The Word at Work Magazine -Summer 2013

Word atWork

the

The magazine of the Institute of Lutheran Theology

Pentecost 2013, Vol. 2.3

Celebrating Pentecost

A depiction of Pentecost by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1308).

ILT

Board of Directors

G. Barry Anderson Associate Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court Paul Erickson Entrepreneur/Investor, Sioux Falls, SD 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 Rev. Mark Richardson, Service Coordinator, Augustana District, LCMC; Associate Pastor, Christ the King Lutheran Church, Hutchinson MN

Word atWork

the p2

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God, Design and a Lutheran Theology of Nature Rev. Dr. Dennis D. Bielfeldt

Luther’s Understanding of the Role of the Holy Spirit in the Christian Life Rev. Eric Jonas Swensson

p7 Discernment

Rev. Timothy J. Swenson p9

Kippur : Apologetic Assertions about the Atonement Dr. Frederick W. Baltz

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Diagnosing the Devil Rev. Dr. Mark Hillmer

Dr. Eugene Bunkowske Emeritus Professor of Outreach, Concordia University, St. Paul, MN Founder, Lutheran Society for Missiology; Chair of the Board of Regents

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The Lost I.D. Rev. Dr. George H. Muedeking

Rev. Frederick W. Baltz, D. Min. Pastor, St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, Galena, IL

p13 Epistemology

Dr. Doug S. Dillner

Fred Schickedanz Real Estate Developer, Calgary Alberta Rev. Kip Tyler Senior Pastor, Lutheran Church of the Master, Omaha, NE; Chair of the Board

CST Board of Regents

Dr. Charles Manske Founding President, Concordia University, Irvine, CA Dr. Mark Mattes Professor of Philosophy and Theology, Grand View University Rev. Kip Tyler Senior Pastor, Lutheran Church of the Master, Omaha, NE; Chair, Board of Trustees, LCMC, Chair, ILT Board

ILT/CST Staff Rev. Dr. Dennis D. Bielfeldt, Ph.D. President and CEO president@ilt.org

Rev. Eric J. Swensson Marketing eswensson@ilt.org

Dr. Doug S. Dillner, Ph.D. Academic Services ddillner@ilt.org

Thomas R. Sandersfeld Development tsandersfeld@ilt.org

Rev. David R. Patterson Information Services dpatterson@ilt.org

Marsha L. Schmit Communications mschmit@ilt.org

Rev. Timothy J. Swenson Student Services admissions@ilt.org

Threasa A. Hopkins Administration thopkins@ilt.org

Rev. Dr. Frederick W. Baltz, D.Min. Evangelism and Outreach fbaltz@ilt.org

Kathy Murrin Grants kmurrin@ilt.org

Rev. Douglas V. Morton Theological Publications & Theological Librarian dmorton@ilt.org

Denia T. Haynes Support Staff nhaynes@ilt.org

Constance J. Sorenson Congregational Services csorenson@ilt.org

Carl Deardoff Library, Publications cdeardoff@ilt.org

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Festival of Preaching Dale A. Swenson

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The Church Constance J. Sorenson

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Unsuccessful Disciples Pr. David R. Patterson

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Changed by the Gospel Rev. Douglas V. Morton

Marsha Schmit - Managing Editor Douglas Morton - Editor Eric J. Swensson - Editor Carl Deardoff - Graphic Design

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

God, Design and a Lutheran Theology of Nature

By Rev. Dr. Dennis D. Bielfeldt

Lutherans frequently use the terms, ‘Word’ and ‘Christ’. We are a tribe of the Second Article, for our focus is upon the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. Following Luther and the Reformers, we take salvation seriously: We suppose that the soteriological question - - How can I be saved? - - drives the Christological question - -What is the nature of Christ? In concentrating upon the meaning of Christ for us, we sometimes find irrelevant the questions that many people ask: Did this universe happen by accident? Are all things ultimately comprised only of matter?

Is there a supernatural order that defines the boundaries of the natural one?

It is perhaps both a virtue and a vice of Lutheran theology that it is seemingly consistent with a number of fundamentally different world views. If Christ is delivered in and through the preached Word, and if Christ’s Person and Work are coextensive, then when the preached Word accuses in Law and liberates in Grace, the Work of God is truly done. Who needs more?

What possible need could there be to formulate a metaphysics claiming mind as well as matter? Why claim there is design in nature? Why claim that some supernatural agency exists that brings the universe into being and sustains it? Aren’t such reflections characteristic of an “upward Fall” when human beings take their eyes off Christ and start reflecting upon the nature of God in Himself (aseity)? Is there not something deeply sinful about asking such questions? Did not Luther dismiss the little boy that asked what God was doing before the creation of the world by saying, “Fashioning sticks to thrash little boys like you?”

We Lutherans expect to listen to sermons proclaiming the meaning of the Biblical text for us without the preacher getting lost in questions about the contour of ultimate reality. Thinking about things in this way has great precedent. In the late nineteenth century, German Lutheran theologians nicely relegated God-talk to the realm of value, and left nature to natural scientists so interested.

One could know only God’s effects on us, and these effects were discernible only within the sphere of value and morality. A half century later Rudolf Bultmann made explicit what was presupposed by many: The Biblical world with its three-storied universe and a Divine Fashioner is merely a culturally-conditioned husk; the heart of the matter is

the preaching of Jesus Christ and the liberation of human beings from sin.

It is, of course, a very good thing that we Lutherans continue to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Within the symphony of western Christianity we have most loudly sounded this crucial note. But in our single-minded concentration on this, we have often left far behind the question of the nature of God, the nature of nature, and the nature of God’s putative relationship to nature.

Different times have different questions. In the late nineteenth century when most people in the pews thought there was a Divine Ground supporting the existence of the universe itself, it would have been an irritating, vexing, and ultimately irrelevant question to reflect about the nature of this Ground. In such a time the central importance of the preached Word is clear. Most, after all, already believed that the universe is orderly. Whether the product of mind or Spirit, it is a place in which human life is both hospitable and supported. While on the continent new thoughts of nihilism percolated among intellectuals, most people attending church services were not supposing that there is fundamentally no meaning in the universe. Most were not “seekers” hoping to find some scrap of meaning and order, some “up” or some “down” that could allow existence itself to make sense. An ordered whole was culturally still presupposed and the salvation question was how to find one’s way through it.

In those days, it may have seemed inane to ask whether the universe really bore the marks of design, for whether it did or did not seemed not to change the game at all.

Most who could accept the philosophical conclusion that there simply was no conclusive evidence for the universe bearing the marks of design were not therefore robbed of fundamental meaning. After all, it takes considerable time and application in a culture assuming a Divine Ground to come to the conclusion that there really is nothing at all at the base of things. One can think the thought perhaps, but then still dress to go to the café and pass one’s time without apparent worry.

While the Existentialist critique on the continent dominated the early and mid-twentieth century, American life went on pretty much unscathed. The post-war years were very good ones in America. People married in record numbers, record numbers of people went to church, and

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polls showed that almost everyone believed in God and to be a pastor was to have the most respected occupation in America. But how the times have changed!

Each day now culture seems to fragment even more.

While the post-modern elevation of “dif-ference” still invigorates a few intellectuals, for most it seems like things are simply falling apart. There no longer exists a universal story and universal structure that can hold meaning together. We live next to people who seemingly inhabit very different worlds from our own. It is not simply a matter of a difference in cultural worlds (e.g., Christian, Islamic, secular, etc.), it seems like the worlds themselves are becoming individualistic and atomistic. Bob finds meaning in this way so he does this, but Mike finds meaning in that way so he does that. There is no longer a right way to find meaning because there is nothing against which to evaluate these various meanings. There is no natural law dictating how things ought to go and what things ought to mean. There are simply individual human lives in fragmented cultures trying to find (construct?) some meaning so that they can adapt and somehow stay in the existence game.

