Thoughts of Humiliation and Prayer - St. Luke 13:1-5

The simple truth is, not all of us become the men we once hoped we might be.
But we are all God's creatures.
If there be any among us who thought ill of Mister Hollom,
or spoke ill of him,
or failed him in any respect of fellowship,
then we ask for your forgiveness, Lord.
And we ask for his.

- Jack Aubrey, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

I will never forget the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. Truth be told, at the time, I did not think too much or care too much about it. It was seven years ago today, and I was a student at the seminary. I was newly married, and the fall quarter had just begun. I had too many other things on my mind to pay that much attention to what the LWF was doing.

The reason I will never forget the signing of JDDJ is because Matt Harrison preached that week at chapel. By the end of the sermon, it became a day of humiliation and prayer for all of us. Harrison called the seminary - really, the entire LCMS - to repentance. We had not cared enough to speak up beforehand. We had not loved them enough to go to any length to dissuade them from their chosen theological path - though we believed it wrong and dangerous to the souls of millions of people. We had not done enough even to try to prevent the tragic event of that Reformation day when the LWF officially sold whatever was left of its Lutheran soul to sleep with Rome on Justification. We in the LCMS had sinned in our silence, our indifference, and our lack of love.

Even though we took no part in the events of that day, we may not stand by and count ourselves innocent. Any self-righteousness which we might muster is smashed by the understanding that even our best and holiest deeds will always fail to break the dreaded oppression of sin. No one may stand boasting in his own decisions, in his own words or deeds before God. Such righteousness crumbles and dies when confronted by the strict demands of God's holy Law. We live alone before God by His mercy.

Events of the past few days have reminded me of that sermon, and the movie quotation above pretty well summarizes my understanding of a godly reaction on our part to such things: Repentance. (See also St. Luke 13:1-5.) The simple truth is that we all have sinned in this matter, and that we are all guilty. We have thought ill, have not thought enough to say anything at all, have not pursued every effort to "restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness". We have failed in our fellowship of humanity, to say nothing of our fellowship in the Gospel, in Christ and His Church.

I pray for forgiveness.

May Almighty God have mercy on all our souls through His Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen