Epiphany 3 January 22, 2012
Matthew 8:1-13
Naaman, the Syrian, was angry. He had come to Elisha the prophet, seeking to be cleansed of his leprosy. But all Elisha told him to do was to “go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored.” Naaman was apparently expecting something a little more…spiritual. He assumed that if he was going to be healed by a prophet of God, his healing would have a divine and heavenly character to it.
St. Paul, Luther, and Klemet Preus all have something in common. They all say that out of love one should yield to the weak and immature in faith, particularly when it comes to change in the church (I’m referring to Preus’ book, The Fire and the Staff). As I read this chapter, I found myself described on many of its pages. I have made a lot of changes in the congregation I serve, all of which I believe are for the best. And, they have been done with the support of my elders and other members of the Church.
Weekly Communion is one. We also brought back the Chalice onto the altar (it was kept in the sacristy in case they ran out of individual glasses). In fact, now we have a new Chalice and Ciborium thanks to some generous donations to the church for these things. We have changed how Communion is prepared and cleaned up–now it is usually consumed by myself and some elders after the service, instead of mixed back in with the unconsecrated (This by the way was done after a couple of “altar-guild workshops” that I held); a large wooden Crucifix now stands on the altar where there was no cross before; the Confirmands are questioned publicly before Confirmation; we have added processional torches, and I have boy acolytes and torch-bearers and crucifers when we have processions. Last Easter we tried out Gospel processions. I chant a lot more than the previous pastor did. And (GASP) I often (not always) hold my hands palm to palm like they do in the ‘Cath’lic Church.’ I’m sure there are more that I could think of if I thought long enough about it.
Admittedly, during these past two years, there have been people that have not been entirely comfortable with these changes. Yet, there have been people that are completely supportive. My elders supported the idea of offering Communion weekly, after about seven or so months of teaching Bible class on the Doctrine and Practice of the Lord’s Supper. Several people have thanked me for the opportunity to receive Communion weekly. But always there have been a few, a handful maybe, or maybe more, that have silently (at least as far as I am concerned) borne these changes, but not being in favor of them.
According to Preus, and maybe even Luther and Paul to some extent, I am guilty of committing some pastoral practice “sins.” I have not forced anything. I made it quite clear to the congregation that no one is being forced to receive Communion, but it is a free gift, etc. But one could, perhaps, argue that I did not have concern for the “weak” in faith, the immature, and that as a result I am dividing the congregation, not waiting for everyone to be on board with these changes and comfortable with them before doing it. My question though is, “Who are the weak?” Are “the weak” only those who don’t get the reasons for the changes, or who dislike the changes? Are “the weak” only those who want things to stay the way they have been for the last 30 years?
What about those who want to receive the Lord’s Body and Blood every week? If we were to take this away from them, would that not be unloving? Would that not be scandalous to their faith? They love the Sacrament precisely because they are weak. Should they yield for the sake of those whose “weakness” in faith causes them not to want the sacrament available every week? And what about the children of the Church? Are they not also “the weak?” They do not have the hang-ups with Communion and Catholic customs that many of the older members have. They will grow up with these things and will not see them as “changes.” They will see it as completely normal. Should we not also have regard for the children? Are we only to base our practice and changes on those in the congregation that oppose them or do not understand them completely?
I think I have to disagree a little with Preus on this. I agree with him in that we shouldn’t go and ram-rodding changes in without teaching about them. And, to be honest, I should perhaps have been a little more patient in bringing some of these things into the church. It is, in general, a good thing to build a broad consensus before doing so many “new” things. Perhaps one could argue that I should have focused on one thing, and stuck to that, and left everything else alone. Perhaps I will live to regret this.
But again, just how much consensus must one build before making changes? If Luther had waited until every single “weak” member of the church was on board with serving Communion in both kinds, then he probably would never have done it. Should I feel guilty for having done these things? Should I now turn by back on those who are loving the opportunity to receive the Lord’s body and blood every week, because they know they are “weak” and in need of God’s sustenance? I have toyed with the idea of offering an early, non-Communion service (Matins or Morning Prayer) before Bible class, and there have been several who have responded positively to this idea. I have also toyed with the idea of actually allowing people to be dismissed after the Prayer of the Church, if they do not wish to remain for the Communion.
I just think that this whole “weaker brother” argument can be looked at from several angles, not just one. Who are the weak?
I go to visit an Ahlzeimer’s patient in the Nursing home. She doesn’t remember my name. She knows I’m a pastor but can’t quite figure out why I’m there. I ask if she wants to receive Communion. She says, “Yes.” After setting everything set up, I begin with the familiar liturgy: “The Lord be with you.” She responds: “And with thy spirit.” Together we recite the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and she joins in with me as I sing, “Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth…” She mouths the words of Christ’s institution as I consecrate the bread and wine. She remembers. She receives the body and blood of the Lord, and when we are done, she thanks me. I ask her how her day has been, and she says, “Who are you?”
Dearly beloved in Christ,
If I were a tel-evangelist, I might begin my New year’s Eve sermon by telling you how prosperous 2012 will be for you if you just have enough faith. Because, you know, that all of your problems, all of your financial woes, all of your health issues are directly related to the amount of faith you have. So, if you have lots and lots of faith, then your pocket book will be full this year, you’ll be worry free, things will go well for you, and your health will be better than ever.
There is pride, and then there is PRIDE. On the one hand, a prideful person is thought of as someone who thinks very highly of himself, who is “puffed up,” who makes others feel inferior, etc. I think, though, that there is an even more dangerous sort of pride, pride coram Deo, which is often more subtle than the other kind. I would define it as a lack of awareness that one has any sins for which to repent. This is more dangerous because even a prideful person in the first instance may heartily lament the fact that he or she is “puffed up,” and strive to mortify that part of their sinful nature.
The one who lacks awareness of sin also, therefore, lacks a hunger for the forgiveness of sins. Here is the true Pharisee–a good person, but one who takes little joy in the medicine of the Gospel because he is not aware of anything against himself. He believes in Jesus. Even trusts in him. He looks for the return of Christ, confesses the resurrection of the dead, believes that baptism saves, that the body and blood of the Lord are received in the Lord’s Supper, and is otherwise an orthodox believer.
And yet there is that lack of a true hunger and thirst for a righteousness that he does not have. Peter Kreeft thinks that God allows people to fall into sin, or at least to experience anfechtung, temptation, and other trials in order that they might not fall into the even more serious sin of spiritual pride. I am inclined to agree with him on this. It’s not that God wants us to sin, nor does he himself tempt us. But He did allow Paul to suffer from a “thorn” and a “minion of Satan” to keep him from becoming “too elated.”
I don’t know if other pastors have felt this way, but one of the greatest temptations that we pastors face is spiritual pride, perhaps more so than others. We are handlers of holy things, peddlers of divine mysteries. We call others to repentance, we extol the saving benefits of the Sacrament, and yet when we give ourselves the saving medicine, do we do so with a keen awareness of our own need?
Not that we should ever give in to temptation, or be thankful for sin, but maybe we can be a little bit thankful to the Lord when He allows us to experience such things, for they keep us humble before Him, and always desiring of the medicine that we give to others. They are reminders that we too “always need the medicine,” that we too are dying sinners, who have not yet completely put off the old nature. To us, as well as his servant Paul, the Lord says: “My grace is sufficient for you.”
I often hear people say, “Well, I don’t have to go through a priest to get to God or to get forgiven,” or, “I don’t need to go to church to get God’s Word.” There is a certain arrogance displayed in these kind of statements, but one that is never acknowledged by the person saying it.
What that person is essentially saying is this: “I don’t care that God has given the Church men to proclaim His Word and forgiveness of sins in His Name, nor do I care that God wants me to seek His Word from those whom He has given.” It is really to say, “I don’t want his forgiveness, nor do I want to hear His Word.”
