50 years after my ordination
Dear Students of Theology, what shall an old Lutheran pastor and teacher of theology say to students at the 50th anniversary of his ordination? Before I talk about the privilege that a sinful man is accepted by the Lord of the Church to proclaim his Gospel and administer his holy sacraments, I want to remind us all who have been baptized in the name of the Triune God that through our baptism we were accepted as children of God and were openly declared to be part of the chosen race, of the royal priesthood, of the holy nation, of God’s own people, in order to be priests and witnesses of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and of the mighty acts of the true God and Saviour of all people of all times and nations. By the mercies of God we were called to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God to be our spiritual worship to approach regularly our heavenly Father boldly and confidently in prayer in the name of His Son Jesus Christ for ourselves and for all our beloved ones, even for all our fellow men and especially for all our fellow Christians over all barriers of race, culture, and languages.
As priests of the King of kings you have chosen to come to a Lutheran Theological Seminary to study theology and prepare yourselves to become Lutheran pastors. You have done well. The world needs Lutheran pastors according to article V of the Augsburg Confession: “So that we may obtain this faith (which is confessed in the 4th article) the ministry of teaching the gospel and administering the sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and the sacraments as through instruments the Holy Spirit is given, who effects faith where and when it pleases God in those who hear the gospel, that is to say, in those who hear that God, not on account of our own merits but on account of Christ, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace on account of Christ, Galatians 3[:14b]. ‘So that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.’” The Lord himself says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.” St. Paul writes, “whoever aspires to the office of bishop desires a noble task,’ according to the NRSV. We know that this translation makes out of the overseer a bishop, where St. Paul was talking about the office of the ministry in a Christian congregation, or to serve as a missionary. The German translation gives the necessary honour which the office of the ministry deserves according to the judgement of God, it says that who desires to become a pastor desires “ein köstlich Werk”, without the idea of being illustrious by rank, which is given as the first meaning of noble in the Concise Oxford Dictionary. The office of the ministry in the church of the Lord of lords is not illustrious as many may think, as we still will hear a little later of all the temptation, often hardship, even of the struggle with the devil himself connected with being a Christian, student of theology or pastor, still it is a noble task, the καλὸν ἔργον in the service of Christ illustrated by St. Paul not to think of being illustrious by rank, if one remembers 1 Cor. 3:9-13. Still it is the “köstlich Werk”, and if you keep in mind 1 Cor. 3:9-13 then you may think of the office of the ministry as a noble task.
The duties of the ministerial office are the καλὰ ἔργα, the good works that we have to do before others, so that they may see and hear what God is doing for them, and give glory to our Father in heaven, Matth. 5:16. It is not a work which we have to do only in secret as practising our piety, giving alms, praying, and fasting, Matth. 6:1-18. What you are learning and studying here at the seminary you will have to proclaim in the open according to the example Christ gave his disciples saying “What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim form the housetops,” Matth. 10:28. Then if you do this work faithfully according to the Word of God, you will experience refusal, rejection, even hatred according to the prophecy of Christ, “You will be hated by all because of my name,” Math. 10:22; or “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they malign those of his household!” Math. 10:25.
Still I repeat again, “You have done well to choose to prepare yourselves for this noble task,” and emphasize in connection with the prospective of refusal, rejection, and hatred awaiting every faithful servant of the Lord that you will do well if you hear the good advice of our Lord reminding you to estimate the cost, telling His disciples, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying: This fellow began to build and was not able to finish,” Luk. 14:28-30.
As young men, and even if you decided after you had worked in an another profession it is difficult to estimate the costs which are really involved in being a pastor in a poor Lutheran Church. Certainly you have already experienced friends, perhaps even parents or wives that could not understand that you have chosen to come to a Lutheran seminary. How many do say, “you could serve the Lord just as well, or even better if you take up the work straight away and do not waste time at a seminary, you could even serve the Lord not depending on a low salary paid by a poor church or congregation, even earning much more money working and serving the Lord as a layman witnessing to Him and even supporting the congregation with considerable amounts of money. Or you have heard of new ideas that Africa can do much better with lay preachers, even ordained men without seminary training than with trained pastors who cost a lot of money. I remember the story of one of our pastors and later even dean how fellow men ridiculed him when he studied at the seminary. A previous colleague who had served as church elder together with him and both were asked by the missionary to go to the seminary. The one who stayed at home was then urgently needed to do work as an evangelist, and was installed with a salary when his friend still was studying at the seminary. Still I say, “You have done well to come to the seminary.” I am convinced that Africa is served by many a trustworthy, faithful, honest layman standing firmly in his faith in the teaching of the Small Catechism and in the Word of God, still Africa already has to many who think that they can do the work as a minister of the Word, or even as a spiritually gifted prophet without really to sit down and study the written Word of God to listen to the Lord before standing up and proclaim their own thoughts, claiming even that the Spirit has revealed to them their heresies in dreams, serving God in Africa according to a questionable African way without understanding the long history of the Christian Church, even the history of the church in Africa during the times of the African bishops Origen, Athanasius, and St. Augustine. Africa needs much more well trained man well grounded in the Word of God and in the confession of the church, knowing it, being convinced of the message revealed in the holy Word of God, written and preserved for all generations in the canonical books of the Old and New Testament, and as it was understood and confessed during the centuries since the birth, death, resurrection, ascension of the Lord of the church and the outpouring of God, the holy Spirit at Pentecost, and how the praise of the Triune God developed in the liturgy of the church service during the centuries.
Nevertheless we have to estimate the costs of a good seminary training for future pastors and I think not of the expenditures it costs for the church, but the costs you as students at a Lutheran Seminary for you personally during the time at the seminary, the further training as vicars and then as pastors working in a Christian congregation and doing missionary work.
What does God expect from a man preparing himself for the ministry? He wants him to be a man of God, who is convinced that there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; in order to be content if we have food and clothing, in order to shun the dangerous imagination as if godliness is a means of gaining temporal riches, and to shun the many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people, also students of theology and pastors, into ruin and destruction, but instead to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love endurance, gentleness, to fight the good fight of faith, to take hold of the eternal life, to which you are called and for which you as future servants of the Word have to make a good confession already as students at a seminary, always to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, always being alert, remembering that the struggle is not (only) against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. In Ephesians 6 St. Paul says that the struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh. According to the Small Catechism we know that these enemies attack us in the form of the will of the devil, the world and of our own flesh which tries to deceive us or mislead us into unbelief, despair, and other great and shameful sins.
In this struggle you need the whole armour of God. Therefore take it up, “so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God,” Ef. 6:10-17.
We all know the fate of a buck which is hit by a poisonous arrow of a bushman hunter. It will still run quite a distance, but the poison will kill it at last. If you are hit by a flaming arrow of the evil one, and the flaming arrow starts to burn in your conscience, do not throw away the shield, do not loose your faith believing that the blood of Jesus, the Son of God, is able to quench the flame of a burning conscience. Do not run away, but stay with the one who invites you to confess your sin and to be forgiven in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Especially if you study the Word of God and the Confessions of the Lutheran Church seriously the Holy Spirit will do His work in you. The law of God always accuses us. The flaming arrow of the devil will kindle the burning fire in your conscience. Then the Holy Spirit is promised to lead you to accept the invitation to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, to be convinced that the Holy Spirit has called you who because of your corrupt sinful nature cannot be victorious in this struggle by your own reason or strength, but that you need the power of the Holy Spirit not to be overcome by the temptations of the devil, your fellow men, even temptations coming from your fellow Christians, and not by the temptations of your own flesh, finally to prevail and gain the victory, even to be preserved in the true faith, believing that because of Christ’s birth, death and resurrection all your sins are abundantly daily forgiven, and God has promised us victory at the end..
Never forget that being a student of theology, a student at a Lutheran Theological Seminary does not mean to abandon to live according to the chief parts of the Catechism. To be a child of God, to be baptized signifies that old Adam be drowned[1] daily together with all sins and evil lusts by sorrow and repentance and be put to death, and that the new man should come forth daily and rise up, cleansed and righteous, to live forever in God’s presence; to believe and to confess the Triune God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, always remembering what it means that He is our Creator, Saviour, and Sanctifier, that He created us, keeps us, supplies us with what we need, and that Jesus Christ is true God and true man, who was born for our salvation, died because of our sins, and was raised from the dead for our justification, that He is our Lord; that the Holy Spirit has sanctified us in the true faith and hope to believe that our sins are daily forgiven abundantly and that a place is reserved for us in the life everlasting.
Never to despise the preaching of God’s Word, but to hear and learn it gladly, praying that His name may be sanctified in our lives and also among our next of kin, our neighbours, and in our congregation and church, that His kingdom may come to us and to all others, believing God’s Word and to live accordingly, His will be done, that we all receive our daily bread with thanksgiving, ask that our trespasses and guilt before God may be forgiven, and we not to be lead into temptation, but to be delivered from all evil, always to be aware that the kingdom, power and glory belong to God, that He rules, helps and lives for ever.
Never to forget that we are called to acknowledge and confess our sins, in order to make use of the opportunity of private confession. This will happen if we will make it our habit to reflect on our condition in the light of the Ten Commandments still as sons of parents, or husbands of a wife, as students of theology in a community of fellow students, taught by our teachers or professors.
It is a great privilege to be part of a community, not studying somewhere alone, but to try to fit properly in into this community. To study intern at a seminary, living in the community of teachers and fellow students is a good opportunity and exercise to learn how to live in a congregation, even to bear one another in good relationships with others who come from a different back ground, attending regular morning and evening services together, listening together to the scripture readings, praying together, getting used to formulated prayers, learning how the church has prayed for centuries before you were born, even since Old Testament times. A student only coming to lectures, or not even attending lectures, not hearing the teacher, only reading his notes as external student of an institution like UNISA has not this opportunity to react to living fellow men, not getting any experience to talk to them, to learn how to hear and accept good utterings of the other, or oppose in a real Christian way and help the other by showing him the right way, to learn how to live with fellow Christians in a real Christian way.
To live in a community of fellow students gives many opportunities to practice Christian behaviour and love, being prepared to forgive where one did not like what the other has done, and even to be prepared to ask for forgiveness if something was done or said wrong by oneself.
And reflecting on our own condition and behaviour in a seminary community in the light of the Ten Commandments a student will find much more often a reason to make use of private confession because in such a community you meet situations where you have transgressed the commandment that forbids us to envy. There is the fellow student who has a little more money available, who learns easier and achieves better results as oneself. Then the confession of envy as sin and guilt before God, confessing it before the confessor and receiving forgiveness in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Make use of such opportunities to grow in Christian attitudes, also towards money and women. It is not a secret that money and women bring many a man of God to fall into sin. St. Paul says it clearly: Who wants to become a servant of the Word of God should be the husband of one wife. How is a man going to live in holiness and purity in monogamy, if he practices polygamy even before marriage according to good Christian order. And those who want to be rich, who desire to take money which does not belong to them fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. I am thankful for the warning of one of our professors at Oberursel who told us never to close the door where you are consulted by a woman or young girl. Let your wife always have the opportunity to enter the room, not that she listens to the confidential talk, but to shield you never to become sexually involved with them. I am thankful also for the good advice which the Old Superintendent Johannes who ordained me gave me when we once had to talk about a missionary who had not been faithful to his wife. He told me that he had asked his wife to hold him with both hands, when he started to struggle with all the transgressions of the sixth commandment in his congregation as young missionary. It is not a special warning for Africa. This warning is valid for every continent. It is not only a warning in New Testament times that St. Paul was very alert to warn men like Timothy or the Thessalonians , but already in Old Testament times God has warned his people not to be trapped by the idol mammon, or by women, e. g. Achan who took some of the devoted things; and the anger of the LORD burned against the Israelites, and he had to be stoned, Josh. 7: 1.16-26; and the man who brought a Midianite woman into his family and was pierced with a spear by Phinehas together with the woman in his tent, Num. 25:6-8. Let us never take a transgression of any commandment of God easy. Let us always fear the wrath of God and never disobey his commandments, and let us love, and trust him to cheerfully do what he has commanded. You have the time at the seminary and the opportunity to practice this fear, love, and trust and grow accordingly to live a sanctified life, always finding the way to confess your sins to God even those of which you are not aware of, and to confess those of which you have knowledge and which trouble you to your confessor in private confession, always being aware of the will of God, which is your sanctification. 1 Thes. 4:3-8. God did not call us to impurity but in holiness, and invites us always to be cleansed by the blood of his Son, 1 Joh. 1:7 which was shed for us on the cross.
On top of that he invites us to accept the invitation to the Lord’s Supper to eat Christ’s body and drink His blood which is shed and poured into our mouth for the forgiveness of our sins. As students of theology, and then as pastors in a Lutheran congregation we need Christ’s forgiveness regularly. Let us thank the Lord that he invites us to take part regularly in church services, confessional services and the celebration of the Lord’s holy supper. Let us not only hear that we are invited, but accept the invitation always. It is how the Lord wants us to be strengthened to fight the good fight of faith, not to get tired in the struggle. We need the nourishment of the bread of life to stand firm, to be courageous, and to be strong, to grow in the daily sanctification according to the will of God, never to lose the contact with God, as a community of students at the seminary, but then also every one personally drawing near to God in prayer, not only talking to Him, but always also to listen what He has to tell us in His Word which is revealed and preserved for everyone of us in the Bible. God wants us to pray without ceasing, 1 Thes. 5:17. That does not mean that we have to utter always words of prayer, but that we never lose contact to God, always believe and trust in Him alone, fear and love Him above all things. But then also practice the contact with Him in prayer according to the example of those who have shown us the way how they kept their prayer life alive, e. g. Daniel who said his prayers three times a day to the living God of Israel, even when the Babylonian king had forbidden prayers to be said to anybody else except to him. The prayer book: Pray, brothers! which was published in Zulu and Tswana for the servants of the Word have an order for prayers in the morning, at noon, and evening. To pray regularly, even with formulated prayers is a good habit. It is said that if one does not pray regularly it is difficult to pray when danger is at hand. Formulated prayers join us with men of God of the past to teach us to pray, and to learn what we can bring before our heavenly Father, knowing that our prayers will please Him. We are invited to bring before Him all our wishes, hopes, joys, and sorrows, tell Him our sins, and ask for forgiveness, ask Him to fulfil our promises, always convinced that although God does not always fulfil our wishes, he always fulfils all his promises. In a lively prayer life we learn to work on our sanctification, remembering that we depend on His support and help, His power, grace and mercies for every step we take in our life. Accordingly our gratitude will grow thanking and praising Him for His support, help, grace, and mercy, that he provides us abundantly daily with what we need, and forgives us and all who believe in him daily abundantly all our sins.. With the gratitude, joy will grow and faith will be strengthened believing that God in His mercy hears us, and is always present, never leaving us alone, always keeping us alert never to overhear His invitation to go to church, take part in confession and in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
Very important is also that He will keep us alert if we hear His Word regularly to be aware of the needs of our fellow Christians, and even of our fellow men, and to respect their piety, and to be thankful for what our fellow Christians are doing and achieving in the service of the Lord, even to thank God for what He grants others to achieve in the service of the Word of God. Very often it is easier for a Christian to weep with those in trouble and sorrow, than to thank God and to rejoice with those who were blessed in the struggle for sanctification or were blessed in their work. Let us thank God and rejoice together with our neighbour when God blessed him or her!
