What the Lord’s Supper Is

Posted on February 9, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Transfiguration

Small Catechism Review: The Lord’s Supper

I told our catechism students earlier this week that we won’t actually spend all that long studying the Sixth Chief Part of the Small Catechism, the part on the Lord’s Supper. We’ll spend about a month on it, but that’s very little compared to the Second Chief part. We won’t spend all that much time on it, because the teaching of the Lord’s Supper is really very, very simple, because the words of the Lord Jesus concerning the Lord’s Supper are very, very simple. This evening we focus on what the Lord’s Supper is.

What is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself, for us Christians to eat and to drink. Where is this written? The holy Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and St. Paul write: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples and said: ‘Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.’ “In the same way also He took the cup after supper, gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, ‘Take and drink of it, all of you. This cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’”

Countless books have been written on this simple teaching of the Small Catechism. Countless controversies have raged. The visible Christian Church is still divided largely over the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. What a shame! But it’s another example—not unlike the doctrine of justification—of the devil taking the clear words of God and blowing a cloud of smoke over them, as it were, so that people can’t see them clearly anymore. May God grant us His Holy Spirit to enable us to see through the smoke and the fog to the clear words of our Lord.

It’s the night on which He was betrayed, Maundy Thursday, the Thursday of Holy Week. Jesus and His disciples were celebrating the Passover, with the lamb and the unleavened bread, the dip made from bitter herbs, and the wine. They had finished the Passover meal itself. And then Jesus does something new. He takes the bread, gives thanks for it, breaks it, that is, divides it up, and gives it to His disciples, saying, Take and eat. This is My body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me. So, what is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is bread. No doubt about it. But is bread which the Lord declares to be His body. Which body? The very one that is given for you. Given where? How? Well, connecting it with what He says a moment later about His blood which is shed, it’s the body that was given into death on the cross. And finally, it’s the bread which is Christ’s body, which His disciples are to take from Him after He has blessed it, and eat it.

How can that piece of bread be the body of Christ? We have no idea, and we don’t try to explain it. We simply believe that it is, because He said, “This is,” and there is no indication in the text that “is” means anything other than “is.”

Then He takes the cup of wine, gives thanks, and gives it to His disciples, saying, “Take and drink of it, all of you. This cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” So, what is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is wine. No doubt about it. St. Paul rebukes the Corinthian Christians for getting drunk on it, so it can’t possibly be grape juice. But it is wine which the Lord declares to be His blood. Which blood? The blood of the New Testament which Christ shed on the cross. When Moses sealed the Old Testament with the children of Israel, it was sealed with blood. Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.” So, too, the New Covenant or the New Testament is sealed with the blood of Christ, shed once on the cross, and now applied to the people of God, not by sprinkling, but by drinking. Not once, but “as often as you drink it.”

How can the wine in the cup be the blood of Christ? We have no idea, and we don’t try to explain it. We simply believe that it is, because He said, “This is,” and there is no indication in the text that “is” means anything other than “is.”

What’s that? Human reason says it makes no sense? Who cares? What’s that? Jesus uses metaphors in other parts of Scripture. “I am the Vine; you are the branches.” Yes, and then He always goes on to explain some spiritual truth based on that earthly image. Not here in the Lord’s Supper. In what way is His body “like” bread? In what way is His blood “like” wine? There is no analogy. There is no comparison. There is no representation. Is simply means is.

Does the rest of Scripture agree with that interpretation? Well, what does St. Paul say? The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? How can you have a communion—a sharing in or a participation of the bread and the wine with something that is absent? Something that is not there? And then in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, St. Paul accuses those who eat the Supper unworthily as sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. How can you sin against His body and blood if His body and blood are absent?

Roman Catholics agree that Jesus’ body and blood are present in the Sacrament of the Altar, but they philosophize about the bread and wine vanishing, so that it now only appears to be bread and wine. The Evangelicals simply believe in the Real Absence of the body and blood of Jesus in the Supper, claiming that the bread and wine (or other drink) simply represents Jesus’ body and blood. And the Calvinists craftily claim to believe that there is a “spiritual presence” of Jesus’ body and blood, but that it’s not at all connected to the bread that is eaten or the wine that is drunk. It’s received only by faith, they say, not orally, not with the mouth, so that an unbeliever who happens to receive the Lord’s Supper doesn’t receive anything at all but plain bread and plain wine.