The question is not, “Do I have to go to a priest/pastor to get forgiveness?” The real question is, if God has appointed this man to be His spokesman, his preacher and teacher, and a steward of his gift of forgiveness, then why wouldn’t I go to him to hear it and receive it?
Today we commemorate Ambrose of Milan, doctor, bishop, and hymn-writer. But even as we do so, it is fitting to honor all doctors of the Church as this hymn from the Brotherhood Prayer Book does:
1. O Christ, the Father’s Voice and His eternal Word, / What Thou wouldst still declare must needs on earth be heard; / And though we see Thee not, we yet may hear Thy speech, / For with Thy voice Thy doctors teach.
2. On Zion’s towers they watch, lest heresy draw near / To breach its walls of faith and bring corruption drear; / With guardians like these the Church abides secure, / For thus forewarned she can endure.
3. O Christ, eternal Truth, in Thee do we rejoice, / Though now our outward ears may not perceive Thy voice; / Still in Thy doctors’ speech Thy teachings we discern, / And thus of Thee our spirits learn. Amen.
From “Common of Doctors,” Brotherhood Prayer Book: Second Revised Edition
www.emmanuelpress.us; www.llpb.us
…we always need to be on guard against lukewarmness, or the apathetic spirit which seems to characterize the Church today. We are not immune, any of us, from the crafts and assaults of the devil. If we do not constantly return in faith to the One who died and rose for us, then we could very well be the one who is told by the Lord, “Depart from me, I never knew you, you worker of lawlessness.” Yes! Even though you are baptized; even though you hear the Word outwardly, even though you come to the Sacrament.
The recent debacle regarding the sale of ULC by the Minnesota South District Board of Directors is just one example of why many of us get frustrated at times with our Beloved Synod. I’m talking about the lack of justice that seems to prevail in this Lutheran Synod. Things like this happen; there is a big uproar from all corners of the Church; letters are written; but nothing is done. Nothing is done to change it. Nothing is done to alter the course. The same thing happened with Issues, etc. The same thing happened with Lutheran Hour speaker Wallace Schultz. Brother pastors are wrongfully removed from their congregations.
We have seen, of late, some wonderful bravado by people who are incensed about this idiotic move by the MNS District Board of Directors. It is good to see voices raised in protest by seminary professors. But will it accomplish anything? Will it actually mean a change of course? Doubtfully.
I suppose that this is the way of the cross. We are called to suffer injustice as Christians, even by other Christians. And this we do, and we do it gladly. So, there is a part of me that says, “Why are you so surprised? Did you think it would be any different?”
But the other part of me is the part that gets frustrated with our Synod for her lack of action. Call me impatient, but the fact is, and this is part of the reason that people grow cynical in the Confessional camp I think, we see over and over in Scripture, especially the OT, God’s demand for justice–mis’pat–and we see a colossal lack of justice when it comes to these things in our church body.
So that is my prayer tonight–that all of the talk about right doctrine and pure practice in our Synod will not just be so much talk, but that we might actually exercise the Office of the Keys the way it is supposed to be exercised in the Church. God bless!
Often people think Church is boring. Which is why, I think, sometimes people want to get things more “hyped up” by guitars and drum-beats. We are so bored with the same old liturgy, and the same old hymns, and the same old prayers, and we think that if we just changed things up a bit the problem would be solved.
Maybe the reason for our boredom is that we are a bit like Jacob, who woke up from his slumber only to confess, “Surely the Lord was in this place, but I did not know it!” Surely the Lord is in this place, doing what he has always done, healing our souls with the forgiveness of sins, feeding us with his precious body and blood, strengthening our faith, but our hearts are foolish and slow to believe this.
And so we yawn. We get bored. We say that the solution is more variety, or more pizzazz, when the real solution is repentance and faith. God is no less present among us here than he was in the place where Jacob lay, or when the Lord Jesus walked the earth, healing and forgiving sins. God grant us eyes to see it! God grant us hearts to believe it! For then we too may say with Jacob: “How awesome is this place!” not because of its style of music, but because “this is the house of God and the gate of heaven.”
