When you turn wise human arrangements into divine commands, you obscure God’s Word and confuse Law and Gospel.

At the extreme end of this kind of mistake, we end up falling foul of Jesus’ warning in Mark 7:7 (quoting Isaiah 29:13):

in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. (Mark 7:7)

The difficulty is that human traditions are often grounded in God’s commands and may have good reasons behind them. So they can easily turn into commands of men by stealth if you are not very, very careful.

Jesus commands us to gather around his Word and Sacraments. This is what the church is. And from the earliest times the church developed wise ways of doing this Sunday by Sunday.

At Manchester Lutheran Church, on Sunday mornings, we use a simple, modern English service modelled closely on the simple German form of service that Martin Luther used in Wittenberg. We use it because it’s helpful. But we don’t have to use this, because the church has no command from Christ about what exactly to do as we gather around Word and Sacraments, so we have flexibility. One of our possible future plans is to introduce a simple evening service with very little liturgy, if that would help us reach and serve people who might not attend on Sunday morning. We have freedom to do that.

Aside from what a church service looks like, another way people can often turn human arrangements into divine commands is by claiming that only a particular form of public ministry—that of a local congregational pastor—is a valid public call. On the surface this seems like a minor quibble. But it is the symptom of a deep problem that is very serious, even if the symptom itself sometimes presents as minor and almost insignificant.

Luther rightly understood the distinction between divine command and human wisdom when he described the church’s right to call someone to the office of public ministry:

But the community rights demand that one, or as many as the community chooses, shall be chosen or approved who, in the name of all with these rights, shall perform these functions publicly. Otherwise, there might be shameful confusion among the people of God, and a kind of Babylon in the church, where everything should be done in order, as the Apostle teaches [1 Cor. 14:40] (Luther’s Works 40:34)

It is the community who chooses this person, or these people. Even though their call ultimately comes from God, that call is mediated through the church. The church, therefore, exercises discretion not just in who to call, but also in the shape and structure of their call. Luther understood this, and so elsewhere does not restrict himself to only naming parish pastors when he describes people with a proper public call:

Fifth, the church is recognized externally by the fact that it consecrates or calls ministers, or has offices that it is to administer. There must be bishops, pastors, or preachers, who publicly and privately give, administer, and use the aforementioned four things or holy possessions in behalf of and in the name of the church, or rather by reason of their institution by Christ, as St. Paul states in Ephesians 4 [:8], “He received gifts among men …”—his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some teachers and governors, etc. The people as a whole cannot do these things, but must entrust or have them entrusted to one person. Otherwise, what would happen if everyone wanted to speak or administer, and no one wanted to give way to the other? It must be entrusted to one person, and he alone should be allowed to preach, to baptize, to absolve, and to administer the sacraments. The others should be content with this arrangement and agree to it. Wherever you see this done, be assured that God’s people, the holy Christian people, are present. (Luther’s Works 41:154)

For Luther, the issue he had with Roman Catholic bishops was not that they were bishops—it was that they were departing from the Gospel and not serving the goal of proclaiming Law and Gospel clearly.

A church can have bishops or not. It can have itinerant preachers or not. It can have a permanent congregational pastor, or a circuit of pastors. Someone can be called to perform a narrower role to serve others with the Word: for example, teaching particular groups, preaching in particular settings, or serving people whom a parish pastor cannot adequately reach alone. (And other roles may support that ministry without themselves being forms of the public ministry, but this is not quite in focus in today’s post.)

The church needs to consider carefully how it shapes these calls and responsibilities. It is certainly wise for a congregation to appoint someone to the traditional role of parish pastor. But the church has no command from God saying that every proper public call must take precisely that form.

The important thing is that the church entrusts the public administration of Christ’s Word and gifts to called servants in an orderly way. The precise titles, responsibilities, and practical structure of those calls may vary according to the needs of the church. By serving faithfully with God’s Word, these called servants stand in continuity with the offices of the apostolic era. As Luther says:

Now, if the apostles, evangelists, and prophets are no longer living, others must have replaced them and will replace them until the end of the world, for the church shall last until the end of the world [Matt. 28:20]. Apostles, evangelists, and prophets must therefore remain, no matter what their name, to promote God’s word and work. (Luther’s Works 41:154)

This freedom is not given so that churches can chase novelty or treat good order lightly. It is given so that Christ’s Word can reach real people in their real circumstances. The church must ask how it can faithfully bring Christ’s forgiveness to the people God has placed before it—and then call the servants needed to do that work.

The substance does not change. Christ still gathers his people around his Word and Sacraments. The forms of service may vary, but the purpose remains the same: that sinners hear the Gospel, receive forgiveness, and are strengthened in faith.

Manchester Lutheran Church gathers in Christ’s name each Sunday. Come and hear Christ’s Word publicly preached, receive his forgiveness, and be strengthened by his Sacrament. Join us at 10:45am for coffee and 11:00am for the service: https://mcrlt.ch/sundays/

If you live outside Greater Manchester, you can gather online with the Confessional Lutheran Church every Wednesday at 6:00pm to hear Christ’s Word and receive his forgiveness alongside Christians from across the country and beyond: https://lutheran.ch/online-service/