Worship, Adiaphora and the Lutheran Confessions, Part 4 – Pr. Will Weedon, 4/29/26 (1193)

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[00:01:05]>> [music] >> The problem is, of course, that many men in the manosphere are acting in a way that mirrors feminism. So, what they don't like about feminism is because it holds men in contempt, but what the manosphere is doing is it's holding women in contempt.

[00:01:20]>> But if we take Christian nationalism as the idea that we need to build our political platform and our nation along strictly Christian principles, then I would say that certainly has its severe limitations.

[00:01:32]You cannot legislate belief upon a people. Atheism is technically and literally speaking a hopeless faith because atheism is, of course, a faith that's a belief system because it gives people no ultimate hope. They may have hope in this world, but they've no ultimate hope.

[00:01:52]>> Carlstadt had the spirit of a revolutionary and the spirit of a revolutionary is always hatred of what has come before and a determination to tear it down. Luther was concerned from the beginning to actually preserve the liturgical heritage of the church. North Dakota District President driving around the North Dakota District love Issues Etc. There appears to be at least a correlation [music] between these two things.

[00:02:25]Suspended use of the catechism, Luther's Small Catechism or teaching of the catechism's contents, and suspended use of the historic liturgy. There appears to be a correlation. Is there a cause between the two? Which comes first?

[00:02:40]Sometimes one, sometimes the other, but they always seem to go together.

[00:02:45]Welcome back to Issues Etc. coming to you live from the studios of Lutheran Public Radio in Collinsville, Illinois.

[00:02:51]I'm Todd Wilken. Thanks for tuning us in. Joining us for part four of our series on worship, adiaphora, and the Lutheran Confessions, Pastor Will Weedon, assistant pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, Illinois.

[00:03:02]He formerly served as director of worship for the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. He's author of the books Celebrating the Saints, Thank, Praise, Serve, and Obey, See My Savior's Hands, and I Remember a Life of Mary. He hosts the daily 15-minute verse-by-verse Bible study produced by Lutheran Public Radio called The Word of the Lord Endures Forever.

[00:03:19]Will, welcome back.

[00:03:21]Hey, thank you, Todd. So, let's begin since we're still in the midst of the catechisms in the Lutheran Confessions with the circumstance that faces us today in many of our parishes in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod where uh despite ordination vows the pastors have seen to it that the catechism has in essence been taken away from the laity. It's not used. Even Luther's Small Catechism is not used to instruct young or old contrary to everything that, to my way of thinking, makes a Lutheran parish Lutheran. Right.

[00:04:00]>> I mean, 100%. You know, I I just want to Let me let Luther have some words on this if I can. This is part of his introduction to the German Mass of 1526, right? So, this is before he's written the catechism, but the idea of the catechism is the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Our Father is very much in his head. Listen to what he says here. On then in the name of God, first, the German service, or we would just say the vernacular service, needs a plain and simple, fair and square catechism.

[00:04:28]Catechism means the instruction in which the heathen who want to be Christians are taught and guided in what they should believe, know, do, and leave undone according to the Christian faith.

[00:04:41]This is why the candidates who have been admitted for such instruction and learn the Creed before their baptism used to be called catechumens.

[00:04:53]This instruction or catechization I cannot put better or more plainly than has been done from the beginning of Christendom and retained till now. That is in these three parts, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Our Father. These three plainly and briefly contain exactly everything that a Christian needs to know. This instruction must be given as long as there is no special congregation from the pulpit at stated times or daily as may be needed and repeated or read aloud mornings and evenings in the home to the children and servants in order to train them as Christians. Do you get his picture here? He's like, the the ancient church has handed us these three tools that we use to impart the faith. And if we in our modern day think that we can impart the faith in a better or different way, we've we're deceiving ourselves. The catechism itself points out how it should be received and used.

[00:06:03]We need to know what God wants us to do and not to do, the Ten Commandments.

[00:06:07]That will show us our sin and drive us to cry out to God in the Creed, where God will proclaim to us what he has done because we have failed to do what he has commanded us to do. And then we learn how to pray in the words of the Our Father. So, when Christian pastors dump the basic instruction in the catechism, they are really dumping something bigger than something Lutheran per se. They are dumping something received from the ancient church as the way people are formed in the faith.

[00:06:39]Now, is it okay to move on with some other quotes from the catechism?

[00:06:42]>> Sure. Okay.

[00:06:44]Under the Third Commandment, when you're dealing with remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy or sanctify the holy day, Luther writes, "We keep holy days so that people may have time and opportunity, which otherwise would not be available, to participate in public worship. That is, so that they may assemble to hear and discuss God's word and then to praise God with song and prayer." In other words, the Third Commandment calls upon us to sanctify the the holy day by the use of God's holy word, attending to it. He goes on, says a little later on that same section, "Remember that you must not be concerned only about hearing the word, but also about learning and retaining it. Do not regard it as an optional or unimportant matter." In other words, at the end of the sermon, you should be able to tell us what the text was about that was being proclaimed that day. The word of God does its sanctification in our lives as we hear and retain it. Now, moving into the second part of the catechism, the the Creed, especially in the the Third Article. "In order that this treasure may not be buried, but be put to use and be enjoyed, God has caused the word to be published and proclaimed, in which he has given the Holy Spirit to offer and apply the treasure of salvation.

