing. We are so enslaved by all the things we are doing, that we never stop and shut up long enough to receive anything from God. We restlessly seize life for ourselves and refuse to be God’s creatures who merely receive his gifts. We want to be gods ourselves and take whatever we desire. Here He Is! We would be laboring under this burden forever if Jesus didn’t intervene to bring it to an end. He comes to us as he came to the first disciples and says, “Follow me!” Jesus didn’t command those first disciples to believe a doctrine or have a spiritual experience or change their hearts. He commanded them to do something purely physical: Get out of their boats and place one foot in front of another and simply be with him. The Word became flesh--a human being. To know the Word means first of all being with him physically. The same is true today. Jesus is not something abstract, like an idea or a memory. Jesus is a flesh and blood human being. That Additional pictures taken from the sanctuary at Faith Lutheran Church in Hutchinson, MN!

So--go to him! You can’t change your heart. You can’t even want to change your heart. But you can get up on Sunday morning and go to be where Jesus is, as Word and sacrament in the midst of his church. And in that very act, you are already dead. All that lives for you is this word of Jesus and the promise that he is here for you. Do you hear the Word that declares you are forgiven? Then it is true: You are forgiven! Do you eat the bread and drink the wine at Jesus’ command? Then you have Jesus. You are part of him, forgiven and freed, and an heir of the resurrection. It is enough that you have Jesus. And the condition in which Jesus alone is enough for you is faith. So faith is a public event, not an inward and private one. Faith means being publicly identified with Jesus by being part of his church. Faith means not being ashamed of joining the sinners who freeload on the grace of God. Faith means bearing the shame of the cross and the contempt of the world because you are with Jesus. Faith means that you can’t get over the fact that Jesus, totally present and for me in a Word of promise, a splash of water and a bit of bread and a sip of wine, is enough. Therefore, you are totally at rest in the presence of God. The sabbath has come. You are child of God, an heir of the resurrection. All things are yours, in heaven and on earth. Jesus’ victory is yours and it is utterly certain, because he has already won it. “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

Dr. Jonathan Sorum Dean of Academic Affairs jsorum@ilt.org

God’s Christmas Invasion by Rev. Douglas V. Morton

Invasion! It happened June 6, 1944. Allied armies stormed the beaches of Normandy in what was to be the beginning of the end for the Nazi empire. Nearly two thousand years before this God himself stormed the beaches of this world. This is what Christmas is all about. God’s invasion marked the beginning of the end for the devil’s empire.

to kill the young child. Throughout his life Jesus engaged Satan who was fighting hard as he retreated from this divine onslaught. In the end, Jesus suffered the curse due us because of our sin. He “redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13; ESV). What we deserved, fell on Jesus instead of us. What looked like a defeat for Jesus was really the high point of his The Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was victory for us. Here God struck the final blow. Here God brought with God, and the Word was God. . . And the Word became flesh and forgiveness for the entire world. “In Christ God was reconciling dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1 & 14; ESV). Corinthians 5:19; ESV). Now, Jesus’ resurrection proclaims God the Father’s acceptance of what Jesus has done. It also proclaims God’s It was no angel who invaded at Christmas. Rather, it was he whom the pardon for the world. Paul himself writes that God “raised from the angels worship. God himself took up residence in Mary’s womb. The dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and cry of Mary’s infant son on that first Christmas was the cry of a huraised for our justification” (Romans 4:25; ESV). man child who was also the very God of the universe. This child’s cry brought fear to the devil, since it marked the beginning of the end of God came to us as opposed to we coming to him. He invaded this Satan’s kingdom, as well as his hold on Adam and Eve’s descendents. planet on that first Christmas and brought us liberation. And, even today he comes to us in the Gospel Word to give us the gift of faith God did not wait on us to do something before he dealt with this pre- and by doing so we receive God’s liberating gifts of forgiveness and dicament we were in. Instead of waiting on us, he invaded our planet eternal life in Christ. with the express purpose of saving us. Most invasions are bloody. God’s invasion was no different. He purThe Jesus born on Christmas was innocent, sinless, and holy from the chased our freedom with blood, a blood flowing from Jesus’ veins moment of his conception. He would live his holy life in our place to and costing Jesus his very life. That was the price of our liberation. make up for our unholy lives. Then, when the time came, he took our Remember this on Christmas when you sing, “Joy to the world, the sins upon himself at the cross. He who had no sin, was made “to be Lord has come.” You are singing about God’s costly invasion and our sin . . . so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 liberation. You are declaring that God came to us when we could Corinthians 5:21; ESV). In this invasion God would “redeem those not come to him. This invasion into this world through Christ is the who were under the law, so that that we might receive adoption as real reason you and I can say “Merry Christmas!” sons” (Galatians 4:5; ESV). It would be no peaceful invasion. While it would bring peace between God and man, it would do so by God doing battle with the devil and dealing with our sin. And, the devil did not go quietly. The book of Revelation says he sought to ‘devour’ Jesus when he was born (See Revelation 12:4). He was seeking to do this when King Herod tried

The Rev. Douglas V. Morton Director of the Certificate Programs and Theological Publications dmorton@ilt.org

Deep in the Flesh by Rev. Timothy Swenson

Do you remember the children’s song: “Zacchaeus was a Wee Little Man?” He wanted to see Jesus so he climbed a sycamore tree. There from his lofty perch, he sought a sight of his Savior. But Jesus, upon arriving at the base of Zacchaeus’ sycamore, did not commend him for his ascent. No, Jesus said, “Come down! You get down from there.” Jesus did not intend to meet that eager tax collector while he hung on that perch between earth and heaven. No, Jesus intended to meet Zacchaeus in his house, right where he lived and not in that ascended-above the earth place (cf. Luke 19:1-10). Scripture is rife with references to those who sought after things above them, e.g. rule, knowledge, status, and such. Unworthy of those higher things, their consequence usually involved a “coming down” of sorts. Just consider these examples. Absalom, son of David, sought a lordship of which he was unworthy. Unable to obtain that higher thing, he ran from the consequences only to die. As his horse ran through the forest, his head caught on a branch and snatched him out of the saddle. There he died, impaled by spear and sword, swinging in the space between earth and heaven (cf. 2 Sam. 18). Absalom’s “coming down” was to an ignoble death, gutted like livestock hung up for the slaughter. Men, camped there on the plains of Shinar, coveted a higher thing, namely, the place of God hidden within the heavens. Willing their ascent to that lofty mansion, they began their project: the construction of a tower… a tower to reach the heavens… a tower to elevate them above the earth to a lofty place of which they were unworthy. When the Lord came down, he observed their hubris with contempt. He put an end to it by making them foolish, not understanding one another. Their “coming down” was a scattering… an uncomprehending dispersal across the face of the earth (Genesis 11:1-9).

