A Sermon for Gaudete on the Stewardship of Closing the Altar by Rev. Evan Scamman

The following rather courageous and pointed sermon was preached at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Greenwich, CT on Gaudete December 17, 2023 by their pastor, the Rev’d Evan Scamman.

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Each of the Scripture readings today concerns the office of the Holy Ministry by which God sends out His messengers with a specific task. From the Gospel of Matthew: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You” (Mt 11:20). From the Prophecy of Isaiah: “The voice said, ‘Cry out!’ And he said, ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever’ ” (Is 40:6, 8). And from the first Epistle to the Corinthians: “Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful” (1 Cor 4:1–2).

Many Christians suffer from the mistaken idea that the pastor is an employee of the congregation. After all, it is the congregation that prepares the call documents and issues them to the new pastor. And the congregation’s name is on the checks that the pastor receives as compensation for his labor. In the eyes of the world, the call documents look like a contract, and the relationship between pastor and congregation looks like that of employee and employer. But it is not so. A pastor does not have a contract. He has a call. And the call is not from the congregation; it is from God. Yes, God uses human means to issue His call, just as He uses human hands when He baptizes, but it is God alone who calls His messengers and sends them to labor among His flock.

How should Christians regard their pastors if not as employees? St. Paul answers, “Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” A steward is a man under authority. If we were to use more modern terminology, we might say that a pastor is a manager within God’s enterprise. A manager doesn’t set company policy. He doesn’t make the rules. Instead, as a man under authority, he must faithfully carry out the directives of the owner. And his words and actions will be judged according to that standard.

St. Paul continues, “Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful” (1 Cor 4:2). God requires His stewards to faithfully perform the task to which He has called and appointed them. And what is this task? “Behold, I send My messenger before Your Face, who will prepare Your way before You.” These words were spoken of John the Baptist, a faithful pastor who fulfilled his mission to prepare the way for Christ. John’s sole task was to be able to point to Jesus and say, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Jn 1:29). But before he could point to the One who removes sin, John was required to point out the sin that needed to be removed. What’s the point of a Savior if no one needs saving?

The voice said, ‘Cry out!’ And he said, ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.’ ” So John cried out. He called the people to repentance. He named the religious leaders a brood of vipers. He confronted king Herod for sleeping with his brother’s wife. And what did his faithfulness get him? A one-way ticket to king Herod’s dungeon. Herod said to John, “You are my subject. You are my employee. I call the shots. I write your paycheck. I tell you what you can and cannot say! I am the one who judges you.” Not so. St. Paul writes to the church of Corinth, “Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. He who judges me is the Lord” (1 Cor 4:2–3, 4b).

Now, let’s be very clear. These words do not give pastors a license to sin against the flock and then flippantly say, “Don’t be judging me. I answer to God alone.” This is not a Get out of Jail Free card. “He who judges me is the Lord” is a potentially terrifying prospect. It is a burden, a yoke that is placed upon the necks of pastors. This is the purpose, by the way, of the stole that the pastor wears around his neck. It’s a reminder that he serves under orders from God, and he will be held liable for his stewardship. “Not many of you should become [pastors], my brothers,” writes St. James, “for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1).

This is what keeps me up at night. Yes, like any pastor, I want the members of the congregation to like me. I care about my reputation. I don’t like to be the subject of gossip. No one does. And yet, compared to my fear of God, who will require me to give account for the souls entrusted to my care, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. What keeps me up at night is the knowledge that I will stand before God and give an account for my stewardship. And what will the praise of men matter on that day if I have been unfaithful to my calling? It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

St. Paul writes that pastors are stewards of the mysteries of God. Mysterion is a Greek word. The Latin equivalent is sacramentum. This verse teaches us that pastors are stewards of the Sacraments, the Mysteries of God. Pastors are stewards, not owners. Stewards don’t make the rules. They act and speak as they are commanded. A pastor is entrusted with guarding and distributing the Lord’s Supper, but it is not his supper. It is the Lord’s Supper, and it is our Lord Christ who commands us in the Word of God not to eat and drink His Supper unless we are united in doctrine. This means that, however much you may rightly desire to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, you cannot receive it from the altar of a church that does not share our confession of faith. We are not united in doctrine with the Church of Rome. We are not united in doctrine with the so-called “Evangelical Lutheran Church of America,” the ELCA. We cannot lie and pretend that unity exists where it does not. Conscience forbids it. Scripture forbids it. Our Lord forbids it. Closed Communion is, and always has been, the practice of the faithful Christian Church from the time of the Apostles until the present day.

Now, if you’ve received Holy Communion at a foreign altar in the past, God isn’t angry with you for that. He’s not looking to punish you. You didn’t know any better. You hadn’t been taught. That’s why God calls and sends pastors, to teach what the Scriptures say about these things. It’s why we have Bible Study after church and on Wednesday nights. It’s why I’m happy to meet privately with anyone who has questions about the way we worship and the things we believe. No faithful pastor would ever take pleasure in turning someone away at the communion rail, yet it is sometimes necessary: either when a person doesn’t share our confession, or when he is living in present, unrepentant sin. I am not permitted to deal with the Sacraments according to what makes people happiest. As a steward I must administer the Mysteries according to the command of Christ. A pastor must speak all the words God has given him to speak, no matter how unhappily they may be received, no matter what dungeons may await him.

However, I can tell you with absolute certainty that Christ and his faithful ministers will never turn away a repentant sinner. There is no past sin that could ever prevent you or any member of this congregation from being joyfully received at this altar—only present and stubborn unrepentance. As the psalmist writes, “A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Ps 51:17). When a sinner comes before God with a repentant heart, no matter how grave the sin, the steward of the Mysteries must faithfully deliver this message and no other, “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins.”

Jesus said to the disciples of John the Baptist, “Go and tell John the things which you see hear and see: the blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Mt 11:4–5). This is the purpose for which Christ calls and sends His ministers into the Church: that deaf ears would be opened to the truth, that blind eyes would behold the light of Christ, that sinful lepers would be cleansed of all iniquity, and that the poor in spirit would have the saving gospel preached to them. John’s disciples asked Jesus, “Are you the Messiah, the One we’ve been waiting for, the Savior of the world?” And they might also have been thinking, “And is this ragtag group of sinners your Church, your spotless bride?” Yes. Go and tell John. Where the gospel of Jesus is taught in its truth and purity, there is the true Church. Where the Sacraments are rightly administered by faithful stewards for the forgiveness of every sin, there is the spotless bride of Christ. Go and tell John. For where the bride is, there also is the Bridegroom. Where the Church is, there also is her Maker and Lord. Amen.