The Christian Faith

What is the gospel?

The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born as one of us to reconcile us to God. Our sin, everything we do against God’s Word, separates us from God. Our sin deserves death; we all die because we have all sinned. Christ’s death for us, in our place, has removed the power of sin and death over us. In Him, we have life and peace with our heavenly Father. This is the sum and substance of what we believe and preach at St. Paul Lutheran Church.

The Divine Service

Our service is called the “Divine Service” because in it God comes to us with His gifts, and we come to Him with our prayers and gifts. The service is divine because we meet with, hear from, and receive life from God. The focus isn’t on what we have to offer God, but on what God gives to us. This is why we go to church, to receive God’s gifts: the Divine Service.

 God’s Gifts

From the beginning to the end of the Divine Service God is giving us His gifts. He forgives, strengthens, encourages, teaches, and nourishes us from the first words to the last. 

How to listen to the sermon

The Bible is God’s Word. Our pastor teaches you what the Bible says and encourages you in the life Christ gives you. In preaching, God’s minister unfolds the meaning of God’s Word, not his opinion. In the sermon, you will hear God’s truth applied to your life so that you might have hope for now and forever in our Lord Jesus Christ.

 What is the Lord’s Supper?

In the Lord’s Supper (also called Holy Communion, or Mass, or Eucharist), our Lord Jesus Christ is physically present for us and with us just as He promises: “This is My Body… This is My Blood.” That’s why our church takes the Lord’s Supper so seriously. God Himself is present! This is why we’re silent when Christ’s Words of Institution are chanted, kneel to receive the Lord’s Supper, prepare ourselves by confessing our sins and receiving forgiveness early in the Divine Service, and we ask guests and inquirers to talk to our pastor before receiving the Lord’s Supper.

 What is the liturgy?

The order the Divine Service follows is called the liturgy. It’s a simple, clear, and ancient way that Christians have worshipped for centuries. We follow that way because it is one of the best ever found in the church’s history to receive God’s gifts. God’s Word and God’s Body and Blood stay at the center. Our preferences, interests, and hobbyhorses have little to no room in the liturgy, and that’s all for the good.

The significance of the liturgy

The Holy Divine Service is built on the Bible. If you look in the book we use for worship, our hymnal, you will find each part of the service has one or more Bible passages that explain where that part comes from. If you take all those parts, you can divide the service into two major parts: the Service of the Word, where the Bible is read and preached, and the Service of the Sacrament, where Holy Communion is celebrated and received.

The church year

Our congregation follows the Christian church year to order our life together and focus on the Divine Service. The Christian year has two parts, divided roughly in half into semesters or half-years: 1) The Time of Christ from Advent through Easter (winter and spring); 2) The Time of the Church from Pentecost to the Last Sunday of the Church Year (summer and fall).

In those half years there are also smaller seasons:

• The Time of Christ has Advent when we focus on Christ’s coming, Christmas when we celebrate His birth, Epiphany when we hear of His revealing to the whole world, Lent when we prepare for His suffering and death, and Easter when we rejoice in His resurrection from the dead.

• The Time of the Church has Pentecost when we hear of the Holy Spirit’s coming to the church for the world’s sake and Trinity when we learn how to grow in the life of Christ.

Colors

Each season has its own color that goes with its focus:

• Advent is blue for the hope of Christ’s coming;

• Christmas is white for Christ’s purity and beauty;

• Lent is violet for repentance and sadness over sin;

• Easter is white for Christ’s victory over death;

• Pentecost is red for the fire of God’s Spirit;

• Trinity is green for continued growth in the life of God.

There are special days throughout the year with their own colors such as Ascension and Reformation and others, the color of the day always linking it to some other day with similar colors, similar readings, and similar themes.

The church and her minister are dressed along with those seasons. The different pieces of furniture and the pastor will be covered in the colors of the day or the season, so that the whole focus for that day is on Christ and His Word, not on how nice the minister’s suit looks or whether his jeans are too tight.

The Cross

At every service our church is overlooked and blessed with the image of Christ crucified. This reminds us of our sin and still more of Christ’s love that He would die for us, taking away the sin of the world. The crucifix puts in front of our eyes what Paul said he put in front of his churches’ eyes, “I resolved to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified.” All the church’s art helps us to hear the gospel more clearly and to know the Bible better.

Music                                             

Music is central to the life of St. Paul Lutheran Church, taking to heart Martin Luther’s view: "In summa, next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our thoughts, minds, hearts, and spirits... Our dear fathers and prophets did not desire without reason that music is always used in the churches. Hence, we have so many songs and psalms. This precious gift has been given to man alone that he might thereby remind himself that God has created man for the express purpose of praising and extolling God."

Martin Luther on music

"Music is a fair and lovely gift of God which has often wakened and moved me to the joy of preaching. I have no use for cranks who despise music, because it is a gift of God. Music drives away the devil and makes people happy; they forget thereby all wrath, unchastity, arrogance, and the like. Next after theology I give to music the highest place and the greatest honour. I would not exchange what little I know of music for something great. Experience proves that next to the Word of God, only music deserves to be extolled as the mistress and governess of the feelings of the human heart. We know that to the devil music is distasteful and sufferable. My heart bubbles up and overflows in response to music, which has so often refreshed me and delivered me from dire plagues."

(Roland Herbert Bainton (1894-1984), Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther)

The Lutheran Service Book (LSB)

St. Paul uses the music of Lutheran Service Book, the hymnal of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Within this hymnal one will find the historic liturgy as it has been handed down through the ages by Christians in the West.  As the liturgy is sung at the various church services Christians will recognize and share in various portions of the Scriptures and various prayers of the biblical saints.

With the blind and worried parents we pray according to ancient song the Kyrie, “Lord have mercy.”

With John the Baptist we anticipate and sing of Christ’s arrival bringing with Him the forgiveness of sins in the words of the Agnus Dei.

With Mary, the Mother of God, we praise the Father in heaven in His Spirit who knocks down the proud and raises up the lowly.

Every Sunday has the songs of the angels as they gave glory to God for the birth of Christ (the Gloria) and a bit of Palm Sunday as with the children waving branches we pray for God to intervene in this world with His salvation singing their ancient song “Hosanna in the highest.”

Hymns

The Word of God and music are two of God’s greatest gifts. For that reason we join our voices in congregationally singing hymns. The hymns are meant to teach the faith. So the LSB is filled with some of the greatest hymns throughout history, many of which are worth learning by heart.

What Christians believe and do

Almost every church claims to believe the Bible or practice Jesus’ ways. How can you distinguish between what God teaches and what people have made up? Our Lutheran Church boils down what God teaches into a brief form called the Small Catechism. You can read it online here: catechism.cph.org. We’ll explain a bit of what that means for us in the following section.

The Law

God has never wanted less than all of us. The Bible has two big commands that God gives us: 1) Love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and 2) Love our neighbors as ourselves.

This love of God and neighbor is God’s Law. Whether we find it to be a curb to bad behavior, a mirror to show us what’s wrong with us, or a guide to point out how to live, it’s God’s law for us. His Law doesn’t change. It always accuses us since we’re sinners, yet it’s always a good thing. The best summary of the law in the Bible is the Ten Commandments. 

The Ten Commandments

In the Ten Commandments you have a summary of what God wants from all of us. Since He wants us to love Him and to love our neighbors just like we already love ourselves, each commandment can be categorized as a specific way to love God through honoring Him and honoring His will.

Sin and Death

All the evils we see in the world can be boiled down to either sin or death, either the symptoms of the disease or its obvious conclusion. By “sin” we mean every word, thought, and deed against God’s Law, His will for His creatures.

The Bible teaches that the first sin of our parents Adam and Eve has passed on to us a defect called “original sin,” a spiritual genetic disease every single human being has that always and inevitably brings us to death. Along the way to death we commit sins – often more or more cunningly the older we get. Those sins are all acts of rebellion against our Creator and symptoms of the underlying disease that’s leading us to death.

So death is not natural except for sinners. If sin could be taken away from us, then we could be saved from death. If death could be taken away from us, life would look entirely different, knowing that we had already died and didn’t have to face death anymore.

The gospel is the good news that in the death of Christ our death has been defeated. By the blood of Christ, sin’s stain has been washed away, and through baptism into Christ you can die with Him now so that you might live with Him forever.

Three Uses of the Law

God’s Law works in three ways when we hear or read it:

1.      It sets a boundary or curbs sin so that when we hear that we will get in trouble for doing something, we don’t do it. In the same way that the curb keeps your car from running over someone on the sidewalk without consequence, the law curbs sin so that it doesn’t destroy everything.

2.      It shows us our sin. This works as a mirror to make us aware of blemishes and stains we could not otherwise see. Sometimes we do not know our sin, not even its existence let alone its consequences, until God’s law is made known to us.

3.      It shows us a better way to live and is a guide. We then know what we should do or not do so that we do not invent “good deeds” for ourselves but instead do those things God would have us do.

Orders of Creation

Life is not random. The Creator of all life is not Himself random and disorderly. He is a “God of order” so the life that He has made also has an order. Birds cannot become pine trees. Oceans do not turn into azaleas. Boys do not turn into girls. Women do not become men.

These realities are called the orders of creation. We can deny them and fight against them. We can say that they are old-fashioned or silly. We can make war on anyone who says that they are real or do exist. That won’t change anything. No amount of screaming will turn the bird into a pine tree. No amount of denial will change the Atlantic into an azalea. No social media post or politician’s speech will make boys into girls or women into men.

Created life, including each one of us, can either conform to its created design or push against it. When we conform our thoughts and words and deeds to God’s orders, we live a better life than when we push – vainly – against them. When we expect to get pine cones from a pine tree and to see a boy grow into a man, we find wisdom. When we expect otherwise, our foolishness leads to all kinds of destruction.

Table of Duties

In the Small Catechism there’s a collection of Bible passages that teach us about the various orders of creation. If you read the Table of Duties, you’ll find that the Bible is especially clear about how each of the different parts of life – the home, the local church, the workplace, the courts, and so on – is accountable to the one true God. Even if someone is doing evil and getting away with it now, he won’t forever. Even if someone is being lazy or foolish or wicked now, he will one day answer to God for all those things. Life is a serious thing because we live it in God’s presence, whether we acknowledge that fact or not, and one day we will all surely know that we must answer to Him, however much we now deny that.

Marriage

Marriage has three purposes: the procreation of children, faithfulness to one’s spouse, and the symbolizing of Christ’s marriage to His church. Marriage can therefore only be between one man and one woman since God Himself has only one Bride, the holy Christian Church, and when He instituted earthly marriage in the first times of the world, He brought together just one man, Adam, and one woman, Eve so that they should be “fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.”

Marriage cannot be between two people of the same sex or multiple people at the same time because God did not establish marriage to be that way. What He established is what we acknowledge and honor, not what our hearts might want in their worst moments. We support and protect marriage so that God’s will might be honored and the children He has given us might be protected.

Abortion

No one has the right to take an innocent life. The Bible recognizes that guilty men could be punished for certain crimes with death, but no child may be punished for existing. We cannot support, vote for, much less practice abortion because we cannot support, vote for, much less practice murder. Murder is the taking of innocent life, and abortion is the taking of an innocent life that is without the ability to defend itself.

Sex and Gender

We are not free to be whatever we would like. We were made to be some things and not others, to be male or female, neither both at the same time nor the opposite at some time nor something else altogether. If we were free to be whatever we would like, we would be greater and more powerful than God Himself, and since we plainly are not gods, do not have such control, cannot even keep ourselves alive without His help every moment, we can scarcely become something we were not made to be. We might playact, but we cannot become other than He has made us to be.

 Christian Freedom

Christians are free from the regulations and traditions of men. We do not regulate one another in things that the Bible has left free. Christian freedom must be maintained because it means that God’s Word is supreme in all things so that wherever and whenever God’s Word is silent, we are silent. Wherever and whenever God’s Word speaks (eg. about the evil of being drunk, not the “evil” of drinking alcohol) we must speak.

The Gospel

The Bible teaches two doctrines above all others and including all others: the law and the gospel. We just heard about the Law. The Bible teaches the law in each book but does not teach a law that could save sinners. God’s holy law always accuses sinners.

So the Bible also teaches a way of rescue: the gospel or good news that Jesus Christ was born, suffered, died, and rose from the dead to give us life and forgiveness. There is no hope for sinful men except in Jesus Christ, His work, His death, His resurrection, but in Him we have every hope of mercy and peace from our heavenly Father. The Bible also teaches this good news in each book, and only this gospel or good news can save us from certain death and the punishment of sin in Hell.

This gospel is the heart and soul and purpose of Christ’s church and so also of St. Paul Lutheran Church. In this gospel God opens to us the truth and reality of His heart and desire – to save sinners from death and Hell through the blood and resurrected life of Jesus Christ. It is the reason we are and the reason we do all that we do.

 The Ecumenical Creeds

This gospel is summarized for us in the oldest of our church’s confessions – the three Ecumenical Creeds. A “creed” is something that someone or some group believes, and “ecumenical” means worldwide. Any Christian can and should believe what these three creeds – the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed – teach.

The oldest creed is the Apostles. It’s so old we don’t know exactly how old it is but find it used at baptisms in Rome a couple centuries after Jesus’s resurrection. We still use the Apostles Creed at baptisms and many Christians recite it daily at home during prayers. It teaches the basics of who God is – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and what He has done and does to create us, to redeem us, and to make us holy so that we can live with Him forever.

The second-oldest creed is the Nicene Creed, which resolved disagreements in the church about who Jesus is and who the Holy Spirit is. It is about 1,700 years old, and we say it every Sunday at St. Paul. It teaches very clearly that Jesus Christ is true God and true man and that the Holy Spirit is not some kind of power or force but the Third Person of the Holy Trinity and the One who makes us spiritually alive through the gospel.

The newest creed is the Athanasian Creed; it’s only 1,400 years old. It was written against people who believed that Jesus was not truly God in the same way His Father is – a group then called Arians but similar to modern-day Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons. We say this creed once a year on Trinity Sunday in early summer because it teaches us clearly who Jesus is, what He’s done for our salvation, and what we must believe to have eternal life.

 What is the Bible?

The Bible is God’s Word, sixty-six distinct books written over more than a thousand years’ time, all with some human author, all with a single divine Author: the Holy Spirit. If we are reading Paul’s letter to the Romans, we are reading the Holy Spirit’s words. If we are reading Jonah’s prayer in the belly of the fish, we are reading the Holy Spirit’s words. If we are reading Moses’s account of the world’s creation, we are reading the Holy Spirit’s words.

Since the Holy Spirit has written all these things through the human writers He chose to use, the Bible is inerrant (it has no mistakes) and infallible (it will not mislead us). Since God Himself is totally trustworthy, His Word is also totally trustworthy.

Reading the Bible

You should read the Bible the way it wants to be read: as God’s Word centering on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Look at the gospel of Luke, chapter 24, to see how Jesus Himself read the Bible. When people were confused about what God was doing and what His Word meant, Jesus explained that the Bible centered on who He is and what He has done in His death and resurrection that the world might be saved through Him.

When you read the Bible, read as much as you can at a time. Don’t read one verse and then put it down. That’s like watching one minute of a movie per day. You’ll never understand what’s happening, and you’ll never finish it all! If you’d like some help finding a Bible reading plan, our pastor would be glad to help you.

 What is a Confessional Church?

A confessional church is a church that clearly tells you what it believes and teaches and does. Many churches do not have a confession of faith, or if they do have a faith statement, it’s not very long or very clear. So you never know what you’re going to get, and it probably depends on who’s preaching that week.

Our church is confessional as all Lutheran churches are. Our confessions can be read in what is called the Book of Concord. You can read it online at: bookofconcord.org. All that means is that at St. Paul what you see is what you get. What we believe drives what we say and what we do, and you can see for yourself what we believe.

We need confessions because almost every church will say that it believes in Jesus and believes that the Bible is true or at least helpful. Confessions make clear what we mean when we say that so you don’t have to wonder, and they hold us accountable for what we’re doing or saying. We don’t need confessions or creeds because the Bible isn’t clear. The Bible is very clear – that’s how we can write a confession because we know what the Bible says. We need confessions because human beings aren’t very clear and can be erratic and change their minds often. Confessions hold us on course, keep us biblically grounded, and help you know what our church is all about.

How does God save us?

God saves us from our sin, death, and Hell through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. He made atonement for our sin through the blood He shed on the cross for us, and He gave up His life for ours when He gave up His spirit at the end of His crucifixion. That message is brought to us through the preaching of the gospel, whether we hear it first when we’re very young or when we are much older, and it is that good news that alone saves us.

Since that has to do with God’s work for us and God’s message preached to us, we say that God’s salvation or rescue is entirely His doing. Theologians call that idea “monergism,” from the Greek word meaning that only one Person is doing the work. The work of saving us from everything that threatens us or terrifies us or would destroy us, either today or forever, is up to God, and depends alone on God.

If everything depends on Him, then our salvation is all grace – a free gift, a present you don’t have to do anything to get or do anything once you get it. Our salvation is His to do and ours to enjoy eternally.

How many religions are true?

There are thousands and thousands of different beliefs and practices throughout the world that you could call “organized religion.” There are even more private beliefs and practices that people do on their own that you could also call “religious.” Are those all the same? Do they all get you to the same place?

No, they don’t because they can’t. All religions other than Christianity boil down to: do this, so that you can be saved or fixed or however they express the goal of what they believe and do. Every other religion than Christianity boils down to a religion of the law – maybe not God’s law as we read it in Scripture but some kind of command or rule. You might be using healing crystals to overcome something horrible that happened to you or washing yourself before Friday prayers in a mosque. The idea is always the same: do something so you can get something.

Christianity is the only true religion because it is the only religion of the gospel. It is not defined by what you do or don’t. It’s defined by God’s good news that everything necessary for salvation from sin and shame and death and Hell has been done and is brought to you in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. That’s the only religion you can rely on. That’s the only true religion.

How to Pray

Most people pray sometimes but not as much as they think they should. Prayer is not something we do to let God know what’s going on. He already knows. Prayer is something we need to do so that we can put our lives in His hands, giving Him our worries and frustrations and sadness and hopes so that we know that He is taking care of them, as He cares for all of us and loves us for the sake of His Son. We pray in His Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and know that He hears us.

Pray regularly – that means use some standard like “Brush your teeth twice a day” or “Change your oil every 5,000 miles.” Set the alarm on your phone for the same two times every day. Fold your hands and give thanks before every meal you eat. Make it a rule, set a standard, follow it, and that will make it easier to pray not only twice a day or at every meal but all the time since any time is a good time to pray.

 The Lord’s Prayer

The pattern for all Christian prayer is set in the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray when they asked Him how to pray. We pray the Lord’s Prayer at St. Paul at every service. You don’t have to pray only the Lord’s Prayer, but your priorities for prayer are set in the Lord’s Prayer.

Above all things, pray for God’s Name, Word, and Kingdom to be honored and extended, in your life and throughout the world. Pray first for faith and for a holy life, for people to trust in Christ for their salvation, for the church to flourish everywhere.

Then pray for yourself and your neighbors, for the things you need for this life, for forgiveness and the power to forgive others. Pray to be kept from temptations that seem too hard to withstand, and pray to be kept away from Satan and his evil work, from demons and their lies.

Praying at home

If you live alone, you should read the Bible and pray. If you have a family, you should learn God’s Word together and pray together. Do this at least once a day to see the best growth in knowing the LORD and in blessing your lives with His peace and goodness that you’ll find through His Word.

Sit down, maybe at a meal, read a paragraph or a chapter of the Bible, starting with the gospels, say the Apostles Creed, and pray the Lord’s Prayer. This will change you and your family in ways you don’t expect but which will be wonderful to see and to live. To help you do this, we have a weekly handout called The Daily Prayers.

God with us

God is not far away from us. He wants to be near us and He came into this world to be Immanuel or “God with us.” There are three ways that He comes near to us in His church: Holy Baptism, the Office of the Keys, and Holy Communion. These are what we call Sacraments.

Our church looks the way it does and worships the way it does because we believe He is actually with us here – not far away, not waiting to come down if we get worked up enough, not wishing He could be with us but unable. No, He is with us and for us and blesses us Himself here.

Holy Baptism

Coming into the Christian church happens through Holy Baptism, a sacrament, that is, a ritual connected to God’s Word that Jesus Himself set up. He told His disciples to baptize everyone in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Baptism means “washing,” and the Bible shows us only one baptism that you need: a baptism of water and the Spirit of God Who comes to you in Baptism. That’s why we call it “Holy Baptism” because God’s Spirit comes to us and fills us as the water is poured over us and the Word of God is spoken to us by the pastor: “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Who needs to be baptized?

Everyone needs to be baptized if he hasn’t already been baptized in God’s triune Name and with water. A baptism without God’s Name is not a baptism. A baptism without water is not a baptism. There is only “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” in the Bible, and everyone needs the one Lord, needs to believe the one faith, and needs to receive the one baptism.

If you have not yet been baptized or don’t know if you have, please email or call us as soon as you can.

Do we baptize babies?

At St. Paul we baptize people of any size, including the littlest ones. We do this because we believe what the Bible says about baptism: everyone needs it, and “everyone” or “all nations” means “babies, too.”

Think about it this way: only sinners die. If babies did not have the spiritual disease of sin, what we call “original” or “inherited” sin, they would not die. If someone can die, he should be baptized, no matter how old he is or how much he understands. If babies can die, babies should also be baptized to receive God’s salvation from death.

Think about this, too: babies are the model for faith in the Bible. Jesus said that no one could enter God’s kingdom unless he became like a little child. Little ones are God’s model for faith. Far from not believing or not understanding, they are in fact the ones we need to imitate as we trust in God our Father. God only has children, not adults. So children, the littlest ones among us, are the model for faith and the model for every baptism.

