Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin of the Siberian Lutheran Church, preached an encouraging and inspiring sermon on the occasion of his consecration as bishop, on May 6, 2007.  Apparently some in the Lutheran corner of the Internet find it troubling that there even is such a thing as a Lutheran bishop. I read a particularly absurd comment claiming that one of Bishop Lytkin’s highest priorities must be to establish "supreme voter’s assemblies." Voter’s assemblies are fine and good, if that is how a Lutheran congregation chooses to organize itself, but there is certainly nothing "divinely mandated" about a voter’s assembly, anymore than there is anything "divinely mandated" about the historic episcopate. In Luther’s time there were no such thing as "supreme voter’s assemblies" but fairly quickly there developed consistories made up of clergy and educated lay leaders in the community, under the supervision of a "Superintendent." There were not "voter’s assemblies" such as we have them here in America. This was the common form of church organization throughout the territorial churches in Germany. Scandinavian Lutheran churches choose to retain the episcopate, something our Confessions grants as entirely acceptable, and in fact, assume will continue [it never did in Germany really]. Our Confessions recognize no divinely mandated particular form of church polity, but clearly they do recognize the historic polity in the church by which there are rankings among clergy, though all are equal in office.

A selective reading, and application, of the Lutheran Confessions is a dangerous thing. Article XIV in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession states our Lutheran sensibility that as long as the Gospel is kept pure, polity should never be allowed to be a matter of division in the Church. Note this comment: "We have frequently testified in this assembly that it is our greatest wish to maintain church-polity and the grades in the Church [old church-regulations and the government of bishops], even though they have been made by human authority [provided the bishops allow our doctrine and receive our priests]. For 
we know that church discipline was instituted by the Fathers, 
in the manner laid down in the ancient canons, with a good and useful intention" and "Furthermore, we wish here again to testify that 
we will gladly maintain ecclesiastical and canonical government,
   provided the bishops only cease to rage against our Churches. This our desire will clear us both before God and among all nations to all posterity from the imputation against us that the authority of the bishops is being undermined, when men read and hear that, although protesting against the unrighteous cruelty of the bishops, we could not obtain justice."

Further affirming that the
rankings in the Church are by human ordering, is not therefore grounds
to renounce such rankings! The Lutheran Confessions assume the
continuation, for the sake of good order, the historic ranking in the
Church between bishop and pastor, but make clear that it is by human
ordering, not divinely instituted, nor absolutely necessary. But the
attempt to reject all such ranking as contrary to our Confession is
just as wrong as insisting such rankings are divinely mandated. See
Tractate par. 63: "Jerome, therefore, teaches that it is by human authority that the grades of bishop and elder or pastor are distinct."

Whatever polity a church chooses to adopt, it does so in Christian
freedom, recognizing that all ministers are equal by divine right and
calling, but some have duties others do not have, depending on their
particular vocation. Asserting that the historic episcopate is of the
essence of the Church’s definition as Church is as wrong as attempting
to define the Church along the lines of American Luthean polity choices.
We American Lutherans must take care that we not confuse decisions
about church polity made, well and legitimately, by immigrants to
America in the 1840s, with the definition of the Church as articulated in our Lutheran
Confessions, which, again, do not "mandate" any form of Church polity,
but support and encourage us all to dwell together in harmony around
agreement in the Gospel rightly preached and the Sacraments rightly
administered. For more on this, see Hermann Sasee’s particularly poignant insights.

 

Here is Bishop Lytkin’s sermon:

Tallinn

, 

Estonia

May 6, 2007
Sermon on Cantate Sunday
by Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin               

Fathers, brothers, and sisters: I would like to begin my sermon with a quote from the song of a famous bard of the Soviet time,

I remember, I was silly and young,
I heard from my parent
How my parent destroyed
The Church of Christ the Savior.

 

You know that this is not black Russian humor. There is history in these words, history of my country of Russia

as well as history of your country of

Estonia

, since by evil destiny you were forced to share our sufferings with us. For over fifty years, you were part of the

Soviet Union

, the country that was founded by hangmen and tzar-murderers.   

This
country is no more. We now live in free democratic countries. Still,
almost all of us have come out of that Soviet time. Some people were
touched more by this, others less. Some tried to oppose the regime,
others have realized all the terror of the Soviet system only after its
fall.

   

“I remember I was
silly and young.” From a Christian perspective, one realizes that the
most terrible thing that was that such a great multitude of people were
born in unbelief. They lived all their life in unbelief and the most
terrible thing is that they also died in unbelief. I don’t like to
speak about politics, particularly while preaching, but it’s impossible
to forget those times. I remember them especially when I visit

Estonia

, as it was here that all my Christian life began at that time.

