The Tax-Collector and the Pharisee
As vicarage is complete and there is no assigned fourth-year field work, my family has the priviledge of attending a church of our choosing. We already narrowed the choices to two, maybe three and visited one of those two today. Bethany is an English District congregation. They follow Divine Service Setting One from the hymnal Lutheran Worship. Everything is "by the book". There was a processional, traditional vestments, and sung introit, gradual, and alleluia. Solid hymnody was chosen including Luther's "From Depths of Woe". But the litmus test for any congregation aren't all the delightful orthodox practices but the content of the preaching. Pr. Trouten did a terrific job of distinguishing Law and Gospel in his treatment of the Gospel text for Trinity 11 (Luke 18:9-14). One of the themes was the Tax Collector's emptying of his own virtue and merit, laying himself at the mercy of his saviour. "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!" My mind took a detour for a bit with this idea. We usually consider the Divine Service, the Lord's Word, and His Sacraments as gifts. This language is helpful. I wonder if it is also confusing. Man's gift-giving (at least our birthday parties) usually include superfluous and unnecessary gifts. But our Lord's gifts of Baptism and the Lord's Supper are essential, life-giving gifts. Without them we die and are damned. This is perhaps a weakness of my own preaching of the sacraments. I think I have missed the essential nature of God's gifts. They are not extra or abundances on top of God's other First Article gifts. Quite the opposite, we have nothing in and of ourselves which can provide us with forgiveness, salvation and eternal life. With this thought, I fell right back into Pr. Trouten's train of thought. There is more formation to be done!