No matter how old you are when you’re baptized, you’re baptized as God’s child, His little one for whom He cares and whom He carries in His everlasting arms.

How do we baptize?

Since baptism means “washing” in the original Greek, we like to use plenty of water at St. Paul when we baptize young and old, but the Bible does not say precisely how someone has to be baptized apart from the triune Name and some amount of water. You could be immersed in water like in a river or big tub. You could have water sprinkled on top of your head. You could be washed like we wash a cup. What matters is not how much water but that we’re using water and God’s Word. That’s what Jesus commanded – water and the Word – so that’s what we absolutely must do. Other things can be left free.

The Lord’s Supper

The focus and climax of every Sunday service service at St. Paul is the Lord’s Supper. In Holy Communion the Lord Jesus Christ Himself comes to us through His Word in His Body and His Blood. He uses the earthly elements of bread and wine to become His Body and Blood as His minister speaks His Words of Institution.

How is Jesus with us in the Lord’s Supper?

Many churches do not believe Jesus is physically Himself present in Holy Communion. Other churches believe that He is present and have complex explanations of how that happens. Our teaching is that He is present in His Body and Blood in Holy Communion because He says so: “Take, eat, this is My Body.” “Take, drink, this is My Blood.”

You may find Internet articles calling that teaching “consubstantiation.” We don’t call it that because what we teach is not an opinion or a philosophical idea. We teach simply what Scripture says, as we do in everything else. If He says it, that settles it.

Who should receive the Lord’s Supper?

Anyone who trusts in these words of Christ and repents of his sin should receive Holy Communion. If you repent of your sin and trust in Christ, you are a Christian. If you are a Christian, you should be a member of a Christian congregation, accountable to it and its pastor.

At St. Paul our pastor decides who receives the Lord’s Supper according to what’s usually called “closed communion.” That means our pastor holds our people and everyone accountable to what our congregation believes and does. We don’t practice “open communion,” meaning anyone who shows up can take communion regardless of what he believes or how he lives, because we don’t believe Jesus’ Body and Blood should be treated as if our faith and our life don’t matter much.

We practice closed communion because we love you and want you to be connected to Christ through our congregation or another faithful congregation, where a solid pastor will care for what you believe and what your life is.

Confessing our sins

We confess sins in three different ways: To God privately we confess all our sins, including the ones we don’t remember, and both the pastor and the Bible remind us constantly that for Christ’s sake we are forgiven.

To one another we confess our sins against one another, as Christ commanded us to do in the Lord’s Prayer and in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. Both the pastor and the Bible remind us that if we have been forgiven by God for Christ’s sake, we also forgive for Christ’s sake those who have done and said evil against us.

To the pastor we confess sins that trouble us. It is there for our comfort, not to burden us. If we confess a sin to the pastor, he cannot say anything about it to anyone. The sin dies in his ear. After we confess, he forgives that sin for the sake of Jesus Christ, and we are free of the burden of those sins that trouble us.

Pastors

In the church service you will see a man up front (in what’s called the “chancel”) who reads God’s Word, preaches, and celebrates Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. He is our pastor, and he has been trained to do those things and to do them well. All that he does is what Lutherans call the “Office of the Holy Ministry,” the duties God has given to some men in the church for the benefit of the whole church. In God’s Name they speak His Word, celebrate His sacraments, and forgive the sins confessed to them so that the church can receive God’s care through His ministers whom He has chosen.

Office of the Holy Ministry

The Office of the Holy Ministry is also called the Office of the Keys. God gave two keys to His church, which are used by the ministers in God’s Name. One key is the binding key, when the pastor proclaims to an unrepentant sinner that he is not forgiven as long as he does not repent. The other key is the loosing key, when the pastor proclaims to a repentant sinner that he is forgiven all his sin for the sake of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Both keys are necessary to God’s church, which is why He gave us both of them for the ministers to use. They are also serious, as the minister must know clearly what is sin and what is not, what God says in Scripture and what He does not say. This is why we take the Office of the Holy Ministry so seriously, requiring our pastors to be well-schooled in Scripture and doctrine and to hold fast to the Bible and to our creeds and confessions in the Book of Concord.

If you don’t have a church home yet, join us. If you haven’t been baptized, be baptized here. If you haven’t received the Lord’s Supper in a long time or ever, learn the faith to receive the Lord’s Body and Blood here. Call the church, email the pastor, and come to Christ’s altar here to be with Him now and always.