READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
1 Kings 19:11-21
1 Peter 3:8-15
- St. Luke 5:1-11
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Savior. (Titus 1:4)
Who speaks to you from the Gospel reading today, saying:
“Come, follow Me,
Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men”
And with these Words of God, Jesus begins His tradition of
ordaining men for His Holy Office of preaching the Gospel in its purity and
administering the sacraments according to it. This should point us to a deeper
trust in God, that He has not left us in the dark to grope about for His Word
on earth, but has provided men to be pastors to teach us the call to faith, the
call to forgiveness, and the call to eternal life.
When Google was first birthed, so to speak, there were many
who were indignant, especially those teachers and professors in higher
education. They would say, “don’t compare your Google search to my degree”.
Meaning, at that time, that a serious degree within a field of study was weightier
than a cursory Google search.
At that time. Today, Google or any internet search, and a
dedication to the material of a subject for about an hour per day for a couple
years, gets you into a Master's degree level of learning and understanding,
without going to college. In other words, paper certificates don’t mean too
much these days.
Why? Because you can have that piece of paper and still be
untrustworthy. You can be peer reviewed and still be a horrible human being.
Not saying self-study weeds out those sorts of students, but institutional
study no longer is known for producing honorable graduates.
For what we are dealing with in today’s Gospel is the Call
of the Apostles, specifically Peter, James, and John. This is how Jesus works.
With the Apostles, it was easy. Jesus was there and Called them directly. For
us, living in the Church of the Resurrection, the Call is a historically
debated issue.
If Jesus is still Calling men today, how do you authorize
and validate that Call? Or can anyone just say God called them and start
preaching??
Here’s the problem: let’s say you have a hospital
appointment today and it is for a serious issue. You’re anxious and worried.
You go to your appointment and wait in the room.
A little later, Jeff walks in. [No, not you Jeff]. Just a
regular Jeff who doesn’t look like a doctor on TV. A no one. Distant cousin of
my aunt's nephew twice removed. Lovely singing voice.
Maybe he has a lab coat or scrubs on, but you can buy those
on the internet. Would you sit there and pay just anyone to medically examine
you?
Neither would Jesus and His Church. Our Church confessions
teach: “that no one should publicly teach in the Church or administer the
Sacraments unless he be regularly called” (AC XIV). We do not want just anyone
looking at our medical condition, our vehicle’s condition, or our children’s
education. Thus when it comes to the life, death, and eternal life of body and
soul, we should want more!
More comfort. More certainty. More authority. Jesus’s
authority. For that, we need an Apostle. Jesus accomplished His perfect work of
making the Way for sinners out of death, into life, on the cross. And then
creating His Church through the Apostles and Prophets. He sends men to continue
His work of the Gospel in His Church.
What is the Church, on earth, that has the authority to
authorize such a Call? The Church is the congregation of saints, that is, the
entirety of all those who, called out of the lost and condemned human race by
the Holy Spirit through the Word, truly believe in Christ and by faith are
sanctified and incorporated in Christ, to receive God’s Word and Sacrament
(Walther, Kirche und amt, ed. Harrison, p.9)
Which rather complicates things for the man who desires to
preach and teach as a pastor. The divine Office of Holy Ministry, or pastor, is
not a temporary function or civic job. It is a distinct, divine office
instituted by God Himself for all time, in order that we receive the Holy
Spirit on earth, given by the Church on earth.
This Office is the instrument through which Christ promises
to continue His prophetic and priestly work on earth. It is not an elite
priesthood ruling over the laity, but a sacred, public stewardship of the Means
of Grace given to Christ's holy flock, under His authority.
We see God’s careful guard over His Office in the Gospel
today. First, it is Jesus Who initiates the Call to Peter, James, and
John, choosing His own ministers rather than accepting volunteers. St. Peter
does not stand up and give his own testimony, in fact, he rejects Jesus at
first because he knows his testimony is full of sin, not righteousness.
