Marriage: A Higher Calling Than Ordination

(4th in a series of six)

By: Rev. Jack Cascione

Making ordination a sacrament places the church above the home and state and recreates the papacy.

After the fall into sin Luther says, without marriage, there would be no home, no state, and no church.  "But the following definition is truer and is complete: 'Marriage is the lawful and divine union of one man and one woman.  It has been ordained for the purpose of calling upon God, for the preservation and education of offspring, and for the administration of the church and the state." (LW5:189)

What happens in a country where the state and the church are separate? Luther's conclusion was that in the absence of the state the home should govern the church.  Walther's application of Luther's doctrine in America was the all male Voters' Assembly.  The men should govern the church for the same reason that men are the heads of their households.

The estate of marriage has a divine call, is over, and governs the local congregation.  This is why Luther tells us in the Catechism that the family is responsible for teaching God's Word with the words "as the head of the family should teach it in a simple way to his household," instead of "as the state," or "as the church," or "as the pastor" should teach the children.

It also follows that if marriage administrates the church, it also does so through the Voters' Assembly.  Therefore, the Voters must speak for the homes in the congregation.  Walther did not change Luther; he copied him.

The Hyper-Euro-Lutherans holler, "God rules the congregation."  Yes, through the Word, and the home is the final tribunal.  A gathering of Voters in an assembly is a gathering of homes.  Now, fear grips the Hyper-Euro-Lutherans, "What if they do the wrong thing?"  My reply is, "Teach them God's Word." If they will not listen to God's Word, all the pastoral authority in the world will not be a sufficient substitute.

Today, the implications of Luther's claim of a divine call for "human ministries" may be shocking to Lutherans.  However, there are also numerous quotations in the eight volumes his Commentary on Genesis where Luther adamantly defends God's institution of the pastoral office and the pastor speaking about, acting in behalf of, and representing God to the congregation. (LW8:269)

The pastor speaks for God, but he is under the authority of the congregation which also speaks for God.

"Marriage . . . has been ordained for the purpose . . . of administration of the church and the state." (LW5:189)

Luther places the ministry of the Word in the hands of the congregation when he says: ". . . Baptism, the Keys or the ministry of the Word-for these must not be separated-which in itself is also a visible sign of grace bound to the Word of the Gospel in accordance with Christ's institution (Matt. 18:18): 'Whatever you [the congregation] loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.'" (LW3:124)

Just as officials and soldiers are called to serve the government, Luther says to the pastors, "You must have the same conviction about the general call, when you are called to the ministry of teaching: you should consider the voice of the community as the voice of God, and obey." LW 2:272

In other words, the congregation has the authority to speak for God when it issues a call to a pastor.  However, the Bible also says about marriage, "What God has joined together" has a higher priority than the ministry.

According to Luther ordination is not a sacrament but a human rite.  Luther is only following Paul.  Paul says a man's marriage and household must first be in order if he is to consider the office of the ministry (1Tim. 3:2, 4). Marriage is preeminent.

All claims about the importance of ordination must be understood in the context that Luther compares marriage and ordination as divine ordinances, not as sacraments as is incorrectly taught by the Catholic Church.

"It is not for nothing, therefore, that special rites are employed in the church to unite men and women in matrimony, likewise for ordaining ministers of the Word. For we bless the bridegroom and the bride; we recite the words of the divine ordinance; we call upon God to be pleased to protect this estate. We lay hands on the ministers and at the same time pour forth prayers to God, for the sole reason that we may testify that there is a divine ordinance both in these and in all other estates of the church, of the state, and of the household." LW7:146-147

Ordinarily, and for the sake of order, only the pastor preaches, teaches, and administers the sacraments because these are the duties of the office.

"But when sermons are delivered there, when the sacraments are administered and ministers are ordained to teach, then say: 'Here is the house of God and the gate of heaven; for God is speaking, as 1 Peter 4:11 states: 'Whoever speaks, as one who utters oracles of God; whoever renders service, as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies'" (LW5:248).

Just as in marriage, God says, "What I have joined together," so through the minister God says, "I forgive your sins."

Just as Pharaoh governed Egypt by God's ordinance [not sacrament] in Genesis 41:16, likewise Luther claims marriage and the pastoral office govern by God's ordinance.

"Thus God could rule the church through the Holy Spirit without the ministry, but He does not want to do this directly. Therefore He says to Peter: 'Feed My sheep (John 21:16). Go, preach, baptize, absolve.' In the state He says to the magistrate: 'Watch, defend, use the sword, etc.' Therefore Paul calls the apostles 'fellow workmen with God' (1 Cor. 3:9). To be sure He alone works.  But He does so through us.  LW8:94

Again and again, as above, Luther claims that God works through his divinely appointed offices, whether it be marriage, the state, or the office of the ministry.

Luther shows that the church should submit to the state in the kingdom on the left just like Abraham submitted to Abimelech in Gen. 21:23 (LW4:76).

In Luther's day, there was no separation of church and state.  The home, state, and church operated in the kingdom of the left (power) and right (grace).  This is an abhorrent idea to Americans who adhere to the separation of church and state.

Luther argued that the Catholic Church should have no authority over the home and state.  He writes: "Meanwhile, to be sure, we diligently teach that those two offices, the civil and the ecclesiastical, should be kept separate; but we do so to no avail" (LW4:76).  Luther wrote the theology and Walther carried out the practice in America.

The church is called to submit to the state, so also the state and the church are called to submit to the home.  For Luther, marriage is the highest human estate.

"We know that there are three estates in this life: the household, the state, and the church.  If all men want to neglect these and pursue their own interests and self-chosen ways, who will be a shepherd of souls?  Who will baptize, absolve, and console those who are burdened with sins?  Who will administer the government or protect the common fabric of human society?  Who will educate the young or till the ground?  Yet these duties, which have been commanded and approved by God, have been scorned and cast aside in the papacy, and the devil has foisted those monstrous acts of the monks upon men with horrible fury."  LW7:312

As soon as the church thinks it is above marriage they want to run people's private lives.  We are not surprised to see the Kansas District President, in the presences of the Synodical President, endorse a sex training seminar for the clergy and their wives.

By making marriage the highest human order, the state second, and the church third, Luther's goal was to protect the home and preserve the state and church as servants of the home.

December 30, 2002