Our primal progenitors, Adam and Eve, there in the Garden of Eden, given the riches of its fruitfulness, coveted the one thing forbidden them: the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Through the hearing of some other word than God’s Word, they came to desire a higher thing… a higher knowledge… a higher order. They desired to be like gods. Grasping after that lofty goal, they had their “coming down” in opened eyes, burning shame, and a death sentence passed upon them and their descendants (cf. Genesis 3). Just as scripture is rife with incidents of those who grasped and coveted the things above them so that, in consequence, God gave them a “coming down,” so too is scripture rife with incidents revealing that our God is a God who “comes down” to meet us there in the place he has put us. Just consider these examples. God established the Hebrews in Egypt, first under friendly rulers and then, not so friendly. The Lord didn’t choose a mighty and credentialed military leader to set his people free. No, he chose a murderer on the lam, Moses, saying to him from the burning bush, “I have heard the cries of my people...and I have come down to deliver them. Now you go do it!” It should not be a surprise that the rest of the conversation on that little bit of holy ground there on Mt. Horeb consists of Moses’ objections to such a call and the Lord’s overcoming those objections. Moses comes to respect the position in which God establishes him (cf. Exodus 3). God established David as king of Israel. In one of his psalms, David expresses a “coming down” confession: “What is man that you regard him?” (Ps. 144:3). It is David’s prayer that the Lord “come down…” that the Lord come down and rescue him… deliver him. Stripped of pride, David is very cognizant of the place in which God has established him.

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serves a small church in Fort Worth, Texas, called Word of God Tabernacle. “This is not to say that my father and grandfather were not interested, because they were. It’s just my grandmother and I have always had a very close and special bond that I think became stronger the more involved I became in ministry.” Sylvia Cordier, Theron’s mother, supports his ambitions and was excited to see him called to being a pastor. Her mother, Evelyn Lomax, had dreamed of her grandson preaching and leading a church, and continually reminded him that his actions would be a greater statement than his words.

Theron Hobbs Jr. Learns Trust in God’s Providence by Dale Swenson

Theron Hobbs, Jr. graduated this spring 2014 through the certificate program of the Institute of Lutheran Theology. His academic journey to be equipped with the Lutheran faith began in 2010. His service to a congregation led them to issue him a call. Only after much conversation and prayer did he answer, yes. “I had to learn that if God has put it on my heart to serve Him, then He will equip me to serve Him, as my wife always says, ‘God equips the call. He doesn’t call the equipped.’ Since saying yes to the call, God has been nothing short of faithful and gracious,” says Minister Theron Hobbs, Jr., who graduated from the Institute of Lutheran Theology, having earned a Pastoral Ministry Certificate on June 1, 2014. He is serving Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Cathlamet, Washington. Nestled upon an island surrounded by the Columbia River, the small, rural Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ congregation called and installed Minister Theron on August 4, 2013. Family members and church nurtured a young man Theron toward the desire to be a minister. But he most credits his paternal grandmother, Lillie Joe Hobbs with “significant impact.” She

More nurture came from the Lutheran friend who became his wife. Theron relates one particular dialogue with her about his concern for the Lutheran Church...“in how it communicates the works of God...” For him, there was a lack of talk about law, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. It seemed too often, in his opinion, that talk was always about Jesus. To which she responded, “Exactly! It is all about Jesus!” Theron adds, “That statement produced conversations about God’s grace and permanently shaped how I would see God.” Danielle Hobbs has been Theron’s wife for nearly ten years. During their engagement they determined to worship together as a family, especially as they made plans to have a child. Seeking a “happy middle ground” between her Lutheranism and his non-denominationalism made them study and discuss worship conventions and beliefs. “Danielle was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church (Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) in Olympia, Washington, so being in a Lutheran church setting was a preference but she wanted to be sensitive to my church upbringing, which was technically non-denominational, but had influences from Pentecostal and Baptist churches. I can recall having many theological conversations with my wife even before we started dating, because she did her studies in college, where we met, at Concordia University of Irvine, CA., with aspirations of writing church curriculum.” Theron admits that their seven-year-old son, Theron Hobbs III, has been an enormous influence upon his ministry, too. “If I want my son to understand a God that balances Law and Gospel, then I have to be a father, husband and pastor that balances structure and mercy. If I want my son to see that sacrificing for God is worth it, because of what He sacrificed for me through Jesus, then I need to carry my cross. There have been times in which I have epiphanies about my relationship to God as I view my relationship with my son. I really do think that God has a sense of humor.” Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church has few children as the congregation’s worship attendance averages close to 50 people, of all ages. Its roots are deeply Scandinavian and Norwegian, with fishing and agriculture being “the pride of the town.” Visit www.ilt.org for additional videos, Q&A’s and pictures of our students!

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“I think as the congregation looks at the future they have come to understand that we can look outside the box of what’s typical in the Lutheran church without being outside of Scripture. As we find different ways to reach the non-Lutheran, we want all to know that they can find a comfortable home at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church...Our church has determined to not let the expectation of a small, rural Lutheran church define us, but allow an overt passion for the Lord, the Bible and the people define us.” Concluding that looking upon youth as only “our future” and neglecting them as “our present,” was inappropriate for both society and any Christian church, Minister Theron has developed more personal ways of engaging with youth. “When it was presented to me that there’s an opportunity to chaperon local school events and the high school lunch breaks, I pounced on it,” noted Minister Theron. “It is extremely important for young people to have someone express care for them who aren’t expected to. Each Thursday during the Wahkiakum High School lunch break, I just converse with the youth as we talk about whatever is relevant to them during that day, week, month, or year while reminding them that I just want to be a sympathetic and non-judgmental ear. I do intentionally seek out those who appear to be distant from the rest or have a downcast demeanor. It has been amazing how many youth have approached me, and recently the high school principal shared with me that the youth look forward to my weekly visits.” Theron is 32 years old, and has had a few jobs along the way. When he first contacted the Institute of Lutheran Theology, interested and tentative, he had been working in customer service for a large rental car company. After the first of what should be a total of four semesters with studies in the ILT, that employer told him to choose between a third less in pay and have a demotion, or quit his studies with ILT, or quit his job. He needed the job, and so chose the lesser pay with a demotion. “This was one of the biggest steps of faith in trusting that pursuing education to become a pastor is what God has called me to do. Though it was very tough on us financially, thankfully God provided for my family...,” points out Theron. A new job came into the picture, and the strong career opportunities, salary, and benefits seemed very attractive at the reputable furniture company. In addition, Theron’s first hope of receiving a

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call from Our Saviour’s had ended with the disappointment of another receiving the call. But the call was turned down by that prospect, and the interim pastor, Les Foss, had a coordinated three-week long vacation that needed to be covered by pulpit supply. Theron and Danielle agreed to serve, and during the supply period both sensed a growing sentiment of the church that they were considering offering Theron the call. “On the third week my wife and I had a conversation and dinner with the then church council president. . . . We thought we had a proper rebuttal to any response he had about declining an offer to accept the call. Wow! We were so wrong to think that we could outwit a politician! The desire to decline the call had nothing to do with the church or my desire for ministry, but a lack of trust that God would provide for the church and for my family to where the partnership would thrive. So after much conversation and prayer, we took a massive leap of faith and accepted the call...I had to leave the comforts of a predictable and high salary, quality medical and dental benefits and control over my work environment.” Adds Theron, “I was very fortunate to have a somewhat smooth transition into ministry from a non-ministry position because during the entire time of studying at ILT, I was also doing pulpit supply with a very frequent visit to my now congregation before being blessed to be here full time.” He further credits ILT with a great flexibility that assisted him to attain the goal of Pastoral Ministry Certificate. Accomplished in eight “lighter load” semesters rather than four full time “heavy” semesters, Theron appreciated a balanced scheduled in which to squeeze in reasonable amounts of readings and assignments. The courses presented a “full picture of sound theology, ministry life and expectations of a pastor,” according to Theron. Today Minister Theron Hobbs, Jr. finds that salvation is lived out through God’s grace and power, and is not something he must strive toward. And the most important thing for a 21st century ministry? His answer is, “Keep messages and actions Biblical; be willing to go to where people are in order to reach them. . .even if it’s uncomfortable; understand that grace can be expressed without compromising. Love all people and be thankful if you are able to share the Gospel without fear of violent or deadly persecution.”

by Rev. Dr. George H Muedeking

(...continued from Summer/Fall 2014 Issue) You remember—we are looking at why Luther placed the Ten Commandments as the first essential of Christian doctrine in his Small Catechism, rather than the Creed or the Sacraments. No peoples have been found without a conscious commitment to right and wrong. So St. Paul reports, as we saw last time: “They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 2: 15). No peoples have been found without a conscious commitment to right and wrong. Others too have discovered this fact. People vary, of course, and notoriously so, over what is to be judged right and what is to be avoided as wrong. But without exception, they do acknowledge that some behaviors are strictly forbidden while others can be tolerated. C.S. Lewis described this strange unanimity this way, “The human mind has no more power of inventing a new value than of imagining a new primary colour, or, indeed, of creating a new sun and a new sky for it to move in.”1 The proverb puts it well, there is even “honor among thieves.” Every incarcerated convict learns, no matter how insensitive he previously was toward society’s definitions of right and wrong, that it is wrong for him to “squeal,” to be a “stool pigeon.” That act is wrong, period! I recall another example, a pastoral instance where this universal sense of right and wrong became obvious to me. The stranger woman on the phone asked, “Can you give

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me the Lutheran ritual for committing suicide?” Rather than searching my liturgical manuals for such an unlikely possibility, I arranged to come at once to her home for counseling. She was a former strip-tease dancer, now driven to distraction by two incessantly screaming children, and a husband away in the military service. While she admitted to killing her other offspring with two abortions, she saw no moral problems either in those killings or in her former life-style, and was only slightly perturbed by the fact that a neighbor climbed into bed with her to comfort her in her loneliness while her soldier husband was abroad. But she did quite suddenly confront the issues of right and wrong when the doctor whom she consulted to determine whether or not the neighbor had made her pregnant, also took the opportunity to enjoy her bed. What was the wrong now? Why, it was the unfaithfulness she was demonstrating to her faithful husband overseas. She was therefore convinced that she was totally and irredeemably headed for hell. And the quicker the better, through her contemplated self-destruction. Her subsequent attempted suicide in the next hours left her to suffer an uncomfortable stomach-pump in the emergency hospital ward. But it also left her with a full desire to know if there were not a better way of life, a less wrong and more right way to live. Turning to her Savior Jesus Christ, she became a partner in the community of faith as a member of our church. The whole long and dramatic episode left me with the clear perception that though people may disagree on what is right and wrong, they do not disagree with their conscience that there are obligations, rights or wrongs, that do exist for them.

