How Can We Ensure That Gospel is Being Delivered: On Ministry of Word and Sacrament

What Do We Mean By “Ministry of the Gospel”

God does the gospel (“good news”) speaking: declaring all of creation free from sin, death and the power of evil in and through the person of Jesus Christ.

The ones who hear this speaking, this voice of liberation (the “Word of God”) are called church. They are the “called out ones,” not an improved status of humanity but an auditory tribe.

Church, then, simply speaks what it hears (Jesus Christ: the ancient church said it simply as “Jesus is Risen” and “Jesus is Lord”) and does so to the world singularly and continually.

We call this speaking the “ministry of the gospel” (where “gospel” is subjective genitive, it expresses the subject of the verb “ministry”) where the service work (ministry) is done by the gospel to the world. The church declares what God declares. Indeed, as in “church is the body of Christ,” the church embodies what God declares.

But what is it that keeps the church being and doing gospel so that the gospel can actually be the good news that God declares to and in the world? Who or what keeps the church accountable to the good news?

God keeps the church accountable and actually being good news by spoken words (“Word”) and visible words (“Sacrament”). This declaration (spoken and visible words) is the “ministry of the gospel” (where “gospel” is objective genitive, it expresses the object of the verb “ministry”) where the service work (ministry) is done to the gospel. This ministry of the gospel ensures that the declaring community (church) gets liberation from sin, death and evil by God (gospel/promise) rather than attempts at liberation of the same by human effort of belief or behavior (law/demand).

We call this “ministry of the gospel,” that is gospel as objective genitive, “Word and Sacrament Ministry” and it is position, an Office, that is entrusted to a person to enact. This person is called a “Word and Sacrament Minister,” “Pastor,” the person who holds the Office that works to ensure the gospel is delivered to the church so that the church can deliver it to the world.

Where Do Word and Sacrament Ministers (aka Pastors) Do Their Work in and to the Church?

These days (as perhaps in all days) there are not enough Pastors to serve every congregation of the church. Historically, the church has handled this disparity by having a Pastor serve multiple congregations and by licensing, authorizing, Laypersons to Preach but not to Preside (thus enacting one of two of the expressions of gospel: spoken word (preaching) but not visible word (sacrament).

This, it seems to me, is where the church’s normal activity, the allowing of Lay Preachers but not Lay Presiders, gets fuzzy if not just plain wrong. Often today, in practice, the Lay Preacher is not someone trained and licensed to preach, but rather someone faithful to Christ and good, or at least comfortable, with public speaking (or not!).  The church allows the “authorized leader” to preach but not to preside? They deliver the spoken Word but not the visible Word? Not only does this leave the “spoken Word” (sermon) situation vulnerable to deficiency, which is bad enough on its own, but it also creates an artificial if not arbitrary understanding and use of authority.

Excursus on Enlivening or Deadening Sermons

Allow me to take an excursus on the part about the sermon being deficient. All preachers have good days and bad days.

Seriously Bad Days

On seriously bad days, not only is the delivery poor and the content less than interesting, but this key thing happens that is deadly: the listener walks away with a pattern or suggestion of a pattern of life actions (lifestyle changes, behaviors to improve, beliefs to stop or begin) instead of being freed, liberated, of all wrong-doing and, more importantly,  wrong-being (the traditional term for this is “forgiveness of sin”) as well as being freed, liberated from any requirement for life reform. And all of this liberty happens because of and in Jesus Christ, not life reform.  In traditional theological language what I am describing here that happens in seriously bad preaching is the listener receiving Law alone and not Gospel as well. And, importantly, to correct this, the Gospel that comes must not be within the framework of the Law but must be outside and beyond the Law (see Stephen Paulson’s Luther’s Outlaw God Vols. 1,2 and 3 for this critical distinction and application to today’s preaching task).  For a long time now I have argued that any chance today of renewal in the church, the church getting any traction in this environment of huge decline of interest and attendance, is through theological hutzpah and integrity, not worship style or music changes nor social or educational or other programming. And the correct positions on social justice, as beneficial as that is, will not be what keeps church going. And, even as the church membership numbers dwindle it won’t even be a martyrdom mentality that closes ranks, that so often works in saving groups or organizations, that will be the vitality for the church. It has always been and will still be whether gospel happens, and not law. Promise, not demand.

I have shared this elsewhere:

“What passes as ‘good news’ in most church life today is not ‘news’ at all: the religious bent of all persons (that is to say, our innate need to self-justify and self-create by taking action, belief or behavior, to ensure personal safety and security in the face of the divine and the unknown) is simply honored and encouraged rather than, well, to be blunt about it, destroyed. In most church life the message is not new – it’s the old yarn of taking on things, here being Jesus, to improve our station and lot. It’s the story of us being the Subject and the Center who must appropriate knowledge and ethic so as to then move forward, improve. This is nothing new.

 We hear this message in every sector of life – from science to the humanities. The religious machine that we each have running in all sectors of life is this: “take this on, believe this = everything will be alright, or at least improved!. We come to recognize this ‘religious machine’ better when we see the fuel that we use to feed it: physical fitness, financial growth, intellectual prowess, vocational appropriateness or correctness, emotional balance and interpersonal/social completeness.”

