1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Faithfulness in preaching God’s truth – on the part of those whom God has entrusted with this duty – is often not rewarded in this life or in this world. We recall the story of Jeremiah the Prophet, who in God’s name condemned the sins of the rulers and people of Judah, and warned that the temple and the nation would be destroyed if they did not repent and reform.
The priests and “court prophets” responded with threats to Jeremiah’s life: “This man deserves to die! For he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.”
The killing of Jeremiah on account of what he had said, ended up not happening. But the necessary repentance and reform didn’t happen, either.
Jeremiah was ignored. Before too many more years had elapsed, Judah was conquered by Babylon, the temple was destroyed, and the people were carried away into captivity.
John the Baptist, who figures prominently in today’s Gospel from St. Matthew, was likewise a devoted preacher and teacher of God’s Word whose faithfulness was not rewarded in this life. Today’s reading finds him in prison, sending messengers to Jesus.
The reason why he was in prison, is because he had condemned the adulterous relationship that King Herod Antipas was engaged in with Herodias, the estranged wife of his brother. John the Baptist, who was – in effect – functioning as Herod’s pastor, did not demand that he abdicate.
But he did call upon Herod to repent of this immoral relationship and to bring it to an end. What happened instead – after the events described in today’s account – is that John was beheaded, at the instigation of Herodias.
In today’s lesson from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes, in reference to himself, Apollos, and Peter:
“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.”
Elsewhere, in his Epistle to Titus, Paul again uses the word “steward” in describing the nature and character of the ministry of a pastor or spiritual overseer in the church. To Titus he writes that a bishop or overseer, as “a steward of God,” must be someone who is “holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.”
The term “steward” was ordinarily used in the first century Greco-Roman world, as the title or job-description for a man who was the highest-ranking member of the service staff in a wealthy person’s home. The steward oversaw the other staff, and was in charge of managing the resources, supplies, and property within his employer’s household.
Among his primary duties was making sure that there was enough food for everyone in the house, and that the food was high-quality food. St. Paul is picking up on this imagery when he links the work of God’s stewards – in the household or family of God – with the congregation’s need for sound spiritual nourishment.
With reference to today’s text from First Corinthians, Luther said that Paul is referring to “all apostles and all heirs to the apostolic chair, whether Peter, Paul or any other.” He went on to explain that “The word ‘steward’ here signifies one who has charge of his lord’s domestics,” and he points out that the word – in Greek – signifies
“one capable of providing for a house and ruling the domestics. … Now, God’s household is the Christian Church – ourselves. It includes pastors and bishops, overseers and stewards, whose office is to have charge of the household, to provide nourishment for it and to direct its members, but in a spiritual sense. …the stewards of God…provide spiritual food and exercise control over souls. Paul calls the spiritual food “mysteries.”
The word “mystery” in Greek refers to something that is real yet hidden. A murder mystery, for example, is a book or a movie in which someone is killed, but the identity of the killer is hidden, until Inspector Poirot or Jessica Fletcher figure out who committed the crime, and reveal what had been hidden.
In the context of the Christian faith, the “mysteries of God” are the sacraments, or more broadly the means of grace. What is seen is the simple earthly elements of water, bread and wine; and what is heard is the ordinary sound of a human voice. But what is hidden within these sights and sounds is the power of God to forgive sins and to regenerate sinners.
The Holy Spirit is working through the washing of water with the Word. The body and blood of Christ, which were shed and sacrificed for our salvation, are truly present in the bread and wine.
And God himself is speaking through the voice of the preacher who consecrates a sacrament, or who proclaims to God’s people the Biblical message of law and gospel. The Apology of the Augsburg Confession – with its own unique translations – quotes from First Corinthians and also from Second Corinthians, when it says that
“a minister who consecrates shows forth the body and blood of the Lord to the people, just as a minister who preaches shows forth the gospel to the people, as Paul says, ‘This is how one should regard us, as ministers of Christ and dispensers of the sacraments of God,’ that is, of the Word and sacraments; and…, ‘We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.’”
In commenting on St. Paul’s Epistle to Titus, Luther expands on what the duties of a bishop or pastor are, especially in regard to how God’s Word is to be taught and applied. He says that
“A bishop – that is, a minister of the Word – …is the steward to whom the Lord has entrusted everything. If a bishop thinks about his calling, he sees that he is a bishop by the rite, the oracle, and the command of God; and, secondly, that he has in his hand the possession and the property of Christ. What is that? It is the Gospel and the sacraments.”
“He has been appointed a minister of the Word for this, that he should distribute these things…to his brethren – that is, that he should diligently preach the Gospel and administer the sacraments, instruct the ignorant, exhort the instructed, rebuke those who misbehave, moderating and tempering them by the Word and ministering to them with prayer and the sacraments.”
So that these mysteries can be present and active for the salvation of his people, God provides stewards of his mysteries to the church: by rite, oracle, and command. And when a church prays for its pastor, it is always to pray that he “be found faithful” – to quote today’s text once again.
A pastor’s faithfulness as a steward of the mysteries of God is properly measured by whether he consistently says what God wants us to hear, and not necessarily what we want to hear. Again, as Luther reminds us, God wants his called servants to be diligent in instructing the ignorant, in exhorting the instructed, and in rebuking those who misbehave.
When we sin, our old flesh doesn’t want the pastor – or anyone – to rebuke and warn us. Initially and reflexively we may chafe under such an admonition and lash out against it.
But there is also a new nature within us: a nature that God’s Spirit has birthed within us, and that lives on by the enduring power and grace of our baptism. That new nature welcomes these necessary rebukes and warnings, admits the fault, and rejoices in God’s merciful desire always to forgive us, to restore us, and to help us by his Spirit to amend our lives.
And it is indeed the pastor once again – as God’s steward and representative – who is the chief conduit of God’s forgiveness and restoration, when we do repent. The announcement of God’s forgiveness that he makes to you flows out from the cross and empty tomb of your Lord.
He channels what Jesus would say to you. Or more precisely, what Jesus would say to you, Jesus is indeed saying to you through the pastor’s lips.
To the ministers whom he sends forth to preach in his name, Jesus says: “He who hears you, hears me.” Your pastor is a steward of the absolution that Jesus instituted for his church and for the world, when he told his disciples: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.”
And when he exercises that stewardship according to the Lord’s will, he becomes the mouthpiece of Christ for penitent sinners. It is therefore Jesus – your crucified and risen Redeemer – who speaks to your heart and conscience, saying: “I forgive you all your sins.”
All Christians have the Word of God, not only for themselves, but also so that they can share it with others in private conversations and personal interactions. All of us can admonish and comfort our neighbor. We can assure our neighbor of God’s love and forgiveness, and remind our neighbor of God’s willingness always to help and guide those who pray and seek his help.
The sacraments, however, are special institutions of the church, and their administration always has the church – the whole body of Christ – in view. St. Paul writes in First Corinthians that we were all baptized into one body; and that we are one bread and one body, for we all partake of the one bread of the Supper of the Lord.
And so it is the ministers of the church – the public servants of the gathered body of Christ – who are the stewards of those public mysteries, and who are responsible for making sure that they are administered according to the Lord’s Word and institution. That’s why our church teaches that when a layman administers a baptism in an emergency situation – which he should do – he thereby “becomes the minister or pastor” for the duration of that emergency.
Especially in regard to the most profound mystery of Holy Communion, the pastor is called precisely to be the steward: the overseer, the manager, the supervisor, the tester, the examiner. Paul tells us that “the cup of blessing which we bless” is “the communion of the blood of Christ,” and that “the bread which we break” is “the communion of the body of Christ.” And he warns that
“whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”
The stewards of this sacred mystery are not trying to read hearts or minds as they carry out the responsibility that God has entrusted to them. But it is their duty to make sure that communicants are able to examine themselves: through having been taught the meaning of these things; through having demonstrated that they learned what they were taught; and through having confessed that they personally believe what they learned.
A pastor will also have an ear and an eye open to what someone is still confessing, in word and deed: as a communicant or potential communicant gives evidence of his faith through what he says, how he lives, and where he worships.
An analogy might help to illustrate this. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety does not issue a driver’s license to every 16-year-old who thinks that he knows how to drive safely. The DPS allows on the roads of the state, only drivers who have been taught how to drive safely, and who have demonstrated in their road test that they learned what they were taught.
DPS officials are stewards of public safety on behalf of all the citizens and licensed drivers of Minnesota. They not only protect us from people who don’t know how to drive being behind the wheel; but they also protect those people from themselves, and from the danger that comes with their not knowing how much they don’t know about safe driving.
To an ever increasing extent, the beliefs and standards of the world in which we live – and of liberal religious groups that have compromised with the world – are out of step with the beliefs and standards of the historic Christian faith to which we still hold. Faithful pastors who help us to be faithful to our Biblical beliefs and standards – through the ministry of Word and Sacrament that they conduct among us – are certainly not honored by the world for this.
Instead, they are patronized on account of their supposed irrelevance, mocked on account of their supposed ignorance, criticized on account of their supposed intolerance, berated on account of their supposed judgmentalism, and condemned on account of their supposed hatred.
Make sure you stay on your guard against any temptations gradually to align yourself – spiritually and morally – with the world’s hostility toward God as he actually exists, and as he reveals himself in Holy Scripture. Make sure you never end up on the same side as those who called for the killing of Jeremiah, or instigated the beheading of John the Baptist.
The reading from First Corinthians that we heard today – regarding the stewards of the mysteries of God whom God places among us, and regarding the respect we owe to them – is the ordinary lesson appointed for the Third Sunday in Advent, according to the lesson series we use at Bethany.
It is providential that this was the appointed Epistle for the very day when you will convene as a congregation prayerfully to discuss your need for a new steward of God’s mysteries here, and when the men of the church will become the instruments of God in his sending of a new pastor to you.
Your prayers this day will most properly include a humble request that God will send you a steward of his mysteries, to serve God among you and to serve you in God’s name: by absolving, instructing, and communing you; by baptizing your children and any new disciples who are drawn to the Lord in this place; and by proclaiming to you and teaching you the whole counsel of God.
Your prayers this day will also most properly include a request that God would help your new pastor to be and remain faithful in all his work, and that God would guide and embolden him to be conscientious and careful in everything he does and says.
That would include his being diligent in instructing the ignorant, in exhorting the instructed, and in rebuking those who misbehave. That would also include his being diligent in bringing God’s comfort to the hurting, God’s pardon to the penitent, and God’s strength to the weak.
As you pray, you also want him always to turn to his Savior in prayer, before he turns to you in preaching.
And your prayers this day will also most properly include a resolve that, with the Lord’s help, you will strive always to listen to your new pastor when he teaches you from Scripture, and to support him when he acts among you in accordance with Scripture. And with the Lord’s help you will resolve to endeavor always to honor him for his faithfulness; for his diligence; and for his devotion to Christ, to the mission of Christ, and to the church of Christ.
The world will not honor him, but you will. And Christ, the Lord of the church, will bless both you and him as God’s Word continues to reign over you and within you, governing your thoughts, your words, and your deeds; shaping your faith and renewing your hope in Christ for everlasting life.
“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.” Amen.