Obligated to Whom If then our conscience makes it evident that we are under obligation, to whom should that obligation be referred? Surely not to ourselves, despite all the TV rationalizations, “You owe it to yourself!” No one of us is that naive that we can believe that the very person (myself), whose impulses and desires got me into this bind of conscience, can be trusted to be given charge of my future. Might there not then be some other human to whom we owe accounting for our life? How could that be? Are not they all at least as vulnerable, weak, and as mortal as we ourselves? As we walk our life pathway, is there any response except agreement with the Psalmist who confesses to his God, “Thou dost sweep men away; they are like a dream, like grass which is renewed in the morning; in the morning it flourishes and is renewed, in the evening it fades and withers (Psalm 90: 5-6)? No, all my companions are wisps of the wind also. But there is Someone to whom our life is surely and totally responsible. It is the One who at the beginning of these commandments says, “I AM the Lord your God!” The Commandments with their call to obligation, do perform precisely their assigned function of alerting us personally to the commitment that our lives are in a relationship both to that Other One and to those other ones whom we name “my neighbor”. For Human Community In addition, Dr. Luther places the commandments first so that we can behold the shape of our Christian life of faith. They set forth the bare essentials that make human social living possible. Consider the alternative: If I can only leave my home in an armored vehicle because my neighbor can be expected otherwise to kill me(5th), if I dare not leave my home because my spouse can be expected to invite in a lover while I am gone(6th), if I can not face old age without expecting to have my children abandon me in my increasing needs(4th), if I cannot even go to the super-market without expecting that the persons who inspected the food were lying to me when they said the food was contamination-free(7th and 8th), then social living would be strictly impossible. When God gave Israel the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai, He made particular mention that they were guideposts on the way to freedom out of slavery (e.g. Deuteronomy 5:15). The commandments, with their ten structures for mutual responsibility and respect for the rights of others, make that human community possible. In contrast, recall the profound insight of Russia’s great author, Dostoyevsky: “Without God, everything is permissible.” If we want to know the kind of social as well as personal world the Creator God has planned for us, the Ten Commandments are

the place to find it out, at the beginning of our pilgrimage into the land of faith! The Primary Reason There is one more reason Luther began his outline of the essential teachings of Christianity with the Commandments. This is a truly alarming and disconcerting reason, but it is the reason the Bible itself gives for the original proclamation of these Ten Words. We do well not to neglect it. We find it where the Apostle Paul is discussing why God’s “Law” was given to humanity: “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3: 19-20.) In this case, if we are willing to accept the Bible’s witness, we must say: “The Ten Commandments were given to show us NOT how we are to please God; they rather show us how we are NOT pleasing God.” If our sortie into the land of Christian doctrine is to lead us ultimately into a full appreciation of our relationship to God, we must also reckon honestly with this estrangement from Him. It is exposed as each of us willfully and willingly is “going our own way”(Isaiah 53: 6). The Bible has a special word for this willful defiance. It calls such behavior, “sin.” It is the final burden of the Ten Commandments to accomplish that exposure in and to ourselves, as St. Paul informs us in Romans 3:20: “through the Law (i.e., the Commandments of God) comes knowledge of sin.” With illuminating self-analysis the apostle examines this drama: “If it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’” (Romans 7: 7). Going beyond the purely theoretical admission that we humans have separated ourselves from our God, the Commandments help us see the precise ways in which we violate the divine will, and thereby break off our relationship to God. Pondering the Ten Commandments, we will be free of the trap of being “sinners without any sins.” C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1965), 56-67. 1

The late Dr. George H. Muedeking

was the Senior Editor of the Lutheran Standard, the official publication of the American Lutheran Church; and professor of Functional Theology at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary.

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Confession and Absolution... do we really need both? by Constance Sorenson

While working as a Director of Christian Education, I remember the pastor telling me that one of our members had met with him and asked if we could stop using the Confession of Sins as part of our worship service. She said it made her “feel bad” and she had enough problems without having to feel bad when she came to church! I don’t know what he told her but we didn’t stop using Confession and Absolution as part of our worship! This happened almost fifteen years ago and now you will find churches that do not include those two integral parts of worship. As far as I know, we are still “sinful and unclean” and desperately need to repent and confess what “we have done and left undone” and then to hear those blessed words: “Your sins are forgiven.”

for a visit. We frequently had chaplains stop by, but usually they only stayed for a couple hours, met with their own soldiers, and then moved on. But today I was scheduled to entertain him for the afternoon. He spoke some broken English and I believe only understood about a quarter of what I said. After a brief introduction, I told him that I was a Lutheran chaplain. His eyes narrowed a bit as he leaned toward me and said with a soft voice,“So am I.”

He was one of four Lutheran chaplains in the Slovenian army. Slovenia is predominately Catholic (90%) and most Slovenian soldiers expected their chaplain to be a Catholic priest. He would not be taken seriously by his own soldiers if they found out he was a Lutheran. But he trusted me with his secret.

A few years ago, when I worked for the Lutheran Bible Institute in California, we invited Dr. James Nestingen to come and teach a class at Concordia University, Irvine. While he was in As we prepare ourselves California he also taught an Adult Ed class one The rest of the afternoon, with tears in my eyes, I Sunday at an ELCA church and then rushed over shared with him all the things that had been stored for worship each week it to a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregaup in my heart. I confessed to him all my own fears is the humbling act of tion and taught another class on the need for Conand anxieties. He listened patiently, hardly saying fession and Absolution. He told stories of people confession that reminds us a word. In the end, he said just three words to who came to him with burdens and heavy hearts me,“You are forgiven.” of why we are there in who confessed their sins before him. Then they our Father’s house as would wait to hear the words. Some would plead, It was those three words that helped me complete “Say the words, please, I need to hear the words.” the rest of my tour. repentant sinners. Jim would then speak to them those wonderful words: “Your sins This chaplain also needed to hear the words, “You are forgiven.” are forgiven.” The need to be released from the burden of sin, guilt, and shame is extremely necessary if we are to minister to the needs of I met a wonderful pastor, Michael Giese, from Rosenberg, TX, who others and to be the blessing we have been called to be. served as a chaplain in Afghanistan. His duties included serving as a religious mentor to the “religious and cultural affairs officer” of the As we prepare ourselves for worship each week it is the humbling act of Afghan army, as well as assisting with humanitarian aid missions and confession that reminds us of why we are there in our Father’s house as providing for the spiritual needs of American personnel. He tells us of repentant sinners. When the words of forgiveness are spoken we raise one of his experiences there: our voices in praise and thanksgiving because we know our worth is based not on what we have done or have left undone, but rather on the This was a lonely job. When called to provide spiritual care f gift of His Son’s body and blood shed for us. We are ready to be fed the or a US soldier who lost a hand in an accident, I was there. Lord’s Supper and to be nourished by His Word which sustains us for When an airman complained to me about how everyone in her the coming week. We are called to gird ourselves with His strength, go office hated her, I was there. After an up-armored vehicle out and make disciples, spreading the Gospel in our homes, neighbor flipped over and pinned four brave young soldiers, while the hoods and workplace. We have been freed from the burden of sin and Taliban shot at them, I was there. I made it my mission to be fed His Word and are now ready and able to live as the Church, God’s there for my soldiers, sailors, and airmen. working arm in the world.