[00:08:19]Therefore, to sanctify is nothing else than to bring us to the Lord Christ to receive this blessing, which we could not obtain by ourselves." To sanctify is to bring you to Christ that you may obtain everything that his word promises you. He goes on, "Forgiveness is needed constantly, for although God's grace has been won by Christ and holiness has been wrought by the Holy Spirit through God's word in the unity of the Christian church, yet because we are encumbered by our flesh, we are never without sin.

[00:08:55]Therefore, everything in the Christian church is so ordered that we may daily obtain full forgiveness of sins through the word and signs appointed." The signs being the sacraments here. "Appointed to comfort and relieve our consciences as long as we live."

[00:09:14]This is one of the most beautiful statements in the catechism. Everything in the Christian church is ordered toward the imparting of forgiveness so that consciences, which are terrified and alarmed, may be set at rest and be at peace knowing that Christ has fully atoned for their sins.

[00:09:31]I think we mentioned last time, I'm not sure. I don't remember for sure where we stopped, so I if if I'm if I'm repeating some of the passages, please forgive me.

[00:09:39]We're just plowing on.

[00:09:41]Each of us should form the habit from youth up to pray daily for all his needs whenever he is aware of anything that affects him or other people around him.

[00:09:50]Another passage, "For we do not intend to admit to the sacrament and administer it to those who don't know what they seek and why they come. A very important passage about the administration of the sacrament that we should at least have had a conversation with the people who are communing at our altars to find out, do you know why you're here? Do you know what you're looking for? And then what is the sacrament of the altar? By the way, it's not called Do you remember what your your example from the other day? Was it the sacrament of the couch?

[00:10:18]Was it was from the couch that he was administering the Lord's Supper, right?

[00:10:22]It's the sacrament of the altar in our confession. That might imply that you have an altar from which the sacrament is being distributed. And it is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in and under the bread and wine, which we Christians are commanded to eat and to drink.

[00:10:40]For this reason, we also must make a distinction among men.

[00:10:44]Those who are shameless and unruly must be told to stay away, for they are not fit to receive the forgiveness of sins since they do not desire it and they do not want to do good. The others who are not so callous and dissolute, but would like to be good, should not absent themselves, even though in other respects they are weak and frail. So, this actually makes it into some early Lutheran liturgy.

[00:11:14]This is something that Luther himself devised as a paraphrase, I guess you could say, of the Sursum Corda, Lift up your hearts, We lift them up to the Lord, Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. This is his exhortation to communicants. Listen to these words.

[00:11:30]Dear friends in Christ, you know that our Lord Jesus Christ, out of unspeakable love, instituted at the last this, his supper, as a memorial and proclamation of the death suffered for our sins.

[00:11:44]This commemoration requires a firm faith to make the heart and conscience of everyone who wants to use and partake of this supper sure and certain that Christ has suffered death for all his sins.

[00:11:59]But whoever doubts and does not in some manner feel such faith should know that the supper is of no avail to him, but will rather be to his hurt, and he should stay away from it. And since we cannot see such faith and it's known only to God, we leave it to the conscience of him who comes, and we admit him who requests and desires it.

[00:12:18]But those who cling to open sins, such as greed, hatred, anger, envy, profit-seeking, unchastity, and the like, and are not minded to renounce them, shall herewith be barred from the supper and faithfully warned not to come, lest they incur judgment and damnation for their souls, as Paul says.

[00:12:41]If, however, someone has fallen because of weakness and proves by his acts that he earnestly desires to better himself, this grace and communion of the body and blood of Christ shall not be denied him.

[00:12:53]In this fashion, each must judge himself and look out for himself, for God is not mocked, and he will not give that which is holy to the dogs or cast the pearls before swine.

[00:13:03]He wrote that in 1525.

[00:13:06]And as he he lays that out there, you have an explicit warning to to the communicants, Don't just, you know, kind of to use Corby's term, belly up to the bar and not think about what you're doing. If you are holding on to sin and you will not repent of it and you don't want to be better and be relieved of that sin, then you just come to the supper and receive the body and blood of Christ, it brings you judgment. And he warns against that. So, a powerful warning there.

[00:13:34]Really beautiful. We're talking with Pastor Will Weedon of The Word of the Lord Endures Forever about worship adiaphora and the Lutheran Confessions.

[00:13:41]We will get into Christian Questions with Their Answers next.

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[00:17:05]>> [music] >> Welcome back. It's our series on worship [music] adiaphora and the Lutheran Confessions with Pastor Will Weedon. I'm Todd Wilken.

[00:17:14]So, Will, where would you like to go next in Luther's Small Catechism?

[00:17:18]We also wanted to cover the Christian Questions and Their Answers. What does all this have to do with the liturgy?

[00:17:23]Well, listen to the Christian Questions and Their Answers.

[00:17:26]They're not actually in the Book of Concord, but they were appended to the Catechism and they're in our synod's Catechism. These are prepared by Dr. Luther for anyone who wants to go to the supper.

[00:17:36]After confession, so you've been to private confession, and instruction in the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. In other words, the Catechism.

[00:17:48]The pastor may ask or Christians may ask themselves these questions.

[00:17:53]And I'm just going to run through them.

[00:17:55]Is that okay?

[00:17:56]It's a good review of the whole faith.

[00:17:58]First question, Do you believe that you're a sinner?

[00:18:01]Yeah, I believe that I'm a sinner.

[00:18:03]And how do you know that?

[00:18:05]From the Ten Commandments, which I haven't kept.

[00:18:08]Are you sorry for your sins?

[00:18:10]Yes.

[00:18:11]I am sorry that I've sinned against God.

[00:18:14]What have you deserved from God because of your sins?

[00:18:18]His wrath and displeasure, temporal death and eternal damnation.

[00:18:26]Do you hope to be saved? Yes, that is my hope.

[00:18:30]In whom then do you trust?

[00:18:32]In my dear Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:18:35]Who is Christ?

[00:18:37]The Son of God, true God and man.

[00:18:40]How many gods are there?

[00:18:42]Only one.

[00:18:44]But there are three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

[00:18:48]What has Christ done for you that you trust in him?

[00:18:52]He died for me and shed his blood for me on the cross for the forgiveness of sins.

[00:19:00]Did the Father also die for you? He did not. The Father is God only, as is the Holy Spirit. But the Son is both true God and true man.

[00:19:10]He died for me and shed his blood for me.

[00:19:14]How do you know this?

[00:19:16]From the Holy Gospel, from the words instituting the sacrament, and by his body and blood given me as a pledge in the sacrament.

[00:19:29]What are the words of institution?

[00:19:31]Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat. This is my body, which is given for you.

[00:19:41]This do in remembrance of me.

[00:19:43]In the same way also he took the cup after supper, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it all of you. This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

[00:19:57]This do, as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

[00:20:01]Do you believe then that the true body and blood of Christ are in the sacrament?

[00:20:08]Yes, I believe it.

[00:20:10]What convinces you to believe this?

[00:20:14]The word of Christ. Take, eat, this is my body. Drink of it, all of you. This is my blood.

[00:20:22]What should we do when we eat his body and drink his blood and in this way receive his pledge?

[00:20:30]We should remember and proclaim his death and the shedding of his blood as he taught us to do.

[00:20:36]As this do, as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

[00:20:41]Why should we remember and proclaim his death?

[00:20:46]First, so that we may learn to believe that no creature could make satisfaction for our sins. Only Christ, true God and man, could do that.

[00:20:56]Second, so that we may learn to be horrified by our sins and to regard them as very serious.

[00:21:03]Third, so that we may find joy and comfort in Christ alone and through faith in him be saved.

[00:21:12]What motivated Christ to die and make full payment for your sins?

[00:21:18]His great love for his father and for me and other sinners, as it is written in John 14, Romans 5, Galatians 2, and Ephesians 5.

[00:21:29]Finally, why do you wish to go to the sacrament?

[00:21:33]That I may learn to believe that Christ, out of great love, died for my sin and also learn from him to love God and my neighbor.

[00:21:45]What should admonish and encourage a Christian to receive the sacrament frequently?

[00:21:50]First, both the command and the promise of Christ the Lord, and second, his own pressing need, because of which the command, encouragement, and promise are given.

[00:22:01]But what should you do if you are not aware of this need and have no hunger and thirst for the sacrament?

[00:22:08]To such a person, no better advice can be given than this. First, he should touch his body to see if he still has flesh and blood, and then he should believe what the scriptures say of it in Galatians 5 and Romans 7.

[00:22:20]Second, he should look around and check out whether he's still in the world and remember that there will be no lack of sin and trouble, as the scriptures say in John 14 and 16, and in 1 John 2 and 5.

[00:22:31]And thirdly, he'll certainly have the devil also around him, who, with his lying and murdering day and night, will let him have no peace within or without, as the scriptures picture him in John 8 and 16, 1 Peter 5, Ephesians 6, and 2 Timothy 2.

[00:22:49]And then at the very end, the little note is given, "These questions and answers are no child's play.

[00:22:54]They are drawn up with great earnestness of purpose by the venerable and devout Dr. Luther for both young and old. Let each one pay attention and consider it a serious matter.

[00:23:06]For St. Paul writes to the Galatians in chapter 6, 'Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked.'"

