*The service begins with a hymn, suitable to the part of the Catechism to be studied. During the last stanza the minister approaches the altar and reads, whenever possible alternately with the congre gation, one of the following Psalms 1; 19; 34; 119, 1-19. Then: P. The Lord be with you. R. And with thy spirit. P. Let us pray : ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, inasmuch as it is Thy will that not one of the least of these Thy children be lost, but hast sent Thine only Son to seek and to save them, and through Him hast commanded   More…

The object of pastoral care is the creation of new creatures in Christ. This happens ordinarily, and most effectively, through sermon, liturgy, and catechesis. Pastoral care flows into and out of, not the lives of individuals in individual crises, but into and out of the life of the whole congregation as it gathers in worship. First, the care of souls properly belongs to the church. Pastoral theology can be designated as a tri-polar field, as Ken Korby referred to it. The basic pole is the Word of God; the other two poles are the congregation and the pastor. The second   More…

Reference Texts: CA IV and Apology IV _____________________________   The fourth article of the Augustana is the chief article. The hub of the wheel and the epicenter of all controversies in the Church. But, talking about justification is like talking about sex — fun, but not nearly as good as doing it. A Lutheran pastor’s job description then, as public preachers is simple, to not just talk about justification, but preach it so that this Word of God that is “for you” in Christ defeats the final enemy of humankind and all creation by raising the dead. [Now if you’ve   More…

by Rev. Dr. David P. Scaer Luther placed justification, the doctrine of God’s free grace in Jesus Christ, at the heart of his theology. Man is saved not by anything he does or could hope to do, but by what God has done once and for all in Jesus Christ. Since the Reformation, God’s accepting the death of Christ in place of the sinner’s death has been the hallmark of Protestantism and more specifically of Lutheran churches. Salvationis sola gratia and sola fide. God justifies the sinner purely out of His grace through faith without works. Just as no one   More…

by Rev. Dr. Ken Korby   You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. My God is that which I love, trust and fear most in my life. I expect my comfort, good and delight from my God. Do I look to God my heavenly Father, for all love, good and joy? Is everything measured for me by what pleases me? In all things am I self-centered and selfish? Do I see my worry and fretting as sin against trusting God? Do I complain about the troubles,   More…

Herein I am addressing the matter of confession. That is, what is being done when the preacher is making a public witness to the world of the one, holy Catholic Church’s proclamation of, and faith in Christ. Just as Paul said: “For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and confesses with the mouth and so is saved.  The Scripture says, ‘no one who believes in him will be put to shame.” [Isaiah 28:16; Romans 10:10] The goal of a confession is to be confessed. That is, to give the free word of God in Christ, gratis, as   More…

by Rev. Kenneth Korby Abraham was right. That faithful old man, the “father of believers,” was caught in the deepest anguish of his faith when God stuck him on the spear-point of his order to sacrifice his son. Laden with wood on his back, the boy asked,“Father, where is the lamb?” With fire in his box – and in his own heart – and with the knife in his hand, Abraham was faithful. Behold the Passover God provided the Lamb for the burnt offering. And so that you and I and the rest of the world might not miss the Lamb or get   More…

Whenever the Church points to her Lord’s bloody agony at Calvary as the revelation of God’s faithful, loving kindness, the old man in Adam is repulsed. Sinners want to see God, but not there. Not beaten. Not bloodied. Not screaming in agony. The old sinner wants to see God for who He really is in all His glory. This thorn-crowned Nazarite, they complain, can’t possibly be what Moses was thinking when he implored God to see his glory. (Exodus 33:18) Moses demanded of the LORD, “Show me your glory.” But God said, “You cannot see my face and live, because   More…

Popularly accepted terms for the church’s worship, whether the form of worship is traditional or contemporary contain within them the ideological wedge which creates division in the churches. This is especially so among the Lutheran churches, not least because we teach that, “…it is sufficient for the true unity of the Church, that the Gospel is preached therein according to its pure intent and meaning, and that the Sacraments are administered in conformity with the Word of God. And for the true unity of the Church, it is not necessary that uniform ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere observed,   More…

When the Gospel is not understood as the gracious promise of God alone, the forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake, not only is the Gospel lost, but faith is recast into something other. When the common, basic understanding of the Gospel as unconditional promise is forfeited by the churches, faith is no longer a, “…response of man to this promise, his trust in the pledge of divine mercy.” [130] Instead it is made over into, at the same time, a response to God’s command to repent, “which accompanies the promise in the Gospel.” [130] Thus, writes Hermann Sasse, “faith approaches   More…

Here is the second (of three papers) I will be presenting at the NID Fall Pastors Conference on the topic of: “Conscience, The Bound Will, Preaching, and The Care-taking of Souls.” click here for the first paper Smalcald Articles Part III, Articles 4-15: The Problem of Enthusiasm   1     In the Smalcald Articles we began by noting the new sense of repentance as passive contrition. Something done to us by God. We also noted Luther’s recovery of the biblical understanding of conscience as one’s sense of standing in relation to God, the neighbor, and all creation. That opens up   More…

When raising the dead by the forgiveness of sins the first thing expressed by God’s preacher is Jesus Christ alone, and Him crucified. One can read how Martin Luther does this, for example, in the Smalcald Articles in 1537:  “Here is the first and chief article: That Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, ’was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification [Rom. 4:25], and he alone is ‘the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” [John 1:29]; and ‘the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” [Isa.   More…

Here is a paper I will be presenting next month at our circuit Winkel, which is a warm-up for a set of papers I will be delivering next Fall at the NID Fall Pastors Conference on the topic of: “Conscience, The Bound Will, Preaching, and The Care-taking of Souls.” Smalcald Articles Part III, Articles 1-4: Conscience, The Bound Will, Preaching, and The Care-taking of Souls 1    The first four articles of the third part of the Smalcald Articles are Sin, Law, Repentance, and Gospel but all of them center on the matter of conscience. As Luther writes, “The Pope and   More…

The Lutheran Confessions. A public witness to the world of our biblical proclamation and faith.  For Lutherans, those who enter into the office of the holy ministry are invited to join this public witness. They are called to preach and teach according to it so the Gospel will go out “plainly and purely.” Just as St. Paul said: “For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The Scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame” (Isaiah 28:16; Romans 10:10). Our Lutheran Confessions are not   More…

When Hans Joachim Iwand took the podium during his 1941 lectures the dust had yet to settle from Barth’s explosive critique of nineteenth century liberal theology. Friedrich Schleiermacher’s theology in particular. Iwand’s colleagues requested that he address the question Barth and others had raised about Christian faith and its relation to ethics in their attack on liberal Protestant theology. They requested that he address specifically the relation between faith and good works. Unlike Barth, Iwand scrutinized the church at the outset of the twentieth century using the evangelical nuances which had punctuated Martin Luther’s understanding of the relationship between faith   More…