When they told me about their pain and fear, I sat with them in the crucible of their suffering. While they were able to let it out, I held it close to my heart…until I met Chaplain Alexandri.

I heard that a chaplain from the Slovenian army was coming

Yes, we really do need Confession and to hear those words of Absolution: “Your sins are forgiven.”

Constance Sorenson Director of Congregational Relations csorenson@ilt.org

Of Hair Dryers, Permanence, and God’s Promises by Dr. Frederick W. Baltz

I wonder which is worse, the apathy toward God and his church we see in many people, or the real anger against God and his church we see in others. At least those who are angry have some passion and espouse a set of beliefs, however misguided. Anger against God seems to be on the rise as more young people are misled about him, and blame him for virtually all the ills of western civilization. One of the manifestations of this anger in recent times has been the renunciation of baptism. In fact, it is more than that. People have created rituals to become unbaptized. Edwin Kagin, attorney, activist, and atheist unbaptizes people with an electric hair dryer.

requires of atheists. There can be no purpose beyond what humans arbitrarily make for themselves, and no future beyond the day of death. There can be no ultimate standard for good and evil, right and wrong. There can be no hope for tomorrow, because there is no one who is good and strong to prevail in the end. It will be impossible, once the warm hair dryer is shut off, to avoid the bone-chilling nihilism that must follow.

Unbaptized from the name of the Son This goes beyond making no room in the inn for the Christ child. This amounts to driving him out of every corner of life. If one I have to say that there is a blasphemous character to all this which utterly rejects the Son, one also rejects everything the Son said and infuriates me. Unbaptism amounts to saying publicly: “I would did. All the words and deeds of mercy in the life of Jesus are at issue. hate and reject God, but he would have to be His “ransom” in the form of his own life cannot be real first.” Archie Bunker’s words come to my yours if you reject him. Of course, there have been As for any theology of mind from an episode of “All in the Family” others who utterly rejected Christ. The unbaptized when his son-in-law (yes, the meat-head) unbaptism, I don’t believe would belong in their intellectual company. What directed a “Bronx cheer” heavenward. “You’d names come to mind…? it is possible to be better get fitted for a lightning rod, buddy!” unbaptized. We cannot Then, when I get my own anger in check I Unbaptized from the name of the Holy Spirit remember that God loves these people, too, There is a powerful statement from Jesus about take God’s promise and and wants them to be saved. Our job is not to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It’s the one sin somehow unpromise it. condemn people, but to keep offering them which has no forgiveness. Blaspheming the Spirit new life in Christ. In order to do that, we means putting oneself out of reach of the Spirit’s must stay on speaking terms if we can, despite live-giving work. To be unbaptized from the Holy the level of offensiveness we might encounter. Spirit would be a rejection of the personal, powerful, presence of God in life, and of all the Spirit did in the lives of others as well. As for any theology of unbaptism, I don’t believe it is possible to be unbaptized. We cannot take God’s promise and somehow unpromAll this is what Edwin Kagin offers with his hair dryer. How very ise it. Neither can we take God’s promise and repromise it by being sad! One person in particular seems to have comprehended the rebaptized, thus nullifying the original promise. We can take that deadliness of the hair dryer’s arid breeze. It’s Kagin’s son who has promise and squander it, but that is all that is open to us. If we do become a Christian pastor. He claims his own experience of Jesus that, the promise does not help us, but convicts us in the end. We Christ. can’t earn the grace of God, but we can throw it away. The doctrine of the Trinity is the church’s way to express the fullness Let’s suppose now for the sake of discussion that we had a candidate of who God is and what God does. Perhaps this exercise of contemfor unbaptism before us for some final reasoning before he takes plating the demonic folly of unbaptism can help us renew a holy this radical step. We would ask this person if he fully understood appreciation of what we have been given as believers. what he was about to do. Unbaptized from the name of the Father What would this be but the total denial of being a child of a loving Creator? In view of the massive amount of evidence for a Creator of the universe, it would truly be “checking your brains at the door” (as believers are often accused of). That is what godless dogma Reaching the Unreached: ILT’s new Doctor of Ministry program, coming Fall 2015! This program explores the task of evangelizing on a specifically Lutheran basis; focusing on engaging, teaching, and proclaiming! Contact Dr. Jonathan Sorum for more information!

Dr. Frederick W. Baltz Director of Evangelism and Missions fbaltz@ilt.org

Meeting God Face to Face in Jesus

by Leon Miles

There exists a frustrating separation between God and his creation. It is a great chasm which in this life none may cross. For many people there is a deep desire to cross this divide and meet God face to face. For some this desire comes from the longing to know God at a very personal level. For others this desire comes from the wish to receive direcexists since the Fall. Genesis relates the story of God living in tion in life. For many others it comes from the desire to have harmony with his creation. The story describes the presence certain questions answered. For Moses it came from the desire of God in the world, saying, “And they heard the sound of the to see God in his glory. In Exodus 33:18 Moses expresses this Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…” (Gendesire, saying to God, “Please show me your glory” (ESV). This esis 3:8a; ESV). These words paint a heartwarming picture of statement comes from the Moses who God called to speak God moving among his creation. These words, however, come for him to his people. This is the Moses who went up on the after the temptation and sin of Adam and Eve. This sentence mountain and met with God in the smoke and deep darkness. concludes, “…and the man and his wife hid themselves from This is the Moses whose face reflected God’s glory. Yet, Moses the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden” desired to see more. He desired to know God to the extent that (Genesis 3:8b; ESV). No longer could Adam and Eve live in the he can be known. He desired to cross the divide and see God joy of the presence of God. No longer could they see him face face to face. God, however, does not meet with his created peo- to face. They separated themselves and all their progeny from ple at this deeply personal level. To Moses God by the sin they committed. God in God says, “You cannot see my face, for his holiness is certainly separate from his The Christmas Story is man shall not see me and live…. Behold, fallen and corrupted creation. there is a place by me where you shall the story of God coming to stand on the rock, and while my glory At Mount Sinai God called all his people man...The incarnation of passes by I will put you in a cleft of the to assemble before him. In a way many Jesus is the way in which rock, and I will cover you with my hand people wish to meet God today, he called until I have passed by” (Exodus 33:21-22; God is seen face to face. his people so he might appear to them ESV). God is, and remains, separate from and speak his word to them. There was his creation according to his glory. no mediator in this event. No prophet, priest, or pastor stood before the people and spoke the word of This separation is the result of sin that has infected the human God. God himself promised to come before them and speak. race. God was not separate from his people in the beginning, The people cleansed themselves and awaited the coming of but separated himself because of the corruption of sin that God. God came as smoke and fire and lightening. With a loud trumpet call he descended upon the mountain and spoke what

