Necessary Roughness

Bunnie Diehl critiques an Ablaze! website. Rev. Juhl offers his comments in his journal, to which I ask, “Disbelief in the power of the Holy Spirit, ignorance of His duties, or both?” I can’t do too much about disbelief in general, but the second issue can be remedied.

From Luther’s Large Catechism, Third Article to the Apostle’s Creed, paragraph 38, scriptural references from the Reader’s Edition, all emphases mine:

For neither you nor I could ever know anything of Christ, or believe on Him, and obtain Him for our Lord, unless it were offered to us and granted to our hearts by the Holy Ghost through the preaching of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 12:3, Galatians 4:6). The work is done and accomplished; for Christ has acquired and gained the treasure for us by His suffering, death, resurrection, etc. But if the work remained concealed so that no one knew of it, then it would be in vain and lost. That this treasure, therefore, might not lie buried, but be appropriated and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to go forth and be proclaimed, in which He gives the Holy Ghost to bring this treasure home and appropriate it to us.

For good measure, paragraphs 55 and 56:

Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered to the end that we shall daily obtain there nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here. Thus, although we have sins, the [grace of the] Holy Ghost does not allow them to injure us, because we are in the Christian Church, where there is nothing but [continuous, uninterrupted] forgiveness of sin, both in that God forgives us, and in that we forgive, bear with, and help each other. But outside of this Christian Church, where the Gospel is not, there is no forgiveness, as also there can be no holiness [sanctification]. Therefore all who seek and wish to merit holiness [sanctification], not through the Gospel and forgiveness of sin, but by their works, have expelled and severed themselves [from this Church]. (Galatians 5:4)

It seems that a lot of churches sell themselves to the public with their activities and efforts to relate. Get your free coffee mug. Be touched by various members of the congregation. Be entertained by recordings of The Rembrandts and John Fogerty (what, no Johnny Cash? ). Expanding the scope a little bit, there’s church-sponsored sports programs, fellowship programs (Mom, do they still have Lutheran Night at the Royals?), Mother’s Day Out, and others. Oh, and Wookiees.

Activities by themselves are not a bad thing. We get into trouble is when we start calling them ministries and say that these external items connect us to the Christ. For example, I’m a referee in a church basketball league. Am I ministering to people’s souls while calling fouls and violations? No. I’m providing a safe place to play basketball, so that parents and children may hear the Word during off times. During halftime and devotions, if the Law and Gospel are not proclaimed, the Holy Spirit is not at work. If people go to a “Lutheran Night” ball game, and the Gospel is not preached, again, the Holy Spirit is not at work, even if the Royals happen to win.

In the first of the Friendship Ablaze! sermons, the only mention of Christ is “Jesus is the restorer of our friendship with God.” There is no how or why. If this sermon is given, the Holy Spirit is not converting unbelievers.

The danger is present when we focus on the operation of external activities and do not preach the Word. Organizing activities takes a lot of temporal investment: time, money, stress, etc. If the Word is not fully proclaimed, there is no spiritual return on that investment, and the Church does not grow. Oh, people will pack buildings and basketball courts, but none will be added to the list of believers, the true Church.

This investment in effort is not limited to external activities, but in worship itself. Powerpoint is not evil; the use of it in distraction from the Word is. Those who hold the traditional liturgy (Divine Service III, PDF) up as an efficient model of worship have a good point. In all the Divine Services, most text comes straight from the Bible, as evidenced by the Lutheran Service Book’s annotations. The investment in weekly preparation is relatively low (don’t tell the Altar Guilds), but the content of the Word is extremely high, even before we get to the sermon.

Faith comes by hearing the Word (Romans 10:17). This is the work of the Holy Spirit. Nobody has such a huge amount of faith that they don’t need more. I hope that those who participate in these church-sponsored external programs take their opportunities to spread the Gospel, especially if organizers haven’t written it explicitly somewhere. The Holy Spirit does not serve people coffee, officiate games, or shake a lot of hands like in a square dance. It calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church when we preach the Gospel and use the sacraments God gave us.