[00:23:13]So, you have a very clear statement here that the people of God need to take the preparation for the sacrament with great earnestness. They need to think about what they're doing when they come and receive the very body and blood of Christ. I mean, it's simply a huge area that that needs to be restored in our church's life. I mean, one of the greatest things that's happened in our lifetime, Todd, has been the increasing celebrations of the Lord's Supper. Maybe it was once a month or once or twice a month when we were young, and now almost all over the place, it's every week, which is a beautiful and wonderful thing to see, but it has the unintended effect of people becoming routinized in receiving it instead of pondering the miracle that takes place every time they gather for the divine service and Christ comes among us with the gift of his body and blood in and under the consecrated bread and wine, giving us the very ransom price for our sin and the sin of the world, so that our consciences can be at peace.

[00:24:23]We need our people to prepare for this again, and boy, is there a better way to prepare for that than to actually use Luther's Christian Questions and Answers?

[00:24:33]Pastor Will Weedon is our guest. It's part of our series on worship audio from the Lutheran Confessions. What happens when the substance of these Christian Questions [music] and Answers isn't taught?

[00:24:50]>> [music] >> Thy strong word, we praise you and acknowledge you up through endless ranks of angels. Hi, this is Pastor Will Weedon inviting you to join us for our hymn sing at the 2026 Issues, Etc. Making the Case Conference.

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[00:28:09]>> [music] >> Welcome back to Issues, Etc. I'm Todd Wilken, and talking about worship audio from the Lutheran Confessions. Pastor [music] Will Weedon of The Word of the Lord Endures Forever is our guest.

[00:28:24]For those of you who appreciate Lutheran worship, LCMS Worship has produced free resources on Lutheran liturgy, hymnody, and the lectionary. You'll find these resources at lcms.org/worship.

[00:28:36]lcms.org/worship.

[00:28:39]Well, we were talking about this Christian question with their answers before the break.

[00:28:44]When these are not taught, what happens to the worship life of the church?

[00:28:50]Well, I think then you see frivolity come in. You you lose the sense of reverence, the recognition of that unseen reality that's in front of you, of the body and blood of Christ, and instead, you're just deal with what is seen with the eyes, and then worship becomes much more entertainment and much more being about how the audience receives the the interaction there, as opposed to the holy priesthood of God offering up their thanks and praise to the one who truly comes among them in that hidden manner, imparting to them his very body and blood. The casualization, is that a word? The casualization of worship is what transpires when the unseen reality of the Lord's body and blood is sort of sidelined and not recognized by action in the supper.

[00:29:43]It also would seem to speak to the issue of how central the Lord's Supper is to Sunday morning. You mentioned more and more congregations going to every Sunday communion, which is a good thing.

[00:29:56]But, if it's just something kind of to get out of the way, I notice one of the routines of the larger LCMS big box churches, they just start the service with the Lord's Supper and then move on to to more important things. Yes, and seems seems to say not that this is most important or central.

[00:30:12]The liturgy, the historical liturgy, is designed to lead to the Lord's table in a proper and biblical way.

[00:30:19]A kind of to walk you through those Christian questions and answers before you admitted to the table. Yeah, I mean I I've never seen this practice among us, but I do know it was a practice in a what became an ELCA church in North Carolina because the pastor just thought the whole communion thing took too long.

[00:30:39]He pre-consecrated, whatever that means, the elements and put them on a table in the narthex for the people to pick up on their way out if they bothered with communion that day.

[00:30:52]And I remember I I was like you got to be kidding me, right? I mean, like you're a Lutheran church and you're doing this?

[00:30:59]What kind of idea Where did you get this idea from? I mean, this is totally alien. The liturgy of the Lutheran church has always insisted, and we're going to hear it when we get to the formula of concord, it always insisted that the words of institution are to be publicly proclaimed or sung before the assembled congregation in order that they may have the assurance and confidence that what they are receiving with that bread and wine is truly the very body and blood of Christ through the sacramental union and that they may receive it for the forgiveness of sins, which is exactly how and why Jesus instituted it.

[00:31:35]Now, before we move into the whole area of the formula of concord which is where this whole conversation has been driving to.

[00:31:46]I think we need to recognize a little bit of of history here.

[00:31:51]The big question that I would like to put to people is, do you read Formula of Concord Article 10, which we're going to be discussing in detail and doing the history of in just a minute, but do you read that in light of what we saw in Augsburg Confession Article 15?

[00:32:10]Or do you read Article 15, remember, said we keep the human customs that are made for good order in the church, and it went through a list of them, remember?

[00:32:20]Or do you read that in light of what Formula 10 says? And I would argue that the formula itself gives you the answer to this question. Listen to these words.

[00:32:34]To this Christian Augsburg Confession, so thoroughly grounded in God's word, we here, we the formulators, we here pledge ourselves again from our inmost hearts, we abide by its simple, clear, and unadulterated meaning as the words convey it. We regard this confession as a pure Christian symbol, whether in this writing or in any other.

