Journal of Lutheran Mission - February 2015

Journal of Lutheran
Mission
February 2015 | Vol. 2 | No. 1
From the President
See How They Love

One Another
Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched him and said to him,
I will; be clean (Mark 1:41).
hroughout Jesus ministry, He had pity

or compassion on people with a variety of
ailments both physical and spiritual. The Greek
word for pity or compassion is splachna, which refers
to the bowels or the inner being of a person. In English,
an expression that is similar is to have butterflies in
the stomach. Splachna does not refer to butterflies or
nerves, but to the deep ache and hurt that a person has
for another person. Quite literally,
your guts can hurt for another
person.
Jesus used this sort of expression
to communicate the compassion that
the Lord God feels for His people.
Jesus has compassion on people that
no one else would have compassion
for. Jesus has compassion on people
(including you and me) who do not
deserve to be shown compassion.
Jesus compassion begins with the
forgiveness of sins and extends to
the entire person. All illness, disease
and other physical necessities are the
result of sin in the world. Jesus compassion, best shown by His death on the cross, ultimately
undoes the result of sin and on the day of His return will
bring about the restoration of all creation in the new
heaven and the new earth.

In the meantime, the Church and individual Christians who are forgiven show mercy and compassion
to each other and to their neighbor near them. Christians show mercy to others because Christ has first
loved them. The ancient pagans remarked of Christians,
See how they love one another. The love and concern Christians showed to each other also extended to
their neighbors in need. The acts of
mercy individual Christians show
to their neighbor is a powerful witness to the world about the love of
Jesus.
This issue of the Journal of
Lutheran Mission focuses on the
topic of mercy. Most of these papers
were presented at the International
Disaster Conference held at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort
Wayne, Ind., in September 2014.
The conference provided a forum
for international Lutheran church
leaders to consider both the theology of mercy and the practical
implications for implementing it in their churches.
May these articles also help you consider the role
of mercy and human compassion in the mission of
the Church.
The acts of
mercy individual
Christians show
to their neighbor
is a powerful
witness to the
world about the
love of Jesus.
Sub cruce,
President Matthew C. Harrison
The Journal of Lutheran Mission

Contributing Editors
Rev. Dr. Charles Arand, faculty, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis
David Berger, faculty, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis
Rev. Dr. Steve Briel, chairman, Board for National Mission, LCMS
Rev. Allan Buss, parish pastor, Belvidere, Ill.
Rev. Roberto Bustamante, faculty, Concordia Seminary, Buenos Aires
Rev. Dr. Albert B. Collver III, director, Office of International Mission Regional Operations
Rev. Thomas Dunseth, director of deaf ministry, Lutheran Friends of the Deaf, New York
Rev. Dr. Charles Evanson, LCMS missionary, Lithuania
Rev. Nilo Figur, area counselor for Latin America and the Caribbean, Lutheran Hour Ministries
Rev. Roosevelt Gray, director, LCMS Black Ministry
Rev. Dr. Carlos Hernandez, director, LCMS Hispanic Ministry
Rev. Dr. John Kleinig, emeritus lecturer, Australian Lutheran College
Rev. Ted Krey, regional director, Latin America and the Caribbean, LCMS
Rev. Todd Kollbaum, director, Rural and Small Town Mission, LCMS
Deaconess Dr. Cynthia Lumley, principal, Westfield Theological House, Cambridge
Rev. Dr. Gottfried Martin, parish pastor, Berlin
Rev. Dr. Naomichi Masaki, faculty, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne
Rev. Dan McMiller, director, Missionary Recruitment, LCMS
Rev. Dr. Tilahun Mendedo, president, Concordia College, Selma
Rev. Nabil Nour, fifth vice-president, LCMS
Rev. Dr. Steve Oliver, LCMS missionary, Taiwan
Rev. Dr. Michael Paul, parish pastor, Evansville, Ind.
Rev. Roger Paavola, president, LCMS Mid-South District
Rev. Dr. Darius Petkunis, rector, Lithuanian Lutheran Seminary
Rev. Dr. Andrew Pfeiffer, faculty, Australian Lutheran College
Rev. John T. Pless, faculty, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne
Rev. Dr. Timothy Quill, faculty, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne
Rev. Dr. David Rakotonirina, bishop, Antananarivo Synod of the Malagasy Lutheran Church
Rev. Dr. Victor Raj, faculty, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis
Deaconess Grace Rao, director, Deaconess Ministry, LCMS
Rev. Geoff Robinson, mission executive, Indiana District
Rev. Dr. Carl Rockrohr, dean, Mekane Yesus Seminary, LCMS Missionary, Ethiopia
Rev. Robert Roethemeyer, faculty, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne
Rev. Dr. Brian Saunders, president, LCMS Iowa East District
Rev. Steve Schave, director, Urban and Inner City Mission, LCMS
Rev. Dr. Detlev Schultz, faculty, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne
Rev. Dr. William Schumacher, faculty, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis
Rev. Bernie Seter, chairman, Board for International Mission, LCMS
Rev. Kou Seying, parish pastor/Hmong ministry, Merced, Calif.
Rev. Alexey Streltsov, rector, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Siberia
Rev. Martin Teigen, parish pastor/Hispanic ministry, North Mankato, Minn.
Rev. Dr. Wilhelm Weber, Jr., bishop, Lutheran Church in Southern Africa
Rev. Dr. E. A. W. Weber, retired professor and rector, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Enhlanhleni (KwaZulu-Natal)
Rev. John Wille, president, LCMS South Wisconsin District
Executive Editor
Rev. Bart Day, executive director, LCMS Office of National Mission
Journal of Lutheran
Mission
February 2015 | Vol. 2 | No. 1
Table of Contents
Answering the Why Question: Martin Luther on Human Suffering
and Gods Mercy by John T. Pless.................................................................................................................... 6
Giving Thanks in Times of Adversity and Strife by William C. Weedon......................................... 14
Sharing the Gospel in Times of Suffering by Carl Fickenscher........................................................ 19
Sharing the Gospel in Times of Suffering by Carl Fickenscher (Spanish version)..................... 25
Having Mercy on Our Brothers by Matthew C. Harrison.................................................................. 31
Mercy in Action by Ross Johnson................................................................................................................. 36
Being the Church in the Age of Post-Literacy by James Neuendorf............................................... 38
Witness, Mercy, Life Together: A Cross-Cultural Perspective by Bart Day................................ 49
Overview of LCMS International Career Missionaries :
What Does This Mean? by Albert B. Collver III...................................................................................... 55
Book Review: Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World
by Lucas Woodford............................................................................................................................................ 60
2015 The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod.

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A periodical of The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synods Offices of National and International Mission.
When suffering and tragedy

occur, Luther warns against the
Answering the Why Question:

Martin Luther on Human
Suffering and Gods Mercy
by John T. Pless
tendency to judge God or to

presume His intentions. Rather,
the Reformer encourages trust
in Him and patient endurance
in this sinful, fallen, temporal
world, faithfully awaiting the
coming of Jesus Christ.
Why?
my opinion, than in philosophical discussions of the

he 13th anniversary of 9/11 and a string
problem of evil.1
of events within the last decade including
Martin Luther was not a stranger to suffering and
tsunamis; Hurricane Katrina; earthquakes in
Haiti, Chile and Japan; flooding in the Philippines; affliction.2 It is the thesis of this paper that the Reformer
mindless shootings in a Connecticut school; tornadoes in does have a good bit to teach us both about what we are
the American Midwest; grisly persecution of Christians authorized by the Word of God to say and how we, who
in Syria and the Ebola epidemic in West Africa are live under the cross of Jesus Christ, respond to those who
suffer in this world. But I
compounded with countless
would like to come to Luther
personal tragedies that press
But who can supply the reason
by first attending to alternapeople to ask the ancient
for the things that he sees the
tive responses.
question, Why is there
suffering? More existentially
Divine Majesty has permitted to
Theodicy: Justification of
put, What did I do to deserve
God or man?
happen?
Why
do
we
not
rather
this?
In 1981, Rabbi Harold KushThese are questions raised
learn with Job that God cannot
ner wrote a best-selling book
to Christians, and before them
be called to account and cannot
When Bad Things Happen
we cannot remain silent. In
be compelled to give us the reason to Good People.3 The book is
venturing into this territory,
an anguish-laden attempt of
we do well to heed the counsel
for everything He does or permits the rabbi to come to terms
of D. Z. Philips:
to happen?
with a painful illness that
Philosophizing about the
claimed the life of his young
problem of evil has become
Luther on Genesis 3:1, in Luthers
son. Struggling with issues of
common place. Theories,
Works, Volume I, p. 144
Gods providence and mercy,
theodices
abound,
all
creation and chaos, the rabbi
seeking either to render
can finally only conclude that those who suffer must forunintelligible, or to justify, Gods ways to human
give God. Believing that Gods intentions might be good
beings. Such writing should be done in fear: fear
but His power is limited seems to be a better solution than
that in our philosophizing, we will betray the evils
people have suffered, and, in that way, sin against
1 D. Z. Philips, The Problem of Evil & the Problem of God (Minneapolis:
them. Betrayal occurs every time explanations and
Fortress Press, 2005), xi. Also see Thomas G. Long, What Shall We Say?
justifications of evil which are simplistic, insensitive,
Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011).
incredible or obscene. Greater damage is often done
2 Here see the fine study by Ronald K. Rittgers, The Reformation of
Suffering: Pastoral Theology and Lay Piety in Late Medieval and Early
to religion by those who think of themselves as its
Modern Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 84124 and
philosophical friends than by those who present
John T. Pless, Martin Luther: Preacher of the CrossA Study of Luthers
Pastoral Theology (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2013).
themselves as religions detractors and despisers.
3 See Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (New
Nowhere is this damage more than in evidence, in
York: Avon, 1981).
Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod
calling into question His goodness. Thomas G. Long sensitively examines but finds wanting the approach of Rabbi
Kushner, noting:
Process theologians like Kushner want to draw an
emphatic picture of God, but they end up producing
merely a pathetic one, a God one might find
endearing, but not worthy of worship. Here is God
in the midst of chaos, whispering, pleading, trying to
persuade a balky world to be better, to be less trivial
and more aesthetically pleasing, but the results are
less impressive.4
In addressing the question of evil and suffering, three
things must be held together: (1) Gods merciful love, (2)
His omnipotence and (3) the far-reaching consequences
of human sin in and on creation. Kushner seeks to rescue
Gods reputation as a God of love by sacrificing His
omnipotence.
If a Lutheran were to do a re-write of Kushners book,
it would have a different title: When Good Things Happen
to Bad People. In the Divine Service, we confess that We
justly deserve Gods present and eternal punishment,
but times of calamity call into question whether we really
believe it. In defiance or moaning resignation, we cry out
Why me? as though God had to explain Himself.5 In
this role reversal, God becomes the defendant and man
the judge.
Theodicy is a term coined from two Greek words theos
(God) and dike (judgment) literally meaning a judgment
of or justification of God. The term became the title of a
book by G. W. Leibnitz (16461716) in which he argued
optimistically that this is the best of all possible worlds.
After the destructive All Saints Day earthquake of 1755
killed thousands in Lisbon, his argument was ridiculed,
but the term would remain. Its use would indicate something of a reversal. Werner Elert writes that, We try to
ensnare God in our moral categories, and we do it with
the best of intentions, because we wish to rationalize our
assertion that he is just and kind.6 But as Elert goes on to
explain, there is a reversal going on. The Creator, who is
the judge, now becomes the defendant, while the creature
now becomes judge over the Creator. Rather than God
4
Long, What Shall We Say? Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith, 75.
In fact, Gerhard Forde writes, The attempt to make God answerable

to the likes of us that is the original sin itself. Gerhard Forde, The
Captivation of the Will: Luther versus Erasmus on Freedom and Bondage
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 64.
Werner Elert, The Christian Ethos. Trans. Carl J. Schindler
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1957), 156.
6
justifying man, man now attempts to justify God.

Recent attempts at theodicy often attempt to excuse
God. After the tsunami, one North American clergyman when interviewed on a national television broadcast
claimed that God had nothing to do with it. In a futile
effort to protect the Lord God from anything that might
cause human beings to fear Him, this cleric tried to
extract God from the picture altogether! The attempt falters, leaving a God who is remodeled according to human
imagination. This is hardly the God known by Job and
Jonah in the Old Testament.
Others would suggest that God is not the cause of suffering, but He merely allows it. If God is almighty, then
it is of little comfort to assert that this all-powerful God
allowed evil when He could have stopped it. To this argument, Oswald Bayer responds:
The first attempt is an effort to soften or give up
completely on the concept of omnipotence. It is thus
often said that God does not cause evil, but simply lets
it happen. But such talk about the bland permitting
(permissio) of evil is too harmless. It assumes the
possibility of a power vacuum or even that there is an
independent power that is in opposition. At the very
least, it assumes that the human being has the power
to stand up against God.7
But God is not impotent. He is God the Father
Almighty maker of heaven and earth as we confess in the
creed. Attempts to get God off the hook, to defend Him
by limiting or weakening His omnipotence end up with
an idol.
Listening to Jesus
Rather than try to construct a philosophical theodicy that
would assign human beings the impossible task of justifying God, we do better to listen to Jesus, as He responds to
the why question in Luke 13:19. Whether it is Pilates
slaughter of the pious as he mingles their blood with the
blood of sacrificial animals, the engineering failure of
the Tower of Siloam or more contemporary examples of
seemingly unjust suffering, such stories prompt us also to
inquire of God, Why? Yet the words of Jesus pre-empt
the question with a stark warning: Unless you repent,
you will all likewise perish (Luke 13:3).
Jesus does not offer a philosophical explanation for the
Oswald Bayer, Martin Luthers Theology: A Contemporary
Interpretation. Trans. Thomas H. Trapp (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
2008): 206207. Also see Oswald Bayer, Gods Omnipotence Lutheran
Quarterly (Spring 2009), 85102.
7
religious massacre in the temple or the random toppling might not perish but have life in His name.
of Siloams tower upon the heads of 18 innocent bystandSpeculation or faith: God in hiding or God
ers. The Lord wastes no time with theoretical distinctions
revealed?
between the malicious banality of the butchery done
by the human will of Pilate and catastrophic collapse of Speculation, it seems, is more comfortable than repenstone and mortar. Jesus words will not let us go there. His tance and lest risky, we imagine, than faith in a God who
kills and makes alive. But
words call for repentance, not
speculation cannot penetrate
speculation.8
God in His absolute hiddenRather than try to construct
Repentance lets go of
ness; it ultimately yields no
the silly questions that we
a philosophical theodicy that
answers. In providing pastoral
would use to hold on to life
would assign human beings the
care to folk vexed by questions
on our own terms, to try to
impossible
task
of
justifying
God,
concerning
predestination,
protect ourselves against the
Luther directs us away from
we do better to listen to Jesus,
God who kills and makes
God in His hiddenness. This
as He responds to the why
alive. The theologian Oswald
Bayer observes that the world
question in Luke 13:19. Whether is precisely where the why
questions
lead.
Instead,
is forensically structured,
it is Pilates slaughter of the pious
Luther points to Gods mercy
arranged in such a way as to
as
he
mingles
their
blood
with
the
revealed in the manger and
demand justification. We find
the cross, coming at God from
blood of sacrificial animals, the
evidence of this, Bayer says,
below. The table talk recorded
engineering failure of the Tower
in the way we defend our own
by Caspar Heydenreich, Feb.
words and deeds.9 What hapof Siloam or more contemporary
18, 1542, sets forth Luthers
pens when we are confronted
examples of seemingly unjust
response to those who use the
with wrongdoing? We attempt
suffering,
such
stories
prompt
us
doctrine of election for specuto justify our behavior. It is a
lation rather than faith. Luther
also to inquire of God, Why?
rerun of Eden: The woman
warns against an epicurean
Yet the words of Jesus pre-empt
whom you gave to be with
me, she gave me of fruit of
the question with a stark warning: approach that is nothing more
than fatalism. Such a fatalisthe tree, and I ate (Gen. 3:12)
Unless you repent, you will all
tic approach casts aside the
Adam blames Eve. But behind
likewise
perish
(Luke
13:3).
Passion of Christ and the Sachis accusation of Eve is the
raments. It is the work of the
accusation of his Creator. To
devil to make us unbelieving
repent is to die to self-justification and turn to the God
who justifies the ungodly by faith alone. He is the God and doubtful. It would be foolish of God to give us His
who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but Son and the Scriptures if he wished us to be uncertain or
instead has sent forth His own Son to pour out His blood doubtful of salvation.
God is truthful, and His truth gives us certainty. A
in atonement for the worlds sin, to be crushed by the
weight of Gods wrath that in His righteousness sinners distinction must be made, Luther asserts, between the
knowledge of God and the despair of God. We know nothing of the unrevealed God, the hidden God. God blocks
8 Gerhard Forde asserts, I heard a rabbi in one of the memorial
the path here. We must confess that what is beyond our
ceremonies for the destruction of the two World Trade Towers declaim
that nothing or no one could convince us that God somehow willed
comprehension is nothing for us to bother about.10 We
the terrible tragedy with all its attendant suffering and loss of life. But
are to stick with the revealed God. He who inquires into
the problem is that such declamations, alas, do not hold. When all is
the majesty of God shall be crushed by it.11 God gives us
said and done, the pain and sorrow and mourning continueAll such
declamations accomplish is to throttle the preaching of the gospel. They
His Son so that we may know that we are saved. Hence
substitute lame explanations and shallow comfort where there should
be proclamation. Gerhard Forde, The Captivation of the Will (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 4445.
10
Oswald Bayer, Living by Faith: Justification and Sanctification (Grand

Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 18.
11
Theodore Tappert, ed., Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel

(Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, nd), 132.
Tappert, 132.
we are to begin at the bottom with the incarnate Son and

with your terrible original sin.12 We are to stick with Baptism and the preaching of Gods Word.
Turning to his own experience, Luther recalls the
consolation he received from Staupitz when vexed by the
question of election. Staupitz directed him to the wounds
of Christ wherein we have the mercy of God revealed;
God is surely there for us. The example of Adam and Eve
is a warning against every attempt to find God apart from
His Word, for such an endeavor is more than spiritually
frustrated; it ends in unbelief, for God wraps Himself in
His promises of mercy and grace, and He will not let sinners access Himself in places other than His Gospel:
Without the Word there is neither faith nor
understanding. This is the invisible God. The path is
blocked here. Such was the answer which the apostles
received when they asked Christ when he would
restore the kingdom to Israel, for Christ said, It is not
for you to know. Here God desires to be inscrutable
and to remain incomprehensible.13
Apart from the baby of Bethlehem who goes on to
suffer and die as the man of Calvary, God remains an
evasive presence whose ways are inexplicable and whose
power is condemnation.
No comfort is to be found in the hidden God (deus
absonditus) but only in the revealed God (deus revelatus) that is in Christ.14 Hence, theology and pastoral care
begin below at manger and cross and not above in the
majesty that terrifies.
Paul desires to teach Christian theology, which
does not begin above in the utmost heights, but
below in the profoundest depths If you are
concerned with your salvation, forget all ideas of
law, all philosophical doctrines, and hasten to the
crib and his mothers bosom and see him, an infant,
a growing child, a dying man. Then you will be able
to escape all fear and errors. This vision will keep
you on the right way. He (Luther) says the same in
the briefest possible formula: To seek God outside of
Jesus is the Devil.15
12
Ibid.
13
Ibid.
14
On Gods hiddenness, see the excellent treatment by Steven Paulson,

Luthers Doctrine of God in The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luthers
Theology, ed. Robert Kolb, Irene Dingel, Lubomir Batka (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2014), 187200.
Gerhard Ebeling, Luther: An Introduction to his Thought, trans. R.A.
Wilson (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972), 235.
15
We are given only to hear the preached God, the

Deus revelatus as Luther puts it it in The Bondage of the
Will:
The God who is preached and revealed to us, who
gives himself to us and is worshipped by us, differs
from the unpreached, unrevealed, not given, not
worshipped God The preached God purifies us
from sin and death, so that we become holy. He sends
his son to heal us. The God hidden in his majesty,
however, does not weep bitterly over death and does
not abolish it, rather this hidden God effects life,
death, and everything in between. As such he has
not become restrained in his Word; rather he has
reserved for himself freedom above everything else.16
Divine mercy in word and deed

Unexplainable tragedies bring pain and chaos. God
leaves the wound open to use the words of Bayer.17 We
cry out to God in lamentation in the face of events that
defy our capacities for understanding. But the anguished
lament ascends from the crucible of faith, not unbelief. It
is a confession of trust in the God who works all things
for the good of those who called (Rom. 8:28). Living in
repentance and faith, we are freed from the inward turn
of speculation that seeks to investigate the hidden God
and instead we trust in the kindness and mercy of God
revealed in Christ Jesus. With such a freedom we are liberated to rely on Gods promises and turn our attention to
works of mercy to bring compassion and relief to those
who suffer in this sinful world.
What is the nature and shape of this mercy? Mercy
is the Lords compassionate action toward sinful human
beings in that He does not leave us alone with our sin,
forsaking us to death and condemnation, but instead rescues us by His death and resurrection to live with Him.
16
Cited from LW 33:319 by Notger Slenczka, God and Evil: Martin

Luthers Teaching on Temporal Authority and the Two Realms
Lutheran Quarterly XXVI (Spring 2012), 1920. Commenting on this
Luther text, Slenczka says The way God works in the rubble of history
might as well be called fate; either way, no person will ever understand
the motives and intentions of the force which drives history (20). In
history the works of God remain opaque (21) as they are hidden to
human beings. Compare with Werner Elerts discussion of fate in An
Outline of Christian Doctrine, trans. Charles M. Jacobs (Philadelphia:
The United Lutheran Publication House, 1927), 3336.
Oswald Bayer, Poetological Doctrine of the Trinity Lutheran
Quarterly (Spring 2001), 56. Also see Oswald Bayer, Toward a
Theology of Lament in Caritas et Reformatio: Essays on Church and
Society in Honor of Carter Lindberg. Edited by David M. Whitford (St.
Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2002): 211220. Also see Bernd
Janowski, Arguing with God: A Theological Anthropology of the Psalms,
trans. Armin Siedlecki (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 2013).
17
Jesus Himself is the source of Gods mercy for humanity.

The Lord puts that mercy into action in His preaching and
miracles which all point to His death and resurrection
which reconcile us to His Father.
Mercy, Bayer reminds us, is not self-evident in this
world.18 We do not see it in nature. We do not see mercy
in the way of life in the world where the consequences of
sin are all too evident. Mercy is what God does (See Ex.
34:6; Ps.103:24; Luke 1:4655; Luke 1:6879; Eph. 2:47;
Titus 3:48; 1 Peter 1:3; 1 Peter 2:10, etc.). Mercy is not
something we earn or deserve; it is a gift. That is why we
speak of Gods mercy in an ethic of gift.19 Who we are
and what we do is established by what we have been given.
Think of the explanation of the First Article of the Creed
in Luthers Small Catechism, where the Reformer confesses
that God the Father Almighty has made me and all creatures given me body and soul, eyes, ears and all my
members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care
of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and
drink, house and home, wife and children, and all that I
have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need
to support this body and life. He defends me against all
danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this
He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy,
without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my
duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.
We show mercy because we have received mercy
from the Triune God Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The
triune God, in His mercy, has created, redeemed and
sanctified us in body and soul. Gods mercy is proclaimed
and enacted. Francis of Assisi is often quoted as saying,
Preach the Gospel; use words if necessary. If Saint Francis said it, he was wrong. The Gospel requires words for
it is through Jesus words words that are spirit and life
that faith is created and sustained. A wordless ministry
of presence is quite presumptuous! We are to proclaim
the deeds of Him who called us out of darkness into His
marvelous light (1 Peter 2:910), and this is nothing less
than preaching the Word of the cross. In the face of inexplicable suffering, we proclaim the promise that there is
18
Mercy is not self-evident. It cannot become an existential or

epistemological principle. On the contrary mercy is actually something
won and is something that, emerging, happens unpredictably. And so
this justifying God is not simply and in principle merciful, so also is
sinful man not simply and in principle on the receiving end of Gods
mercy. Oswald Bayer, Mercy From the Heart Logia XIX (Eastertide
2010), 30.
See Oswald Bayer, The Ethics of Gift in Lutheran Quarterly XXIV
(Winter 2010), 275287.
19
10
no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1) and

that even in these events, God is at work for the good of
His children even though we cannot understand how this
is so.
The mercy that we proclaim and confess is also
demonstrated as God uses us as masks from behind
which He works to deliver mercy to those who suffer.
One particularly potent example of this in Luther is his
1527 letter to the Breslau pastor John Hess on whether
Christians may flee in times on plague. Just a few months
before, in the summer of 1527, the plague struck Wittenberg. The university was relocated to Jena where it would
remain until the following April. Even though the elector ordered Luther and his family to leave Wittenberg in
August, he refused to do so. Instead, he continued lecturing on 1 John to the students who elected to remain in the
town. Along with Bugenhagen and others, Luther would
minister to the sick, dying and grieving. Luther referred
to his home as a hospital. At the end of December after
the epidemic had abated, Luther described his situation
as hanging on to Christ by a thread even as Satan had
bound him with an anchor chain and pulled him into
the depths.20 It was against this backdrop that Luther
answered Pastor Hesss inquiry.
Luther provides an answer from the context of Christian freedom as it is to be applied within ones calling,
where both the offices of faith and love are exercised. Faith
trusts in Gods providential care in the face of danger,
recognizing that ones life is in Gods hands whether one
stays or leaves. Believers are to commend themselves into
Gods keeping whatever course of action they may take.
So Luther writes:
If anyone is bound to remain in peril of death in
order to serve his neighbor, let him commit himself
to Gods keeping and say: Lord, I am in thy hands.
Thou hast obligated me to serve here. Thy will be
done, for I am thy poor creature. Thou canst slay or
preserve me here as well as if I were duty bound to
suffer fire, water, thirst, or some other danger. On
the other hand, if anyone is not bound to serve his
neighbor and is in a position to flee, let him also
commit himself to Gods keeping and say: Dear God,
I am weak and afraid; I am therefore fleeing from
this evil and am doing all that I can to defend myself
against it. Nevertheless, I am in thy hands, whether
See Martin Brecht, Martin Luther: Shaping and Defining the
Reformation 15211532, trans. James L. Schaaf (Minneapolis: Fortress
Press, 1990), 209.
20
in this or some other evil that may befall me. Thy

