We would remind the readers that if Rev. Stolz is
correct, pastors are mediators of the Means of Grace and the Gospel,
Baptism, and the Lord's Supper come through them to the worshippers. This is
the position of the Catholic Church. Without a clear affirmation of Voter
Supremacy by the 2001 Convention the Synod will keep moving in the direction
of clergy hierarchy.
Pastor Stolz, a 1999 graduate of Fort Wayne, like many of the other
graduates from Fort Wayne over the past 10 years, takes
issue with my recent article published in Christian News, "Luther
States-Ordination Is not A Sacrament: Churches Make Pastors With a Call."
The goal is clear. If ordination is a sacrament, the Pastor has headship
over the congregation and the Voters' Assembly is not supreme. Doctors Wenthe
and Weinrich, candidates for the LC-MS presidency, have taught them well.
Rev. Stolz states he doesn't want to debate the subject at this point, but
he claims Luther taught that ordination was a sacrament. This means Walther,
Pieper, J. T. Mueller, Fritz and many other LC-MS theologians never understood
Luther. Stolz seeks to discredit every one of the 22 quotations from Luther's
Works in my article. He claims I only quoted Luther when Luther agreed with me
and I skipped those quotations where he disagreed with me.
Stolz also takes issue with my comment that it took a considerable amount
of time to assemble these quotations. He believes I actually used the index of
the 55-volume set of Luther's Works to find the word "ordination."
In reply, first I did not look up the word "ordination" in the
index of Luther's Works to find any of those quotations in my first article.
However, his conclusion that after 20 years in the pastoral ministry I am
guilty of "poor scholarship at best, and deceptive misrepresentation at
worst" may be correct.
Stolz's opinion about my lack of scholarship led me to review the list of
books I've read in the past few years related to the subject of Church and
Ministry. Not being a true scholar, I read with a yellow highlighter in my
hand and highlight every line that I want to return to for quick reference. I
have to save as much time as possible in the pastoral ministry.
Many of my favorite quotations are in long lists in my computer for quick
retrieval. I've been collecting these lists of quotations for a number of
years. I'm also a rather slow reader. It often takes me an hour just to read
twenty pages of Luther's Works. His books are such enjoyable reading I don't
like to run through his writing too quickly.
Over the past four years I've read, cover to cover, with my yellow
highlighter in my hand:
- Luther's four-volume set on "Word and Sacrament"
- Luther's three-volume set on "Church and Ministry"
- Luther's eight-volume set on Genesis, volumes one through six
- Luther's three-volume set on "Career of the Reformer"
- Luther's Works on "Hosea," "Zechariah,"
"Romans," "I Corinthians 15"
- Luther's "Psalms," (one volume) "Sermon on the
Magnificat," (I've read other volumes of Luther's Works but not
within the past five years.)
- Walther's "Pastoral Theology," "Law and Gospel,"
"Church & Ministry," "True Visible Church" and
"The Right Form of a Christian Congregation," "The
Congregation's Right to Choose Its Pastor"
- Stephenson's "Eschatology"
- Marquart's "The Church and Her Fellowship, Ministry, and
Governance," "Church Growth As Mission Paradigm"
- Mundinger's "Government in the Missouri Synod"
- Dau's collected papers for the 75th anniversary
"1847-Ebenezer-1922"
- Klug's "Church and Ministry"
- Luecke's "The Other Story of Lutheran's at Worship"
- Luecke's "Apostolic Style and Lutheran Substance"
- Sasse's "We Confess The Church, Jesus Christ, and the
Sacraments"
- Sasse's "This is My Body"
- Preus's "Justification and Rome", "The Doctrine of the
Call in the Confessions and Lutheran Orthodoxy"
- Gustafson's "Lutherans in Crisis"
- Wolhrabe's "Ministry in Missouri Until 1962"
- Barry's "Church and Ministry: The Collected Papers of the 150th
Anniversary"
- Barry's "The Nature and Basis of Lutheran Worship"
- Elerts, "Eucharist and Church Fellowship in the First Four
Centuries"
- White's "The Role of Women in the Lutheran Church Missouri
Synod"
- "The Lutheran Confessions"
Selected readings in:
- Luther in a number of other works
- Schmauk's "The Confessional Principle and The Confessions Of The
Lutheran Church"
- Forster's "Zion On The Mississippi"
- Wolt's "Documents Of Lutheran Unity in America"
- Zehnder's "Teach My People The Truth"
- Pieper's, J. T. Mueller's, and Koehler's systematics on "Church and
Ministry"
- Preus's "The Inspiration of Scripture"
- Melanchton's "Loci Communes"
- "Lutheran Worship"
- Chemnitz's "Loci Theologici" Volumes I & II
- "The Abiding Word" on Church and Ministry
- Walther's "Essay's For the Church" Volumes I & II
I have also read numerous articles, periodicals, reference works, papers,
commentaries, dialogues, and attended conferences on the subject, not to
mention Luther Quest Discussion Group,
Reclaim News, or Reclaiming
Walther in the LCMS. Reading books on a subject doesn't make anyone a
scholar.
Stolz's first example from Luther's Works, in support of the sacrament of
ordination is found in Genesis, Volume 5 page 249: "Therefore one must
learn contrary to the view of the flesh that it is not a simple word and only
an empty sound, but that it is the Word of the Creator of heaven and earth.
Thus imposition of hands is not a tradition of men, but God makes and ordains
ministers. Nor is it the pastor who absolves you, but the mouth and the hand
of God."
I have to wonder what Stolz sees in this citation to support the sacrament
of ordination. Luther says, "God makes and ordains ministers." If
ordination is ratification of a call as Luther, the Confessions, and Walther
teach, what good is ordination if there is no call from the congregation?
Luther is saying human hands don't ordain pastors, just as human voices don' t
absolve sin, but it is God who does both. If the hands ordain then the voices
forgive sins, which is false.
I'm also quite familiar with Stolz's citation from Luther's commentary on
Romans in 3:20 (LW25:234-235). In fact, I quote it in my own writing. Luther's
point is that a layman does not become a pastor by performing all these
functions of a pastor; he must be ordained. I reply that when Luther says
"ordained," he also means there must first be a call and that
ordination is public ratification of a call. Where does Luther contradict his
many later statements and teach that ordination is a sacrament?
(Also please note that the word "ordain" or
"ordination" does not appear in the following quotations I offer in
reply to Stolz who may wonder how I found them.)
"For in his epistles he [Paul] is always stressing his own call, for
without the call of God neither the ministry nor teaching succeeds."
LW25:447 (Note that this quotation is also from the Commentary on Romans.)
"For to be a pastor one must be not only a Christian and a priest but
must have an office and a field of work committed to him. This call and
command make pastors and preachers. A burger or layman may be a learned man;
but this does not make a lecturer and entitle him to teach publicly in the
schools or to assume the teaching office, unless he is called to it."
LW13:65
"Let everyone, then, remember this: If he wants to preach or teach,
let him give proof of the call or command which derives and compels him to it,
or else let him be silent." LW13:66
"For although we are all priests, this does not mean that all of us
can preach, teach, and rule. Certain ones of the multitude must be selected
and separated for such an office. And he who has such an office is not a
priest because of his office but a servant of all the others, who are priests.
When he is no longer able to preach and serve, or if he no longer wants to do
so, he once more becomes a part of the common multitude of Christians. His
office is conveyed to someone else, and becomes a Christian like any
other." LW13:332
Nowhere in the above quotations does Luther teach that ordination is a
sacrament. His entire emphasis is the necessity of having a call from a
congregation in order to be a pastor.
Now we arrive at Stolz's most significant quotation from Luther's Works,
Volume 53, "Liturgy and Hymns" page 124. Stolz writes: "And
perhaps most significant of all is the Wittenberg Ordination rite
"H" (c. 1535), which refers to Ordination as "a second
sanctification."
Yes, this is the most significant quotation because it shows how desperate
the hyper-euro-Lutheran Fort Wayne graduates are to prove and defend the
sacrament of ordination over and against the supremacy of Congregational
Voters' Assemblies.
On page 123 of the article titled "The Ordination of Ministers of the
Word" 1539, composed by Luther, we read in the following explanation:
"This order has been preserved with slight variations in several
sixteenth-century manuscripts. The following translation is a revision of the
translations by P. Z. Strodach in PE, 237-239, which is based on a hand
written Wittenberg agenda of 1539, 'Ordinatio ministrorum verbi,' which was
discovered and published by George Rietschel (called 'R'), as it appears in WA
38, 423-431. But we add in the footnotes the most significant alternate
readings for two other texts, a Hamburg codex from about 1535 (called 'H') and
a Freyberg codex from 1538 (called 'F')."
On page 24 we find the footnote to which Rev. Stolz refers and quotes as
follows:
"'H' precedes the lessons from 1 Timothy and Acts with the following
admonitions: 'St. Paul says: Every creature of God is good, etc., for it is
sanctified by, etc. [I Tim. 4:4-5]. You are not only good creatures,
sanctified by the Word and the sacrament of baptism, but in a second
sanctification you have also been called to the holy and divine ministry, so
that others may be sanctified and reconciled to the Lord through your word and
work."
This is indeed strong evidence for Stolz's position. There is no question
about the context and it states that ordination is a sacrament equal to a
second baptism for ministers. This would show that Luther had completely
reversed himself and affirmed the Pope's position that the clergy are a higher
and more holy order of Christians than the lay people.
However, note this important bit of information is only found in one of at
least three less significant variant manuscripts on this subject. There is a
far higher probability that someone who opposed Luther's view on ordination
added their own opinion to Luther's order for ordination in one of the less
significant manuscripts.
The quotations in my first article prove that Luther was adamant that
ordination was not a sacrament but a ministry and a calling. He insisted that
the sacrament of ordination is an invention of the Pope. Ordination has no
promise from God nor does it make anyone a pastor in the eyes of God.
Ordination is tradition, but not necessary for the office of the ministry.
Ordination is about the ministry of the word and doesn't make the pastor any
better than the layman. It is no more than a human rite by which a man is
called into the ministry.
Are we to believe that Luther changed his mind? Stolz quotes Martin Brecht
who says Luther did indeed change his mind. The order for ordination was
published in 1539, later in Luther's life. However, a year later, Luther
preached on John 20: 19-31 in Dessau on the Sunday after Easter. The sermon is
published in Vol. II of the eight-volume set on Luther's Sermons published by
Baker in 1983, beginning on page 378.
If Luther had indeed changed his mind in 1539, he certainly changed it back
again in 1540. Preaching on absolution, Luther writes that the lay people have
just as much right to absolve as the clergy. "This is not said alone to
the ministers or the servants of the church, but also to every Christian. Here
each may serve another in the hour of death, or wherever there is need, and
give him absolution."
Again: ". . . I have been absolved neither by the minister nor by any
other man; for thus the minister has not taught me to believe: but God has
spoken and done it through him: of this I am sure, for my Lord Christ has
commanded."
And again: "Therefore every Christian when the devil attacks him and
suggests that he is a great sinner, and he must be lost and condemned etc.,
should not long contend with him or remain alone, but go or call to him his
minister, or any other good friend, lay his difficulty before him, and seek
counsel and comfort from him, and remain firm in that which Christ here
declares: 'Whose so ever sins ye remit etc.,'"
Anyone who supports the sacrament of ordination would never allow the laity
to absolve each other (as Luther teaches above) in the congregation in place
of the pastor, because God would not acknowledge a layman acting as a pastor.
My opinion is that Fort Wayne has led Rev. Stolz and many other pastors to
adopt the position of Grabau, Stephan, and Loehe on Church and Ministry
instead of that taught by Luther, the Confessions, and Walther.
The Rev. Herman J. Otten
"Christian News"
3277 Boeuf Lutheran Rd.
New Haven, MO 63068-2213
20 March 2001
Tuesday of the Week of Lent 3
Dear Rev. Otten,
Please consider the enclosed reply to the Rev. Jack M. Cascione's article, "Luther
States - Ordination Is Not a Sacrament: Churches Make Pastors With a
Call" (Christian News, 12 March 2001), for publication.
A blessed Lententide to you and your family.
Fraternally,
The Rev. Travis D. Stolz
* * * * * * * * * * * *
A REPLY TO THE REV. JACK M. CASCIONE'S "LUTHER STATES - ORDINATION IS
NOT A DACRAMENT: CHURCHES MAKE PASTORS WITH A CALL'
The 12 March 2001 issue of "Christian News" featured an article
by the Rev. Jack M. Cascione entitled, "Luther States - ordination Is Not
a Sacrament: Churches Make Pastors With a Call" (21). The editor of
"Christian News" invited "(t)hose who believe ordination is a
sacrament.to respond to Cascione and the Luther quotes in this article."
I do not wish at this time to debate Rev. Cascione re. The sacramental nature
of Ordination; I do wish however, to respond to his use of the Blessed
Reformer's writings in the aforementioned article.
The purpose of Rev. Cascione's article is his continuing attempt to make
voters' assemblies the "sine qua non" for Lutheranism. To achieve
this end, Rev. Cascione minces no words in denouncing those who have the
audacity to disagree with him, branding them with his favorite epithet:
"Hyper-Euro-Lutherans."
Rev. Cascione states that his catena of Luther quotations "took
considerable time to assemble." It is truly unfortunate, however, that he
did not take some of this time to provide either the titles of the works cited
or their dates, both of which are essential for a correct understanding of
Luther. The works Rev. Cascione cites are the following:
"Against the Thirty-two Articles of the Louvian Theologist
(1545)." (1)
"The Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520." (2)
"Concerning the Ministry (1523)." (3)
"Commentary on Psalm 110 (1535)." (4)
"That A Christian Assembly or Congregation Has the Right and Power to
Judge all Teaching and to Call, Appoint, and Dismiss Teachers, Established and
Proven by Scripture (1523)." (5)
"Sermons on the First Epistle of St. Peter (c. 1522)." (6)
"Sermons on the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 3 (c. 1539)." (7)
Also cited is the "Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope
(1537)," a work by Luther's colleague, Philip Melanchthon, not Luther
himself.
The "considerable time" Rev. Cascione spent assembling his
article seems to this writer to have been spent on nothing other than
consulting the subject "Ordination" in the index volume for the
"American Edition," (8) and then simply quoting Luther where he
appears to echo Rev. Cascione himself. This is not scholarship; in fact, as we
shall see, it is deceptive and disingenuous.
There are, curiously enough, "other" references to Ordination in
Luther's writings that Rev. Cascione saw fit to overlook. E.g., consider the
following from Luther's lecture on Gen. 28:17 (1542);
At ordination the hands of carnal men are imposed.But if you look at that
addition with spiritual eyes, namely, at whose Word it is that is spoken and
heard there, not indeed the word of a man - for if it is the word of a man,
then the devil is speaking - but the Word of God, then you will understand
that it is the house of God and the gate of heaven.
Thus the imposition of hands is not a tradition of men, but God makes and
ordains ministers. Nor is it the pastor who absolves you, but the mouth and
hand of the minister is the mouth and hand of God. (9)
Or the following from his lecture on Rom. 3:20 (c.1516):
If a layman should perform all the outward functions of a priest,
celebrating Mass, confirming, absolving, administering the sacraments,
dedicating altars, churches, vestments, vessels, etc., it is certain that
these actions in all respects would be similar to those of a true priest, in
fact, they might be performed more reverently and properly than the real ones.
But because he has not been consecrated and ordained and sanctified, he
performs nothing at all, but is only playing church and deceiving himself and
his followers..For just as this layman does not become a priest by performing
all these functions, although it can happen that he could be made a priest
without doing them, namely, by ordination, so also the man who is righteous by
the Law is actually not made righteous by the works of the Law at all, but
without them, by something else, namely, through faith in Christ, by which he
is justified and, as it were, ordained, so that he is made righteous for the
performance of the works of righteousness, just as this layman is ordained a
priest for the performance of the functions of a priest. (10)
And perhaps most significant of all is the Wittenberg Ordination rite H (c.
1535), which refers to Ordination as "a second sanctification";
You are not only good creatures, sanctified by the Word and the sacrament
of baptism, but in a second sanctification you have also been called to the
holy and divine ministry, so that others may be sanctified and reconciled to
the Lord through your work and work. (11)
Thus, Luther quotations can be marshaled that make the Blessed Reformer
appear to say the "exact" opposite of what Rev. Cascione quotes.