Now we Lutherans do, of course, rightfully preach Law and Gospel to the contemporary denizens of emptiness and meaninglessness, and truly the Word goes out and it does not come back empty. But as this Word goes forth and penetrates the heart of lost sinners bringing them to Christ, such sinners desire a reconnection to creation, a re-linking to order. It is impossible for sinners rapt by the Holy Spirit on account of Christ not to want to have a coherent view of the world, a view that makes sense, a view of things where there is again an “up” and “down.” It is here, I think, that we Lutherans need to think seriously about nature and order again.

One hotly debated topic among contemporary physicists, philosophers and theologians is deeply relevant to a Lutheran theology of nature: cosmic tuning. What if those rapt into following Christ were also gifted a coherent view of the world in which to dwell? What if Lutherans could again believe deeply that the universe is friendly, that it is an artifact of a divine benevolence who had from the very beginning designed the universe to be Home for man and woman? Can we see the universe again in this way? The answer is a resounding “yes”, if we look at matters clearly.

Physicists for the last few decades have been making some rather startling discoveries. It seems they have found that this particular universe and its laws are finely-tuned for the existence of life. For instance, had the gravitational constant been slightly stronger, the expansion of the universe would have stopped and reversed itself a long time ago. Alternately, had it been slightly weaker stars and galaxies would likely not have formed until matter itself had been so widely dispersed that life on planets like ours would have been impossible. While this particular

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cosmological tuning is now thought to be explained by the hypothesis of a rapid inflation of the universe in its earliest times, the following do not seemingly have easy natural explanations:1 • If the strong nuclear force were 1% greater or 1% weaker, carbon resonance could not have occurred, and there could not have been life.

• Had the weak nuclear force been slightly stronger, helium would not have been produced at the requisite levels for carbon formation, but had it been slightly weaker, less hydrogen would have been produced and stars as we know them would not exist and there could be no life.

• If the gravitational force were somewhat stronger, stars would be radiative rather convective and planets would probably not form, but were it weaker all stars would be convective and supernovas would probably not happen, and since the elements of life are formed in stellar explosions, they would likely be absent.

• If neutrons were slightly less massive, then free neutrons could not decay as they do, and very few atoms heavier than lithium could form. The result would be no carbon for life.

• If the background radiation in the universe were slightly more or less anisotropic (not constant in all directions), the universe could not have formed stars or galaxies that would allow long-lived stars with planetary systems like ours.

• If the so-called “cosmological constant” were either greater or less by 1/10120, the universe would have either dispersed too fast for stars and galaxies to form or would have recollapsed on itself a very long time ago.

In speaking about the cosmic tuning, Michael Turner of the University of Chicago has said that “the precision is as if one could throw a dart across the entire universe and hit a bulls eye one millimeter in diameter on the other side.”2 Roger Penrose calculates that the likelihood that the universe could have usable energy at its creation to be 1 over 1 followed by 175 zeros. This is such astoundingly small odds, that some committed to naturalism - - the assertion that there are no objects but natural objects, no forces save natural forces, and no explanations save naturalistic ones - - actually postulate the existence of multiple universes physically disconnected from these in which

Continued on page 8

Luther’s Understanding of the Role of the Holy Spirit in the Christian Life

By Rev. Eric Jonas Swensson

One of the readings for Pentecost Sunday is Romans 8:14-17, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ--if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”

Referring to this passage in one of his sermons on the Gospel of John, Luther wrote something that tells us about an interesting aspect in his understanding of the Holy Spirit: Therefore the Holy Spirit must be the Master here and inscribe this knowledge and faith deep in our hearts, must bear witness to our spirit, and say yea and amen to the fact that we have become and eternally remain children of God through faith in Christ (Rom. 8:16). St. John’s Gospel was not the product of human volition. No, the evangelist was impelled by the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth and, therefore, will surely not deceive us. Without the witness of the Holy Spirit it would be hard to believe that a poor human being is destined to be a son of God and a fellow heir with Christ.1 Luther called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Truth, who is a necessity for coming to faith and remaining in it.

This is all, as we used to say in the Liturgy, “good, meet and salutary,” but one can only wonder how well known or accepted it is today for people to call the Holy Spirit, “Master.” One might also ask how well we know the Holy Spirit today. What is it we need to know about the Holy Spirit here in our pilgrimage on earth? The following is

a look at the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian. It does not cover every phase, but is rather a brief glance at how Luther looked at the work of the Spirit in Word and Sacrament and in regeneration, vocation, sanctification, endurance and the life of prayer.

Christian life begins and continues through the agency of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings souls into the Church as part of the new life in God. Luther describes a special role for the Holy Spirit, making holy the people of God. Luther said, “For it is the Holy Spirit who gives you Christ and His holiness and who works faith in you.”2 How does the Holy Spirit make people holy? He also wrote: “And what does the Holy Spirit have to do with me?”

Answer: “He baptized me; He proclaimed the Gospel of Christ to me; and He awakened my heart to believe. Baptism is not of my making; nor is the Gospel; nor is faith. He gave these to me. For the fingers that baptized me are not those of a man; they are the fingers of the Holy Spirit. And the preacher’s mouth and the words that I heard are not his; they are the words and message of the Holy Spirit. By these outward means He works faith within me and thus He makes me holy.” Therefore just as we should not deny that we are baptized and are Christians, so we should not deny or doubt that we are holy.3 Right teaching about basic doctrine is always of great importance, and our understanding about how the baptized come into a fuller faith is of great importance in a tradition that includes infant baptism. Luther says that “where this knowledge of Christ has vanished, the sun has lost its brilliance and there is nothing but darkness.”

This results in confusion and the loss of ability to discern

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rightly and “ward off any error or heresy of the devil. And even if the Word concerning faith and Christ is retained... the heart has no foundation for a single doctrine.”4 “On the other hand,” where the sun of the gospel “shines and illumines the heart, there is found a true and certain understanding of all things. Then one can take and maintain a firm position on all doctrines.”5 Luther goes on to say, “Then one also believes and teaches correctly regarding the Holy Spirit, Baptism, the Sacrament, good works, and the resurrection from the dead.”6 Then the believer is able to defend the faith, “for he has on his side the true Teacher, the Holy Spirit, who alone reveals this doctrine from heaven and is given to all who hear and accept this Word or sermon concerning Christ. Therefore such a person will not let himself be seduced into heresy and error.”7 Thus, we see the Holy Spirit is our Master and the Holy Spirit is our Teacher of doctrine. Additionally, Luther’s idea of Word and Spirit must be mentioned because he spoke of this over and over. Here he wrote about it in conjunction with the new birth: Behold, with the words “He who abides in Me, and I in him” (John 15:5) Christ wants to indicate that Christianity is not brought in from without; it is not put on like a garment, nor does it consist in the adoption of a new manner of living…It is a new birth brought about by God’s Word and Spirit; there must be an entirely new man from the bottom of his heart.

Then, however, when the heart is born anew in Christ, fruits will follow naturally, such as the confession of the Gospel, works of love, obedience, patience, chastity, etc.8 The above describes Luther’s idea concerning the “two kinds of righteousness,” how human righteousness follows alien righteousness. Sanctification flows out of justification. Faith in the Word results in imputed righteousness, a new heart gives rise to new thoughts, and new faith is created again and again. This is the rhythm of the Christian life. Luther describes this beautifully in a sermon on the Vine and branches. Note how the union of branch to Vine leads to growth in faith and sanctification: For by such faith in the Word he is grafted into the Vine that is Christ and is clothed in His purity, which is imputed to him as his own and is as perfect and complete in him as it is in Christ. All this happens through the Word, if it is received and accepted in faith. There I hear God’s will and promise that He will forgive my sins for Christ’s sake and will adjudge and regard me as clean. And when I lay hold of the Word by faith, it creates in me—through the Holy Spirit, who works through it—a new heart and new thoughts, which adhere to it firmly and do not doubt

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but live and die by it. Because I cleave to it, for this reason whatever impurities and sins still cling to me are not imputed to me; but this weak, imperfect, and inchoate purity is reckoned as wholly perfect purity.