will be done. My flight will not save me, for evils and
misfortunes will assail me everywhere and the devil,
who is a murderer from the beginning and tries to
commit murder and cause misfortune everywhere,
does not sleep or take a holiday.21
Noting that some insist that the believer must not flee
a deadly epidemic but accept the affliction as Gods judgment enduring whatever fate may come in patience and
unswerving faith, while other believers think it acceptable
to leave if not bound by other obligations, Luther cautions
that neither alternative is the grounds for inflicting the
conscience of those who come to opposing conclusions.
Those who are strong in faith may indeed wait the pestilence out, but they are not to bind those whose faith is
weak to their opinion. Let him who is strong in faith stay,
but let him not condemn those who flee.22
However, one may not flee an infected place if his calling to serve the neighbor is jeopardized. In cases where
ones office that of a pastor, governmental official or
medical worker, for example obligates him to serve the
suffering neighbor, then there is no question in Luthers
mind. He must stay even at the risk of his health and life
in order to discharge duty to the neighbor. Drawing on
Christs words in Johns Gospel (10:1112) about the hireling who forsakes the flock when the thief comes, Luther
concludes that faithful shepherds will not forsake those
committed to their care in order to save their own lives.
Here, Luther observes that there are two ways of fleeing
death. One is to act contrary to Gods Word or to recant
ones confession of faith in order to preserve ones own
life. The other ungodly way of escaping death is to abandon the neighbor in order to save ones self.
This does not mean for Luther that the instinct to preserve ones life is intrinsically wrong. He notes examples
of Old Testament patriarchs and prophets who fled from
death without abandoning their offices. Further, Luther
suggests that if an adequate ministry is provided, not all
pastors need remain in a time of crisis. Luther recalls the
example of the apostle Paul in Damascus (see Acts 19:30)
who slips out of the city to escape persecution. Given the
fact that other ministers remained in Damascus to provide spiritual care for the Christians there, Paul was not
himself bound to remain and face unnecessary danger. In
a matter-of-fact manner, Luther offers the counsel that:
21
Tappert, 236.
22
Ibid., 235.
In time of death one is especially in need of the

ministry which can strengthen and comfort ones
conscience with Gods Word and Sacrament in
order to overcome death with faith. However, where
enough preachers are available and they come to
agreement among themselves that some of their
number should move away because there is no
necessity for their remaining in such danger, I do
not count it a sin because an adequate ministry is
provided, and, if need be, these would be ready and
willing to stay.23
Luther does not call for impulsive heroism when the
neighbors well-being is not at stake: The instinct to
flee death and save ones life is implanted by God and is
not forbidden, provided it is not opposed to God and
the neighbor.24 However, to neglect the well-being of
the neighbor in body or soul is in sin. Not only pastors
but those who hold secular offices needed to protect the
common good are bound to stay at their posts. Drawing
on Gods institution of governing authorities (Rom. 13:6)
and parenthood (1 Tim. 5:8), Luther notes that these
responsibilities override personal comfort and safety:
No one may forsake his neighbor when he is in trouble.
Everybody is under obligation to help and support his
neighbor as would himself like to be helped.25 Having
recently lectured to his university students on I John,
Luther cites 1 John 1:1417 where the apostle teaches that
failure to love amounts to murder to instruct his readers
as to what is at stake here. The Fifth Commandment binds
us to care for the neighbor, helping and supporting him in
every physical need. Godliness, Luther says, is nothing
but divine service, and divine service is service to ones
neighbor.26 Christ hides behind the mask of the sick and
needy to receive this service from us. To run away from
an infected neighbor is to run away from Christ Himself.
Luthers letter to Pastor Hess gives expression to the
place of faith and love in relationship to vocation. Faith
that trusts in Christ alone is driven neither by foolish
impulsiveness nor cowardice but by the confidence that
living or dying, our lives are in the Lords hands. The
language of Luthers morning and evening prayers is
expressed in the realization that God gives His holy angels
23
Ibid., 232.
24
Ibid., 233.
25
Ibid., 233
26
Ibid., 239. For a helpful discussion of Luthers understanding of

the positive demand of the fifth commandment, See Albrecht Peters,
Commentary on Luthers Catechisms: Ten Commandments, 226232.
11
charge over us. They watch over us in times of danger

and protect us in ways that exceed our imagination. Love
will risk all things even life itself to do good to the
neighbor in need.
Praying for mercy

In the face of suffering, we are bold to proclaim the mercy
of God in the cross of Christ Jesus, to enact this mercy in
our calling to serve the neighbor in need, but also to pray.
The Lords Prayer, to use the words of Georg Vicedom, is
a prayer that spans the world so in one sense the whole of
this prayer is prayed out of the crucible of suffering, but
it is in particular the Seventh Petition that Luther accents
when it comes to the Christians supplication in the face
of evil.
Luther, in the Large Catechism, sees the Seventh
Petition as directed against Satan who obstructs everything for which we ask: Gods name or honor, Gods
kingdom and will, our daily bread, a good and cheerful
conscience etc. In this petition where we summarize the
Lords Prayer, he tutors believers to call upon the heavenly
Father for rescue from every evil of body and soul, to
use the language of the Small Catechism. Luther expands
this in the Large Catechism:
This petition includes all the evil that may befall us
under the devils kingdom: poverty, disgrace, death,
and, in short all the tragic misery and heartache, of
which there is so incalculably much on earth. For
the devil is not only a liar but a murderer as well,
he incessantly seeks our life and vents his anger
by causing accidents and injury to our bodies. He
crushes some and drives others to injury; some he
drowns in water, and many he hounds to suicide or
other dreadful catastrophes (LC III:115, K/W, 455).27
The recognition of the presence of evil and the inevitability of suffering, Luther says, drives us to pray this
petition that Jesus has given us.
God has a love-hate relationship with afflictions. God
both loves and hates our afflictions. He loves them when
they provoke us to prayer. He hates them when we are
driven to despair by them.28 Luther then goes on to spe27
Here see Albrecht Peters: While the devil appeared in the Sixth
Petition as a lying and seductive tempter, he now approaches as the
destroyer of all the living, as the murderer from the beginning onward.
He ultimately stands behind the diversity of evil. Against him all the
individual petitions of the Lords Prayer are directed Albrecht Peters,
Commentary on Luthers Catechisms, trans. Daniel Thies (Saint Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 2011), 2004.
28
Tappert, 87.
12
cific biblical references to drive home this point. Coupling

Ps. 50:23 (The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me) and Ps.51:17 (The sacrifices of God
are a broken spirit and a contrite heart), Luther seeks to
demonstrate that even in the brokenness of affliction, the
believer renders his life to God in the confidence that the
Lord will remain true to His Word and not cast off those
who hope in His mercy. Luther does not attempt to trivialize the pain, nor does he offer stoic-like advice to endure
detached from the reality of ones situation. Instead, the
broken heart is offered up to God knowing that the Lord
hears the gentle sighs of the afflicted.29
Two governments and Gods mercy

Another aspect of Luthers response to evil and suffering
is seen in his understanding of the two kingdoms or the
two governments.30 Both of these governments or realms
are under lordship of the triune God but he is working
with different means and toward different ends. Through
the government of His right hand, God is establishing an
eternal kingdom through the preaching of the Gospel for
the forgiveness of sins. Through the government of the
left hand, God is not bestowing salvation, but working to
curb evil, to do damage control so that this old creation
does not completely collapse into chaos. Evil itself does
persist in this old world, and it will not be done away
with until Christ Jesus returns and brings about the new
heaven and earth (see Is. 65:1725; 2 Peter 3:13; Rev. 21:1
25) In the meantime, He uses various callings or stations
in life within the government of His left hand to curb evil
both through the punishment of evil doers (Rom. 13) and
caring bodily for those who suffer the effects of evil. Here
think of physicians, nurses, rescue workers and the like.
These offices are rightly confessed as good works of God,
instruments through which God does His work of limiting the effects of evil in a fallen world that awaits its final
redemption at the Day of the Lord.
Luthers pastoral response to suffering is multifac29
Ibid.
30
The literature on the two governments or two kingdoms is extensive.

The treatments by Gerhard Ebeling are particularly helpful. See The
Necessity of the Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms in Gerhard Ebeling,
Word and Faith, trans. James W. Leitch (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1963), 386406 and The Kingdom of Christ and the Kingdom of the
World in Gerhard Ebeling, Luther: An Introduction to His Thought,
trans. R. A. Wilson (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970), 175191. Also
see James Nestingen, The Two Kingdoms Distinction: An Analysis
and Suggestion Word & World 19(Summer 1999), 268275. For the
purposes of this paper, the article by Notger Slenczka, God and Evil:
Martin Luthers Teaching on Temporal Authority and the Two Realms
Lutheran Quarterly XXVI (Spring 2012), 125 is especially significant.
eted and rich with evangelical insight. Unlike those who

attempt to pry into heaven in search of an answer to
the Why? question, Luther points to the Who? and
What then? The God who is Lord over wind and wave,
who kills and makes alive, is none other than the baby
who rests on Marys lap and hangs on a Roman cross. In
Him, we know the good and gracious will of God to save
sinners by forgiving them their sins. He is the God who is
for us in every way, and on the Last Day, He will raise the
dead and give eternal life to all believers in Christ. In the
meantime, He calls us by the Gospel to walk by faith, not
sight, trusting in His promises. As we wait for that final
day, we are not idle. The mercy we have received turns
our lives toward those in need of mercy. Indeed, hidden
in their suffering is the Lord Himself. To care for them is
to care for Christ.
The Rev. John T. Pless is assistant professor of Pastoral

Ministry and Missions at Concordia Theological Seminary,
Fort Wayne, Ind., where he also serves as director of field
education.
13
Giving Thanks in Times of

Adversity and Strife
How can we remain

trusting and grateful even
during times of disaster?
by William Weedon
They sing of Christ and believe in the comfort of Christ

against the darkness. They hold tight to the joy of what
will be when Christ renews all things.
thanks for the new life of Baptism, for the gift of the Saviors body and blood, for our forgiveness and eternal life.
is indeed right and salutary and that People loved by God, these are gifts that are stable. They
we should at all times, and in all places, are secure. They cannot be shaken when everything else
give thanks to you holy Lord, almighty in your life wobbles and falls to the ground. The Church
Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. goes on speaking and singing and proclaiming out into
At all times, in all places.
the world these unshakable promises of Christ. Through
Really? When the tornado or the
war and bloodshed, through tempest
typhoon has swept through and oblitand plague, through persecution and
We
are
a
people
who
erated houses, businesses, church,
death, she goes on raising to heaven
lives? When plague snatches children
belong to an age that is a song of thanks and praise for Jesus
from their parents arms? And parents
Christ, who overcame death from the
truly coming and that
from their children? And neighbor
grave and who opened the kingdom
all
will
finally
see,
but
begins to look at neighbor in fear
of heaven to all believers.
and suspicion? When war arises and
The Church is paradise restored.
that now is hidden and
sweeps over an area and brings what
Have you ever thought about how
often hidden deeply
war always brings: rape, pillaging,
Isaiah describes what Eden really
torture and bloodshed? When the
was? Look at these words: The Lord
beneath suffering.
earth trembles beneath your feet and
comforts Zion. He comforts all her
houses topple, roads lay in pieces and
waste places and nature wilderness
even water is hard to come by? When fire sweeps out of like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord. Now,
the mountains and consumes houses and lives? When do you know your Hebrew parallelism? Whats it then to
weeping and sorrow become your daily bread, such are be like Eden, like the garden of the Lord? Look! Joy and
really times and places for thanksgiving? Really?
gladness will be found in her thanksgiving, in the voice
Really! The words tumble off our lips, week in and of a song. She sings out the Lords comfort for Zion, for a
week out, and we seldom think how radical they are, how suffering people, a comfort that reaches the waste places,
the whole Church of Jesus Christ is solidly grounded all the places where her life has become wilderness and
in the age to come. Thats what you are. Thats what the desolation. She has the power to change things, and she
Church of Jesus Christ is. Its a colony from the future. We changes them by singing. She changes them by singing
are a people who belong to an age that is truly coming praise and thanksgiving to God. She makes the desert
and that all will finally see, but that now is hidden and bloom as she trumpets the promises of God.
often hidden deeply beneath suffering. The Church of
So, lets look at this in Lutheran history. What does
Jesus Christ has stood for these 20 centuries before high it look like in operation? Lets look at a small town in
altar or lowly table, and she has sung out her praise and Westphalia, Germany, in 1597 called Unna and observe
her thanks to God, the Father, for the gift of His Son, a tragedy in the making and its pastors response. AnyJesus Christ. Come hell or high water, the Church gives body know the name of the pastor? The pastors name was
It
14
Nicolai. He saw his congregation decimated by plague.

Think about this in your life 300 funerals in his congregation in the month of July alone! And it didnt stop.
By the time the plague ran its course in January 1598, a
course of seven months, more than 1,000 lives were lost. I
suppose he could have fled the plague, but then again he
had Luthers words. Luther wrote in his little document
on whether you could flee the plague. He says, Those
who are engaged in a spiritual ministry such as preachers and pastors must likewise remain steadfast before the
peril of death. We have a plain command from Christ, the
good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, but the
hireling sees the wolf coming and flees.
When people are dying, they need a spiritual ministry
that strengthens and comforts their consciences by Word
and Sacrament, and in faith, overcomes death. So, Nicolai
wasnt about to flee; he stayed put, and he preached and
he kept on baptizing because children still were born. He
kept on administering the Sacrament every Sunday, and
he prayed for his congregation over and over again. He
visited the sick and the dying constantly, and he buried
some more. And what do you think he also did? Well,
what would else would you do if you had 300 funerals
a month hmm what would you do? He decides to
write a book!
The name of the book is Freudenspiegel (Mirror of Joy),
meaning the joy of eternal life. Its a great book. Here are
the opening words:
As often as I call to mind, the surpassing comfort
of the promise of eternal life in our heavenly home,
my heart bursts out with joy, and my soul rejoices in
God my Savior. Oh, think of it, there we believing
Christians will behold with joyful eyes, the almighty
King of glory, our only Redeemer and Savior, Jesus
Christ, who for us trampled the ancient serpent.
There, we will gather with the holy patriarchs,
prophets, and apostles, and there we will see again
with overflowing joy those we loved on earth,
father, mother, brothers, and sisters, husband and
wife, children, and all our acquaintances who have
blessedly fallen asleep in the Lord and have gone
before us in the true faith. There, God will wipe
away all tears from our eyes, and He will transform
our morning into dancing. He will clothe us with
joy so that our hearts rejoice for all eternity, and this
awesome joy no one can ever take from us. There we
will enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the
living God. We will be brought into the company of
many thousands of angels and to the assembly of the

first born who are written in heaven, and in that place,
joy will simply overwhelm us as we contemplate the
awesome gifts that our God has bestowed on us. To
think that heaven should be ours, that everything
which Christ has is now our imperishable heavenly
treasure. God Himself will be our very great reward,
our temple, our light, and our awe. Why would we
trade all the worlds perishable splendor, honor, joy,
and glory for what God has in store for us? Our
future is that we will see and laugh together with the
holy angels. Indeed, the entire heavenly host will call
us blessed because we believed in Jesus Christ and
trusted His unfailing word even today.
Okay, thats just the opening of the book! It goes on
like that, page after page, joy after joy, and I will tell you
my personal favorite is the middle of the book. He is just
talking about Adam and Eve and paradise, and he says,
How did they know that they were naked? This one just
blows me away. He said, Well, they knew that they were
naked because their bodies stopped shining. Because of
sin, all of us had fallen short of the glory of God, and our
bodies no longer shined the way God meant them to and
the way they will in the Resurrection. Ive never thought
about Genesis the same way again. Anyway, its a great
book, but thats just the beginning, and yet you can see it
puts a smile on your face, thanksgiving in your heart. And
guess what else it does? It puts a song on your lips.
Nicolai also wrote a few songs. One is known as the
queen of the Lutheran chorales, a spiritual bride-song of
the soul who believes in Jesus Christ, our heavenly bridegroom, based on Psalm 45, a song of the bride of Christ
to, her beloved bridegroom. We are not going to sing all
of it today, because we dont have time to sing all these,
but we are going to sing a little piece of it. He wrote a
second hymn thats the midnight call of the wise virgins
who greet the bridegroom. Were going to sing this one
now. Okay, everybody, lets go:
Almighty Father, in Your Son / You loved us when not yet
begun / Was this old earths foundation! Your Son has ransomed us in love / To live in Him here and above: This is
Your great salvation. / Alleluia! Christ the living, / To us
giving Life forever, / Keeps us Yours and fails us never!
O let the harps break forth in sound! / Our joy be all with
music crowned, / Our voices gladly blending! / For Christ
goes with us all the way / Today, tomorrow, evry day! /
His love is never ending! / Sing out! Ring out! / Jubilation!
15
Exultation! Tell the story! / Great is He, the King of Glory!

(LSB 395:45).
Do you see what he did? He took the promises, and
he wrapped them up in music, and he gave them to his
people, so they could take them in hand and throw them
at death and throw them at fear, so that they could rejoice
in God and give thanks to the Father in all circumstances.
Lets do the other one too. Last verse of this one. Here
we go:
Now let all the heavens adore Thee; / Let saints and angels
sing before Thee / With harp and cymbals clearest tone. /
Of one pearl each shining portal, / Where dwelling with the
choir immortal, / We gather round Thy radiant throne. / No
eye has seen the light, / No ear has heard the might / Of Thy
glory. / Therefore will we eternally, / sing hymns of praise
and joy to thee (LSB 516:3).
In the face of unspeakable tragedy, to families where
mothers had lost sons, and daughters their fathers, and
sisters their brothers, and brothers their sisters, and
husbands their wives, with absolutely no family left
untouched by the horror of death, square in the midst of
unspeakable tragedy, faithful Pastor Nicolai wrote and
sang the hope of heaven into the hearts of his people. Its
the fulfillment of in at all times and in all places. Is it any
wonder that these two pieces became known as the king
and queen of the two chorales? They just are amazing for
what they give us. I dont know about you, but I think that
it is high treason for a Lutheran, for any Christian, to be
deprived of the comfort and the joy of such great hymns,
and they abound. Those are just two, but in Reformation
hymns, they shine at its finest. They sing of Christ and
belief in the comfort of Christ against the darkness. They
hold tight to the joy of what will be when Christ renews
all things. They proclaim Christ is your Christ, and Christ
will come again, and they add the promise, And He did
it all for you!
So, they do what the Communion preface summons
us to do. They become the vehicles for giving thanks to
God, even in times of tragedy and loss. These songs are
like Davids stones aimed at Goliaths head. So, they really
capture what St. Paul sang about: Whom shall separate
us from the love of Christ? You think trouble is going to
do it? Tribulation? Distress? Persecution? What about not
having anything to eat? Or not having any clothes? Or
danger? As it written, for your sake, we are being killed all
day long. We are counted like sheep to be slaughtered. No,
in all these things, we are more than conquerors through
16
Him who loves us. Im sure that neither death nor life, nor
angels, nor rulers, nor things present or things to come,
nor fires, nor death, nor anything in all creation is ever
going to be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus, our Lord.
So, there was another one. His name was Paul Gerhardt. He is known as the man sifted in Satans sieve.
Well, he happened to be a good preacher. So, all the good
confessional Lutherans hated him because he kind of
showed them up. He didnt like to argue and fight. The
real hard-nosed people thought he wasnt hard-nosed
enough, and he was unyieldingly Lutheran. When the
prince said, You are going to stop preaching that doctrine of the Lutheran Lords Supper, or you are going to
lose your job, buddy, he said, So fire me. The prince did.
After losing four of his five children and his wife, Gerhardt had only one son left, and he had been restored to
the ministry of the Church for just about two years when
he was approaching his 70s. In his 70th year, he decided
to write a will. He didnt have anything to give his son,
no earthly goods at all, except for some pieces of advice.
Im not going to actually give you the pieces of advice, but
listen, listen to the opening of this mans will:
After reaching the 70th year of my life and truly
having a joyful hope in my loving and gracious God
that in a short time He will deliver me from this
world and lead me into a much better life than Ive
had so far on this earth, I thank God ahead of time
for all the kindness and faithfulness He has given me
and demonstrated, even from my mothers womb,
in body and soul, everything until this hour. I pray
from the bottom of my heart that He would grant
me, when my last hour comes, a happy departure
and take my soul into His fatherly hand. Give my
body a gentle rest on the earth until He returns on
the wonderful judgment day, and then I will be with
all my family whom have died and with those who
will die in the future, and I will awaken to see my
precious Lord Jesus in whom I believe even though I
have never seen Him. I will see Him then, face to face.
Are you shocked then to learn that a man who could
write that at the end of such a miserable ministry would
be key in leading us to sing in thanksgiving to God at all
times and in all places? Of course not. Here is another
one. Its not as popular as the two that we just did, but I
want you to sing it with me again, and I need you up here
again to go verse by verse with us here. Its a beautiful little
tune too. Think of that life that I just described to you,
and then think of these words:

Why should cross and trial grieve me? / Christ is near /
With His cheer; / Never will He leave me. / Who can rob me
of the heaven / That Gods Son / For me won / When His life
was given?
When lifes troubles rise to meet me, / Though their weight
/ May be great, / They will not defeat me. / God, my loving
Savior, sends them; / He who knows / All my woes / Knows
how best to end them (LSB 756:12).
Think of this verse:
God gives me my days of gladness, / And I will / Trust Him
still / When He sends me sadness. / God is good; His love
attends me / Day by day, / Come what may, / Guides me
and defends me.
From Gods joy can nothing sever, / For I am / His dear lamb,
/ He, my Shepherd ever; / I am His because He gave me / His
own blood / For my good, / By His death to save me.
Now in Christ, death cannot slay me, / Though it might, /
Day and night, / Trouble and dismay me; / Christ has made
my death a portal / From the strife / Of this life / To His joy
immortal! (LSB 756:35).
Thank you. Do you notice the theme of joy again? This
is a hymn written by a man who had lost so much, who
had suffered so much, but all he could think to do is sing
to praise to God in his time of suffering, in his hour of
disaster. I could point you to so many more in our hymn
book, old and new. We are going to do In Thee Is Gladness. This is the joy of the Lord as your strength, like
Nehemiah said. Here we go:
In Thee is gladness / Amid all sadness, / Jesus, sunshine of
my heart. / By Thee are given / The gifts of heaven, / Thou
the true Redeemer art. / Our souls Thou wakest, / Our
bonds Thou breakest; / Who trusts Thee surely / Has built
securely; / He stands forever: Alleluia! / Our hearts are
pining / To see Thy shining, / Dying or living / To Thee are
cleaving; / Naught can us sever: Alleluia!
If He is ours, / We fear no powers, / Not of earth nor sin nor
death. / He sees and blesses / In worst distresses; / He can
change them with a breath. / Wherefore the story / Tell of
His glory / With hearts and voices; / All heaven rejoices / In
Him forever: Alleluia! / We shout for gladness, / Triumph
oer sadness, / Love Him and praise Him / And still shall
raise Him / Glad hymns forever: Alleluia! (LSB 818:12).
Do you notice that theme? And well raise Him glad
hymns forever? Thats what heavens all about. When you
get there, thats what its going to be: singing the praises
of the Lord forever, in joy and gladness. Right now, the

Church on earth gives a foretaste, a teasing taste of that
blessedness of that heaven itself. That is the very gift of
the Churchs worship in times of disaster. She shouts for
gladness. She triumphs over sadness, loving and praising
and still raising our wonderful triune God. She can do
this because of the one before whom she stands and for
whom she sings. He is no stranger to suffering. He knows
what it is to be a refugee in a foreign land, hunted down.
He knows what it is to go without food and of hunger. He
knows what it is to be homeless. He knows what it is to
be so tired that you just cant put one more foot in front
of the other. He knows what it is to have friends die and
to cry beside their bodies. He knows, in His own flesh,
the hatred of those who think that they offer Gods service by dishing out torture and violence. He knows it all,
and through it all, His love did not fail. His love remains
strong and secure and firm through it all. So, He has a life
that does not end, and that is where He reaches us, and
that is what the gift of the Church is, a gift of a love so
strong that no hatred thrown its way is going to be able
to overcome it, a joy so big, and the forgiveness of sin and
gift of eternal life that nothing that is tossed our way will
be able to destroy it.
We have done a few examples from standard Lutheran
hymnody, but a few years ago, one of my close friends,
Randy Asbury, went to Sudan and visited with Lutherans
there who many times suffered greatly from their Muslim
neighbors, and he learned there a song they sing as they
face intense persecution. I wish I could sing it for you. I
cant. Look at the English words though:
Come and see. Come and see. Hallelujah!
Nothing can defeat our God. Hallelujah!
Nothing can defeat God.
Come and see. Love is filled. Hallelujah!
Nothing can defeat God. Hallelujah! Nothing can
defeat God.
Though you dont have food? Hallelujah!
defeat God.
Though you dont have your mother? Hallelujah!
defeat God.
Though you dont have your father? Hallelujah!
defeat God.
Though you dont have your son? Hallelujah!
Nothing can defeat God. Halleluiah! Nothing can
defeat God.
17
This is the Church. She goes on singing and offering

praise and thanksgiving to the Father of our Lord, Jesus
Christ, in one unbroken sacrifice of praise. This is the
big point I hope you get: When things are going pretty
good for you in your life, thats the time for you to practice the praise, the hymns, the songs, so that you can
continue to sing them when tragedy strikes, whether its a
big communal tragedy like you all are here to talk about,
the horrible mess that we just heard of in Lebanon and
Syria, or whether its the doctor walking back in to your
room and having a look on his face so that he doesnt
really need to say anything else. All of liturgy and hymnody to God is practice. The real moment will come that
we are all rehearsing for, because what we want to do as
the people of God is to march our way through the gate of
death, singing its defeat, singing sins forgiveness, singing
Christs victory in life that has no end. We want to look its
horror and its stink right in the face, and as the Church of
God announce and declare, You have not won. You have
won nothing at all. We are baptized. We live on promises
stronger than you. So, spend the time when things are
not falling apart, singing and teaching yourself and others
the songs that will sustain you when everything begins to
fall apart.
Will you pardon me if I throw one more at you? Its
an old German hymn. Luthers musician, Johann Walter,
wrote the hymn. Its got a lively tune written by Pistorius. Pistorius is really important, because he had to live
through a bit of the ups and downs of 30 Years War. What
happens to your worship when you dont have musicians?
Your music gets simple, but it doesnt stop singing. The
joy doesnt stop. You may not have all the orchestra up
there to make the beautiful sound that you are accustomed to, but you still sing, and you still bless God. So,
were going to close by singing together the words of The
Bridegroom Soon Will Call Us. This is a real treasure of a
hymn. It goes like this:
The Bridegroom soon will call us, / Come to the wedding feast. / May slumber not befall us / Nor watchfulness
decrease. / May all our lamps be burning / With oil enough
and more / That we, with Him returning, / May find an
open door!
Its a dance, and look, the joy keeps unfolding verse by
verse. Next verse:
martyrs greet us / In that celestial land.

