Praedicatio Crucis Satis Est

I recently received an email from a pastor questioning the paradigm in the LCMS that places a high value on “preaching the Gospel” and wondering if that “were enough’ - especially in light of racism, “LGBTQ issues” and “global warming.”

Of course, as citizens in the Kingdom of the Left , we are all free to be as politically active as we believe is correct. We will come to different conclusions about controversial issues, and we will serve people in our congregations who may hold different views regarding social and political issues.

But we must not be tempted to go the way of the “Social Gospel” - as many well-intentioned liberal church bodies did in the 19th and 20th centuries. As a result of focusing on social and political issues, many such churches have gone apostate in their confession of Jesus. In becoming social service organizations, many of these churches lost the saltiness of their theology of sin and grace, not to mention their confession of the “life of the world to come.”

Regarding “LGBTQ issues,” there isn’t a lot of room for diversity among those who believe that the Scriptures are the very Word of God. Any expression of sexuality outside of monogamous opposite-sex sacramental matrimony is contrary to God’s design, and is sinful. It needs to be treated as such by pastors - even if it is uncomfortable and unpopular. The response to all sexual sin, whether heterosexual or otherwise, is to call the sinner to repentance - for that is the truly loving and accepting thing to do.

“Global warming” is a matter of disagreement in the scientific community, and of course, it is highly politicized. Any attempt to force a single point of view on this issue would require ecclesiastical tyranny and the use of force by our district and synod presidents - powers that they rightfully lack. Not even the Pope of Rome has such powers over his priests and parishes. We must agree to disagree on this issue - if it even is an issue.

But as for the first question about whether “preaching the Gospel” is “enough,” the question itself seems to assume the impotence of proclamation. According to our Lutheran theology, preaching is sacramental, it is efficacious, it brings the grace of God to the hearer in a supernatural way, creating faith, true saving faith, in the hearer - as we confess with St. Paul in Romans 10. To diminish the vocation of preacher and the divine power of the preached Word strikes me as indicative of the problem that led advocates of the “Social Gospel” in times past to reject the faith in exchange for social activism. It is no accident that the strongest “Social Gospel” denominations are often the weakest in their confession of Christ and critical doctrines like the virgin birth and the resurrection. Such churches almost inevitably reject the clear biblical teaching involving things like women’s “ordination” and homosexual “marriage” - as well as wandering from Scripture regarding abortion and the right to private property. It is fitting that St. Paul warned us to avoid preachers of “another Gospel” and consider them “accursed” (Greek: ἀνάθεμα) There is no “Social Gospel,” only the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified “for us men and for our salvation.”

As far as racism goes, it’s sinful to hate one’s brother for any reason, and it is indeed loathsome and sinful to hate people based on skin color. This really isn’t rocket science. And the church deals with this sin like any other sin - by calling people to repentance. But once again, the church is not a social studies class or a cultural sensitivity seminar. Unlike the world, we do not obsess over skin color. The Church transcends tribe and tongue. Sociology is not our main mission. Our mission is indeed the proclamation of the Gospel and the celebration of the sacraments to those of every tribe and tongue. And our preaching of the Gospel is sufficient when we preach in the broad sense of both Law and Gospel. Hatred of other people is sinful, and it is to be repented of. And it is a forgivable sin.

A much worse sin than racism is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the unforgivable sin, that is, unbelief. For this sin condemns. This sin is mortal. And this sin is rampant. This is the one sin that the church must truly engage in all times and places, and preaching the Word of God is the Church’s only response to this sin that is worse than racism by a magnitude of order.

Three years ago, a young college student, a self-described “intersectional feminist” came up to me and asked, “What is your church doing about racism?” I told her that I love all of my parishioners of every color and ethnicity, as my own family. I’m with them in good times and bad. I’m in the hospital with them. I’m at their deathbeds with them. I forgive their sins, and I share the body and blood of Christ with them. I asked her, “But do you want to know what we really do in the Church?” I answered my own question, “We raise the dead.” She seemed to have trouble processing that response.

This is what we do, Christians. We preach the life-giving Word of our Lord and Savior, who called Lazarus out of his grave. We distribute the Medicine of Immortality. We have the antidote to death itself. We raise the dead - not figuratively, but literally. And this eternal life that we offer through Word and Sacrament is available to all, for the sake of Christ, without regard to ethnicity or socio-economic status. It cannot be had by political activism or virtue-signalling, but rather only by the preached Word, by Baptism, by Absolution, and by the Eucharist.

And in our mission of raising the dead, all of the flotsam and jetsam of this fallen world with which people are obsessed, all these things take a back seat - even to the point of becoming eternally irrelevant. All of the things of this world are passing away. In the words of the old Carthusian slogan: “Stat crux dum volvitur orbis” - while the world turns, the cross stands firm. Yes, we are free to be involved in social issues and political activism. But we Christians - especially pastors - would do well to keep things in perspective. What is truly important - and potent, even to the point of raising the dead - is the preaching of the cross. Satis est.