Next, His Ministers are stewards of Scripture, not
innovators of doctrine. Before St. Peter preaches, he must sit and listen
for three years, or so. The pastoral office does not originate from human
wisdom, but from the external Word of Christ.
Then, the church examines ministers to ensure
accountability and reliance on grace. Jesus tests St. Peter with the catch of
fish, invites him to repent, and then Calls him to follow Him. Again, St. Peter
is not self-willed here.
And it would be a problem if he were. Self-appointed leaders
often lack humility towards God’s Church, making it their church. A properly
Called pastor knows they stand there only by grace. Therefore, a proper Call gives
certainty to both pastor and congregation, allowing them to rely on
Christ's established order, and not the fad of the day.
Finally, a true Call demands complete submission to His
mission, not yours. Leaving everything behind and going where you are
needed, not wherever you feel like. Doing only what you are commanded, not
vision casting or reaching out. It is submission to where and how God is
working on earth, today.
As is Jesus’s usual custom, He works in His church on earth,
until His return, through His Word. And His Word is to be rejected. Not because
He wants it rejected, but because the rejection reveals sin. “He came to His
own and His own received Him not”. In sin, we will not accept Jesus. (John
1:11)
And just like St. Peter, we will not accept Jesus’s ways. “Far
be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”, says Peter to Jesus
telling the disciples about His cross. And what did that get Peter? “Get
behind me satan!” (Matt 16:21-23)
Yeah, but that was Peter and not me, you say? We know better
these days, because Jesus already went to the cross.
When you reject or love a pastor because of his personality,
you reject the Word of God that teaches, “to acknowledge those who work
diligently among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. In
love, hold them in highest regard because of their work” in the Gospel (1
Thess 5:12-13).
When you reject a pastor rebuking or speaking against false
doctrine, you reject the Word of God.
When you believe it is your heart or your feelings that move
you to preach to God’s people, you reject the Word of God.
When you believe Jesus does not use Word and Sacrament to
still give today “some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be
evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for works
of ministry and to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the
faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure
of the stature of Christ”, you reject the Word of God (Eph 4:11-13).
When you don’t believe St. Paul writes to us the Lord’s own
commands when he says, “Women are to be silent in the churches. They are not
permitted to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says”, you don’t
believe the Word of God (1 Cor 14:37, 34).
The strength of the Holy Office is the strength of Christ,
His Person, Word, and work. Even if the pastor has lived as a secretly evil man
for some time and this is only identified later or never identified, God’s
people are still assured of Christ’s gifts to them through this office. Such is
the strength of Christ.
In Articles VII and VIII of the Apology of the Augsburg
Confession we read: “We confess . . . that the Sacraments are efficacious even
when evil men administer them, for the ministers act in Christ’s stead and do
not represent their own person, according to the word (Luke 10:16), ‘he who
hears you hears Me.’”
In other words, God works through the means of grace with
such tender love and care that not even the unworthiness of the servants, God
help him, weakens the gifts of the Good Shepherd to His flock.
This Call to the Pastoral Office is a lesson for us. That
lesson is the lesson taught to St. Peter today. The most loving act you can do
for Jesus is to let Jesus be Jesus and let Jesus do Jesus-work. Peter didn’t
want it, in his sin, but Jesus did it anyway.
Therefore, the most loving act that congregational members
can do for their pastor is to diligently receive God’s Word and Sacrament from
him and encourage him to preach and administer the same, if he does not.
Jesus watches over us as a man Who has given an account to
the Father. He has brought His report to God and was judged for it, because He
had taken on all your sins. With His Body and Blood He purchased and won you
from sin, death, and the power of the devil. And He gives that power to men.
Pastors watch over those they are called to serve as men who
must give account. Hebrews 13:7-17 says, “Remember those leading you who
spoke the word of God to you…Obey those leading you and submit to them, for
they watch over your souls as those who must give an account. To this end,
allow them to lead with joy and not with grief, for that would be of no
advantage to you.”
“For Christian perfection consists not in…contempt…but in
dispositions of the heart, in great fear of God, [and] in great faith” (AP
XVI:61)
Amen.
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