[00:33:05]It is our plan not to withdraw in the least from that oft-cited confession, nor to propose another or new confession.

[00:33:17]So, the Formula of Concord, as it was written, actually, its own self-understanding is it's merely restating what was there in the Augsburg Confession, and they are abiding by it.

[00:33:33]Now, let's deal particularly with Article 10, which deals with matters of adiaphora matters of human ceremonies that are neither commanded by God nor forbidden by God.

[00:33:47]I'm sorry, we're going to have to go into history here, and I love history. I I hope you enjoy this, but people need to know this, that 4 months after Luther's death, he died in 1546, the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V make a secret agreement to crush the Reformation and force the Lutherans back under papal authority.

[00:34:16]And here's part of what the agreement stated.

[00:34:19]In the name of God and with the help and assistance of his papal holiness, his Imperial Majesty should prepare himself for war and equip himself with soldiers and everything pertaining to warfare against those who objected to the council, against the Smalcaldic League, and against all who were addicted to the false belief and error in Germany. And that he should do so with all his power and might in order to bring them back to the old faith and obedience to the Holy See. So, I mean, a military solution to a spiritual problem, that's what they were proposing there. And they thought they would sort of keep this agreement secret, but the Pope later published it, it got out. And it was a really a terrifying time for the Lutherans there in Germany. I'm going to read a little bit for us here from the introduction to the formula in Concordia, the Lutheran Confessions.

[00:35:19]The fate of the gospel hung in the balance.

[00:35:23]Powerful forces were moving in to crush the Lutherans.

[00:35:27]Shortly after the emperor and the Pope had reached an agreement on how best to deal with the Lutheran problem, the Smalcaldic War broke out in Germany. The military power of the emperor and Pope proved too much for the Lutheran princes.

[00:35:45]The threat of war caused some who had previously confessed their allegiance to the Augsburg Confession to remain neutral or even worse, to betray their fellow Lutherans.

[00:35:57]Maurice, Duke of Saxony, actually joined the emperor. That was a real shock to the the Lutheran side. On April 24th, 1547, the armies of the Smalcaldic League were crushed at the Battle of Mühlberg.

[00:36:15]The Elector of Saxony, John Frederick the Magnanimous, was taken prisoner and he was sentenced to death.

[00:36:24]He received the news of his death sentence while playing a game of chess with his fellow prisoner, Duke Ernest of Lüneburg.

[00:36:32]John Frederick took the news with remarkable courage and peace.

[00:36:36]He did not believe the emperor would execute him, but responded by saying that if he was to be killed, he wanted time to put his affairs in order and send a final message to his wife and children. Then he looked at Ernest and said, "Let's continue this game. It's your move."

[00:36:55]One Lutheran territory after another fell to the emperor. Torgau was taken.

[00:37:01]The Imperial armies marched on Wittenberg. It surrendered without a fight on May 19th, 1547.

[00:37:09]Emperor Charles himself entered the castle church in Wittenberg where Martin Luther was buried.

[00:37:15]As he stood at Luther's grave, his soldiers urged him to exhume the remains of the heretic Luther and burn them.

[00:37:23]Charles said simply, "I make war on the living, not on the dead."

[00:37:29]This was a remarkable reaction considering how long Charles had been struggling with the Lutheran Reformation.

[00:37:36]In 1521, he had heard Luther utter the famous words, "I cannot and I will not recant."

[00:37:43]26 years later, Charles's military defeat of Lutheran territories was complete.

[00:37:50]So, now he's got the problem of how do I get these Lutherans to come back in line? The people. He has defeated the military might of the princes, but how does he get the people in line? His answer was something called the Augsburg Interim.

[00:38:06]He ordered all Lutheran rulers and ministers to obey his orders and do nothing to oppose them.

[00:38:13]They were not to teach, preach, or write against this interim, this Augsburg Interim, in any way. And it was called an interim because the doctrine was intended to govern the church until things could be more formally settled at a council.

[00:38:30]The interim allowed the Lutheran clergy to marry and to celebrate the Lord's Supper by giving people both the consecrated bread and wine, but it demanded that they immediately restore a number of specifically Roman ceremonies and customs that they dropped. It demanded that they acknowledge the Pope to be the head of the church by divine right and receive again the authority of the Roman bishops. It insisted that they again receive Roman doctrines and practices such as transubstantiation and the seven sacraments. It denied or omitted the doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone.

[00:39:13]And ironically, the Pope was not satisfied even with this. He demanded total rejection of everything Lutheran, which made many Lutheran rulers and ministers realize that they had nothing to expect but total persecution if they submitted to this Augsburg Interim.

[00:39:34]And at this moment, the eyes of everyone in Germany were fixed on one man.

[00:39:41]What would Philip Melanchthon do?

[00:39:44]Tragically, Melanchthon was willing to compromise with Rome for the sake of peace. His courage failed him, and he soon became the leader of a bunch of Lutherans known as the Philippists after his first name, Philip, who looked for ways to compromise with Rome whenever they could. They were willing to surrender a number of key points of biblical teaching so that they might save themselves.