We Lutherans teach the Real Presence of Jesus’ body and blood with the bread and wine. We stick with the simple words of Scripture, and we leave it to others to deny it or twist it or philosophize about it. We will stick with the simple words of the Lord, and be content to know that He wishes to give us His very body and blood to eat and to drink. As for why He gives it and the benefit we are to receive from it, that we will cover in the next two weeks, if the Lord is willing. Amen.

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The glory of Christ is the hope of the Church

Posted on February 6, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Transfiguration of Our Lord

2 Peter 1:16-21  +  Matthew 17:1-9

We always end the Epiphany season with this climactic celebration of the Transfiguration. There are two reasons. First, the other revelations of Christ’s glory—His miracles and His teaching—were certainly evidences of His divinity, but never for a moment did Jesus Himself appear to be anything but a lowly human being; those other epiphanies were all building up to this ultimate, visible revelation of Jesus’ glory to three of His disciples. Here in the Gospel, here on the Mount of Transfiguration, we’re finally given a glimpse of the glory that is Christ’s by nature and by right. Secondly, we’re about to follow Jesus toward the cross in our annual observance of Lent, where we’re going to lose sight, for a while, of the truth of Jesus’ glorious divinity, where we’re going to observe His glory in choosing humiliation, pain and death in order to rescue us from sin, death, and the devil. The Transfiguration gives us a glimpse of the heavenly glory that belongs to Jesus at all times, even when He appears weak and a failure. And if it belongs to Him, then it will also belong to us who have been baptized into Him and who remain faithful until the end.

So, first of all in today’s Gospel, know the glory that is Christ’s.

Jesus took just three of His disciples up onto the mountain with Him for the Transfiguration: Peter, James, and John. That tells us something: you didn’t have to see this glorious event in order to be one of Jesus’ followers, or even to be one of Jesus’ apostles. It was enough that three disciples should be witnesses of it. After the resurrection, Jesus gave them permission to tell the others about it. That was enough.

We may ask, why these three? These three were often the ones chosen by Jesus to witness certain miracles or certain events. We don’t know why, but we can guess at it a little. Peter would stand up as a leader in the Church. James would be the first martyr of the twelve apostles. And John would outlast them all, being forced to watch as the hatred of the world was poured out on the rest of the apostles and on the young Christian Church. It would be good for these three to have a special revelation of Jesus’ glory.

They went up on the mountain, and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.

This is the glory that no one would have ever guessed by looking at Jesus. He normally looked “normal,” like any man. He wore a normal man’s clothes—not even the clothing of the rich, much less clothing that was white as the light. He talked with normal men—even with the outcasts and the sinners. He certainly didn’t normally go around talking with the sainted prophets.

But here, for a moment, Jesus shows His three disciples how not normal He really is. He is God, and He is surrounded by the great believers of the past. Moses is a witness for the Law. Elijah is a witness for the Prophets. They all had been pointing to this Man, to Jesus the Christ, who had to come into the world as a Man, and live, and die, and live again in order to make atonement for the sins of the world and to bring His atonement to sinners through the Gospel. These famous Old Testament prophets were faithful to God in life, and even now they were not dead. They were alive and shared in the glory of Christ.

 

 

That brings us to our second point this morning: Knowing the glory that is Christ’s, remember the glory that awaits the Church.

Moses grew up around pagans in the palace of Pharaoh. He murdered an Egyptian at age 40, was exiled for 40 years, then spent the next 40 years trudging through the desert leading a stubborn and disobedient people who kept him from entering the Promised Land. He died right there on the edge of Canaan. Elijah spent his entire ministry opposing the wicked kings and queens of Israel, confronting the idolatry of Israel, feeling like he was all alone in the world as a believer in the true God who had promised to send the Christ one day. For as great as these men were in their day, for as great as the miracles were that they performed, neither of them saw days of peace on earth. Both of them were sinners who lived in hope—hope of a future peace, a future glory, a future without the evils of this world surrounding them and pressing down on them at every moment, a future in the presence of God.