ILT is now opening its library resources to all pastors within the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, the North American Lutheran Church,

has come to be known as the Ten Commandments. The voice of the Lord struck fear in the hearts of the people who saw and heard God that day. Exodus 20:18-21 records the reaction of the people, saying, “Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightening and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us lest we die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was” (ESV). It is clear from this passage that the people, because of sin, were separate from God. They could not approach him on the mountain. God’s appearance created fear in the hearts of the people. God’s appearance pushed the people away from him. This event pointed out their sin. As the history of the Old Testament progresses, God becomes more and more remote. He is more and more distant from his people until the Fifth Century BC when he becomes silent, having sent his last prophet until John. The visions and meetings described by the Old Testament prophets make it evident that God is and remains separate from his people, even those people he calls to do his will. When Isaiah sees the Lord above the temple in Jerusalem he cries out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5; ESV). The deep despair in his voice is clear to any who have felt the guilt of sin and the weight of judgment that rebellion against God causes. To be a sinner in the presence of the Holy God is a terrifying thing. These passages teach that sin separates God from his created people. The corruption inherited from Adam and Eve manifests itself in actual sins, and the separation between God and the human race continues even to this day. Even in the New Testament, the appearance of God in his glory demonstrates this separation. When Jesus appeared to Peter, James, and John in his divine glory on the Mount of Transfiguration, they “fell on their faces and were terrified.” Just as it happened with Ezekiel and Daniel (Ezekiel 1:28b and Daniel 7:15; 10:9), so it happened to the apostles when they saw God in his glory. The same happens to the apostle John even after the death and resurrection of Jesus. When Jesus appears to him on the Island of Patmos he too faints at the sight of God in his glory (Revelation 1:17). Here we see the consequences of the corruption Adam and Eve brought upon all their children. It was God’s will, how-

ever, to remedy this situation. The history of the Old Testament shows that fallen people cannot go to God. Instead God comes to his people. More than that, God becomes one of them. Jesus, who is the eternal Word of God, appears in human form to the fallen human race and redeems it by his blood. John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (ESV) The divide that could not be crossed by man was crossed by God. John continues by saying, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18; ESV). All people can now know God and see him in his glory because Jesus has made him known. In Jesus, the divide is crossed. No longer must humans seek to go to God, but God comes to them and saves them. Paul describes this when he writes, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8; ESV). The problem of the separation caused by sin is finally solved only in the body of Jesus Christ. What could not be accomplished from the human will is accomplished by the divine will of God. The divide is crossed, and God is met in Jesus Christ. The Christmas Story is the story of God coming to man. It is the story of God’s merciful visitation to his people. Creation, powerless in the corruption of sin, could not approach or see the face of God. God in his mercy comes to the corrupt, and in the humility of suffering and the cross redeems what was lost. The incarnation of God in Jesus is the way in which God is seen face to face. Today humanity, though it has been redeemed by the blood and sacrifice of Jesus, still lives in this separation. However, there is a day coming, when Jesus will cross the divide once again and permanently end it. On the Last Day, when the trumpet call of God is heard in the world once again, the divide will be no more and God will come to meet his people. There is hope for the day when God’s created people will see God face to face. In that day, the face they will see is the face of Jesus.

Leon Miles Director of Admissions lmiles@ilt.org

the Canadian Association of Lutheran Congregations, and the Augsburg Lutheran Churches. Contact dpatterson@ilt.org for more info!

Confessing the Confessions by Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt

II. We know that scripture has sustained multivalent interpretations. Luther and his colleagues knew this as well. But we today seem far more sophisticated than Luther and friends because we realize that the problem of the polyvalency of the text cannot be solved by making one historically-conditioned reading of the text normative (the interpretation that all ought to adopt). We are seemingly jaded in a far deeper way than Luther and friends. They looked at how history had delivered different meanings to scripture, and tried to rectify that problem by fixing an interpretation of scripture that showed that these and only these doctrinal truths were taught by scripture. The result was predictable. Others objected and controversy ensued. The Formula of Concord, the last and longest confessional document, is itself the result of controversy. In steering between warring camps the Formula set the standard for Lutheran subtlety. Calvinists, Catholics, and Anabaptists all clearly disagreed that the Lutherans had the proper interpretation of scripture and the proper view of God and God’s relationship with human beings - - especially as God deals with man and woman in the Church and with the sacraments.

Why the Lutheran Confessions must be read as witnessing to a vibrant theological tradition. I. The Lutheran theological tradition began in the university. Some of the fruits of the Lutheran Reformation are the ten confessional documents collected in the Book of Concord: The Apostles Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed, Augsburg Confession, Apology to the Augsburg Confession, Small Catechism, Large Catechism, The Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, the Schmalkald Articles, and the Formula of Concord. These documents, carved out in the heat of battle, are clearly situational documents. One must know something of the context of their origination in order fully to understand them. Like all documents, these confessions are products of history. Written in the German and Latin of the day, the documents oftentimes argue subtle positions demanding that one have a scholar’s knowledge of the meaning of the technical terms, and a philosopher’s sense of what is ontologically possible. But, it might be fairly asked, what have these documents to do with us today? Why would we slavishly praise documents emerging in the sixteenth century as somehow getting right scripture and giving us the truth for all time? After all, had not scripture been around for some 15 centuries already when these documents were written? Had it not already sustained countless interpretations, and had not Christendom broken into various traditions of its interpretation? How can we say that Luther, Melanchthon, Chemnitz et. al. got it right where all others failed? Is it not a major cultural imperialistic move to claim that one’s take on things is right and everyone else is wrong? Do we really want to be so unmitigatedly ethnocentric?

