"To Husbands and to Wives" (Luther's Table of Duties)

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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

 

Lent is a season of repentance as we reflect on why our Lord died on the cross for us. But Lent is also about catechesis, because Lent is a catechetical season.

 

Tonight, we continue to make our way through the Christian “house rules” on how we deal with each other. These “house rules” serve as our groundwork on our Lutheran worldview of vocation. These vocations are the duties or responsibilities that we each owe to our neighbor.

 

As a reminder: Luther’s intention in including the Table of Duties was to serve us as our guide – the Third Use of the Law – in how we ought to live in this world and what is our duty to one another. But as it always is, when the Law is at play, we often hear the Law as its Second Use – mirror, because the Law always accuses, but again, the primary use and focus of the Table of Duties is to encourage us as we live out our lives in the various vocations that God has placed you and I in.

 

Tonight, we will focus on the first of the Three Estates: family, as we consider the next two pairs in the Table of Duties: “To Husbands” and “To Wives.”

 

We live in a strange world. Much of our strange world would fit in episodes of “The Twilight Zone.” Just imagine you have entered into a world that says men and women are the same. Just imagine you have entered into a world where a man can decide that he is a woman, and a woman can decide she is a man and everyone acts as if this is the way things have always been. These appear like stories from “The Twilight Zone.” But this is our strange world, our fallen world.

 

Today, in this Twilight Zone-like world, it is asserted that men and women are completely interchangeable, and so marriage can occur between a man and a woman, or between two men, or between two women, or even among throuples.

 

The basic idea that men and women are the same has been the focus of feminism in this fallen world. But reality has a way of not cooperating. The truth is that men and women are not the same. Men are physically stronger than women. Men and women are different. 

When children feel ill or are injured, who do they turn to practically every time? Their mom. It’s because women are naturally better at nurturing and comforting than men. Because, again, men and women are different.

 

Men and women are different, because God created men and women to be different. God first created Adam. And then God said, “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18). A woman complements the man. They are not the same, because a woman corresponds to the man in ways needed to serve as a helper to him. The ultimate proof that men and women are not the same is that the one flesh union of man and woman is necessary to produce the outcome of marriage – a child. 

 

God’s Word describes an ordering to the creation of man and woman, to husband and wife. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11(:8-9): “For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.”

 

Woman was created for man. Woman was created for man, as the helper corresponding to him. The fallen world may not want to hear this, but this is a fact grounded in creation itself.

 

These facts of creation – this order of creation – then determines how husband and wife relate in marriage. In Ephesians 5(:22-24), St. Paul writes, “Wives, submit to your husband as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, His body, and is Himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.”

 

Luther cites this “Wives, submit to your husband as to the Lord” as of first importance in his section on “To Wives.” He also includes “They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear” from 1 Peter 3:5-6.

 

To the fallen world, they hear words like “submit” and “submission” meaning inequality, or that women have less worth or less value than men.

Yet, this exact same language is used of the relation between God the Father and God the Son. In 1 Corinthians 15(:28), St. Paul writes, “When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be all in all.” And what do we confess about the triune God? We confess that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are coequal.

 

For St. Paul, submission does not mean a relationship where one side gives and gives, and the other side takes and takes. You see, husbands and wives are to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21).

 

But God did give us an order. The husband is the head of the household, and the wife is to be her husband’s co-equal helper. He, the provider. She, the nurturer. But so often, we don’t see it that way. And we don’t see it this way because of sin.

 

After the Fall into sin, God said to Eve in Genesis 3(:16), according to the New Living Translation: “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.” Since the Fall, woman finds herself drawn to men who act in self-serving ways. And since the Fall, women also strive against men, competing for the headship that contradicts their own creation. 

 

We all act this way. Selfishness and pride. Husbands and wives act in selfish ways that put themselves before their spouse. Men abuse the headship position to get what they want, when they want it. Women subvert the headship to get what they want.

 

Guided by culture of feminism, many women disparage motherhood and instead seek to act like men. And men bought the same lie as so many fail in their own responsibilities of being a husband. 

 

When we see the ways we fail to live in God’s order of creation in marriage – and confess our sin, always know that there is forgiveness in Christ. And it is in Christ that we find the ability to live in God’s design for marriage. The Holy Spirit who has regenerated us and given us faith, moves us to live the life of faith in our marriages. This is why Luther included the Table of Duties, so that Christians could better care for each other.