God shows us in the Transfiguration what the outcome was for them. They were not disappointed. They obtained the blessed crown of life. They shared in the glory of Jesus. They were able to look back on the story of this world as those who had already read to the end of the book. They know that it all ends well for Christ and for the people of Christ.

Here God gives us a vision, a picture of our hope as Christians. This is what we have to look forward to: blessed conversation with Jesus in glory, separated forever from the filth and from the insanity of this world, freed from our sins and failures, free from having our souls tormented by the horrific wickedness in which this world seems to be drowning. Jesus and His apostles were not joking when they taught us to long for that day when He returns. The more you feel the weight of the world’s wickedness pressing down on you, the more hope the Transfiguration offers, because not only is this the glory that awaits those who persevere in the faith until the end, but this glorious Jesus is even now reigning in the midst of man’s wretchedness, somehow turning the course of this hate-filled world to benefit His holy Church, so that we and many others may reach the glorious finish line.

That brings us to our third and final point this morning. What to do now? Very simply, listen in humility until the glory is revealed.

Peter wants to stay on the mountain: Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. We can sympathize with Peter. Just six days earlier, Jesus had told him and the other disciples that His path and theirs was the way of the cross. But the Father knows the disciples have to go back down the mountain. The Transfiguration has been a blessed reprieve in their journey; they haven’t reached the finish line yet.

So what are the Father’s instructions? He speaks from the bright cloud: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him! Listen to My beloved Son!

But, but, Jesus had told His disciples just six days earlier that He would have to suffer and bear the cross! That they, too, would have to suffer and bear the cross for His sake! Yes, says the Father. Listen to Him! It’s true! He must suffer and die, and you must deny yourselves, take up your cross, and follow Him. The path of the cross is painful and deadly to your flesh, but it’s the only path that ends in glory and in life. So hear Him! Listen to Him! That’s the only way you’ll be able to walk the path of the cross.

We, too, would love to be in heaven already. We might wish that we didn’t have to face another day in this world (and if you don’t wish that now, I promise, you will before the end comes). The world is crumbling. We’re losing our rights. We’re losing our freedoms. Children are being murdered, on both sides of the womb. The borders are being breeched. Sex trafficking is going on all around us. We’re literally surrounded by a world that has openly abandoned God. And the Christian Gospel has been reduced to a still small voice in the world.

Yes, yes, I know, says God the Father. Now here’s what I want you to do. Hear Him! Listen to My beloved Son! I give Him to you as Savior from sin and as Ruler at My right hand. Listen to His Gospel when it is preached! Really listen! Really work at paying attention! And when you feel like you’re immersed in the world’s raging and in the devil’s temptations, let the words of My Son rise up in your ears and in your hearts above the chaos and let them drown out the world below!

What we do here in the Church, what we confess, what we believe, what we focus on seems increasingly irrelevant to and at odds with the daily life we have to live in the world. This here hardly seems real. But the Transfiguration reminds us that the opposite is really true. This here—the preaching of the word of Christ and the administration of the Sacraments of Christ—is what’s real and what’s eternal, while the antics of society will soon be over and done. Heaven and earth will pass away, Jesus says, but My words will never pass away. So hear Him and see to it that His words bring you back to the reality every day, not just on Sundays. As Peter wrote in the Epistle, we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

The day will surely dawn when we see the glory of Jesus with our eyes, when the hope of the Church is fulfilled. Until that day, hear Him in humility and keep your eyes trained on Christ crucified, who, by His death, has purchased for you the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, who, by His glorious resurrection, has conquered death, and who, by His word and Sacraments, will strengthen and preserve you in the faith, so that one day, with your own eyes, you will see Him and join Him in His glory. Amen.

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Confession

Posted on February 2, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Presentation of Our Lord

Small Catechism Review: Confession

Before we get to our Catechism theme, let’s say a word about the theme for today’s celebration. It’s 40 days after Christmas today. 40 days after an Israelite woman gave birth to a male child, she was to take an offering to the priest, either a lamb and a turtledove, or two turtledoves if she couldn’t afford a lamb, and he would make atonement for her flow of blood from childbirth, and she would be clean. So Mary and Joseph went to the temple in Jerusalem to make the required offering for Mary’s purification, and also to present her firstborn Son to God as belonging to Him. Now, the Israelites normally redeemed their firstborn son with an offering, but St. Luke only mentions the offering for Mary, not any for Jesus, and that is probably significant, because Jesus was not bought back from God the Father to live a normal life. He was consecrated to God the Father for life, and He would be the one to redeem all the sons of men from sin, death, and the devil.

Then there was that famous encounter in the temple with Simeon, one of the few Israelites who was consciously waiting for the Christ to be born, who had been informed by the Holy Spirit that he would see the Lord’s Christ before he died. Somehow, the Holy Spirit guided Simeon to recognize baby Jesus for who He was, and also inspired him to speak or sing that famous song we know as the Nunc Dimittis.

We sing it at the end of our Sunday service, and appropriately so, because in the Sacrament of the Altar that we’ve just celebrated, our eyes have seen His salvation, too, the very body and blood of the Son of God, who redeemed us by His blood shed on the cross, so we’re also ready to “depart in peace.” And it’s because of our faith in that redemption that we dare to approach God at the beginning of the service to make confession of our sins.

And so we come to Fifth Chief Part of our Small Catechism on Confession.

Confession consists of two parts. First, that a person confesses his sins. Second, that a person receives the absolution or forgiveness from the minister, as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that his sins are thereby forgiven before God in heaven.

Now, the first confession a person makes is really in connection with Holy Baptism, and Baptism itself is the first absolution a person receives. The baptized believer walks and lives in that forgiveness every day of his or her life.

What about the sins a believer sadly falls into every day, all the time? What about the sinful nature that is always with us, always desiring the wrong things and sometimes successful in getting us to do or say or think the wrong things? As long as a person remains penitent and believing, those sins don’t remove the forgiveness of sins that was given to us in Baptism. They don’t remove a person from God’s kingdom.

But how can a person be certain he is penitent and believing? What about the sins that weigh heavily on the heart of a believer? Well, just as a doctor examines a patient to diagnose his physical condition, so the minister is charged with diagnosing the spiritual condition of a person, and the same word of Jesus that gives ministers the authority to forgive sins the first time through Holy Baptism also gives them the authority to pronounce forgiveness repeatedly to the baptized believer.

But the minister can’t just assume that repentance is there in a person’s heart. Christians sometimes fall into sins that they are not sorry for, that they intend to keep committing. We call those “mortal sins,” deadly sins. So the sinner who is sorry for his sins confesses his sins to the minister, and his sure hope for forgiveness in Christ, and his intention not to go on living in sin. Then the minister knows that this is a person whom he ought to absolve.

Now, our experience with this is almost exclusively in that public, Sunday morning setting, where a group of Christians makes a general confession of sins, and a general absolution is pronounced to everyone, “upon this your confession.” You’re all familiar with that. Of course, there’s nothing to stop any visitor, any atheist, or even an impenitent Christian from simply saying those words, without meaning them, and from thinking that the absolution applies to him as well. That’s one of the downsides of a public confession. In an attempt to avoid any confusion, let me share with you the words of a public confession and absolution that Martin Chemnitz suggested back at the end of the 16th century, adding a very explicit warning to the end:

I, a poor sinner, confess to God, my heavenly Father, that I have sinned gravely and in many ways, not only with coarse outward sins, but much more with innate inner blindness, unbelief, doubt, despair, impatience, pride, evil desires, greed, secret envy, hate, discontent, and other sins; that I have in many ways, with thoughts, with actions, words and works, transgressed the most holy commandments of God, as my Lord and God recognizes in me, and I sadly cannot entirely recognize. They grieve me and cause me sorrow, and I yearn from the heart for God’s grace through His dear Son, Jesus Christ, and ask that He would grant me His Holy Spirit that I may amend my life.

Then the Absolution:

The Almighty God has had mercy upon you and, through the merit of the most holy suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, He forgives you all your sins. And to all of you who truly repent and, through the Gospel, place all your trust in the sole merit of Jesus Christ and intend to order your life according to the commandment and will of God, I, as an ordained minister of the Christian Church, announce the forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. However, I say to all the impenitent and unbelieving, on the basis of God’s Word and in the name of Jesus Christ, that God has retained your sins against you and will surely punish them.

So much for public confession. There is certainly a place for it in our service, as long as you’re thinking about and meaning the words you say week after week.

In most of the Church’s history, including that of the Lutheran Church, there has also existed private confession, where a Christian goes to his or her pastor or priest, and confesses his or her sins, so that the pastor knows that this person individually recognizes his sins, is sorry for them, believes in Christ Jesus for forgiveness, and intends to mend his ways. Then the minister knows, this is a person whom God commands me to absolve and forgive in the name of Christ.

There’s certainly a benefit to that, to private confession. Actually, more than one benefit. First, it allows a Christian to reflect on specific sins, to recognize specific faults in one’s words, in one’s behavior, in one’s attitude, even in one’s sin-tainted personality, so that a person knows what he or she needs to work on, with the help of the Holy Spirit, what he or she needs to be conscious of in one’s daily life, what one needs to amend or change.

Another benefit of it is the assurance that, when the pastor speaks the absolution, it isn’t just to everyone else in the room. It’s to that individual, as the pastor hears the penitent confession, the faith in Christ, the faith in Christ’s promise to forgive sins through the voice of His called servant, and the sinner’s intention to mend his ways.

Luther offers a neat little model of what making private confession to the pastor might look like. (I won’t read through the whole thing. I encourage you to open your catechism later and read through it.) Luther offers some basic questions a Christian can ask himself, to examine himself. Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, master, mistress, or servant? Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Have you hurt anyone with words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent or careless, or caused any harm? Then he offers a scenario of the dialogue between the pastor and the one making confession.

I, a poor sinner, confess before God that I am guilty of all sins. In particular, I confess before you that … I am sorry for all this, and I ask for grace. I will mend my ways. Then the minister should say: God be gracious to you and strengthen your faith! Amen. Do you also believe that my forgiveness is God’s forgiveness? Answer: Yes, dear pastor. Then let him say: As you believe, so may it be done to you. And I, by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, forgive you your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! Amen. Go in peace!

Now, if a person had fallen into mortal sin—that is, unrepented, willful sin—but then is brought to repentance by the Word of God, and he then confesses his sin and receives absolution from the pastor, then with that absolution he is brought back into the kingdom of God from the kingdom of the devil. But if a person has not fallen into mortal sin, but is simply confessing the daily sins of weakness of all Christians, then with that absolution he is confirmed in faith within the kingdom of God, comforted with yet another word of forgiveness for faith to cling to, and fortified with the Holy Spirit to truly go away refreshed, renewed, and empowered to change the things that were sinful and hurtful.

And finally, Luther writes that for those whose consciences are heavily burdened or who are troubled and afflicted, a father confessor will know well how to comfort them with other passages [of Scripture] and stir up their faith. Yet another advantage of private confession. An actual conversation can take place between the pastor and his member with specific advice and counsel from God’s Word.

We don’t have a confessional booth for this purpose, as Roman churches often do, but, as I’ve said before, if at any time, anyone wants to schedule a time for private confession, my office is just as good a place as any for such a conversation to take place.

Whether the confession and absolution are individual, or general in the Sunday morning service, our Lord has given us this gift of the ministry and the opportunity to confess our sins, not only to God in prayer, but to the man whom He has placed among us to hear and to forgive sins on earth, even as God promises that He is thereby forgiving those sins in heaven. Give thanks to God for this gift, and use it often! Amen.

