Daily Luther: God Forbids You to Listen To These Guys!
On Jeremiah 23:16: ‘Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you; they make you vain [they teach you vanity, R. V.]; they speak a vision of their own heart—and not out of the mouth of the Lord!’
Behold, all prophets who do not preach out of the mouth of the Lord are deceivers, and God forbids us to hear them. Does not the text state clearly that where God’s Word is not preached no one dare, under pain of God’s wrath, listen to it, for it is pure deception? O Pope, O bishops, O priests, O monks, O theologians, how are you going to escape here? Do you consider it a trifling matter when the Supreme Majesty forbids whatever does not proceed out of the mouth of the Lord and is something else than God’s Word? It is not a thresher or herdsman who is saying this. When the servant hears the master say: ‘Who told you to do that? It is not what I have commanded,’ he will certainly realize that he should not have done it as being contrary to the master’s orders.” (St. L. XIX:821 f.)
Lutherans are catechized to believe (or, at least, used to be, as I was) that, when the pastor was preaching, he was but the messenger of the message, i.e., God’s message. Pastor was preaching, but God was speaking.
I like to think that remains the case when it comes to questions of Christian dogma and doctrine, e.g., the Virgin Birth, the Holy Trinity, the Resurrection, justification by grace through faith, etc. That is, that Lutheran pastors speak with one voice and the same message on such questions.
But, the question above is “Who told you to do that?”
That has to do not primarily with faith or belief but with their application in behavior and practice. Very often the latter may have to do with applications of one or more of the 10 Commandment. And on these questions, laypeople often find that the answers they hear depend on who is standing in the pulpit.
With differing answers relating to moral or ethical questions, does each pastor “speak out of the mouth of the Lord?” Are there rules of thumb for laypeople on how to separate the “wheat from the chaff” on Sunday mornings? And is that their role, having learned that, when Pastor preaches, God speaks?
Jonathan,
Your point and subsequent question(s) are well taken.
Might I humbly suggest the following documents for a little “light” reading on the subject? (The first is an LCMS document, the second from a WELS source. Both should give you grist for you to work on as you seek answers to your questions.)
http://www.lcms.org/Document.fdoc?src=lcm&id=308
and
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/GullixsonSermon.pdf
God’s blessings,
-Sean
Many thanks, Pastor Esterline, for those referenced readings — “light” as they aren’t!
After attempting them, I have new apprecciation for reference to theology as the “Queen of the Sciences”. Good hermeneutics and good exegesis, no doubt, are pre-requisites to good homeletics and faithful expository preaching.
Most of us in the pews, however, are in no position to judge how well those tasks have been done. But, I don’t believe it’s our role to do that anyway. For me, it’s enough to feel confident that the pastor, before climbing into the pulpit, has recited Luther’s Sacristy Prayer or something comparable to it.
Then, what’s also helpful and appreciated by congregations, I believe,422U is pastors’ making time for a “Q&A” session relating to the sermon following The Service, as in an adult forum. It can put “frosting on the cake” of pastors’ efforts to “Feed my lambs. … Feed my sheep.”
Sorry for the “422U” in the last paragraph.
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