Luther wasn't a real pastor. . . back by popular demand

The things that a pastor must endure today are things that many clergy and especially those of a previous era did not have to deal with.  Can you imagine what Luther would have said to a family upset with him or the fact that he did not have a praise band or screens or that the coffee was cold and the pews were hard?  Can you imagine what Luther might have said in response to a family withholding their tithes and offerings until the changes they want were introduced?  Can you imagine how Luther might have responded to the threat that they were heading down the street to a big box evangelical church that had a better youth sports program or better technology for online viewing?  Can you imagine the things Luther would have said to a family who was going to vote to reduce your salary or take away health insurance because it was costing the church too much?  Can you imagine what the result might be if Luther had been told soon after his call to a congregation that's not the way we do things around here... we have our own liturgy, our own creed, our own etc....?

Luther was not a real pastor in the sense that we pastors are today who must function within the confines of congregations that want to vote more on the Word of God and the faithful practice of our Confession than they do the important things that are within their realm of vocation.  Luther was not a real pastor in the sense that we pastors are today who must take a deep breath and think how we are going to respond to people accustomed to getting their own way by the strategic use of their offerings and the never spoken but ever present threat to leave and head down the street to a more flexible church and confession.  Yet the reality is that we deal with these things on a weekly and sometimes daily basis.  Far from the pandemic being the chief stressor to burn out the clergy, it is more often the daily demands of a calling that has suffered more under the presence of a social media than it has gained -- all balanced with the responsibilities to wife and family.  

Let me say this.  Most congregations are wonderful and supportive and understanding and encouraging.  I am privileged to have counted on that from the parishes I have served (though it is a relationship which is not automatic, must be cultivated, and also depends upon the pastor being faithful).  But the reality is that the squeeze of dollars, patience, pressures, preference, and choice have made the calling of pastor much more difficult in many ways.  I am glad that I am not serving when horse and buggy were the height of technology and the median mode of travel but I also believe that the pace and expectations of the people and of pastors were different.  I cannot imagine Luther having to put up with some of what the times have dumped upon us -- at least not without a fight.  But these are the times in which we live.  

God never promised that the way would be easy -- only that HIS burden would be light.  He never pledged to us a scenic journey along a broad boulevard -- only that Christ would cut the narrow path and be with us every step toward eternity.  We long ago bought into the satanic lie that the work would be satisfying, rewarding, and easy and it would come with tangible victories that saw progress in the battle for geography.  But it was never a battle for territory and always for the soul.  We long ago began to think that the Word of God was not sufficient and it had to be supplemented with programs (that had only a marginal association with the Word) -- so now we should complain that people bought into the lie we told them?  We long ago decided that statistics would define our success and not faithfulness and so we adopted business methods to go along with our business expectations.  We long ago began to think of people more as consumers of religious goods and programs more than the faithful, born of baptismal miracle, gathered by the Word, absolved in the stead of Christ, and fed and nourished to eternal life with Christ the true manna.

Luther had a different battlefield but it was the same battle.  Ours is, too.  We need to let go as much of our false dreams and expectations as we let go the complaints and demands that come to us.  It was and is always about Christ, His faithfulness to count on and our faithfulness to return.  It is the same on both sides of the altar rail.  Yes, we all love to complain but we cannot complain that God has let us down.  He is faithful.  He will do it.  It is from this that faith and our vocations proceed.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it -- on this Anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession!