Strongly in the Word

A Statement from The Office of the President
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
1333 South Kirkwood Road
St. Louis, Missouri 63122
United States of America

Being in the Word is the source and power for our life in Christ. Our Lord Himself showed us how vital being in the Word is when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. With each of the devil's tricks our Lord responded with the expression, "It is written." Jesus wants us to understand that the power for life as a believer is found in the Word of God. Our Lutheran fathers described the Bible as God's love letter to us in which He opens His heart to us.

But Satan wants to tempt us to ignore, to neglect or to otherwise overlook the Spirit-filled Word. He tries to cast doubt on the Word of God. In Genesis 3 Satan asked, "Did God really say...?" Confronting Jesus, Satan asked, "If you are the Son of God...?" The devil likes to sow the seeds of doubt whenever he can. And we need to realize that he tries very hard to do so. We need God's strong Word to help us to confront our doubts and believe His Good News. Satan will try everything he can to cause us to view the Word as being useless, unhelpful and yes, even view the Word as wrong.

The New Testament is filled with examples of people who either believed the Word or did not. We think of the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15) who went to Jesus for a blessing from Him and would not stop asking for this blessing. She clung to the Word of God. She was not content with a rule or a new law from Jesus, but she wanted to hear good news. As is stated in our Lutheran Confessions "Especially amid the terrors of sin, a human being must have a very definite Word of God to learn to know God's will, namely, that He is no longer angry (Ap. IV.262)." Thank God that we have this "very definite Word of God"-the Holy Scriptures.

Therefore, we, like the Canaanite woman, focus on our Savior and His Word. When we doubt the Word of God we stumble and fall. We think of St. Peter who, though strong in faith, could at times be so very weak. Peter was told by Jesus, during a raging storm on the sea, to "come" to Him. In that one little word, "Come," was all the power Peter needed. The Word of Christ alone accomplished what it intended, and Peter stepped out of the boat and walked toward the Master. But when doubts filled his mind, he started to sink beneath the waves. Jesus reached out to Peter, as He reaches out to us in our doubt, and pulled him back from certain destruction. That is how it is in our lives as believers. We cling to Christ and His Word, but the trials and tribulations of life sometimes pull our eyes off Him and His Word and we begin to sink, to slip and to fall. But our Lord reaches out once more and says to us, "Come." The good news of the Word of God is what we cling to, as did the Canaanite woman, and as Peter did when he started to sink.

How then do we apply this first point of the vision statement, "Be in the Word"? First of all, it is very important for us to realize that we must be in the Word for life. For it is the Word which is powerful. God the Holy Spirit works through this Word to bestow the very blessings which the Word describes. Jesus told His disciples, "You have already been made clean by the Word which I have spoken to you" (John 15:3). Christ's Word not only informs us about the forgiveness of our sins, it actually forgives them.

Since we believe and confess that God's Word has this power to forgive, we look upon ourselves as needy, sin-sick souls. The most important thing we look for in the Word of God is His love, mercy and forgiveness. This is why Christ is the heart and center of the Scriptures. As Luther once said, "Let him, then, who would study this Book make up his mind to look for nothing in it except...that the Son of God willingly and obediently became a burnt offering for us in order to appease God's wrath" (WA 48, 43).

Therefore, each of us needs to be in the Word daily-actually reading the Scriptures daily. The reason why I need to be in the Word daily is not so that I can do this or do that, but rather so that the Holy Spirit can pour into my life the precious blessing of the forgiveness of sins. And so for you. Each one of us needs daily to be in the Word, personally and purposefully, in order that we might receive the comforting forgiveness of sins. And so for our congregations. St. John's, Happytown, needs, purposefully, to be in the Word together as a congregation in order that it might be strengthened on the basis of the forgiveness of sins. This is what builds the congregation up. Not simply programs, but a purposeful "being in the Word" as a congregation, on Sunday mornings, during the week, in classes, at meetings, in private devotions, etc.

We are "in the Word" during our Sunday morning divine service. During the divine service we receive the Word of God. The Scriptures are read, sung, spoken and heard. The Scriptures are explained and expounded on during the sermon. The Word of God, connected with the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper, is what makes it possible for us to receive in this special meal the actual body and blood of our Savior. The focus again is not simply on gaining more information or hearing the laws of God, but on receiving God's forgiveness. That's why we go to church! That's why we are in the Word!

When it comes to personal Bible reading, the main reason for this is the same reason why we go to church: to receive God's forgiving love in Christ. Different Christians have different ways of reading the Word. Some may take a few chapters every day, others will want to read thematically or skip around a bit each day. But no matter how we choose to read the Word, it is important that we actually be doing this, daily. The plan we use is not nearly as important as is our need to follow a plan faithfully.

We need to challenge ourselves to be in the Word very purposefully as individuals and as congregations. Increased knowledge of God's Word is a wonderful blessing. We need to store up in our minds the Scriptural accounts of God's people and the stories of God's work among them because in the day of trouble, temptation and, yes, even in the moments of despair, it is the Word of God, stored up in our hearts, that the Holy Spirit will use to comfort us and give us strength.

When we turn to what being in the Word means for the Synod and districts, I cannot help but think back to our congregations. Our Synod was organized to help congregations. It later divided itself into districts, again in a desire to help congregations. The Synod and districts must realize that we exist to serve the congregations, not the other way around. We are a synod of congregations, for it is the congregation which is the divinely mandated form of the church, not synods and districts. The districts in turn are extensions of the Synod in a geographical area. They are not autonomous little churches on their own, but instead are the Synod in that place. Therefore, the primary focus of our districts and the Synod must remain on serving the needs of our congregations and professional church workers, who are on the "front line" of ministry.

Often when these points are made our first thoughts may drift over immediately to programs, resources and materials which the Synod and its districts can provide to the congregations. And this is an important function of both the Synod and the districts. But we need to dwell on something even more basic and even more important. The Synod and the districts need to view themselves as helping our pastors and congregations deliver the life-giving medicine of Christ's Word and Sacraments to sin-sick people. All that we do on the district and synodical level must be for the purpose of facilitating the Word and Sacrament ministry which is carried out by the congregations of our Synod.

The other day I received a letter from a brother pastor who told me how excited he was about this emphasis on being in the Word. He said, "We are a Bible-believing church, but I am concerned that we are not a Bible-reading church." My prayer for our Synod is that we are both a Bible-believing and Bible-reading church. For it is to the degree that we are strongly in the Word that our Synod will be the kind of blessing God wants us to be.