Professional Documents
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October 2007
October 2007
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CONCORDIA JOURNAL
OCTOBER 2007
October 2007
VOL. 33, NO. 4
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CONCORDIA JOURNAL
CONTENTS
EDITORIALS
ARTICLES
Lutherans in America have always wrestled with the doctrine and prac-
tice of the holy ministry, and a recent document in these pages (July 2007),
prepared jointly by the departments of systematic theology from Concordia
Seminary, St. Louis, and Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne,
further contributed to that ongoing discussion.
Dr. Charles P. Arand picks up the discussion of the ministry again in
this issue, and develops it with the help of the distinction between the two
kinds of righteousness (coram Deo and coram mundo). That theme, too,
will be familiar to regular readers, who will remember recent articles (April
2007) which explored the distinction and relation between the two kinds of
righteousness, a distinction which has sometimes been neglected or over-
shadowed by our preoccupation with the distinction between Law and Gos-
pel, but which lies at the heart of the clarity of Biblical theology reclaimed
through the Lutheran Reformation.
The ministry of the word delivers the saving message of Christ in
order to ignite and sustain genuine faith in Him. Using James Fowler’s
analysis of the stages of faith development, Dr. Henry A. Corcoran ex-
plores the ways in which Biblical stories, not just doctrinal propositions,
work as the crucial means by which people transition from one stage to
the next. Christians, like all people, experience their own lives as narra-
tive, and they make meaning of their lives and understand their identity
by means of the narratives (especially including Biblical narratives) they
appropriate. The story of the Gospel “not only informs, it actually accom-
plishes the movement from chaos to order.” Mentors both support and
challenge those to whom they minister, as they “re-story” their lives with
the radical new life of forgiveness and meaning.
Dr. David Maxwell’s shorter essay contributes to a clearer understanding
of a question that has bedeviled Lutherans for centuries, namely, the strik-
ing differences between Paul and James in their use of the terms for “jus-
tification.” Drawing on evidence from Clement of Rome, Maxwell supports
the contention that the term had a range of meanings, which can help
reconcile the theology of the apostolic authors.
A unique feature of this issue is the survey in which we solicit your
feedback about the Concordia Journal. The survey is printed on the last
pages of this issue. You are invited to respond either by removing the
pages from this issue and sending your answers to us, or by going online
and answering the same questions at the faculty’s theological website
(www.ConcordiaTheology.org). If you choose to respond electronically, please
take a few moments while you are at it to browse around the articles and
resources which are available there.
I cannot close without offering a word of thanks, admiration, and re-
342
spect to my colleague, Dr. Quentin F. Wesselschmidt, who guided and over-
saw the Concordia Journal as chairman of the editorial committee for 25
years. The sheer magnitude of his service is impressive. With Dr.
Wesselschmidt at the helm, the CJ published more than 400 articles, 1,200
book reviews—a total in excess of 10,000 pages. He has always exercised
this leadership with competence, consistent diligence, Christian humility,
attention to detail, and cordial collegiality. He made the task look easy—
and I can testify emphatically that it is not. He has served this publication
well, and he deserves our thanks. It is the fate of editors that their own
scholarship must take a back seat to the publication of others, yet we are
pleased to note that Dr. Wesselschmidt’s important contribution to The
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series is scheduled for re-
lease from InterVarsity Press later this year. And we hope that these pages
may see more of his own writing in the near future.
About a year ago I was in Cameroon, West Africa, to meet with Lutheran
church leaders involved in theological education. Their church body has
not had a historic relationship with the LCMS, and to the best of my knowl-
edge no one from our Synod or our seminary had ever visited there before.
But in a sense, they knew us, since the Concordia Journal is regularly
received and eagerly read at their seminary, where it constitutes an im-
portant resource in their theological library. I am happy to acknowledge
and celebrate Dr. Wesselschmidt’s important role in making the Concordia
Journal such a significant part of the public face of our seminary and our
Synod, here at home and around the world. As we engage new challenges
and employ new technologies, we aspire to enhance rather than replace
that legacy.
William W. Schumacher
Dean of Theological Research and Publication
The expectations on pastors have greatly expanded over the last gen-
eration. At times, the increased responsibilities brought with them shifts
in the “job descriptions” of pastors. Much of this was due to a renewed
emphasis on the importance of mobilizing the priesthood of the baptized
for that mission of the church. In the process, pastors came to be seen less
as “curers of souls” or mouthpieces for God and more as counselors, man-
agers, coaches, leaders, administrators, spiritual guides, and the like. The
need for pastors to function in these capacities brought about curriculum
revisions in seminaries that supplemented courses on preaching, catechesis,
leading worship, baptizing, and presiding at the Lord’s Supper with courses
that focused on other skills like administration, conflict resolution, leader-
ship, management, and counseling. Acquiring competence in these areas
is a good thing, even a necessary thing, in a society in which shepherding
congregations has become analogous to running medium to large size non-
profit organizations.
Just as the twentieth century saw increased attention given to the
human and sociological aspects of the church, the last few decades have
seen similar attention given to the person, personality, entrepreneurial,
and leadership skills of a pastor. At times it has occurred at the expense of
the theological definition of the pastoral office in which the pastor serves
as the one who delivers the gifts of Christ to God’s people. In any event, we
need to rethink the office of the public ministry and the priesthood of the
baptized within the framework of the two kinds of righteousness in order
to do justice to the Biblical and confessional understanding of the pastoral
office as well as the contemporary mission needs of congregations in twenty-
first century America. Like the church, the office of the public or pastoral
ministry rests upon the presupposition that the believer lives in two dis-
tinct but inseparable relationships. God’s Word of forgiveness establishes
our relationship with God; God’s design for human action regulates the
344
horizontal sphere of life. The understanding of this ministry rests also
upon the nature of God’s Word in Lutheran theology, for the church as
church is created and identified by that Word. The public ministry of the
church is ultimately a ministry of the Word.
So does this mean that Luther abolished the office of the ministry in
favor of an egalitarian or democratic view of the work of the church? Not
at all. Although there are no distinctions among people coram deo when it
comes to the matter of justification, Luther did not deny that God estab-
lished different roles and tasks for people coram mundo (“before the world”)
when it comes to the matter of carrying out the work of the church. The
two kinds of righteousness not only allowed Luther to break through the
secular-spiritual estate distinction coram deo but also allowed him to re-
cover the value of vocation for life here on earth. This led him to empha-
size that in our horizontal relationships (coram mundo) God has estab-
lished distinct estates or walks of life within which people serve. In these
walks of life people are given “offices” or responsibilities that Christians
recognize as callings or vocation from God. On the eve of the Reformation,
many believed that God had structured the human life to be lived in three
situations: home (both family and economic activities), the political realm,
and the church. By virtue of their creatureliness, people are commissioned
to discharge complementary tasks in these offices for the good of creation
and human society. By virtue of their Baptisms, Christians are given the
task of confessing the name of Christ within every walk of life. All Chris-
tians bring the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins in ways
appropriate to their walks of life.2 In other words, Luther stressed that by
virtue of Baptism, every Christian had the responsibility and privilege to
share the Word of God with others.
That every Christian had the responsibility to share the Word with
their neighbors did not mean that there was no need for a public office of
the ministry nor that every Christian automatically held that public office.
For Luther, it simply meant that every Christian had the responsibility
and privilege of taking that Word to others within his or her divinely ap-
pointed walk of life. They were to be prepared to give reason for the hope
that was within them. To that end, the Lutheran reformers placed a re-
newed emphasis upon the responsibility of parents to keep the Word of
God before their household—a household that would include not only the
children, but farmhands, maids, servants, etc. Within this role, Luther
was not even averse to speaking of the husband and wife as the bishop and
1
John F. Johnson, “The Office of the Pastoral Ministry: Scriptural and Confessional
Considerations,” The Collected Papers of the 150th Anniversary Theological Convoca-
tion of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, eds. Jerold Joersz and Paul McCain (Saint
Louis: Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, 1998), 88.
2
Johnson, “Office of the Pastoral Ministry,” 88.
346
bishopess of the household.3 Indeed, Luther prepared his Small Catechism
and addressed each “chief part” to the head of the house in order to help
him carry out his responsibility of witness and discipleship.4 In a similar
way, Luther frequently gave instruction to governmental leaders regard-
ing their responsibilities for maintaining community chests and for estab-
lishing schools.5
As God has ordered each of the horizontal spheres of human life (gov-
ernmental official or ruler and subject or citizen, parent and child), so he
has ordered the church (pastor and parishioner). Unlike his medieval pre-
decessors, Luther did not see this as an ordering coram deo, but as an
ordering of the church coram mundo. Particularly as the Reformation
moved into its second and third decades, it became necessary to stress this
aspect against the spiritualists and fanatics who relegated God to work
simply within and through some kind of internal word. Over and against
the radicals, Luther stressed that the public ministry was not optional.6
Robert Rosin points out that Luther is not saying here that either the
church or the world depends on the office of the ministry for its existence,
but because things go wrong, pastors must be the line of defense. “True
preaching—the Word—will set things right again.”8
The Wittenberg reformers stressed that for the proper ordering of the
3
“Ten Sermons on the Catechism,” LW 51:57; WA 30, 1:57, 26-58, 22.
4
Small Catechism, Household chart, Book of Concord, 365-367, BSLK, 523-527.
5
For example, in his “Ordinance of a Common Chest, Preface,” published along with
the regulations for social welfare in the Saxon town of Leisnig, 1523, LW 45: 169-194; WA
12:11-30; and his “To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany That They Establish and
Maintain Christian Schools,” 1524, LW 45:347-378; WA 15: 27-53.
6
“Confession Concerning Christ’s Supper,” 1528, LW 37:364; WA 26:504, 30-35.
7
“A Sermon on Keeping Children in School,” 1530, LW 46:219-220; WA 30, 2:526, 33-
527, 25.
8
Robert Rosin, “Luther on the Pastoral Ministry, the Biography of an Idea,” unpub-
lished paper delivered for the ILC Theology Professors conference in Erfurt, Germany in
2004.
9
Apology of the Augsburg Confession, XIII, 12, Book of Concord, 220, BSLK, 294;
Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope 69, Book of Concord, BSLK, 491.
10
Robert Kolb, “Ministry in Martin Luther and the Lutheran Confessions,” in Called
& Ordained: Lutheran Perspectives on the Office of the Ministry, eds. Todd Nichol and
Marc Kolden (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990), 52.
11
Rosin, “Luther on the Pastoral Ministry, the Biography of an Idea,” 12.
12
“Concerning the Ministry,” 1523, LW 40:33-34; WA 12:189, 5-190, 31.
13
“Concerning the Ministry,” 1523, WA 12:189, 26-27.
348
the Augsburg Confession concerning the proper placement of pastors into
their office. The common priesthood has the responsibility by virtue of
Baptism to fill the public office of the special priesthood. Luther put it well:
All Christians serve the Word in one setting (in private or out in the
world); a pastor serves the Word in another setting (in the public assembly,
for all to see).15 Thus pastors do not exercise their office in their own right
and of themselves but because they have been asked to do that by and for
the community of believers. Those who are pastors, in the public office,
were chosen to be there by others with whom they share that common
priesthood by virtue of Baptism. The pastor serves with the approval of
the congregation.
Therefore, the reformers stressed that pastors must be “rightly called”
(rite vocatus). The reformers generally insisted that three things occur for
one to be rightly called: examination, call, and ordination. Examination
signaled to the congregations that candidates were aligned with evangeli-
cal theology. Those who are called to serve in the special priesthood must
above all else “be apt to teach” (1 Tim. 3:2). That is to say, they must be
competent to proclaim the Word. This was especially important for the
reformers who saw the church as a creature of the Word and defined the
office of pastor in terms of delivering the Word. The call signaled to the
candidate that a congregation was willing to receive him as its pastor.
Ordination was a rite celebrated to mark the coming of one called.
While the reformers tended to regard the three moments, examina-
tion, call, and ordination, as non-negotiable components of being rite
vocatus, precisely how that took place could vary according to human wis-
dom (de jure humano). There was not one “proper method” for how a man
might be placed into the public office. Luther was prepared to use what-
ever established procedures were in place so long as the Gospel was being
proclaimed. Procedures for doing so could always be revamped if neces-
sary. But it will be done, and the ministry of the Word will happen. That is
14
“That a Christian Congregation or Assembly has the Right and Power to Judge All
Teaching,” 1523, LW 39: 310; WA 11:412, 30-34.
15
Rosin, “Luther on the Pastoral Ministry, the Biography of an Idea,” 11.
As the office of pastor was established by God for the proper ordering
16
“Concerning the Ministry,” 1523, LW 40:34; WA 12:189, 15-16.
350
of Christ’s church coram mundo, it is further necessary to distinguish
between those responsibilities given by God and those assigned to the pas-
tor by the common priesthood.
When titles were chosen for the first seven articles of the Augsburg
Confession, the title “the office of the ministry” (German) or the “office of
the church” (Latin) was chosen for the fifth article, which flowed from the
central teaching of the document, found in the fourth article on justifica-
tion. The article opens by stating, “To obtain such faith God instituted the
office of the ministry.” Melanchthon uses the word ministerium as a “ver-
bal noun.”17 In other words, Melanchthon regarded the medieval term for
the office of the ministry, “ministerium,” as a word that describes both the
thing and the action that constitutes the thing and gives it its purpose—in
the case of the ministerium, serving. Even as the confessors stressed that
God had instituted a specific office for conveying the power of God’s Word
into the lives of sinners, they emphasized that the pastor who filled that
office did so by serving in a specific way: as the agent for releasing God’s
forgiving and re-creating Word.
Augsburg Confession V defines the nature of the service rendered by
the office of the ministry with the phrase, “that is, [through it God] pro-
vided the gospel and the sacraments as means through which the Holy
Spirit ignites faith within the human heart.”18 The public ministry of the
church is inextricably linked with God’s tools for creating faith. “Pastor
and Word are like horse and carriage; the church does not have one with-
out the other.”19 Melanchthon especially stresses this in Augsburg Confes-
sion XXVIII, where he distinguishes between those tasks that God has
authorized and those tasks that other humans (especially ecclesiastical or
secular leaders) authorize. He repeatedly argues, “The power of the keys
or the power of the bishops is the power of God’s mandate to preach the
gospel, to forgive and retain sins, and to administer the sacrament.”20 Even
though pastors are responsible for conveying the Word of God into the
lives of people, this does not mean that pastors can convert anyone. The
Spirit does that through the Word, and He creates faith “when and where
he pleases.”
What God has given the pastor to do (de jure divino) must be distin-
guished from what human beings assign the pastor to do (de jure humano).
This is in part the burden of article XXVIII of the Augsburg Confession,
where Melanchthon deals with the confusion and the damage done to the
17
Peter Fraenkel, “Revelation and Tradition: Notes on Some Aspects of Doctrinal
Continuity in the Theology of Philip Melanchthon,” Studia Theolgica 13 (1959): 97-133.
18
Augsburg Confession, V, Book of Concord, 40-41, BSLK, 58.
19
Kolb, “Ministry,” 56.