God makes the sign of the cross over it and acknowl- edges it, and He closes an eye to the uncleanness that still remains in me. And where such cleanness comes into being through the Word in faith, God proceeds to improve and perfect it by cross and suffering, so that faith is increased and the remaining uncleanness and sin are daily diminished and purged until death.9 The role of proclamation in the “care and feeding of Christians” cannot be left out of any description of Luther’s schema. When Christ said that the Holy Spirit will “convince the world of sin,” He will do this through the agency of these messengers of His, that is, preachers.

“Therefore it is not they who do so; it is the Holy Spirit, at whose order and in whose office they are preaching. If He did not do it, they, too, would surely refrain. For without Him they would lack both the understanding to enable them to reprove and judge the world and the courage to step forward and attack the whole world on their own initiative.”10 The work of the Spirit does more than give understanding to preachers and the will to preach. It can even be said that, “the Holy Spirit has invested them with this office,” and we can rest assured that the office and work of the Holy Spirit will support what they do and make their proclamation effective. “All experience and the work itself show daily that in Christendom the Holy Spirit Himself must do everything that pertains to the real guidance of Christendom. For without Him we would not baptize or preach very long, nor would we retain the name of Christ. In one hour the devil would have dispossessed us of everything and would have destroyed it.”11 A few words need to be said about the battle Luther assumes that is the Christian’s lot in life. Luther takes pains to show Christians will be assailed constantly by the devil and the world. This persecution will be in real time; for example, Luther warns that armies will come against them.

It will be spiritual and demons will torment and torment.12 Persecution has the potential to make us lose the one thing worth having: faith in Christ alone as savior. Luther said that the devil has two weapons: “sin and the penalty for sin.”13 Luther notes that, “‘The Spirit of truth will guide you into all the truth.’ Otherwise reason and the human heart could never persist in such faith and confession but would have to sink and perish under the trials that come internally from the devil and the heart and outwardly from the world.”14 Self-centeredness and the fear of hell will drive us to doubt, which will result in attempts to win God’s favor through good works. Luther’s remedy is the work of the Spirit to help the Christians cling to Christ and His prom-

ise to be with them always. The Holy Spirit grants strength in the face of persecution, even from doubts. Luther said, From what source will Christians draw the strength and the courage to overcome this? Solely from Christ’s assurance: “I am in you and you in Me, and we are united in everything. Therefore hold firmly to Me! Through My Word I have made the beginning and have brought you to Me. And now if you prove this, if you fight to remain in Me, you will be greatly troubled at first, and it will be difficult for you. It will seem that you are all alone and that I have forsaken you and am abandoning you to fear and all wretchedness. But just hold fast, and I will prove that I love you. Then you will feel in your hearts how pleasing your faith, your confession, and your suffering are to God, And from this you will recognize and experience ever better who I am, how powerful I am, and what I am working in you. Thus I will manifest Myself from day to day, until you have been so tried that you can place all your trust in heaven and repel the devil when he wants to accuse you of being a sinner and of having faltered here and there.”15 Luther proclaimed the Spirit would not only strengthen people’s hearts, increase their courage and make faith sure, remove all doubt, he would also enable them to judge all other spirits.16 Christ calls the Holy Spirit a Spirit of truth in contrast with the spirit of lies.17 The Spirit would provide comfort for the conscience, that is, the experience of coming to know that our sins are forgiven. As well, “He strengthens and preserves hearts in the faith.”18 Also, it is the Spirit’s work to gather their thoughts and prayers together with Christ’s. Their faith through their struggle “must promote and serve the strengthening of a Christian’s faith and make him more resolute to resist and overcome the devil. For by such trials he is driven to seek help and comfort in God’s Word and to exercise and increase his faith by petitions, prayers, and thanks—to become all the stronger in knowledge and all the humbler, all the more patient and perfect.”19 This then is the last thing we’ll look at here, the important place of prayer in Luther’s theology.

If I believe this, I am justified in saying: “I know that my heavenly Father is heartily glad to hear all my prayers, inasmuch as I have Christ, this Savior, in my heart. Christ prayed for me, and for this reason my prayers are acceptable through His.” Accordingly, we must weave our praying into His. He is forever the Mediator for all men. Through Him we come to God. In Him we must incorporate and envelop all our prayers and all that we do. As St. Paul declares (Rom. 13:14), we must put on Christ; and everything must be

done in Him (1 Cor. 10:31) if it is to be pleasing to God. But all this is said to Christians for the purpose of giving them the boldness and the confidence to rely on this Man and to pray with complete assurance; for we hear that in this way He unites us with Himself, really puts us on a par with Him, and merges our praying into His and His into ours. Christians can glory in this great distinction. For if our prayers are included in His, then He says (Ps. 22:22): “I will tell of Thy name to My brethren” and (Rom. 8:16–17) “It is the Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” What greater honor could be paid us than this, that our faith in Christ entitles us to be called His brethren and coheirs, that our prayer is to be like His, that there is really no difference except that our prayers must originate in Him and be spoken in His name if they are to be acceptable and if He is to bestow this inheritance and glory on us.20 In brief, we know that while Luther had a high Christology he also had a very high view of the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing Christians into faith, into the church and caring for every aspect of the Christian life. It is something certainly worthy of more investigation for everyone.

LW 22: 87.

LW 24:172.

3 LW 24:170. An observation: Lutheran preachers are trained to understand and stress in their proclamation the passive nature of the human person in justification, but are they faithful to show the active role of the Holy Spirit?

4 LW 24:321.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 LW 24:227.

9 LW 24:212.

10 LW 24:337-338.

11 LW 24:360.

12 LW 24:210.

13 LW 24:291.

14 LW 24:359.

15 LW 24:152.

16 LW 24:293.

17 LW 24:358.

18 LW 24:358.

19 LW 24:210.

20 LW 24:407 1 2

The Rev. Eric Jonas Swensson is the Director of International Partners and Marketing

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Discernment

By Rev. Timothy J. Swenson

Greetings to you on this day that the Lord has made; it is a day for us to rejoice and be glad! Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and from his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

One of the several responsibilities within the Student Services Division is to work with inquiring and curious people who wonder whether they should take classes from us, enter one of our programs, or even whether they are being called by the Holy Spirit for a more involved and a more public ministry within their local church or their church body. This “wondering” is often referred to as the process of discernment. Those inquiring and wondering people are in the process of discerning whether or not they are being called by the Holy Spirit. In other words, would their enrollment be of God, or not?

When I was in the parish, I often encountered sincere people who expressed their greatest desire saying, “I just want to know God’s will for my life so I can do it.” They, too, were engaged in the practice of discernment. Sometimes - actually, most of the time - it overwhelmed them. Putting every decision, every action, up to such scrutiny as to whether or not it is the will of God for your life soon proves exhausting. Those sincere people from the parish, and the inquiring and curious ones deciding to take classes, share a similar weariness. The practice of discernment can take its toll. Deciding whether or not the call is of the Holy Spirit can be exhausting as the “wondering” drags on.

Popular culture generally confuses the process of discernment with something often described as “listening to your heart” or “discovering your authentic self.” These practices turn your attention inward so that you can hear your inner voice—the authentic voice of your true self. Such listening, though, is not the process of discernment. It fails two tests. First, we are not to trust our own heart. Jesus has a pretty low opinion of the human heart and its capacities.

The human heart is the source of all that defiles a person— all evil ideas and inclinations (Mt. 7:21). Heartfelt sincerity is simply not trustworthy. Second, the Holy Spirit does not work with an inner voice but with an external word, the Word of God. The fifth article of the Augsburg Confession testifies to this when it calls the preached word and the delivered sacraments “instruments” through which the Holy Spirit works.

Our tradition certainly holds that there is an “inner” call as well as an “outer” call. However, the inner call of our

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tradition is not the same as the one understood by culture.

Popular culture prioritizes the inner call, making the desires of the person’s heart or authentic self sacrosanct, unable to be thwarted. Popular culture claims it is the person’s “right” to follow the desires of his or her heart or authentic self. In contrast, the Lutheran tradition holds that the inner call is always subject to ratification by an outer call, an external call. Because the internal call cannot be easily separated from the ambition of a sinful heart, the Lutheran tradition ratifies the inner call with the voice of a neighbor: brothers and sisters in Christ speaking singly or corporately, personally or institutionally.