Lutherans did not back down, of course. Armed with the classic distinction between quatanus and quia, Lutherans held that their documents were not simply true in so far as they rightly explicated the Bible, but were true because they so explicated it. On the quatanus reading some parts of the Confessions elucidate biblical truth, but it is possible others do not. However, on the quia interpretation, all of the Confessions are true, for all elucidate biblical truth. So Lutherans were pretty certain they had the right read on scripture. All of their confessional documents were true because they unpacked what was taught in scripture. So the seventeenth century basically ended with a conflict of interpretations among the reforming traditions and the Catholic Church from which they had emerged. Each thought they were right; each believed that their disagreements with each other were serious, factual, and so important as to threaten salvation itself. III. The breeze of the Enlightenment seemingly thawed the frozen interpretations of the disparate traditions. The Enlightenment sought reason as a guide through the unsafe waters of religious superstition, bigotry, and ignorance. It championed tolerance as the highest virtue and sought, in many ways, to undercut the absolute and exclusionary claims of the various religious traditions. For a while the strategy worked. Open-minded and educated people were less likely to cross swords over issues that they could not adjudicate on the basis of reason, or at least, on the basis of a reasonable interpretation of Scripture. The result was that committed religious people could disagree with other committed religious people while still remaining respectful of the others’ dignity and right to proclaim contrary interpretations.

But this honeymoon was short-lived. It is but a small step from openness to others’ views on the basis of the underdetermination of the theological theory by the evidence, to a claim that the dispute between rival religious groups really does not constitute a real dispute at all. Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion seemed to undermine any religious claim to knowledge, and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason placed religious objects, events, properties, and states of affairs outside of the domain of known things entirely. Kant famously argued that God could not be a substance that could be in principle causally related to other substances, that is, that God could not be known to exist as a being apart from human awareness, perception, conception and language. God was rather “a regulative ideal of human reason.” After Kant, theologians struggled to find ways of understanding the claims of theology antimetaphysically. Whatever was going on with theological and doctrinal claims, it is not like the traditions once assumed. God was not a special supreme being among other beings that had supernatural powers to affect the distribution of natural properties. Religious and theological language more and more pointed to the depth of human existence itself. In the heady 19th century academic theology environment of the German university, it was natural to think that something profound was being found, or at least pointed to, by theological language. In this environment, the specificity of contrary confessions began even to lose their ability to conflict. Various confessional traditions were thought to talk in different ways about an ultimate dimension at the depth of human existence. This was, of course, the ultimate triumph of Englightenment tolerance. Two confessional traditions did not make conflicting claims, but rather gave different interpretations, interpretations that were not in the business of making specific truth-claims about God at all. Such tolerance spread into the 20th century, where theological claims were put safely on the side of values and thus inoculated from the whole question of truth. The Lutheran tradition in North America struggled in its “pre-Enlightenment” and “post-Enlightenment” interpretations of theological claims. For those committed to the “old way,” the claims of theology were still held to be true in principle of an extralinguistic domain in which God was a member. Many of those emigrants from 19th century Europe carried the old ways with them. Others, however, were committed to the “new way” of thinking, a way that understood that theological language was not making the kinds of claims people assumed it did. These “new ways” of thinking did not establish themselves academically in North America as early as did their counterparts in the other Protestant traditions. While practitioners of the old found conflict between their confessional documents, those assuming the new knew that their confessional documents no longer were true in the sense that their traditions had always understood. To be a Lutheran for them was not any longer to be a Lutheran because Lutheran theology was true, but rather being Lutheran was simply where one found oneself culturally and religiously, and one adopted confessional theology as a cultural-religious mark of that Lutheran identity. Visit www.ilt.org for free philosophy lectures from Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt!

IV. We Lutherans have not reflected deeply enough on our plight. If the “new way” is right, then we have the following picture of things: Each of us has, for whatever reasons, found ourselves in Lutheran churches. We are curious as to what has historically defined Lutherans, and we read some Lutheran history and maybe some of our founding texts. We realize the treasury of our tradition and seek to know more. Of course, we realize at the same time that the confessions are the Lutheran “take” on scripture, and that scripture’s eternal sense cannot be discerned once and for all. Some of us even recognize that scripture itself is merely a set of texts to which we are accidentally related by birth. In moments of openness, we might even claim that other foundational religious texts are no more true or false in an absolute sense than are ours. I think this picture of things is one that resonates with vast numbers of people remaining within ELCA and ELCIC churches. Many attending services are clearly not concerned with the truthclaims of the confessions and whether or not these claims exclude other truth-claims. (Of course, logically to claim that something obtains is to claim simultaneously that many other things do not obtain.) The depressing thing about this picture is this: It suggests that Lutheran theology really only engages for people that already just happen to be going to church. The theology is for them decorative of their identity as Lutherans. To learn the tradition is simply to learn more about being a Lutheran, it is to learn how one can robe oneself with a Lutheran ethos. Being Lutheran becomes then a possible role that one can adopt in the world, a role adopted in the effort of finding meaning and purpose in a very cold universe. It is this picture of things that we must now reject. We must reject this picture because ultimately “this horse cannot run.” Theological language that does not make truth claims, a language that is merely customary for the Lutheran tribe, is not a language that the Church can long speak. We don’t know how to speak this language for the long term, for we don’t know what difference is made ultimately by speaking it or not speaking it. I believe the time has come for Lutherans again to embrace their confessions, not as decorative to their being-as-Lutherans, but as truth-claims about the world in which we find ourselves. Our postmodern situation gives us opportunity directly again to claim that we believe our confessions make truth claims about a loving God who has justified the lost - - all of us - - even though there is no merit or goodness within us. We can go further: we believe our confessions make claims - truth claims - on the basis of a biblical text that is perspicuous. Scripture is clear, and our confessions clearly declare its clarity. Now some will say that this is repristination, that we just want to bring back the good old days. My response is that, “yes, we do want to bring back the good old days when theology was taken as having a subject matter, making truth claims, and being in principle relatable to other kinds of discourse.” We do want to treat theological claims again in ways more like the “old ways” of the pre-Enlightenment. But while we wish to do this, we want to use all of the tools at our disposal today to recover the old.