How, then, does one solve this apparent dilemma? "By doing precisely what
Rev. Cascione fails to do:" determine very carefully not only the date of
the work cited, but also its historical context. To whom (or, as is often the
case, "against" whom) is Luther writing? What is the issue that
served as the impetus for the particular work? With what understanding or
definition of Ordination is Luther working? These and other questions need to
be considered very carefully, unless one desires to use Luther for one's own
purposes and has no problem misrepresenting him.
The late Luther scholar Bernhard Lohse offers the following insight to
Luther's views on the Church and her Ministry in general and Ordination in
particular:
The following controversies were the contexts of Luther's various
statements about the ministry and ordination. Each resulted in a particular
patter of emphasis.
From 1517 to 1520 Luther was in conflict with the authorities of the church
and developed his concept of the priesthood of the baptized.
The period 1520 to 1523 began with the breaking off of relationships
between Luther and Rome and is characterized by Luther's polemic against the
priesthood and the sacrifice of the Mass.
Beginning 1524 Luther was constantly in opposition to the enthusiasts.
After 1530 the Reformation developed under less-conflicted conditions. In
this context, Luther developed a comprehensive structure of the Protestant
church and was increasingly able to realize it in practice. He now emphasized
the coordination of the office of the ministry, ordination, and the church.
(12)
Martin Brecht elaborates upon this in his discussion of Luther's
"Infiltrating and Clandestine Preachers (1532)." (13) "Luther
had always emphasized the necessity of a call to exercise the ministerial
office, of course," he writes, "but from now on his earlier
understanding of the ministry of all who had been baptized receded completely
into the background." Brecht continues:
In his attempt to support the ministers against the sectarians, Luther
retreated greatly from his earlier views of the maturity of the
congregation.This problematic retreat to the institution of the ministerial
office, combined with an appeal for the temporal government to step in,
revealed that the appearance of Anabaptist preachers had caused great
uncertainty. It also formed a parallel to the assertion of the ministerial
office vis-à-vis the assaults by political authorities. The future would show
whether the beginning institutional transformation necessitated by the
difficult circumstances would prove to be an improvement or whether it would
again need to be correct. (14)
Rev. Cascione fails completely to make these distinctions; instead, he
engages in what may be called poor scholarship at best, and deceptive
misrepresentation at worst. In either case, Rev. Cascione's latest article is
devoid entirely of serious and scholarly consideration of Luther's view of
Ordination. Luther surely deserves that. He uses Luther simply as a prop for
his own views, believing that if he can muster enough Luther quotations
seemingly to support his argument, it will appear convincing. Rev. Cascione's
approach, however, simply does not bear up under scrutiny; theology, after
all, is not a war of attrition, with Luther quotations serving as the primary
munitions. What one discovers upon analyzing Rev. Cascione's latest article is
what he has done in the past: manipulating the writings of the Blessed
Reformer and the Lutheran Symbols according to his own agenda, without
considering the historical context of the work, much less what Luther actually
wrote.
Matters concerning the Church and her Ministry are of great importance to
not only the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, but indeed to the entire Church
of the Augsburg Confession herself. She is served only by serious,
responsible, and - above all - "honest" use of the writings of the
Blessed Reformer and her Symbols. Only a tremendous disservice is done to her
and the tradition we claim as Lutheran Christians when Luther and the Lutheran
Symbols are treated so disingenuously and, indeed, dishonestly.
The Rev. Travis D. Stolz
Bauderre, Minnesota
19 March 2001
St. Joseph Confessor and Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary
1. LW 34, 339-360
2. LW 36, 3-126
3. LW 40, 3-44
4. LW 13, 227-34
5. LW 39, 301-314
6. LW 30, 3-145
7. LW 22, 275-502
8. LW 55, 237-238
9. LW 5, 248-249
10. LW 25, 234-235
11. LW 53, 123n.4.
12. Martin Luther. "An Introduction to His Life and Work" (trans.
Robert C. Schultz; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986) 183-184
13. LW 40, 379-394
14. "Martin Luther; Shaping and Defining the Reformation, 1521-1532"
(trans. James L. Schaaf; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990), 447