When I work with inquiring and curious people who wonder whether they should take classes from us, they mostly wonder about their inner call. I work with them in beginning the process of discernment. Most of that discernment is teaching them to hear the outer call. Certainly, we take into consideration the inner call, but we start to look for all the ways the inner call is being ratified by the outer call.

Often, the first sign of an outer call is the encouragement of a person’s pastor to become more deeply involved in the life of the congregation or church body. Sometimes, this outer call precedes the actual awareness of the person’s inner call. As our inquiring and curious prospective student becomes more deeply involved in his or her congregation, other members give the person more encouragement to take up formal study. This was certainly true in my journey to seminary. My neighbors… my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ became so insistently encouraging that I often joked, “I wasn’t called to seminary; I was pushed.”

Once the prospective student applies, another instance of the outer call occurs. The application requires letters of reference. In those letters, the references speak singly and personally in ratifying the inner call of the prospective student. As the application process continues, there are assessments of skills and education by our registrar. The assessment process culminates in an admissions interview during which several of us converse with the prospective student in what could well be called a “testing or discerning” of the prospective student’s inner call. A successful admissions interview results in a further ratification of the person’s inner call.

The now-admitted-student’s church body has its own discernment process for ratifying the student’s inner call.

This discernment is accomplished by the various church bodies’ ministry committees. They meet with and work with our students as they take classes and undergo pastoral formation. Eventually, there will be an expression of an outer call when the ministry committee endorses the student for parish ministry.

At that point the students’ names go before congregations. The Holy Spirit, working through the call of a congregation speaking corporately and institutionally, delivers the authoritative voice of the external or outer call. It is the final ratification of the person’s inner call that may have been experienced years before. This call of the Holy Spirit is the voice of God setting the newly-called into a particular office.

Discernment is simple, yet difficult—ambiguous, yet certain. Left to ourselves, and turned inward upon ourselves,

we have only that difficult task of listening to the ambiguous voice of our human heart.

Yet, when the call of the Holy Spirit finally comes through the congregation, the difficulty and ambiguity fall away for we receive the simple certainty that God has spoken. Between those two events we wait and learn to listen to the voice of our neighbors as they ratify, or not, that inner call.

God, Design and a Lutheran Theology of Nature, continued from page 3

joint” that must connect our time with Divine Eternity. We do this not to grasp God in Himself - - surely no person can do this - - but lovingly and simply to respond with our minds to the grace that God has given us. At ILT we are not so much interested in natural theology as we are in a theology of nature. Given the fact that God has saved all of creation, what is the nature and agency of those things thus having been saved?

May God be with you during this summer of 2013, and may you know God’s love in heart and mind.

the conditions were simply not right for the formation of a universe that can bear life.3 The sum total of all these universes is a multiverse. As improbable as our finely-tuned universe seems to be, were there billions and billions of universes available, probability theory would allow one to turn out like ours.

It is logically possible that we live in a multiverse.

Maybe we are, in fact, in the 1/10174 of available universes that can actualize life. But at this point one marvels at the degrees of implausibility that some adopt to escape that which seems most plausible: There is a God that designed in the initial features of the universe that eventuated in the one in which we live. Were we only doing philosophy, we would simply have to specify some criterion by which to adjudicate which is the most reasonable: Is this a single universe with creative supernatural agency or are there billions and billions of parallel universes forever closed to ours occupying unobservable regions of space-time 1023 times as large as ours without such agency?4 Fortunately, we Christians don’t have to develop criteria for reasonableness here. As sinners freed through Christ, we already know the Power of the One who overcomes death. It is not unreasonable to identify the One who overcomes sin and death with the One who creates the universe as it is. The finely-tuned universe may not conclusively establish to all the necessity of supernatural agency at creation, but it is clearly consistent with that hypothesis. Faith in the Risen Lord and His Work in our lives is buttressed by the reason here: Cosmic-tuning clearly follows from the existence of the Father of Jesus Christ.

Within the Institute of Lutheran Theology’s Christ School of Theology we entertain questions about the relationship of science and theology. We try to reflect upon such questions as to the nature of the putative “causal

The Rev. Timothy J. Swenson is the Director of Student Services

For the following see, David Bailey, “What are the Cosmic Coincidences and what do they Mean?” (http://www.sciencemeetsreligion. org/physics/cosmic.php, 2013).

2 See Dennis Prager, “Why Some Scientists Embrace the ‘Multiverse’,” (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/06/18/why_some_scientists_embrace_the_multiverse_118852.html, 2013).

3 Ibid.

4 See David Bailey, “What is the Multiverse, and what is its Significance?” (http://www.sciencemeetsreligion.org/physics/multiverse.php, 2013).

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The Rev. Dr. Dennis D. Bielfeldt is the president of the Institute of Lutheran Theology

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Kippur

Apologetic Assertions about the Atonement

By Dr. Frederick W. Baltz

A friend recently showed me a book he treasures, the autobiography of a man who was formerly a motorcycle gang member, and whose life became drastically changed when he came to faith in Jesus. My friend offered the book to his neighbor to read. The neighbor soon gave it back after writing inside the cover, “That bloody, bloody cross…and you glorify this?” Clearly, the neighbor was not about to acknowledge anything good in the death of Jesus. The neighbor’s response may have had less to do with the logic of vicarious atonement, and more to do with a sinner unwilling to see his need for help. Whatever the case in this instance, the cross remains the scandal it has always been.

Theologians have written many books about “atonement theory.” They have offered everlonger volumes with ever-more chapters and subdivisions pertaining to the historical understandings of the cross event. They tell us that the lawyer Tertullian was the first to cast the atonement in starkly juridical terms. They tell us of Anselm and Abelard who pondered respectively why it was necessary that God became man, and what Jesus meant when he said he would draw all people to himself when he was lifted

up (John 12:32). They tell us that Luther was a Christus Victor thinker, in contrast to others.

If we approach our neighbors today on their own “turf,” we will soon discover that they have many other things on their minds than the cross and atonement theory.

In this biblically illiterate age familiarity with these subjects is not at all common to the extent it once was.

Informed by voices like comedian Bill Maher’s, perhaps as much as by any church, their appreciation of the cross event will probably fall short of the mark. (Maher calls

Jesus died because he refused to be anything less than Jesus.

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Jesus’ life the “stupidest part” of the Bible, and mockingly tells of God sending his Son on a “suicide mission.” http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=a0_mEg5OMvc)

We must hope and pray that the cross of Jesus will continue to find its way into people’s awareness and contemplation; it certainly has the power to do that. When an individual truly finds himself confronted with the issue of the cross, related questions arise: Why can’t God just forgive? Why did Jesus have to die? Was there no other way? Was it fate?

Did Jesus want to die?... The scoffers—some theologians

and pastors among them! —have come to call Jesus’ death “divine child abuse.” It seems to require a vengeful God who wants to see persons die for their offenses, and who will not relent even if his own Son suffers and dies, just as long as someone does. I’m reminded of a scene from Star Wars in which the villainous Emperor begins to kill Luke Skywalker slowly and agonizingly with powerful Force rays that emanate from his fingertips. The Emperor exhibits his deep personal satisfaction each time Luke screams in pain. That is how some think of God looking upon Jesus as he dies on Golgotha for the sins of the world. They believe this is what the Bible portrays. They reject it all—that bloody, bloody cross, and everything Christians believe about it.

ILT is committed to evangelism and apologetics in all its instruction. Could there be a more basic subject for us all to discuss than the meaning of the cross? It is at the heart of the message the churches proclaim (evangelism) and it is what they defend (apologetics). I offer three assertions of an evangelical and particularly apologetic nature about the cross event which can help you address the misunderstandings and misrepresentations that abound.

Apologetic Assertion #1: The Father did not kill Jesus, the world did.

No need to get lost in the predestination-andforeknowledge discussion here. God knew Jesus would die, and so did Jesus. God allowed it to happen, but God did not force it to happen. The world killed Jesus without any help from above. Luther brilliantly explained to Erasmus how God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. It was not by working any silent change in Pharaoh, but simply by saying: “Let my people go!” Because Pharaoh was the fallen person he was, he actively resisted God because God had commanded him to obey. That’s the way people are.