The Church is never alone. In the Church, its always
together. Thats why I dislike the hymn I Come to the
Garden Alone. Nonsense! No one comes to the garden
alone! You come to the garden with all of Gods people!
And so when youre welcomed home, youre not alone.
The patriarchs are there. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph.
Hes there to throw your arms around. Joseph! The story
of Joseph, right? Disaster after disaster! How can God
possibly bring good out of this? Sitting in prison, wondering, Has God forgotten me? And then the exaltation,
and it all comes out and paints such a picture of Jesus. Hes
there waiting to meet you, to put those arms around you
and say, See, it comes out good in the end! You meant
it for evil. God meant it for good for the saving of many
lives, lives to this day.
Verse 3:
There God shall from all evil / Forever make us free, / From
sin and from the devil, / From all adversity, / From sickness,
pain, and sadness, / From troubles, cares, and fears, / And
grant us heavnly gladness / And wipe away our tears.
And it has to end in music because thats where it is.
In that fair home shall never / Be silent musics voice; / With
hearts and lips forever / We shall in God rejoice, / While
angel hosts are raising / With saints from great to least /
A mighty hymn for praising / The Giver of the feast (LSB
514:14).
At all times and in all places, giving thanks to God
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Thats what the Church
does at times of disaster and in times of peace: she
prepares us to face the moments of calamity and the joys
of our sins forgiveness and in the certainty of deaths
defeat and in the joy of eternal life. Thats it.
The Rev. William Weedon is the LCMS director of Worship
and International Center chaplain.
There shall we see in glory / Our dear Redeemers face; / The

long-awaited story / Of heavnly joy takes place: / The patriarchs shall meet us, / The prophets holy band; / Apostles,
18
Sharing The Gospel in

Time of Suffering
by Carl C. Fickenscher II
Does Gods Word give us

anything to say in times
of disaster?
n the spring of 2005, just a few months after the very clear that he was emotionally and perhaps even
devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean, Dec. 26, spiritually very empty. Feeling the trauma to his parish
2004, I had the I think I can call it the pleasure and imagine 380 funerals in a very short period of time
or the joy (while it was mixed with a lot that wasnt joy and the kind of toll that took! as we sat with him in
or pleasure at all) of touring, along with Synod President his office (he was behind his desk and we were around
Harrison (who at the time was executive director of the desk in front of him and asking questions), frankly,
LCMS World Relief and Human Care), those places in it was a matter of sensitivity. It couldnt be like doing an
India and Indonesia that were hit very hard. Our mission interview. It was very clear that he was having difficulty,
was certainly not to fix things by any means. We clearly even five months later, talking to us at all, though he was
understood that we were there to listen and to learn, and very gracious to invite us to be there. The words came so
it was a learning experience if ever
painfully, so slowly.
there could be one! It was a listening
He said when the tsunami
experience. In the process, many
Many things we might happened, it was a Sunday
images were exceedingly memorable
morning. A week went by before
say are anything but
and painfully so.
Sunday worship services again.
comforting, but the
And to me, the most memorable,
The following Sunday he did not
cross
of
Christ,
fully
and in a way the most painful, image
feel up to addressing the disaster in
actually was one day when we went
the sermon. In fact, he said it was
understood with all its
to a fishing village in southern India,
more than a month before he felt he
ramifications, always
near the southern tip of India, and
could address it in a sermon at all.
gives us a word of
we visited a particular parish there.
And even now as he described it,
comfort to share.
We arrived in the village, and the first
he described feeling very empty in
thing we were shown was essentially
addressing the question, even from
the vacant lot next to the Roman
Gods Word. So traumatic! Such a
Catholic parish house, which had become a cemetery for stressful event for him, he felt it was! And we understand
380 members of this parish. It had been a vacant lot (or that. Well, we actually cant begin to understand that, but
maybe it hadnt been vacant but had become vacant when we imagine. He had a difficult time finding anything that
the water rushed in), but now it was filled with the graves he felt Gods Word would say to this situation. Thats really
of members of this relatively small Catholic congregation the question Id like to begin with: Does Gods Word really
in this fishing village. We then went in and visited with give us anything to say in these times of suffering?
the local parish priest, a man in his thirties who had been
We know the answer is going to be yes. But we can
there for just three or four years.
imagine that in some moments, in some situations, its
But that had included the very significant Sunday difficult to find what Gods Word says. Its also true that
morning about five months before. Obviously some Gods Word gives us a lot of cautions about some things
time had passed, and that was a chance for him to have not to say.
some perspective, but in his sharing with us, it was still
Its interesting: When you think about the Scriptures
19
in light of situations like this, its not quite as easy as we

might think to find passages that really apply. You know
that the Bible unquestionably does talk about all kinds of
disasters. It talks about all kinds of crises. It talks about
huge kind of cataclysms like there was a really big flood
once, and it wiped out a whole lot of people! And there
have been plagues ten of them in one shot once, and
other plagues like in Jerusalem in the days of David when
thousands were killed. And thereve been wars that have
ravaged Gods people, and theres been fire sent down
from heaven at dramatic moments when it would wipe
out 50 soldiers once and 50 soldiers again and 50 soldiers
a third time. Countless other such disasters occur in Holy
Scripture. So youd think the Bible would have answers for
almost any crisis situation.
The interesting thing, though, is that as we begin to
unpack those particular narratives, those historic events
described in Scripture that describe these kinds of
situations, the truth is, most of them dont fit all that well
into the kinds of situations that weve been talking about.
If you stop to think about that, I think its really true. Those
situations in Scripture, for the most part, are different
from the situations we address in one of several ways.
Sometimes in Scripture theres a clear explanation about
God doing something as a direct punishment for some
kind of sin. God sends the Babylonians to carry Judah off
into captivity, and we know why. God sends a flood, and
we know why. Theres direct, clear punishment involved.
On the other hand, for us, as we deal with disasters today,
theres usually a total absence of explanation.
You think about the situation with Job. Although Job
never gets an explanation, weve got one. We know theres
that heavenly dialogue ahead of time that Job is unaware
of even at the end of the book. In the Bible, we usually
get some kind of explanation or some clear word that
a disaster is a direct punishment for sin. In our day, we
dont get that explanation. Of course, there are lots of
other disasters or near-disasters in Scripture where God
as Christ Himself during His ministry delivers people
right there on the spot from starvation or from illness or
from some other kind of suffering. But we usually dont
see that happen in the disasters we face today.
Some Law for the preacher to hear

With most of the crisis situations we address, we dont get
a clear word if it is a punishment for sin nor do we get
any other kind of explanation. And we arent seeing Jesus
enter the scene and still the storm. So when you stop to
20
think, it is probably not as easy as we might presume to

find within the Bible ready, easy answers for suffering. Of
course, the Bible has lots to say about these situations, but
its not as obvious as one might think.
This leads us to some important cautions. Well
identify these as donts. This is some Law for the
preacher to hear. Well also look at Gospel that the
preacher absolutely does have to proclaim. But for now,
lets talk about some cautions, some donts, the six of
them are wake-up calls in terms of Gods Word in what
it doesnt say or tells us not to say in times of responding
to suffering. Some of these are fairly obvious. In our
theology, theyre fairly clear, but theyre not so obvious to
everybody else.
1. Dont presume to read Gods mind.

This of course is the matter of the Deus absconditus (the
hidden will of God). Perhaps some of you here from
the United States remember, in August 2012, Hurricane
Isaac was coming out of the Caribbean and looked as if
it was going to hit the mainland of the U.S. somewhere.
Eventually it did. But it looked initially as if it was headed
for Florida, and then it turned away and actually hit
New Orleans, the same basic landing spot as Hurricane
Katrina a number of years earlier. Pat Robertson a
televangelist in the United States, a non-denominational,
evangelical Christian decided he figured out what
God had in mind. Guess what it was: the Republican
National Convention was about to begin in Florida,
and Pat Robertson decided that God had protected the
Republicans. Rejoice! Or clear your throat and wonder
if Pat Robertson was going where he might not have been
wise to go. Its just possible that wasnt really what God
had in mind.
Sometimes when were addressing crises, we can fall
into a similar fallacy. Job is the classic example here. God
doesnt explain Himself to Job. God did tell us in chapters
1 and 2 what was going on. But then theres the lengthy
dialogue between Job and his friends in chapter 3 all the
way through chapter 37, and theres one speculation after
another after another after another about whats on Gods
mind. Jobs friends, theyve got an answer. Job isnt too
sure, and eventually Job loses that patience of Job and
is ready to take God to task when God shows up finally in
chapter 38.
Remember what God does in chapters 38 through
chapter 42. What he doesnt do is say, Hey, Job, youve
been good about this. Youve hung tough through all of
this, and youve finally reached the breaking point. Well,

back in chapters 1 and chapter 2, see, there was this
dialogue where the devil came before the sons of God and
said, You know this guy Job. The only reason hes faithful
to you is because youre making things so nice for him. If
things get tough for him, hell curse you to your face and
die. We, the readers, know that part of the story, and I
almost wish God had told the poor guy. But He doesnt. In
fact, what God says there from the whirlwind in chapter
38 and following is simply to say, essentially, Where were
you when I laid the foundations of the earth, when I told
the waves, thus far no farther? Bottom line: Youre not
getting that information out of me even now, Job. What
God does tell Job is vastly more wonderful. But God
doesnt give Job His explanation for whats been going on.
And thats an important caution. We mustnt presume to
read Gods mind and try to explain why disasters have
happened when God doesnt tell us.
2. Dont assign guilt where Gods Word doesnt.

This even sounds like an awful thing to do, and again, our
theology warns us wisely against it. But its not universal
to recognize this as an error, not only among nondenominational evangelical Christians, but also among
many of our own Lutheran members. I remember very
vividly in my own experience in my last congregation one
of my dear members, who served many years on the board
of elders, had an automobile accident, and he was quite
sure that he must be guilty of some particular sin that had
caused his accident. He didnt know what the sin might
be, but he was pretty sure that there must be something he
had done that was the reason God caused this accident.
The accident was very serious. He did survive, but it was
very serious indeed.
Consider Hurricane Katrina, the other recent New
Orleans hurricane, in August 2005. In the minds of
some people, there was a clear explanation for why the
hurricane happened. According to some, it was because
of New Orleans reputation as one of Americas sin cities.
For them, this had to be the reason Hurricane Katrina
devastated New Orleans. We remember, of course, John
chapter 9, where the disciples, like most of the Jews in
Jesus day, had that same line of thinking: The man is born
blind; we know one of two things happened. Either he
sinned before he was born, or his parents were guilty of
some kind of sin before he was born. One or the other
caused God to zap him with blindness from birth.
But Jesus says thats not it. Again, Jesus doesnt give us
the full explanation. He does tell us in this instance that

its going to be an opportunity for Christ Himself to give
glory to God by working a wonderful miracle, which,
again, we wish hed do every time theres a disaster. But
the point here is that the disciples werent to see this mans
blindness as God punishing him for some particular
sin. In the same way, its not for us to imagine that New
Orleans is guiltier of sin than somewhere else, say,
Houston, Texas, that Houston is spared and New Orleans
is struck. When disasters or suffering strike, we mustnt
presume to assign guilt where Gods Word doesnt.
3. Dont assume the victims are innocent either.

Some of you may remember that after the 9/11 tragedy,
there was a widely circulated cartoon with the Twin
Towers, that iconic view, and above it a cloud of three
thousand souls going up to heaven. The implication was
they were all innocents killed by terrorists, so people
picture them innocently received into heaven. Wed like
to think that everyone who dies in a tragedy automatically
goes to heaven. That would be a cushion that would
seem to make everything turn out better. But, of course,
we know this is not the case. Remember in Luke chapter
13 the whole tower of Siloam thing? We can assume
that those killed when that tower fell were innocent
victims, and yet Jesus says, Unless you repent, you will
all likewise perish (Luke 13:5). That wasnt specifically
identifying those eighteen as particularly sinful, but it was
recognizing that they, we, all, are anything but innocent.
We are all sinful, not of a particular sin to which we
could assign guilt for causing a disaster, but neither are
we without sinful involvement in this fallen world. When
disaster strikes, we mustnt speak as if those who died
are automatically received into heaven, as if they were all
innocent and holy and deserving of heaven.
4. Dont forget that disaster is whatever

disaster is to the sufferer.
A Doctor of Ministry graduate from our seminary a few
years ago, Pastor Mark Nuckols, a very well-decorated
U.S. Army chaplain, was called to his current parish in
Austin, Texas, and it was a very short time thereafter
when he was called up to deploy to Iraq. While deployed,
he saw traumatic scenes one would expect a chaplain
to see and minister to in war. Mark actually had two
deployments to Iraq; another one just a couple of years
later. He said that in his second return from deployment,
he was a wiser pastor than he had been after the first
21
deployment, because he learned something. The first

time when he came back, he would be sitting in his office,
and he would have church members come to him with
issues that were very important to them. They would say,
Pastor, I just lost my job, or Pastor, my son is having
trouble in his high school. And Pastor Nuckols confesses
that that first time back, his reaction was, Get a life! Guys
are losing their lives where I just was. I was ministering
to people whod seen their friends blown apart. Whats
the big problem? Whats the crisis? Whats the disaster?
Pastor Nuckols realized later that suffering is relative to
the sufferer. A seemingly lesser issue to him was a disaster
to the one suffering it. It was a very big deal to the church
member going through it. It was a situation for which his
pastoral care really needed to be every bit as sensitive as
it had been eight thousand miles away a month earlier.
In fact, the second time back from deployment he was
very appreciative of one of the projects of our Synod,
Project Barnabas, that enables chaplains returning from
deployment to have a decompressing time while his
congregation remains covered by another pastor filling in.
This need to be sensitive to whatever seems to be a
disaster to the person suffering it is very real. We certainly
realize that there are crises that might objectively be
measured as huge, and others we wouldnt call crises at
all. But we remember what Jesus says about the smallest
things, like a cup of water given because someone is His
disciple (Matt. 10:42). You see, Jesus cares about a person
whos parched with thirst. To Jesus, thats a really big deal.
So as we care for those who are facing small disasters, its
important that we not forget that it is a real disaster, if
they see it as such.
5. Dont promise what God doesnt promise.

A number of years ago, there were two tragic events
within a couple months of each other: Payne Stewart,
a professional golfer here in the United States and a
Christian who had been wonderfully outspoken in his
Christian faith, died while piloting a private plane. He
was all alone in the sky, and for whatever reason, he
crashed and was killed. Not long after, a player in the
National Football League was involved in a car accident.
This man also professed to be an evangelical Christian. (I
wont give his name, because this might make him sound
as if he isnt sincere.) He claimed as he was heading off
the road toward a tree, he just threw up his hands took
them off the steering wheel and said, Jesus, take over!
He survived with just a few scratches. Later, this football
22
player was speaking about the experience and this may

have been intended to be a testimony to the trust we can
have in the Lord he said God had saved him because
he was a Christian. A reporter then asked him, What
about Payne Stewart? He was a Christian, too, and he died
in his plane crash. The football player said, Well, if he
had just turned it over to the Lord, he wouldnt have. The
reporter asked, Do you know that he didnt turn it over
to the Lord? And the player said, I bet he didnt, because
he died.
This football player, Im sure well-meaning, was saying
that if youre trusting in the Lord, everything is going
to be fine. If youre trusting in the Lord, no automobile
accident, no plane crash will hurt you. Hurricanes wont
get you. Earthquakes wont get you. Thats trying to
promise something that God definitely does not promise.
And there are countless ways this is described in Scripture,
including the promise Jesus does make to His disciples
that youre going to bear crosses and that some of those
things are going to be pretty big disasters. Theres also the
example in Habakkuk, one of the suffering passages that is
kind of intriguing. You do have the situation there where
Gods people are going to suffer, and we know in this case
as well that Gods people stand under condemnation;
thats a problem in Judah already. But then Habakkuk
raises the concern that While its true our people here
your people, Lord are sinning, the fact is that the
Chaldeans are worse. So how come theyre going to get
the upper hand and innocent people among the people
of Judah are going to die? We dont know why, but it is
true that many of Gods faithful people also died when
the Chaldeans destroyed Jerusalem. God doesnt promise
that His people will never suffer. Dont promise what God
doesnt promise. Thats the prosperity gospel, and its
misleading.
6. But dont settle for proclaiming less than God

promises.
Now, God promises that by faith in Christ Jesus were
going to be in heaven. Youre going to get to go to heaven.
Its impossible to imagine a greater promise. And without
question that is the promise that is the answer for believers
in Christ who we know have perished in a disaster, loved
ones who we know are believers in Christ and have
now died. Theres the ultimate answer: they get to go
to heaven. But the fact is we dont need to proclaim the
Gospel to believers in Christ who have died. They dont
need it anymore. We are called to proclaim the comfort
of the Gospel to those who are grieving, mourning over

lost ones, wondering what the next steps in life for them
will be. Whether its a congregation in Pilger, Neb., that
doesnt have a church building now; whether its a family
in New Orleans who doesnt have a home now; whether
its someone whos lost his or her job; or whatever
the particular loss may be, those are the people were
addressing. And while you get to go to heaven by faith
in Christ is the greatest promise that we get to apply
again and again and one that always, always has relevance,
because the ultimate future does impact our present, this
isnt the only thing God promises. Dont promise less than
God promises. Be bold to proclaim every promise that
God gives. And some of them go beyond you get to go to
heaven someday.
Gospel for the preacher to proclaim

All that Law weve been given is for us as preachers or
as people who are sharing Gods Word privately with their
friends in crisis situations those who are the speakers.
Those are the donts serious cautions to consider. But
theres also Gospel for us to speak, Gospel that people are
comforted to hear when we proclaim it even in the most
difficult times of suffering, which brings us to our very
important dos.
In order to be Gospel and this is crucial what we
say has to be one particular thing. At times of suffering,
times of crisis, disasters, when it is really difficult to know
what to say, a lot of things are said and spoken that may
not be Gospel. They may be helpful, practical, sympathetic
and gentle and, therefore, have value. But were talking
about sharing the Gospel in times of suffering. And
Gospel is more than just a nice touch on the hand. Its
more than just figuring out how were going to rebuild
the town thats been destroyed by a tornado. Gospel is
something a lot more specific than that.
St. Paul gives us some very helpful counsel on what
that is. In fact, Paul is really very clear on what we say any
time we seek to proclaim. For I decided to know nothing
among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1
Cor. 2:2). Thats an amazing thing for him to be saying.
Paul had spent a year-and-a-half in Corinth, a very
lengthy stop, one of the longest of his whole missionary
experience, and all that time he was there, he really only
talked about one thing: Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
In the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul addresses such diverse
issues as meat sacrifices, adultery, misunderstandings of
the resurrection, schisms and so many others. Yet Paul
says here at the beginning of the book that its all Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Its all the cross of Christ.
Weve got no problem with that when were telling
people they get to go to heaven someday, because theres
no other way to heaven except by what Jesus did on the
cross. The challenge is that many times in facing a disaster
were really addressing needs that could be understood as
First Article needs. New Orleans has been devastated by
a hurricane, and your house and business are gone. Your
church and your home in Pilger, Neb., have been leveled
by a tornado. Where do we go from here? Youve lost a
loved one to death in a disaster, and youre comforted
that she is in heaven, but what do I do now in life? Whats
tomorrow going to be all about here in my life, here on
earth? This includes those smaller disasters that Pastor
Nuckols initially dismissed, too, doesnt it? It involves
members who lost their jobs, members whose son is
having trouble in school, so many of those kinds of
situations. Those, too, are needs that we call First Article
needs.
Gods care and access to His throne of grace we
always have that, and it isnt just God caring for us when
we die so that we get to go to heaven as did a loved one
who died. Gods care is when you dont have any idea
how youre going to provide clothing and shoes, meat
and drink, to your kids when your severance package is
used up. Access to the throne of grace isnt just Let me
in! Let me in! Let me in to heaven! when I die. Its Lord,
Im at the end of my rope for sure, and I have no earthly
idea how this is going to work out. But Youve invited me
to bring this before you, and Youve promised to hear.
And You will hear because of Jesus death on the cross,
because of nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Thats all there is; thats all we preach. But think of all
that that means! And so you see, the Deus absconditus
(hidden will of God) isnt really a matter of Will God
take care of me? or You know why God didnt take
care of me. There is much we dont know. In what ways
is whats happening now God taking perfect care of
me? I dont know; thats hidden from me. Or, This care
that Gods taking of me now how is this good? I dont
know; thats hidden. But thats a different set of questions
altogether. Its a different set of questions for which we
wont get the answers this side of heaven. But in each
of those questions, unlike the others, in each of those
questions, what is intact is God caring for us in the very
best way because Jesus Christ and His death on the cross
have reconciled us to God.
23
In our discussion with the Roman Catholic parish

priest in India, we did ask him, More than a month after
the tsunami, when you did address it in a sermon, what
did you say? He said, Fear not. I am with you. It might
have taken a month to say the words, but he couldnt have
done better. I am with you: this is the peace with God
in reconciliation. This is the shalom, the total condition
of well-being that comes when sin has been removed by
Jesus death on the cross. Many things we might say are
anything but comforting, but the cross of Christ fully
understood with all its ramifications always gives us a
word of comfort to share.
The Rev. Dr. Carl C. Fickenscher II is dean of Pastoral
Education and Certification and professor of Pastoral
Ministry and Missions at Concordia Theological Seminary,
Fort Wayne, Ind.
24
Compartiendo el Evangelio
en Tiempos de Sufrimiento
Por Carl C. Fickenscher II
Traducido por Roberto Rojas
Hay algo que nos

puede decir la Palabra
de Dios durante los
tiempos de desastre?
n la primavera de 2005, slo unos meses

despus del devastador tsunami en el Ocano
ndico el 26 de Diciembre, 2004, tuve el pienso
que lo puedo llamar as el placer o la alegra (aunque
fue mezciado con mucho que no fue alegre) de viajar,
junto con el Rvdo. Matthew Harrison, Presidente del
Snodo de Misuri (que en ese entonces era el Director
Ejecutivo del LCMS World Relief and Human Care,) a
los lugares en India e Indonesia que se vieron afectados
muy duro. Ciertamente nuestra misin no era el arreglar
las cosas por cualquier medio. Entendimos claramente
que estbamos all para escuchar y aprender, y fue
una experiencia de aprendizaje como nunca! Fue una
experiencia que nos hizo escuchar! Durante el proceso,
muchas imgenes fueron extremadamente memorables y
dolorosas.
Y, para m, la imagen ms memorable, y en una forma
tambin la ms dolorosa, en realidad, fue cuando fuimos
a un pueblo de pescadores en el sur de la India, cerca del
extremo sur de la India, y visitamos una parroquia all.
Llegamos a la aldea, y lo primero que se nos mostr fue,
esencialmente, un terreno vaco al lado de la casa de la
Iglesia Catlica Romana, el cul se haba convertido en un
cementerio para 380 miembros de la iglesia. Haba sido
un terreno vaco (o tal vez no estaba vaco pero cuando
el agua lo cubri se vaci), pero ahora estaba lleno de las
tumbas de los miembros de esa relativamente pequea
congregacin catlica en ese pueblo de pescadores.
Despus, fuimos y visitamos al sacerdote de la parroquia
local, un hombre de unos treinta aos que haba estado
all por solo tres cuatro aos.
Pero eso incluye la maana ms significativa de
ese domingo cerca de cinco meses antes. Obviamente
algn tiempo haba pasado, y este tiempo le haba dado
una oportunidad para que l tuviera una perspectiva

mas amplia, pero cuando hablaba con nosotros, nos
dimos cuenta que l estaba an emocionalmente y tal
vez espiritualmente, muy vaco. Sintiendo el trauma
dentro de su parroquia e imagnese 380 funerales
este tan corto tiempo y todo el dao sufrido mientras
estuvimos sentados con l en su oficina (l estaba detrs
de su escritorio y nosotros estbamos alrededor de su
escritorio preguntndole), francamente, era una cuestin
de sensibilidad. No se poda hacer una entrevista en esta
situacin. Despus de los cinco meses, tena dificultades
hablar con nosotros, aunque l fue muy amable al
invitarnos a estar all. Sus palabras fueron tan dolorosas,
y lentas.
l nos dijo que cuando el tsunami haba sucedido,
era un domingo en la maana. Pas una semana antes
de que volvieran a un servicio de adoracin. El domingo
siguiente, el aun no senta el deseo de mencionar nada
acerca del desastre. En realidad, pas ms que un mes
antes que l pudiera mencionar el tsunami en el sermon.
Todava l describe sus emociones como vacas cuando
habla al respecto. Aun cuando habla sobre el desastre
usando la Palabra de Dios. Qu traumatizante! En lo
cual l se sinti muy estresado y lo entendemos. Bueno
en realidad, nosotros no podemos ni siquiera tratar de
comprender, solo imaginarnos lo que el esta pasando. El
tuvo dificultad en encontrar algo que la Palabra de Dios
pudiera decir acerca de esta situacin. Aqui radica la
pregunta! Quiero comenzar con esto: en realidad. Puede
la Palabra de Dios darnos algo que decir en tiempos de
sufrimiento?
Ya sabemos que la respuesta va a ser si. Pero nos
podemos imaginar que en algunas ocasiones, en algunas
situaciones, es muy difcil encontrar lo que la Palabra de
25
Dios dice. Tambin es cierto, que la Palabra de Dios nos

da muchas precauciones que tenemos que tomar acerca
del que no decir.
Es interesante: cuando pensamos en la Sagrada
Escritura a la luz de situaciones como estas, no es tan
facil como pensamos el encontrar pasajes biblicos que
realmente podamos aplicar. Sabemos que la Biblia sin
duda alguna habla de todo tipo de desastres. Habla de
toda clase de crisis. Habla acerca de toda clase de enormes
cataclismos como el diluvio que hubo y arras un sin
nmero de gente. Y han habido plagas diez de ellas a la
vez- y otras plagas como en Jerusaln en los das de David
cuando murieron miles. Y han habido guerras que han
destruido al pueblo de Dios, y en momentos dramticos
han habido fuegos mandados del mismo cielo donde
una vez cincuenta soldados fueron aniquilados y otra vez
cincuenta soldados ms y cincuenta soldados por tercera
vez. Un sin nmero de otros desastres escritos en la Santa
Biblia. As que podemos pensar que la Biblia tendra la
respuesta para casi cualquier tipo de crisis.
Lo interesante es que mientras estamos desenvolviendo
estos narrativos en particular esas historias que nos
vienen a la mente, esos relatos histricos descritos en la
Sagrada Escritura que describen este tipo de situacin,
la verdad es que, la mayor parte de ellos no caen muy
bien en el tipo de situacin que hemos estado hablando. Si
te detienes a pensar en esto, creo que es muy cierto. Esas
situaciones en la Biblia, mayormente, son diferentes a las
situaciones a la que nos referimos en ms de una forma.
Algunas veces en la Biblia hay explicaciones claras acerca
de cmo Dios hace algo como un castigo directo por
cierto tipo de pecado. Dios enva a los Babilonios a cargar
a Jud al cautiverio, y sabemos el porqu. Dios manda
el diluvio, y sabemos el porqu. Hay un castigo claro y
directo envuelto. Por otro lado, para nosotros, al lidiar
con desastres hoy en da, usualmente estamos totalmente
cortos de explicaciones.
Pensamos acerca de Job. Aunque Job nunca recibi
ninguna explicacin, nosotros tenemos una. Sabemos
que antes hubo un dilogo en el cielo el cual esta creando
una situacin nica a la vida de Job, la cual el nunca
llega a conocer ni siquiera al final del libro. En la Biblia
usualmente tenemos algn tipo de explicacin, o alguna
palabra clara que nos indica que el desastre es un castigo
directo por cierto pecado. En nuestros das no tenemos
esa explicacin, o claro, que hay muchos otros desastres o
casi desastres en la Biblia donde Dios al igual que Cristo
mismo durante su ministerio delibera gente en el preciso
26
momento, de la hambruna o de enfermedades o otra clase

de sufrimiento. Usualmente no se ve que esto pasa en los
desastres los cuales hoy encaramos.
Algo de ley para el predicador

Muy bien, sabemos que mayormente en esta situacin a
la que hemos venido no tenemos una palabra clara que
nos indique que esto es el resultado de un castigo, ni hay
ningn tipo de explicacin al respecto. Tampoco hemos
visto a Jess entrar en la escena, ni ha calmado la tormenta.
No es as la situacin en la cual nos encontramos. As que
cuando nos detenemos y pensamos, probablemente no
es tan fcil el encontrar en la Biblia respuestas fciles y
disponibles acerca del sufrimiento. Claro! es cierto, que
la Biblia tiene algo que decir acerca de situaciones como
estas. Vamos a encontrar bastante que decir, pero no es
tan obvio como uno cree.
Lo cual nos lleva a tomar ciertas precauciones muy
importantes. Identificremos estas como Negaciones.
Esto es algo de ley para el predicador. Tambin
hablaremos acerca del Evangelio el cual el predicador tiene
que proclamar en su totalidad. Pero ahora, hablaremos
acerca de algunas precauciones, Negaciones, las seis de
ellas que son realmente como un despertador en lo que la
Palabra de Dios nos dice o no dice al respecto, el que no
decir cuando respondemos al sufrimiento en tiempos de
desastre. Algunos son bastantes claros, en nuestra teologa
son bastante claros, pero no son obvios para los dems.
1. No presumas leer la mente de Dios.