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Why are you so fearful?

Posted on January 30, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Epiphany 4

Romans 13:8-10  +  Matthew 8:23-27

Our Gospel today deals with senseless fear, something we can all relate to, something we continue to witness around the world almost two years into the COVID pandemic, as many, many people are just as fearful of that tiny little virus now as they were in the beginning. For the one who believes that God doesn’t exist or that God doesn’t trouble Himself with our human affairs, who believe that this life is all there is and so must be preserved at all costs, that fear may not be senseless. It’s cowardly, still, but not without some rational basis.

But for disciples of Jesus, fear of disease, fear of disaster, panic in the face of danger, truly is senseless. And yet it’s also common. And so the Holy Spirit gives us a glimpse of Jesus’ own disciples on a day at sea when they all fell into that senseless fear in the presence of Jesus. And He gives us this glimpse, not only to show again the divinity and power of Jesus, but also in order to strengthen the faith that is sometimes so little. Jesus’ question to His disciples is also His question to us: Why are you so fearful?

Now, you may say, the disciples were in real danger, so they had something to be fearful about. There was a very real storm raging around their boat. That’s true. There were real waves crashing into it and over it. That’s true. Christians can still die; being a disciple of Jesus doesn’t make you immune to dying in a storm. That’s true, too. No one is denying the reality of the storm or the mortality of the disciples.

But what else needs to be factored in? Well, there’s the fact that all three Evangelists who record this event make it clear that Jesus is the One who instigated this journey across the Sea of Galilee. The disciples followed Him into the boat. Or as Mark and Luke record, Jesus said to them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake!” Should we imagine that Jesus made a mistake in setting out to sea that evening, unaware that a storm was coming? Well, that doesn’t make sense. Jesus is the Son of God. He knows all things. Should we imagine, then, that He was intentionally leading the disciples to their doom? That doesn’t make sense, either. God is not playing games with us, toying with us in order to watch us suffer, in order to watch us trust in Him only to be disappointed in the end so He can have a laugh over it.

What else needs to be factored in? Well, by this point in His ministry, Jesus had already called these very men to follow Him, at which time He promised them that He would make them fishers of men, that is preachers who would bring the Gospel to the world. Had that happened yet? No. Could Jesus have been lying to them? Also, no. Could they perish before the word of Jesus was fulfilled? Absolutely not.

This account reminds me of Abraham and Isaac, when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son. And the writer to the Hebrews tells us that Abraham was willing to do it, for the very reason that God had already promised Abraham that he would have descendants through Isaac. Well, Isaac hadn’t given him any descendants yet, so Abraham reasoned, even if Isaac dies, he must be brought back to life, in order for the word of the Lord to be fulfilled.

So, too, in our Gospel, the Lord had given these disciples His word that they would become His ministers in the world. So no matter what storm or danger they faced before that time, they had every reason to believe that they would be kept safe.

And finally, we should also factor in the fact, while the storm was certainly real, God is also real, and He was, at that very moment, sleeping right there in the boat with His disciples. This man who had changed water into wine with a word, who had healed all sorts of diseases with a word, this man whom they believed to be the promised Christ, was right there with them, not far away, but very near, sleeping through the storm, because He had entrusted all—His very life—to His Father’s care.

And so finally, after exhausting all their own best efforts to no avail, as a last resort, the disciples woke their God from His peaceful sleep. Lord, save us! We are perishing! St. Mark tells us something else they added. Don’t you care?

And Jesus gets up and deals first, not with the raging storm, but with the disciples’ senseless fearfulness. Why are you so fearful, O you of little faith? And then He told the wind and the waves to be quiet, be still, and they immediately obeyed Him. Now, in the calm after the storm, the disciples can pause to ponder what had just happened. What kind of Man is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!

But you supposedly already knew what kind of man He was! You’ve seen great miracles, even raising a young man from the dead by this point, if St. Luke’s chronology is in order. And some of you have already confessed Him to be the Christ, the Son of God, the King of Israel.

