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THE OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC MINISTRY This contribution on the
subject, the Office of the Public (or Holy) Ministry will attempt to understand
the Called and Ordained Servant of the Word, the Pastor, in terms of the Divine
Service. The prime task of the Pastor is
the conducting of the Divine Service of the Church, and it is in the
fulfillment of this calling that his very nature is best and most clearly seen. THE DIVINE SERVICE The use of the term ‘Divine
Service’, instead of the term ‘worship’ highlights the truth of the Lutheran
understanding of what is happening when the people of God are gathered in the
Service. The Divine Service is
concerned most essentially with what God is doing amongst the people, rather
than what the people are doing for God.
In the Lutheran Service the direction of what is happening is from God
to us, his people, rather than from us, the congregation, toward God, although
of course there are elements of response to God’s gifts also in the Service. The Divine Service is
central to all that we know the church
to be. Luther reminds us in the
Smalcald Articles what the Church is (SC XII,2), “Thank God a seven year child
knows what the Church is, namely, holy believers and sheep who hear the voice
of the Shepherd.” It is as we participate
in the Divine Service that we experience this heart and essence of the Church
from a Lutheran perspective; holy believers hearing the voice of Christ. And just where and how do
we hear the voice of Christ our Shepherd?
We reply: only as we hear the Word of God proclaimed, the Holy
Absolution announced, and the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Sacrament of
the Altar celebrated. These things,
these ’means of grace’, are the outward marks of the Church’s presence in the
world. Further more, we know that the
Church is present wherever and whenever these gifts are being offered to the
people, for these actions and these alone carry with them the promise of God
that his Word, in preaching and Sacrament, will not return to him empty and
ineffective, but they will accomplish the purpose for which they are sent
(Is.55), namely, saving faith in the hearts of hearers. And so the Church is created and preserved. THE WORD OF GOD Precisely what is happening
when the Word of God is read and proclaimed in the Service needs to be well
understood. Perhaps we can highlight
this by comparing the Lutheran understanding of the Scriptures with the
Reformed Evangelical understanding. This
has a profound impact on the nature of the Service of the Church and therefore
a profound impact on the conducting of the Divine Service by the Presider of
the event, the Pastor, and consequently profoundly effects the understanding of
the nature and position and role of the Called and Ordained Servant. The key to understanding the
difference between the Reformed and Lutheran approach to Sacred Scripture is to
be found in how ‘the gap’ between the event of Christ in history, principally
his suffering, death resurrection and ascension in the year 30 AD or
thereabouts, and our reception of Christ’s gifts for us today, forgiveness of
sins, life and salvation. The gap is a
gap of time and space, for about 2000 years separate the people of God of today
from the great events of Christ for their salvation; and the space gap is just
as real, for our redemption was achieved once and for all on Mt Calvary,
Jerusalem, and we in the LCA live on the other side of the globe. How is this time - space
distance bridged? According to Reformed
Evangelicalism the great need is to bring about a change in human hearts toward
God, to change lives. We humans are
capable of making the decision that brings this change about, making this leap
of faith in God. We can make the move
if the right conditions are present to help us, the right atmosphere in the Service,
the right words by the Pastor, the most appropriate music to influence our mood
and thinking, and, of course the preaching and teaching of the Scriptures to
tell us of Christ. The Scriptures
provide the deposit of “biblical
principles,” and it is as these
principles are expounded and applied to the individual’s life that people are
persuaded as to their truth, their validity, and people are lead to the right
decision. The Bible, for the Reformed
tradition, is the inerrent Book of principles, both of faith and of
living. It is a book of the “Laws of
Life.” It is the book of the essential
information we need about God as the Sovereign Lord and Creator, the book of
the Lord Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection for the world’s salvation,
the book of the Holy Spirit and the Christian life. It is the essential deposit of the knowledge of God and his will
for human living. The Lutheran approach to
the Word of God is different. The
Lutheran understands the Scriptures in that it is the book proclaiming
Christ. As Luther puts it, “the Bible
is the cradle which brings us Christ.”
As we read the words of Scripture, and as we hear it proclaimed to us by
the Pastor, this is God himself speaking his Word to us. It is not simply that information is being
given to us about Christ and his will for our lives, it is the living Word,
Christ himself, present for us, giving us his grace. This understanding of the
Scriptures as the Word actually bringing us life in Christ, suggests a very
different answer to the way God has chosen to bridge the time - space
divide. It is not by giving information
about the Christ in history, and giving us eternal principles for living, but
that Christ, through the Word is actually giving what the Words speak of: the
grace of God in Christ. It is as the
sacrament of Holy Baptism is celebrated that Christ is really there in the Word
and the water giving to the candidate the blessings of the cross and clothing
them in himself. It is as the Word of
the Holy Absolution is pronounced that Christ himself is speaking his word of
forgiveness to the penitent. It is as
the Gospel of Christ is preached that Christ is speaking his Word to the
hearers and proclaiming that ‘my death
and resurrection is also for you, dear hearer, and all my blessing are here for
you now as you believe in me.’ It is as
the Sacrament of the Altar is celebrated that Christ himself speaks in the
Words of Institution, “this is my body which is given for you, my blood given
and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” and so Christ is truly present,
giving himself and all his gifts to the faithful communicant. The difference between the
Reformed and the Lutheran understanding of the Word is stark indeed. Whereas for Reformed theology the preaching
of the Gospel is the offering of information: that the grace of God is found in
Christ in the Scriptures, and here is how to receive it, and how to live worthy
of it. In the Lutheran tradition the
Gospel proclaimed is actually delivering the forgiveness of sins to the hearer
who receives it in faith. An illustration to make the
point: Grandfather sends you a letter
in which he tells you that he is giving you $1000. You go to the bank with your letter and although the teller at
the counter is happy about your Grandfather’s gift, he is unable to hand you
any money for the letter from your Grandfather is not legal tender. But if your Grandfather includes with his
letter a bank cheque for $1,000, Grandfather has not only told you about his
gift, but has actually given you the money with the letter as well. The Lutheran understanding of the Word is
that it is not simply providing information, but actually delivering the gifts
of Christ to the Church. How different therefore is
the Divine Service in the Lutheran Church from the worship of the Reformed
Evangelical churches. The Lutheran
Divine Service will have as its centre, and its reason for being, the proclamation
of the Word and the celebration of the Sacraments, for here is God himself
present, here is Christ offering and giving his gifts, here is the Holy Spirit
creating faith and energizing the people of God; the Triune God graciously
blessing the people and granting them wondrous gifts of salvation. The worship of the Reformed Evangelical
will be so constructed so as to be as stimulating as possible in presentation
and in music etc. so that the message is as inviting and appealing to the
intellect and senses, and the decision to follow Christ made the more
compelling. So one sometimes reads of
or hears of services designed to have the greatest impact upon people: of clown services where the Pastor dresses
up as Bozo, or a service where everyone dresses up according to a theme; or a
service where everyone, including the Pastor, is casually dressed because we
should be comfortable with God, or as I heard recently, where a toilet bowl is
brought into the sanctuary illustrating the flushing away of sin. If in the worship we are simply reminding
ourselves of what happened concerning Christ in history and are concerned with
a Bible that is a book of rules for living, then anything perhaps might be put
to service to help connect us to Christ and his will for us.. But if God in Christ is truly present in the
Word proclaimed and in the Sacraments giving us his grace, then these gimmicks
only distract us from the real thing. THE CALLED AND ORDAINED SERVANT OF THE WORD When we think as we have
about the Divine Service in the Lutheran Church, it is not surprising that the
Lutheran understanding of the Office of the Holy Ministry fits perfectly. We expect the Lord of the Church to offer
his gifts of grace to people through the diligent use of the Word and the
Sacraments, exercised by those who have been chosen for this task- Christ’s
called and ordained servants. To understand the Office we
need to go to the Scriptures, indeed also the Old Testament. We find the origins of the Public Ministry
in the work of the Officers appointed by God to serve the People of Israel. It is the familiar pattern of Prophet,
Priest and King. Moses in the book of
Deuteronomy chapters 17 and 18 spells out the role these officers shall perform
in the stead and by the command of the Lord. The Prophet: Deut. 18:18, “I will
raise up for them a prophet like you, from among their kinsmen, and will put my
words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him. The Priest: Deut. 18:5 “... for the
Lord your God has chosen him (the priest)
and his sons out of all your tribes to be always in attendance to
minister in the name of the Lord.” The King: Deut.17:18-19 ”When he is enthroned in his kingdom, he
shall have a copy of this law made from the scroll that is in the custody of
the levitical priests. He shall keep it
with him and read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the
Lord, his God, and to heed and fulfill all the words of this law and these
statutes.” Clearly the officials that
are given authority over the people are placed in that position by the action
of the Lord God, and fulfill their functions according to the express will of
God. The prophets speak God’s Word to
God’s people; the priests administer the Services of the people of God in the
name of the Lord. And the Kings rule in
the place of God and according to his will. Ezekiel, in that wonderful
chapter 34, gathers all these officials over the people and collectively calls
them: ‘Shepherds of the flock of God’.
He speaks words of judgment upon the Shepherds of Israel for their
failure to care for the people, and also words of promise that God himself will
shepherd his flock with compassion. “Woe
to the Shepherds of Israel who have been pasturing themselves. Should not shepherd rather pasture sheep....
You have not strengthened the weak, nor healed the sick, nor bound up the
injured. You did not bring back the
strayed nor seek the lost, but you lorded it over them harshly and brutally
(vv.2, 4)”. In contrast, “Thus says the
Lord: I myself will look after and tend my sheep. As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his
scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep.... I myself will pasture my sheep, I
myself will give them rest, says the Lord God (vv. 11,12,15).” The fulfillment of the
promises of God is to be seen in the coming of the Christ, Jesus of
Nazareth. In him is the fulfillment of
the three-fold office of Prophet, Priest and King, At the beginning of his
ministry Jesus says, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach
there also. For this purpose I have
come.” (Mark 1:38). Jesus Christ, the
Prophet of God. The letter to the
Hebrews declares, “It was fitting that we should have such a high priest: holy,
innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens. He had no need, as did those high priests,
to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of
the people; he did that once for all when he offered himself.” Hebrews
7:26,27. Jesus Christ, the Priest. Also Christ’s last words recorded in Matthew
28:18 “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.” Jesus Christ, the King. Again, these offices of Christ are summed up
in the fulfillment of the words of the prophet Ezekiel, that Jesus Christ is
the Good Shepherd. He is the one who
serves his people even unto death. He
is the one “The God of peace brought up
from the dead, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal
covenant, Jesus our Lord” (Heb.13:20).
He is the one whom Peter describes as the “shepherd and guardian of your
souls.” (1Peter 2:25) The word “guardian” is the word which we usually translate “Bishop”
or “Overseer:” so that Christ is our
soul’s Guardian, or Bishop as well as Good Shepherd. He is also the basis of our eternal hope, “for when the chief
Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” (5:4). Christ, the chief Shepherd,
hands on his staff, first to the Apostles and then through them to the
Pastors. It is important to note that
the titles applied to Jesus Christ in the N.T. such as Shepherd, (or Pastor) and
Bishop (or Overseer) are used, in turn, of the clergy. To quote again from 1 Peter 5:1,2a, “To the
elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings
and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds (derived
from Christ, the Good Shepherd) of God’s flock that is under your care, serving
as overseers (derived from Christ the chief Overseer or Bishop, 1 Peter
2:25). Also the statement in Acts
20:28, “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit
has made you overseers”. Be shepherds
of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” Here again both titles are employed
together. The implication is clear
that Pastors share in the very same Office as Christ himself. For as Christ receives his official status
as Chief Shepherd and Bishop from God the Father, so the Pastor in turn shares
in that same Office with Christ, receiving it directly from him. “As the Father has sent me, even so I send
you,” said Jesus to the disciples on the evening of his resurrection, a sending
that was empowered by the gifting of the Holy Spirit to them all, and with the
task of forgiving and retaining sins, finally a task which only God can
achieve. The apostles needed to
understand themselves therefore as actually standing in Christ’s stead as they
fulfilled their ministry. Their office
was derived from God the Father through the direct call of the Christ the Lord
of the Church, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, called to do the very work of
Christ. Not only must the clergy of
the Church see themselves as called by the same titles and share in the very
same Office as Christ himself, but also as direct successors of the apostles
sent by our Lord to bear witness to his death and resurrection to the ends of
the earth. Certainly the Augsburg
Confession (28:5) sees the sending out of The Twelve by Christ (Matthew
28:16-20, John 20:19-23) as foundational to his establishment of the Office of
the Ministry. “Our teachers assent that
according to the Gospel the power of the keys or the power of bishops is a
power and command of God to preach the Gospel, to forgive and retain sins and
to administer and distribute the sacraments, for Christ sent out the apostles
with this command, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are
forgiven, and if you retain the sins of any they are retained.” The apostles operated as Christ’s
representatives, and so do Pastors, their successors ever since, for only God
can forgive and retain sins, and he does it through his direct representatives.” Hence the Office of the
Public Ministry is to be traced back through the apostles, through Christ
himself to the O.T. As the prophets
said, “Thus says the Lord;” as Jesus
Christ said, “Truly, truly, I say to you;” as Jesus said to his apostles. “He
who hears you, hears me;” just so does the Pastor say, “This is the Word / the
Gospel of the Lord,” as he proclaims the Good News of Christ. The Office of the Public
Ministry is essentially Christological, flowing from Christ and representing
Christ. The Pastor is called by Christ
through his Church to speak his Word to the world. The Office of the ministry can really only be understood from its
relationship to Christ. Luther wrote in
1533, “For we must believe and be sure of this, that baptism doesn’t belong to
us but to Christ; that the Gospel does not belong to us but to Christ, that the
office of preaching does not belong to us but to Christ, that the sacrament
does not belong to us but to Christ, that the keys: the forgiveness or
retention of sins, does not belong to us but to Christ.” A Pastor cannot perform the functions of the
Office on the basis of his own person; he can only act as the representative of
Christ. Melanchton wrote in the
Apology; “Ministers do not represent their own persons but the person of
Christ, because of the Church’s call, as Christ testified (Luke 10:16, ‘He who
hears you, hears me.’ When the
ministers offer the Word of Christ and the Sacraments, they do so in Christ’s
place and stead.” (Tappert, 173, see also 177). And so our liturgy states that the “Called and Ordained Servant
of the Word acts in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is important to
understand this correctly. To say that
the Pastor represents Christ or stands in his place, could convey the
suggestion that Jesus Christ, in his person, is absent from his people, and
that the Pastor fills in for the absent Christ. The Reformed tradition, which has Jesus Christ localized at the
right hand of the Father and confined to that place, and so can be present in
the Church only in some spiritual way, lends itself to the thinking that the
Pastor functions for an absent Christ.
But no, the Pastor does not stand in the place of the absent Christ, but
rather in the stead of the eminently present Christ. We might say: as Christ is truly present ‘in, with and under’ the
bread and wine of the sacrament, so we understand Christ to be present ‘in,
with and under’ the Office of the Public Ministry. The Pastor functions as the means and instrument through which
Christ personally does his work amongst his people the Church. Luther strongly declares
this important truth: “Even today Baptism and the
proclamation of the Divine Word are not mine but God’s. When we hear this Word we must bear in mind
that it is God himself who is addressing us.
When kings hear the Word and see the administration of the Sacraments,
they should place their crowns and sceptres at his feet and say, ‘It is God who
has his being here, who speaks here, and who is active here.’ You will perhaps be tempted to interpose:
Why, it is just a plain priest standing there and administering the Lord’s
Supper! If that is your point of view,
you are no Christian. If I were to hear
none but you preach, I would not care a straw about it; but it is God who is
speaking there. It is he who is
baptizing; it is he who is active. He
himself is present here. Thus the
preacher does not speak for himself; he is the spokesman of God, the heavenly
Father. Therefore you ought to say: ‘I
saw God himself baptizing and administering the Sacrament of the Altar, and I
heard God preaching the Word.... Why did you refuse to listen to God who comes
in the guise of a humble human being, who conceals himself and resembles his
beloved apostles? The word that you
hear is not that of a Pastor, it is God’s Word. And since it is God’s word, you should be excited and happy over
it.” (Luther’s Works 22 St Louis Ed. p. 137). So how does this work out
in practice. I take the action of the
celebration of the Lord’s Supper as an example, although the proclamation of
the Gospel and the declaration of the Holy Absolution and the celebration of
Holy baptism are exactly the same. The
saying of the Words of Institution does not in any way function as a magic
formula or incantation to effect the Sacrament, but as Paul tells us, in the
preaching of the gospel Christ himself is speaking through him. Romans 15:18, “I will not venture to speak
of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading Gentiles
to obey God by what I have said and done,” and 2Cor.13:3, “...since you are
demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you,”
and that God makes his appeal to people through us, 2Cor.5:20, “God making his
appeal through us.” In the celebration
of the Sacrament the pastor is the ambassador representing Christ himself, and
so Christ himself speaks through the voice of the Pastor, “Take and eat, this
is my body given for you; drink of it, all of you. This is my blood of the New Covenant, shed for you for the
forgiveness of your sins.’ It is
therefore not a mere human being who acts to make present the body and blood of
Christ in the Sacrament, but rather it is Christ himself who is declaring that ‘in,
with and under’ this bread and wine is my body and blood for you. The result is that the sacrament is what it
is, the very presence of Christ for us because Jesus Christ himself speaks the
Words of Institution and does through his called and ordained servant, through
the Office of the Ministry, the instrument set up by him precisely for this
purpose. Similarly, in the act of
distributing the sacrament to the congregation, it is Christ himself
distributing himself, using the instrument he himself has established for this
purpose- the Pastor in the Office. If I
may quote Luther again, “We hear these words, ‘this is my body,’ not as spoken
concerning the person of the pastor or the minister but as coming from Christ’s
own mouth who is present and says to us: “Take, eat, this is my body.” We do not hear or understand them otherwise
and know indeed that the pastor’s or the minister’s body is not in the bread
nor is it being administered.
Consequently, we also do not hear the command and ordinance according to
which he says, “Do this in remembrance of me,’ as words spoken according to the
pastor’s person; but we have Christ himself through the pastor’s mouth speaking
to us and commanding us that we should take bread and wine at his Word, “This
is my body,” etc, and in them according to his command eat his body and drink
his blood.” (Luther’s Works, vol. 38, St Louis Ed., p. 199) From our consideration of
these things in the Sacrament, we cannot but see the essential distinction
between the clergy and the laity of the Church. There is nothing of a spiritual superiority of the clergy over the
laity which qualified him to fulfill the Office of the Ministry. Nor is he some sort of manager or CEO in the
congregation, acting by virtue of his superior gifts. Rather, the pastor is simply the agent of Christ, the means
through whom Christ personally serves his people with the gifts he has for
their faith and life with him, the Word and the Sacraments. So likewise in the Holy Absolution, the
pastor uses the ‘indicative-operative’ form of the declaration, “I forgive you
all your sins.’ This distinction between
the Office holder, the Pastor, and the people in the congregation, is reflected
in Jesus’ words to Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, “Feed my lambs;
feed my sheep.” Clearly Christ has
placed his apostle in the position of shepherd over his sheep. So also Paul says to the Ephesian pastors, “Keep
watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you
overseers (bishops). Be shepherds of
the flock of God, which he has bought with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28) We hasten to add that this
does not mean that the reading of the written Scriptures by individual
Christians is of no value. Of course it
is. But it does say that when the Word
of God is proclaimed by the pastor in the Divine Service, it is Christ himself
speaking, and it means his people, the congregation, listen to Christ’s very
words. In no other regard is the person
in the Office representing Christ. It
is only as he fulfills the proper function of the Office, Word and Sacrament,
that he represents the Christ. THE OFFICE AND THE UNIVERSAL PRIESTHOOD An alternative
understanding of the Office of the Public Ministry is often put forward these
days, also in Lutheran circles. It
seeks to understand the Ministry from the standpoint and basis of the
Priesthood Of All Believers (1 Peter 2:9).
The argument is as follows:
Christ’s words to the apostles in conferring the Office of the keys
(Matt 16 and 18), and in presenting the Great Commission (Matthew 28 and John
20) were addressed simply to the Church.
The apostles were not a representative group of church leaders at this
time but were the whole Church in existence.
Hence to the whole Church is given the responsibility of preaching the
Gospel and administering the Sacraments. The work of ministry arises
out of the congregation of believers.
The congregation possesses and gives rise to the ministry of Word and
Sacrament because the Church, all believers, have received this as a gift and duty
from Christ, and so acts to fulfill its task.
The congregation chooses certain people, because of their particular
giftedness, to carry out the public functions of Word and Sacrament. What
is really the possession of the whole Church is delegated by them to an
individual, or number of individuals, to fulfill. It is essentially a matter of good order so that one person acts,
thus preventing the chaos which may result if anyone and everyone should seek
to act at once. The essential text is
1Cor.14;40, ‘Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.” This view arose essentially
with Pietism and reached a definitive point with Schleiermacher. He saw the ministry essentially in terms of
order in the congregation, and indeed was prepared to concede that if the
congregation was able to fulfill its ministry by a number of persons of the congregation working together
to do the work, then there was really no need
for an individual leader. It
might be concluded therefore that the very best and most effective
congregations will not need a Pastor at all, for the essential work of
preaching the Gospel and administering the sacraments, as well as the
additional work of teaching, education, providing fellowship and engaging in
evangelism etc, everything will be fulfilled by the members. Every Pastor should be working to do himself
out of a job, and the success of his ministry will be gauged by how many and
how well the individual members are taking up the tasks of the Church. The conducting of the worship in the
congregation will not depend on the Called and Ordained servant of the Word
representing the Christ, but on using the gifts of the members to present as
interesting and exciting and persuasive a meeting as can be arranged by the
worship committee We all rejoice to affirm
and proclaim the wonderful teaching of the Priesthood Of All Believers, but the
Lutheran tradition has rejected it as the sole basis for the Office of the
Public Ministry. We confess that Christ
gave to his Church the responsibility to proclaim the Word and to celebrate the
Sacraments, to forgive and retain sins. And certainly this is a work that is
carried out by the People of God. But
also we proclaim that it is a ministry given to certain individuals whom Christ
himself calls and sets apart by the action of the Church in the rite of
Ordination. The Lutheran tradition
would see it as a case of ‘both / and’ rather than a case of ‘either / or.’ We dare not place the
Christological basis of the Office of the Public Ministry with its Divine
institution, over against Christ giving the Office of the Keys to the whole
Church and the call to the universal priesthood. The two belong together.
The universal priesthood is given the Keys of the Kingdom, and it is the
means which God uses to call and send individuals, Pastors, those called by
Christ to represent him before his people and speak his Word of grace and
forgiveness. The apostles were called
by Christ to represent him in and for the Church, and the call continues today
as the Church ordains and commissions individuals to the Office. The apostles were representatives of both
the whole Church, the spiritual priesthood, and of the special ministry, the
Office of the Word and Sacraments The Pastor recognizes a
twofold existence for himself: On the
one hand he see himself as a sheep in the flock of God, one who needs to hear
and receive, as much as anyone else, the grace and forgiveness of God in the
Word and the Sacraments. But also, on
the other hand, he sees himself as one who has been called by Christ through
his Church, as a Shepherd of the flock of Christ, to represent the Christ and
to speak to the flock of God, addressing the very words Christ speaks to
deliver his gifts of grace. CONCLUSION Let me end with two quotes,
both by Erling Teigen in his article, “The Universal Priesthood in the Lutheran
Confessions, printed in Logia, Oct. 92.
