Tag: church

Categories
Higher History

Concord #10: Augsburg Confession (What the Church Is)

Article 8: What the Church Is

You don’t have to spend much time in the church to find out that it’s inhabited by sinners as much as it is by saints. But unlike the rest of the world, Christians’ faults seem to stand out in sharper contrast against the message of love, kindness, reconciliation, and mutual sacrifice that the Scriptures exhort them to practice. And it’s not just the members of the church. Sometimes the ministers set the worst example of all with their accusations, backbiting, controversies over words, and love of dissension. It’s as if they’re a bunch of fakes. For this reason, the world calls the church a bunch of hypocrites.

First, we must understand what a hypocrite is. The world defines it as “believing the right thing, but doing the wrong thing,” such as a Christian who confesses the Eighth Commandment on Sunday, but spreads rumors about his neighbor on Monday. But in the Scriptures, a hypocrite is someone who does the right thing, but believes the wrong thing. Like the Pharisees, who kept the Law to the letter, but whose actions hid a false faith.

The reality is that both kinds of people are found in the Church. Contrary to the world’s expectation, the Church is not the place to find perfect saints; it’s the place to find forgiven sinners. And there’s always room for another. But even so, there are also hypocrites in the Church—people who play the part perfectly, but are later revealed to be faithless and wicked. They did the right thing, at least outwardly, but believed only in themselves and not their Savior.

But to this the Augsburg Confession of the Lutheran Church says: “Although the Church properly is the congregation of saints and true believers, nevertheless, since in this life many hypocrites and evil persons are mingled therewith, it is lawful to use Sacraments administered by evil men, according to the saying of Christ: The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat, etc. Matt. 23:2. Both the Sacraments and Word are effectual by reason of the institution and commandment of Christ, notwithstanding they be administered by evil men” (Augsburg Confession VIII.1-2).

The comfort in this confession is that the Church and its holiness is not dependent upon the holiness of the people who occupy it. The Sacraments and the Word are not effective because of the perfection of the ministers who administer them, nor because they make perfect saints in this life. They are effective because of the institution and commandment of Christ. Even if the Church was completely full of hypocrites who believed nothing, the Word and the Sacraments would still stand because Christ is risen and they are His Sacraments. And because these means of grace are effective, even hypocrites can be transformed into saints by the working of Christ and the Holy Spirit.

You can read the Book of Concord at http://www.bookofconcord.org

 

“Concord” is a weekly study of the Lutheran Confessions, where we will take up a topic from the Book of Concord and reflect on what we believe, teach, and confess in the Lutheran Church. The purpose of this series is to deepen readers’ knowledge and appreciation for the confessions of the Lutheran Church, and to unite them “with one heart” to confess the teachings of Holy Scripture.

Rev. Jacob Ehrhard serves as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in New Haven, MO.

Categories
Higher History

Concord #9: Augsburg Confession (The Church)

the christian church

Article 7: The Church

If you went to 1333 Kirkwood Ave. in St. Louis, Missouri, you would find the international headquarters of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. If you went to Vatican City in Italy, you might find the Pope, who is the head of the Roman Catholic Church. But in neither case would you find the Church, properly speaking. Sure, some people may use the word “church” to describe earthly organizations of Christians, but that’s not what the Church truly is.

The Church is not something that can be seen. It’s not a person, or a class of people, or a business office. The Church is an article of faith. “Also they teach that one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered,” (Augsburg Confession VII.1).

The Church is the congregation of saints. It’s the sum total of all believers everywhere, who are gathered here and there throughout the world. This congregation, however, is not a group of like-minded individuals who find that they have something in common and decide to get together and make a church. They are gathered. Passive. The Church is called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified by the Spirit. That’s why the Church is always where the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered. They are the Spirit’s instruments.

Even though the Church cannot be seen in any earthly institution, it can be perceived by the means of grace. The preaching of God’s Word, Baptism, and the Supper are called the marks of the Church—they mark where it can be found. Because the Church is defined thusly, this is sufficient for the true unity of the Church. “And to the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike. As Paul says: One faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, etc. Eph. 4:5-6,” (Augsburg Confession VII.2-4).

Human traditions do not define the Church, but good human traditions will always extol and point to those things that mark the Church, namely, the preaching of the Gospel and the Sacraments. Traditions that point elsewhere, or worse, deny the instruments of the Spirit, should be tossed.

We confess that the one holy Church is to continue forever. Not only will the Church never perish in this world, but it will extend into the world that is to come, when our Lord Jesus Christ returns on the Last Day.

You can read the Book of Concord at http://www.bookofconcord.org

 

“Concord” is a weekly study of the Lutheran Confessions, where we will take up a topic from the Book of Concord and reflect on what we believe, teach, and confess in the Lutheran Church. The purpose of this series is to deepen readers’ knowledge and appreciation for the confessions of the Lutheran Church, and to unite them “with one heart” to confess the teachings of Holy Scripture.

Rev. Jacob Ehrhard serves as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in New Haven, MO.

Categories
As Lutheran As It Gets

22: The Church by the Spirit and in the World with F. Edward Cranz

The church is invisible and visible, of the Spirit but in the world. The nuances of this distinction have many implications for how you understand the church. Join Pr. Riley and Pr. Gillespie for a free-wheeling journey through F. Edward Cranz’s essay.

Our text: An Essay on the Development of Luther’s Thought on Justice, Law, and Society – F. Edward Cranz

Show References:

Questions? Comments? Show Ideas? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact.

Please rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts, via https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/simulcast/id1037828387?mt=2.

To subscribe Apple Podcasts, please go to: pcast://feeds.feedburner.com/AsLutheranAsItGets
To subscribe directly, please paste the following link into your podcast player of choice: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AsLutheranAsItGets

And as always, don’t forget Pr. Gillespie’s coffee for your caffeinated needs.

Categories
HT Video Shorts

Augustana VII and VIII – The Where and Who of the Church – HT Video Short


Pr. Borghardt continues our Advent tour of the Augsburg Confession. Today we study Article VII and VIII – The Where and Who of the Church.

► Subscribe to our channel to get notifications when we go live: https://dtbl.org/youtube || If you have questions or topics that you’d like discussed on HTV, email them to support@higherthings.org or send text to 936-647-3235.

Categories
Christ on Campus

Your Church is Too Sexy: Why Church Architecture Matters

Article PDF | Bible Study PDF | Leader’s Guide PDF

Chad Bird

The chandelier is fashioned from fingers, toes, skulls, and a whole skeleton’s worth of other bones. There are chalices, candelabras, pillars, and other artwork, all forged from the remains of saints. In fact, over 40,000 people are crammed into this Sedlec Ossuary, a small church in the Czech Republic—at least, parts and pieces of them are. The obvious question is why? You might say that, inside this Bone Church, an artist has literalized the verse, “surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1). These skeletal “witnesses,”gathered from the nearby church cemetery when the citizens eventually ran out of burying room, were artistically arranged to form this most unique architecture. And while it’s a bit creepy, this creation confesses a truth about which today’s church is often mute: that within the walls of God’s house, we are never alone. Now let’s slip inside another church. This one is worlds away from the Bone Church’s rather raw architecture.

Welcome to Lakewood Church, in Houston, Texas, where Joel Osteen serves as pastor. Maybe you’ve heard of this popular preacher or seen his books. Osteen’s congregation has mushroomed over the decades to out-mega all other mega churches. To fit everyone in, they transformed the sports arena, where the Houston Rockets used to play, into a 16,000-seat worship facility. One end of the stadium was gutted and remodeled to become what traditionally would be known as the chancel. Two 30-foot waterfalls gurgle and splash on either side of this platform. Three massive screens project images of the preacher or other worship leaders. Several hundred LED lights allow for multiple mood settings. What is most obvious, however, is what is absent: crosses and crucifixes, altars and icons, baptismal fonts and stained glass, along with just about everything a traditional church might have. And, needless to say, in Lakewood Church, there hangs no chandelier of saints’ bones.

So from this tale of two churches, what can we learn? When you visit other churches with friends, or check out churches around your college campus, does the art and architecture of those churches really matter? Is it all just a matter of taste and practicality?

Here’s the point: There was nothing haphazard in the construction of either of these churches. From the carpet color in Lakewood to the bone choices in Sedlec, the architects of each venue did not work willy-nilly. They had a theological “vision” for what a church should be, even on the level of the senses—how it should look, feel, sound, smell, and what kind of taste it should leave in your mouth. In short, doctrine determined design. Theology designed architecture, and architecture signaled theology. Sometimes, when you walk into a church, what you see is indeed what you get.

If you’re like me, you wouldn’t want to sip Christ’s blood from a chalice of human bones, but neither would you want to sip Starbucks from a comfy stadium seat while gazing at Osteen’s smile beaming from a monstrous screen. Somewhere between the super-earthy of Sedlec and the swank-and-sexy of Lakewood, there’s a church that captures the reality of what church is: a gathering of wounded, hurting sinners around the throne of God and the Lamb, surrounded by angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, to become united with the crucified and resurrected Christ. That’s the church we need.

I mentioned earlier that within the walls of God’s house, we are never alone. That’s because the church on earth and the church in heaven are not two churches, but one. And never are they more together as one than in the liturgy. Earthly soil becomes heavenly ground. We are surrounded by heavenly believers and angelic hosts. So why not make the invisible, visible in art? That’s one purpose of pictures and icons of the saints; those images remind us that the church is bigger than what we see. Also, since Christ is not only the central message, but the sole message of the church, shouldn’t the architecture proclaim the same? For example, crucifixes preach the only knowable God; altars, the table from which we feast upon the body and blood sacrificed for us; fonts, the bath in which the filthy garments of sinners are made white in the blood of the Lamb; incense, the smoke of supplications wafting upward to Christ’s throne. All of these, in their own way, serve the Gospel. They preach the God who became a man with all His senses, that we, with all our senses, might receive His life and worship him.

The art and architecture of a church deeply matter. They are the embodiment of theology. They should be catechetical, teaching the faith; beautiful, imitating the God who makes all things well; catholic, expressing the totality of the church on earth and in heaven; and Christ-centered, focusing upon the One who is the be-all and end-all of the church. For when people step into the space in which the Lord is present, the goal is not for them to say, “This is none other than a stadium!” or “This is none other than a practical place for worship and, afterward, basketball!” No, they should confess with Jacob, “This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” (Genesis 28:17).

Chad Bird is a member of Crown of Life Lutheran Church in San Antonio, Texas. His email address is birdchadlouis@yahoo.com.