Esto por supuesto, es una cuestin de Deus absconditus
(La voluntad escondida de Dios). Quizs algunos de
ustedes que son estadounidenses recuerdan en Agosto del
2012, el huracn Isaac. Este se acercaba desde el Caribe
y pareca que se diriga hacia el estado de la Florida,
y de repente cambio su curso y azoto a Nueva Orleans.
Bsicamente el mismo lugar que el huracn Katrina haba
azotado unos aos antes. Pat Robertson un evangelista
en los Estados Unidos, un evanglico cristiano sin
denominacin, decidi que l haba figurado lo que Dios
tena en mente. Adivina que era. La Convencin Nacional
Republicana que estaba por comenzar en Florida, y
Pat Robertson decidi que Dios iba a proteger a los
Republicanos. Regocijate, aclarate la garganta, y piensa
si Pat Robertson estaba llegando a una concluson que no
es muy sabio el meterse. O podria ser posible que no es
realmente lo que Dios tena en mente.
Muchas veces cuando confrontamos crisis podemos
caer en este error. Job es el ejemplo clsico. Dios no le

da explicaciones a Job. Dios nos dijo en los captulos 1
y 2 lo que estaba sucediendo. Pero hay un largo dilogo
entre Job y sus amigos en los captulos 3 a 37, ah se
encuentran especulacin tras especulacin, especulacin
tras especulacin, y as sucesivamente sobre lo que est
pensando Dios. Los amigos de Job tienen la respuesta.
Job no est muy seguro, y eventualmente Job pierde esa,
paciencia de Job y est listo a cuestionar a Dios. Cuando
Dios se muestra finalmente en el captulo 38.
Recuerdan lo que hizo Dios en los captulos 38 al 42.
Lo que no hace es decir, Mira, Job, t has hecho bien en
esto. Has sido valiente en todo, y finalmente has llegado
a tu lmite. Si, bien vemos, en los captulos 1 y 2 se llev
a cabo un dilogo donde Satans vino delante de Dios
y Dios le dijo, Conoces a este hombre, Job? La nica
razn que l te es fiel es porque tu le has hecho las cosas
muy agradable para l. Si las cosas se le ponen difciles,
el te maldecir a tu cara y morir. As que nosotros los
lectores, conocemos esa parte de la historia, y como he
deseado que Dios le hubiese dicho esta parte al pobre
hombre. Pero Dios no lo hace. Lo cierto, es que Dios le
dice simplemente y esencialmente lo que resta el captulo
38 en adelante. Dnde estabas t, cuando yo afirm
la tierra? O Cuando las aguas del mar se desbordaban,
quin les puso compuertas para controlarlas? En
realidad, Job, t no vas a adquirir informacin de
mi, ni siquiera ahora. Pero lo que Dios le dijo a Job es
extremadamente an ms maravilloso. Pero Dios no le da
ninguna explicacin a Job. Esta es una precaucin muy
importante. No debemos presumir el leer la mente de
Dios ni tratar de explicar el porqu suceden los desastres
ya que Dios mismo no lo ha dicho.
2. No asignes culpa donde la palabra de Dios no

culpa.
Aunque hacer esto parezca un horror, nuevamente
nuestra teologa muy sabiamente nos advierte en contra
de esta prctica. Pero, no es en un sentido universal
el reconocer esto como un error, no solo entre los
evanglicos cristianos sin denominacin, sino entre
muchos de nuestros propios miembros luteranos. Tengo
un recuerdo muy claro de una experiencia que tuve
en mi ltima congregacin, con unos de mis queridos
miembros, quien por muchos aos sirvi en el consejo
de ancianos. Tuvo un accidente automovilstico, y estaba
completamente convencido que el tenia la culpa de su
accidente por algn pecado cometido. El no saba cul era
el pecado, pero si estaba muy seguro que l haba hecho

algo que fue motivo por el cual Dios caus el accidente.
El accidente fue muy grave. El sobrevivi, pero de hecho
fue muy serio.
Considera el huracn Katrina, ese es el otro huracn
que azot a Nueva Orleans, en Agosto del 2005. Algunas
personas tienen en mente una explicacin clara del porqu
este huracn azot a Nueva Orleans. De acuerdo con
estas personas esto sucedi por la reputacio de Nueva
Orleans que es conocida como la ciudad del Pecado.
Para ellos esto tena que haber sido el motivo porque el
huracn Katrina azot Nueva Orleans. Recordamos, en el
captulo 9 de Jun, donde los discpulos, como casi todos
los judos en el tiempo de Jess, funcionaban con esa
misma mentalidad; Que el hombre naci ciego; sabemos
que una de dos cosas sucedieron. l pec antes de nacer,
o sus padres eran culpable de algn pecado antes que
l naciera. Una de otra caus que Dios lo afectara con
ceguera al nacer.
Pero Jess dice que esto no es as. Nuevamente, Jess
no nos da la explicacin completa. l s nos dice en esta
ocasin que esto va a ser una oportunidad para que
Cristo mismo le de gloria al Padre al hacer un maravilloso
milagro, el cual, nuevamente, quisiramos que l lo
hiciera cada vez que hay un desastre. Mas sin embargo, el
punto aqu es que no vieran los discpulos la ceguera de
este hombre como un castigo de Dios para l por causa de
algn pecado. De la misma manera, no est en nosotros
imaginarnos que Nueva Orleans es ms culpable de
pecado que cualquier otro lugar, sea Houston, Texas. Que
Houston sea salvo y Nueva Orleans sea azotado. Cuando
ocurre un desastre o algn sufrimiento, no debemos de
presumir el asignar culpa donde la Palabra de Dios no
lo hace.
3. No asumas tampoco que los vctimas son

inocentes.
Algunos de ustedes recuerdan que despus de la tragedia
9/11, el desastre de las torres gemelas, una caricatura
circul electrnicamente con las torres gemelas, y una
nube de tres mil almas ascendiendo al cielo. La imagen
implic que estos fueron inocentemente asesinados
por terroristas, as que las personas se los imaginaron
que iban a ser inocentemente recibidos en el cielo.
Quisiramos creer que todo aquel que muere en una
tragedia automticamente va al cielo. Eso sera un
colchn en el cual nos sentiramos cmodos en el pensar
que al fin y al cabo todo va a salir bien. Pero, sabemos
27
que simplemente ese no es el caso. Recuerdan el captulo

13 de Lucas todo acerca de la torre de Silo (Siloam).
Podemos suponer que los que murieron cuando cay la
torre eran lo que nosotros llamamos vctimas inocentes.
Ms sin embargo, Jess aun los usa en la comparacin
cuando nos dice, A menos que no se arrepienten, todos
ustedes perecern igualmente (Lucas 13:4). El no dijo
eso particularmente para identificar a los dieciocho como
pecadores, pero s para reconocer que ellos, nosotros,
todos, no tenemos nada de inocentes. Somos pecadores,
no de un pecado en particular al cual podemos asignar
la culpa de algn desastre, pero tampoco estamos sin el
enredo del proceso completo del pecado en este mundo
cado. Cuando azota un desastre, no debemos hablar
de aquellos que mueren como si son automticamente
recibidos en el cielo, como si todos fueran inocentes y
santos y merecedores del cielo.
4. No olvidemos, que desastre es aquello que es

un desastre para el que sufre.
Un Doctor en Ministerio graduado de nuestro seminario
solo hace algunos aos, Pastor Mark Nuckols, pastor
de la iglesia luterana St. Paul en Austin, Texas, un muy
decorado capelln del ejrcito de Los Estados Unidos,
recibi su llamado a servir a la iglesia en Austin, Texas.
No pas mucho tiempo cuando el ejrcito lo envi a Irak.
All el vio todo tipo de escenas traumticas las cuales se
puede esperar que un capelln tenga que ver. A Mark lo
desplegaron dos veces a Irak, la segunda vez, fue solo un
par de aos despus. El dijo que cuando l regres de
su segundo despligue, regres mucho ms sabio que la
primera vez, porque el aprendi algo. Cuando el regres
la primera vez, el estaba sentado en su oficina, en un
ambiente cmodo y el tenia miembros quienes venan a l
con asuntos que para ellos eran muy importantes. Pastor
Nuckols los haca pasar, y ellos le decan, Pastor, yo acabo
de perder mi trabajo o Pastor, mi hijo tiene problemas
en la escuela superior. Y el Pastor Nuckols confiesa que
la primera vez que el regres, su reaccin fue, No tienes
nada que hacer! Hay soldados que estn perdiendo sus
vidas donde yo estaba. Yo estuve ministrandole a jovenes
quienes vieron a sus amigos y compaeros despedazados
por explosiones! Cul es la gravedad del problema?
Cul es la crisis? Cul es el desastre? Ms tarde, Pastor
Nuckols realiz que el sufrimiento del sufrido se relata
al que sufre. Era un problema real para sus miembros
quienes sufran en estas situaciones. Era una situacin
por la cual su cuidado pastoral requera la misma
28
intensidad de sensibilidad al que solo un mes antes daba

a los soldados a ocho mil millas de distancia. De cierto
que, la segunda vez que regreso de Irak el estaba muy
agradecido con uno de los programas que ofrece nuestro
snodo, El Proyecto Barnabs, el cual capacita a los
soldados/capellanes que vuelven de la batalla. Para tener
un tiempo para renovarse antes de asumir sus funciones,
mientras que otro pastor es asignado a la iglesia durante
este tiempo para cubrir las necesidades de tal.
Es necesario ser sensible cualquier sea el desastre,
porque para la persona quien lo sufre, es muy real.
Ciertamente hemos realizado que hay crisis las cuales
son objetivamente de gran medidas, y que no lo son. Pero
recordamos lo que dice Jesus sobre un vaso de agua fra
dado a alguien por ser su discpulo (Mateo 10:42). Te das
cuenta, a Jess le importa aquel quien est sediento. Para
Jess, esto es algo grande. As que cuando tengamos el
cuido de aquellos quienes estn en medio de sus desastres,
es importante que no nos olvidemos de que es un desastre
real si es un desastre para ellos.
5. No prometas lo que Dios no promete.

Hace algunos aos, dos eventos en solo un par de
meses uno del otro: Payne Stewart, un jugador de golf
profesional aqu en los Estados Unidos, y un cristiano
quien haba sido muy abierto con su fe cristiana. l muri
mientras piloteaba una avioneta privada. l estaba slo en
el aire, y eventualmente l se estrell y muri. Luego no
muy despus, un jugador de ftbol americano, NFL, (Liga
Nacional de Ftbol) estuvo envuelto en un accidente de
automvil. Este hombre tambin haba pblicamente
confesado que era un cristiano evanglico. (Yo no voy
a dar su nombre porque esto puede dar la impresin
de que no es sincero, y no es eso lo que yo cuestiono.)
Pero lo que l dijo es que, segn l iba desvindose de la
carretera hacia un rbol, l solt el gua- y tir las manos
hacia arriba- y dijo, Jess, tu manejas! O Jess toma
el control! El se salv, solo tuvo algunos raspones. Ms
adelante, el estuvo hablando acerca de su experiencia
y esto pudo haber sido intencionado a dar testimonio
de la confianza que debemos de tener en el Seor el
dijo que Dios lo haba salvado porque l era un cristiano.
Un reportero le pregunto, Y que de Payne Steward? l
tambin, era Cristiano, y el muri cuando se estrell su
avin? El jugador de ftbol americano dijo, Bueno si
l hubiese entregado el control al Seor, no se hubiese
muerto. El reportero le pregunt, T sabes con certeza
que l no se lo entreg al Seor? Y el jugador respondi,
Te apuesto que no, porque l muri.

Este jugador de ftbol americano, estoy seguro, tena
buenas intenciones, estaba diciendo que si confiamos
en el Seor, todo nos va a salir bien. Si ests confiando
en el Seor, ningn accidente de automvil, ni de
aeroplano, saldrs seriamente herido. Los huracanes no
te alcanzaran. Los terremotos no te atropellaran. Eso es
el prometer algo de lo cual definitivamente Dios no ha
prometido. Y hay un sin nmero de maneras por el cual
esto est descrito en la Sagrada Escritura, incluyendo la
promesa que Jesucristo hace a sus discpulos que ustedes
llevaran cruces y que algunas de estas sern grandes
desastres. Tambin tenemos el ejemplo de Habacuc, uno
de los pasajes acerca del sufrimiento que es un poco
intrigante. Es un pasaje que uno piensa es uno de los
desastres por el cual estamos pasando. Aqui uno tiene la
situacin donde el pueblo de Dios va a sufrir, y sabemos
muy bien en este caso que el pueblo de Dios estaba ya bajo
condenacin; ese es el problema en Jud. Pero entonces
Habacuc eleva su preocupacin que mientras es cierto,
que aqu nuestro pueblo, tu pueblo, Seor, est pecando,
la verdad es que los Caldeos son peores. As cmo es que
ellos van a salir mejor y gente inocente entre el pueblo de
Jud van a morir? Nosotros no sabemos porqu, pero es
cierto que muchos de los fieles de Dios tambin murieron
cuando los Caldeos destruyeron a Jerusaln. Dios no nos
promete que su pueblo nunca sufrir. No prometas lo que
Dios no promete. Eso es el evangelio de la prosperidad
y es engaoso.
6. No te resuelvas con proclamar menos de lo que

Dios promete.
Ahora, Dios nos promete que por fe en Jesucristo nosotros
iremos al cielo. T vas a poder ir al cielo. Es imposible
imaginarse tan gran promesa; no existe promesa ms
grande que esta. Y sin ms preguntas esta es la promesa
la cual es la respuesta para todo creyente en Cristo
quienes han perecido en desastres, seres queridos quienes
conocemos como creyentes en Cristo y han muerto. Aqu
est la respuesta; ellos estn en el cielo. Pero la realidad es
que no necesitamos predicar el Evangelio a los creyentes
en Cristo que han muerto. Ellos ya no lo necesitan. Se
nos llama a que proclamemos el consuelo del Evangelio
a esos que estn desesperados, llorando, y en luto sobre
la prdida y de sus queridos inciertos en el prximo paso
en sus vidas. Sea una congregacin en Pilger, Nebraska
que no tienen el edificio de su iglesia; o es una familia
en Nueva Orleans quienes no tienen a dnde vivir; o
alguien quien ha perdido su trabajo; o cualquier crisis

en particular, esos son a quien nos referimos. Y mientras
t iras al cielo por fe en Cristo, es la gran promesa
que tenemos que aplicar, una y otra vez, siempre ser
relevante, porque el futuro ciertamente impacta nuestro
presente, sin embargo eso no es solo lo que Dios promete.
No prometas menos de lo que Dios promete. Se valiente
al proclamar toda promesa que Dios da. Y algunas de
ellas, irn ms lejos que solo te iras al cielo algn da.
El Evangelio para que el predicador proclame

Toda esa Ley que les he dado es para nosotros los
predicadores o para personas quienes comparten la
Palabra de Dios privadamente con sus amigos en tiempos
de crisis aquellos quienes son los oradores. Esos son
los Nos muchas precauciones que elevar. Pero ahora
est el Evangelio para que nosotros lo hablemos. El
Evangelio en el cual las personas encuentran consuelo
cuando se proclama aun, en los tiempos ms difciles de
sufrimiento. Esto trae a lo que deberamos hacer.
Ahora, para que sea el Evangelio y esto es crucial
lo que nosotros decimos tiene que ser una cosa
en particular. En tiempos de sufrimiento, en tiempos
de crisis, de desastres, cuando es realmente difcil el
saber que decir, mucho se dice y mucho se habla que a
lo mejor no es ni el Evangelio. Prestar alguna ayuda,
prctica, compasiva y gentil, y si tienen algn valor.
Pero aqu estamos hablando de proclamar el Evangelio
en momentos de sufrimiento. Y el Evangelio es mucho
ms que solo un buen toque a la mano. Es ms que solo
encontrar la manera de cmo vamos a reedificar el pueblo
y lo que se ha destruido por el tornado. El Evangelio es
mucho ms especfico que eso.
San Pablo nos da un consejo muy til en lo que a esto
respecta. De hecho, San Pablo es muy claro en lo que hay
que decir cada vez que queremos proclamar. Ms bien,
al estar entre ustedes me propuse no saber de ninguna
otra cosa, sino de Jesucristo, y de ste crucificado. (1 Cor.
2:2). Eso es algo maravilloso que l dice. El estuvo un ao
y medio en Corintios, una estada bastante larga, una de
las ms largas de todos sus viajes de toda su experiencia
misionera, y todo ese tiempo que estuvo ah, l solo hablo
de una sola cosa: Jesucristo crucificado. En el libro de
primera de Corintios ahora, Pablo se dirige a muchas
cosas; sacrificios de carne, adulterio, el malentendido
acerca de las resurrecciones, cismos y muchas otras cosas.
Aun as Pablo dice aqu en el principio del libro, Todo
es Jesucristo y l crucificado. Todo se trata de la cruz de
29
Cristo.
No tenemos ningn problema con eso cuando le
decimos a la gente que ellos van a poder ir al cielo algn
da, porque no hay otro medio de ir al cielo sino por lo
que Jesucristo hizo en la cruz. De eso no cabe duda. El
desafo que muchas veces tenemos en los desastres es que
verdaderamente estamos viendo necesidades las cuales
se pueden entender a la luz del Primer Artculo. Nueva
Orleans, ha sido devastado por un huracn, y tu casa y
tu negocio desaparecen. Tu casa y tu iglesia han sido
niveladas por el tornado en Pilger, Nebraska. A dnde
vamos ahora? Has perdido a seres queridos en el desastre,
y encuentras consuelo que ella est en el cielo, pero qu
hago yo ahora en esta vida? Qu va hacer de mi maana
aqu en mi vida en esta tierra? Esto incluye esos pequeos
desastres que el Pastor Nuckols inicialmente echaba
a un lado, miembros quienes perdieron sus trabajos,
miembros quienes tenian hijos con problemas en la
escuela, tantas situaciones como estas. Estos, tambin,
son las necesidades que llamamos necesidades del Primer
Artculo.
El cuidado de Dios y el acceso a su trono de gracia,
esto siempre lo tenemos. Y eso no es solamente Dios
cuidando de nosotros cuando morimos para que as
podamos ir al cielo como fue tu ser querido quien muri.
El cuido de Dios es cuando t no tienes ni idea como
vas a proveer ropa, zapatos, carne y bebida para tus hijos
cuando tu dinero de desempleo se te acabe. El acceso al
trono de gracia no es simplemente decir, Djame entrar!
Djame entrar! Djame entrar al cielo! cuando mueras.
Es mejor dicho, Seor, seguramente estoy al final de la
soga y no tengo la mnima idea como se va a solucionar
esto. Pero T me invitaste a que yo traer esto delante
de ti, y T me prometiste que me escucharas. Y t me
escuchars porque Jess muri en la cruz por m. Eso
es todo lo que hay; y esto es todo lo que predicamos. Y
as veras, al Deus absconditus (La voluntad escondida de
Dios), no es un asunto de que, Si Dios me va a cuidar?
O, Sabes porque Dios no me cuido? Hay muchas cosas
que no sabemos. De manera es lo que est pasando ahora,
una forma en que Dios cuida perfectamente de mi? No lo
s; eso est escondido. Pero ya eso es otra serie de preguntas las cuales no tendremos las respuestas a este lado del
cielo. Pero en cada una de esas preguntas, lo que permanece intacto es el cuidado que Dios tiene por nosotros de la
mejor forma porque Jesucristo y Su muerte en la cruz nos
han reconciliado con Dios.
30
En nuestras conversaciones con el sacerdote de la

parroquia Catlica Romana en la India, le preguntamos,
un mes despus del tsunami, cundo hiciste referencia del tsunami en t sermn. Qu fue lo que dijiste?
El respondi, No temas, Yo estoy contigo. Quizs l se
tom un mes para pronunciar estas palabras, pero no
pudo haber dicho algo mejor. Yo estoy contigo Esta
es la paz de Dios en reconciliacin. Este es el shalom, la
condicin total del bienestar que viene cuando el pecado
ha sido eliminado por la muerte de Jess en la cruz.
Muchas cosas que podramos decir no son en nada
reconfortante, pero la cruz de Cristo entendida en su
totalidad, con todas sus ramificaciones, siempre nos da
palabra de consuelo para compartir.
El Rvdo. Dr. Carl C. Fickenscher II es el decano de

la Educacin Pastoral y Certificacin, y professor de
Ministerio Pastoral y Misiones de Concordia Theological
Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Having Mercy on Our

Brothers
by Matthew C. Harrison
How does diaconic love

reflect the very being
of God?
y first call was out of Concordia views on what the Church ought to be doing in the
Theological Seminary in 1991, I believe, and realm of corporate mercy, who nevertheless embodied
it was to a small Iowa community called it enormously personally. Kurt Marquart, now deceased,
Westgate, St. Peters Lutheran Church. As I was there, I was a professor here, and I heard the story that toward the
served for about four years, and the church was rather end of his life he actually stopped, as he was want to do,
vibrant and active. When I left, we had 440 members in a and picked up a hitchhiker, and the hitchhiker proceeded
to rob him at gunpoint and steal his
town of 200 and a lot more milk cows
car, then sent him off walking. The
several thousand of those.
At the Sacrament,
next thing I knew Kurt was visiting
The ministry went well there. It was
you come to the
him in the Fort Wayne jail, and he was
a strong church and a very tight knit
altar,
you
kneel
and
convinced the guy might have a future
community, but challenges that had
you lay your burdens
as a seminarian.
plagued urban America were clearly
upon Christ and the
Then I was called to Zion Lutheran
also plaguing rural America, such as
Church,
Fort Wayne, to a very unique
methamphetamine. I had members
gathered community.
situation. It was, at the time, the
who were involved in meth trade.
When you leave the
poorest census track in the state of
We had inactive members who were
altar,
you
take
up
the
Indiana, and thats pretty poor when
active pot smokers and messing with
burdens of the others
you consider Gary over by Chicago.
other drugs. We had an alcoholism
at that same altar.
All around Zion a beautiful gothic
epidemic in the community. We had
structure built in 1893 and an anchor
youth alcohol abuse all over the place.
We had single parent households, rural welfare all these for the neighborhood for a century the neighborhood
had gone through a number of changes. When I was
things now plague rural America virtually everywhere.
In the course of my time there, I began to think, you there, it was mostly a black neighborhood, and within
know, I wonder if there isnt something else that we, as a block and a half of the church, there were 45 vacant,
a corporate community, as a church, ought to be doing dilapidated buildings. So, I began looking at that problem,
in a community like that. I was nagged by this idea, even and I told my assistant pastor, Paul Kaiser, Why dont
as I ended up leaving. I just didnt have my finger on you take care of the shut-ins? Ill do the senior pastor stuff
resources to refer to, and theologically, I was struggling and also take a look at this neighborhood and see if we
with exactly what it might mean for the church. I had cant do something about it.
I think, initially, there were several reasons for
been taught rather strongly that the Church is involved
in the preaching of the Gospel and the administration doing so. One was that the people from the rest of the
of the Sacraments, and really, being involved in care for community dont like to come down to the black section
the body was somehow the domain of the liberals. My of town. There were a lot of racial tensions in this town.
teacher Kurt Marquart, who had some really reserved Fort Wayne had been a very Southern town during in the
31
Civil War. If you read E.G. Zealors autobiography thats districts and the body itself, are all corporate citizens of
the son of Vilhelm Zealor who was the vice president of their respective communities. So, if your neighborhood is
the Synod in the 1860s and 70s he talks about an effigy in atrophy, you will take action in your community. You
of Lincoln on a parade float being hauled through town will if your neighborhood is going to participate actively.
with derisive language on it and then being lit on fire and If you see some injustice going on in your community,
thrown into the river with everybody celebrating. So, this you will, as a citizen of your community who has a
town, like St. Louis, which you have unfortunately seen as responsibility, indeed as a Christian citizen, you will act.
of late, has its racial tensions.
You will not be quiet. Just where to act and where not
So, I felt inspired to do something that would take to act, thats always a challenge to discern, and we are
down barriers from people coming in to go to church criticized sometimes for acting in some places and not
at Zion while also looking at the community around acting in others. Fundamentally, as corporate citizens, the
the church. I realized that the dilapidation was in largest church must act in its community.
measure caused by rental properties.
It was only after leaving Fort
In other words, there were many
Wayne that I began to think about
Where the Church
homeowners in the neighborhood
some kind of theological rationale
who kept up their homes and worked
for what became a catchword for the
loses sight of this
hard to do so, but others who lived
theological rationale for mercy. I was
proclamation of the
outside the community would rent
called to St. Louis to be the executive
Gospel, it thereby loses
these homes to people who would be
for the Missouri Synods LCMS World
the
very
motivation
allowed to run these homes down to
Relief and Human Care departments.
for diaconic work, the
nothing. Finally, windows would be
That encompassed disaster and the
smashed out, and then the homeless
Gospel itself. Thus, the whole realm of mercy activities,
or somebody with mental illness
Church must not speak including relationships with social
would occupy a place. There were
ministry agencies. There is a huge
when it may do so; the
homes that I went in that were just
network of Lutheran agencies in the
Church
must
speak
only
100 yards from Zion that were filled
United States. Its an $810 billion
when it must do so
five-feet deep with everything you
business, corporately together with
could collect free at every Goodwill
the ELCA and the Missouri Synod
easier said than done.
center clothing and everything
Institutions. They receive something
else you can imagine, like drug
like 8 billion dollars in federal
paraphernalia, pornography, etc. A story I have often told funding and state funding. It is an enormous network.
is that I went around one house north of the church that
I remember when I got the call to St. Louis, I began
was dilapidated, and with the help of a lawyer in town, I to look at the theological issues involved, and working
bought it. I was just going around buying property right with the Board for Human Care, I suggested that we try
and left, making deals for old houses and vacant lots.
to lay out some kind of theological rationale for mercy. As
Zion became pretty well known in the community I began to study the issue more and more, I realized that
and greatly appreciated in the immediate community. We right within my own tradition there was a lot of ammo.
had many, many different challenges and problems. I was I saw parts of text and older text that I had never noticed
convinced that there had to be some better theological before. I went on a journey through Pauls collection
rationale for not only that kind of effort, but for the for Jerusalem and became convinced that the collection
church as a corporate body taking a stand and an active from Jerusalem drives Pauls entire third missionary
stance toward people in need and other issues happening journey. He is consumed with this for almost a decade.
in communities. In that particular case, at Zion, I became He ends up taking money to Jerusalem to distribute to the
convinced that the church was a corporation. Every one poor as a gift from the Gentile churches. Its kind of an
of our congregations in America is registered with the eschatological realization of the kingdom in some fashion,
state, so we can have the proper tax benefits, and we are as he actually goes to Jerusalem with the money to deliver
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Inc. That means, as the gifts, and he ends up getting in trouble because he
a corporation of people, our congregations, indeed our did so imprisoned, shipped off to Rome and finally
32
beheaded. All the words we use for stewardship and giving

money God loves a cheerful giver; the gift is acceptable
according to what a person has, not according to what a
person does; 1 Corinthians 8-9, where Paul is urging the
Corinthian Christians who are cosmopolitan and rather
wealthy to give money I discovered in Pauls words for
money that they represent aid to Christians. Paul calls
that money a liturgia. He calls it a liturgy, a public service.
He also calls it a diakonia, a service, a ministry. He calls
it a koinonia, a fellowship, a partaking. He even calls it
a charis, a grace. So, all of a sudden, I realize St. Paul is
using the most powerful words in the New Testament to
talk about aid to the needy. Then I began to think, Well,
gee, this has really been missing among us. Why, why
have we nothing to say on this?
Then, other sudden classic texts became to pop out,
like Walthers Pastoral Theology. Here, Walther says
the official duties of the pastoral office are to care also
for the poor, the weak, the needy and the orphaned.
The congregation is even obligated to ensure that the
impoverished, if they dont have enough money for a
funeral, are buried properly. Why had all this slipped
away from so many of our congregations, indeed our
whole Church? There are many other such texts. Luther
says in the 1519 Sermon on the Sacrament, that at the
Sacrament, you come to the altar, you kneel and you lay
your burdens upon Christ and the gathered community.
When you leave the altar, you take up the burdens of the
others at that same altar.
If you look at Dr. Walthers famous The Proper Form
of the Christian Congregation the Die Rechte Gestalt it
is called there are page after page of the congregation
and the pastors responsibility to see that people in need
are cared for. I think in the wake of the rise of the social,
the welfare state in America since World War II, the
realm of care of people shifted from local communities,
churches especially, really and the rise of the cost of
health care, those issues shifted largely to the government.
Churchly institutions, one after another, became intensely
secularized until they were either sold, or in many cases,
separated from the churches altogether.
So, we began working with the Board for Human
Care to have a theological rationale for what resulted in
a theology for mercy. It was my conviction that pastors,
especially many younger pastors, would not be averse to
the church being active in mercy, if in fact there was a
decent attempt at a theological basis. I think that proved
to be correct.
Diaconic love has its source in the Holy Trinity. The

Son is begotten of The Father from eternity. The Holy
Spirit proceeds from The Father and The Son. Such
begetting and procession are trinitarian acts of love,
expressing the commonality of God, as in Luke 6:36:
Be ye merciful, as your Father in heaven is merciful.
Diaconic love reflects the very being of God. If youre
going to say, Forget it. I dont have any responsibility
toward my neighbor, you are not breaking the law only,
you are denying who God is, essentially. Diaconic love
is born of the incarnation and humiliation of Christ.
In Christ, the eternal God became man. Such identity
occurred that Christ might have mercy upon His brothers
like them in every way, except sin. Christian service of
the neighbor finds its source, motivation, and example in
Christ incarnate, redeeming, atoning, active love. Christ
is born for us, becomes incarnate for us, and Luther says,
We, as it were, become incarnate for our neighbor in
need.
God would have all come to the knowledge of the truth
and be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). A biblically and confessionally
faithful theology of mercy clearly confesses that the Father
has decreed from eternity that whomever He would save,
He would save through Christ, as ChristHhimself says,
No one comes to The Father except through me (John
14:6), and again, I am the door. If anyone enters by me,
he will be saved (John 10:9).
What is the essence of being a Lutheran Christian in
mercy? Christ! What does Christ do? He speaks Law and
Gospel. He speaks consolation. He speaks His Word. He
makes promises, and He acts in love. What do we do as
Christians? We speak. We speak of Christ. We cant help
but speak of Christ. The fundamental truth of the Bible
that there is no salvation outside faith in Christ and His
merits animate the Churchs work for those in need. If this
is not so, such work becomes merely secular and may be
performed by any entity in society.
The Gospel gives spring forgiveness and begets
merciful living. Lives that receive mercy and grace
cannot but be lovingly merciful toward the neighbor. The
merciful washing of Baptism in Romans 6 produces the
merciful living in Rom. 7:46. I noticed when Paul taught
about the Sacraments or the Gospel, the consequence was
also always a life of mercy and service. In absolution, the
merciful Word of the Gospel begets merciful speaking
and living.
Repentance ought to produce good fruits, the greatest
possible generosity to the poor (Apology 12, 174). When
33
we refuse to address the needs within the community as

people of God and particularly as the Church of God, we
are not merely breaking the Law, but we are also denying
the Sacraments. We are denying what we are made in
Baptism. Were denying what Christs body and blood is
for us. Christs mandate and example of love for the whole
person remains our supreme example for life in this world
and for care of the needy body and soul.
The Lutheran Confessions explicitly and repeatedly
state that the work of diaconic love (charity, works of
love) is an assumed reality in the Churchs corporate life
(see Treatise 8082, Apology 4 and Apology 7). Moreover,
the Smalcald Articles explicitly state that works of love are
along with, doctrine, faith, Sacraments and prayer, areas
that the Church and its bishops are joined in unity. This
scene does not dominate our confessions. There is no
doubt about that, but it certainly is there.
The call to mercy is particularly addressed to
Christians as a corporate community, church, whether
local or synod, even nation or international. Within these
communities, individuals serve in diaconic vocations,
pastoral concern for the needy, chaplain, spiritual care,
deacon, deaconess parish nurse, medical disciplines,
disaster care and a host of administrative and managerial
vocations. These diaconic vocations are flexible in form
and determined by need. Within an ecclesial setting,
their common goal is the integration of proclamation of
the Gospel, faith, worship and care for those in need. The
range of the legitimate disciplines of human care may be
used in the Churchs diaconic life to the extent that such
discipline tools do not contradict the Gospel and the
doctrine of Holy Scripture.
So, the Apology says, Christs kingdom is spiritual.
At the same time, it permits us to make outward use of
legitimate political ordinances of whatever nation in
which we live, just as it permits us to make use of medicine
or architecture or food, drink or air. The Churchs work of
mercy extends beyond its own borders. In the New and
Old Testaments, we see a priority of concern for those
within the Orthodox fellowship of faith, but add, Do
good also to those outside the kingdom of God, especially
to those inside, but also to those outside the house
of God.
This is a criticism we received early on. About 10 or
11 years ago, there was a small tornado that hit south of
St. Louis, and it hit a small community there, and we have
a church there. The high school was leveled. There were
no deaths, but there was a lot of loss and a lot of people
34
adversely affected. Up until this time, the only thing the

Missouri Synod had done for disaster for congregations
was to work through Lutheran Disaster Response and
send dollars for disbursement among social ministry
organizations. The social ministry organizations act as
government partners and also do ongoing care for people,
case management and get people back on their feet over
time. We had not addressed our own congregations in
any significant way, our own immediate need. In fact, the
rules of Lutheran Disaster Response precluded assisting
congregations in anything, any damage to churches, or
anything like that.
Out of this came a so-called Congregation Model of
Disaster Response, and we discovered that what happened
was when you go to help a family, you call the family
first, and you check with the pastor. Then we go, and our
disaster responders then say, Okay, here is what we are
going to do. We have some people here that are going
to take care of your wife, and we got you some interim
housing taken care of, and now were going to make sure
that you come along. Here, we are going to visit your
congregation elders first. We will pull them together and
start developing a plan. Because the whole community
will respond, it will be important for you to be in the
middle of that as part of your community to serve. There
is a probably a niche for you to serve, and I think your
niche might well be a staging ground for immediate
repairs on something. We can house the volunteers in
a large part of your property, if we bring in the proper
equipment. By the way, we have a mobile food unit that
we funded, and we can bring that down and make sure we
have it all set up. And well start cooking meals for all the
volunteers that are coming in. So you see, what is initial
concern for our own is a concern also to increase their
local capacity immediately and care for those well beyond
their own borders.
Next the Church will cooperate with others in meeting
human need. Cooperation in externals has long been
an expression describing the Churchs legitimate ability
to cooperate with other Christians, whether churches,
societies, Lutheran or Christians, or not in meeting
some human need. To cooperate in externals means
to work toward common goals and endeavors which
do not necessitate, require or necessarily imply church
fellowship or involve joint proclamation of the Gospel
in administration of the Sacraments. Such cooperative
endeavors are entered upon often for practical reasons,
lack of critical resources for instance, but such endeavors
are also often an expression of the belief that when entered

to with other Christian entities of the catholicity of the
Church. You know, the Formula of Concord very carefully
distinguishes between hard-necked false teachers and
Christians who find themselves in denominations other
than Lutheran, and it is very charitable to them. As well
as an expression of love for fellow Christians, through
such endeavors the LCMS will often have opportunities to
insist on theological integrity and the truth of Gods word
and everyone make a positive contribution to activities.
So then, the Lutheran doctrine of the two kingdoms
grants broad freedom for the Church to engage and
be active in its community. The Church has a role in
its community, local, national and international, by
virtue of the fact that the congregations in national
churches are actually corporate citizens of their respected
communities. As such, congregations, churches and
synods as a whole engage the community as corporate
citizens of Gods left hand kingdom, working toward
worthy civic goals, good citizenship, just laws in society,
protection of the weak, housing, etc. Legitimate civil
ordinances are good creations of God and divine
ordinances in which a Christian may safely take part.
As such, a corporate citizen, the church has civic and
political capital. In addition to engaging its members
to be responsible citizens, the Church may from time
to time speak with a collective voice on issues of great
significance to society, particularly where the basic value
of human life is diminished.
Public redress, which is made through the office
of the judge is not forbidden, but is commanded and is
a work of God, according to Paul in Romans 13. Public
redress includes judicial decisions. Luther, in his writing
on temple authority, to what extent it should be obeyed,
says that Christians should not take recourse against
government in any way, shape or form. Fortunately, the
Confessions did not agree with Luther here and said
that Christians indeed may make use of legitimate civil
ordinances like juries and trials and judges. There have
been times of necessity, and so we have acted on numerous
religious freedom cases. The Missouri Synod files briefs
for numerous cases around the country which are from
time to time referenced by U.S. Supreme Court judges in
their opinions. We have also famously been involved very
directly in religious freedom cases, and those cases will
continue be upon us with intensity.
There have been times in the life of the Church when
it was the sole guardian and provider for the needy. In our
day, the rise of the modern welfare state has shifted that
monetary responsibility in large measure to the civic, civil
realm. There is a large intersection of civil and churchly
endeavor at just this point. Thus, the Churchs response
to these issues is always mutating and nuanced. In these
matters, the church must spend its capital wisely and
sparingly. They must avoid both quietism and political
activism. The former shuns the ethical demand of love
for the neighbor, ignoring for instance the ethical urgency
of the Old Testament Minor Prophets. The latter may
obscure the Churchs fundamental and perceptual task as
bearer of the Word to sinners in need of Christ. Where
the Church loses sight of this proclamation of the Gospel,
it thereby loses the very motivation for diaconic work, the
Gospel itself. Thus, the Church must not speak when it
may do so; the Church must speak only when it must do
so easier said than done.
The Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison is president of The
Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod.
35
Mercy in Action
From the fall until the final

day, there will be suffering
by Ross Johnson
and sin, and yet God is

actively rescuing us from
sin, death and the devil in
ways that we do not realize.
ts important to realize that contrary to what

popular culture says, people are not spiritually good
or deserving of Gods favor in and of themselves. In
fact, the Bible constantly reminds us that we are sinners
even after conversion (see Rom. 7: 1323). The Bible says,
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
(Rom. 3:23). The Bible also says, For the wages of sin is
death (Rom. 6:23). We confess in the Divine Service that
we justly deserved Gods temporal and eternal punishment (LSB 184).
There will always
be
aspects of our allIt is because of
Gods love for you knowing, all-powerful
and all-loving God
that He is at work that we as humans will
redeeming you
never understand. We
and saving you
should not assume that
God doesnt care, and
from yourself.
we should not demand
that God explain His
actions to us. Rather, we should trust in His love even if
we dont understand what is happening to us or around
us. It is because of Gods love for you that He is at work
redeeming you and saving you from yourself. This love is
clearly evident in God sending His Son to die on the cross
to pay for your sin, so that one day you will be rescued
from this world of tragedy and live in the perfection
of heaven.
In times of trouble, instead of trying to speculate about
Gods nature or demand that God do our will, we should
repent. In Luke 13, Pilate slaughters the pious Galileans.
It was an evil action against undeserving people. Yet Jesus
in Luke 13:3 told the people to repent, saying, Unless you
repent, you will all likewise perish.
36
Jesus did not justify

or explain Himself or
It is always best
why evil was happening;
to put our faith in
rather He told them to
what is revealed
repent. Repentance is
humbling, and it moves
to us about God:
you from being selfthat He loves us,
centered to trusting in
He died for us
Gods goodness and
and He rescues us
mercy. It turns you as a
from brokenness
sinful person away from
your pride to reliance
and sin.
on your almighty and
all-loving God who
does not always give you explanations except I am who
I am (Ex. 3:14), For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord (Is.
55:8) and, as St. Paul explains, Will what is molded
say to its molder, Why have you made me like this?
(Rom. 9:20).
Why does God allow suffering?

Suffering is a result of sin and the fall. God never wanted
Adam and Eve to fall into sin. God explicitly warned
them about the eating of the tree and the consequences
if they did. However, they chose to sin against God, and
ultimately sin and brokenness entered the world. As soon
as humanity fell into sin, your loving God began His work
of redemption (see Gen. 3:15). From the fall until the final
day, there will be suffering and sin. However, your loving
God is actively rescuing you from sin, death and the devil
in ways that you do not realize.
It is always best to put our faith in what is revealed to
us about God: that He loves us, He died for us and He
rescues us from brokenness and sin. Everything that
is necessary for us to know about God

and salvation is clearly revealed in Holy
Scripture.
If something bad happens to me, is

God punishing me for my sin?
There is no
promise that
you will always
directly see or
understand the
good that comes
out of particular
trials and
tribulations.
When something bad happens to you, it

is not necessarily related to a particular
sin that you have committed. However,
it is always because we live in a sinful
and broken world (Genesis 23). In this
world, our bodies betray us, and we get
sick and die. In this broken world, other
people also betray us and cause us a
great deal of problems and misfortune. Often times, we
endure personal agony because of the sinful choices that
we ourselves make (see Psalm 51). And at times, we are
spiritually attacked by the devil and his demons, who
like to harass people and cause misery and misfortune
(see Job).
Father who is watching over you. In times

of tragedy, we see Gods mercy in action.
Gods mercy revealed to humanity is most
clearly seen in the person of Jesus Christ
who reminds us that we are reconciled
to our heavenly Father and that there
is nothing that can separate us from the
love of God that is found in Christ Jesus
(Rom. 8:3839).
The Rev. Ross Johnson is director of LCMS
Disaster Response.
What do I do when I feel like my life is falling

apart?
1. Prayer is always good when you feel overwhelmed by
the world.
2.
Attend the Divine Service where you receive the
ongoing forgiveness of sins and you are reminded
that Christ is bodily present with you in a special
way.
3. Consider talking to your pastor to get wise Christian
advice when you are overwhelmed.
4. Consider talking to a pastor for private confession
and absolution (see 1 John 1:9).
5. Use your suffering as a reminder that you live in a
broken world and that Christ promises to suffer right
along with you.
6.
Place your hope in Christ and the resurrection
and not in this world or in sinful people who will
disappoint you.
Can anything good come out of bad things?

God often allows amazing things to come out of tragic
situations (see Gen. 50: 1521). Job was eventually blessed
after his time of tragedy (Job 42:10). However, there is no
promise that you will always directly see or understand
the good that comes out of particular trials and
tribulations. In times of tragedy, it is important to trust
in Gods nature, that He is a loving and caring heavenly
37
Communication has
Being the Church in the Age

of Post-Literacy1
moved well beyond

printed words and TV
broadcasts, bringing on
a post-literate generation
relying on Internet-based
by James A. Neuendorf
communications, direct
Indeed, the apogee has almost been attained: Communication has just about
reached the lowest point, with respect to its importance; and contemporaneously the means of communication have pretty nearly attained the highest point,
with respect to quick and overwhelming distribution. For what is in such haste
to get out, and on the other hand what has such widespread distribution as
twaddle? Oh, procure silence! Soren Kierkegaard, 18512
observation and individual

life experience to determine
what is factual and true.
t this very moment, a revolution is taking place begin to find that these people are us.
around us. Words, ideas, stories and creative works
Marshall McLuhan, the renowned communication
are being spread and shared practically at the scholar expressed it this way:
speed of a brains neural network. The computing power
We now live in the early part of an age for which
of so-called Space Age achievements is now ubiquitous
the meaning of print culture is becoming as alien
to the point that you can find it in juice-stained toys for
as the meaning of the manuscript culture was to
toddlers. Global society is adapting to new ways of comthe 18th century. Were primitives of a new culture
municating and processing information in what is the
there is a new electric technology that threatens
second greatest upheaval in communication since Gutenthis ancient technology of literacy built upon the
bergs 1438 printing press. Human
phonetic alphabet. Our Western
thought processes have once again
values, built on the written word,
Post-literate
been fundamentally changed by the
have already been considerably
proliferation of a new technology. We
affected by electronic media
Christians and
no longer stand at the edge of a new
unbelievers are seeking Perhaps thats the reason why
age; it has already begun.
many highly literate people in our
a biblical confession of
For missiologists of the 21st
time find it difficult to examine
the
faith
in
their
own
century seeking to carry the Gospel
this question without getting into
language and culture,
once more into a fallen world, these
a moral panic.3
technological changes signify a far
Secular scholars like Marshall
a meta-narrative with
deeper shift than merely that of paper
McLuhan,
Christian writers like
which to understand
to pixel. The changes that are brought
Malcolm Boyd and some leaders in
their own life and
about by a new cycle of technology
the Lutheran church began to see
purpose.
affect fundamental thought processes
this problem arising already in the
throughout the globe. Transcendent
1960s with the explosive growth of
of all the existing cultural and sociobroadcast technologies. Yet these
economic frontiers, the pervasiveness of digital mobile visionaries still couldnt imagine the scope and scale of
technology is birthing a new meta-culture. Everyone what was to come.
seems to be wringing their hands and saying, How will
Oral cultures
we reach these people? Yet, with each passing hour, we
1
Editors note: Mr. Neuendorf s paper was prepared for and originally
used as an oral presentation and as such, some of the page numbers in
the citations are not complete.
Malcolm Boyd. Crisis in Communication; a Christian Examination
of the Mass Media (Garden City: Doubleday, 1957).
2
38
The oral tradition that dominated human experience

for all but the last few hundred years is returning
with a vengeance. Its a monumental, epoch-making,
Marshall McLuhan. The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic
Man (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962), p. 1011.
3
totally unforeseen turn of events. How can this

possibly be? The oral tradition? With multimedia
texts and IMs and Facebook status updates, arent
we relying on oral communication far less than
ever? Yes, of course. But our new digital culture of
information sharing has so rejected the broadcast
style and embraced key elements of oral traditions
that we might meaningfully call whatevers coming
next the digitoral era. And while this new age will
undoubtedly contain elements of both traditions
which we will explore momentarily the digitoral
era borrows much more from oral traditions than
broadcast. Jonah Sachs4
Human societies around the globe had communicated
the same way for thousands of years: since the Fall,
through the flood and tower of Babel, the scattering of
societies across the planet and the ages of empires and
kingdoms to the birth of Christianity. All cultures prior
to 1450, despite vast differences in culture or language,
shared a unified mode of primary communication,
namely oral culture. Although the languages and themes
varied from society to society, the traits remained the
same. The invention of the printing press was a radical
shock to that global culture of communication in the
same way that the present digital revolution is sending
shockwaves through the culture of literacy.
Recently, there has been significant study dedicated to
the oral cultures that (from a numerical standpoint) still
dominate the globe. Many sociologists argue that we are
returning to oral culture through our new technologies.
So, right off the bat, it is important to deal with the
word illiterate that has become synonymous with
unintelligent in literate society. Oral cultures must first of
all not be mistaken as in any way less intelligent or capable
than literate societies. They simply apply their intelligence
in different ways and organize their thought based on the
technologies available to them. The way of thinking of an
oral society is almost impossible for us to fully understand
and imagine as people of literate/post-literate societies. It
is worth remembering that the renowned work of Greek
literature, The Iliad, is itself an oral composition,5
Jonah Sachs. Winning the Story Wars: Why Those Who Telland
Livethe Best Stories Will Rule the Future (Boston: Harvard Business
Review Press, 2012).
as was the formative English work Beowulf.6 7 Jesus

Himself preached and taught in the midst of a primarily
oral society and did so in oral ways. Orality does not
indicate a lack of sophistication. Perhaps for Western
minds to avoid unnecessary and inaccurate stigmas, it is
best to refer to primary oral societies as oral and not
illiterate.
One of the key characteristics of the technology of
human speech is its relationship to the nature of sound.
Sound is never static. You cannot stare at a sound. The
instant you begin to hear a word it is also already passing
by you. Compare a cassette tape with a photograph (for
those of you who remember tapes). A photograph you
can stare at and continue to find new details; the image
is static. The cassette tape is a long, wound-up ribbon of
magnetic tape, but you can only experience its content
one instant at a time. You are, in a sense, always hearing in
the present. If you pause the tape, you dont hear anything.
Oral societies reflect this in their own understanding of
the world. Words are always fluid; they are not something
you can tie down and examine. Information, therefore, is
perpetually in motion.
One major effect of this is the necessity for constant
repetition and remembering of important things, so that
they continuously affect the present. A close study of the
Book of Deuteronomy will demonstrate the importance
of this. Throughout Deuteronomy, the phrases are
repeated, Hear oh Israel, Remember and do not forget,
and Write this upon your hearts. The Israelites were an
oral society (the existence of writing does not make them
a literate society as we will explore later). It was important
for the Israelites to constantly repeat the Law and to use
mental guides and symbols like fringes, symbols in the
tabernacle and temple, circumcision and the like to keep
the truth in front of them at all times.
And these words that I command you today shall be
on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your
children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your
house, and when you walk by the way, and when you
lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as
a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets
between your eyes. You shall write them on
J. A. Davison. E. T. Owen: The Story of the Iliad as Told in the Iliad.

Pp. Xii 248. London: Bell, 1947. Cloth, 10s. 6d. Net. The Classical
Review 63, no. 02 (12 1949), 70.
Beowulf: A New Translation for Oral Delivery. Choice Reviews

Online 47, no. 01 (12, 2009), 470122
6
7
Robert Payson Creed. How the Beowulf Poet Composed His Poem.
Oral Tradition 18, no. 2 (12 2004), 21415.
39
the doorposts of your house and on your gates

(Deut. 6:69).8
In fact, when Israels unfaithfulness leads them to cease
repeating and remembering, the Law is completely lost!
The Judean king Josiahs sudden discovery of the book of
the Law (a recording of something they were supposed
to remember orally and keep at all times written on their
hearts) completely reforms the kingdom. In oral societies,
a message not continually repeated in the present is a
message that is lost to the past.
The idea of truth as something to be pursued through
abstract logical proofs is foreign to oral societies.
Truth and facts are determined through observing
and experiencing the world. For someone to doubt
what is clearly evident from experiences confirmed by
several trusted sources, including oneself, is foolish to
oral societies. DesCartes famous (and highly literate)
philosophical insight, I think, therefore I am9 would be
utterly ridiculous to an oral society simply content with
Obviously, we can all see that I am.
This phenomenon can be observed in field work10
done by A. R. Luriia in Uzbekistan among literates and
illiterates, where trying to get abstract definitions of
concrete objects from an oral culture proved fruitless:
In Luriias field work, requests for definitions of even
the most concrete objects met with resistance. Try to
explain to me what a tree is. Why should I? Everyone
knows what a tree is, they dont need me telling them
replied one illiterate peasant, aged 22 (1976, p.86)
Why define, when a real-life setting is infinitely more
satisfactory than a definition? Basically, the peasant
was right. There is no way to refute the world of
primaryorality. All you can do is walk away from it
into literacy.11
The work of A.R. Luriia also reveals another key
component of oral society: what is not already in concrete
form must be shared through metaphors. From Ongs
quotation of Luriias field work in Uzbekistan:
Illiterate (oral) subjects identified geometrical figures
8
For an interesting exploration of orality in the Jewish context see:

Natalie B. Dohrmanns Orality and Ideology in Rabbinic Judaism.
Prooftexts 24, no. 2 (12 2004), 199206
Ren Descartes. Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the
Reason, and Seeking Truth in the Sciences (Raleigh: Alex Catalogue,
199-?).
9
A. R. Luriia. Cognitive Development, Its Cultural and Social

Foundations (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976).
10
Walter J. Ong. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word

(London: Routledge, 1993).
by assigning them the names of objects, never

abstractly as circles, squares, etc. A circle would
be called a plate, sieve, bucket, watch or moon; a
square would be called a mirror, door, house, apricot
drying-board. Luriias subjects identified the designs
as representations of real things they knew. They
never dealt with abstract circles or squares but rather
with concrete objects. Teachers school students
on the other hand, moderately literate, identified
geometrical figures by categorical geometric names:
circles, squares, triangles, and so on (1976, pp. 32-9)
They had been trained to give schoolroom answers,
not real life responses.12
A person may be able to observe a tree and not
need any abstract description of it, but the concept of
love for example can only be depicted through story
and metaphor. When Luriias subjects were looking at
abstract shapes like triangles, they assumed that they were
supposed to interpret them as a metaphor for something
concrete. The idea of an abstract concept without an
immediate real world counterpart doesnt even enter into
their heads.
A biblical expression of this concept can be found in
essentially any of the Psalms or poetic/prophetic books.
These books contain very abstract concepts, but are told
through miniature stories and metaphors using realworld objects and people. For an extreme example look at
the life of the Prophet Hosea, his entire and real life is used
as a series of metaphors portraying abstract concepts.
Personal and group experiences are the best ways to
determine the truth of things in an oral culture. Abstract
thinking is impossible without real world analogs.
Therefore the expansion of ones limited experience can
only be done through the world of stories. Stories are a
means of packaging valuable information in a way that
taps into our experiential learning. Steven Pinker is a
cognitive scientist and Harvard professor who describes
storys role this way:
Fictional narratives supply us with a mental catalogue
of the fatal conundrums we might face some day
and the outcomes of strategies we could deploy in
them. What are the options if I were to suspect that
my uncle killed my father, took his position, and
married my mother? If my hapless older brother got
no respect in the family, are there circumstances that
might lead him to betray me? The cliche that
11
40
12
Ibid.
life imitates art is true because the function of some

kinds of art is for life to imitate it.13
The parables and teachings of Jesus Christ are the
clearest example of the Gospel shared in an oral society.
Jesus doesnt dedicate His ministry to didactic teaching
of doctrine but to using stories, metaphors and concrete
objects and situations to bring understanding to a world
that is impossible for the human mind to conceive of.
Phrases like, The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard
seed reveal the heart of the metaphorical, concrete oral
thinking that Jesus was addressing.
The literate mind is overwhelming concerned with
novelty, but oral societies cherish familiarity. This concept
again returns to the fleeting nature of spoken language.
Without independent abstract thought, oral cultures use
formulaic stories and proverbs to guide understanding.
Any analysis of folk and fairy tales will find them
populated by what appear to be rather one-dimensional
stereotypical characters.
Jesus own parables often follow a formula, There was
a man/king/master/farmer who had X number of sons/
servants/wedding guests; he does something and then
Y happens. This is how it is in the kingdom of heaven:
I tell you the truth, Z. Jesus does little to describe what
the farmer is like, what his family is like and whether he
has a long beard or not; those details are irrelevant to the
metaphor. When Jesus says, A sower went out to sow his
field, everyone knows who that is and what one looks
like. Jesus characters are archetypes, as are common and
accepted in oral society. Archetypes and formulas allow
for characters and concepts to be conveyed via something
as simple as a fig tree. Everyone knows what a king is
like, but as soon as the story is about a particular king who
acts differently, we need much more information and the
events are open to far more interpretation. Jesus makes
frequent use of this to call attention to heavenly realities.
The formulaic nature of oral communication allows
for groups of different people to understand the story in
similar ways, whether they agree with it or not. It is clear
in the New Testament that the Pharisees were able to
catch the meanings of what Jesus was saying through His
parables; they took issue not with varying interpretations
of the stories but with what they plainly meant. There
was very little wiggle room for interpreting the stories in
different ways.
13
Living in oral cultures

Because oral cultures receive information through
experiences, the first priority in training a young person
for the world is to get them some of those experiences
in a safe environment. You actually have lived in an oral
culture yourself. Children are all naturally born into an
oral culture; they know nothing of written language for
the first formative years of their lives. To learn to walk
we watch others and try to do it ourselves, teaching our
muscles what works and what makes us fall on our faces.
These experiences are improved by the encouragement
of our parents who gently encourage us and praise
our successes. As children grow, they begin to model
what their parents do, cradling a baby doll, pushing a
lawnmower, gaining experiences to help define their
world. The focus on repetition and concrete analogs is
as true of children as it is of oral cultures. As we attend
school and move on into literacy, we lose our interest
in familiarity and repetition and gain a preference for
novelty. As a child, I watched Star Wars so much that
we wore the VHS tapes completely out; today I look
back on the films fondly but have little interest in seeing
them again.
In oral societies, this same type of learning continues
into adulthood; you learn by doing, and there is no manual
or how to book. Sailors learned the ropes by observing,
following orders and listening to the encouragement/
discouragement of other sailors. Stories are ways to teach
more abstract and dangerous lessons where the natural
failure as a part of a learning curve is not an option.
In contrast, literate culture is nearly the exact opposite
in every respect. It is important to clarify that the broader
culture of literacy lags at least 3,000 years behind the
invention of writing. Since the earliest known alphabet,
writing was reserved for recording lists, marking dates,
and recording important oral presentations. In many
ways the original use of writing was as a sort of taperecorder that could be played back by a person who
could read. Literacy as a culture existed only among the
extremely wealthy and elite for the first several thousand
years. Despite the technological capabilities, the expense
and difficulty of maintaining a broad culture of literacy
kept it out of global society until Johann Gutenberg and
Martin Luther.
The first major clash in the battle with this new culture
was fought in Greek society. Plato spoke against writing in
Phaedrus and his Seventh Letter calling it mechanical and
Steven Pinker. How the Mind Works (New York: Norton, 1997).
41
inhuman, particularly the fact that you could never ask a

text a question, that it portrayed dead ideas (in contrast to
the constant present of oral society).
Plato was thinking of writing as an external, alien
technology, as many people today think of the
computer. Because we have by today so deeply
interiorized writing, made it so much a part of
ourselves, as Platos age had not yet made it fully a
part of itself (Havelock 1963), we find it difficult to
consider writing to be a technology as we commonly
assume printing and the computer to be. Yet writing
(and especially alphabetic writing) is a technology,
calling for the use of tools and other equipment:
styli or brushes or pens, carefully prepared surfaces
such as paper, animal skins, strips of wood, as well as
inks or paints, and much more. Clanchy (1979, pp.
88-115) discusses the matter circumstantially, in its
western medieval context, in his chapter entitled The
technology of writing. Writing is in a way the most
drastic of the three technologies. It initiated what
print and computers only continue, the reduction of
dynamic sound to quiescent space, the separation of
the word from the living present, where alone spoken
words can exist.14
The concept that ideas could be captured and put into a
recorded medium that didnt change was a sharp contrast
from oral culture. Words, once fleeting, could be tied
down and kept to read over and over again. The changes
began to be felt in small ways even in Jesus day. While
Jesus (though clearly literate as demonstrated by Luke
4:16) never left us anything written in His own hand, the
Early Christian Church shared theological reflection and
understanding through texts. Until Gutenberg however,
these texts themselves were still almost impossible to
possess for the vast majority of society, and most people
remained in an oral culture. It was this reality which led
the church of the era to communicate to its members
primarily through music and the arts and architecture,
and to leave reading the scriptures to its priests.
It was Luther and Gutenberg then who brought about
the great sweeping change in European society with the
introduction of true universal literacy. Suddenly what
had been expensive and mysterious (written in Latin and
copied by hand) became cheap and easy to understand
with just a little education (printed in mass and written
in local languages). While not totally gone, oral society
came crashing down in Europe, and by extension in

North America. The European mind itself had to be
restructured to make sense of this new technology. One
recalls the fascination of St. Augustine in observing
Ambrose reading: His eyes scanned the page and his
heart sought out the meaning, but his voice was silent
and his tongue was still. Anyone could approach him
freely and guests were not commonly announced, so that
often, when we came to visit him, we found him reading
like this in silence, for he never read aloud.15 The idea of
reading as something internal and not just a recording of
an oral presentation to be accessed by a group together
was unimaginable to pre-literate Europe.
The Reformation
The Lutheran Reformation was largely successful because
of this radical shift in thought and technology. Lutherans
could encourage the lost to seek out for themselves the
truth in Scripture in their own language. The great threat
at the time was the outrageously false teaching coming
from the only ones with access to the information.
Theological works expanded on and delved into what
the words of Scripture meant and implored people to
compare what Holy Scripture said with the doctrines and
teachings of the Catholic church. While as Lutherans we
teach that reason must be subject to faith, it was Godgiven reason and logic that distinguished the disparity
between what Scripture said and what the church was
teaching. Definitions and analysis of individual portions
of Scripture and theological concepts enforced clarity and
resolved confusion created through purely anecdotal and
artistic communication from the church.
Most importantly, as a result of the printing press,
ideas were shared and spread so easily that it was nearly
impossible to stop them. No matter how many books
and authors were burned, they were printing and writing
thousands more. To stop an idea from spreading in an
oral culture, you remove the person making the offensive
argument, to stop an idea in a literate culture, you must
demonstrate an alternative argument that proves the
original one incorrect.
However, after the first key years, Lutherans were
no longer the only ones involved in the printing and
dissemination of complex ideas. As time went on and the
human mind began to change with this new technology,
Augustine. F. J. Sheed and Michael P. Foley, ed. Confessions, vol. 6
(Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2006).
15
14
Ong.
42
other ideas began to arise. The technology that allowed

Luther to share his reformation also permitted people
to speak out against all sorts of authorities. Luther was
followed by others and the powerful institution of the
Roman Catholic church began to splinter. The American
Revolution was the culmination of a centuries old war
of ideas fought in books and printing presses regarding
the role of governments. When blood was spilled in
Lexington, it spread across the globe igniting wars and
toppling the old authorities of the medieval age. The
French Revolution, Simon Bolivars liberation of the
Americas and more were a result of a culture of literacy.
The new technology became a battleground of facts
versus theories, analysis of texts and cataloging and
categorizing the world according to a subscribed world
view. For the first time in history, a dictionary was needed
to store words that were not commonly understood
or had fallen completely out of use. In an oral society a
word which was no longer known to everyone was a word
that vanished from the language, now it was defined and
stored away just in case it should have a use again.
The roles of the elderly and of traditions were subjected
to a special assault, cast aside in the quest for novelty.
Since in primary oral culture, conceptualized
knowledge that is not repeated aloud soon vanishes,
oral societies must invest great energy in saying over
and over again what has been learned arduously over
the ages. This need establishes a highly traditionalist
or conservative set of mind that with good reason
inhibits intellectual experimentation. Knowledge is
hard to come by and precious, and society regards
highly those wise old men and women who specialize
in conserving it, who know and can tell the stories
of the days of old. By storing knowledge outside the
mind, writing and, even more, print downgrade the
figures of the wise old man and wise old woman,
repeaters of the past, in favor of younger discoverers
of something new.16
Science, religion and political/economic philosophy
were divorced from each other for the first time in
thousands of years. Nothing could be taken for granted
unless it was analyzed, catalogued and recorded. Even
theology was categorized and divided into scientific
schools with the new pedagogical divisions of Friedrich
Schleiermacher. Oral holism had become outdated, and
scientific sectarianism became king.
16
Ong.
Rather than remember what God has done and does,

literate society began to demand that God prove Himself
according to its standards. Darwins Origin of Species
challenged the Christian faith on the grounds of logic
and scientific method, and the Church tried to respond
in kind with logical proofs to the contrary. For the first
time in human history, the existence of divinity was not
naturally assumed by everyone.
The calculated analysis of how everything worked
led mankind to believe that eventually we could find
out all knowledge and could create the perfect society.
The quest was on for the best society, the best ideas, the
best representation of the world we lived in. Thinking
became primarily analytical and linear; one thing leads
to another without tangential ideas. Each individual
must analyze the evidence provided by this catalogue
of ideas and determine who is presenting the truth. The
meta-narrative and telelogy of what all the pieces meant
were sacrificed to the scientific methodology, reducing
existence to that which is merely material. The Holy Grail
of the literate culture became the attainment of a theory
of everything, a crusade that modern physicists and
scientists still doggedly pursue like lab coated Knights
Templar.17
Teleological narratives were pushed to the side
as mere entertainment, information and truth could
only be discovered through analysis and hard facts.
Naturally, this focus brought about incredible advances
in physical science and technological design, while
also promoting a rejection of spiritual truths. With
its constant technological and philosophical progress,
Western civilization began to describe itself with the
term Enlightened. Mysticism and spirituality became
the pariah of literate cultures, as though the realities of
a world unknowable to science rendered its existence
impossible.
The Lutheran church itself split between those
who held to childlike faith in an inspired biblical truth
and those who claimed to be above the antiquated
myths of the Word of God. The narrative of Scripture
was eviscerated by Jesus Seminar scholars seeking a
materialist explanation of Scripture. The rejection of
biblical inspiration because it didnt fit human logic led
to a loss of the Gospel message itself, undoing much of
the work brought about by the original reformation.
17
For a fascinating criticism of the modern limits on the sciences

imposed by materialism, see William A. Dembskis Being as
Communion: A Metaphysics of Information.
43
Print technology brought about the intellectual concept

of a closed-set world, one where it is in fact possible to
measure and catalog and store all of the information in
the universe in books. You can sense the optimism at
the height of the literate era with the invention of the
telegraph as though they were building a second Tower of
Babel. Charles F. Briggs and Augustus Maverick write in
their 1858 book The Story of the Telegraph:18
Of all the marvelous achievements of modern science
the electric telegraph is transcendentally the greatest
and most serviceable to mankind The whole earth
will be belted with the electric current, palpitating
with human thoughts and emotions How potent a
power, then, is the telegraphic destined to become in
the civilization of the world! This binds together by a
vital cord all the nations of the earth. It is impossible
that old prejudices and hostilities should longer exist,
while such an instrument has been created for an
exchange of thought between all the nations of the
earth.
The horrors of World War I were the first death
knell of the humanistic literate culture, as each of the
marvelous technologies so optimistically forged in the
fire of the enlightenment were wielded as weapons of war
in the most apocalyptic conflict the world had ever seen.
The quest to know all knowledge begat tools to eliminate
ones enemies. A literally shell-shocked world crawled out
of the rubble of its own hubris and was forced to ask itself
a very hard question about the nature of humanity. Was
the universe a closed set, something we could completely
understand and dominate, or was there a meaning to life
not written by man?
The Internet
As the utopian hopes of the literate culture were
dashed, the underlying framework for a new era of
communication culture was being built. Ironically, the
Internet was originally conceived and built to serve as
a powerful tool for scientists to share computer power
in their quest for the very literacy holy grail that the
Internet would soon snatch from their grasp.
For the first several years, the Internet was just a
digital reflection of print culture; there were broadcasters
Charles F. Briggs and Augustus Maverick. The Story of the Telegraph,
and a History of the Great Atlantic Cable a Complete Record of the
Inception, Progress, and Final Success of That Undertaking, a General
History of Land and Oceanic Telegraphs, Descriptions of Telegraphic
Apparatus, and Biographical Sketches of the Principal Persons Connected
with the Great Work (New York: Rudd & Carleton, 1858).
18
44
and experts who chose what the message would be who

produced it and sent it out. The idea of having your
own .com or website was foreign, and most churches
or even most businesses, for that matter, didnt have a
Web presence at all, while forward-thinking individuals
bought domain names like pizza.com for only a few
dollars.19 The true revolution didnt really happen until the
creation of simple content creation tools like livejournal.
com, myspace.com and radical new ways of thinking about
content introduced by programs like Napster. Suddenly
anyone could use the Internet not to just get information
but to share it. As speeds and technology advanced, we
arrived at what technologists called Web 2.0, Twitter,
Wikipedia, Facebook and YouTube. This was paired with
the power of mobile Internet, no longer confining the
network to a tower PC at a desk terminal. In 2006, Time
magazine recognized the Person of the Year as you.
This was in reference to the sudden explosion of content
and sharing of information that happened through these
technologies. The magazine noted:
Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits
down after a long day at work and says, Im not
going to watch Lost tonight. Im going to turn on my
computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana?
Im going to mash up 50 Cents vocals with Queens
instrumentals? Im going to blog about my state of
mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at
the new bistro down the street? Who has that time
and that energy and that passion?
The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of
the global media, for founding and framing the
new digital democracy, for working for nothing and
beating the pros at their own game, Times Person of
the Year for 2006 is you.
Collaborative media and self-publishing is in the
process of toppling the old gatekeeper structure, while
at the same time broadening the audience of any given
message to a global scale. As billions of personal narratives
burst to the surface, new generations interact and live
in a world that is increasingly immaterial. Suddenly, a
scientific moratorium on anything not purely reducible
to matter seems ridiculous. In a world where so much of
what we own is simply information, meta-narrative is in
the process of usurping pure empiricism.
The study of physics itself is also facing a coup.
19
If you dont remember this era, search YouTube for The Kids Guide
to the Internet for a hilarious reminder.
Newtonian determinism is no longer adequate for

building a mathematical model of reality, with quantum
and relativistic physics ruling the day. Not even the
vaunted scientific method is safe; how can we trust
science based on observation, if on the quantum level, the
act of measurement appears to affect reality?20
Now add on to the explosion of personal narratives
engendered by the birth of the Internet the millions of
carefully crafted narratives that are targeted at citizens
and consumers by politicians and corporations.
Yankelovich, a market research firm, estimates that a
person living in a city 30 years ago saw up to 2,000
ad messages a day, compared with up to 5,000 today.
About half the 4,110 people surveyed last spring
by Yankelovich said they thought marketing and
advertising today was out of control What all
marketers are dealing with is an absolute sensory
overload, said Gretchen Hofmann, executive vice
president of marketing and sales at Universal
Orlando Resort. The landscape is overly saturated as
companies press harder to make their products stand
out, she said.21
Think for a moment about those statistics; a child is
given a message intended to persuade the child about
something (self, the world, reality, etc.) over 40,000 times
in a single year, and an adult receives over 5,000 a day.
Thats 1,250,000 advertising messages each year! The
generations of the digital age are now accustomed to
people lying to them, twisting the truth, telling things that
are too good to be true, etc. As a result, young people (and
increasingly older people) are extremely skeptical of any
message that makes extraordinary claims.
Digitoral age
Because of their skepticism and access to information,
people in this new digitoral age interpret the world in
a different way. Unlike the literates before them, postliterates discover the world through hearing, seeing and
interacting; their own experiences are what move them to
belief about what is generally true or false. Information is
trustworthy only if it fits into ones own personal metanarrative. Today, statistics and arguments can be made for
Manjit Kumar. Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about
the Nature of Reality (New York: W.W. Norton, 2009).
anything, there are whole libraries filled with information

supporting both sides of any argument. In the end,
these post-literates believe they must rely on their own
intuition and experiences to determine what is true and
what is false.
At the end of the literate age, this conflict took the
form of postmodernism and a premise that there could
not be a single truth. For materialists, constrained by
antiquated Newtonian determinism, the only explanation
for nonmaterial concepts such as truth, love or even
simply information, the only answer is postmodernism
and a metaphysical multiverse where everything possible
is real. Yet as materialism comes apart at the seams,
postmodernism is becoming its first casualty. For this
reason, spirituality and meta-narrative are gaining
enormous traction even in the west.22
In its place is a nebulous philosophy largely built on
the intersection between empirical information, personal
and group experience.
Information that conflicts with a post-literate personal
meta-narrative about the universe must either be rejected
or fundamentally change the narrative of ones own life.
When a Christian claims that all reality centers on Christ
and His love for a broken mankind, post-literates look
both at the transformative power of this information
and at the person making the claim. If the information
can easily be demonstrated to be fictional or when the
Christian who speaks this message is living according
to the narrative of the world, the claim is easily rejected
as false. Amazingly, even with the modern explosion of
information, personal experience appears to have risen to
the top.
To give a simple example, consider the claims of a
revolutionary new dietary drink. Images on the side of
the Web browser of obese people before and after just
12 days with said drink will make an amazing claim: in
just 2 weeks with our new dietary drink, you can lose
20 pounds. Such a claim would radically change how
you would see the world if it were true. It would mean
you could eat anything you want, forgo all exercise and
for just $15.99 a week in dietary drinks, you could still
maintain a beach body. However, such a claim does not
match our current narrative about the universe; we may
20
21
Louise STORY. Anywhere the Eye Can See, Its Now Likely to See an
Ad. The New York Times. January 14, 2007. Accessed October 22, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/media/15everywhere.
html?pagewanted=all&_r=0..
22
Steven Barrie-Anthony. Spiritual but Not Religious: A Rising,

Misunderstood Voting Bloc. The Atlantic. January 14, 2014. Accessed
October 22, 2014. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/
spiritual-but-not-religious-a-rising-misunderstood-votingbloc/283000/.
45
wish it were true, but our experience tells us that it is not.

For some, the photograph provided by the advertisement
is enough to convince them that their world view is
wrong, or perhaps their personal worldview has always
held that such a dietary drink must exist. For most
people, however, there will be very little that can be done
to convince them that the advertisement can be taken
at face value. Consider then, how radically this scenario
would change if five of your most obese friends were to
purchase this dietary drink, and two weeks later they
were your thinnest friends? How would you reconcile a
scientific study that denounces the claims of the energy
drink with the sudden thinness of your five obese friends?
For post-literates, social proof has become the prime new
litmus test for reality.
Modern research on unbelievers confirms this.
The Barna Group reported: The primary reason
outsiders feel hostile towards Christians, and especially
conservative Christians, is not because of any particular
theological perspective. What they react negatively to
is our swagger, how we go about things and the sense
of self-importance we project. Observed hypocrisy
has been cited again and again by unbelievers as their
primary reason for their unbelief. A Barna Group study
of unbelievers aged 1629 shows that 85% of unbelievers
surveyed described Christians as hypocritical saying
one thing, doing another, this even in spite of 76% also
saying that Christianity has good values and principles.
For people in a digitoral culture of communication, your
behavior and attitude on Facebook is just as important or
more even important than the Christian messages you
occasionally post. An unbeliever who sees your Christian
testimony in word but observes as you viciously attack
or berate others on Facebook or in person will reject
your belief in the same way they reject other marketing
messages that are too good to be true.
Identity
The missiological task must always return to the question
of our identity before it can answer how we are to reach
out to others. To answer what the Church will look like in
the uncertain future, we need only answer the question of
what and who the Church is in its essence. First, it is worth
defining once again what the Church is. As Lutherans, we
understand the Church as being the assembly of those
who have been redeemed by Christs blood, washed and
reborn in His Baptism and who receive His gifts through
the Lords Supper and the preaching of the Word. As
46
Lutherans, we share the same confession as the apostles

and the reformers as expressed in the Book of Concord.
The apostle Paul describes the Church as the body of
Christ many members with only one head. Jesus Christ
is the Lord of the Church, her Bridegroom and the center
of everything. If Christ is not at the center of the Church,
it can no longer be the Church. The body cannot survive
without its head.
Therefore, even though it may be obvious, my first
suggestion for the Church in the post-literate, digital
age we find ourselves in is simply to let Christ be first
in everything. Anything that we say or do with whatever
technologies may come must be subject to this one rule,
that in all things Christ might have the pre-eminence.
Any attempt to guide the Church that does not fix our
eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb.
12:2) and in whom we live, move, and have our being
(Acts 17:28) will be met with disaster. It is only through
Christs grace that we are saved, and the mission and
Church belong only to Him. We must renew our focus on
Christology to reach this day and age.
Only with Christ as the established and unquestioned
head of the Church can we look at the three types of
expressions of our faith as described by the recent Synod
emphasis. The concept is based on three Greek words:
(Witness), (Mercy) and
(Life Together). Each of the words describes one of the
roles of the Church, namely confessing the risen Christ
through words and expressions of faith, showing Gods
love and mercy to others through good works and being
a part of the body of Christ through Word and Sacrament
communities.
For the post-literate, words and expression of truth
are important, and doing so in ways that make sense
in their culture are vital. But another important aspect
of communicating the Gospel to this generation is
demonstrating that this faith is authentic. As children
of the age of advertising, they will determine the truth
of Christianity as much through their experiences with
Christians as the words that describe the Gospel. Without
a unified testimony of witness, mercy and life together,
we risk falling into the same trap as many Christians in
focusing so much on our words we lose our focus on
living it out as well. Although the main emphasis of this
discussion is communication of the Gospel, to emphasize
this very point, I will leave Witness until last, as only in
light of the other two will the testimony of the Church be
effective.
The apostle John writes: By this we know love, that

he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our
lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the worlds goods
and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against
him, how does Gods love abide in him? Little children,
let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth (1
John 3:1617).
Let this be our second guideline in bringing the
Gospel into the digitoral age. We should love one another
because He first loved us. The Christian cannot do good
works or have compassion on others unless he himself
has first received Gods unfathomable mercy. Through the
Holy Spirit, we call out, Lord, have mercy! and He does!
As Christians justified through Christs blood and made
new in the waters of Baptism, we now have the freedom
and capacity to show love and mercy to others. So, how
should we behave within this networked, technological
world? We behave no differently than how Jesus Christ
Himself commanded us: You are the light of the world.
A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light
a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it
gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your
light shine before others, so that they may see your good
works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven
(Matt. 5:1416).
We are called as Christians to be a light in the darkness.
We cannot hide that light away from this new society
that is being plunged even more deeply into darkness
with every passing hour! Christians should be known
across the world for their love toward the disenfranchised
and poor, for other Christians and for the lost, even for
our enemies. Unfortunately our reputation across the
world right now is based on the often vicious battles we
fight with other Christians and with unbelievers about
countless issues. This is not to say that the Church should
not take a stand on politically charged issues like abortion
or homosexuality, but such communication must be
bathed in the love and forgiveness that we ourselves have
received. All too often our internal arguments have spilled
out onto the Internet. Lutherans tear each other apart on
blogs and Facebook over doctrinal or personal issues,
while the world quietly sits by and observes us ignore
the needs of our neighbor while demeaning our brother.
Let us always remember to address these issues between
one another in love and privacy, and to put others before
ourselves in everything we do, following Christs example.
St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, Because there
is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all
partake of the one bread (1 Cor. 10:17).

Therefore, a third guideline for the Church in the
digitoral era is to remember our fellowship as a body of
believers bound together through Christ. None of us is
an island; we have always been a part of a social network,
the one body of Jesus Christ. This body comes together
around the Word and the Sacraments through the Divine
Service and through community activities of service
and stewardship. The sacramental life of the Church is a
radical departure from the secular meta-narrative.
The digitoral age is increasingly characterized by
its isolating characteristics. The Church is called to be
in union, despite differences in age, economic status,
political affiliation or past; we are all one in Christ. We
cannot have a youth church, an elderly church and an
online church; there can only be one Church. This is an
incredible opportunity for the Church to stand out in this
new age, as people seek community they can only truly
find it in the fellowship of believers who gather around
the Word and Sacraments. Let us become known for
our community, for how we constantly are building one
another up in love, and how we regularly receive Christs
gifts together. Unity and face to face community must be
a particular emphasis going forward. Perhaps it is time
to retire the concept of compartmentalized ministries
altogether.
The apostle John also writes, That which was from
the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen
with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched
with our hands, concerning the word of life-- the life
was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it
and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the
Father and was made manifest to us-- that which we have
seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too
may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is
with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are
writing these things so that our joy may be complete (1
John 1:14).
The final guideline is that the Church must not lose
focus on the historic and incarnational nature of our
confession. The Gospels themselves are social proof. We
arent sharing a clever story or philosophy (2 Peter 1:16),
but the testimony of eyewitnesses and people who were
actually healed by Jesus own hand, heard His teaching
with their own ears and continued to pass down this
tradition generation after generation. All of our previous
faithful confessions the creeds, the Book of Concord
and even our modern expressions insofar as they reflect
47
revealed Scripture are built on the testimony of those

who have seen and heard and touched. Our great cloud
of witnesses (Heb. 12:1) points to Christ Himself as our
eyewitness to the kingdom of Heaven and to the Father
(John 1:18, John 6:46). We would do well not to forget the
immense value of this for post-literates.
Only in the light of this testimony about Jesus Christ
will our works and fellowship together make any sense
to the unbeliever. How can they believe in that which
they have not heard? Faith comes by hearing, and
today, hearing may come through seeing, touching and
experiencing. Let us boldly proclaim the same Gospel
as those who went before us to this new generation!
Evangelism to post-literates must take on the character
of those disciples in Acts 4: For we cannot but speak of
what we have seen and heard.
It can seem that only those churches with the weakest
understanding of biblical truth are engaging this new
society. As Lutherans, we have a profound responsibility
to take up this challenge. We have proven that we can
express what we believe in the literate age through the
Book of Concord, but could we express what we believe,
teach and confess in the 140 characters of a tweet? Do we
not have anything worth saying to these new generations
who process and receive their information through
story, networks and multimedia and not through books
and treatises? Worse still, are we instead damaging our
message through our current use (or abuse) of that same
social media?
Orthodox Lutheranism should be uniquely positioned
and able to answer this challenge. Our theology is
hands-down the simplest and clearest way of the truth
of Scripture. We are indeed facing a crisis as a church
if we cannot conceive how to express our rich theology
in digitoral ways. It is time for us to answer the pointed
question of Malcolm Boyd: Do the mass media represent
simply vulgarization, popularization, an area of mounting
confusion with which you cannot cope? Is your theology
not applicable to this major crisis in Christian life and
communication?23
Post-literate Christians and unbelievers are seeking

a biblical confession of the faith in their own language
and culture, a meta-narrative with which to understand
their own life and purpose. In the midst of the hurried
twaddle denounced by Kierkegaard, Lutherans are faced
with a question.
#silence?
James A. Neuendorf is an LCMS missionary in the
Dominican Republic.
Boyd, Malcolm. Crisis in Communication: a Christian Examination of

the Mass Media Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1957.
23
48
Witness, Mercy, Life

Together: A Cross-Cultural
Perspective
by Bart Day
Faith in Jesus unites all

Christians, transcending
cultures, languages and
geography.
hat which began as the very good creation, was life and then became death is life again by the power
teaming with life and light, at once was broken as and work of the God that created life in the first place
the serpents seeds were sown, and the weeds of for you and for me and for the whole world.
the enemy began to be harvested in the ears of men. There
Consider with me the Gospel of Lukes account of
is no one that does any good, and there are none that are the triumphal entry. After Jesus had come into the city,
righteous.
some of the Pharisees tell Jesus to rebuke His disciples
What God created alive, man has sent into death and for their singing and shouting. Jesus answers, I tell you,
destruction. That death has gone to all the corners of the if these were silent, the very stones would cry out (Luke
earth. There is not a race of man, a sex, a pocket of life or 19:40). Those people were stones; the redeemed continue
any piece of Gods perfect creation
to be stones that cry out the song
that has not fallen prey to death.
and confession of praise to God
Life
together
with
Jesus
Saint Paul, quoting from Psalms 14
for a Savior the God-Man
Christ creates a worldwide
and 53 says, None is righteous, no,
Jesus Christ. The reign of sin and
phenomenon.
What
was
not one; no one understands; no
death has made each one of us
one seeks for God. All have turned
before separated by borders, dead: dead as a rock, or rather,
aside; together they have become
stone dead. The key, however,
language, customs, pride,
worthless; no one does good, not
is what Jesus does with dead
self-interest
and
all
the
even one. Their throat is an open
rocks in other words with
other children born of
grave; they use their tongues to
ordinary rocks. He makes them
a
sinful
nature,
now
is
deceive. The venom of asps is
extraordinary, like Him.
under their lips. Their mouth is
What does this mean for
gathered together in one to
full of curses and bitterness. Their
Christs hands and His feet, His
live in forgiveness, life and
feet are swift to shed blood; in their
lungs and His heart, His body,
salvation
in
Jesus.
paths are ruin and misery, and the
walking, running, moving all over
way of peace they have not known.
the world? Examining witness and
There is no fear of God before their eyes (Rom. 3:1118). mercy has less importance for the congregation of Gods
So what was for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden holy people if we do not first define and examine that very
a natural fear, love and trust in God above all things, after congregation, also known as the bride of Christ and the
the Fall is the complete opposite. Where life reigned, now body of Christ, which is the collective gathering of saints
death sits upon the throne of men.
from all over the globe, even you and me.
This is the depravity in which we find ourselves across
Life together (koinonia) is a description of the stones
borders, cultures, languages and peoples. But what God that have become living. St. Peter picks up this metaphor
places as the crown of His creation (i.e., man), He will not in his first epistle: As you come to him, a living stone
allow Satan to carry captive into the torment of hell. What rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and
49
precious, you yourselves like living stones are being

built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to
offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ (1 Peter 2:45). Notice first that St. Peter is talking
about stones that are already living. The verse could be
translated, As living stones coming are rejected. The
stones have been forged into the cross shape of Christ,
and their stance before God has been changed. He had
once before rejected these stones, even as the builders
had rejected Christ as the cornerstone. Now they are no
longer rejected by God, but chosen and precious. Their
acceptance is not of themselves, but from God.
I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength
believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him. Thusly,
Martin Luther began to explain the Third Article of the
creed. He could have been describing a builder gathering
stones. This builder searches the world over, looking
for stones to build, not a tower into the heavens, but a
temple where he can dwell with his people. You have to
be a stone or else he will leave you in the field. And yet
there is nothing to fear because we are all stones. We just
lay there, without any power of our own. We have to be
lifted, carried and placed into the right spot. Of course,
this is unlike any other builder the world has known. God
takes ordinary stones and makes them His own, living
stones, ready to be built into a spiritual house. He does
this through the means of His Holy Spirit. So it is that
the living God, Jesus Christ, sends His Holy Spirit into
the pastures and the high places, the low places, to this
country and that country, to these people and that people
to declare them living.
Luther goes on to say, But the Holy Spirit has
called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts,
sanctified and kept me in the true faith. At the very
center of the Holy Spirits work are Jesus Christ and His
work on the cross. The Holy Spirit does His work only
by giving the good gifts of the cross to dead, cold, stones
lying in the fields of sin and darkness (perhaps we should
call them the Valley of the Shadow of Death). When
cold and dead stones are washed in Baptism, preached
the cross and fed the holy body and blood of Jesus, they
are no longer cold and dead, but full of life. At the center
of our life together is the work of Holy Spirit received
through His means in this place and even to the very ends
of the earth.
Daily and richly He forgives my sins and the sins of
all believers, Luther adds, which brings us to our second
point in St. Peters illustration: we are being built into a
50
spiritual house. That means that our stance before God is

not a private one. How often do we carry on as Christians
extolling the virtues of our personal and individual
relationship with Jesus while ignoring or divorcing our
brothers and sisters in the faith from that life? The work
of God to forgive our sins and make us living and whole
in His sight is one of stacking us in the correct order of
paradise-like, architectural beauty and significance in an
eternal community that is the Church. (This has a global
significance in light of the visible/invisible Church: Christ
uses the right stone from the right place to be part of His
living house. In the spiritual house, there are no but
only the nation that is the Lords: Israel.) The Holy Spirit
has established a route for your exact and personal sins to
be forgiven and destroyed, but He does so in the context
of the spiritual house that is His Church. In this Church,
He is daily and constantly active to forgive our sins and to
tie us together.
We want to imagine that a spiritual house made of
living stones does not need any mortar, but it does. It is
our Lord Jesus Christs blood coursing through the midst
of us. As soon as that blood is blocked or mopped up, the
house begins to crumble. We need our Lord in our midst
in order to hold us together. God told the people of Israel
that the life was in the blood. The life of this spiritual
house is Jesus blood. Without it, we are back to being
cold, ordinary stones. With it, we are a vibrant, living and
active Church. Also important to note is how this blood,
the intervention of the Holy Spirit in all His means, makes
us active. We find our life from outside of us.
And the Christ-given life, surging through the midst
of His Church, makes a new Eden. The spiritual house is
a paradise and a foretaste of what is to come. No longer
are we rejected by God, but in Christ Jesus, in the Church,
we are called, chosen and precious. In this Church, we
now have a new definition of love. If you can say that
Lutheranism has experience, it is in the giving of our
whole selves to others.
Before our encounter with Gods Word, we thought
of love as an emotion, or if we thought of it as an act, it
was associated with lust and passion. Each living stone is
placed by God specifically in the context of other believers.
There, we are given a heart for love, to bear one anothers
burdens: to bear the weight of the stones pushing down
on us, pushing down on the Cornerstone. We learn of
love by being loved first. No greater love has a man except
that he lay down His life for the world. Since Jesus laid
down His life to love us, now He has made us little Christs
to love the world. To be a Christian is to be a little Christ,

like the crucifixion, to give your life for those around you.
So it isnt shocking that life together in Jesus is not idle.
We cannot divorce the body of Christ from Christ. As
the head of the body, Christ Jesus pushes us out into the
world: walking, running and moving to all corners of the
earth, a spiritual house that can move and, indeed, does
move out to meet the burdens and needs of those around
us and those in the world. But Christs spiritual house also
moves with the Gospel upon its lips. A life together in
Jesus is always a life of mercy and of witness.
A very good new creation in Christ and His cross
is teaming with life serving and speaking forgiveness
in Christ to the nations. This is a big shift, is it not? Once
the venom of asps filled our lips, but now the Lord has
opened our lips and His praise tumbles out. That which
was destroyed in the Garden of Eden is restored in the
cross of Jesus. We all find our beginning in and trace
a lineage of death and sin back to our father Adam.
We were scattered each to our own language and people
because we desired a name for ourselves that is not and
was not the name of Yahweh. But Jesus has come to where
we are to gather us together again as one people with His
name upon our hearts and foreheads, as those who have
been redeemed by Christ the crucified.
It was the will of God that what was scattered at the
Tower of Babel would be gathered in Jesus death and
resurrection. Of course, we see this great reversal in the
events of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2, and it continues
even now as the name of that God-Man Jesus has been
given to us in the waters of regeneration and renewal
of Baptism. The washing of the Holy Spirit makes rocks
alive, and the name placed upon hearts and foreheads
makes its way to lips and tongues.
God does not build this spiritual house in a vacuum.
The songs of confession and praise do not entirely
reverberate off the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem. For a
time, the song of the Church and the confession of the
Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world must be
sung in cramped quarters while under attack. The Church
finds itself being nurtured and grown in the midst of a
vile, dark and sinful world. The very good new creation
that is, the Church of God dwells in the shadow
in the valley of death. The light of Christ shines forth,
breaking into the darkness, shattering a comfortable
environment for the enemies of God. As John put it, The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not
overcome it (John 1:5). Indeed, the darkness has tried to
overcome it even as it cannot understand it. The darkness

is attacking it and trying to destroy it.
The world would speculate that this thing is
something from the past. Maybe it is a prophet that has
come back to life or a spirit from yesteryear. Those who
know the sacred writings of the people of Israel might
even get closer, naming him Elijah, Isaiah or some other
prophet, or even terror on all sides himself: Jeremiah.
Different peoples and cultures will try to discredit this
spiritual house and call it one of many worldviews.
They may say to ignore it, like Gamaliel suggested to
the Sadducees and leaders of the people: Keep away
from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or
undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you
will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be
found opposing God! (Acts 5:38). There is more truth to
Gamaliels statement than he knew. For, indeed, this is an
act of God. God has created a living, breathing and active
Church for Himself in the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.
And it will not fail, but living stones already have their
victory in that Jesus who hanged on a tree. This message
and this act are what confirm us in our faith and carry us
into the midst of our enemies territory.
St. John says in his first epistle, For there are three
that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and
these three agree (1 John 5:78). Indeed, those three are
witnesses of the crucifixion. They are not just some three
nondescripts from the olden days; they are alive and active
in your life, in the Churchs life, pulling and building the
structure of Christs body. They flow forth from Christ,
delivering the victory over sin and death that was won
on the cross and your justification in His resurrection.
Jesus gives up His Spirit. Water and blood flow forth from
His spear-pierced side: the Spirit, who has called you
by the Gospel and the gifts by which He enlightens you,
water that He used to washed you in your Baptism and
blood by which He bids you drink that you never thirst
again. These things have come to be inside you, but they
cannot be contained inside you. Faith grabs hold of these
witnesses and pushes the message of their testifying to the
lips of the church. They must burst out from your heart
onto your tongue and out your lips. Even as faith pushes
the message of the cross to the lips of the church, the
church asks for God to be the one that opens each of our
lips (Ps. 51:15). We only know how to speak, because the
Holy Spirit has brought the words of the Father to us in
the first place. Children learn to speak by listening to their
parents. People of other cultures and languages learn one
51
anothers language by listening first.

The message that they carry is very specific. This
message is centered on Jesus Christ and focused
specifically on the cross (forgiveness won and life for the
world). It is a message that the Spirit moves the church to
speak, to sing and to confess before peoples, lands, kings
and presidents. The Gospel is not something that gets
rid of persecution and opposition, but it is not squashed
by these either (the gates of hell shall not prevail against
Christs church).
So, the Holy Spirit encounters more obstinate
unbelievers and uses the Church to call them by the
Gospel and to enlighten them with His gifts. When our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, told the apostles to make
disciples of all nations and to baptize them, He willed that
the entire life of the Church be one of witness. Francis
of Assisi is often credited for saying, Preach the Gospel
always, and if necessary, use words. This quote mingles
(and confuses) witness and mercy. The Gospel is always
upon the lips of the Church. To preach is to declare and
to witness is to tell. The entire life of the Church is one
of telling and proclaiming, even as our Lord says that
His Holy Spirit will declare all things to the Church
(John 16:14), the Church will declare those good gifts to
the world.
This does not mean the Church does not demonstrate
mercy. It does. The difference is that when the Church
is doing acts of mercy, it does not stop using its tongue.
Loving the neighbor in action does not mean a cessation
of loving the neighbor in witness. The two can survive
simultaneously, and they do. Also important to note is
the powerful, creative and changing Word of God. To
speak the Gospel is performative, and therefore, to speak
the Gospel is to love the neighbor. To speak the Gospel is
the Holy Spirit being active in the midst of the spiritual
house, which is the body of Christ.
Now a body has lips and a tongue, but also has hands
and feet. As the Church moves around in the world, it
cannot help but be active in the response to the world
around it. We often say, The Church is in the world, not
of it. One of the great light-bulb moments for Martin
Luther was that to remain in the world and not of it did
not mean to seclude oneself from the world, but rather to
remain connected to the Word of God and Christs good
gifts of forgiveness and life.
The Church goes at the command and direction of
Jesus into the world. She crosses all borders and barriers.
She knows all languages, and she has incorporated all
52
peoples. Remember we said that God has and continues

to search the world over for living stones to place into His
spiritual house. That spiritual house returns to those fields
to love and to speak and care and to nurture the world.
The Church is not of the world; she is of Christ, in
the world to speak the Gospel and to love the world she
meets. The Christian life is one that flows forth from the
life of Christ. We know love and what it means to do acts
of mercy because Christ has first loved us and laid down
His life for us. By this we know love, that he laid down
his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the
brothers (1 John 3:16).
We have been grafted into the vine of Christ. We now
are part of a much bigger plant, and the fruit that comes
from our branches is there because of the blood of Christ
that binds us together and surges through our veins.
We cannot help but bear fruit, and when we do not, the
Father comes with His pruning shears to make sure we
do soon. We have a new definition of love compared to
the weak and self-serving definition the world uses. Love
for us is death. Love for the Church is laying down our
life for the needs of others and for the world. Love for the
Church is Christ in the midst of us, filling our mouths
with the Word of God and pushing us into the world to
love our neighbor.
Life together with Jesus Christ creates a worldwide
phenomenon. What was before separated by borders,
language, customs, pride, self-interest and all the other
children born of a sinful nature, now is gathered
together in one to live in forgiveness, life and salvation
in Jesus. Life together is at the same time dynamic and
always moving into the world for the sake of the other.
We only have our identification and life in Christ, but that
Christ gives life and love to the words we speak and the
work we do. It is, in a way, a new culture; it is for certain a
new people with a new language and a new food. For once
we were dead rock, and we were not a people, but now we
are living stones being built up into a spiritual house and
we have a God: Jesus Christ who has laid down His life
for us and picked it up again. He is our head, our God,
our life, our Word and language, and He is our work. We
do not have to come up with anything on our own. He
supplies all we need.
So, as we describe what the Church is, it is defined
and shaped by the work of the Holy Spirit. He gathers,
enlightens and fills us with heavenly things even while we
are on earth.
But soon that will not be the case. He will raise us and
all the dead and give eternal life to you and me and all
believers in Christ. Then we will be a spiritual house with
no darkness at our walls, no persecution and no pain. We
will be with the whole host of witnesses that have gone
before, and we will know mercy purely and perfectly
forever being together one life in the Lamb that
takes away the sin of the world our head and Savior,
Jesus Christ.

The Rev. Bart Day is the executive director of the Office
of National Mission and interim chief mission officer for
The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod.
53
Survey of
300
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana

Lutheran Church in Korea
Gutnius Lutheran Church, Papua New Guinea
The Lutheran Church in the Philippines
225
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina

The Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Paraguay
Evangelical Lutheran Church
of Ingria in Russia
200
KE Y
NUMBER OF MISSIONARIES
The Lutheran ChurchHong Kong Synod
Lutheran Synod of Mexico
250
Matthew C. Harrison
Japan Lutheran Church
China Evangelical Lutheran Church, Taiwan ROC
275
18942014
Robert T. Kuhn
Gerald B. Kieschnick
A.L. Barry
Ralph A. Bohlmann
J.A.O. Preus II
Oliver R. Harms
J.W. Behnken
F. Pfotenhauer
Franz Pieper
H.C. Schwan
C.F.W. Walther
F.C.D. Wyneken
C.F.W. Walther
LCMS International Career Missionaries
175
Career missionaries
Partner churches
World War I
1914-1918
Historical world events
The Evangelical Lutheran

Church of Haiti
Lanka Lutheran Church
of Latvia
of Lithuania
World War II
1939-1945
150
125
India Evangelical Lutheran Church
100
75
Evangelical Lutheran ChurchSynod of France
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Belgium
50
25
Evangelical Lutheran Free

Church in Denmark
Wall Street
crash of 1929
2014
2004
1994
1984
1974
Confessional Lutheran
Church of Chile
The Lutheran Church of Nigeria
The Lutheran Church

Missouri Synod
founded 1947
1964
1954
1944
1934
1924
1914
1904
1894
1884
1874
1864
1854
1844
Lutheran Church of Togo

Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Liberia
Church of Brazil
Fall of the Berlin Wall

1989
Siberian Evangelical
Lutheran Church
9-11 terrorist attacks

2001
Notes on Career Missionary Numbers
Church in Kenya
Iraq War
2003-2011
The career missionary numbers are primarily taken from the Proceedings of the Synodical Convention from the Board for Foreign Missions (other Synod Mission Boards were not counted). In 1965, the Synod in
convention voted to merge the various mission boards into a unified mission board. Despite this change, the number of career missionaries was not significantly affected by this change in fact, the number
declined by 49. Not every Synod convention reported career missionary numbers. Between 19691981, when J.A.O. Preus II was president; between 19811992, when Ralph Bohlmann was president; and between
2001-2010, when Gerald Kieschnick was president, the Synod in convention did not report career missionary numbers. The most significant decline in career missionaries occurred after Seminex when the majority
of missionaries walked off the field (1974-1981). In 1981, the Synod adopted a resolution to increase the number of career missionaries to 600 by 1990. The second-largest drop in career missionaries occurred
between 2001-2009. Career missionary numbers from 20012014 were obtained from the records of the Board for Missionary Services (BFMS) and the Office of International Mission (OIM). These numbers do not
include people who served in Home Missions in Foreign Lands which would include pastors and professors who served primarily German-speaking people in Europe and South America. The numbers only
include people counted as missionaries to Foreign Lands. The Synod did not begin utilizing the category volunteer or GEO until the 1990s. These are not career missionaries and are not included in the
tabulation.
Rev. Dr. Albert B. Collver
Director of Church Relations / Regional Operations
54
Since the end of the 19th
Overview of LCMS
International Career
Missionaries: What Does
This Mean?
by Albert B. Collver III
century, the Missouri

Synod has been actively
engaged in international
mission, but a variety of
factors have affected the
increase and decline of the
number of missionaries.
he accompanying chart showing the history missionaries for her first 47 years, one could hardly
of LCMS career missionaries was first published describe the Missouri Synod as not being interested in
in the November 2014 The Lutheran Witness mission work. The Synod itself was founded in part to
State of the Synod issue. To see LCMS international gather congregations together so that the diversities of
career missionaries begin with only two individuals in gifts should be for the common profit.1 In the first 47
1894, climb to a height of 254 in 1962 and then hover years, the Missouri Synod grew from about 4,000 people
(12 pastors and 16 congregations)
under a 100 missionaries for more
to over 600,000 people by 1894.2
than a decade is a testament to the
The story of Missouri
During this same period of
Lords work in sending laborers
Synod career missionaries
time, approximately 4.5 million
into the field. It also prompted the
is complex with no single
Germans immigrated to the United
question by some Was ist das?
factor or explanation. It
States. No doubt immigration
(What does this mean?).
also
shows
the
Lords
grace
affected the growth of the Missouri
In terms of the number
Synod. It should be kept in mind
of LCMS international career
to His Church despite our
that only a tiny fraction of these 4.5
missionaries, 1954 and 2014
foibles and weaknesses.
million German immigrants would
are parallel years at 90 career
The Lord indeed sends
find a natural home in the Missouri
missionaries. For 47 years, the
laborers to the harvest,
Synod; the rest were reached
LCMS had zero international
and
our
prayer
ascends
through intentional mission work.
career missionaries (18471894).
For 60 years, the Synod had fewer
praying that He sends more By 1940, the Missouri Synod
than 90 career missionaries (1894
laborers so that the Gospel grew to 1.2 million members, and
by 1965, the Synod reached 2.6
1954). For 46 years, she had 90 or
of Christ is proclaimed to
million members according to
more career missionaries (1954
all the world.
official convention reports. During
2000), and for 14 years, 90 or fewer
this time, the Synod more than
career missionaries (20002014).
Again, perhaps these are interesting numbers or doubled in membership. This growth was fueled both by
trends, but Was ist das? The history of LCMS missionary mission efforts and an increase in birthrate.
In 1956, the Synod in convention noted the
numbers helps tell a story that is ecclesiastical, missional,
geopolitical, theological, sociological and perhaps a few Missouri Synod grew more than most other Christian
other ___ologicals. Apart from human factors (both denominations in the United States over the past 100
strengths and weaknesses), it is a testament to the Lords years, yet it also noted Missouri Synod members only
promise to send laborers into the harvest to hear the
1 Preamble to the Constitution of the Lutheran ChurchMissouri
saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Despite the fact that the LCMS did not have foreign Synod, Handbook 2013, 13.
2
The Missouri Synod had 685,000 members by 1897.
55
constituted 1.2 percent of the population in the United