But don’t take my word for it. Listen to Glaucon speaking to Socrates three centuries before Jesus was even born. Discussing the “just man,” Glaucon says: “ … such being his disposition the just man will have to endure the lash, the rack, chains, the branding-iron in his eyes, and finally, after every extremity of suffering, he will be crucified, and so will learn his lesson that not to be but to seem just is what we ought to desire.” (Plato, The Republic II. 361D-362A)

Current-day scoffers and detractors would hardly think of insulting Martin Luther King, Jr., the way they do Christ. That would be a public relations disaster for them, an unforgivable breach of decency, a repudiation of equality. Even with all their public approval of drugs and sex, their reversal of ethics and morality, the scoffers of the world wouldn’t mock Dr. King. Now, Dr. King knew

his life was in danger every day. His only real hope of escaping a violent death was to cease his leadership of the civil rights movement. His words tell us as much: “Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop.

And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain.” (from MLK’s speech in Memphis the day before his assassination.)

Was this a “suicide mission?” King persisted in doing what was right and just. God didn’t kill Martin Luther King, Jr. The world did. King died as a direct result of his obedience to the will of God. Despite the flaws in his character that we know about now, we consider him a martyr, not a deluded individual on a “suicide mission.”

God didn’t kill Jesus. Jesus was destined for death because of a sinful world. The kind of death he would die would result from the kind of life he would lead. His presence in a dark, sin-filled world was alone enough to assure that his death would be violent and painful.

God did not kill Jesus. The nature of his death was the inevitable result of his obedience and faithfulness. The world killed him for that; it’s the way the world was, and is. Jesus died because he refused to be anything less than Jesus.

Still, the death of Jesus appears in God’s plan. God, in his love for us, meant for it to happen. Consider Isaiah 53:10: Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Earlier, in verse 4, we hear that “we” who watched this servant suffer thought God struck, smote, and afflicted the servant.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. (v. 4) God didn’t kill Jesus, even though Jesus was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). The world did. It’s in the early kerygma: “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree” (Acts 5:30).

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Apologetic Assertion #2: God is for the human race.

If you think the atonement means God hates sinners, think again. “God does not desire the death of sinners” (Ezekiel 18:23). God’s love does not begin at the moment of an individual’s baptism; God loves the sinner long before that. Thus, we are told “For God so loved the world that he gave. . .” (John 3:16). In Christ God is on your side. You –as the sinner - are the one who stops all the good that God would do for you. You are like Pharaoh and resist God. You can’t choose God; you are too little and too late for that. But God has taken your side…by breaking your heart. . .by dealing with sin. . .in Jesus!

It is sin that troubles, injures, separates, and even kills the people of the world. Sin must be dealt with, not ignored. The cross, “…was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins” (Romans 3:25). In the cross event God reckoned with the sins of the world. In the cross event God has released a measureless atonement for the entire world.

It is time now to ask how the people of Jesus’day thought of forgiveness. In all the books on atonement theory, the First Century receives far less attention than those which came later. In his New Testament Theology, Joachim Jeremias drew upon the scholarship of his predecessors to provide the following summary of how atonement was understood in the Judaism of the time.

(J. Jeremias, New Testament Theology, Charles Scribners, 1971, page 287.)

Four chief means of atonement may be extrapolated from the literature: 1. Repentance—atones for sins of omission 2. Day of Atonement Sacrifice—repentance and sacrifice atone for sins of prohibition 3. Suffering—repentance and sacrifice with suffering atone for sins which merit destruction at God’s hand 4. Death—repentance, sacrifice, suffering and death are all necessary to atone when one has profaned the Name of God Further, within the atonement associated with death there were three stages: 1. Death of an ordinary Israelite, even a criminal, could atone for his sin. This was especially true if he asked from his deathbed: Let my death be an atonement for my sin 2. Death of a righteous man—supererogatory atonement availing for others (Think of the High Priest whose death in Israel meant that those in the cities of refuge could leave; their offenses were cancelled.)

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3. Death of a martyr brings God’s wrath against Israel to a standstill (II Macc. 7:37f.; IV Macc. 9:23f.)

Jesus’ death was the death of a righteous man, and the death of a martyr. There was, there could be, no death like it ever before or since. When thought of in Jewish terms, Jesus’ death brought God’s wrath to a standstill and released atoning power beyond measure.

God dealt with the sin of the world by turning it against itself. God invested the grievous sin of killing the Son of God with atoning power beyond limit. “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:11). God made that death the reason to bring his wrath to a standstill. What God does now is to proclaim that atonement through the preaching of the church. This proclamation of sins forgiven in Christ is not just for the first ten thousand, or first million, but for all.

Apologetic Assertion #3: This atonement must be specific, not general.

If Jesus died, and this has released an atonement without limit, why are some still lost then? How can God still condemn anyone? In fact, some ask, how could a loving God ever condemn anyone, anyway?

God isn’t grudgingly dispensing forgiveness to those who memorized their catechisms flawlessly. God desires that the limitless atonement released in Jesus’ death would avail for all of humanity. God does not desire the death of sinners. Separation from God is self-imposed. If we will not hear that Jesus takes away our sin, we are left to live with it still, with all the “rights, responsibilities, and privileges” that go with serving Satan rather than God. The atonement has many facets. My intention in this article has not been to fault or replace what others have already set forward. But this article has offered additional ways to discuss the cross event in view of the present situation. May you be blessed as you proclaim and defend the Gospel which is summed up in the words: Christ crucified.

Dr. Frederick W. Baltz is Director of Evangelism and Missions

Diagnosing the Devil

By The Rev. Dr. Mark Hillmer

We believe, teach and confess that Christ by his death and resurrection has overcome for us the powers of sin, death and hell. Does that include demons? Are there, in fact, such things as discarnate evil spirits hanging around watching for someone to devour? Our ancestors in the faith thought so (1 Peter 5). Jesus drove out demons who thought he had come to destroy them (Mark 1).

What seems to be a fairly regular occurrence in biblical times--even Jesus’ opponents were casting out demons (Matt. 12:27)—has come to be quite rare in our days.

In 1976 a 23-year old German girl died of demonic over-diagnosis. It seems she had mental problems and was detached from reality. During the last year of her life she underwent many unsuccessful exorcisms by well-meaning priests. Her corpse was emaciated, had fractured teeth, both eyes were blackened and there were a number of bruises on her arms.

In Lessons Learned: The Anneliese Michel Exorcism (2011) John Duffey offers an implementation of a safe and thorough examination, determination and exorcism of demonic possession. His conclusion is: Be careful, mental illness and demonic possession are two very different

things. Anneliese was demonically over-diagnosed. I think our culture may be guilty of under-diagnosis of the devil.

When a young man dresses in black, shoots his mother and then proceeds to kill kindergartners, we hear no mention of spiritual evil. When another young man dresses in a costume, drops a smoke bomb and shoots dozens of movie patrons we hear nothing of the devil. When a “deranged gunman” shoots a public figure in the head and kills an additional half-dozen innocent bystanders we stand mute. “It must be mental illness,” is all we can think of. “How can we prevent such things from happening?” we ask.

The answers seem to be: protect society by incarcerating the shooter – if they haven’t killed themselves-- improve gun control and employ better psychological testing.

Bible believers know that the devil is a murderer, yet when multiple, senseless, dispassionate murders take place we are tongue-tied.

Let us who know Scripture take these ever-increasing numbers of inexplicable murders as an opportunity for repentance and be ever and deeper devoted to doing good by spreading the news that Jesus has broken the power of evil.

We may be ignored or even laughed at for bringing up the solution offered by the Gospel, but at least we won’t be guilty of under-diagnosing the presence of raw, discarnate evil.

The Lost I.D.