(Just What is the Gospel Anyway? 2023)

In each of these sectors or areas of life we live out the ‘hero’s journey’ of falling and self-actively (and if necessary, calling on divine assistance) getting back up for the victory.

If all we hear and get from a church service and the sermon therein is another dose of how we can make a better effort, however humbly (and, of course, achieving that humility is another thing for us to do), at doing the best we can to love and serve God, we have lost the game and might as well just close up church shop. Frankly, I can get that same message and experience in a Yoga class and I would personally much more enjoy it there.

Somewhat Good/Somewhat Bad Days

On Somewhat Good/Somewhat Bad Days the preacher provides a word that liberates (Yes! Thankfully!) but the delivery is poor and the content dry. By the way, give me one of these sermons any day over the Seriously Bad Days where I walk away with more Law and no liberty.

Seriously Good Days

On Seriously Good Days, the Preacher provides liberation all delivered with great communication skills and lively language and content. That, my friends, is a good day.

The Continuum of Seriously Bad to Somewhat Bad/Somewhat Good to Seriously Good….and Stretch that Out to include Seriously, Seriously Bad

It’s a continuum, from Seriously Bad to Somewhat Bad/Somewhat Good to Seriously Good. But I think there is one more live-point on that continuum, and, as I think of it, stretches the continuum out a bit more by being the starting point for the Seriously Bad. Let’s call it the Seriously, Seriously Bad. It is this: it’s the sermon that is delivered with excellent communication skills and lively content, human interest stories that connect with life’s experiences and project for us all the wonderful possibilities and blessings available to us when and if (key aspects!) we align ourselves with God.  This is the sermon where the rot creeps in silently, much like mold in the wall that you cannot see, or the wolf that wears the sheep’s clothing. The listener is momentarily, perhaps even through lunch-time, motivated and elevated and uplifted to be and do greater things, even if such a humble thing as trust God more once again. These sermons are a dime-a-dozen, even if the great communicators are not. But, when you put them together, the up-lifting God who will bring you glory if and when you bring God the glory along with the Motivational Speaker/Preacher, what you’ve got is pure magic. And the people will flock. And they do. That being said, since it is, literally, pure magic, the luster will fade just like after lunch, later in the day, we need dinner too. It all works, in other words, until it does not. The divorce happens, the business fails, the war destroys.

Or, less dramatically but even more devastatingly: the worrying and speculating of whether you belong to God and God to you, returns. There is just no end to the wondering of what will become of us.

Back to the Big Picture of Both Preaching and Presiding

We see, then, not all Preachers are going to be at the top of their game every sermon. By making sure the Preachers are authorized (trained and called by the church) doesn’t ensure a Seriously Good sermon every time nor even a Somewhat Good sermon every time. But it should vaccinate against the virus that is inveterately present: telling the story of what we can do and should do. Rather than telling the story of what God does (then, now, always), this personal can do/should do story is all too easy to tell and is the easiest to tell and when the Preacher is lazy or never quite got the difference between Law and Gospel pounded into his or her head in the first place, happens all too often.

Why is it that when such high stakes of whether we actually get any Good News, any liberation, happens, we let down our guard and don’t provide the proper protection? Why do we let unauthorized (trained/called) Preachers preach?

Let me speculate a moment. Perhaps it’s because, at the root of it, we don’t believe what we say we believe not only about CA Article 5 but also the heart of it all, CA Article 4. 4, of course, insists on justification being done to us and not by us. 5, then, provides the means for getting 4 done. Without a straight up acceptance of 4, we fudge a bit, and sometimes alot, and believe any story or accounting of how important or vital our agency or action is in relationship to God to be the doing of our salvation. And then, because the difference between Law and Gospel is muddled, it’s hard to see why anybody trained and placed (called) into position to deliver the Gospel must be there to deliver the goods. Any good, uplifting and motivational story will do.

And why do we try to be (but often are not) strict about ensuring an Ordained Pastor physically preside at the Eucharist? Perhaps because we believe what Luther most clearly did not: that what happens at the Words of Institution is some kind of “hocus-pocus” magic, call it consecration, that can only be enacted by one who has a special essence, a kind of holiness. In fact, Luther argued the bread and wine remain those substances (no molecular or other substantial change) and the Presider is to ensure we know the saving action that takes place is not in the bread and wine but in the giving and receiving of the promise of God that comes with the bread and wine. The Presider is there to authorize that there is no magic happening here, only (!) a life-giving promise with certainty. By insisting we have a Clergy-Person be Physically Present at the Distribution of Communion, and especially doing so without also insisting we have a Clergy-Person delivering the Sermon, we encourage the notion, the understanding, that the Eucharistic elements aren’t Eucharistic unless they have an uncommon touch of a special person from that person to the Meal rather than being Eucharistic because of the uncommon direction of the meal: God to Us.  Yes, the Clergy-Person needs to authorize the Eucharist, but doing so means declaring the eating and drinking of Jesus Christ and Promise as holy and not the bread and wine as holy. And “holy” means here that it’s all from God to us, not us to God. And, not surprisingly, this has some significant community ramifications.

You recall that in 1 Corinthians 11 the Apostle Paul got on the case of the Corinth congregation for doing the Communion wrongly. How so? Excluding some people, not treating everybody the same way. In today’s congregations we can set up barriers to including all people at the Table. The Clergy-Person is there to ensure that those barriers are removed. In circumstances where a Clergy-Person cannot be physically present to Preside, such authorization that an upcoming Eucharist would be “Gospel-Centered” or “Gospel-Delivered” could and should be a statement from the Clergy-Person be read aloud that states the Bread and Wine are given by and from Jesus Christ and that there are no barriers as to who can come to the Table to receive. The statement should be revisited and made before every Eucharist celebration. There should not be some “carte-blanche” statement by a Pastor that covers weeks or months at a time. The Clergy-Person should authorize each Eucharist separately so as to ensure a contemporary oversight of the delivery conditions. Too, the Eucharistic Prayer in the Liturgy itself can be adapted to state the authorization by the Pastor. There need not be nor should there be some special visit by the Clergy to the Elements before the Service (on a previous day, for example) at which time the Words of Institution are spoken over the Elements. This is “hocus-pocus” at its best, or worst.

A person should be authorized for both Preaching and Presiding, not one over another. And that authorization should have oversight (episcope = oversight) and involvement by those who do the authorizing. And, when the authorizing one, Bishop’s Office and/or Word and Sacrament Minister is on site and available to serve the congregation, they should do both the spoken Word (preaching the Sermon) and visible Word (presiding at Communion).

In some congregations now where a worship attending and available ordained pastor in the Assembly on a given Sunday (or any worship service) steps in only to recite the Communion’s Words of Institution what actually happens is this artificial authority and misleading action spoken of above. It is also this: an unintentional sense of stratification of persons in the Assembly. When a Clergy-Person steps in to deliver the Words of Institution alone, the worship leader’s seeming, if not actual, leadership value in the community is or seems diminished.

Rather than the ordained person in the Assembly delivering one thing, Communion, but not the other (Sermon), this ordained person (or another ordained person previously assigned) should be delivering both or authorizing both.

But how, practically speaking, can this be done?

When a visiting or worship-attending ordained pastor is in the Assembly on any given worship day/gathering and the Worship Leader is aware of this presence, the Worship Leader should make the request to the visiting Pastor to preach and to preside at the Eucharist. It is, of course, imposing on the visiting or attending clergy to expect them to preach without preparation and it is a neglect of appreciation for the sermon preparation already done by the Lay Worship Leader. Some accommodation must be made for this. Including this consideration in a public statement should suffice.

When there is no ordained pastor present in the Assembly and no plan for one has been made, then the standard procedure spoken of above, of making a public statement of how the Word and Sacrament’s delivery are being sanctioned, should be made. This, and, the congregation and Bishop should provide for the oversight, review, teaching and mentoring of each sermon preached by the Lay Worship Leader.

All of this “administration of word and sacrament” should be stated publicly each time the Assembly gathers for worship.

Something like this could be stated as part of the Worship Notes and Announcements:

“Our congregation, in accordance with our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) doctrine and policy, practices ‘Word and Sacrament Ministry.’ This means that an Ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament (trained and called by the Church at Large, the ELCA) is welcomed and needed in order to declare and deliver to us the Good News of Jesus Christ. If and when we are aware that one of our Synod (or Ecumenical Partner Churches) Pastors are attending worship they are invited to Preside at Communion, but in order to respect the sermon preparation done by our Worship Leader and to respect not imposing on the visiting/attending Pastor to preach without preparation, the visiting/attending Pastor will not be requested to preach. That being said, because our Worship Leader (XXX Name Here) is not an Ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament each of their sermons are reviewed and mentored (after the delivery) by an ordained Pastor in our Synod, authorized by the Bishop, and (XXX Worship Leader Name Here) currently and consistently is involved in directed professional development study for preaching.”

A Concluding Word

I remember distinctly a day I sat in Daily Chapel at Seminary (Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, OH) way back in the late ‘70’s/early ‘80’s when my revered Professor and friend Dr. Walter Bouman was preaching and he said one particular thing about Luther and the Reformation that was so clearly singular and comprehensive that it caught my attention right at that moment and has always stayed with me. Walt said something like this:  “for Luther, the reformation of the church was always and finally a pastoral concern.” What Walt was describing was that all of the intellectual prowess and academic erudition and reform of corrupt practices that Luther brought to bear up against Scholasticism and the political control of the Papacy all boiled down to a deep and abiding matter of the heart: people were getting hurt, emotionally and spiritually, not to say also physically and politically, because they were not getting Gospel. People were getting hurt because they were not getting Gospel. What was happening then, is, and perhaps ever since then, happening now. But we don’t live then, and we don’t live in the time between then and now. We live now. And we can do something about it now.