“The Office of the Public
Ministry is the office which exercises the keys on the public behalf, which
administers Word and Sacrament in the place of Christ. One is called to this Office (Romans 10:25),
mediately by the royal priesthood, but is set in the office by God (Acts 20:28)
and has the specific appointment by Christ (Jn 20:21) along with the promise of
Christ, “He who hears you hears me” (Luke 10:16). The incumbents of this office hold an apostolic ministry and are “stewards
of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor 4:1).
There are specific qualifications for the office, e.g. 1 Tim 2:12;
3:1-7; 1 Cor 14:34; the office holders are to have their livelihood by that
work (1 Tim 5:17) and they are to be seminary graduates, i.e. not in form, but
in substance, properly trained (2 Tim
2:2; 3:8-17; Titus 1:9.” and “The doctrine of the
universal priesthood needs to be asserted and proclaimed. Above all, it means that everything that
belongs to Christ belongs to those made his brothers and sisters by the Gospel;
and that includes preaching and the administration of the Sacraments. That is the right, duty and function of the
priesthood: to elect pastors, and also to judge their shepherds is not to be
hidden from them. But it needs to be
said in the same breath, not as an appendage, not as a qualification, not as a
higher truth, that God has instituted the Office, to which he calls incumbents,
specific individuals, to distribute the salvation he has won. And the objects of that service are the
royal guests, the kingdom of priests, who are the banquet guests of the King.” NOTES 1.
The question of the possibility of women being ordained to the Office of the
Public Ministry will probably not be resolved only on the basis of certain
texts from the Scriptures, although they will of course play a major part in
any decision making, but also on the basis of the nature of the Office
itself. Compare our conclusions on the
practice of infant baptism - we baptise our infants not because of certain
biblical texts, but because of the nature of the sacrament of Holy Baptism and
what God is doing in and through it .
If the Pastor is truly the spokesperson of Christ himself, and if the
Christ is truly present in the Divine Service, the Divine Bridegroom addressing
his bride the Church, then Christ must be represented by a male clergy. Conversely, if the leader(s) of the worship
service are acting solely on behalf of the congregation as the most gifted and
qualified among them, then there is no reason why both men and women should not
be employed. 2.
The authorization of ‘approved’ lay preachers and ‘approved’ lay people in
celebrating the Lord’s Supper in the LCA is an action that is cause for
concern. To quote AC 14. “It is taught
among us that nobody should publicly teach or preach or administer the
sacraments in the church without a regular call.” And Luther, “If a layman should perform all the outward functions
of a priest, celebrating Mass, confirming, absolving, administering the
sacraments, dedicating altars, churches, vestments, vessels, etc. it is certain
that these actions in all respects would be similar to those of a true priest,
in fact, they might be performed more reverently and properly than the real
ones. But because he has not been
consecrated and ordained and sanctified, he performs nothing at all, but is only
playing church and deceiving himself and his followers.’ (Lectures on Romans, vol.25 Luther’s Works
CPH, 234) 3.
The lack of emphasis on the Christological understanding of the Office has
resulted in a different approach to care, support and ongoing education for
Pastors. A number of Councils and
Departments of the LCA now encourage lay workers being present at what were
Pastors’ Conferences. No one has
objections to the care and training of Lay Workers in the Church, but the needs
of Pastors and the support of Pastors by those who share the Office is unique
and should continue to be provided. The
suggestion that we are all essentially doing similar work implies that ministry
is seen to arise from the Priesthood of all Believers. If the Pastor is in the unique position of
representing Christ himself, something that is not true of the layperson, then
suitable presidential and peer support should be provided for them. 4. If the Christological nature of the Holy
Ministry is so important, then it would seem that the holders of the Office
dress accordingly. Clerical wear would
be appropriate on the Lord’s Day and more formal occasions, and the wearing of
vestments for the Divine Service, as the symbols of the Office. Robert Hamann Lent 2005 |