States. H. Mayer, the Mission secretary, noted a strange
paradox in his report: And what shall we say when we
look at the heathen world? During the past 40 years, some
14 million heathen were baptized. But during that same
span of time, the heathen population increased by more
than 20 times that number. Each year there are more
Christians, but each year there are still more heathen.
We face the strange paradox: The church grows, and yet
it becomes relatively smaller.3 In terms of this, no matter
how much the Church grows, it remains a remnant in the
world. Even by the best (and most generous) estimates
today, slightly less than a third of the worlds population
is Christian, despite rapid growth of the Church in the
global South. This is the life of the Church under the cross.
Part of the explanation of the increase in the number of
Missouri Synod international career missionaries between
18941954, which was chosen because it represents a
point where the Synod had the same number of career
missionaries as 2014, is the overall growth of the Synod.
Another significant factor regarding the rise of Missouri
Synod international career missionaries is the increased
geopolitical influence of the United States of America as
a world power. The countries where the Missouri Synod
began new mission work largely followed opportunities
created by the geopolitical influence of the United States
of America. This is one reason the largest increase, both
in terms of missionary numbers and countries where
missionaries were sent, occurred after World War II,
which opened opportunities in Asia that did not exist at
least for 50 years.4 In fact, mission work by the Missouri
Synod in Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, Papua New
Guinea, Hong Kong and Taiwan all began after World War
II geographic areas generally unavailable or difficult
for Synod to work in prior to the end of the war. Just as
the pax romana provided opportunity for the Church to
expand with the Roman Empire, so, too, did the Missouri
Synod expand its mission work around the world with
the foreign policy doctrine of the United States (Truman
Doctrine, Reagan Doctrine, et al.)
The high point in terms of Missouri Synod
international career missionaries occurred in the early
Proceedings of the Forty-Third Regular Convention of the Lutheran
Church Missouri Synod 1956, 369.
3
4
In the early 1890s, the Missouri Synod considered sending

missionaries to Japan. This plan fell through in part due to the changing
geo-political situation in Asia. As a result, the Missouri Synod began
her international mission work in India.
56
1960s. The Cold War with the Soviet Union was in full
swing. The United States was the greatest economic
and arguably the greatest military power on earth.
The Missouri Synod also had the highest number of
communicant members. A pivotal moment in this
period was the 1965 Synod convention in Detroit, Mich.,
which was chosen because Detroit was seen as the future
of the United States and leading the trend toward the
urbanization of America. The Missouri Synod was on a
high from the postwar boom. Expectations for the future
were optimistic (overly so). In 1965, the Missouri Synod
was increasing in membership by approximately 60,000
people per year. The members of the Missouri Synod gave
$705 million to international missions between 19621965
(adjusted for inflation in 2014 dollars is the equivalent of
nearly $529 million).6
In 1965, approximately four million babies were born
in the United States. It was predicted that in a decade
this would increase by 25 percent to approximately five
million babies being born.7 This optimistic prediction was
before the infamous Roe v. Wade case in 1973 and the
legalization of abortion in the United States, the malaise
of the Vietnam War and the economic stagflation of the
1970s. The actual birth rate of 1975 declined from the
1965 levels by more than half a million people.8 The 1965
birth rate would not be reached again in the United States
until the early to mid-1980s. Yet on the basis of projected
demographics in 1965, Dr. Wolbrecht predicted that
the Missouri Synod would have 8.25 million members
by 1990.9
The 1965 Synod convention in Detroit was a watershed
moment in the history of the Missouri Synod. In many
ways, it was the mission convention. The Synod adopted
Oliver Harms, Presidents Address, Convention Proceedings 1965, 7.
Since we met last, God has moved our members to give $70,000,000
for the world mission of the church carried on by the Synod.
5
Inflation rate of U.S. dollars calculated from http://www.

usinflationcalculator.com.
6
Walter F. Wolbrecht. Planning For The Churchs Mission, Convention

Proceedings 1965, 21. We meet in 1965. Ten years from now, on June
16, 1975, there will be 25% more babies born than are being born
today.
7
Or using numbers provided by the Synod in convention, a decline of

one million in the birth rate.
9
Wolbrecht, 23. The outer limit of this projection in 1990 raises

these totals respectively to 8,250,000 baptized members and 5,300,000
communicants by 1990. The actual membership of the Missouri Synod
in 1990 was about 2.6 million members. Ralph Bohlmann. Report of
the President, Convention Proceedings 1989, 70. Whether a church
bodys membership is 2.6 million, as ours is, or 650, or 1,920, all
churches should be engaged in mission activity as a primary focus.
in convention that the Church is the mission of God

and that The churchs ministries of worship, service,
fellowship, and nurture all have a missionary dimension.10
This was the first of the so-called Mission Affirmations.
Compatible with the tone of the resolutions of the 1965
convention, Concordia Publishing House published The
Mission of God: An Introduction to a Theology of Mission
by Georg F. Vicedom, edited by William Danker.11 The
book included a Foreward by Leslie Newbigin. This
work brought the missio Dei theology expounded at the
Willingen Conference in 1952 by Vicedom, which holds
the missionary movement of which we are a part of
has its source in the Triune God Himself.12 The South
African missiologist David Bosch takes missio Dei even
further and says, Mission is not primarily an activity of
the church, but an attribute of God. God is a missionary
God.13 Other Mission Affirmation resolutions from
the 1965 included The Church Is Christs Mission to
the Whole World (Res. 1-01B), The Church Is Christs
Mission to the Church (Res. 1-01C), The Church Is
Christs Mission to the Whole Society (Res. 1-01D),
The Church Is Christs Mission to the Whole Man (Res.
1-01E) and The Whole Church Is Christs Mission
(Res. 1-01F). These convention resolutions provided the
theological and philosophical framework for the next
significant mission resolution from the 1965 convention,
Res. 1-02, To Effect a Single Board for Missions. The
Synod in convention merged all the various mission
boards into one mission board,14 eventually to become
known as the Board for Mission Services. This was a
major restructuring of the Synod. After the merging
The Church is Gods Mission, Resolution 1-01A, Convention
Proceedings 1965, 79.
10
11
Georg F. Vicedom. William Danker, ed. Giblert A. Thiele and Dennis

Hilgendorf, trans. The Mission of God: An Introduction to a Theology of
Mission. (Saint Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing House, 1965).
12
Ibid., vii.
David J. Bosch. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology

of Mission. American Society of Missiology Series 16. (Maryknoll,
New York: Orbis Books, 1991), 389390. However else mission Dei
theology has impacted the Church, the assertion that mission, which
is sending is an attribute of God has far reaching implications.
Sending has not historically been listed in dogmatic texts as an
attribute of God. Traditional attributes of God include things like
eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, et al.
13
14
The resolution reads, The Board for Missions in North and South
America, the Board for World Missions, the Board for Missions to
the Blind, the Board for Missions to the Deaf, the Board for European
Affairs, and the Commission on College and University Work be united
into a single Board for Missions to which the Medical Mission Council
and the Church Extension Board shall be attached in their established
service capacities.
of all the mission boards into one mission board, there

was a slight decline in the number of international
career missionaries. Forty-five years later in 2010, the
Synod in convention voted to dissolve a single board
for missions to create two boards and two offices: The
Board for International Mission (BIM) The Office of
International Mission (OIM) and The Board for National
Mission (BNM) The Office of National Mission.
Prior to the 1965 convention (for the previous 6070
years), the Synod created boards to address various aspects
of mission and human care for various locations and
people groups. For instance, the 1926 Synod convention
heard reports from the following mission boards: Home
Missions in North America; Home Missions in South
America; Foreign Missions; Jewish Missions; Indian
Missions; Immigrant and Seamans Missions; Deaf-mute
Missions; Foreign Tongue Missions and Missions in
Europe. Although the Synod had a variety of mission
boards, international career missionaries throughout
the Synod were only counted from the Board of Foreign
Missions. The chart accompanying this article only
counts career missionaries from the Board for Foreign
Missions and its subsequent and successor boards. It
should be noted that international career missionaries
from the Board for Foreign Missions and its successor
boards comprise the only consistent tracking of Missouri
Synod international missionaries. Quite simply, home
mission (mission to South America and Europe) was
not viewed by the Synod as foreign mission because
this work primarily focused initially on German speaking
people located in Europe or South America.
The next significant synod event to affect the number
of international career missionaries was Seminex, an
event that created significant division and strife within
the Synod. A significant number of career missionaries
walked off the mission field in solidarity with the faculty
of the Saint Louis seminary who walked off campus.
Reflecting back on 1974 in the 1979 Synod Convention,
President J.A.O. Preus said, These matters have been
productive of some misunderstanding, particularly back
in 1974, and at the time the majority of the mission staff
of the Synod walked out.15 The events of Seminex had
great effect on the Synod, the Synods career missionaries
and the partner churches of the Missouri Synod.
In some measure, the partner churches suffered most
directly by the loss of the career missionaries. President
15
J.A.O. Preus. Convention Proceedings 1979, Presidents Report, 58.
57
J.A.O. Preus in 1975 addressed the convention:

The traumatic experiences of 1974 are behind us. But
special mention should be made of the steadfastness
of missionaries who not only remained at their posts
but also exerted a pastoral and loving role, together
with the national leaders of the sister churches, and
for this we certainly should thank Almighty God. The
wisdom and churchmanship shown by presidents of
sister churches is an inspiration to all who have been
closely associated with them. I am happy to report
that not only have the sister churches remained with
us but in many instances experienced significant and
important growth.16
Both due to the push to abandon colonialism, to
decry the imperialism of the United States and other
European powers in the world and the departure of the
majority of the Missouri Synods missionaries from the
international field, there was a desire to establish sister or
partner churches to the Missouri Synod.
Approximately one-third of the current sister or
partner churches were established in the decade between
1965 and 1975. As Dr. Preus noted:
I also am very frank to state to you that I believe that
in the creation of the concept of sister or partner
churches during the 1960s, the administration of
The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod was to some
degree remiss. In working with young churches,
many of them only about 25 years old, we did not
do sufficient consulting together relative to financial
controls, to constitutional questions and to matters
of general church administration. There were certain
theological questions left unanswered, and some of
these have been productive of controversies which
produced more heat than light. We did not agree
sufficiently on guidelines for the carrying out of
church fellowship. We talked at great length about
autonomy of partner churches, but we did not draw
up sufficiently carefully prepared documents to
answer the kinds of questions that continue to arise
as to the exercise of responsible autonomy.17
Many of the challenges that the Missouri Synod
partner churches experienced and, in some cases still
experience today, are attributable to the aftermath of the
mass departure of Missouri Synod career missionaries
due to the events of Seminex.
16
J.A.O. Preus. Convention Proceedings 1975, Presidents Report, 60.
17
Preus 1979, 58.
58
In one sense, the period of the 1980s until early 2000

was an attempt by the Synod to rebuild her mission
efforts that existed in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In
1979, the Synod Convention adopted Resolution 1-20,
To Expand the Kingdom Through Larger Number of
Missionaries, which called for the sending of 600 career
missionaries.18 By the mid-1980s, the Synod was having
difficulty obtaining the goal of 600. To address some
concern that arose over the decline in the number of
career missionaries, President Ralph Bohlmann wrote:
Some mistaken information gets out once in a while,
implying that we are declining in mission outreach. I
dont know whether a lot of people understand that
during the last 1015 years theres been a dramatic
change in mission strategy in The Lutheran Church
Missouri Synod, and in many other churches of the
world as well. We no longer count the activity of
mission outreach in terms of missionaries sent out
each year, because the philosophy has been that the
missionary goes in order to train missionaries who
are natives in the church in which they work. Today,
we have many evangelists, catechists, and pastors
and lay leaders in churches that were once served
as mission fields of the Synod. Such workers today
number over 4,000 missionary personnel, compared
with about 2,000 in the year 1980, and 2,600 in the
year 1970, and 1,000 in the year 1950. It is true that
the number of U.S. missionaries is lower than it
once was.19
A significant point that Dr. Bohlmann made was that
missionary outreach is not solely or limited to the number
of Missouri Synod career missionaries. In addition to
the role that Missouri Synod career missionaries played,
the activities of our partner churches and their workers
who in some cases are directly or indirectly supported by
the Missouri Synod should be taken into account. This,
indeed, is a valid point. However, it is more difficult to
count or measure the work of partner churches as the
work of the Missouri Synod even if such work is being
funded or supported by the Missouri Synod. And as Dr.
Bohlmann admitted, the number of Missouri Synod
Res. 1-20, Convention Proceedings 1979, 129. WHEREAS, At
least 600 new missionaries are needed to double our present mission
personnel by 1990; therefore be it Resolved, That The Lutheran
ChurchMissouri Synod adopt the mission challenge for the 80s of
600 new missionaries from The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod
serving partner churches/mission fields and new outreach areas.
18
Ralph Bohlmann. Convention Proceedings 1992, Report of the

President, 70.
19
career missionaries in the 1980s was lower than it had

been in the past.
With the election of Dr. Alvin Barry, the Missouri
Synod experienced an increase in the number of career
missionaries. Again, as in all the previous cases, a
number of factors were involved. One factor that greatly
contributed to the increase was the improving economy
of the United States. Funding for missions increased
through donations from members of Synod and from
foundations. In addition, there were geo-political factors
such as the fall of the Wall and the collapse of the Soviet
Union. This opened up new opportunities for mission
work that had not been available in the preceding 50
years. This situation was not unlike the opportunities
opened up for mission work after World War II. In the
1998 Synod convention, it was reported that there were
423 missionaries, divided into the following categories:
163 career missionaries (reflected in the accompanying
chart), 130 long-term volunteers and 130 short-term
volunteers.20 This is one of the few times Synod in
convention reported not only career missionaries but also
other categories. 1998 marked the high point of Synod
missions in terms of career missionary numbers since the
time of Seminex (1974).
The decade of the 2000s brought several challenges
for the number of career missionaries. Perhaps the most
significant factor involved the events of Sept. 11, 2001,
when the United States suffered terrorist attacks on her
home soil. These events affected travel, immigration,
economics, politics and the national mood and brought
theological ramifications. After 9/11, the United States
entered an economic recession/depression that it has not
entirely recovered from in 2014. The national mourning
after the terrorist attacks on the United States led to a
number of pan-Christian joint worship events that raised
questions of unionism and syncretism. The Missouri
Synod did not escape controversy over whether or not it
was acceptable for its pastors to participate. Contention
over these joint worship services affected the Synod
and thereby had an effect on missionary support. Due
primarily to financial challenges, the Missouri Synod had
a decline of 73 missionaries during this decade. Since
2010, the Synod slowly is recovering from the decline of
the mid-2000s. At the time of the writing of this piece, the
Missouri Synod has 90 career missionaries, the same as
the Synod had in 1954.
20
Conclusion
Since the end of the 19th century, the Missouri Synod
has been actively engaged in international mission by
the sending of career missionaries. A variety of factors
have affected the increase and decline of the number of
missionaries, including economic, political, theological
and other related factors. Philosophical and theological
approaches have influenced the increase or decline
in the number of career missionaries, as well as strife
and challenges within the Synod. Nearly every Synod
convention since 1974 has included resolutions to
increase the number of missionaries. The Missouri Synod
has consistently desired to increase the number of career
missionaries. The actual increase has not always been as
successful as desired at times due to human factors and
perhaps at times due to the Churchs prayer that the Lord
of the harvest send laborers, delaying that according to
His purposes. Another general statement since 1974 that
could be made is that the Synod is doing more with less
funding each year. When one considers the $70 million
($529 million adjusted for 2014 inflation) the Synod
spent on missions between 19621965 with a high point
of 254 career missionaries, the Synod today has 90 career
missionaries with a total budget of approximately $30
million (about $4 million in 1962 dollars). In the 2013, the
Synod convention adopted Resolution 1-11, To Recruit
and Place More Career Missionaries, which called for the
doubling of career missionaries. Presently, all indicators
show that the Synod should be able to double the number
of career missionaries from the 2013 number of 68 to an
anticipated 2016 career missionary number of 136.
The story of Missouri Synod career missionaries is
complex with no single factor or explanation. It also
shows the Lords grace to His Church despite our foibles
and weaknesses. The Lord indeed sends laborers to the
harvest, and our prayer ascends praying that He sends
more laborers so that the Gospel of Christ is proclaimed
to all the world.
The Rev. Dr. Albert Collver III is the LCMS director of
Church Relations, LCMS director of Regional Operations
for the Office of International Mission and executive
secretary of the International Lutheran Council.
Convention Proceedings 1998, Committee 1 Missions, 56.
59
Author Michael Horton notes
Book Review
Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World

by Michael Horton (Zondervan Publishing)
by Lucas V. Woodford
the folly of letting culture

set the tone for the ministry
of modern North American
churches in contrast to more
traditional churches where
the Gospel is ordinarily
proclaimed, delivered and
administered through Word
and Sacrament.
hats sensational about the ordinary? the reader through the challenges facing the North
How can the average sell? Whats American church today letting the culture set the
extraordinary about the normal? Our tone for the life and ministry of the Church. He explores
culture, and the church that allows itself to be positioned the over-sensationalized church with all of its lawby it, says, not much.
oriented demands and juvenilization and points her
Our culture constantly looks for the next big thing, back to the beauty and the joy of the ordinary manner
is always selling something new and is ever lifting up of her existence, where the extraordinary message of the
radical, epic and revolutionary
Gospel is routinely, regularly and
ways of life. Therefore, the cry of
ordinarily proclaimed, delivered and
Why
do
we
seem
to
some in the Church today is that
administered through Word and
new, radical, epic and revolutionary
Sacrament:
think that churches
ways of ministry must rise to
Why do we seem to think that
need to imitate the
the top too if the Church is to be
churches need to imitate the
perpetual
innovation
of
successful. Christians must become
perpetual innovation of Microsoft
Microsoft instead of the instead of the patient care of a good
superstars by selling everything
patient care of a good
for Jesus. Celebrity pastors need to
gardener? Chasing the latest fad for
lead the way to the next big thing.
spiritual growth, church growth
gardener? Chasing the
Super (modern-day) apostles need
and cultural impact, we eventually
latest fad for spiritual
to be over the top and always at
forget both how to reach the lost
growth,
church
growth
it for Jesus, and contentment is
and how to keep the reached. The
and cultural impact, we
to be shunned like the plague. As
ordinary means of grace become
eventually
forget
both
a result, tricked-out, emergent,
yesterdays news. Like pay phones,
everything-must-change,
hyperso we are told by the emergent
how to reach the lost
missional, extraordinarily ambitious
entrepreneurs, ordinary churches
and how to keep the
and audacious Christians and their
may still be around here and there,
reached.
Horton
churches have become the modus
but nobody uses them. In olden
operandi in much of North America.
days believers may have gathered
True, ordinary isnt fussy, isnt flashy, has no bells and
for the apostles teaching and the fellowship
whistles and doesnt sell. However, author Michael Horton
the breaking of the bread and the prayers, but that
reminds us that the ordinary means of grace is precisely
was before iPads. In past generations, Christs fruithow Christ has worked for some 2,000 years to bring the
bearing vines may have been tended with daily
extraordinary gifts of the forgiveness of sins, the promise
family disciplines of catechism, Bible reading and
of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting to
prayer, but with my schedule? And to say that the
people bruised, beaten and battered by their sins and the
apostolic method of church growth in breadth as
sin of the world.
well as depth is preaching, teaching, baptism, the
Full of wisdom and ever winsome, Horton takes
Lords Supper and accountability to elders is likely to
60
provoke the response: are you serious?1

Horton insightfully tracks how the evangelical church
has gone from understanding the ordinary to demanding
everything be extraordinary; how ambition was
historically and biblically always a vice (and sin), but
has now been elevated to a virtue; how contentment
was always a biblical virtue but has now been made into
a vice (of mediocrity); how the contractual American
mentality and way of life has replaced the covenantal
biblical mentality and way of life; and how passing away
is the preferred mode of speaking rather than talking of
the death and resurrection. All these ordinary ways of
talking about and proclaiming the Good News have been
remade and replaced.
But make no mistake about it: Horton is clear that
ordinary does not mean mediocre.
In fact, far from throwing a wet blanket on godly
passion, my goal is to encourage an orientation
and habits that foster deeper growth in grace, more
effective outreach and a more sustainable vision of
loving service to others over a lifetime. This is not a
call to do less, but to invest in things that we often
give up on when we dont see an immediate return.
The fact that ordinary has come to mean mediocre
and low expectations is a sign of the problem I want
to address.2
Always focused on the next big thing, movement
or fad in the Church, Horton says the Church actually
fails to focus on the truly next big thing the second
coming of Jesus. Until Jesus returns, Horton reminds us
that the ordinary things like catechesis (catechism) and
liturgy (hymnal), Word and Sacrament are part of the
wonderful ordinary way that faith has been passed on and
taught for centuries and invites the reader to celebrate
the ordinariness still today. Sadly, what is often given up
on is the ordinariness of the Good News itself, namely,
that Jesus Christ came to atone for the sins of the lost and
the found; that Baptism is a gift of Gods grace; that the
Lords Supper gives the forgiveness of sins. When these
ordinary means just dont seem to be doing what we think
they should be doing in the right now, at this moment,
immediate demands of our time, they are abandoned for
something more flashy, more relevant and more radical.
However, Horton takes joy in lifting up the ordinary

message that so many Christians find as inadequate:
The power of our activism, campaigns, movements,
and strategies cannot forgive sins or raise the dead.
The gospel is the power of God for salvation,
and, with Paul, we have no reason to be ashamed of
it (Rom. 1:16). That is why phrases like living the
gospel, being the gospel and being partners with
Jesus in his redemption of the world are dangerous
distortions of the biblical message of good news. The
gospel is not about what we have done or are called
to do, but the announcement of Gods saving work in
Jesus Christ. For what we proclaim is not ourselves,
but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your
servants for Jesus sake, (2 Cor. 4:5).3
Amen to that! There are far too many well-intentioned
but misguided methods, manners and techniques
that in the name of innovation, accommodation and
determination disparage the ordinary means of God at
work through His Word and Sacraments, and yes, even
in the liturgy, catechesis and the pastors of the Church.
Theyre not enough, were told. So something new must
be invented and remade. However, Horton unequivocally,
biblically and theologically demonstrates that they are
indeed powerful and more than enough: CNN will not be
showing up at a church that is simply trusting God to do
extraordinary things through his ordinary means of grace
delivered by ordinary servants. But God will, week after
week. These means of grace and the ordinary fellowship
of the saints that matures and guides us throughout our
life may seem frail, but they are jars that carry a rich
treasure.4
What is more, not only are they enough, but Horton
also points to how the ordinariness of our daily lives
(the ordinariness of our daily callings/vocations) is also
something to be celebrated as part of Gods good creation
and are, in fact, the means of maintaining a faithful
presence to enjoy our neighbors rather than using them
to achieve superstardom in the new ways of doing church:
It is easy to turn others into instruments of our
ambition rather than loving them for their own
sake, as fellow image-bearers of God. They become
supporting actors if not props in our life
movie. Loving actual neighbors through particular
actions every day can be a lot more mundane as
Michael Horton. Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless

World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), 178179.
Ibid, p. 40.
Ibid, p. 149.
Ibid, p. 28.
61
well as difficult than trying to transform culture.

Regardless of the role or place in society to which
God has assigned us by our calling, we are content.
Our identity is already determined by our being in
Christ, not by our accomplishments. The measure of
excellence is daily love for our neighbors during this
time between Christs two advents.5
Horton has provided an absolute gem for our times.
As one who reads every new thing out there, this book
was a breath of ordinary fresh air to fill my lungs. This
book is a phenomenal and encouraging read! Before any
pastor thinks he needs to start anew, joins the latest fad
or hires a consultant, he needs to read this book. In fact,
it is so good and timely that should be required reading
for all pastors and aspiring pastors. Thank you, Michael
Horton, for putting out such an important, needed and
ordinary book!
The Rev. Dr. Lucas V. Woodford is senior pastor of Zion
Lutheran Church and School, Mayer, Minn.
Ibid, p. 161.
62
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Journal of Lutheran

From the President

See How They Love

hroughout Jesus ministry, He had pity

heaven and the new earth.

The Journal of Lutheran Mission

2015 The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod.

Published by The Lutheran Church

Member: Associated Church Press Evangelical Press Association (ISSN 2334-1998)

When suffering and tragedy

Answering the Why Question:

tendency to judge God or to

my opinion, than in philosophical discussions of the

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

In fact, Gerhard Forde writes, The attempt to make God answerable

justifying man, man now attempts to justify God.

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

Oswald Bayer, Living by Faith: Justification and Sanctification (Grand

Theodore Tappert, ed., Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

we are to begin at the bottom with the incarnate Son and

On Gods hiddenness, see the excellent treatment by Steven Paulson,

We are given only to hear the preached God, the

Divine mercy in word and deed

Cited from LW 33:319 by Notger Slenczka, God and Evil: Martin

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

Jesus Himself is the source of Gods mercy for humanity.

Mercy is not self-evident. It cannot become an existential or

no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1) and

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

in this or some other evil that may befall me. Thy

In time of death one is especially in need of the

Ibid., 239. For a helpful discussion of Luthers understanding of

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

charge over us. They watch over us in times of danger

Praying for mercy

cific biblical references to drive home this point. Coupling

Two governments and Gods mercy

The literature on the two governments or two kingdoms is extensive.

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

eted and rich with evangelical insight. Unlike those who

The Rev. John T. Pless is assistant professor of Pastoral

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

Giving Thanks in Times of

How can we remain

They sing of Christ and believe in the comfort of Christ

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

Nicolai. He saw his congregation decimated by plague.

many thousands of angels and to the assembly of the

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

Exultation! Tell the story! / Great is He, the King of Glory!

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

and then think of these words:

of the Lord forever, in joy and gladness. Right now, the

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

This is the Church. She goes on singing and offering

martyrs greet us / In that celestial land.

There shall we see in glory / Our dear Redeemers face; / The

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

Sharing The Gospel in

Does Gods Word give us

Journal of Lutheran Mission | The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

in light of situations like this, its not quite as easy as we