 

The Table of Duties lists “To Husbands” first, and rightly so. Man has been created for headship in marriage and family. And the conduct of this headship is modeled after Christ. St. Peter writes in 1 Peter 3(:7): “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as your live with you wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.”

 

It is true that the wife is weaker, but the husband is to live in a way that reflects the knowledge of what God has done for both of them in Christ, and of the gift the husband has received from God in his wife – as his helper. The husband is to honor his wife and recognize the unique status they share together and that they are co-heirs of God’s saving grace.

 

Luther also includes a passage from Colossians 3(:19) addressed to husbands which reads: “Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.”

 

And this should not be forgotten, for after St. Paul’s brief statement about wives, he writes in Ephesians 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” This sacrificial love of Jesus Christ for His Church is the pattern that is to guide the husband’s behavior.

 

If tonight’s sermon is hitting you hard, seek forgiveness through Christ’s blood and merit and seek forgiveness with your spouse. Remember, Luther’s Table of Duties isn’t intended to be gospel, but as our guide, so that we would be encouraged as we live out our daily vocations.

 

Certainly, men and women are different. Thank God for that! God joins husband and wife together as one flesh. Husband and wife are ordered in marriage in a way that reflects God’s creation of Adam and Eve – the first husband and wife. Uniquely distinct from one another, husband and wife each are needed for marriage and family to be the blessing God has given. Through the Holy Spirit, the union of husband and wife in heart, body, and mind support each other through mutual companionship as they love, honor, and strengthen each other through sickness and in health. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

 keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.  

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +

"To Government & Citizens" (Lent Midweek 2 - Luther's Table of Duties)

The Sounding the Scriptures POPcast is available on Spotify and Apple: click here.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

Lent is a season of repentance as we reflect on why our Lord died on the cross for us. But Lent is also about catechesis, because Lent is a catechetical season.

 

Tonight, we continue to make our way through the Christian “house rules” on how we deal with each other. These “house rules” serve as our groundwork on our Lutheran worldview of vocation. These vocations are the duties or responsibilities that we each owe to our neighbor.

 

As I said last week, first a word of warning: Luther’s intention in including the Table of Duties was to serve us as our guide – the Third Use of the Law – in how we ought to live in this world and what is our duty to one another. But as it always is, when the Law is at play, we often hear the Law as its Second Use – mirror, because the Law always accuses, but again, the primary use and focus of the Table of Duties is to encourage us as we live out our lives in the various vocations that God has placed you and I in.

 

Tonight, we will focus on the third of the Three Estates: government, as we consider the next two pairs in the Table of Duties: “Of Civil Government” and “Of Citizens.”

 

As we ponder this third estate, we are reminded that Christians are not anarchists. We believe that fallen man requires an earthly government. Luther, himself, has said that it is better to live under a tyrant than to live under an anarchy where there is no order, no predictability, and therefore no stability. So, the government has a claim on us. 

 

Today is March 4. Besides the news in the Middle East, if you turn on your television or listen to the radio or podcast, or wander through Walmart, you are quickly reminded that it is tax season. It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Well, it is if you like numbers and filing and stress and seeing your money vanish.

 

Paying taxes is one of the most direct ways that we experience the topic of these two pairings from the Table of Duties that we consider tonight. On one hand, these pairings are very straightforward. But they also confront us with challenging questions – questions that the Christian faith answers in ways that are different from the fallen world.

 

Luther provides only one Scripture text for the topic “Of Civil Government” and it’s likely that’s all that we will need. In Romans 13(:1-4), St. Paul writes, “Let every person be subject to the government authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.”

 

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, St. Paul says in a straightforward manner that governing authorities have been instituted by God. God is the one who has provided them. And since God put them there, to resist the governing authority – the civil government – is to resist God Himself.

 

You see, the role of the civil government is simple. It is to restrain wrongdoing and is to maintain order. St. Paul adds, “For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger to carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer”(Romans 13:3-4). Paul, here, is describing the civil government as “God’s servant.”

 

Civil government exists for one reason and one reason only. Civil government exists because of sin. Civil government exists because it is the means God has established to restrain and control evil. Because when given a chance, sinners will do terrible things. That is why God established civil government.

 

Again, the government is God’s servant. But what about when the government rejects what God has commanded? The government can be in the wrong when it overreaches the authority of its estate. An example of this is if the civil government would command things that are contrary to God’s will, such as commanding how the Church worships, and to that, we will say, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). And when that happens, we are called to suffer for the truth.

 

We must also remember that St. Paul wrote the Book of Romans during the reign of Roman Emperor Nero. So, if Christians were to be subject to Nero, an unstable man who had Christians burned as torches to light up the night, we are to be subject to all who are given the civil authority over us. Even with all his flaws, at least Nero kept order in the Roman Empire.

 

So, there is good reason why Luther included “good government” among the blessings of daily bread, because life without government is a frightening thing. Again, it is better to live under a tyrant than under an anarchy where there is no order.

 

But no government is free. It may appear that government is able to grow money from trees, but that money is paid for by our tax dollars. So, every government costs money. “Therefore,” Paul writes, “one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, … Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed” (Romans 13:5-6a, 7). In saying this, St. Paul was only repeating what Jesus had taught in Mark 12:17: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”

 

So, like it or not, government is a great blessing from God. And its main vocation is to restrain sin. And so, Paul said in 1 Timothy 2(:1-3): “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior.”

 

When you were baptized into Christ, you were made a part of the royal priesthood of God’s people. As part of this priestly service, our vocation is to pray. And this is what we do at each Divine Service as we pray for our civil authorities each week. But this vocation isn’t just limited to our time together in this space as we are to pray for God’s enlightening of our civil authorities as a part of our daily lives.

 

During this season of Lent, we follow our Lord as He makes His way to the cross and empty tomb. He goes to the cross as the perfect sacrifice for our sin. By His death, He has won for us forgiveness. By His bodily resurrection, He has won for us eternal life.

 

Civil government is a great blessing from God. It restrains sin and allows us to live in peace. Our vocation is to obey the government, pay our taxes and pray for those who govern us. Yet, when the government acts unjustly, or when it commands things that violate God’s will, we are called to follow our Lord in entrusting ourselves to God in the midst of suffering. We do this knowing that all authorities have been instituted by God, who has given us forgiveness, life, and salvation through Jesus’ blood and merit. Amen.

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

 keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.  

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +

"The Table of Duties: To Pastors and Hearers" (Lent Midweek 1)

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To Read Luther's Table of Duties, click here.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

Lent is a season of repentance as we reflect on why our Lord died on the cross for us. But Lent is also about catechesis, because Lent is a catechetical season.

 

When one thinks about Luther’s Small Catechism, one often thinks of the Six Chief Parts: (1) The Ten Commandments, (2) The Creed, (3) The Lord’s Prayer, (4) Baptism, (5) Confession, and (6) the Sacrament of the Altar. That is usually where one stops. Six Chief Parts. Good to go!

 

But what if I told you that there were sections at the very end of Luther’s Small Catechism that often goes unnoticed. Did you notice that something was missing? Well, at the conclusion of the Small Catechism, Luther places three more sections: Daily Prayers, The Table of Duties, and Christian Questions with Their Answers.

 

When I went through catechesis – that first time when I grew up in the ELCA, I thought this pamphlet contained the entire Luther’s Small Catechism. But upon further inspection, this pamphlet did not contain the Table of Duties and Christian Questions with Their Answers. However, I can give Augsburg Fortress a pass on one of them, since Christian Questions with Their Answers was not published until after Luther’s Death. But I do find it rather odd omitting the Table of Duties.

 

But I can’t just go after the ELCA, since the LCMS hasn’t been perfect in including the entirety of the Small Catechism either. Although the LCMS has always included the Table of Duties in its publication of the Small Catechism, it has not always been included in our hymnals. 

 

In my research through my LCMS hymnals, the first hymnal to include the Small Catechism was not the beloved red TLH, but the blue Lutheran Worship, but even with that publication, the Table of Duties was missing. Thanks be to God that the maroon LSB has included the entirety of the Small Catechism.

 

Beginning tonight and throughout these Lenten Midweeks we will look at that second of the last three parts of the Small Catechism: The Table of Duties.

 

So, what’s the importance of the Table of Duties? Well, for Luther, the Table of Duties were just as much of a part of the Small Catechism as the Six Chief Parts. For the Table of Duties describe how the faith, that was created and nourished by the Six Chief Parts, prays and lives. When Luther put the Table of Duties together, he was trying to teach what the Christian life looks like and how it is structured around our daily vocations.

 

These Table of Duties could be described as the Christian “house rules” on how we are to deal with one another. You see, Christians have holy orders, or vocations, that are created by God in which we all live. These vocations are the duties or responsibilities that we each owe to our neighbor.

 

Each of the vocations described in the Table of Duties are applicable to us. And Luther’s intention in including them was to serve as us the Third Use of the Law – our guide – in how we ought to live in this world and what our duty is to one another. But as a word of warning, when we hear of these vocations described to us in the Table of Duties, the Second Use of the Law will be in play, because the Holy Spirit always uses the Law to accuse us. The Second Use of the Law – mirror, is not Luther’s intention, but the Law always accuses, but the primary focus of the Table of Duties is actually that of encouragement.

 

You see, the Table of Duties serves us as a reorientation so that we would return to our first love, to what God has established and the orders that He has given. And order is so important in the Bible. The worst thing a person can be called in the Bible is to be lawless, that is, to be without order. And “order” means that things are actually predictable.

 

As human beings, we live in three estates that often overlap, but they are also unique from each other. The first of these three estates is the family. Out of the family comes the Church (The Second Estate) and the government (The Third Estate). 

 

But in order to understand these Three Estates, God has created various vocations, or callings. He instituted vocations in life that we occupy, and God uses these vocations to care for others. The Table of Duties is divided up according to these various vocations, or callings.

 

Tonight, we will consider the first pair in the Table of Duties: “To Bishops, Pastors and Preachers” and “What the Hearers Owe Their Pastors.”

None of the Means of Grace just happen on their own. The Means of Grace require a pastor. This is why God has instituted the Office of the Holy Ministry. This is the vocation into which all pastors are called. It is God’s Office. No one can take this Office for himself. Instead, God must call men through the work of His Church, through seminary education and the churchly Divine Call. And God tells us the requirements for the Pastoral Office as we heard earlier in 1 Timothy 3: “The overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive” (1 Timothy 3:2-4).

 

And no pastor is perfect, just as no one is perfect, except for one: Jesus Christ. For all Christians live by faith in the forgiveness that Jesus won by His death, bodily resurrection and ascension. Yet, as those who shepherd Christ’s flock, pastors are held to a higher standard. This is why St. Paul cautions “He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:6).

 

As your pastor, my Holy Office is to attend to the work of Word and Sacrament ministry. But this work takes place in the world. So, Luther adds “What the Hearers Owe Their Pastors.”

 

St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9(:14): “The Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.” Paul adds in Galatians 6(:6-7): “Let the one who is taught the Word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”

 

Just like laypeople, pastors and their families also can be tempted to want more daily bread. We, like, everyone else can covet what others have. Pastors can complain that they don’t receive more, even when God is providing what He has promised. But at the same time, congregations can look to get pastoral care “on the cheap.” There are congregations that are stingy with supporting their pastor. But where there are congregations who faithfully provide for her pastor, such as here at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, I give thanks to God that so many people are moved by the Holy Spirit to act in generous giving through their faith in Jesus Christ, who always provides for all our needs of body and soul.

 

St. Paul also makes it clear that the pastor is not to speak of his own ideas or his own opinions. Instead, Paul instructs pastors in Titus 1(:9) that “[pastors] must hold firm to the trustworthy Word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” So, pastors must teach what is true and correct what is false. 

 

Again, the Office of the Ministry is not man’s office, but God’s Office. So, we must always remember how the pastor came to serve in that place. I did not put myself here. God placed me here, working through His Church as you gave me the Divine Call to proclaim God’s Law and Gospel and His Means of Grace in this place.

 

The writer to the Hebrews wrote: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Hebrews 13:17).

 

As we live in a world that is becoming more and more like the first century world, we have a pressing challenge that faces both pastors and their hearers alike. Will pastors be willing to continue proclaiming the truth of God’s Word? Will pastors continue to proclaim that Christ alone is the way to salvation? Will pastors continue to teach the Ten Commandments as God’s Commandments and not just God’s suggestions? Will pastors continue to condemn the taking of a life – including the unborn and elderly? Will pastors continue to teach against sexual immorality?

 

For hearers, will you be willing to hear, believe and accept these Biblical teachings, even when it pertains to a family member or close friend?

 

This is a great challenge that faces both pastors and hearers. But we do not face this challenge on our own. Instead, we face these challenges secure in the knowledge that Christ who was crucified on Good Friday, rose on Easter. The risen Lord, through the Holy Spirit, enables us to live in the confidence of His bodily resurrection knowing that because He rose, we, by faith in Him, will also rise! 

 

Because of Jesus’ atoning death and bodily resurrection, He causes us to live differently from the unbelieving world, because He has called us out of this dark world and into His marvelous light! Jesus gives us eyes to recognize His Church as the place where His forgiveness reigns and the place of life everlasting. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

 keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.  

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +