"We are no longer what we were"

By David S. Luecke

 “ ‘We are no longer what we were!’ That, my beloved brothers and sisters, is what I want to shout deep into your hearts today on our day of repentance and through which I want to wake you up to turn again through God’s grace to earnest love and to serious, fervent zeal.”

So C.F.W. Walther began his sermon to his congregation, Trinity, the mother church of the LCMS. It was delivered on the annual Day of Repentance in 1870, 32 years after the founding of this colony of German immigrants, on the text of Galatians 5:7.

That sermon has fresh relevance to the modern-day church body he founded. Apparent to all is that the LCMS is no longer what it used to be. Lack of dollars is an obvious yet superficial symptom of decline.

It’s a Spiritual Problem

In his message to district conventions this summer, President Gerald Kieschnick chose the theme “Setting Hearts on Fire.” He cited many statistics that reflect a church body in a declining trend. We are a smoldering fire. The only options are to die out or catch fire. It is time to fan the flame of the LMCS.

Where to begin? We need to start with recognition that we have a spiritual problem. We Lutherans confess that the flame of faith and love is fanned by the Holy Spirit. How are we blocking the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives, our congregations and our church body?

Walther’s Wisdom

First, Walther defines the reference point for deciding whether a congregation (or synod) has gone forward or backward. He said, “Everything hinges on how things stand, first, in respect to faith in God and, second, in respect to love to the neighbor. For just as only faith and love make a Christian into a genuine Christian, so these two parts alone make a congregation into a genuine congregation.”

Among other evidence of decline, Walther observed, “Has not the zeal to win souls practically died out among us? Has not brotherly admonition almost entirely vanished? Does not ‘backbiting and evil speaking’ against brothers and sisters rule in almost all of our meetings”?

What’s the cause? “We have changed the Gospel through misunderstanding and misuse. . . The thought has crept in: I indeed believe; therefore I am righteous and will be saved even if I have never been converted to God and I remain a saved Christian even if I do not live in daily contrition and repentance.”

Repentance

What should we do? According to Walther, “The first thing our situation demands of us is that we do not deny, but that in deepest humility we admit it before God and men. The most awful thing in God’s kingdom of grace on earth is not the sin, the sickness, the fall, but the denial of sin, the excusing and palliation of it, self-justification, hard heartedness and obduracy in sin.”

Here is Walther’s action step: “Oh, let us therefore today above all appear before the holy God as a fallen congregation in genuine contrition and repentance. Let no one shove the blame on another, let no one exempt himself from the culprits; let every one come before God today as the guilty member of a congregation. Let us all as one person say to God: ‘Lord, we have sinned and done evil before You; we have wantonly despised Your grace; we have fallen.’”

Rebirth

The hope Walther held forth then is the same we have today. “Oh, if today as one person we return to God repentant and believing, this day will be the day of the rebirth of our congregation and a time of new visitation of God’s grace, and new, great blessings will dawn upon her.”

Walther’s sermon can be found in Selected Sermons of C.F.W. Walther, translated by Henry Eggold, CPH, 1981, pp 155-163.