   

Just
like many others, I was looking for God. I remember how “silly and
young” I was, yet, gradually, little by little, I began to seek answers
to eternal questions. My family was not Christian.
Nevertheless, my parents taught me not to trust Soviet propaganda, and
so I did not. Since Soviet propaganda said that God did not exist, it
seemed quite likely that he did. Thus my Christian faith began due to
my parents, though they did not tell me about God directly.

   

Like
many other people at that time, we also understood that it was
impossible for God not to exist. What would one live for if one’s life
were limited to earth, not even in a sense that we were just temporary
dwellers on this earth, but, as one priest once wrote, “if there is no
God… then all humankind is found collectively not on earth, but in the
earth, in our common grave.”

   

I
understood little of religion, but I knew that there must be something
besides this material world, in which we live, only to die.

   

I
purchased books, atheistic books, for there were no others at the time,
and I tried to find quotations from the Bible in them, words about God,
and I found them and tried to understand. Obviously, the atheists
quoted the word of God only to critique. But, we were Soviet people – we got used to interpreting all things official backwards.

   

Finally, God’s grace led me to

Estonia

.
Here I met Christians for the first time in my life. I will never
forget how I talked to an old man who was the guard at the Holy Spirit
Church. Then I spoke with the wife of Pastor Jaan Kiivit, and finally
with the pastor himself.

   

I
was twenty when I came here for the first time in order to find the
Lutheran church. I did not know anybody. I had virtually no money, and
I lived at the train station for a week and memorized Luther’s
Catechism.

   

I would never
dare to do that now. But then I came back to the train station every
evening and tried to find a seat on a bench in the waiting hall area.
There were a limited number of seats. I was surrounded mostly by
similar poor travelers, and also alcoholics and homeless people. It is
so strange to recall it now. But I learnt the Catechism, and then Jaan
Kiivit baptized me. This is how my Christian life began here in

Estonia

during the old Soviet era.

         

I remember, I was silly and young,
I heard from my parent
How my parent destroyed
The Church of Christ the Savior.

 

You
know, these words are perfectly descriptive of the Soviet life!
Certainly, my parents did not participate directly in the destruction
of Christianity, but a number of people participated on a global scale
in the construction of society with no room for God. Wily rulers
deceived them by promises of earthly paradise, and they gullibly
followed them.

   

Afterwards it was too late.
Millions of Christians were tortured in prison camps; thousands of
churches were blown up and demolished. To be sure, the Orthodox Church
suffered the most, but other confessions also shared in that horrible
slaughter.

   

As you know, we have no Lutheran church buildings left in

Siberia

. All that could be destroyed was destroyed. The last Lutheran church building – St. Peter’s in

Barnaul

– was destroyed in the early seventies.

   

So,
what a grace has been given to us that this regime did not outlive us,
but, rather, we outlived it! And we have not become only passive
witnesses of its end but rather participants of building a new life.

   

It
is so, because God placed us in the ministry in his church. We save
people’s souls through the word of God and the holy sacraments. Can
there be anything more wonderful that this task? This, nevertheless, is
not of us; it is only due to Christ. It is he who came to us with his
word. However little this word was to be seen in the articles in the
atheistic books, nevertheless, God helped us to see his word there.

   

And he called us through this word, just as we read in today’s Gospel:

   

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden. (Matt 11:28a)

   

The word of God always fulfills that for which God sends it. One believed secretly, and then he began to believe openly.

   

Another
remembered the faith of his parents, and yet another began to seek and
he found. You can meet such people, laymen and priests, in every
parish. One of my colleagues almost joined the Communist Party, but he
heard the gospel and was captivated by this news to such an extent that
he finally left everything, took his wife and children and a box of
potatoes, and went to work as a missionary, and then became a priest.
This is how miraculously God acts in our lives.

   

Today’s
sermon is based on the Old Testament reading in our church lectionary.
It is taken from the twelfth chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah.
This chapter describes the joy of deliverance, but it is not limited to
description; it is rather a praise song of God’s people, gratitude to God for his miraculous gifts.

   

It
is obvious that his song of praise had a liturgical meaning because one
may see a number of parallels here with the other hymns of praise, most
notably with the Hallel psalms that the Old Testament
church was singing at the Passover (and other celebrations) while
thanking God for the gift of deliverance.

   

Our chapter has much in common with Psalm 118. As you may remember, we sang this Psalm on Easter Sunday.

   

The
Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation…. I thank
thee that thou hast answered me and hast become my salvation. (Ps 118:14, 21)

   

Salvation is a major theme of both the Psalter and today’s text from Isaiah. The key word here is yoshuakh, which is related to the name of our Savior:

   

Behold,
God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord
God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. (Is
12:2)

   

We also sing another
part of Psalm 118 every Sunday. We sing “Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord!” when we greet Christ who comes to us in the
sacrament of the Eucharist.