[00:40:10]It was clear, though, that the future held nothing but further compromise if they gave in.

[00:40:17]It looked as though all was lost, and Rome would eventually simply demand that all Lutherans renounce their faith and return again to the false and damning doctrine of that church.

[00:40:28]Melanchthon and his followers were even willing to accept the Augsburg Interim's compromise on the doctrine of justification, hard as that is to believe, allowing it to state that we're not saved by grace through faith alone, but that justification is in part based on a person's renewal and life.

[00:40:49]Thus, the teaching was a total denial of everything Martin Luther had struggled and worked so hard for. So, get this idea, folks.

[00:41:00]Military force was being used to make the churches knuckle under and accept ceremonies which might in themselves be neutral, but when demanded by the enemies of the gospel, cease to be neutral at all.

[00:41:18]So, throughout Germany, Charles and his Italian and Spanish troops enforced this Augsburg Interim brutally. Cities that did not accept it were deprived of their liberties.

[00:41:29]Constance fell after a courageous defense, and it was annexed to Austria.

[00:41:34]Magdeburg resisted the armies of Charles the longest, and it was outlawed three times.

[00:41:40]It was never conquered. Its citizens sent their response to Charles, "We are saved neither by an interim nor by an exterum, but by the word of God alone."

[00:41:53]Pastors who refused to follow the regulations of the Augsburg Interim were removed from office. They were banished.

[00:42:00]Some were imprisoned, and some, yes, were executed.

[00:42:05]In Swabia and along the Rhine River, some 400 pastors went to prison rather than agree to the Interim.

[00:42:11]Thus, some were exiled. Some of their families were killed or died as a result.

[00:42:16]Jacob Sturm of Augsburg presented a list of grievances to the local Roman bishops who responded, "If necessary, one might proceed against heretics also with fire."

[00:42:27]Sturm responded, "Indeed, you may kill people by fire, but even in this way, you cannot force their faith."

[00:42:36]Some preachers actually left for England, but even still, the Interim was not accepted widely like the emperor and the pope hoped. They thought that the Lutherans would just cave. And when that didn't happen, they then had a big, big problem. What's Charles going to do? Is he going to slaughter, you know, half the population who will not knuckle under to this? What's the best way to do it?

[00:43:01]Most fascinating to me in this whole story is what happened with Elector John.

[00:43:07]Listen to this.

[00:43:08]He quietly but firmly refused to accept the Interim for his land.

[00:43:13]The emperor offered to lift the sentence of death on John Frederick, but again, he refused. The elector said, "I would rather lose my head and suffer Wittenberg to be battered down than submit to a demand that violates my conscience."

[00:43:30]Can you tell he's been hanging with Luther and informed by by Lutheran preaching?

[00:43:35]Charles realizes what is a particular dangerous situation it is. He really wants John to knuckle under, but the more he kept the pressure, you know, rising on John, the more he remained steadfast. Hence, the title John the Steadfast, right? He says, "I cannot refrain from informing your majesty that since the days of my youth, I have been instructed and taught by the servants of God's word. By diligently searching the prophetic and apostolic scriptures, I have also learned to know, and this I testify in the sight of God, unswervingly to adhere to my conscience to this, that the articles composing the Augsburg Confession and whatever is connected therewith are the correct, true, Christian, pure doctrine, confirmed and founded in the writings of the holy prophets and apostles and of the teachers who followed in their footsteps in such a manner that no substantial objection can be raised against it."

[00:44:39]I mean, he is absolutely convinced.

[00:44:42]Standing with the Augsburg Confession, he is standing with the word of God. He will not yield.

[00:44:48]In response to this letter, Charles ordered that uh they removed the Bible and all of Luther's writings from John Frederick's room, and John Frederick responded that they were able to deprive him of his books, but they could not tear out of his heart what he had learned from them.

[00:45:07]Well, as things are really getting bad, Melanchthon thinks maybe there's some better way to compromise, and so there's another Interim that's proposed, the Leipzig Interim.

[00:45:19]If you will, it moved the dial back on a few things, but it still essentially met all the demands that Rome had. And by now, especially the Christians in Magdeburg, centered around Flacius, they are furious with Melanchthon. They want nothing more to do with any more compromise with Rome. They are simply not They're ready to die rather than to have their faith walked back down, if you will.

[00:45:46]And uh ironically, in the darkest hour, the man who had betrayed them, Maurice of Saxony, ends up flipping and going back against the emperor and forcing the emperor to actually then settle and make peace with the Lutherans. This he did in 1555, the Peace of Augsburg, and it sort of settled the the matter that in the Roman Empire, depending on what your prince was, cuius regio, eius religio. The one who has the rule, he has the the right to say what the faith is there. So, you're either Lutheran or you're Roman Catholic, and if you were saying you're Roman Catholic, then you had to peacefully permit the Lutherans to leave your territory and move to a Lutheran-friendly territory, and vice versa.