And as students of theology the Lord wants us not only to hear His Word, but also to read and learn it very carefully. It is not easy to learn, to study, or even to understand the Word of God. Therefore take my advice and put much energy and zeal into your studies. The holy Spirit must open your hearts and minds to learn, to study, and to understand it properly. After I finished my 1st theological examination at the seminary, I informed the mission superintendent of my result, and he replied: “You have proofed that you have learned to study.” A wise word! Urging me never to neglect what I have learned, even to intensify in future my studies. A word of Martin Luther teaches one the necessary humility regarding the Word of God. He wrote: If you did lead a congregation for a hundred years faithfully with the Word of God you can say that you have started to understand it, even to know, and to remember it. Then if you grow older, you experience that you do not remember the Word as you remembered and were able to quote it when you were still young To learn and to study the Word of God needs time, and lifelong faithfulness and zeal, never to neglect reading and learning it by heart, and then if you grow older you recognize that you need the daily reading of the Word to be reminded again and again. The English expression of learning by heart, tells us clearly that we never should grasp it only in our mind, but also that we accept it with all our heart, obeying it, believing it, trusting in it, and live accordingly. As students at a Lutheran seminary which is bound to the inerrant Word of God, the canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, and to the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church as the true exposition of the Bible, and later as pastors of Lutheran Churches not in fellowship with the Churches of the Lutheran World Federation, the Lutheran, and Union State Churches in Germany one can only understand and except the lonely way of our Churches if you know and accept the Word of God that it means what it literally says, also know, understand and accept the development in the church that resulted in the formulation of the officially accepted Confessions during the first centuries and during the time of the Reformation as they are found in the Book of Concord of 1580; and also the development that resulted in the separation from the state bound Churches when the Fathers of the independent or state free Lutheran Churches were dismissed from office when they did not accept the attempts of kings and church leaders to unify the Lutheran and Reformed Churches, in order that many Lutherans left Germany and emigrated to America, or Australia and founded Churches bound to the inerrant Word of God and the Lutheran Confessions, or as it happened in South Africa when missionaries and congregations left the Hermannsburg Mission to constitute the FELSiSA and work as the Hanoverian Ev. Luth. Free Church Mission after Hermannsburg agreed in 1890 to accept as a valid arrangement that members of the Hanoverian Lutheran State Church which had dismissed e.g. Theodor Harms, the director of the Hermannsburg Mission, from office in 1878, should be welcome at the altars of the Mission Church in Africa and members of the Mission should be welcome at the altars of the Hanoverian State Church, to accept the ancient and valid principle that pulpit and altar fellowship is church fellowship which is only agreeable with the Word of God and the confessions of the Lutheran Church according to 1 Cor. 1:10 with fellow Christian who think, speak, and confess the same doctrine.
The decisions which were taken in the history of our church emphasize the importance of linking together doctrine, practice, and mission, that doctrine and churchly practice of a church in America or Europe is valid also in any other continent, and for us also in Africa. To confuse this issue will lead one to misunderstand the validity of the Lutheran Churches of the ILC, and of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane,[2] even the validity of sending young men to this seminary to be taught genuine Lutheran Theology in Africa and to prepare them for the work of a Lutheran pastor in Africa.
To know the doctrine of the Church is necessary. To know the doctrine of the Church can only be binding to Christians if it is based on a proper knowledge of the Scriptures. Therefore it is not optional, but necessary that a student at a Lutheran Seminary takes his time to read and read again the whole Bible. It is also necessary that he does it regularly and with proper planning, not only to listen faithfully when the Word of God is read in matins and vespers, but that he takes the time to read the Word of God from beginning to end, not only once, but always again. Make your own timetable, according to your own capability. In addition to the lectures at the seminary and later in addition to your daily rounds and schedule with the work in the congregation try to make two hours daily for your personal Bible reading, and reading of the confessions, prayer and learning by heart to remember Word and confession word by word in your mother tongue.
If you read every morning and every evening three chapters of the Old Testament and two chapters of the New Testament in your mother tongue you will be able to finish the Old Testament at least once a year, and the New Testament twice a year. And then if you know Greek and Hebrew translate daily a few verses from Hebrew in lectio continua, and a chapter from the Greek New Testament. A New Testament professor at Oberursel gave the advice that during the four years course of Theology a student should read the New Testament in Greek at least four times in addition to the preparation work in class or outside preaching. If you are not gifted enough to read and translate so much then try at least to make a timetable to fix a schedule time reading the Bible in your home language, but then 20 minutes every day for your Greek translation, and 40 minutes every day for your Hebrew translation. Combine your own reading with what is taught in Bible Studies and Exegesis, and you will be well prepared for your examinations at the seminary, and also for your preaching, teaching, and soul caring work and missionary work in the congregation. I am convinced that it was good advice of one of the teachers at Oberursel who told us that we should schedule the best time when our minds are still fresh during the day for the reading, hearing, and learning the Word of God, not the time when we are already tired. Take the reading and translating always as a time that the Lord talks to you, and that you have to answer Him with your faith, love, and obedience. A necessary goal for all our preaching, teaching and winning people for Christ is to organize an opportunity to meet our Lord and Saviour personally. There we personally must practise in our own life what it means to meet our God, the Father, the Son and the holy Spirit, our Maker, Saviour and Sanctifier. Let us remember that we depend on Him alone. He is the Lord of the Church, you are His servant, and worker in His vineyard. You must listen to Him what to do for the vines, or as a shepherd of His flock, you must listen to Him what to do to feed the lambs and sheep properly. The labourers on a farm gather usually in the morning and the farmer tells them what to do. Take the time to listen to the Lord of lords to hear what he wants you to do according to your calling. Often you will not have the time to get the answer, but have a set time to listen and meditate again on the problem perhaps you find in the daily reading the answer to a problem in your personal life or in a problem with which you are confronted in the congregation or in the relationship with your fellow students. And if you have not the answer from the Word of God, then be humble enough to confess that you do not know the answer yet, but you will carry on to think and to pray over it, and try to find an answer from the Scriptures, very often you will even find the answer in the texts of the Sunday.
For doing this work you need to have already a good knowledge of the contents of the Bible. Therefore take it serious with your studies at the seminary, even during the holidays. The more you know by heart the better. Therefore learn important passages by heart, make a list of Psalms, other praise songs and prayers of the Old and New Testament which you will learn by heart, and if you have the capability to learn them in Greek and Hebrew, do it. Prof. Karl Bornhäuser expected from a scholar who wanted to become a professor in New Testament, to know at least the Gospel according to St. Matthew, and the Gospel according to St. John in Greek by heart. My fellow student Hartmuth Günther who became professor for the New Testament in Oberursel learned for example Romans Chapters 3-8 in Greek before our examination, and then we got to translate Romans 5 in our oral examination. I had learned the verses given in Walther’s Explanation of the Catechism in Greek and Hebrew resp. and for important questions like the question on original sin and justification I had added a few verses more, and could quote them when I had to write on original sin in the written dogmatics examinations.
A great help for me was also to have listened to our professor who expected from us to know the first articles of the Augsburg Confession by heart. During the examination at the seminary I still could quote them. Even after wards when I was not able anymore to quote them by heart, I knew them that when reading the Bible I noticed what passages or verses confirmed what is said in the confession. The same I experienced after knowing the Nicene Creed in Greek and the Athanasian Creed in Latin.
If you know passages of the Bible and of the Confessions by heart you will experience how easy it will be to detect heresies, or wrong statements, e. g. which are made in commentaries. For preparing your sermons you will need a big treasure of knowledge of the Word of God. If you keep on reading daily, the passage that you will read will be helpful, but often a pastor has not the time to read much when he has to prepare a sermon for a funeral, then it will be of great help if he can take from the treasure of knowledge he has stored in a good memory. Or if he meets a man who proclaims with great confidence a certain heresy, it is good if you remember, if our explained catechism, or an article of the confessions say it differently. According to Titus 1:9 an elder, or rather say pastor should be able both to preach with sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it. And St. Peter urges the Christians, but especially pastors, and writes, “In your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you,” 1 Pet. 3:15. Please, note that the word which is translated as give account of your hope is to give account to those who ask you to give λόγον of your hope, to give reason of your hope, give the Word of God concerning your hope. Then it is good if you know the Word of your hope, not only in a situation which was envisaged by St. Peter before a court that challenged your faith, but we have to be prepared to give account, of the Word of God when we have to confess or to teach Christians, or if we have to reject teachings that contradict or do not go accord with the λόγον concerning the hope which is in us.
This capability you will also need if you have to bear pious Christians in their piety, never to ridicule them, but to be clever and wise enough to lead their very often legalistic, charismatic piety in a lane according to good scriptural piety based always on the correct distinction of law and gospel.
Therefore I close these thoughts with introductory sentences of C. F. W. Walther to his Friday evening “Lutherstunden.”
“MY DEAR FRIENDS: – “If you are to become efficient teachers in our churches and schools, there is no doubt that you need extremely detailed knowledge of every doctrine of the Christian revelation. However, that is not all. What you need to know as well is how to apply these doctrines correctly. Not only must you have a clear understanding of these doctrines, but they must also enter deeply into your heart, so they can reveal their divine, heavenly power. All these doctrines must be so precious, so valuable, so dear to you that you cannot but profess with a glowing heart in the words of Paul: ‘We also believe, and so we also speak,’ and in the words of all the apostles: ‘For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.’ Although you indeed have not seen these things with your physical eyes or heard them with your physical ears (as the apostles did), you ought to experience them with the eyes and ears of your spirit.
“While in our dogmatics lectures my goal is to ground you in every doctrine and make you certain of them, I have designed these Friday evening lectures to make you truly practical theologians. I wish to talk the Christian doctrine into your very heart, enabling you to come forward as living witnesses with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. I do not want you to be standing in your pulpits like lifeless statues, but to speak with confidence and cheerful courage, offering help where help is needed.
“Now, of all doctrines, the first and foremost is the doctrine of justification. However immediately following upon it – and almost equally as important – is the doctrine of how to distinguish between Law and Gospel. …”[3]
I started to write all these pages after I did read the letter of pope Benedict XVI to the seminarians studying in seminaries of the Roman Catholic Church preparing to become Roman Catholic priests, to be faithful messengers of God under all circumstances. My grandfather Carl Eisenberg told his son-in-law, my father, Christian Heinrich Wilhelm Weber: It is difficult always to be an ordained minister. The title of one of my first reports after I was ordained which was published in the Berichte of the FELSiSA did read: “Es ist herrlich, Missionar zu sein,” (It is wonderful to be missionary) based on 1 Timothy 3:1 Es ist ein köstlich Werk– it is a noble task. “Und sagt das Fleisch auch lauter Nein, lass dein Wort gewisser sein.” (Although the flesh says only: No! Let your Word be surer.) This applies especially also for students of theology at the LTS in Tshwane, and at all theological seminaries or an allen Theologischen Hochschulen of the Concordian Lutheran Churches.
Make good use of the opportunity you have to study at a Lutheran Theological Seminary! And if you want to become an important pastor in your church, remember that it is nice to be important, but it is more important to be a nice, good fellow as student, and then later as a fellow pastor in your church and a faithful servant of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, being a real man of God, who wins the good struggle of faith in love and hope. Make that to be your goal!
Und nun schicke ich diesen Schrieb meinen Enkeln, die Theologie studieren mit herzlichen Grüßen und Segenswünschen zur Advents-, Weihnachts- und Epiphaniaszeit, die einem viel Zeit zu Studien bietet, die man während des Semesters nicht hat So schrieb ich im November im vergangenen Jahr. Dann bekam ich einen neuen Computer und hatte vergessen, wo ich diesen Schrieb gespeichert hatte. Heute morgen fiel mir ein, dass ich ihn in den Seminarpredigtfolder gespeichert haben könnte. Da fand ich ihn und schicke ihn nun zum Anfang der Passionszeit, für Deutschland zum Ende des Wintersemesters. Da gilt es für die Ferien über Ostern noch mehr als zu den Weihnachtstagen.
Mit herzlichen Grüßen
Euer Großvater, der hoffentlich nie unbegründet stolz auf Euch ist und sich über Euch freut und dem Herrn dankt, dass Ihr lutherische Theologie studiert, bzw. studieren wollt und dem Herrn als Diener am Wort in einer unions-, staats- nd weltbundfreien lutherischen Kirche bzw. Mission Mitgenossen der Freude vieler zu werden und zu bleiben
Wilhelm Weber
[1]
Note the use of the passive not mentioning who drowns Old Adam and puts him to death. Remember that with your efforts you cannot not do it, but it is the work of the Holy Spiriit who does this necessary work through the water of baptism.
[2]
Cf. Harrison, Matthew C. At Home in the House of my Fathers. p. xv..
[3]
C. F. W. Walther: Law & Gospel. How to Read and Apply the Bible. A Reader’sEdition. General Editor: Charles P. Schaum. Assistant Editors: John P. Hellwege Jr. Thomas E. Manteufel. Translated by Christan C. Tiews. CPH. St. Louis. 2006. p. 9.
Wilhelm's space 