   

God
comes to save us. Just as the people of old were saved from Egyptian
slavery, so also have we been saved from the slavery of in and death
through the death and resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

   

Christ
– Joshua – has become our salvation. He has come to us in order to
bring liberty to the oppressed and to give rest to all who labor and
are heavy laden:

   

Come
to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
by burden is light. (Matt 11:28-30)

       

That is:
Come to me, all who carry heavy burdens of life,
And I will give you rest…
Take my yoke, not yours. Take my burden, not yours.

   

The
yoke that our Lord gives to us is quite unlike those yokes to which we
are accustomed to bearing in this world. There is no violence and
oppression here, as Christ is gentle and lowly in heart.

   

It
is not difficult to see here an idea of blessed exchange, so loved by
Luther. Those carrying their burdens may take them off their shoulders
and take another one, which is of Christ. Those tired and looking for
rest may find it with Christ, Son of god who humbled himself, took the
form of a servant, and also took our sins upon himself so that he could
present his righteousness to us.

   

He
brings salvation to us as a gift. He does not require from us to redeem
our own sins but grants forgiveness to repentant sinners at every
liturgy. It is only in him that a soul of a sinner who is thirsty for
forgiveness and reconciliation with God may find rest:

   

Take
my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light. (Matt:29-30)

   

As children we were taught that only obedient children receive the gifts. However, the gifts of God are given to us without any qualifications or conditions. God does not postpone his grace until people do something. God freely gives his blessings. (If I have to become somebody or do something for my salvation, if I have to earn salvation, then there is no grace here but only unrealized Law.)

   

We
can do nothing to be saved. The Lord does not require it from us. He
came and died for us and rose even before we were born. He still
continues to come and serve us by giving his true body and blood to us
at the Eucharist. Through these he strengthens our faith and gives us
power to follow him into the kingdom of his Father.

   

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. (Is. 12:3)

   

Remember
your baptism now. Remember how God accepted you and how you became a
Christian. Maybe, we do not remember it often, but today God gives us a
new opportunity to thank him and rejoice that water from the wells of
salvation was poured also on us, that we are saved, and that nobody may
snatch us from the hands of Christ.

   

And
you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the nations, proclaim that his name is
exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this
be known in all the earth.” (Is 12:4-5)

   

God
always makes great things, even if it seems to us at times that he is
idle. Isaiah wrote at a terrible time, when her enemies were
threatening to destroy God’s people. The strong ones of this world
attempted to destroy the chosen nation and her monotheistic faith. The
hearers of Isaiah may have found it difficult to believe that their God
would be known in all the earth. The ancient prophesies are, generally
speaking, an unusual thing. They are spoken, and then time seemingly
stops for ages until it finally wakes up and resumes moving. The
powerful ones think that all the power is in their hands. Therefore
they create empires and call cities in their honor, they build
monuments and mausoleums for themselves. But in the end, it turns out
that time is not in their hands. Time is in God’s hands.

   

A
day comes when that which seemed indestructible and unshakable is
destroyed. People in all the earth are given knowledge of God, acquire
faith, come to church, are baptized, and bring their children. The
church grows – this is how God acts in our lives.

   

Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of

Zion

, for great in your midst is the Holy One of

Israel

. (Is 12:6)

   

Brothers
and sisters, the Lord is in our midst. We are able to hear his word and
partake of him. He comes so close to us in the sacrament of Eucharist
that we can even touch him.

   

Eucharist does not only connect us to Christ, but also unites us with each other.

   

It
is so wonderful to have spiritual fellowship with the brothers with
whom we share a common faith. However, the special character of this
day for us Siberian people is that not only have we been one in faith
with the

Church

of

Estonia

,
but, for a long time, we have also been a part of her. Now we become
the autocephalous church. Still, though we are independent, the

Church

  of

Estonia

will always remain a spiritual mother to us. No matter what happens, we will remember the many years in which you cared for us.

   

No
matter what happens… We went through a number of things together. And
who knows what else we will have to go through. We know how the church
buildings, even those that are large and sturdy, are destroyed. We know
also how fragile temples of human lives are destroyed. It happened
often – and who knows – it may happen again. Who knows what the future
has in store for us. Global warming, materialism, street extremism,
Islamic terrorism, liberal theology: there are so many terrifying and
deadly things around us!

 

But
Christ is among us, both now and forever. Neither death nor hell nor
the devil may change that. We will receive forgiveness of sins, rest,
and a blessed eternity in Christ. Amen.