[00:46:33]So, you think that's the end of it? No, because then the big controversy still remained. Is it ever okay to compromise with people who demand that church practices that have been laid aside as not useful or inconvenient, that they must be restored? So, the introduction which the uh uh Concordia gives to the particular We're talking about Article 10 now. I'm going to look here at the epitome first.

[00:47:04]This article addresses matters that scripture neither commands nor forbids.

[00:47:09]Adiaphora is a Greek word. It does not mean that something makes no difference or that it doesn't matter.

[00:47:16]In certain situations, keeping practices or omitting them can be a grave obstacle and offense to the gospel and may even lead to its contradiction and denial.

[00:47:28]This article contains a key insight that agreement in doctrine and all its articles is necessary for church fellowship, not complete unity in external practices.

[00:47:43]This is no bare minimum approach to church teaching or fellowship.

[00:47:48]It explains and interprets Article 7 of the Augsburg Confession. I would also add Article 15, which refers to the gospel rightly and unanimously preached according to the pure understanding of it. This article has in view territorial churches, not simply individual congregations, when it talks about making changes in churches' ceremonies. Therefore, Article 10 is not properly used if it is used to justify diversity in the worship practices of congregations in the same church or area.

[00:48:25]At the time the Formula of Concord was written, there were groupings of pastors and congregations known as consistories. The consistory would agree on particular order of worship rites, ceremonies, and other practices. The superintendent of the consistory, among his other duties, would be responsible for assuring that pastors and congregations were using the agreed-upon church order.

[00:48:52]Martin Chemnitz, for example, was the superintendent of the consistory of Braunschweig, and we should add, Chemnitz and Andreae worked together on the church order for that territory. So, what that introduction in Concordia is trying to do is head off this notion that you can use Article 10 of the Formula of Concord for every single congregation and every single pastor to go off half-cocked on their own way doing their own thing. That was never the context or intention of the article, and that needs to be heard. And again, hold it with AC 15.

[00:49:29]It's not denying anything taught there.

[00:49:32]So, let's dig into the actual article itself.

[00:49:36]A disagreement has also arisen among the theologians of the Augsburg Confession about ceremonies or church rights that are neither commanded nor forbidden in God's word, but have been introduced into the church for the sake of good order and fitting use.

[00:49:53]The status of the controversy, the chief question has been about a time of persecution like we've just been talking, and a matter of confession even when the enemies of the gospel have not reached an agreement with us in doctrine.

[00:50:10]Can some abolish ceremonies which in themselves are matters of indifference and are neither commanded nor forbidden by God be reestablished by the pressure and demand of the adversaries without harming our conscience? May we compromise with them in such ceremonies and adiaphora? To this question, one side said yes, that's the group around Philip the Philippus, and the other no, that's the Neo-Lutherans gathered around Flacius.

[00:50:42]So they go through and let the the the word of God sort of determine how we're going to treat this. First of all, for settling this controversy, we unanimously believe, teach, and confess that some ceremonies or church practices are neither commanded nor forbidden in God's word, but have been introduced only for the sake of what is fitting and in good order. Such rights are not in and of themselves divine worship. They're not even a part of it. Matthew 15:9 says, "In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."

[00:51:19]So this is a very clear statement right from the start that affirms what we already heard back in AC 7.

[00:51:28]These things are not If it's a humanly devised ceremony in and of itself, that is not part of the divine worship by which God imparts the forgiveness of sins and strengthens men's consciences against the terrors of their conscience.

[00:51:41]That's not part of the same thing.

[00:51:43]Next paragraph, paragraph two. We believe, teach, and confess that the community of God The Latin here says the churches of God in every place or as it is in Latin, in every land and at every time according to the circumstances has the power to change such worship ceremonies in a way that is most useful and edifying to the community or to the churches of God.

[00:52:13]Again, the context, territorial churches.

[00:52:17]They have the authority to regulate their ceremonies inside of them. We don't have that sort of a setup here in the United States, but if you were to apply it to the situation in which we find ourselves here, it would not be like districts, it would be like the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod as a whole could regulate ceremonies. That is something that is permissible by the confession.

[00:52:40]And in that she can add or take away from those ceremonies. So the next thing that's said is, "Nevertheless, all frivolity and offense should be avoided in this matter. Special care should be taken to exercise patience toward the weak in faith."

[00:53:04]You got to love the pastoral care and concern of the Lutheran symbols. They are very, very clear that people can be scandalized by how we address and deal with this issue.

[00:53:19]Therefore, we should be very careful and cautious when we're dealing with the regulation of church ceremony, and we should take great care to be patient with those who are weak in faith.

[00:53:33]Somebody who believes that something that is not actually commanded by God, it would be a sin to omit it, we need to be aware that that is something that we need to deal with that person's conscience very kindly and carefully like Paul does in his epistles.