It has been said that “tradition is the living faith of the dead, and traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”1 We do not want to be traditionalistic but traditionalist. We want to treat the confessions of Lutheranism fairly again; we want to read these texts from a standpoint not ultimately foreign from the standpoint from which they were written. It is for this reason that the Institute of Lutheran Theology talks about recovering theological realism, semantic realism, and theophysical causation. The Lutheran reformers presupposed each. To read the Confessions without these presuppositions delivers quite a different interpretation than has been traditional. But further reflection on this must await another article.

1. Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, vol. 1, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition, 100-600 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1971),

Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt President, ILT president@ilt.org

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church El Paso, TX January 5-9, 2015 Professor Timothy Rynearson, chair of pastoral theology, will lead students through the book of 1 John, the Epistle reading for the 2015 Easter Season. According to Professor Rynearson, “This letter focuses on how we live together as God’s people established by the Good News of the Resurrection of our Lord. The class will be based on the Greek text of 1 John. The vocabulary in this letter is easy to translate and difficult to understand (just like the other Johannine literature). Much time will be spent trying to understand the argument of this letter.” Contact Rev. Timothy Swenson, tswenson@ilt.org, for more information!

...continued from page 7 Even the New Creation, as it is revealed to us in the twenty-first chapter of the book of Revelation, is not the ascension of a now perfected humanity to its supposedly rightful place in heaven, there to be with God. No, the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven. God’s dwelling is on the new earth right in the midst of humanity (cf. Rev. 21:1-6). So sad to disappoint you “dear children” who sang with gusto: “fit us for heaven to live with Thee there.” From beginning to end Scripture reveals that humanity consistently attempts to leave its creaturely place and ascend to a higher place… a spiritual place… a godly place. Time and again those attempts are thwarted by the Lord who delivers a “coming down” upon those who would “rise up,” humiliating them and putting them in their rightful place. That place is the very place in which Jesus comes to join us. He comes right into our creatureliness… right into our humanity… right into the flesh which humanity seems to resent. The gospels declare Jesus’ coming down. The New Testament asserts it. The creeds confess it and establish the two natures of Jesus Christ as completely man and completely God. Our catechism teaches it: “Jesus Christ: true God--Son of the Father from eternity; true man—born of the Virgin Mary.” Jesus Christ is Immanuel, God with us. Luther writes: “Christ is so much with us in the muck and work of our lives that his skin smokes.”1 This, of course, is precisely why sinners resent Jesus: he joins us in our creatureliness, the very thing which you and I want to escape. Sinners don’t want a god that joins them in their muck and work. No, sinners want a god who will join them on their quest to leave the uncomfortable reality of a creation burdened by sin. Sinners want a god to join them in their quest for the knowledge of good and evil… a god who will climb with them up a tree or up a tower, ascending to a higher place to get a glimpse of godhood. They want God’s work not their own. When God came in the flesh to forgive sinners and be their salvation, sinners would have none of it. They pushed their God out of the world by lifting him up on a tree, hanging him between earth and heaven. Even theologians (because they’re sinners, too) developed arguments to protect God from too close a contact with sinful humanity. There are those who deny that Jesus was really human: the heresies of Gnosticism and Docetism. There are those who deny that Jesus was really God: the heresies of Ebionism and Adoptionism. There are even those who deny that Jesus was either human or God but was in fact some third thing: the heresy of Arianism. These theological errors run deep within Christendom; to discern them within the life of the church takes rigorous theological training and practice. Likewise, it takes some knowledge of the anthropology and psychology of humans broken by sin to name and describe the sources of their rejection of a God whose skin smokes. Scripture reveals this to us, of course. But even secular psychology can describe the mechanism: sinners don’t like to be compared with the righteous. Social Comparison Theory, first proposed by Leon

Frisinger (1954), says, among other things, that, when the difference is too great and apparently unbridgeable, then the “higher” status comparison is both envied and resented by the lower status one.2 A discerning observer of our human tendencies under sin sees this in action. The beautiful are envied by those who use surgery and other techniques to “beautify” themselves and the beautiful are resented by those who have not the physical attributes or the means of enhancement. The naturally intelligent are envied by those who study and study, attempting by persistence to obtain what others have by inheritance; and the intelligent and studious are resented by those who have not the mental attributes or the means of enhancement. Discerning observers are forged by intellectually rigorous study and they themselves come to be both envied and resented by those who compare unfavorably with them. So it is with Christ who gets so deep into your attributes with you that his skin smokes. You hate the comparison which confronts you. He comes as the New Adam (cf. Ro. 5:12-21). When Jesus gets so close to you… when his perfection gets so close to your sinfulness… when his life gets so close to your death… when his righteousness gets so close to your unrighteousness… when Jesus gets that deep into you, his skin smokes and you hate him. You hate that the New Adam has exposed you as the old Adam… as the old Eve. You can’t stand the comparison so off you go on a quest to get away from creation, reaching for those higher things, running off to some spiritual place which is cleaner and nicer than the muck and work of life in a broken creation beneath your sin. You avoid finding your God in the very place where he wants to be found but where you don’t want to find him—that is, in the creation itself. Here in creation your God has come down to deliver you. His Holy Spirit uses the things of creation to deliver Jesus Christ to be your life. In the ordinariness of water you are baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—water joined with spoken word. In the commonplace things of bread and wine, you are fed a flesh and blood person who travels the entirety of your body and does it “for you.” In the meager puff of air blown past a pair of human lips, your sins are forgiven—blown away to be remembered no more. Here, in creation… here, where you live… here, in all of your muck and work, your God, Jesus Christ, gets down in the dirt with you and his skin smokes. Here in creation… here at a pulpit, at a font, at an altar, your God is handed over to you, flesh to flesh, person to person, so that he might say to you: “Come down! Get down from the perch between earth and heaven. I’ve come to abide with you today.” Your God, Jesus Christ, abides with you, deep in creation, and his skin smokes. Martin Luther, Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe [Schriften], 65 vols. (Weimar: H. Böhlau, 1883-1993), 4:608-609. 2 “Social Comparison Theory,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_comparison_theory (Accessed October 15, 2014). 1

Rev. Timothy Swenson Dean of Chapel and Student Services tswenson@ilt.org

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