20
“This jurisdiction belongs to the bishops as bishops (that is, to those to whom the
ministry of Word and sacraments has been committed): to forgive sins, to reject teaching
that opposes the gospel, and to exclude from the communion of the church the ungodly
whose ungodliness is known—doing all this not with human power but by the Word”
(Augsburg Confession, XXVIII, 21, Book of Concord, 94 BSLK, 123-124.
352
and administer the Sacraments. Planning does have to do, however, with
building those human support structures in the left hand realm for the
proclamation of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. That
is, it deals with how we go about carrying out the mission of God as a
congregation. It deals with how we can best accomplish that task given the
challenges and opportunities that we have. To that end, it requires the use
of brains and imagination in the service of the Gospel.
Inasmuch as strategic planning involves finding ways to carry out the
mission God has given His church, it is of interest to the pastor. The Gos-
pel and the theology of the church (as an assembly of believers) must pro-
vide the basis and direction for everything that the church (as an empirical
sociological reality) does here on earth. Inasmuch as strategic planning
involves a specific process it may well (and often does) go beyond the par-
ticular skills, experience, and training of the pastor. That is to say, it in-
volves activities in which lay people may be far more skilled, for strategic
planning is itself a process that has grown out of non-theological disci-
plines. So a pastor certainly has a vested interest in the outcome of strate-
gic planning and how it contributes to the proclamation of the Gospel among
the lost. On the other hand, it is a process and activity with which those in
the corporate world may have more experience and skills.
To be sure, a pastor can certainly go out and acquire the training and
skills necessary to lead a congregation through a process of strategic plan-
ning. But as he engages in that process, it should be recognized that he is
carrying out an activity that is not intrinsic to the pastoral office. That is
not to say that it is an unimportant activity by any means. But it belongs
to the bene esse (well-being) of the church and not to the esse (essence) of
the church. Thus it cannot simply be equated with the de jure divino ac-
tivities of the office by which the church as an assembly of believers is
built up. Instead, it provides the context, structures, and direction needed
for a congregation to use every resource and opportunity it has to bring
the Gospel to those living in unbelief.
The particular direction that a pastor takes in his ministry may de-
pend in part upon his first article gifts. Indeed, many of the tasks given to
a pastor are not rooted in the pastoral office itself, but are assigned on the
basis of an individual’s first article creaturely gifts. Some pastors are gifted
with a charismatic personality, an entrepreneurial spirit, organizational
abilities, and leadership abilities. These gifts and skills can be a tremen-
dous asset for a congregation. The downside is that they can overshadow
the Gospel or build a congregation upon the unique talents of the indi-
vidual.
At their best, pastors will develop and utilize their first article gifts to
serve the third article proclamation of the Gospel. For example, learning
The core of the pastoral office is the proclamation of the Gospel and
354
the administration of the Sacraments. With regard to the first, it involves
at the very least, preaching and teaching. He is responsible both for his
own teaching as well as the doctrinal content of all those who are engaged
in instruction within the congregation. The administration of the Sacra-
ments involves acting as gatekeeper in terms of those who are admitted as
well as the actual ministration of the Sacraments. Herein lies the core.
Now does this mean that only the pastor can teach? Or only the pastor can
administrate the Sacraments, especially to shut-ins? Does it mean that
only the pastor carries out hospital calls? After all, it is very possible that
the load of hospital and shut-in visits is beyond the scope of a single pastor,
or even several pastors, given the size of the congregation. Can these be
delegated to lay staff or elders without undermining the pastoral office?
The answer is yes and no.
Consider shut-in communions. The pastor’s task involves not only the
actual administration of Communion but also especially the matter of act-
ing as a gatekeeper. That is, he has the responsibility to determine who is
admitted to the table and who is not. It seems to me that a good solution is
to do the following. When the Lord’s Supper is celebrated in the congrega-
tion on Sunday, the pastor not only hands the elements to elders for distri-
bution to members who are present that morning, but he also hands the
elements to elders who immediately take them to shut-ins that very morn-
ing. In a sense, then, the entire congregation joins together in Commun-
ion, both those who are present and those who are homebound. But, if in
the course of distributing the elements to the homebound, the shut-in
reveals a particular spiritual problem that requires pastoral discernment
and care, then the elder has the responsibility of getting in touch with the
pastor who can then come and deal with that person.
Something similar can take place for the hospitalized. Trained lay
people can certainly visit the sick and offer a devotion or prayer. That it is
seen as an exclusively pastoral task is more a matter related to the cul-
ture of the congregation than the theology of the church. At the same
time, if the hospitalization involves a serious illness or the parishioner is
experiencing a spiritual crisis of some kind, the pastor must be notified
that he may administer care for the soul. People will want the pastor not
only because he is ordained, but also because as such he has more training
and experience in the care of souls than the average person.
We can use the example of a physician’s assistant. Very often, when I
am ill, my wife will call the doctor. She will not actually speak with him.
Instead, she speaks with the physician’s assistant to whom she describes
my symptoms. The physician’s assistant then phones in the appropriate
prescription to the pharmacy. Now that works as long as we are dealing
with such recurring things as allergies, flu, bronchitis, sore throats, etc.
Generally, my wife and I are okay with that. But if there is something
more serious going on, something out of the ordinary, then we want to
speak with (or see) the doctor himself. Why? Because he is the doctor. It is
Conclusion
Many of the challenges confronting the church lie within the horizon-
tal realm of life. The reason for this is that the Christian foundation that
shaped society for the last two millennia continues to crumble. For much
of that time, the church could rely on the wider society to support its
efforts and do much of its work. As Jim Bachman has noted, “We are living
through a painful transition from congregational dynamics governed by
what I call the ‘hidden hand familial and of ethnic social structure’ to
dynamics that are today much more in need of ‘visible hands’ to build,
shape, and guide our church communities. And how we... argue to build,
shape, and guide.” The same applies to the pastoral office. “The hidden
hand of ethnic social dynamics no longer constructively shapes and sup-
ports congregational life. Pastors and those who prepare them are scram-
bling to think through how pastors along with other congregational lead-
ers must be community creators, builders, and sustainers, as well as stew-
ards of the Word and Sacrament.”21
21
James Bachman, “The Communion of Saints: The Church’s Unique Contribution
to the Changing Moral Landscape,” Issues in Christian Education, 35: 2 (Fall 2001), 18-
19.
356
A Synthesis of Narratives:
Religious Undergraduate Students
Making Meaning in the Context
of a Secular University
Henry A. Corcoran
The Wizard’s words join the narrative evidence to cast a light upon the
fullness that came to each character. Yet the words require the story. In a
similar way, propositional theology must join Biblical narratives to cast a
light on what God intends for full human development. By itself, however,
systematic theology cannot do what is required. The Bible does not come
to us as a systematic theology text. Rather, alongside the material aimed
at the head, the Bible is full of stories, food for the whole person. I contend
that servants of the Word need to make use of Biblical narratives that lead
to life transformations. Narratives build minds and hearts.
While I do not recommend that narratives replace propositional forms
1
Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allen Woolf, “The Wizard of Oz (Cut-
ting Continuity Script taken from Printer’s Dupe),” transcribed Paul Rudoff (Metro-
Goldwyn-Meyer, 1939), retrieved March 1, 2006, from http://www.un-official.com/
The_Daily_Script/ms_wizoz.htm.
One interpreter of young adult faith, Colleen Carroll5 tells the story of
a young woman, “Liz Sperry.”6 In her teen years, Sperry centered her life
in a relationship with her boyfriend. When he told her of his conversion to
Christ, she paid serious attention. Later, as she read the Gospels and Paul’s
epistles, she became convinced of their spiritual depth and truth.
One night when reading the account of Jesus’ agony in the Garden of
Gethsemane, His prayer resonated with her fear and longing. Jesus wanted
to do the Father’s will, even as He faced the cost of obedience. She, too,
wanted God’s will, but “I was afraid that if I gave my life to God, I would
become a different person.”7
Carroll finishes the story:
“What I meant was, take my life from me and take it over,” Sperry
2
David Tracy argues for both in “A Plurality of Readers and a Possibility of a Shared
Vision” in The Bible and Its Readers, eds. W. Beuken, S. Freyne, and A. Weiler, (Philadel-
phia: Trinity Press International, 1991).
3
Please find a useful apology for narrative theology in Terrence Tilley’s Story Theol-
ogy (Collegeville, MN: Michael Glazier/The Liturgical Press, 1985).
4
Stephen Crites, “The Narrative Quality of Experience,” Journal of the American
Academy of Religion 39 (1971), 302.
5
Colleen Carroll, The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian
Orthodoxy (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2002).
6
As with all the life accounts in this essay, pseudonyms protect the research subjects.
And as with all the life accounts, their use certainly is not intended to position them as
perfect theological paradigms of the Christian life. Rather they serve as examples of
meaning-making efforts with the narrative materials and hermeneutical orientations
these meaning-makers had at hand.
7
Carroll, The New Faithful, 40.
358
said.
After she said the prayer, Sperry said, she felt an instant physical
change.
“I felt like there was something in me, running through me. I can
only describe it as electricity, or water. I’d never felt anything like
that before. I hadn’t felt that from any human being. That really
got my attention. I knew there was something to Christianity. And
I had this conviction that I would keep pursuing it, even apart
from my boyfriend.”8
They shed light on the point to be made. Their role was instru-
mental, typically subservient to some propositional content. The
stories were to make the abstract visual or concrete, and thus
more understandable.13
However, Nielsen points out a second use, “Stories also invite partici-
pation. They elicit emotion. People live in a narrative as it’s being told.”14
Narratives, and, in particular Biblical narratives, allow people imagina-
tively to “try on” a new life, a new community, a new worldview. The teach-
ing of Biblical narratives aimed at life transformations should become an
intentional activity in a Christian educator’s repertoire for individual, small
group, and congregational spiritual development.
360
direction. Third, for social constructivists, the structuring story performs
a moral-social function. By this, it establishes a form of government, en-
courages the development of certain virtues and discourages certain vices,
and fosters adherence to specific mores, laws, and rules. A core narrative,
finally, tends to a psychological function. Psychologically, it outlines ac-
ceptable social roles, role models for a well-lived life in that socio-cultural
context, and a personal orientation to integrate the various aspects of life.
One who follows these guidelines receives meaningful psychological sup-
port. These last two functions play such a significant role in the restorying
of lives. The socio-cultural context provides personal narrative orienta-
tions of morality and identity.
In our postmodern environment, where pluralities of cultures market
their various libraries of meanings, their depositories of stories, the church
holds resources to change lives. We broadcast Biblical narratives centered
in the great metanarrative of Christ Jesus. However, ours is not the only
narrative community. Members of other socio-cultural worlds urge people
to experience what life might be like in their world, what meaning might
be assigned to their life episodes. For instance, feminists tell stories rooted
in a core narrative of women experiencing transformation from the si-
lence of the oppressed to the confident assertions of the genuinely free.16
And from their library of stories, enacted in women’s studies courses and
narrated in their literature, feminists offer stories for “seekers” to dis-
cover meaning. These “seekers” imaginatively see if feminist stories align
with their own lives. On the other hand, from another point of view, seek-
ers may see if they can align their lives with the feminist defining narra-
tive.
“Seekers” describe those who have become dissatisfied with the way
they have thus far made meaning of their lives. Psychosocial theorists17
16
M. F. Belenky, B. Clinchy, N. R. Goldberger, and J. M. Tarule, Women’s Ways of
Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice and Mind (New York: Basic Books, 1986).
17
The use of psycho-social theories for a biblical and theological anthropology re-
quires some adaptation. James Loder, The Logic of the Spirit: Human Development in
Theological Perspective (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998) argues for a theological trans-
formation of the insights of human development theories. He uses an analogy of the
transformations required of the insights envisioned by Newtonian physics when Einstein’s
theories of special and general relativity reframe them. Just as Newtonian physics makes
legitimate but incomplete descriptions of the physical universe, so theories of human ego
development make legitimate but distorted descriptions of human growth. Loder offers a
Christological solution, the Chalcedonian model of the two natures of Christ as the
paradigm for relating theories of human development and theological perspectives on
human existence. Loder proposes, “Consistent with the Christomorphic character of this
methodology, theology and the human sciences will enter into a relationality that as-
sumes that theological categories have ontological priority over those in the human
sciences” (41, my emphasis). Loder’s suggestion remains a great improvement on the
priority granted developmental theories by other synthesizers (e.g., Whitehead and
Whitehead, Christian Life Patterns, 1979, 1997). However, I believe his perspective re-
quires further improvement. Christ’s cross and empty tomb must take their rightful and
central place as the re-creational message for a new humanity.
Pre-Stage—Undifferentiated Faith
The quality of the relationship with the primary caregiver lays the
foundation for the development of faith. From across a spectrum of rela-
tional possibilities from one pole of trust, courage, hope, and love to the
other of threats of abandonment, inconsistencies, and deprivations, to some
degree the caregiver deposits a fund of basic trust and mutuality. With the
acquisition of language, transition to stage one begins.
18
James W. Fowler, Faithful Change: The Personal and Public Challenges of
Postmodern Life (Nashville: Abingdon, 1996).
19
James W. Fowler (Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the
Quest for Meaning [New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1981]) describes his stages
(and transitions) as hierarchical, non-arbitrary, sequential, and progressive, each of which
integrates all preceding stages into its more advanced structure.
Fowler’s work has held up after years of critique and through interviews with hun-
dreds of subjects. While the theory remains robust, its weaknesses must also be consid-
ered. In my analysis, two weaknesses emerge. First, in common with all stage theories,
Fowler’s construct tends to obscure the continuities of the developing self. By focusing on
commonalities among various persons as they pass by developmental markers, Fowler
unintentionally obscures the self, the traveler, the continuing core of personality that
develops. Second, by focusing on a cross-cultural developmental model, the socio-cultural
influences on development are clouded. Regardless of its short-comings, Fowler’s theory
remains the most comprehensive and clearest lens for viewing development in meaning-
making.
20
Fowler defines faith in a manner consistent with Luther’s First Commandment
faith, “that to which your heart clings and entrusts itself,” whether the true God or an
idol. He focuses on the common cognitive structures of human meaning making regard-
less of their focus.
362
Stage Two—Mythic-Literal Faith
The individual begins to identify with the stories, beliefs, and obser-
vances of his or her community. Literal interpretation, reciprocal moral-
ity, and the narrative construction of coherence and meaning take center
stage in the individual’s thought life. Reflection is unknown. Transition to
the next developmental stage occurs because contradictions within stories
lead to reflection on meanings. The seeker moves toward a method of
thinking that might resolve these tensions.
The person has “tasted the sacrament of defeat” and knows in inti-
mate terms the reality of irrevocable commitments and actions. The bound-
aries of the self become porous and permeable, thus inviting alternative
views to enter into the self ’s world. Conjunctive faith has the capacity for
“ironic imagination,” being able to understand and release the most pow-
21
Fowler, Faithful Change, 72.
22
I take up the challenge that Alan Jacobs recently issued in “What Narrative The-
ology Forgot,” First Things 135 (Aug/Sep 2003), 25-30, with this question: “How can the
Church bridge this gap between the Christian metanarrative and our own individual life
stories in such a way that all accounts are faithful to each other and to God?” (30)
23
C. L. Anderson, “How Can My Faith Be So Different?’ The Emergence of Religious
Identity in College Women” (Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1995); L. L. Newman, “Faith
and Freshmen: A Qualitative Analysis of Faith Development of Traditional First-year
Students at a Baptist Institution” (Ph.D. diss., University of Louisville, 1998); M. W.
Cannister, “Mentoring and the Spiritual Well-being of Late Adolescents,” Adolescence 34
(1999): 769-779; C. A. Wells, “Epiphanies of Faith within the Academy: A Narrative Study
of the Dynamics of Faith with Undergraduate Students Involved in InterVarsity Chris-
tian Fellowship” (Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 2003); M. E. Sanderl, “Catholic Iden-
tity and Lasallian Culture in Higher Education: The Contributions of Campus Ministry”
364
peer groups.24 Transition to the next stage most often comes through an
encounter with alternative viewpoints that leads to critical reflection on
the relative strength of the viewpoint of one’s own reference group. Those
encounters force the person to look for different narrative materials to
account for the new experiences. One researcher tells the story of “Talitha.”
She related her experience of an encounter with an instructor in her fresh-
man Philosophy in Society course. She wrote a term paper on abortion
and took a pro-life stance. When she received the paper back with a low
grade, she met with the instructor:
And she is like, “Um, well, oh, see, well.” She couldn’t give me an
answer, she’s like, “Oh, um, you didn’t have enough -um- argu-
ment.”
And [I’m] like, “Pages seven through nine are examples,” and, “What
more do you want?”
And I’m like showing everything to her that she’s saying, and she
kind of got all upset, and crossed out the D- and gave me a B-. [she
laughs] Yeah, so it is a good movement, but, she graded me down
based on my point of view. She had nothing to back up her reason
why I got such a low grade except for the fact that she didn’t like
my pro-life choice.25
Differences also come in the package of peer relations. This is not the
benign experience of the “different.” Rather it is a being different that draws
opposition. Wells referred to this theme of the university experience as
(Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 2003); T. L. Wilson, “Religious Faith Development in
White, Christian, Undergraduate Students Involved in Religious Student Organizations”
(Ph.D. diss., University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004).
24
Anderson; Newman; E. S. Mankowski and E. Thomas, “The Relationship between
Personal and Collective Identity: A Narrative Analysis of a Campus Ministry Commu-
nity,” Journal of Community Psychology 28 (2000):517-528; L. M. Feeneberg, “The Na-
ture of the Development of Students’ Spirituality at a Private, Jesuit University” (Ph.D.
diss., Saint Louis University, 2003).
25
Henry Corcoran, “Undergraduate Student Development in Meaning-making within
the Context of a Research University: An Examination of a University, a Roman Catholic
Student Religious Organization and Individual Student Meaning-Makers” (Ph.D. diss.,
University of Denver, 2007), my emphasis.
26
Fowler, Faithful Change, 72-74.
27
Ibid., 73.
28
In fact, orthodox Christian theology claims to understand the underlying structure
of reality and insists that faith as trust in Christ corresponds to and aligns with that
structure (See R. Bultmann’s discussion the underlying structure of reality in the Theol-
ogy of the New Testament, Vol. II, NY: Scribner, 1955, 3-92), and R. W. Jenson, “Can We
Have a Story?” First Things, No. 101, March 2000: 16-17).
366
place spiritually.” One of his religion classes in particular, Jesus
and the New Testament, moved him beyond IVF. “The course got
me to thinking about the historical Jesus and the different agen-
das in the New Testament. It added to my confusion but forced me
to open my perspective wider.”29
With the challenge to examine her life, two things became clear to Renee,
namely, that the Christian life means personal development and that “I
wanted people to recognize that I’m a Christian, and I wanted to not be
ashamed of it.”32
As the cultural shift from modernism to postmodernism became ap-
29
Conrad Cherry, “North College,” in Religion on Campus (ed.) Conrad Cherry
(Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press), 243-244.
30
Fowler, Faithful Change, 74.
31
Wells, “Epiphanies of Faith within the Academy,” 127-128.
32
Ibid., 128.
33
James W. Fowler, Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian: Adult Development and
Christian Faith (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000).
34
Ibid.
368
the Biblical narratives that form and re-form the community. This
interactivity of Biblical content and the gathered establishes colonies, spe-
cific and local incarnational representations of the kingdom of Christ.35
Where two gather in Jesus’ name, the colony can be found. The servant of
the Word, as representative of God’s community, can offer two dimensions
of personal mentoring ministry: support and challenge.36
Support recognizes “in practical terms the promise and vulnerability”
of the seeker.37 It requires telling the Christ narrative of hope and the
offer of emotional support and reasoned refutations of the alternative de-
fining narratives. Challenge, the other dimension of mentoring, calls for
the “practice of a kind of tough love.”38 As Colleen Carroll observes, “Young
adults are attracted to the time-tested teachings of Christianity because
they contradict the ‘wishy-washy’ mind-set of moral and religious relativ-
ism” that pervades a typical secular campus.39 Mentors must boldly de-
clare Christ; call for faith; and seek obedience, commitment, courage, and
sacrifice that issue from a living faith in Christ Jesus, that is, faithfulness
to the core narrative. From the servant of the Word, students find support
and challenge, the two conditions necessary for development of heads and
hearts.
For the seeker, Fowler’s second strand of meaning from the commu-
nity invites participation in and identification with the core narrative.40
How might Biblical narratives contribute to change? How may they work?
The Biblical narratives invite the hearers to participate in the sacred story,
the shared core narrative. Gerhard Forde describes in the person of Saul,
the persecutor of the church, how humans are drawn into this story world:
What Forde makes concrete in the life of the persecutor-apostle, God in-
tends for all—that all humans would enter into the narrative of Christ
Jesus and at each stage would re-enter the narrative from that new place
in the developmental continuum.
35
See Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon’s thorough and challenging dis-
cussion of Christian community in Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony (Nash-
ville: Abingdon, 1989).
36
Sharon Parks, Big Questions, Worthy Dreams: Mentoring Young Adults in Their
Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Faith (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000).
37
Ibid., 129.
38
Ibid., 130.
39
Carroll, The New Faithful, 40.
40
Fowler, Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian, 93.
41
Gerhard Forde, Theology is for Proclamation (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990), 75.
370
The church as colony means that God has transplanted the divine culture
on this planet through the Word. The culture of the colony expresses the
mutual, interdependent, sacrificial love of the triune God through the colo-
nists’ lives. Hauerwas and Willimon continue:
They employ the colony image to convey what Jesus announced as the
“kingdom of God” what Peter referred to as “a chosen race, a royal priest-
hood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession;” and what Paul
depicted as “God’s household.” In part, each of these metaphors asserts
the nature of church as a culture in contrast to, or even in competition
with, the surrounding culture(s). God’s grace characterizes the church alone.
Finally, in the fifth meaning strand, Fowler explains that the commu-
nity fosters in the individual a sense of personal mission, a vocation of
life.48 The person formed by association with a community that has been
constituted by the core Christ narrative participates in the meanings that
“ride” the narrative. Therefore, community as the carrier of Biblical nar-
rative helped Renee. Elaine, her Biblical mentor, “embodied” the narra-
tive. Renee identified with it and moved through the meaning strands
toward a vocation of life in which God moved out of the box into the center
of her life—where she transitioned from the place of her faith as a distinct
part of her life into an her identity en Christo.
The core narrative and the multitude of Biblical narratives that flow
from and to this central Christological metanarrative may also provide
insight for a student into his/her experience of the alienation from a reli-
giously and morally “compromised” socio-cultural world of the university,
being set apart. They offer a way of negotiating the painful separations
from peers caused by the students’ unwillingness to partake in “forbidden”
activities. They explain how even brilliant professors can and will share in
distorted perceptions of reality, because they, too, partake in human rebel-
lion against God. The narratives resonate with the students’ inner sense
of alienation, feelings of guilt and shame, dread and despair. The narra-
tives also provide connection to God, thus guaranteeing significance to the
community members’ lives. Mediated through the religious community
and spiritual mentors as embodiments of and communicators of the Bibli-
cal socio-cultural world, the various Biblical narratives incorporate the
seeker into the Biblical colony. For seeking students, the narratives invite
participation into a Biblical meaning for their experiences. Biblical narra-
47
Hauerwas and Willimon, Resident Aliens, 12.
48
Fowler, Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian, 94.
Conclusion
49
G. Comstock, “Two Types of Narrative Theology,” Journal of the American Acad-
emy of Religion 55, (1987): 690.
50
Ibid., my emphasis.
51
J. C. Hoffman, Law, Freedom, and Story: The Role of Narrative in Therapy, Society,
and Faith (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1986), 10. See also S.
McFague, Speaking in Parables: A Study in Metaphor and Theology (Philadelphia: For-
tress, 1975) and Metaphorical Theology: Models of God in Religious Language (Philadel-
phia: Fortress, 1982); J. D. Crossan, The Dark Interval (Niles, IL: Argus Communications,
1975) and Raid on the Articulate (New York: Harper & Row, 1976); and M. Goldberg,
Theology and Narrative: A Critical Introduction (Philadelphia: Trinity Press Interna-
tional, 1991).
52
Daniel Levinson, Seasons of a Woman’s Life, (New York: Knopf, 1996).
53
H. Frei, The Identity of Jesus Christ: The Hermeneutical Bases of Dogmatic The-
ology (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975), 143, my emphasis. See also Frei, “Theological Reflec-
tions on the Accounts of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection,” Christian Scholar 49 (1966):
263-306, and “‘Narrative’ in Christian and Modern Reading,” in B. D. Marshall, ed., The-
ology and Dialogue: Essays in Conversation with George Lindbeck (Notre Dame: Uni-
versity of Notre Dame Press, 1990), 149-163; and D. Tracy, “Narrative and Symbol: Key
to New Testament Spiritualities,” in Scripture Today: Handling the Word Rightly, D. R.
McDonald ed., (Wilton, CT: Morehouse-Barlow Co. Inc, 1980), 71-87, and “Theological
Interpretation of the Scriptures in the Church: Prospect and Retrospect,” in R. McQ.
Grant, & D. Tracy eds., A Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible (Philadelphia:
Fortress, 1984), 181-187.
372
genuine moral emancipation that “requires a critical distance on oneself
provided by God and cultivated through discipline and new skills that fit
one for a more noble and refined life.”54 Still other thinkers view its trans-
formational potential more generically in terms of providing meaning for
life.55
Yet another group of theologians believes that narrative arose to meet
a didactic need as the means by which the neophyte learns how to feel, act,
and think in conformity with a tradition’s inner dynamics that are far
richer and more subtle than simple propositional language can convey. It
is through “the dangerous memory of Jesus”56 that the possibilities of a
well-lived life take form. Therefore, the tradition seeks to replicate the life
of the Nazarene within each member of the Christian community.
Narrative’s communal and ethical dimensions take center stage for them.57
Beyond initial socialization into the Christian faith, one theologian
asserts that seekers in different positions along the developmental trajec-
tory may require different types of narrative materials. Intriguingly, Paul
N. Anderson argues that the author of the Gospel of John offers a
Christological perspective that is characterized by a dialectic of paradox, a
perspective consistent with Fowler’s conjunctive faith.58 Anderson’s thesis
would support the hypothesis that persons at different positions along the
developmental continuum may require different types of Biblical narra-
tives for their formation or re-formation. Evaluation of that hypothesis
requires more study of how persons at different points along the develop-
mental trajectory actually use the Biblical resources for the restorying of
their lives.
All of these theologians, with their various proposals, struggle with
the fact that one of the Bible’s dominant literary forms, narrative, must
serve genuine life transformative purposes. I have proposed that personal
life restorying in the context of the church may well be a major divine
purpose for “incarnating” much of the Bible in narrative form.
Biblical narratives transform lives. They offer narrative resources for
the restorying of lives. Narratives provide an underlying structure for the
54
Ellen Charry, “The Crisis of Modernity and the Christian Self,” Miroslav Volf, ed.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998): 93.
55
Walter Wink, The Bible in Human Transformation (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1973);
S. Crites, “The Narrative Quality of Experience,” Journal of the American Academy of
Religion 39 (1971); D. Tracy, “Narrative and Symbol: Key to New Testament Spirituali-
ties,” Scripture Today (1980).
56
Tracy, “Narrative and Symbol,” (1980), 75.
57
George A. Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in the
Postliberal Age (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1984); S. Hauerwas, Character
and the Christian Life: A Study in Theological Ethics (San Antonio, TX: Trinity Univer-
sity Press, 1975); Hauerwas & Willimon, 1989; Tracy, 1980.
58
Paul N. Anderson, Christology of the Fourth Gospel: Its Unity and Disunity in the
Light of John 6, (Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1996) 142-151.
374
Justified by Works
and Not by Faith Alone:
Reconciling Paul and James
David R. Maxwell
“You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone”
(James 2:24). This is the distressing conclusion that James draws from
Genesis 15:6, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righ-
teousness,”1 a conclusion which seems to contradict what Paul teaches
about justification, especially when one considers that Paul cites the same
verse (Gen. 15:6) and concludes, “To the one who does not work but be-
lieves in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righ-
teousness” (Rom. 4:5). How can two inspired authors draw opposite con-
clusions from the same verse?
If my experience listening to LCMS sermons and attending Bible classes
is at all representative of what goes on in our churches, then the standard
Missouri Synod solution to this apparent difficulty is that Paul and James
do not contradict each other because they do not mean the same thing by
“faith.” The point is well taken, as far as it goes. The faith of demons
(James 2:19), after all, can hardly be the same as that faith which is cred-
ited to Abraham as righteousness. But this solution is ultimately inad-
equate because it leaves one important question unanswered: What does
James mean by “a person is justified by works” (evx e;rgwn dikaiou/tai) (James
2:24)?
Bible commentaries take two main approaches to this question. Some
simply assume that Paul and James contradict each other.2 Others recon-
cile Paul and James by showing that they use “justify” (dikaio,w) in two
different senses.3 I will take the latter approach, but I will go beyond what
the commentaries say by bringing evidence from Clement of Rome to cor-
1
Biblical citations are taken from the NIV but are slightly altered to translate dikaio,w
and e;rgon more consistently.
2
Burton Scott Easton, The Epistle of James, The Interpreter’s Bible, (New York:
Abingdon, 1957), 45; Martin Dibelius, A Commentary on the Epistle of James, trans.
Michael A. Williams, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976), 165; Sophie Laws, The
Epistle of James, Black’s New Testament Commentary (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson,
1980), 132.
3
Bo Reicke, The Epistles of James, Peter, and Jude, The Anchor Bible 37 (New York:
Doubleday, 1964), 34; Peter H. Davids, The Epistle of James, The New International
Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 132; David P. Scaer,
James: The Apostle of Faith (Saint Louis: CPH, 1994), 93; Luke Timothy Johnson, The
Letter of James, The Anchor Bible 37A (New York: Doubleday, 1995), 242; Kurt A.
Richardson, James, The New American Commentary 36 (Broadman & Holman, 1997),
140-141; Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James, The Pillar New Testament Commentary
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 141.
4
Moo objects that the justification occurs on the Last Day, not when Abraham offers
Isaac (The Letter of James, 135, 141). I agree that what James means by “justify” does
occur on the Last Day, but I think it is the same sort of thing we see in Genesis 22.
376
by his works, while the one making an idle claim to faith is shown to be a
fraud. In Romans, the contrast is between works and faith, while in James
the contrast is between works and words.
The example of Abraham functions as an illustration of what James
means by “justification.” Consistent with his contention in 2:18 that faith
shows itself in works, James does not focus on the point at which righ-
teousness is credited to Abraham. He turns instead to the point at which
Abraham’s faith is shown and asserts that Abraham is justified when he
offers Isaac on the altar (James 2:21). That this act reveals Abraham’s
faith is clear already in the Old Testament, for at that moment, the Angel
of the LORD cries out, “Now I know that you fear God” (Gen. 22:12).
Of those commentators who identify two different senses of “justify”
(dikaio,w), not all of them understand James the way I have outlined. Some
argue, as I have, that James uses “justify” (dikaio,w) to mean “show to be
righteous.”5 Douglas Moo, however, rejects this reading because “show to
be righteous” is not a very common meaning of the word.6 Moo holds that
Paul uses “justify” to refer to “the initial declaration of a sinner’s inno-
cence before God,” while James uses it to refer to “the ultimate verdict of
innocence pronounced over a person at the last judgment.”7 The end re-
sult of Moo’s view is that judgment is ultimately on the basis of works.
My argument, however, is that “justify” (dikaio,w) means “show to be
righteous” in those contexts where the contrast is between works and
words, not works and faith. Thus, even if Moo is right that “show to be
righteous” is not a common meaning of “justify” (dikaio,w), one would still
expect to find this meaning wherever works are contrasted with words. To
show how “justify” (dikaio,w) shifts between the two meanings, I offer two
examples from Clement of Rome (d. c. 97). These examples are important
not only because they come from an early church father from the next
generation after the apostles, but because both meanings can be found in
the same author within two pages of each other in contexts which re-
semble those of Paul and James.8
In the first example, Clement tells his readers, “[Let us] be justified
(dikaioume,noi) by deeds, not words.”9 This statement occurs in the context
of an exhortation to humility in which Clement urges people not to boast,
5
Davids, 321; Johnson, 242; Scaer, 93.
6
Moo, 135. Note, however, that Johnson provides other examples in Scripture where
justify means “show to be righteous”: Matt. 11:19; 12:37; 1 Cor. 4:4 (Johnson, 242). Of
these texts, at least Matt. 11:19 does not seem to admit of any other interpretation.
7
Moo, 141. Reicke comes to this conclusion as well (34). Scaer also holds that “justi-
fication” in James is an eschatological event, but for Scaer, this eschatological event is a
demonstration to the world of the righteousness Abraham received by faith, not the basis
for the final judgment (93).
8
I am appealing to Clement for lexical data about the meaning of dikaio,w. I am not
claiming that Clement holds to what Lutherans would recognize as “justification by faith
alone,” though elements of that doctrine are certainly present in Clement.
9
1 Clement 30.3 in Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, trans. Kirsopp Lake, Loeb Classical
Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985).
We who by his will have been called in Christ Jesus, are not justi-
fied (dikaiou,meqa) by ourselves, or by our wisdom or understanding
or piety or the deeds which we have wrought in holiness of heart,
but through faith by which Almighty God has justified all men
from the beginning of the world.11
10
1 Clement 38.2.
11
1 Clement 32.4.
378
Grammarian’s Corner
Participles, Part VI
2. Mark 1:16a: kai. para,gwn para. th.n qa,lassan th/j Galilai/aj ei=den
Si,mwna kai. A
v ndre,an....
4. Matthew 26:47: kai. e;ti auvtou/ lalou/ntoj ivdou. Iv ou,daj ei=j tw/n
dw,deka h=lqen
qen.... (And while he was still speaking, behold, Judas,
one of the twelve, came....)
6. Luke 9:16a: labw.n de. tou.j pe,nte a;rtouj kai. tou.j du,o ivcqu,aj
euvlo,ghsen auvtou.j.... (And after he had taken the five loaves of
...euv
bread and the two fish...he blessed them....)
avpollume,noij
7. 1 Corinthians 1:16: o` lo,goj ga.r o` tou/ staurou/ toi/j...av
mwri,a evstin
tin.... (For the word of the cross is foolishness to the ones
who are perishing....).
Yet, there are critical problems with the analysis just offered, prob-
lems that suggest that the “cheap, quick, and dirty” explanation is not the
final word, and to these we will turn in our next GC installment.
1
It is for this reason that the so-called “schoolboy’s translation” of the aorist participle
as “having…” works reasonably well much of the time.
2
Note the translation of the present tense form as in the past, when indirect or
reported discourse is in a secondary (i.e., after a past tense main verb) sequence. This
feature of Greek will be the subject of a future GC contribution.
380
Homiletical Helps on LSB Series C—Old Testament/A
—Epistles
At the outset of our inquiry, it would be well to be satisfied with what the Bible
382
How so They Stand?
Who are these in John’s vision? And who is numbered among them? They are
the saints, that entire parade of believers from Old Testament times, believers in
New Testament times, the Christians, those martyrs, the great missionaries, the
Reformers, and those Christians who were our families and our friends. The power
of Jesus the Lord, crucified and risen again, has brought them there. They were not
left in some lonely grave. In death, they were on their way home. Yes, it is a home-
coming for they who are gathering before God and with the Lamb. Every time one
whom we have loved and with whom we have walked the pathways of life departs,
goes forward, and leaves us standing here, our hearts naturally press for answers.
We ask, “What has happened to them? Where are they now? What does this expe-
rience mean to them?” What it means to us we already know too well. For us, it is
an experience of sorrow, loss and bereavement.
In Psalm 116, the writer shocks us when he exclaims in the fifteenth verse,
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Of all the words we
might ever have used to describe the experience of death, the word “precious” is
probably the last one that would have come to our minds. The passing of our loved
ones is anything but precious to us who remain here. But the psalmist, by faith,
saw the other side. He saw God’s great heart of love, longing and yearning for the
homecoming of one of His redeemed children. We see the home-leaving, the going
away, but with the instrument of faith the psalmist saw the homecoming. We see
the loss; he saw the gain. We see the separation and the bereavement; he saw the
joy and the reunion. We said the “good night” here; he heard the “good morning”
there.
Long ago someone reflected on the experience which we call death,
and spoke of it in these words:
A nice story, perhaps, but truly lacking because so much more is said in this
Book of Revelation about our loved ones who died in their faith in the Lord. In
John’s vision, see how they appear before God, standing confident in white robes.
Yes, standing confident, for they surely belong there, robes washed of every stain
and tarnish of sin in the blood of the Lamb who took away the sin of the world.
There is no blemish in them, no sin, no mark or defect in character. They are
beautiful people. And in their hands, says St. John, they hold palm branches. Yes,
the saints, according to St. John’s vision, wave palm branches in their hands to
There is much happiness over the saints in heaven, but are they happy, are
they blessed? That is what we want to know most of all. According to what he saw
in that vision, St. John reports that in heaven they hunger no more, neither thirst.
The Lamb in the midst of the throne is their Shepherd. He who came once to bring
life abundantly will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away
every tear from their eyes (Rev. 7:15-17). These expressions are rich and full of
meaning. The saints, well cared for, sheltered by the presence of God, are secure.
The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat—symbols of the hardships,
pain, and affliction that come to believers in this world. None of these sufferings
afflict the saints in glory. Secure, sheltered, cared for, singing praises, serving God
day and night—what is your estimate of their happiness? Do you think that the
saints in heaven ever read the headlines we must read? Do you think that they ever
see the violence and the brutality and the pain portrayed before our eyes one
newscast after another? Do they ever worry about the averages catching up with
them, that one day, serious trouble will befall them? Do they ever feel a twitch of
pain? Do you think that they are ever sad? The saints who have come from great
tribulation now live the victory of those words in Luther’s battle hymn of the Refor-
mation, “And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, let these all be gone,
they yet have nothing won; the Kingdom ours remaineth!”
But a more urgent question lingers: is there any way we may fellowship with
the saints while we remain here on earth? Someone answered that question this
way: faith unites us, and does so even though we are very much conscious of the
great divide between time and death. There is a bond that draws us close to them,
and that bond is our common Lord Jesus Christ. O, we wish to be near the saints,
the loved ones we yet cherish in love. We are homesick for them. To hear their
voices, to know again the touch of their hands, to be in their presence, sitting across
a table, to step out and share life with them—what we would give for just one day
with our loved ones! How we would plan the day, and fill that day with important
and delightful ventures. We would have much catching up to do, so many things to
tell and to share.
Such longing on our part draws us to the place of their rest, to the graveyard, to
the cemetery. But, do you know, if we wish to be close and near to our loved ones who
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died in the Lord, the place is not the cemetery, where only their physical remains lie
at rest. The place to have communion with them, to be close, is here, near to the
Lord at the Lord’s Table. The Holy Communion of the Lord is the Sacrament that
links us to Him and to the saints who celebrate and praise Him. The text in
Revelation tells us that the Lamb is in the midst of the throne, and He is their
Shepherd, caring for them in every way. Today, this same Lamb is truly present
here, the Lamb of God, who gives us heavenly food, His very Body and Blood to-
gether with the bread and the wine, for the cleansing of our robes, cleansing from
the marks and tarnishes of sin. With Him, we have closeness of fellowship and
unity with our departed loved ones who are so beautifully cared for and protected in
Him and His presence in heaven. Let us be at this table without fail! Partaking of
Christ and His strength and life, let us be busy serving Him as do the saints,
serving our blessed Lord through the remainder of our lives. It is like getting an
early start, and joyfully so, before our coronation with them in glory.
Conclusion
Is it well with our departed loved ones? A marquee on a church lawn reads,
“Faith is trusting God even when questions go unanswered.” Some things, yes,
many things, we do not comprehend nor understand. From that same cemetery in
the Old City of Jerusalem, there yet is another epitaph on the tombstone of an-
other British soldier who fell as a member of those Palestine Police, again a lad 27
years old. It reads and expresses what we are feeling this All Saints Day about our
loved ones: “We’ll meet again at God’s right hand and then we’ll understand!”
Amen
Richard H. Warneck
The preceding context: Exodus 1 describes the brutal oppression of God’s people
as slaves in Egypt. The second chapter introduces Moses—his birth, adoption,
flight to Midian, and marriage. The final verses of chapter two, however, return to
the theme of Israel’s suffering in Egypt. Their groaning and crying become prayers
to God, and the chapter ends: “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered
his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God saw the sons of
Israel. And God knew” (Ex. 2:24-25). The fourfold repetition of “God” as subject
along with these verbs of attentiveness and empathy create a strong sense of
anticipation in the narrative. All eyes are on the God of Abraham. Certainly He
will not leave His people in such suffering.
Textual observations: As Exodus 3 shifts the scene back to Moses in Midian,
the pericope is peppered with one verbal root: “see” (har). As Moses leads the flock,
the angel of Yahweh appears (Niphal of har) to Moses in a fiery flame (v. 2). Then
Moses turns aside to see (har) this great sight (a noun form of har, v. 3). Yahweh sees
Here is an emphatic double use of “see” (har), with the Infinitive Absolute
acting as an intensifier. The final two words of this clause form a sound pair,
heightening the emphasis on this line, and verse 7 continues, “…and I have heard
([mv) their cries from before their slave-drivers; indeed, I know ([dy) their suffer-
ings.” All of this contributes to a strong picture of an engaged, watchful, empathic
God, moved by His people’s sufferings and struggles.
God’s watchfulness is not idle; it flows into a promise of action in verse 8: “I
will descend to rescue them from the hand of Egypt and to bring them up from that
land to a good and spacious land, flowing with milk and honey….”
In verse 10, God announces Moses’ role in His saving plan. While Moses regis-
ters his objection (“Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh?”), Exodus 3:1-15 should
not be preached as the “Hesitant Moses” pericope. That theme emerges clearly in
the next chapter. Here, God’s reply maintains a theocentric focus: “I will be (hy<ha. ,)
with you” (v. 12).
Moses’ hypothetical question “What is His name?” (v. 13) and God’s conclusive
“This is my name forever” (v. 15) bracket the final section of the narrative. In
between, God declares Himself as “I am who I am” (hy<ha. (, rv,a] hy<ha. ,) and connects this
with the divine name Yahweh. Rather than waxing philosophical on “the I Am,” it
may be best to trace this “name” back through the hy<ha. , of verse 12 (“I will be with
you”) to the concrete self-description of God in verses 6-11, especially to all of the
first-person verbs. To these could be added the “I will certainly visit you” of verse
16. Who is this God? He is the God who has remembered His covenant with Abraham,
who has surely seen, heard, and known the sufferings of the people, and who is
about to come down, deliver them, bring them up to a good land—He will be with
them. This is the essence of the name “Yahweh.”
The Exodus context: The narrative is one of three fiery scenes in Exodus: the
burning bush (Ex. 3), the fire on Sinai (Ex. 20), and the fire of God’s glory-presence
in the Tabernacle (Ex. 40: 34, 38). All three scenes include not only fire, but also an
emphasis on holiness and the question of access/approach. Together, they frame
one of Exodus’ great themes: “Exodus cannot be described simply as the book of the
holiness of the Lord, nor simply as the book of the presence of the Lord, but as the
book of the holy God present in all his holiness at the heart of the people’s life, their
provident saviour and friend, who makes provision whereby they, in all their un-
worthiness, may live safely with him” (J.A. Motyer, The Message of Exodus, 25).
The episode of the golden calf and the ensuing conversation between Moses
and Yahweh (Ex. 32-34) is also a key text in developing this theme. How can God go
about with a stiff-necked and unfaithful people? God’s answer to this dilemma
flows from His mercy (Ex. 34:6-7) and will be manifested in the tabernacle, its
priests, its altar, and its sacrifices.
The burning bush account in Exodus 3 serves to introduce the problem and
highlights the character of God which creates the dilemma in the first place. God in
His fiery holiness cannot be approached by sinners. Yet God in His compassion,
His will to save, and His desire to be with His people cannot remain far off! In
drawing Moses near, even as He warns him about approaching, God reveals in
microcosm His seeing, calling, and being with the sons of Israel…and us.
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Christ and the Burning Bush: In the fullness of time, the Angel of the Lord
came down from heaven clothed not in flame but in flesh. He called prostitutes and
priests alike to follow him. His eyes looked upon the beggars, the blind, the lep-
rous, the demon-possessed, the desperate; He listened to their cries; He knew their
pains. In fact, no one on earth has known the pain of humanity like the Angel of the
Lord. From the mount of the burning bush he declared: “I know their sufferings”
(Ex. 3:7). Yet from the mount of the Cross, He declares: “I know your sufferings, for
I myself have borne them.”
Peter writes: “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the
unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” Jesus knows our pains. He has come
down to deliver us. He has brought us to God. Already, we draw near and worship
Him acceptably, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire (Heb.
12:28-29).
One day soon, the light and momentary sufferings of this life will be laid aside.
Jesus will come. He will gather us from the ends of the earth and bring us into the
presence of God and of the Lamb. He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
And we will not hide our eyes, but we will lift up our heads in joy and look upon the
face of God.
Suggested Outline:
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“the sun of righteousness” certainly identifies Jesus as the sinless Son of God who
will bring us true righteousness through faith in His redemptive work on the cross.
“You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall” suggests the new sympathy
that will exist between man and nature–a return to the perfect harmony prior to
the fall. The new harmony between father and children, or parent and child, will
bring to an end the disharmony that began immediately with the fall when Adam
blamed Eve for his sin (I cannot imagine a wife becoming more irate and upset
with her husband than when Adam blames Eve for leading the world into sin) and
when Cain kills his brother. The text ends with the threat of complete destruction
hanging over the human race if they do not repent and return to God through the
work of the promised Messiah.
Suggested outline:
I. Creation.
A. The original creation was a perfect paradise in which universal harmony
prevailed.
B. The new heaven and earth will be even better than their original manifes-
tation in that sin will not be allowed to recur.
II. Sin and its punishment.
A. Punishments were meted out to Adam, Eve, and the entire created order.
B. The world is still under God’s judgment and we experience those punish-
ments every day of our lives.
III. The promise and coming of a Savior.
A. Malachi and the people of the Old Testament lived in anticipation of the
Messiah.
B. We live and will soon rejoice in the certainty of Christ’s advent and the
completion of His redemptive work, which prepares the way for God’s
bringing into existence a new heaven and earth.
Quentin F. Wesselschmidt
We live in a world that does not seem fair. The world is not fair. Only the Lord
God of Sabaoth is fair and just. We see many unbelievers, or those who want to
serve both God and the flesh, reap great financial and social rewards. I have heard
many Christians say, “It just doesn’t seem fair. They mock and spurn God and yet
they come away with the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.” And so, we rail
against God at His seemingly unjust approach to those who serve Him. Those who
do evil in the sight of the Lord appear to prosper, while those who serve Him
struggle from paycheck to paycheck. How can anyone reconcile this apparent injus-
tice? God in Christ is the only one on whom we rely for His justice. By His grace, we
know that on the last great Day of Judgment, we will see Him separate the wicked
from those who serve God. God is a just God. God’s justice is not blind.
Outline:
Conclusion: We live in a world that does not seem fair and just to those who by
blood, sweat, and tears continue to live from paycheck to paycheck. The saying
goes: “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” Where is justice to be found? It is
found in Christ Jesus, who came to seek and to save all sinners from sin, death,
and the power of the devil. His justice is not blind. His justice is fair and just to all.
He will judge all persons by their deeds. Those who live a hedonistic, arrogant life
style, seeking to ‘have their cake and eat it too,’ will be separated from those who by
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faith alone live the life of Christ in this world. Do not despair and wonder why good
things happen to wicked people. God is not mocked. God is a just God. This we know
because He is True God and True Man.
Robert W. Weise
Advent 1
Romans 13: (8-10) 11-14
December 2, 2007
Comments on the text: 1. Two factors mentioned in the text prompt the unique
Christian behavior called for in the text. The one is a command: “Owe no man any
thing, but to love one another” (v. 8). The other is a promise: “Now is our salvation
nearer” (v. 11). The debt of love we owe our neighbor and the imminence of our full
salvation attendant upon the second coming of Jesus deserve from us everyday
conduct appropriate to these phenomena.
2. The dominant metaphor in verses 11-14 is that of time, more specifically
day and night images: “knowing the time,” “it is high time,” “awake out of sleep,”
“now is our salvation nearer,” “the night is far spent,” “the day is at hand,” “cast off
the works of darkness,” and “walk honestly as in the day.” Even the clothing meta-
phors, “put on the armour of light” and “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,” are
consistent with these day and night images since getting dressed is an activity we
associate with waking up from a night’s sleep and getting up for a day’s activity.
3. The day versus night images in this text are useful in providing a fuller
picture of evil. Evil is something we need to awaken from as well as refrain from.
Evil can be passive as well as active. Evil consists of lethargy in respect to good as
well as occupation in respect to evil. Evil is a condition with which we are afflicted,
not just an activity into which we enter. Evil is inside us, not only outside us.
4. The King James rendition, “chambering” (v. 13), is more clearly translated
as “adultery” or “immorality” in modern versions. Yet the archaic expression “cham-
bering” is more specific and more picturesque, depicting not merely the act of
immorality but also its frequent locale—the bed chamber. “Chambering” is an
instance of metonymy, one thing (the location) calling to mind another thing (the
activity) too often associated with it.
5. We recognize in the ear-filling catalog of sins in verse 13 a familiar distinc-
tion: sins of the flesh (“rioting,” “drunkenness,” “chambering,” “wantonness”) ver-
sus sins of the disposition (“strife” and “envying”). Society—at least respectable
society (such as church members)—tends to regard the former as worse than the
latter. Whereas society often condemns, ostracizes, banishes, arrests, jails, and
punishes those who commit sins of the flesh, it often tolerates, associates with, or
even welcomes those guilty of sins of the disposition. But Paul pulls no punches. He
calls both kinds of sin “works of darkness.” With God there is no distinction. He
who hates his brother is a murderer as well as the person who kills his brother (1
John 3:15). He who lusts for a woman in his heart is an adulterer as well as the
person who seduces her (Matt. 5:28). None of us, therefore, can escape the scathing
indictment of our text.
6. The garment metaphor of verse 14, “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,” subtly
suggests that the cure for evil behavior and the power for good behavior lie not in
ourselves but in Christ. Refraining from evil and performing good are not the
products of human resolution and human will power. Virtue is not of our own
I. Recognize that our full and completed salvation attendant upon Christ’s sec-
ond coming is nearer (v. 11).
II. Recognize that so near and so great a salvation (vv. 12-13), as well as the debt
of love we owe our neighbor (vv. 8-10), deserves everyday conduct appropriate
to these phenomena.
III. Recognize that the Gospel, “putting on the Lord Jesus Christ,” is God’s means
by which to meet Paul’s challenge (v. 14).
Francis C. Rossow
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Advent 2
Romans 15:4-13
December 9, 2007
Advent 3
James 5: 7-11
December 16, 2007
Comments on the text: 1. The Epistle for this Sunday (our text) describes Christ’s
return on Judgment Day as something definitely worth waiting for. The OT reading
(Is. 35:1-10) reinforces this generalization with numerous and vivid images, de-
scribing both the Messianic age and the completion of that age attendant upon
Christ’s second coming in terms of wilderness and desert areas becoming habit-
able and productive (vv. 1-2, 7); the absence of ferocious beasts (vv. 7 and 9); the
fearful becoming bold and the handicapped becoming whole (vv. 3-6); and the exiled
returning home and the sorrowful rejoicing (v. 10). Whereas our text is concerned
with the imminence of Christ’s second coming, the Gospel (Matt. 11:2-15) is con-
cerned with the identity of the Christ at His first coming. The “Art Thou He that
should come?” of the Gospel is paralleled (in effect) by the ‘How soon art Thou to
come?’ of our text. Further, John the Baptist’s patience and perseverance in prison
is no doubt one of the models James had in mind when in verse 10 of our text he
points to “the prophets” as “an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.”
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2. The word “therefore” at the beginning of our text invites the question, “What
is it there for?” The answer is that it connects our text to the immediately preced-
ing context (James 5:1-6). In that passage, James describes the cruelty, corruption,
and unfairness of certain rich people. In our text, James turns to the victims of
their practices, urging them to exercise Christian patience. Actually, our text is
connected to the broader context too. The issue of patience and perseverance in our
text is a return to the very issue with which James began his letter (1:2-4). In short,
patience is not merely the theme of this text—it is the theme of James’s letter.
3. “Be patient…unto the coming of the Lord” are the opening words of the text.
Does James mean that we should be patient about people and events in general
until Christ’s second coming (as the word “unto” suggests)? Or does he mean that
we should wait patiently for that coming itself? Is the Lord’s return on Judgment
Day the object of our patience? Verse 10 seems to support the former; verses 7-8
seem to support the latter. Possibly, the question poses a false dichotomy, and the
answer arrived at is a distinction without a difference. Ultimately, James intends
that we do both: exercise patience during the period between now and the Lord’s
second coming as well as wait patiently for that event itself.
4. Like the Word of God itself, the second coming of Jesus is a “two edged
sword” (Heb. 4:12). As welcome as an abundant harvest (v. 7), Christ’s return on
Judgment Day, nevertheless, has also an ominous aspect for those prone to com-
plain and grumble against their fellow Christians. “Behold, the judge standeth
before the door” (v. 9).
5. But the door the judge stands before is not only a door of condemnation, nor
is the Lord who stands before it only a judge. Revelation 3:20 says of Jesus, “Be-
hold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I
will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Here we have a door of
mercy letting in a Savior, not a judge. We point to this Gospel aspect of the door
image not to offset the necessary Law James provides in our text but to realize the
Gospel for which that Law is designed.
6. As more recent translations clarify, “the end of the Lord” in verse 11 means
“the goal or purpose of the Lord.”
7. It is significant that after mentioning the prophets in general and Job
specifically as models for patience and perseverance, James ends up with a refer-
ence to the Lord’s pity and mercy (vv. 10 and 11). Models can be helpful. They may
encourage us. They provide specific patterns for us to imitate. But we need more
than models to attain virtue. We need means. God’s pity and mercy as evidenced in
the life, damnation, death, and resurrection of His Son constitute that means.
Only the Gospel can function as the means by which we attain virtue, in general,
and patience and perseverance, in particular.
8. “The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy” (v. 11) echoes Psalm 103:8.
The first part of this assurance emphasizes how God feels about us; the second
part emphasizes how God acts in our behalf. God’s love is never an abstraction. It
always has teeth in it. “God is love” always means that “God loves.”
Suggested outline:
Advent 4
Romans 1:1-7
December 23, 2007
Lectionary matters: One cannot help but notice that in Lutheran Service Book’s
(LSB) Year A, the Advent 4 readings, except for the Epistle, are the same as those
for Christmas Eve. On further examination we see that the Christmas Eve, Mid-
night, Dawn, and Day readings are the same in years A, B, and C, employing for
Midnight what had been The Lutheran Hymnal’s (TLH) Christmas Day readings,
for Dawn TLH’s Second Christmas Day readings and for Christmas Day the glori-
ous prologue of John’s Gospel (1:1-14), which is not found in the Christmas cycle of
TLH’s one-year lectionary. (As many may know, the LSB three-year readings follow
closely that of the Revised Common Lectionary, an ecumenical lectionary used by
most North American church bodies—a Protestant version of the Roman Catholic
post-Vatican II three-year lectionary.) The benefit of the LSB Christmas readings
is that they present the Matthew, Luke, and John pericopes every year and place
the Lukan birth account at the Midnight and Dawn services. In the Matthew year,
lest it be omitted when it is not used on Christmas Eve, the Isaiah 7 and Mat-
thew1 link of Old Testament and Gospel also occurs on the fourth Sunday of Ad-
vent. What else from Matthew would be used in the “Matthew year” (A), if one does
not want to employ the genealogy in Matthew 1:1-17? Therefore, since Year A
employs Romans as a “continuous reading,” primarily from Proper 3 to Proper 14
(during the post-Pentecost season), the final Advent Sunday in Year A gets a strong
Epistle about the mystery of the incarnation (Rom. 1:1-7). It thus becomes the
distinctive element in A’s Advent 4 readings!
Paul’s incarnational emphasis: The viewpoint of one who is “called to be an
apostle” (v. 1) to those “who are called to belong to Christ” (v. 6) and especially to
“those in Rome who are…called to be saints” (v. 7). For the “called” according to
God’s purpose, all things will work together for good (Rom. 8:28). Furthermore,
they are called to be saints (1 Cor. 1:2). For them, whether Jew or Greek, the power
and wisdom of God come through the preaching of Christ crucified (1 Cor. 1:24). By
that Gospel the called and sanctified are also “kept for Jesus Christ” (Jude 1), for
the Lamb, Lord of Lords and King of Kings, made war against the enemies of the
kingdom and overcame them all. Those who are with Jesus are “called, chosen, and
faithful” (Rev. 17:14). So the story of the divine yet human Savior must go forth
with power proclaiming the risen Christ and drawing all nations to trust, obey, and
honor the Lord and Savior of all.
Features of the gift: Jesus Christ was “promised beforehand” when Isaiah con-
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fronted the idolater King of Judah, Ahaz, who rejected any “sign” from God. Never-
theless, a sign was given that a virgin would bear a son, called Immanuel (God with
us). How was this to be? Jesus Christ was descended from a human king, David.
The genealogy of the royal line—fourteen generations, from Abraham to David,
from David to Jeconiah, from Jeconiah to Joseph (husband of Mary)—is given in
Matthew 1:1-17, which precedes today’s Gospel. But Jesus Christ was also the Son
of God. Matthew 1:18 says Mary “was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit” and
in v. 20, “that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” This fulfilled the
promise of God given through Isaiah; it was accomplished “in power according to
the Spirit of holiness” (Rom. 1:4). Luther gives strong insight into the mystery of
God’s way of saving and of calling into service when he comments on Matthew 7:14:
How the dear Virgin Mary must have felt when the angel came and brought
her the message that she was to be the mother of the Highest! (Luke 1:26
ff.) Who was standing near her and believed this or that supported her? .
. . Could not God have found any other one for this high work? Yet the only
virgin He called to it was she, a poor, unknown, and despised maiden.
What should the patriarch Abraham have done when he had to move out
of Chaldea (Gen. 12:1 ff.) . . . . [H]e had to say, “I will cling to His Word and
follow that, regardless of whether I see the whole world going differently.”
So also Mary must have thought: “I shall let God worry about what He is
to do with others. I will abide by the Word that I hear, telling me what He
plans to do with me.” [Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol. 21: The Sermon
on the Mount and the Magnificat , ed. by J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H.
T. Lehmann (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1965.)]
The Lord of the universe, working through signs, wonders, and the word of the
Holy Spirit, “declares” (v. 5) the resurrected victor to be the Son of God. He is the
Immanuel (“God with us”).
Indeed, it is through Jesus Christ that we receive “grace.” Since we have no
claim on the gift, this grace is a quality of God (Gal. 2:2), actualized in the cross and
proclaimed to sinners in the Gospel (Rom. 3:23-24). By grace we are called to be
God’s sons and daughters (Rom. 5:2) and grace received by faith leads to obedience
(cf. the “obedience of faith” also in Rom. 15:18 and 16:26). This is the fruit of the
promise; namely the work of the God-man Jesus and the distribution of the good
news to the nations for the raising up of saints. Immanuel is the most marvelous
gift! Let the days of celebration for him now begin.
Outline:
A Promised Gift: Immanuel
I. The best gift is one on our list and promised to us by someone dear to us.
II. We seek closeness to God.
A. Like the believers in Rome (v. 7).
B. Promised by prophets, for everyone (v. 2, 5).
C. Undeserved, by “grace” (v. 5).
D. Even death cannot destroy the gift (v. 5).
III. God among us—the Gift.
A. Comes through Jesus Christ, fully human yet fully divine (v. 3, 4).
B. Changes us from rebels to obedient children (v. 5).
C. Faith in Jesus—the key and the gift.
Notes on the context and the periscope: I read N. T. Wright’s The Last Word, a
useful little book on the authority of the Scriptures, just as I started to prepare
these notes. He begins his chapter “Scripture and Jesus” where this pericope does:
“When the time had fully come, God sent forth his son…” (Gal. 4:4). What was the
purpose? It was to introduce his argument that the story and promises of God to
restore and reign over creation were brought to its climax when, in the fullness of
time, God sent forth His Son.
The words were apt, but it struck me that he saw this passage just as those
who had selected this pericope: as a freestanding summary concerning God and
His salvation through Jesus Christ the Lord. It is neither new nor necessarily
inappropriate to use the passage in this way, but these comments will assume that
one will want to use this pericope as a passage from Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
Paul summarizes his message in the first four chapters at the beginning of
chapter five: “For freedom, Christ has set us free; stand firm, therefore, and do not
again be subject to a yoke of slavery” (5:1). “The yoke of slavery” has come upon the
Galatians by their submission to circumcision, because this submission binds
them “to do the whole law” (5:3) and estranges them from Christ (5:4), who, once
again, has set them free to wait “for the hope of righteousness” through the Spirit
by faith (5:5).
Paul recognizes, however, that the Galatians do not understand submitting to
circumcision and other observances (e.g., “days and months and seasons and years”
[4:10]) actually entails slavery and other negative consequences. So Paul devotes
much of his letter (chapters three and four) to identifying and explaining the conse-
quences of living by works of the Law, not faith in Christ and the promise: living as
slaves, not as sons; living in bondage, not in freedom; living according to the flesh,
not according to the Spirit; living under the curse of the Law, not with the blessing
of the promise. Clearly his hope is that this explanation will lead them to see the
bind they are getting themselves into and then to return to faith, the Spirit, sonship,
freedom, and promised blessing.
Throughout, Paul assumes the goal is to be the sons of Abraham and to be
blessed with and in him (3:7-9). With this end in view, Paul shows the rightness of
living by faith by pointing out, on the one hand, Abraham was justified and blessed
through faith (3:6-9), and on the other hand, those who rely on works are cursed
(3:10). More than this, Paul shows relying on works effectively denies the signifi-
cance of Christ’s death on the cross. On the cross, Christ redeemed us from the
curse by becoming a curse for us (3:13). Furthermore, Paul establishes that righ-
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teousness is through faith, not works of the Law, by pointing out the Law came 430
years after the promise to Abraham and his offspring; therefore it does not annul
this promise (3:15-18). And so it makes sense to reject the way of Law and works
and instead live by faith in the promise.
Paul then responds to two likely questions. The first is: “Then why was the law
given?” (3:19) Paul says it was added [later] because of transgressions, to be in
effect until the offspring came to whom the promise was made (cf. 3:16). This
answer leads to another question: “Is the law contrary to God’s promises?” “By no
means!” is Paul’s emphatic reply. “If a law able to give life had been given, then
righteousness would indeed be based on the law (evk n,omou)” (3:21). Instead, the Law
serves promise and faith by putting all things under sin, “so that the promise
might be given based on faith in Jesus Christ (evk pisteo Iv esou/ Cristou/) to those who
believe” (3:22). Because of this, Paul likens the Law to a paidagogos, or guardian.
The paidagogos was “the personal slave-attendant who accompanied the free-born
boy wherever he went” (F. F. Bruce, Commentary on Galatians [NIGTC], 182); he
was “a slave employed in Greek and Roman families to have general charge of a
boy in the years from about six to sixteen, watching over his outward behavior and
attending him whenever he went from home, as e.g. to school” (Ernest D. Burton, A
Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians [ICC], 200).
Like a guardian with charge of a young heir, the Law had charge over God’s people
until the age of maturity had been reached with the coming of Christ (3:24). But as
long as one is under the guardian, one is no better than a slave (4:1). “So with us,”
says Paul: “when we were children, we were enslaved to the basic principles of the
world (ta. stoicei/a tou/ ko,smou)” (4:3).
Now we come to our pericope, which explains that the coming of Christ means
that the days of slavery and servitude under the Law had come to an end, and life
as sons had finally arrived. “But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his
Son, born of a woman, born under law, so that he would set free those under law, so
that we would receive sonship (huiothesian)” (4:4-5). If the time of the Law was
youth, then the sending of Christ marks the age of maturity. If the time of the Law
meant being treated as a slave, then the sending of God’s Son marks the attain-
ment of sonship. Moreover, God’s people now are not only set free through Christ,
but they also share with Christ in sonship and the Spirit: “And because you are
sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”
(4:6). Like Christ, we are God’s sons, and like Christ, we have the Holy Spirit.
“Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son; and if a son, then an heir through
God” (4:7).
To this point, Paul has discussed “slavery” and “freedom” in Israelite terms: of
the covenant to Abraham and of the covenant at Sinai. But Paul then addresses
the Gentile Galatians and their situation. The Gentiles, of course, had not lived
under the terms of Sinai, so they and their forebears had not been in bondage to the
Mosaic Law. Yet, when they did not yet know the living God, they also had been
slaves: not to the Law but to their pagan gods and religions, even if these gods were
by nature no gods at all (4:8). So, in Christ, they also had attained freedom. It
would make no sense that they, whom Christ had freed from their false gods, would
now return to slavery by observing the Jewish ceremonies and traditions.
Notes for preaching: Certainly the message of Paul to the Galatians has the
capacity to speak in all ages and to people in all sorts of situations that trap, bind,
coerce, or oppress them. But the pericope itself might work against this possibility,
because, standing alone, it can obscure the issue and terms of the epistle itself.
Notes on the context and the periscope: This passage brings out one of Epiphany’s
central themes—the inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s plan and work of salvation.
This theme is central also to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, and it is expressed
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explicitly in the pericope.
The pericope begins awkwardly, with the subject of a sentence that Paul com-
pletes only after a lengthy parenthetical comment. This parenthetical comment,
however, brings out a complete thought, and so this feature poses no obstacle for
preaching.
At this point, Paul has finished explaining the Ephesians’ reconciliation both
to God through the Spirit (“vertically”) and to Israel (“horizontally”). As Gentiles,
the Ephesians had been foreigners with respect to Israel and outsiders with re-
spect to the covenants of the promise. Therefore they had been without hope and
without God (2:12). But in Christ and through his cross, the Gentiles had been
reconciled both to God and to Israel (2:15-16). Now they were no longer strangers
but fellow citizens and members of God’s household with the Jews. Now they had
access through Christ in the Spirit to the Father. Now they were being made into a
dwelling place for God in the Spirit (2:18-22).
The thought that all nations would participate in God’s salvation had been
made known to the Old Testament people of God (for an obvious and useful ex-
ample, see the Old Testament lesson). But the way in which Israel and the nations
would come together to constitute one people of God had not been made known.
This was accomplished and revealed with the coming of Christ. When Christ came,
the “dividing wall of hostility” made of “the law of commandments and ordinances”
(2:14-15) came down. Christ accomplished their reconciliation. Now they were
being joined together as one people, not only in name but in life and practice. There
were no “separate but equal” arrangements for the people of God.
This way of bringing Jews and Gentiles together is the insight or understand-
ing (sunesij; 3:4) that Paul had into the “mystery of Christ” (musterion tou Christou),
which refers to the redemption and reconciliation that God had always planned
and now had accomplished in Jesus Christ (see also 1:9-10). This redemption and
reconciliation would not only include the Gentiles but include them in such a way
that they and the Jews would comprise one people of God. Paul explains his own
insight into the mystery of Christ this way: “how the Gentiles are sugkleronoma kai
sussoma kai summetoca—the NIV rendering captures the repetition nicely: “heirs
together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together—in the
promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel” (3:6).
This mystery had not been made known in the past as it was now (3:5); its full
dimensions had been hidden for ages in God (3:9). Now, however, God had accom-
plished His eternal purpose in Christ Jesus (3:11). Furthermore, He had made
known completely the mystery of His will to the apostles and prophets by the Holy
Spirit (3:5), to all humankind (3:9), and even to the spiritual “principalities and
powers in the heavenly places” (3:10). And by the gift of God’s grace, Paul also was
made a minister of this gospel (3:7), to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ (3:8). And in so doing, he became a prisoner of Christ Jesus on
behalf of the Gentiles (3:1).
Notes for preaching: In this lesson Paul explains and rejoices in God’s plan of
salvation for all people—especially the Ephesian Christians—that now has been
made known in Christ through the preaching of the Gospel. A sermon trying to do
the same would fit this pericope, this occasion (Epiphany), and many congrega-
tions in North America (Gentile, that is).
But the distinction between Jew and Gentile that mattered so much for Paul
and the church at Ephesus matters so little to many of us. Part of the reason, to be
sure, is that the situation among Christians changed significantly long ago. Still,
Christians Alive
Looking for what is authentic and genuine in their personal lives, many ask,
“How can I become a better Christian?” Much that passes for “Christian” today is
little more than vague Americana, doing what is expected of every law abiding
citizen. On the surface, such living may appear to be genuine. But it could be a
charade, even hypocritical. Are you looking for more in your Christian life?
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One popular response to this quest is, “Turn everything over to Jesus and ask
God to come into your life!” But not everyone is in such an asking mood. Many are
convinced that God would not set foot in the door, if ever their lives were open to
Him. Another response urges giving up the quest altogether. Why fight it? Chris-
tian living? Don’t bother. Besides, in the end God’s grace always exceeds sin. Re-
portedly, the Russian holy man, Rasputin, held that those who sin boldly and
require the most forgiveness will certainly receive an equal measure of grace and
then some.
Sin freely and comfortably because God will be the more generous toward you.
Really? Right up front in Romans 6, the Apostle Paul takes on such a notion. “Shall
we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” he asks, and in the same breath
answers with a resounding “No!” (Rom. 6:1-2). God gave His Son to redeem sin-
ners, but He did not waste His Son so you and I may continue in sin. Is there an
answer, then, to the question, “How can I become a better Christian?” Yes, the
answer is here, close as St. Paul’s words, but it is a radical answer—and we must
be open to that—as radical as the very death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
I. Death
No one lives better as a Christian until his or her nature suffers a sure and
certain death. Of course, that requires an explanation. No person may become a
better Christian until he or she comes to grips with sin in his or her life. They must
own up to it, and something must be done about it. Have you a program for grap-
pling with sin? We share in Adam’s fall, and our propensity for sin is called “sinful
flesh” in the New Testament. There is no good in it, says St. Paul (Rom. 7:18). You
may call it “the old Adam,” or “old nature.” And, unless it is broken and defeated,
there is no helpful answer to the question, “How may I become a better Christian?”
If you are not asking that question, you may be more seriously enslaved to that
inclination to sin than you realized.
Can you repress the old nature? Can you rise above it by sheer will power and
determination? Can you escape its power and domination over your life? You have
tried these approaches. But the years have taught us the futility of such efforts. A
more radical solution is called for, and St. Paul sets it before us. There is an
expression voiced now and then among disgruntled employees in a company or
among restless students at school. You may even hear it in the church. When people
are frustrated with the central administration of an institution, you may hear it
said, “There is nothing wrong in this situation that a few funerals would not help!”
That is morbid! It should not be said at all, except St. Paul is saying it. What
prevents you and me from becoming better Christians could be resolved by a fu-
neral of a kind! Yes, a funeral for our old sinful nature would be a great help to
living Christianity. St. Paul is not speaking of the funerals cited in the obituary
columns of newspapers. True, death may excuse us from many obligations of life,
but sin is a debt that will not be buried in the grave. Sin follows us into eternity
unless it dies a radical death while we are yet living this side of the grave. How
does this work? Hear the language of the apostle. He states, “...we are buried with
Him (Christ) by baptism into death” (Rom. 6:4a). “...our old man (person) is cruci-
fied with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed” (v. 6). “...we have been
planted together in the likeness of His death” (v. 5a). Christ the Son of God became
involved with our sinful nature, not as sinner Himself, but as sin-bearer when He
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dent, everlasting life by God’s working through the Lord’s rising from the grave.
Summarize: In the moment of our Baptism, the power of sin was broken, the
“old nature” died and was sealed in defeat by the Lord’s death, and we were quick-
ened in that same Baptism moment to newness of life. More than mere improve-
ment, we were transformed for such newness, an action as radical as the Lord’s
rising to life on His resurrection day (Rom. 6:11).
II. Life
Holy Baptism is no trifle! While many Christians are all thumbs when it
comes to explaining their own Baptism and its blessings, St. Paul states clearly
that in this Sacrament there stands tall the cross of Christ, the axis on which turns
the Christian life, the better and improved Christian life. If you are a person not
yet baptized, something can be done about that. But, if you are baptized and
habitually forget your Baptism or neglect it, if you are going through your life
misunderstanding or under-valuing your Baptism day by day, that is to invite back
the free reign of the old nature which makes you a slave to sin again!
This should not be. When that funeral is conducted in Baptism for the sinful
flesh, a birthday happens and is celebrated at the same time, for “...we believe that
we shall also live with Him!” exclaims St. Paul (Rom. 6:8b). Do you share the
apostle’s belief? Are you alive in Christ because the power of sin is broken? To be so
alive may mean to be done with some things of which we are ashamed, as well as
other things of which we have mistakenly become proud. There are places we will
no longer traffic, things we will not do. There are lines drawn and boundaries to be
fixed when we now live with and for the risen Lord!
And the Christian, so alive in his or her Lord through Baptism, is also open to
new vistas of living which he or she had never considered, pathways of love turning
into service to others and bringing fulfillment and joy. With the “old sinful nature”
buried, getting out from under the death of that dominant sinful self, we are free to
soar to new heights, free to get our hands dirty, so to speak, and down to earth to
serve, where previously we selfishly thought we were much too busy and preoccu-
pied to lend a helping hand. With a fresh and new outlook, crowned with a living
hope, baptized into Christ, and putting on His newness, we move through life, our
days many or few, toward a blessed future, what the apostles called a blessed hope
for now, but more important, for the long term, life everlasting (cf. 1 Pet. 1:3-9). We
are certain that, baptized, we shall also live with Him (Rom. 6:8). If this be our
outlook from Holy Baptism, many things are reordered, re-prioritized, even re-
scheduled. Radical, but blessed, is this newness through our Baptism into Christ.
Is it pipe dream or possibility, this new life in Christ? Some of you are weary of
the battle of life. You say it is too late for change. You are too rigid for something so
radical as death to the “old nature” by Baptism and a new life in Christ and the
power of His resurrection. You cannot teach an old dog new tricks. Agreed, you
cannot teach the “old nature.” Quite true, so very true! But, friend, it’s not about
teaching the “old” you, but teaching the “new” person that you are out of your
Baptism! Yes, the new! The “new” person can learn, as he or she puts on Christ, and
through Him, also righteousness and goodness, even holiness and hope! And you, if
you be a man or woman or youth or child in Christ by Baptism, you are new, so very
spanking new, and equally ready to take on “new” direction and action and life!
Be what you are, be alive as a “new” Christian! It is the apostle’s fervent plea.
The documentary film, Scared Straight, was produced at Rahway Prison in New
Sermon Outline:
I. Theme: Thanksgiving.
II. Text: 1 Corinthians 1: 1-9.
III. Body of Sermon.
A. Opening or Capturing Statement Could Be An Illustration.
B. Application.
C. Conclusion.
Opening: On July the 7th, among CNN’s heroes for the week, was a young man
by the name of Ryan. This young man was chosen because at the age of 6, he started
saving money, which was later used in a huge project to provide clean drinking
water for millions of Africans. Ryan who is now 18 years old, also made five African
visits. As I watched the African kids, as well as adults, express through songs their
joy and thanksgiving to God and to Ryan, it made me think without any doubt of St.
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 1:4, “I always thank God for you,
because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.” Like the Africans, Paul is giving
thanks to God for us—the heroes and heralds of the amazing Gospel of Jesus
Christ.
406
The Word: Thanks or thanksgiving—let us look at the etymology through the
eye of global Christianity within its cultural context.
First: Thanks is our expression of gratitude. It is usually used in expressing
gratitude to somebody because of something. The use of these words, thanks or
thanksgiving, among the Mende people of Sierra Leone is stated, “Ngp sei gbua
ngewo ma biva” translated as “I thank God for you.” St. Paul, surely in an existen-
tial form, must have heard the many tribal languages, including the Mendes of
West Africa.
The Context and Culture: Thanks or thanksgiving is used in the form of grati-
tude, as expressed by our African Christians. Without any attempt to generalize,
I suspect we do not express or say thank you enough, or even the mere “Thank you
Lord,” for each day that we are blessed to witness another day. For St. Paul, coming
out of his Jewish culture, to offer thanks or thanksgiving was an almost inevitable
thing to say or do. Culturally, the Mende people of Sierra Leone, among whom I
worked for many years, would say thanks or express thanksgiving for small or big
things. The simple things we in the West often take for granted, perhaps a good
harvest, rain, or sunshine, are things for which the Mendes would express thanks
in beautiful songs. I recall with great delight how they would spend a week or more
in street dancing in celebration for the birth of a child, the marriage of a sister or
brother, even the joy of thanksgiving for the death, at the ripe old age of 90 or so, of
a parent or relative. Yes, here we see people that are totally given to thanking God
for everything: “In everything give thanks.”
Referring to our text: 1 Corinthians 1:4; Ephesians 1:16; Philippians 1:3; 2
Timothy 1:3. These expressions of thanks or thanksgiving are obviously directed
towards people. First, the thanksgiving was for the Corinthian Christians, and by
extension included the present day saints, in the household of faith far and near.
We must ask the pertinent question: “Why?” Our text alludes to a keyword: grace.
Verse 5 states, “For in him you have been enriched in speech and in all knowledge.”
It stands to reason that these Christians were so deeply in tune with Christ that
it manifested or framed all their manners, internally as well as externally. Like
them, we, the twenty-first century Christians, must likewise be the walking Jesus,
affecting the lives of those whom we meet—in the street, classrooms, restaurants,
offices—with the hands and face of Jesus.
Summary: As I return to my opening statement, the CNN hero was thanked
immensely by the African villagers for providing them with clean drinking water,
which symbolically represented life. Their thanks was primarily to God, from whom
all gifts come. The Mende people are known to be deeply appreciative in the knowl-
edge that all of life—wealth, weather, our lives, family, food and the like—are
God’s. So as people and saints, it is incumbent upon us to express gratitude to God.
Application: Our text, 1 Corinthians 1:4, reminds us always to give thanks to
God. It is fair for us then as Christians to thank God for bringing us to faith through
Jesus Christ. Now then, since sermon application ordinarily has to do with the
“how,” I will suggest three steps in applying the text of 1 Corinthians 1:4. First, I
would speak to us as individuals and within our family life. We certainly ought to
be in the habit of saying thanks to God every day of our lives, for small or large
things in life. Secondly, as sanctified people, in whom Christ is richly and deeply
manifested, through His redeeming life in us, we must with abundant joy share
that joy. Metaphysically and in actuality, as Christians our lives need to express
the love and joy of Jesus always. Thirdly, since through the Gospel we have been
made saints and preachers, and because of what Jesus through his saving grace
Don’t you love people who seek to create division and cliques within the church
for their personal gain and stature? There is nothing more detrimental to the Good
News of Jesus Christ than people in cliques and divisions who believe they are
God’s gift to mankind or that the Office of the Keys possesses the key to the church
door. In God’s holy Christian church—the communion of saints—there is no room
for those who abuse and take advantage of others by setting up their cliques to
control. St. Paul begins to defuse this in-fighting by pointing to the wisdom of God
in Christ “over and against” human wisdom that generates self-boasting and divi-
sions. St. Paul reminds them they are one in Christ and not divided in leadership.
The common foundational subject is Christ, neither man nor woman.
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C. Creates boasting about “self” and not the Savior.
II. The solution for divisions within the church: Christ is the subject.
A. His Spirit creates unity in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
B. His Spirit creates unity in mind and judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ.
C. His Spirit creates unity in baptism into our Lord Jesus Christ: one Lord,
one faith, one baptism.
D. His Spirit creates unity in the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of our sins, salvation, and eternal life.
410
church year, are all included. One could wish for two things in such a volume that do
not appear. It would have been nice if the actual texts that were central to Nagel’s
message had been printed at the heads of the messages, especially so the reader
could ascertain which translation was being employed. One could also hope that as
the presentation of Dr. Nagel is distinctive and part of the experience of hearing
him preach, there could be an audio CD of some of these sermons made available.
There are undoubtedly recordings that could be unearthed, or perhaps the good
doctor would take it upon himself to read some of these messages afresh. Overall
this is a well crafted collection of sermons that would be profitable for study by
pastors and laypeople alike.
Timothy Dost
By many measures, families are not faring well these days. Andreas
Köstenberger, professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, contends
that the problem is spiritual. In response, he and colleagues David Jones and
Mark Liederbach wrote God, Marriage, and Family to present the Scriptural foun-
dations for marriage and family. They set out to show “how the Bible’s teaching on
human relationships coheres and finds its common source in the Creator and his
wise and beneficial purposes for men and women” (28).
The book covers marriage (chapters 2–4), family (5-6), reproductive and
parenting issues (7–8), singleness (9), homosexuality (10), divorce and remarriage
(11), and family-related qualifications for church leadership (12). It examines the
Old and New Testaments for each topic and then addresses the contemporary
situation, interacting extensively with scholarly literature. It has a section of “Help-
ful Resources” and a study guide for each chapter. Notes, resources, indices, and
the like make up about 190 of the book’s 448 pages.
The authors hold a high view of Scripture and fall squarely within the conser-
vative camp. They take marriage to be “a sacred bond between a man and a woman
instituted by and publicly entered into before God (whether or not this is acknowl-
edged by the married couple), normally consummated by sexual intercourse” (85).
They affirm the headship of the husband. They reject homosexuality, sexual inter-
course outside of marriage, and cohabitation. Birth control is acceptable so long as
it does not cause abortion. Artificial reproductive technologies which do not gener-
ate unused embryos or violate the one-flesh nature of marriage are likewise per-
missible. The authors defend the practice of physical discipline (spanking).
Unfortunately, the chapters are uneven. The authors fall into simply listing
required traits, attitudes, and behaviors for husband and wives; marriages from
the Bible are subjected to thin exegesis to derive lessons for believers. The ap-
proach occasionally degenerates into unhelpful casuistry (e.g., when may wives
work outside the home, 74). The authors’ covenantal view of marriage does not
grasp the nature of marriage as a divine institution embedded within our fleshly,
cultured existence, and their Baptist doctrine of conversion leads to talk of “paren-
tal discipline and training prior to a child’s conversion” (125). The chapter on
divorce and remarriage gets bogged down in an Evangelical/fundamentalist de-
bate over Matthew 5:32 and 19:19; in fact, the authors seem hesitant to take a
412
discussion of the church year prior to an examination of the nature of Lutheran
liturgy, the book’s major divisions possess integrity and coherence under these
headings: Dimensions of Worship; Lutheran Liturgy; Worship, Music, and the Arts;
Festival and Occasional Worship Services; Prayer and Reading in Worship; and
Variety in Worship. Throughout, Maschke is at his best when he interweaves Bib-
lical, theological, historical, and practical considerations in advocating his vision
of the most desirable liturgical practice. The chapters on “Art in the Lord’s Service”
(9), “Liturgical Prayer” (17), and “The Ministry of Reading” (19) all provide compel-
ling depictions of consummately planned and enacted worship. Maschke’s list of
principles for choosing liturgical art (159-60) and his analysis of Byzantine Ortho-
dox icons and the iconostasis (162) are trenchant for considering the role of art in
worship.
While a valuable tool for educating on Christian worship and shaping a faith-
ful practice of parish worship planning, Gathered Guests does manifest certain
inadequacies. The book demonstrates an awareness of contemporary worship is-
sues, but neglects to provide a clear outline of the contours of the debate, especially
in the chapter on variety in worship. Although a fairly recent development, it also
fails to denote the differences that have emerged between contemporary/modern
approaches and emergent/post-modern approaches to worship. Such questions must
be engaged through the lens of culture and the church’s inculturation of its worship.
Unfortunately, Gathered Guests fails to address these worship debates through a
well-defined consideration of culture and Christian engagement with it. Such a
consideration is desirable for a textbook for those who will shape Lutheran wor-
ship in an increasingly culturally diverse Christianity and Lutheranism. The rela-
tionship of culture and worship is part of the broader nexus of the relationship
between the church and its mission in the world. Given the ongoing discussion
about mission and worship in the LC-MS, and the necessity of seeing the church’s
act of worship as God’s mission in Word and Sacrament to the world, the reader
expects a thorough exploration of such issues in Gathered Guests. But that is not
where its strengths lie. Instead, Gathered Guests grounds Lutheran worship in
proper, faithful definitions of what worship is from the rich doctrinal heritage of
Lutheranism and engages the reader at the profound intersection of doctrine and
ecclesial life—the worship of the Gathered Guests.
As an informed guide to those who prepare worship and participate in it,
Gathered Guests provides a readily accessible account of the theological and his-
torical foundations of Lutheran worship, educating those who gather the guests
and those who are gathered.
Kent J. Burreson
TAKE EAT, TAKE DRINK: The Lord’s Supper through the Centuries. By Ernest
Bartels. Saint Louis: Concordia, 2004. 286 pages. Paper. $14.95.
For ten years after receiving a doctorate from Trinity Theological Seminary,
Newburgh, Indiana, Rev. Dr. Ernest Bartels continued to expand his research project
on the Lord’s Supper. With labor of love and a sincere desire to serve God’s people,
Bartels now shares his studies on the history of the Lord’s Supper with his be-
loved synod. Garnering a vast array of information from a plethora of secondary
sources, Bartels’s investigation has produced what looks like a veritable treasure
trove of theological gems. One senses his meticulous collection of notes in prepara-
414
book, a few frustrations arose. Noteworthy are several inaccuracies, perhaps be-
cause there is too heavy a reliance on secondary sources, even when the primary
sources were available. For example, when supposedly citing Calvin’s Institutes on
the Christian Religion, Bartels uses a quotation from a journal article by a
Lutheran author (167). Two pages later, he footnotes the Institutes twice, report-
ing that Calvin preferred neither red nor white wine and that he called the altar a
table. The latter fact, however, is Calvin merely following Augustine’s own termi-
nology as evident by Calvin’s own citation of Augustine’s Tractate 26 on John 6
(Institutes, Book IV, chapter 17, section 43).
Yet the research involved in this book is certainly daunting. Even small chap-
ters have several dozen notes, and of those not a few have multiple sources indi-
cated in one note. Oddly, the Philadelphia edition of Luther’s writings and Ewald
Plass’s compendium of Luther quotes are used extensively, although three volumes
from the American Edition are listed in his “For Further Reading.” Kretzmann’s
Popular Commentary and R.C.H. Lenski’s commentaries are cited very frequently
for exegetical conclusions. The 1975 edition of the Concordia Cyclopedia is cited
regularly regarding denominational distinctions on the sacraments, yet Arthur
Carl Piepkorn’s four-volume magnum opus, Profiles in Belief, is not adverted to in
even one footnote. Citation inaccuracies are also present; for example, Bartels
quotes Melanchthon, but the citation given is to Luther’s Small Catechism (144,
fn.30).
Needless theological inaccuracies, which should have been removed by the
doctrinal review process, are also evident. When referring to the Lucan account of
the institution of the Lord’s Supper, Bartels misreads the text, asserting that
“Luke reverses the order and says that He first gave the cup and then the bread”
(21). What he fails to recall is that Luke gives a more specific explanation of which
cup Jesus uses, that is, the third cup of the Passover meal, as Bartels reports
earlier, called “the cup of thanksgiving” (18). When citing the Christological basis
for a Lutheran understanding of Christ’s presence, Bartels reports that this fol-
lows the Lutheran doctrinal concept of the communication of attributes, particu-
larly the third genus, genus apotelesmaticum (144). In actuality, the Lutheran prac-
tice is based upon the second genus, genus maiestaticum, and thus avoids the extra
Calvinisticum (See Pieper, Dogmatics 2:190-197; Sasse, 121). Such research and
theological discrepancies, although minor individually, build up to cause one to
reconsider the usefulness of this book.
Educating the laity in the Lord’s Supper is a commendable endeavor. To that
end, every congregation should have this book in its library as a resource for conver-
sation. While this work may be useful for some parishes, this reviewer hopes that
it will stimulate future research in primary sources which support the general
ideas presented so helpfully by Pastor Bartels. If nothing else, this book can serve
as a stimulation for pastors in the Lutheran Church to discuss the Lord’s Supper
in as much detail as Dr. Bartels has done over the years. Kenneth W. Wieting’s
recent study, The Blessings of Weekly Communion (CPH, 2006), offers just such a
reliable resource.
Timothy Maschke
Mequon, WI
Many Bible readers are put off by what they perceive is a justification of
violence and war. In past history, Crusaders, Puritans and abolitionists have all
used the Bible to justify their use of violence. Since September 11, 2001, there have
been some Christians who have seen this disaster as God’s punishment on a “god-
less” America, while some Muslims believe that the Quran, as well as the Bible,
gave the terrorists the right to do what they did. John Collins, an Old Testament
professor at Yale University, sets out to examine the Biblical texts that deal with
violence to see whether they can ever be used to justify “the killing of others with-
out benefit of judicial procedure.”
Collins first deals with the texts that call for “holy war” against the Canaanites
and other pagan neighbors of the ancient Israelites. He shows that the slaughter of
these pagans was considered to be a ban (Hebrew: herem) or sacrifice to protect
Israel from false worship. He cites Deuteronomy 7:1-6 as a foundational text for
this point of view. This passage, and others like it, takes as warrants for violence
the demand that Israel is to worship only one god, YHWH, and the claim that the
land was given by divine right to Israel alone. At the same time, it should be noted
that Deuteronomy is “one of the great repositories of humanistic values in the
biblical corpus,” which includes being compassionate to slaves and aliens.
Collins points out that the texts that seem to commend violence are not just a
description of primitive practice, but “programmatic ideological statements from
the late seventh century B.C. or later.” He sees the reform of King Josiah described
in 2 Kings 22-23 as supporting the view that Deuteronomy and Joshua were not so
much intended to incite violence against ethnic “outsiders,” but rather as directed
against Israelite “insiders” who posed as a threat to the cultic reforms of Josiah.
Collins relates how the story of Phinehas’ killing of Zimri and his Midianite
girlfriend in Numbers 25 and the violent action of Mattathias and his sons against
the Syrian Greeks as recorded in 1 Maccabees (holy scripture in Catholic Chris-
tianity) was later used as justification for a number of violent religious persecu-
tions, e.g.: Oliver Cromwell’s treatment of Catholics in Ireland, the Puritans against
Native American tribes, and the action of the Boers of South Africa.
Next, Collins points out a number of eschatological texts which portray God
Himself or His angels taking vengeance on His enemies. He cites Isaiah 63:3,
Daniel 12:1-3, the Book of Revelation, as well as apocryphal literature like 1Enoch
and the War Scroll of Qumran. What is unique in this literature is a “quietistic
tendency which, in agreement with Deuteronomy 32:35 and Romans 12:19-21,
urges the readers to “never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God.”
Therefore, “eschatological violence is properly the prerogative of God.”
In his final chapter, Collins discusses “violence and hermeneutics.” After cit-
ing Ecclesiastes 3:3, 8, “There is a time to kill and a time to heal,” Collins says:
“Not all violence is necessarily to be condemned. … Nonetheless, few will disagree
that violence is seldom a good option and that it can be justified only as a last
recourse.” He then goes on to survey some of the attempts that have been made in
interpreting these “violence texts,” ever since the church father Philo of Alexan-
dria. His purpose is “to save the appearances of these texts,” that is, to take them
seriously on the one hand, but, on the other, to read them in the context of the
Scripture passages that urge us “to love our neighbor as ourselves.” In this way,
Collins suggests a strategy of noting the diversity of viewpoints in the Bible and
416
thereby to relativize the more problematic ones (i.e., the “violence texts”). Never-
theless, violence as a model of behavior is not a peripheral feature in the Bible, and
therefore it cannot be glossed over. Ultimately, Collins says, “the power of the Bible
is largely that it gives an unvarnished picture of human nature and of the dynam-
ics of history, and also of religion and the things that people do in its name.” That
said, the Biblical interpreter has to be alert to the fact that in the matter of war
and peace, “appeal to the Bible is not determinative,” as Roland Bainton put it,
because too often people have seen certitude in the Bible where it does not exist,
e.g., when some people at the time of the Civil War thought that the Bible justifies
slavery. Collins concludes: “Perhaps the most constructive thing a biblical critic
can do toward lessening the contribution of the Bible to violence in the world is to
show that (many times) such certitude is an illusion.”
All in all, any reader can only profit from tracing Collins’ thought as he struggles
with this most difficult subject that touches us all and which, in the present age of
terror, is of the utmost relevance.
Merlin D. Rehm
Scarsdale, NY
Barbara Laymon has given us a devil for the computer age. The Devil’s Inbox is
a sort of Screwtape Letters for the twenty-first century. Satan, ever ready to adjust,
now uses e-mails instead of letters as his preferred mode of correspondence. On the
basis of my limited experience with the internet, I am not surprised that the devil
would resort to this medium; it seems made to order. There may even be moments
when some suspect that he invented the internet. But both C. S. Lewis and Bar-
bara Laymon would be quick to correct us, reminding us that Satan is incapable of
creation and invention; he can only pervert what God alone brings into being, either
directly or through human agency.
In Barbara Laymon’s version, the senior devil is a female tempter named
Anesthesia who sends e-mails to a junior devil named Termite N. Fester, advising
him how to corrupt and ultimately win for hell’s larder a woman “patient” on earth.
We see Termite tempting this woman at all the crucial points in her life: school,
romance, vocation, marriage, motherhood, and finally death from cancer. Termite
now and then wins a battle, but ultimately (to his own disgrace), loses the war. The
fact that the temptations suggested and applied are ordered according to the se-
quential phases of the patient’s life keeps the e-mails from being a helter-skelter
collection. Their chronological arrangement, plus the additional virtue of certain
themes tying together successive e-mails, give the book sufficient unity and plot to
qualify it as a novel.
If, as the saying goes, imitation is the highest form of flattery, Lewis has been
flattered endlessly since his astounding success with the publication of The
Screwtape Letters in the century just past. But of all such flattery I have encoun-
tered in print, Barbara Laymon’s is the best. She has mastered almost to perfec-
tion Lewis’s style and technique, making her book every bit as delightful and
edifying as that of the original interceptor of satanic correspondence. Many of
Lewis’s insights reappear in The Devil’s Inbox: the devils’ disgust at the Son of
In this first volume of his massive three-volume Old Testament Theology, John
Goldingay, Professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, focuses on
418
the narrative of the Old- or what he prefers to call the First-Testament. His narra-
tive theology follows the Biblical order of creation and Israel’s subsequent history.
Goldingay combines narrative reflection with systematic analysis, always inter-
facing with the particular and the general. His goal is to “tease” out of the narra-
tive its theological significance without abandoning the Old Testament’s narrative
way of doing theology. Goldingay does not discuss historical issues, but occasion-
ally there are exceptions, such as his discussion on when and how Israel entered
the land of Canaan. The book concludes with chapters on New Testament narra-
tive theology and the relationship between theology and history.
Throughout the book Goldingay demonstrates that he is a penetrating ex-
egete. Several examples will suffice. Pain was to characterize a woman’s relation-
ship with her children and a man’s relationship with his work (Gen. 3:16-17, atsabon,
noun). In Genesis 6:6 that pain (atsab, hithpael verb) also characterizes God’s
experience. Goldingay’s response? The curse of sin also lands on Yahweh (cf. Gal.
3:13). The certainty of Yahweh’s giving the land is underlined by the move from
yiqtol verbs (Gen. 13:14-17) to a qatal verb (Gen. 15:18)–not now “I will give” but “I
have given,” or better “I hereby give.” This is Yahweh’s performative utterance. He
is not merely promising to do something but is actually doing it. He is acting like a
king in a position to make a grant of land to a subject. The book of Joshua begins
with the fact that “Moses, my servant, is dead” (Josh. 1:2). Only after his own death
is Joshua termed, “Yahweh’s servant” (Josh. 24:29). Moses is still “Yahweh’s ser-
vant” (seventeen times in Joshua), even after his death. Joshua’s job is to help
ensure that Moses’ job gets done in the way the people enter the land. Goldingay
also provides insights on a macro level. For example, the idea of meeting Yahweh
as a dangerous and frightening deity is largely absent in Genesis. Exodus, however,
complements Genesis. Jesus’ unthreatening coming as a human being parallels
Yahweh’s appearing in Genesis, though Jesus’ acting with divine power provides
an awed reaction like that at Sinai (e.g., Luke 5:8).
A major thread that unites much of the book is Goldingay’s contentment to
allow diversity and ambiguity. Put another way, he resists the temptation to sys-
tematize too much and withholds answers when there are none. This is because, in
large part, he believes there is much that is wild and untamed about the theologi-
cal witness of the Old Testament that church theology does not face. Goldingay
delights in pointing out ambiguities that abound in the Joseph narrative. When
Joseph reaches the heights of the Egyptian power structure, he turns all of Egypt
into a slave state. Later Israel would have to pay a high price for this decision! And
Joseph only rarely speaks of God and never speaks to God in the narrative. Nor
does God appear to Joseph or speak to him. Another ambiguity Goldingay points
out is that in Deuteronomy 7, Moses first tells Israel they must slaughter the
people in the land (Deut. 7:1-2). Then he tells them they must not intermarry with
them (Deut. 7:3-4). Finally, in Deuteronomy 7:5 he instructs Israel that the way to
deal with the people in the land is to destroy their places of worship and their
images. How do these three instructions fit together? The book of Joshua, simi-
larly, presents unresolved tensions. The people are obedient, but they are not; they
take the land, but they do not (cf. Josh. 13:13; 15:63; 16:10; 17:12-13). At the end of
his discussion on the pre-exilic history, Goldingay summarizes his reading of these
texts with these words: “The stories offer a range of insights on possible interpre-
tations of events but rule out any inference that they offer formulas by means of
which history can be infallibly explained or the outcome of events by predicted”
420
Books Received
422
QandBcom@wideopenwest.com, 2006 [Second Edition] Lakewood, CO: Church
Press www.churchpress.com. 143 pages. Paper. ($15.95 value) $9.95.
Ross, Allen P. RECALLING THE HOPE OF GLORY: Biblical Worship from the
Garden to the New Creation. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2006. 592 pages. Cloth.
$35.99.
Scifres, Mary J. and B. J. Beu (eds.). THE ABINGDON WORSHIP ANNUAL 2008.
Nashville: Abingdon, 2007. 278 pages. Paper. $20.00.
Seymour, D. Bruce. CREATING STORIES THAT CONNECT: A Pastor’s Guide to
Storytelling. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007. 138 pages. Paper. $12.99.
Smith, Ted. A. THE NEW MEASURES: A Theological History of Democratic Prac-
tice. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 340 pages. Cloth. $85.00.
Steinbronn, Anthony J. WORLDVIEWS: A Christian Response to Religious Plural-
ism. Saint Louis: Concordia, 2006. 272 pages. Paper. $16.99.
Sunukjian, Donald R. INVITATION TO BIBLICAL PREACHING: Proclaiming
Truth with Clarity and Relevance. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007. 375 pages.
Cloth. $29.99.
Sweetman, Brendan. WHY POLITICS NEEDS RELIGION: The Place of Religious
Arguments in the Public Square. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2006. 256 pages.
Paper. $19.00.
Thiselton, Anthony C. 1 CORINTHIANS: A Shorter Exegetical & Pastoral Com-
mentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006. 336 pages. Cloth. $30.00.
Tsumura, David Toshio. THE NEW INTERNATIONAL COMMENTARY ON THE
OLD TESTAMENT: The Book of 1 Samuel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007.
720 pages. Cloth. $50.00.
Wilken, Robert Louis (trans. and ed.). ISAIAH: Interpreted by Early Christian and
Medieval Commentators. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007. 618 pages. Cloth.
$45.00.
Wilson, Mark. CHARTS ON THE BOOK OF REVELATION. Grand Rapids: Kregel,
2007. 136 pages. Paper. $21.99.
Since our page numbers are consecutive within a volume, the following key shows
the page number for each reference.
424
78, 78-79, 79-80, 185-186, 187-188, 188-190.
Pentecost (Adams, Carr, Peter, Adams, Carr, Rowold, Peter, Wesselschmidt,
Burreson, Rowold, Marrs, Wollenburg, Wollenburg, Hartung, Hartung,
Maxwell, Marrs, Becker, Becker, Kolb, Schmitt, Kolb, Egger,
Wesselschmidt, Weise), 190-193, 194-196, 196-199, 199-203, 203-204,
204-205, 206-207, 207-209, 209-211, 211-212, 302-303, 303-305, 305-
306, 306-308, 308-309, 309-311, 311-313, 313-314, 315-316, 317-318,
318-320, 320-321, 385-387, 387-389, 389-391.
Reformation (Maxwell), 322-323.
Theological Observers:
Berger: The SP as CEO, CFO, CPO, COO…, 112-115.
Theological Potpourri:
Raabe: Thinking About the Church: A Response to Richard John Neuhaus,
Catholic Matters, 2-8.
Book Reviews
426
(Rehm), 99-100.
HOSEA, Series FOTL 21A/1. By Ehud Ben Zvi (Lessing), 327-328.
HOW ON EARTH DID JESUS BECOME A GOD?: Historical Questions about
Earliest Devotion to Jesus. By Larry W. Hurtado (Gibbs), 214-217.
INSPIRATION AND INCARNATION: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old
Testament. By Peter Enns (Lessing), 224-226.
INTERPRETING BIBLICAL TEXTS: The Prophetic Literature. By Marvin Sweeney
(Lessing), 220-221.
INTERPRETING THE PSALMS: Issues and Approaches. Edited by David Firth
and Philip S. Johnston (Lessing), 231-233.
ISAIAH: God Saves Sinners. By Raymond C. Ortlund and Kent Hughes (Lessing),
227-229.
JEREMIAH. By Louis Stulman (Lessing), 100-102.
THE LORD’S PRAYER: A Text in Tradition. By Kenneth W. Stevenson (Gibbs), 226-
227.
LUTHER ON WOMEN: A Sourcebook. By Susan C. Karant-Nunn and Merry E.
Wiesner-Hanks (Maschke), 96-98.
MARK: Images of an Apostolic Interpreter. By C. Clifton Black (Trapp), 82-83.
THE NEW FACES OF CHRISTIANITY: Believing the Bible in the Global South. By
Philip Jenkins (Ji), 324-325.
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT:
The Book of Proverbs Chapters 1-15. By Bruce K. Waltke (Rowold), 94-96.
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT:
The Book of Proverbs Chapters 15-31. By Bruce K. Walkte (Rowold), 94-96.
NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY: Exposition of the Book of Revelation. By
Simon J. Kistemaker. (Elowsky), 89-91.
OLD TESTAMENT TURNING POINTS: The Narratives that Shaped a Nation. By
Victor H. Matthews (Lessing), 234-236.
PREACHING: An Essential Guide. By Ronald J. Allen (Rossow), 338-339.
PREACHING AND TEACHING FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT: A Guide for the
Church. By Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. (Lessing), 87-89.
THE PROPHETIC LITERATURE. By Davie L. Petersen (Lessing), 102-104.
REFORMING MARY: Changing Images of the Virgin Mary in Lutheran Sermons of
the Sixteenth Century. By Beth Kreitzer (Maschke), 104-106.
THE SELECTED SERMONS OF NORMAN NAGEL: From Valparaiso to St. Louis.
By Norman Nagel (Dost), XXX.
SHOW ME GOD: What the Message from Space is Telling Us About God. By Fred
Heeren (Zimmerman), 98-99.
SYMTH AND HELWYS BIBLE COMMENTARY: Ezekiel. By Margaret Odell
(Lessing), 335-336.
TAKE EAT, TAKE DRINK: The Lord’s Supper through the Centuries. By Ernest
Bartels (Maschke), XXX.
THEOLOGY IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT: The Last Two Hundred Years. By Hans
Schwarz (Ji), 213-214.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO TRUTH? Edited by Andreas Köstenberger (Rossow),
236-237.
428
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430
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