By Rev. Dr. George H. Muedeking As I recently plodded along the marked pathway, eighty stories deep inside Carlsbad Caverns National Park, I came upon an illuminated formation imaginatively named “Hall of Hades.” A thirty foot high yardwide stalagmite towered over an uncountable horde of six to twelve inch stalagmites huddled together on the platform in front of the huge master figure. What an apt picture of Hades, I thought. The site was well named. Each of the little figures was indistinguishable from the others. An indivisible conglomerate of featureless conformities; each had lost its ID! Can a better description of hell’s inhabitants be imagined? All are non-entity entities. C.S. Lewis describes their fate: their singular existence is to be forever in the process of being swallowed up by the devil-master of hell. In their earthly lifetimes these inhabitants all tried to stand out from the crowd by exploiting their selected sins. They

lived to establish their independence, to be distinct from all the rest, to be the universal American individualist, “to be god—and there is none other.” According to the eminent soul-therapist, Karl Jung, striving for a separated individuality is the foremost human life-goal. He called it “individuation.”

While on the earth these ID-less persons bounced between two poles: first, to be as ‘like as’ and to get equal recognition with all the others in society. At the same time, to be singularly noticed because they live out Alexander Pope’s caution in being “the first by which the new is tried.”

They have attained their reward; they made it to their destination. But unlike the goals they aspired to while in the “Nowness” of their earthly pilgrimage, in Hades they are forever the featureless “nothings,” the status they tried to avoid while still amongst us.

Meanwhile, are we who have the Word of Peculiarity, willing to share the “whosoever” of John 3:16, namely, that God invested His very best treasure, His Son, to pick up and bring back home any and every human isolate?

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Epistemology

By Dr. Doug S. Dillner

be seen as the “amplification of the commonplace.” Allow me to offer another exceptional from the commonplace as evidence of my view.

Consider for a moment Saul, a “man of letters” walking along with various “Lego®-constructions” in his head (c.

40 A.D.), assembled from pieces learned from a previous teacher, Gamaliel the Elder, a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin. Saul is on the road to Damascus. BAM! God reaches in and rapidly disassembles what was there – Saul’s opposition to His church.

“And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’” (Acts 26:14, NASB)

“The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, with loads of learned lumber in his head...”

Pope, A. (1711). An Essay on Criticism

The Encarta Dictionary defines Epistemology as “the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge...” To me, in the simplest sense, a piece of knowledge can be thought of as a single Lego®. Collecting these Legos®, then, is the process of learning. What one does with his or her learning is like the assembling of the Legos ® into something that can be exceptional. To me, one Lego® is commonplace, whereas the 92 foot tall tower built at LEGOLAND California in 2005 is truly exceptional.

In this construct, I am in contention with a quote by Ed Wind in his 1967 work, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance (Penguin, p. 238), which reads, “It seems to be a lesson of history that the commonplace may be understood as a reduction of the exceptional, but the exceptional cannot be understood as an amplification of the commonplace”. In the preceding paragraph I posit that a Lego® construction could

Saul (whom we also know as Paul) stopped trying to “kick against the goads” and began to re-assemble for himself something truly exceptional, leaving us a legacy of his insight of God -- God’s Works and God’s Kingdom – thank God. So, what is the nature of your knowledge? What have you done with your works so far? Have you been “kicking against the goads”? I close by offering that God may have something bigger planned for you than you can now imagine. I encourage you to take a class or two as an Open Studies student to see what you may be able to do in your life that is truly exceptional! Reach into ILT-CST and “grab a Lego®” or two!

Dr. Doug S. Dillner is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

"Is it true that God's Word is greater and more important than faith? For God's Word is not based and built on faith, but faith is built on God's Word.

Besides, faith may waver and change, but God's Word remains eternally."

- Martin Luther 13

Quoted in E.M. Plass, What Luther Says, St. Louis: CPH, 1959, page 1492

Festival of Preaching

By Dale A. Swenson

Omaha in January was welcoming, accommodating and stimulating to a small group gathered to share the inexhaustibly fresh water given “for you” by Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Preaching was the focus. The goal?

To master the art and discipline of delivering the Word rightly.

Four students of the Institute of Lutheran Theology (ILT) came to the first Preaching Festival held in the first ILT House of Studies, Lutheran Church of the Master (LCM) in Omaha, NE. They came seeking to hone their ‘preaching of the Word’ skills and to earn two credits in homiletics for either a Master of Divinity Degree or a Pastoral Ministry Certificate. The four went through morning lectures, the writing and delivery of four sermons each, and conversations and critiques afterward. Aside from the four, three members of the Lutheran Church of the Master, and one from the larger church community, came simply to partake of all the didactic and experiential learning. In their case they were able to do this at no cost and were not expected to do the sermon writing and delivery.

“And how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear----without a preacher?” quoted Chaplain John Rasmussen, who was opening the festival with Romans Chapter 10. “And how shall they preach, except they be sent?....So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Fire alarms sounded and lights flashed. Quickly LCM Associate Pastor H. John Lewis escorted the class to the sanctuary. As the alarms stopped, the class returned and resumed, only to hear the alarm again. “Grab your things,” stated John Lewis on Monday, Jan. 21, 2013. “We have a problem that is triggering the alarm. So we will journey to the East Campus church and hold class there.”

The class regrouped for the rest of the day, and co-instructor Rev. Mark Jamison joined the group as planned, but in a new location, thanks to cell phones transmitting information. The first day’s excitement did not hinder the class. Subsequent days were spent in the first location, the false-fire alarms corrected.

Faith comes by hearing, stressed the two co-instructors, adding the Reformation insight that the preaching of the Word of God is THE Word of God that brings Christ to

justify and save.

Soberly, students were instructed that when the preacher ‘speaks in the Office’ it is Jesus speaking; the proclaimed word of God always has a body attached to it. “And the advantage is,” says Jamison, “externality of the word-coming from outside of you-frees you to proclaim and that is imbued by a power beyond the self. It is not the preacher’s performance.”

The four text assignments were delivered to Fran Hill of Dubuque, IA, J.D. Cutlip of Strasburg, VA, Louis Hesse of Moses Lake, WA, and John Graham of Calgary, AB-Canada.

Auditing members from LCM also joined in the text study offering insight and suggestions helpful to sermon preparation: Wendy Current, Steve Dunn and Elizabeth Donelson.

Then there was I, Dale Ann Swenson, co-chair of the Augsburg Lutheran Churches Women’s Auxiliary in a position to audit and take notes so that this article might be written.

All were directed to study the text first in sermon preparation, not only for the class, but habitually and all week long when they are out in the parish. They were also encouraged to seek out the answer to the question, which Pastor Jamison said was always in the text, “What did Christ die for?”

Lunches were catered, fellowship and friendships enjoyed and preaching filled the afternoons. Examples of fine preaching were in the ‘line up.’

Rasmussen and JamiJohn Graham preaches one of son preached. From his sermons.

LCM, Pastors Kip Tyler and George Megard preached topic-sermons on discipleship and time stewardship, respectively. Present throughout the week was Pastor Timothy Swenson, Director of Student Services for ILT, who preached a ‘Sifting, Sifting, Sifting’ sermon. Rev. Doug Morton, ILT’s Director for Theological Publications and Theological Librarian, preached “Joshua Over Moses” which was based upon Deuteronomy 34:1-12.

Then, in the nitty gritty of a labor of love, the four students preached four times in the sanctuary, with their last ser-

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mon being their own personal choice of a special occasion sermon.

Forms were circulated so everyone could critique the sermon and delivery. Critique focused on how well the sermon dealt with, 1) the text; 2) how the law was preached as an unconditional accusation; 3) how the Gospel was preached as an unconditional promise; 4) was sermon rhetoric simple and clear; 5) were sentences and phrases short and crisp; 5) how effective were illustrations and/or humor; and 5) was Christ crucified proclaimed. The students turned in their written sermons to instructors and received their oral and written critiques from colleagues and instructors.

And did the students master the art and discipline of delivering the Word rightly? In the final session on Friday, Jan. 25, 2013 Pastor Jamison affirmed this. He informed one young preacher that he had so improved upon his preaching that he could preach at Jamison’s own funeral. And Pastor Jamison concluded, all four of them could consider themselves quite able to do so. Pastor Rasmussen added the comment, “I did not expect to see such vast improvement upon preaching in just one week. But I did! Thanks be to God!”

