Outer Rim Territories

More Priesthood fun times

For the fun of it, I skimmed through the daily business for the upcoming Synodical convention in July. You too can read through the business here: Today's Business. There is clever diversion of critical resolutions and quite a bit of fluff surrounding important and hopefully controversial topics. For a good example, look at the language of the following resolution:

1 To Prepare New Study 1 and Increase Emphasis 2 on Priesthood of All Believers 3 RESOLUTION 1-03 4 5 Overture 1-06–09 (CW, pp. 134–135) 6 7 8 WHEREAS, All Christians are called by God as priests for the nations by virtue of their Baptism (Ex. 19:5, 9 6; 1 Peter 2:9); and 10 11 WHEREAS, Martin Luther declared that all believers are priests called by God to declare the works of God 12 (Luther’s Works, American Edition, vol. 30, pp. 62–65); and 13 14 WHEREAS, The historic doctrine of the LCMS has clearly affirmed the priesthood of all believers as stated 15 in the Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod (adopted 1932): “Since the Christians are the 16 Church, it is self-evident that they alone originally possess the spiritual gifts and rights which Christ has gained for, 17 and given to, His Church. Thus St. Paul reminds all believers: ‘All things are yours,’ 1 Cor. 3:21, 22, and Christ 18 Himself commits to all believers the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Matt. 16:13–19; 18:17–20; John 20:22, 23, and 19 commissions all believers to preach the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments, Matt. 28:19, 20; 1 Cor. 11:23–25. 20 Accordingly, we reject all doctrines by which this spiritual power or any part thereof is adjudged as originally vested 21 in certain individuals or bodies, such as the Pope, or the bishops, or the order of the ministry, or the secular lords, or 22 councils, or synods, etc.” (p. 14); and 23 24 WHEREAS, This doctrine must be clearly reaffirmed and articulated in all parts of our Synod and faithfully 25 applied and elaborated in reference to missionary work entrusted to God’s people; therefore be it 26 27 Resolved, That the Synod in its 2007 convention directs the Commission on Theology and Church 28 Relations in consultation with the Board for Mission Services to prepare a comprehensive study document which 29 clearly presents the biblical teaching of the royal priesthood in the light of the mission challenges of today; and be it 30 further 31 32 Resolved, This resolution be given high priority by the CTCR; and be it finally 33 34 Resolved, That this document be used by the whole church, its congregations and church workers, and by 35 the LCMS seminaries and universities in instructing students about the royal priesthood especially in its relationship 36 to the unreached.

I note this bit especially "commissions all believers to preach the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments, Matt. 28:19, 20; 1 Cor. 11:23–25." I have done some of the work for a paper which someday will be written for Dr. Nagel. At his behest, I pursued a study on the origin of what we today call the "functional view" of the Office of the Holy Ministry. Simply put, anyone who can perform the functions should be able to be a pastor. The definition of these functions varies from denomination to denomination. The implications of this school of thought is both the ordination of homosexuals and women. They can carry out the functions so they should be able to exercise the Office. Of course our rational minds won't extend this view to children who obviously could carry out the same ministry (and often do in their play time! Just ask Ethan!) Unfortunately the paper will take a back seat this summer and perhaps even during vicarage. In my research I found that the view stated by Luther is not entirely representative of his dialectic on the Office. While early Luther pursues an Office subsisting under the priesthood of all believers, later Luther returns to an ecclesiastical emphasis. Both responses are corrective to the particular situations which I will avoid for the moment. So while the above statement is true, it does not tell the whole story of Luther's thought on who the preaching task has been given. To be said it is given to every believer is true insofar as one assumes every believer is that which constitutes the church (as articulated above.) What is missing from the resolution is Luther's own emphasis on apostolic order, that is, the use of pastors as articulated explicitly by later Luther. (Thank you Dr. Nagel... where's the date of the Luther citation?!??! Ha!) This resolution only asks for a CTCR opinion. Dr. Nafzger has written on this very topic for CTQ and responded in a similar way, defining the whole Luther picture of the priesthood. Go and read more of the Today's Business and ask questions.