Schoenheider, Robert G.

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 2 | Issue 3 Article 37-1-1976Confessional Perspectives on the Church for Today(Part 1)Robert G. SchoenheiderFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Articles is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationSchoenheider, Robert G. (1976) "Confessional Perspectives on the Church for Today (Part 1)," Consensus: Vol. 2 : Iss. 3 , Article 3.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol2/iss3/3CONFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVESON THE CHURCH FOR TODAYRobert G. SchoenheiderThe proposition of one Canadian Lutheran Church is related to the diligentpursuit of the mission and ministry of the Church in our time. There arechallenges currently before us to which we will have difficulty responding underthe current structures and the functional mechanisms which we now possess. Theformation of a new church body provides us with the opportunity, not only toretain and rework that which is valid and good in our past, but also to break newground where necessary. To undertake this task responsibly we need to have aunified clear presentation of the theological purpose for being. We have to have awell-thought-out, clearly articulated ecclesiology or theology of the church. Theforms and structure of the church flow out of the functions of the church. And thefunctions of the church are only evident when we understand the essential natureof the church.Lutheranism in North America has never had a well-defined or articulatedtheology of the church (ecclesiology). This has been evidenced over the years insome very muddy thinking regarding the rights of the congregation, the doctrineof the public ministry, ordination, the sacramental character of the means ofgrace, and a number of other areas connected with ecclesiology. The doctrine ofthe church, therefore, impinges not only on questions concerning the shape of thenew church body, but on other matters such as alternate forms of ministry, thefunction of worker-priests, the essential form of a congregation, the practice ofBaptism, church membership and what it really is, the various offices of ministry,etc.We need to hammer out and clearly articulate a theology of the church - anecclesiology - in language suited to our time and situation. This I propose to do14Confessional Perspectives on the Church 15by beginning with the Lutheran Confessions which present an ecclesiology drawnfrom the Scriptures. Following this, particular note will be made of some of theramifications and applications of this ecclesiology to the functions and the formof the church in Canadian Lutheranism in our time.THE ESSENCE OR NATURE OF THE CHURCHA recent commentary on the Augsburg Confession has some harsh things tosay about those who indulge in continually running down the Church. The authorpoints out that the Augsburg Confession proclaims that “God’s church will beand remain forever . . . the church is God’s establishment, ‘and the gates of hellshall not prevail against it.’ ”^He maintains that only on the basis of such aconfession can one make constructive criticisms of the church. Only because thechurch is God’s people whom he has loved in Jesus Christ does it make sense toattempt to criticize and reform it. Thus any critical study of ecclesiology on ourpart must be rooted in such an attitude. We dare not write off the church in any ofits aspects. It is God’s creation and gift to us. Instead we must grapple with anyproblems involved, always under the discipline of our faith.The essence or nature of the church cannot be understood apart from theScriptural doctrine of the Gospel. The logical progression of the articles of theAugsburg Confession is not accidental. Before we can speak of such things as thelife of new obedience, the church, the sacraments, ecclesiastical order and civilaffairs, we must deal with the cardinal points of God, sin, and justification bygrace through faith (or the Gospel).^ It is only with a grasp of the Gospel as theexternal Word of God’s love in Christ that we can reach a proper understanding ofthe church. Although the Lutheran Confessions do not include a specifictreatment of the doctrine of the Word or Scripture as a separate article (except forthe Formula of Concord), there is implicit throughout the Confessions and theclaim that the Word is the sole source and norm of all teaching. The properLutheran understanding of the Word is incarnational; the love of God in Christ,which is an answer to the judgement of God, is proclaimed or takes form in ourworld.The essence or nature of the church is defined by the Augsburg Confession as“The assembly of all believers (congregatio or Versammlung) among whom theGospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administeredaccording to the Gospel” (AC VII). ^ This is a two part definition. The church isthe assembly of all believers. The assembly of believers is defined by whathappens or is done in its midst. Note that the Word of God is not cited here ingeneral, nor the law, but only the Gospel. The Gospel is in essence and in thiscontext a proclaimed word {rein gepredigt - recte docetur). The intellectualpossession of factual knowledge about the love of God in Jesus Christ is not whatis meant. The biblical concept of the Gospel is an active Word that contains1. George Forell, The Augsburg Confession: A Contemporary Commentary (Minneapolis: AugsburgPublishing House, 1968), p. 36.2. Edmund Schlink, Theology of the Lutheran Confessions (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1961)devotes 73 out of 295 pages to the Lutheran understanding of the Law and the Gospel.3. Quotations from the Lutheran Confessions are quoted from Theodore G.' Tappert, translator andeditor. The Book of Concord (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959).16 Consensuscreative or life-giving power and reaches its epitome in the person-Word of theincarnate Saviour.Note also that the emphasis is on the use of the sacraments (recte administran-tur Sacramento - die heiligen Sakramente lauts des Evangelii gereicht werden),not on simply possessing them. This stress on the practical use of the sacramentsis also according to the Gospel or the divine Word.Because the Gospel and the sacraments belong to the concept “church”, wemust say that a study of the essence of the church takes seriously these “means”through which God “gives the Holy Spirit” (AC V,2), and through which the HolySpirit is active. Two points should be emphasized. First, the Gospel and thesacraments are ‘in’ (inbei) the assembly of believers as the means through whichthe Spirit produces faith and creates the believing community. In the LargeCatechism, Luther states “...where Christ is not preached, there is no Holy Spiritto create, call, and gather the Christian church” (LC 11,45). Secondly, the Gospeland sacraments are ‘in’ the assembly of believers as the service (ministry) whichis entrusted to the believing community and which is performed by it. The LargeCatechism affirms that the Holy Spirit “has appointed a community on earth,through which he speaks and does all his work” (LC 11,61). “It is the mother thatbegets and bears every Christian through the Word of God. The Holy Spiritreveals and preaches that Word, and by it he illumines and kindles hearts so thatthey grasp and accept it, cling to it, and persevere in it” (LC 11,42). The Holy Spirit“first leads us into his holy community, placing us upon the bosom of the church,where he preaches to us and brings us to Christ” (LC 11,37).Thus the two parts of the definition of the church (AC VII, 1) must be kepttogether. The relative clause only explains the term “assembly of believers”. Thechurch can never exist without the proclaimed Word and the sacraments. Just asthe Word and Sacraments properly understood are objective outward meanswhich have active concrete reality apart from the subjective religious experienceof the individual, so the church, the assembly of believers, is an objectiveconcrete reality apart from the individual’s experience of it. The living Word ofGod comes to people as an external Word in the word of men and concealedunder water, bread, and wine. This external Word is not man’s possession butGod’s living voice. Anyone who fails to see this misses the point in the doctrine ofthe church.This sacramental or incarnational concept of the church and the means ofgrace must be maintained over against those who would spiritualize the churchand make of it nothing more than a fellowship of faith, a body of individuals whohave experienced a similar response to a religious stimulus. Thoseneo-Protestants who see the concrete reality of the Word and sacramentsoriginating from the fellowship of faith or who conceive of them as a means ofexpression which the fellowship creates for itself have no part in the Lutheranbiblical understanding of the church or the means of grace.A practical ramification is that this understanding of the nature or essence ofthe church provides a corrective for the faulty idea of voluntarism with whichmany members approach their involvement in the Body of Christ and the localassembly of believers. Greater stress on this could do much to fostering arecognition of the church as an objective gift of God and the framework withinwhich and out of which the Spirit works in human lives, through the externallyreal means of the Word and sacraments. Too often our Lutheran people view thechurch as a voluntary association of the faithful a fellowship for which they opt inConfessional Perspectives on the Church 17varying degrees. This may be due largely to the fact that we have not taught ourpeople what the church really is!One other things needs to be said. The definition of the church in the AugsburgConfession does not limit itself to the assembly of believers as spatiallycircumscribed (the local congregation). As the German text of AugsburgConfession indicates, it presupposes the assembly of all believers (Versammlungaller Glaubigen)f**Though the Gospel is always proclaimed in a local fellowshipof believers (as opposed to being proclaimed to all believers at once, which isimpossible), AC VII looks beyond the size, large or small, of local assemblies tothe whole Christian church on earth.” Both the church and the churches, localcongregations, each being an assembly of believers, is the church in the most realsense. The one does not preclude the other. However, this definition does notpermit a concept which isolates the individual congregation as the onlylegitimate form of the church which is recognizable in the world.This point is quite relevant for us as we contemplate a new church bodybecause our history has tended to push us into a very narrow and restrictedconcept of what constitutes a congregation. In turn that concept of thecongregation has often been linked with a refusal to acknowledge anything otherthan the congregation as a legitimate, empirical, concrete manifestation of thechurch in the world. On the basis of the Confessions and the biblical evidence, itis questionable whether we can draw the lines as tight as we have.This has implications not only in the form of a new church but in its function.There are challenges in ministry that are before us right now which we cannotface adequately if we adhere to our previous thinking and practice in this regard.Also extreme Congregationalism might be compatible with the neo-Protestantview of the church as a voluntarily-constituted fellowship of the faithful, but it isprecluded in the Lutheran view of the church as presented in the Confessions.THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHURCHIn keeping with the ancient ecumenical creeds, especially the Niceneformulation, the Lutheran Confessions characterize the church gathered by theHoly Spirit under Christ, the head, as the “one, holy, catholic, and apostolicchurch.” After defining the essential nature of the church it is necessary toconsider what each of these characteristics contribute to our understanding ofecclesiology.The church is holy as the community of those whom the Holy Spirit has madeholy. In referring to the church the German text ofAC Vll uses the term assemblyor congregation of all believers. The latin at the same point reads, “thecongregation of saints.” Both designations are accurate. From the progression ofArticles IV, V and VI of the Augsburg Confession we are aware that newobedience follows upon justification. Faith or justification is not withoutsanctification. Faith alone justifies, but faith is never alone. As Luther states inthe Large Catechism, “I believe that there is on earth a little holy flock orcommunity of pure saints under one head, Christ. It is called together by the HolySpirit in one faith, mind, and understanding. It possesses a variety of gifts, yet isunited in love without sect or schism.” (LC II, 51) “By it (the Word) he (the HolySpirit) creates and increases sanctification, causing it daily to grow and become4. Schlink, p. 202.18 Consensusbut who, through the working of the Spirit are saints (simul Justus et peccator).As God’s creation in Jesus Christ through the Spirit, we cannot deny thisholiness. As with all of the other characteristics it derives from the basic givenesswhich is at the heart of the essential nature of the church. Only as God’s workcan the church, which consists of human beings like you and me, be holy.The apostolic character of the church relates to the fact that the church is theassembly of believers among whom the same Gospel is proclaimed which Christcommissioned the apostles to preach. This concept can be traced back to thehigh-priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17 where the Lord prays not only for hisdisciples, but also for those who shall believe in him through their word (theapostolic witness, the kerymna). If the church has and holds fast to the word ofthe apostles, it is apostolic. If it has departed from the apostolic word, it is“un-apostolic”. The Spirit who through the Gospel produced the confession ofPeter (Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God!), produces a similarapostolic confession in the hearts and on the lips of those who belong to thechurch in all of its subsequent ages. Again, the apostolic character of the churchderives from its givenness, in this case from the commission of its Lord and Head,Jesus Christ. The continuity of apostolicity depends on the active working of theSpirit witnesses to Christ in and through the church. This characteristic hasimplications which need to be discussed in regard to ecclesiology and its relationto the doctrine of the public ministry and teaching authority in the church.fFOOTHILLSSPECIALIZING IN:^ReligiousBooks.GiftItems^BoxedCardsAudio-Visuals:film/filmstrip •rental libraryReligiousEducation •MaterialsChurch^SuppliesFOOTHILLS BOOK STORE806 Edmonton Trait N.E.Calgary, Alberta T2E 3J7 Phone (403) 266-164

Confessional Perspectives on the Church for Today (Part 1)

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Confessional Perspectives on the Church for Today (Part 1)

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