Instructors Rev. John Rasmussen (L) and Rev. Mark Jamison (R) taught the seminar.

Guest Preachers Rev. Tim Swenson (L) and Rev. Doug Morton (R) demonstrate preaching for students.

From Left to Right: Students Fran Hill, John Cutlip, and Lou Hesse listen intently to instructors.

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Preaching to the Bound Will Augsburg Lutheran Church Annual Theological Conference October 14 & 15 The Augsburg Confession follows St. Paul in Romans 10 by naming the Office of Preaching as the means by which faith is obtained. What is the nature of such preaching that its language serves as a vehicle for the Holy Spirit and the delivery of faith?

At the Old Sanctuary in Brookings, SD. Contact Tim Swenson at (605)692-9337 for more information.

The Church

By Constance J. Sorenson

As I call the congregations across the country, I am hearing wonderful news about the church…the Body of Christ, the working arm of God in the world. What touches me is that the people who have left a congregation due to differences in the interpretation of Scripture, and have stepped out in faith, are growing. They are small in number and struggling, but the common thread is that they are growing in their walk of faith.

One woman told me about the twenty people who had left their congregation and started worshiping in a commercial building with no hymnals, just bringing their Bibles. They continued to grow and many of the nonchurched in the community have joined and now call this their church home. She commented that for the first time she knew the real meaning of church and it wasn’t the building or the trappings. It was something much more.

Another man, who is the Vice President of the Church Council, told me that being without a pastor for the past three years has forced the congregation to step up and take on the responsibilities necessary to carry on. He said his faith has deepened and his spiritual life has grown more than he could have imagined. He said he’d never dreamed he’d be teaching Sunday School, but he is and others have also come forth and taken on the responsibilities of maintaining the congregation. A Methodist church heard about their need for a place to worship and offered their church, so that on Sunday mornings Methodists meet at 9:00 AM and Lutherans at 10:00. Now that is Christian brotherhood!

A pastor in Arizona who meets in a high school has started a nursing home ministry. He and his volunteers lead worship services at four nursing homes every week!

He’s also started Men’s Bible Study groups. The men range in age from twenty to eighty. They open their Bibles, read a couple of verses and discuss how these verses apply to them in their lives today. It’s as simple as that. Right now he has thirteen Bible Study groups meeting every week, a couple of women’s groups, and one couples’ group; the rest are men’s groups. God speaks through His Word to each of them. These people are on fire with the Spirit and their dependence and belief that the Spirit can do anything has been evident to them through the miracles they

experience daily.

I also spoke with a prospective student who said he knew thirty years ago God was calling him to the ministry but he turned aside and didn’t listen. Now he acknowledges that God is still calling him into the ministry, and ILT is a convenient way to get the education he needs to prepare himself for that. He will not have to uproot his family or quit his job until he has the degree he needs to become the shepherd God has called him to be.

I received an email from another pastor who has a couple of ministries in which he is involved. He visited a man in jail and that led to a visit with another inmate and another, and now he has lost count of the men and women he has introduced to Christ. In his counseling he has opened up the love and acceptance of Jesus to people who have never heard of Him and His tremendous love for them.

A pastor in a small congregation in a poverty stricken area deals with the plagues of the people who are addicted to drugs, lack of education and living a lifestyle of dependency on government programs. Even though the reality is that days are filled with sadness and despair for people who don’t know of the hope and promise of a better life and the love of Jesus, this pastor is happy being where she is and witnessing that love to those around her.

Being the church is evident in all of these ministries.

It is something we need to remember, that where two or three are gathered in His name, He is in the midst of them.

The church is alive and growing in the Spirit. We are all united as one in the Body of Christ using what He has given us to make it stronger, and we hold fast knowing that He keeps His promises. “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”

Constance J. Sorenson is Director of Congregational Relations

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Unsuccessful Disciples

By Pr. David R. Patterson

I am a life-long Lutheran, from my infant baptism in much more successful disciples.

1967 at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Van Nuys, A disciple is nothing other than a student or learner.

California. I refused pre-confirmation communion When Jesus gathered His twelve disciples, they were His because I did not think I knew enough. I really took my students and He was their teacher (or Rabbi). But the time catechetical study seriously – I wasn’t there simply because came for His disciples to graduate, and He commissioned my parents made me go. When I was confirmed in 1981 them as His “sent ones” (Apostles) to “make disciples at Resurrection Lutheran in Roseville, California, I truly of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father felt that I understood what it meant to stand up there as a and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them Christian, baptized and confirmed to observe all that I (Jesus) have within the Lutheran tradition. I commanded you” (Matthew 28:19As Lutherans, we are great believed I was a good disciple.

20). What determines whether Now in the late 1980’s I was disciples, but the time comes a student is successful? This is a going through a difficult time and question that has preoccupied when we must graduate. for about two years I drifted away the education profession from from the Lutheran tradition and its earliest days. Is it grades? Is it Apostleship awaits! attended an Evangelical North knowledge or learning? I’m not so America congregation. During my sure. While good grades can be an time there, I was hit with two profound realizations. The important gauge of the level of competence in a specific first was that compared to me and to many, if not most, class, they do not – in and of themselves – serve as an I knew within the Lutheran tradition, Christians within indicator of success as a student. In college I knew many the Evangelical movement tended to make poor disciples. fellow students – each of whom got great grades – that I Even many of their pastors knew less than I (with only my would not consider successful students. I am speaking of Sunday School and confirmation) about the basic tenets of course of the “professional” student. One who continually Christian theology and doctrine. But I realized something changes his or her major in order to continue as a fullelse as well. That while it was clear that we within the time student, but never seems any closer to graduating.

Lutheran tradition made much better disciples, they made Now there is nothing wrong with being a life-long learner

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(I am one myself), but when I think about what it means to be a successful student, I don’t think about just getting good grades and perpetually continuing courses with no end or goal in sight. One goes to school to learn and that learning is directed toward a specific goal or end, not as an end unto itself. For me, true success as a student must be gauged on meeting the goals for which you began your education and graduating on into your life making use of the education you have obtained.

Jesus did not call His first disciples so they might remain just disciples, but so they might learn all He commanded them and having learned that they might graduate and be sent so that, through their proclamation of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit might call others as disciples.

And they – being made disciples through the waters of baptism – might learn from the apostles all that Jesus had commanded them, in order that they in their time might also graduate and be sent to proclaim, baptize, and teach.

Just as the “professional” student cannot be considered as successful student, so the perpetual disciple cannot be considered a successful disciple. What determines the success of the disciple is seen in the disciple’s apostleship. This I think is what distinguishes the success of discipleship within the evangelical movement. Not that their theology or doctrine is 100% right; not that they are confessionally grounded in all their teaching, but that they GO OUT to fulfill the task for which they are sent. I often think of us Lutherans as the perfect “professional” students. Just look at all the programs floating around the Lutheran tradition today; they all tend to focus on making us better disciples. We tend to think of improving things in the church with discipleship programs. We forever remain disciples with no interest in being anything else.

Now, in none of this am I speaking of the issue of salvation. We are saved by the grace of the Father, through faith in Jesus Christ the Son, worked when and where the Spirit wills. No, I am speaking to the Church, the

redeemed Body of Christ, made disciples in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit through the waters of baptism. We are made disciples so that we might learn and having learned might be sent so others might be called as disciples. This we Lutherans have not done well. We are so satisfied being such good disciples, it never occurs to us that we need to graduate and become apostles. We do not need to cease being disciples. Every follower of Jesus remains His disciple (and we should remain life-long learners). But being a great disciple does not necessarily mean we are successful disciples. Our success as His disciples is only seen in our response to His sending us out as His apostles. Every Christian is called through the waters of baptism as a disciple and every disciple is a disciple in order to learn and be sent, and every equipped disciple is sent as an apostle. As Lutherans, we are great disciples, but the time comes when we must graduate. Apostleship awaits!

“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” (Hebrews 13:20-21).

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Changed by the Gospel

By Rev. Douglas V. Morton

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:1-2 (ESV) The writer of 1 John put it this way: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). In other words, God’s love for us in Christ is the reason we love others. Let’s go even further: God’s love actually begets our love. It creates it.