But such is the sinful nature of each one of us. No matter what we know and believe about God on the New Man side, the Old Man always distrusts God, pretends He isn’t real, always has to figure out how to save himself, to deal with earthly problems in an earthly way. The Old Man convinces a person not to go first to God in faith, but to rely on oneself, to focus on the wind and the waves, and when human efforts aren’t enough, to despair. And with despair comes fear and timidity and cowardliness—things that are just the opposite of what the Holy Spirit is striving to produce within the Christian.

The fact is, God is real. He really sent His Son to live among us some 2,000 years ago. He really calmed storms at sea, and He really gave His life on a cross for the sins of the world. And then He really rose from the dead. And He really sent His Gospel to you and brought you to faith and saw to it that you were baptized in His name and adopted as His child. And while He has not promised to rescue us physically from every disease or storm or disaster, He has promised that all things must work together for good to those who love Him, and that every hair on your head is numbered.

So. Do not have faith in things God hasn’t promised. None of us has any reason to believe we’ll live through the day, because God hasn’t promised that in the same way that He had promised His disciples they would survive to become His preachers. He hasn’t promised to keep you from getting COVID or from dying from it. But He has promised to guard you, to guard your life, to guard your going out and your coming in. So if He allows some storm to come through that guardian protection, you know He must have a very good reason for it. And if He has a good reason for it, and if He is in control of it, then why be fearful? Fear is senseless, while faith—faith has a firm foundation in the faithfulness and power of God. So when disaster strikes and fear starts to rise up in your heart, as it surely will, go to your God as the very first thing you do, not in panic, not in despair, but in faith. And receive the peace and the strength He offers in His Word and in His Sacraments, and in His history of faithfulness and perfect salvation through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

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The Ministry of the Keys

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Festival of St. Titus

Small Catechism Review: The Ministry of the Keys

Sometimes, we can make Christian theology a little too complicated. It doesn’t have to be. It didn’t start out that way. Yes, there are portions of Scripture that are harder to understand, and fine distinctions that sometimes need to be made, and clear doctrines of Scripture that must be defended against false teachers. But the core of the Christian Gospel is so simple, summarized again by St. Paul in the First Lesson this evening from the book of Acts: Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that’s not the whole message of Scripture, but it is the core message.

That message is also summarized very simply in the Fifth Chief Part of the Small Catechism, entitled “The Ministry of the Keys and Confession.”

Confession is the only part that was actually in Luther’s Small Catechism and in the Book of Concord. We’ll focus on that part next week. But one of the assumptions of the part on Confession is that there is such a thing as a ministry that God Himself has established on earth, a position to which God calls certain men so that they can act on His behalf. St. Titus, whose day we celebrate today, was called into that ministry and appointed directly by the Apostle Paul to appoint others as ministers in Crete.

The words printed on the back of your service folder are not found in Luther’s Catechism, but they confess very simply what the Bible teaches about “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” and how God has commanded ministers to act in His place, both toward the penitent and believing, and toward the impenitent and unbelieving.

What are the words about the ministry of the keys?

The Lord Jesus breathed on His disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive the sins of any, to them they are forgiven, and if you retain the sins of any, to them they are retained.”

What does this mean?

I believe in what the called ministers of Christ do among us, by His divine command—especially when they exclude public, impenitent sinners from the Christian congregation, and when they absolve those who repent of their sins and are willing to mend their ways—that it is all as valid and certain in heaven also, as if our dear Lord Christ did it Himself.

First, there is ministry established by Christ to which men are called. As St. Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter 4, Christ Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Scripture uses various titles for those whom Christ has given: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, ministers, bishops (that is, overseers), elders, and deacons. The apostles were called directly by Christ, but the rest are called indirectly: by Christ, through the Church.

As we saw, it was the Apostle Paul, as a clergyman in the Church, who appointed Pastor Titus to his position in the Church in Crete, and it was Titus who was to appoint others there. We heard in the First Lesson how it was the Holy Spirit who had made the ministers of Ephesus overseers, to “shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood,” and yet the Holy Spirit hadn’t done it directly, but through the call that Paul and the churches gave to those men. So we have every confidence that, when a group of Christians issues a call to a man to their pastor, commending the decision to God in prayer, it is God the Holy Spirit who is actually calling that man to carry out the duties God has assigned to ministers.

In St. Paul’s epistle to Pastor Titus (as well as to Pastor Timothy), he lays out the chief qualifications and duties of ministers: A man must be blameless, the husband of one wife, (Yes, being a man is one of the Scriptural qualifications; Paul says, “the husband of one wife” and doesn’t add “or the wife of one husband”), having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination. For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.

So ministers are called to preach, teach, administer the Sacraments, correct, rebuke, encourage, comfort, and shepherd God’s people, “holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught.” They are stewards of the mysteries of God, as Paul says to the Corinthians, and ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf (or, “in the stead of Christ or in the place of Christ”) be reconciled to God.

The authority to do those things is summarized in the phrase, “the ministry of the Keys.” Now, the “keys” aren’t mentioned in John 20, when Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive the sins of any, to them they are forgiven, and if you retain the sins of any, to them they are retained. But that command of Jesus is synonymous with what He said to Peter in Matthew 16: I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

So we speak of the “binding key,” that is, whenever a minister declares to any impenitent sinner that he is bound to his sins and will have to pay for them eternally, that he is not forgiven, that he is locked out of God’s kingdom for his sins and for his refusal to repent and believe in Christ. But for those within the Christian Church we usually speak of the binding key as a synonym for excommunication, namely, when the called ministers of Christ exclude public, impenitent sinners from the Christian congregation. It’s when a minister declares to a baptized member of the congregation who has fallen into sin and refuses to repent that he is bound to his sins and will have to pay for them eternally, that he is not forgiven, in spite of his previous Baptism, that he has broken away from Christ, and therefore no longer has Christ to answer for his sins, but will have to answer for them himself.

What’s the purpose of this binding key? It’s a stern preaching of the Law, the hammer of God’s Word with which God seeks to wake a person up before it’s too late, to drive him to righteous fear of falling into the hands of an angry God, to drive him to repentance and to Christ, so that he doesn’t perish eternally.

But then we also speak of the loosing key, that is, when the called ministers of Christ absolve those who repent of their sins and are willing to mend their ways. To “absolve” means to release, in this case, to release a person from his sins, declaring to him that he no longer has to answer for them, because Christ answered for them on the cross, and this person is seeking refuge in Christ, who will never turn any sinner away who comes to Him for mercy. The loosing key is used both for the daily sins all Christians commit without falling away from grace—that’s the absolution I pronounce to you every Sunday at the beginning of the service—and also for those grave mortal sins that have separated a sinner from the Church and from God’s grace, sins that a person once refused to repent of, but that now a person has been brought to recognize and to reject, looking to Christ again for mercy and forgiveness.

When a minister uses either key, in accordance with God’s Word, we are to believe that it is all as valid and certain in heaven also, as if our dear Lord Christ did it Himself. Does he correct you? It’s as valid and certain as if our dear Lord Christ corrected you. Does he warn you? Does he encourage you? Does he baptize you? Does he give you the Lord’s body and blood? Does he comfort you? Does he counsel you? Does he remove you from the Church? Does he absolve you and welcome you into it? It’s all as valid and certain in heaven also, as if our dear Lord Christ did it Himself.

That is what we mean by the Ministry of the Keys, and even as we give thanks to God today for St. Titus, we should all give thanks to God for every faithful minister and for the Office of the Ministry itself, because it’s the way God has given us to be certain of what He does in heaven. We can’t see God acting. We can’t hear God condemning or forgiving or teaching or guiding. But because He has established this ministry on earth and has bound Himself to it, we have a sure and certain connection to Him, and a firm foundation for our faith, until we need no more ministers, until Christ Himself comes, the Good Shepherd Himself, to take over the duties of the pastors whom He has temporarily left in charge of His house, who will gladly hand over the keys at that time to their rightful owner. Amen.

 

 

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