[00:53:48]Next, we believe, teach, and confess that during a time of persecution Remember what I just described, military defeat, the government imposing the Roman ceremonies again on the Lutheran churches.

[00:54:03]When a plain confession is required of us, we should not yield to the enemies in such matters of adiaphora, for the Apostle has written in Galatians 5, "For freedom Christ has set us free.

[00:54:15]Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

[00:54:19]He also writes in 2 Corinthians 6:14, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness." And by the way, that passage is used repeatedly in the Lutheran symbols to describe our brothers and sisters in the Roman Church, particularly the Roman hierarchy.

[00:54:39]Also, note Galatians 2:5, "To them we did not yield in submission even for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

[00:54:50]For in such a case, it is no longer a question about adiaphora, but it concerns the truth of the gospel, Christian liberty, and sanctioning open idolatry, which is what they thought Rome was clearly practicing in the sacrifice of the mass.

[00:55:05]It also concerns the prevention of offense to the weak in faith. In such a case, we have nothing to concede.

[00:55:13]We should plainly confess and endure what God sends because of that confession and whatever he allows the enemies of his word to inflict on us.

[00:55:23]Boom.

[00:55:24]They don't name Melanchthon.

[00:55:26]The whole genius of the Formula of Concord is that it refuses to name the people, it names the positions.

[00:55:34]And it's like, "Those who upheld this position need to repent because when the enemies of the gospel are requiring you to do something that is contrary to your freedom in Christ, you must stand firm against it." Again, we're talking about military force trying to make the churches restore all the Roman ceremonies.

[00:56:01]Then, we believe, teach, and confess also that no church should condemn another because it has more, less, or more outward ceremonies than the other.

[00:56:13]For these are not commanded by God.

[00:56:15]This is true as long as they have unity with one another in the doctrine and all its articles and in the right use of the holy sacraments. The introduction highlighted that line, in the doctrine of the gospel in all of its articles.

[00:56:34]This practice follows the well-known saying, "Disagreement in fasting does not destroy agreement in faith."

[00:56:42]So if we are 100% aligned with another church with its teachings and they don't have the same amount of ceremonies we do, big whoop.

[00:56:52]It doesn't matter. What does matter is that we actually have agreement in the doctrine with all its articles. One of the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession is Article 15, that we retain these humanly devised ceremonies that can be retained for the benefit of the church. Not that we Not that there can't be adjustments, that is not what is being said, but it is a doctrinal statement of the Lutheran Church that we retain those humanly devised ceremonies.

[00:57:23]It marked us from the beginning. We were not like the Reformed who ditched everything that was not specifically mandated in the scripture. From the beginning, Lutherans only removed things that were contrary to the scripture and retained the bulk of the the liturgical heritage of the Western Church. Now listen to the negative statements cuz this also is very helpful.

[00:57:44]We reject and condemn as wrong and contrary to God's word when the following is taught. One, the human ordinances and institutions of the church should be regarded as divine worship in themselves or part of it.

[00:57:55]Okay, no Lutheran believes this, no Lutheran ever should believe this. If it is a human ceremony, no matter how venerable and beautiful it is, in and of itself, that is not divine worship.

[00:58:08]Two, when such ceremonies, ordinances, and institutions are violently forced upon the community or churches of God as necessary contrary to Christian freedom, which Christian freedom which the church has on these outward things, that is condemned.

[00:58:24]Absolutely condemn forcing by military power the observance of certain ceremonies.

[00:58:32]Three, in a time of persecution and public confession, we may yield to the enemies of the gospel in such adiaphora and ceremonies or compromise with them, which damages the truth. In other words, in the time of persecution, your What really matters is that you stand up for the truth of the gospel. You do not yield to what the enemies are demanding on this. And four, when these outward ceremonies and adiaphora are abolished.

[00:58:59]This is what we condemn. When they're abolished as though the community of God, the church of God, were not free to use one or more ceremonies in Christian freedom according to circumstances as may be most useful at any time for the church. So the ceremonies can increase, they can diminish. The church actually governs this in a bigger way than individual pastor and congregation.

[00:59:22]And in this way, we maintain the freedom of the gospel and yet at the same time, we do not embrace the revolution of the radical reformers.

[00:59:35]Pastor Will Weedon is assistant pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, Illinois. He formerly served as director of worship for the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. He's author of the books Celebrating the Saints, Thank, Praise, Serve, and Obey, See My Savior's Hands, and I Remember a Life of Mary.

[00:59:51]He hosts the daily 15-minute verse-by-verse Bible study produced by Lutheran Public Radio called The Word of the Lord Endures Forever.

[00:59:58]Well, thanks. Thank you.

[01:00:00]Thursday on Issues, Etc., we'll begin a series on understanding difficult Old Testament passages with Dr. Reed [music] Lessing, and we'll look forward to Sunday morning according to the three-year lectionary discussing Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life in John chapter 14.

[01:00:14]I'm Todd Wilken. Thanks for listening.

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