Paul writes something similar when it comes to Romans 12. After spending eleven chapters writing about God’s grace and mercy for us in Christ, he then launches into an evangelical appeal: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1; ESV). The word “therefore” gathers up all that Paul has written in the first eleven chapters concerning God’s mercy towards us in Christ and uses this to appeal to us to live our lives as God’s children.

Paul doesn’t hit us with the law in order to get us to follow God. He doesn’t threaten us with judgment. Rather, he appeals to us “by the mercies of God.” How many of us would be happy and joyful to do something because our spouse told us we had better do it or he/she would not love us, or that we would suffer dire

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consequences if we didn’t do what we were told? Imagine your spouse saying, “You had better love me or I will beat you!” “You had better love me or I won’t love you in return!” This is the Law speaking and it does not engender in us any kind of desire to follow it. It may frighten or coerce us into outwardly doing something, but it can never get us to do something that comes from a free and joyful spirit on the inside of us. Earlier, in Paul’s letter to the Romans he tells us “through the law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20b; ESV). He also writes “the law came in to increase the trespass” (Rom. 5:20; ESV). It doesn’t sound like the Law has much power to elicit any type of God-pleasing obedience. In fact, the Law cannot do that.

Only the Gospel, God’s greatest mercy, can move us and change us when it comes to the Christian life.

Both Law and Gospel are important. You really can’t have one without the other. Throughout the epistle to the Romans, Paul stresses both of these realities. The Law tells us what we are to do and not do and the Gospel tells us what God has already done and continues to do for us in Christ. The difference between these two is the difference between black and white, hot and cold, night and day.

Both Law and Gospel are God’s Word to us, but each has a different purpose. Martin Luther ultimately came to understand something the Apostle Paul knew some fifteen centuries before him. Like Paul, Luther came to realize that “law and gospel stand in substantive dialectical opposition to each other. When the law speaks, the gospel

is silent. When the gospel speaks, the law must hold its we do, but rather what God does. It is not even about our peace.”1 Thus, in stressing the Law, Paul shows us just how repenting or believing, but rather it is about something far we have fallen from the kind of obedience to it that is entirely outside of us, something in God.3 You cannot, required. In chapter 2 of Romans, Paul writes: “Not the as some people say, “do the Gospel” or “live the Gospel.” hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of Rather, the Gospel is something done by God in Jesus the law will be justified” (Rom. 2:13; ESV). But, this is Christ who lived, suffered, died, and rose again for us. impossible for sinful human beings.

It speaks to us of forgiveness of sins given to us freely Not only have all sinned, but all “fall short of the glory because Christ himself took our sins upon himself and of God” (Rom. 3:23; ESV). Here the Greek word for “fall became sin for us so that in him we might have forgiveness short” is in the present tense, implying that this falling and the very righteousness of God. “For our sake he made short is not simply something in the past. It is not that him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might we once sinned, but now don’t; it is rather that through become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21; ESV). our continued sin, we keep on The Gospel is the unconditional falling short of God’s glory. The promise of God’s grace and problem is not that if we just try salvation given to us in Christ. a little harder we can finally fulfill Unconditional means no strings of the Law, but rather that this side the Law are attached to it. of heaven we can never fulfill the It is this Gospel that brings Law of God the way in which it peace and joy into the life of the demands. This is what Romans believer. This Gospel also changes a 7 brings out rather forcefully to person. It does not cause a person us. While the Law does promise to become lazy in dealing with life, it promises this to those who sin, as some might fear, but rather actually fulfill it all the time, and actually “removes from believers not just outwardly, but inwardly the desire to sin.”4 Thus, when as well. “You shall therefore keep Paul wants us to consider how we my statutes and my rules; if a live out our lives in this world as person does them, he shall live by God’s people, he encourages us The Gospel is the unconditional them: I am the LORD” (Lev. 18:5; (“I appeal to you”) by the Gospel promise of God’s grace and salvation ESV). “For it is written, ‘Cursed be (“by the mercies of God”) rather given to us in Christ...It is this Gospel everyone who does not abide by than bludgeoning us with the that brings peace and joy into the life all things written in the Book of Law. It is a foolish preacher who of the believer. the Law, and do them’” thinks God’s people can be moved (Gal. 3:10; ESV). to dedicate their lives to follow God daily by giving them commands and making demands. This type of obedience Nineteenth century Lutheran theologian C. F. W. is forced out of people, and “forced obedience simply is no Walther states, obedience.”5 Walther, in speaking to young seminarians who he knew would be prone to make this mistake, flat “All promises of the Law are made on certain out stated that attempting “to make men godly by means conditions, namely, on the condition that we fulfill the of the Law and to induce even those who are already Law perfectly. Accordingly, the promises of the Law believers in Christ to do good by holding up the Law and are the more disheartening, the greater they are. The issuing commands to them, is a very gross confounding of Law offers us food, but does not hand it down to us Law and Gospel.”6 It is not simply a mistake, but a “gross where we can reach it. If offers us salvation in about confounding.” This is because when Law and Gospel are the same manner refreshments were offered to confounded, neither does what God intends and no one is Tantalus in the hell of the pagan Greeks. It says to us helped. indeed: “I will quench the thirst of your soul and The Law is God’s good and holy will. Also, there is a appease your hunger.” But it is not able to accomplish sense in which Christians still need the Law since they this because it always adds: “All this you shall have if continue to live as sinners even though they are justified you do what I command.”2 saints in God’s eyes. The Lutheran Confessions teach that “believers . . .require the teaching of the law so that they Thus, Paul says, “For by the works of the law no human will not be thrown back on their own holiness and piety being will be justified in his sight” (Romans 3:20a). and under the pretext of the Holy Spirit’s guidance set The Gospel on the other hand is not about anything up a self-elected service of God without his Word and

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command.”7 Yet, because of our sin, the Law will always accuse us and condemn us. Not only this, but sin seizes opportunity through the commandment to produce in us more sin (Rom. 7:8).

So, as Christians we are called to realize that “the Christian life is not a product of the Law.”8 Only the Gospel has the power to free us because only in the Gospel do we find the end of the law and its accusations against us. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4; ESV). Only the Gospel can set us free from this problem by declaring there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). Only the Gospel can cause us to truly “get serious” about presenting our “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1b; ESV). This Gospel enables us to fight against being molded into the world’s way of thinking. This Gospel makes us new people who are actually transformed from the inside out. This is “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24; ESV), a grace that “has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age”(Titus 2:11-12; ESV). It is not the Law that does this, but only the Gospel. Furthermore, this Gospel causes us to think soberly about ourselves so that we can spend ourselves in service to those whom Jesus calls our “neighbors.”

Christians live under the Gospel. This Gospel deals with God’s mercy towards us in Christ. This is important to remember whenever we consider what it means to live out our lives as Christians. We will often be tempted to revert back to the Law when it comes to our sanctification.

But, “[s]anctification comes not from the power of the Law but from the living words of the Gospel, words that take root in the heart and produce good fruits on the lips and in the lives of those who through faith are righteous.”9

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If this Gospel of God’s mercy does all of this for us, shouldn’t we want to get to know it better? We can. For God has given us preachers to proclaim it, sacraments to deliver it, and fellow believers to console us with it.

How truly wonderful God with his mercy is for us! What motivation for presenting our bodies to God as living sacrifices!

Werner Elert, Law and Gospel (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967), 1.

C. F. W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, n.d.), 10.

3 Note what Jesus says in Mark 1:15: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (ESV).

The Gospel is not our repenting or our believing. It is not in any way something we do. It is something God has done and does for us in Christ.

4 Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, 11.

5 Ibid, 382.

6 Ibid, 381.

7 Solid Declaration, VI, 20. The Book of Concord. trans. & ed.

Theodore Tappert (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 567.

8 John T. Pless, Handling the Word of Truth: Law and Gospel in the Church Today (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2004), 109.

9 Ibid.

1 2

The Rev. Douglas V. Morton is Director of Theological Publications &Theological Librarian

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