Is that a small thing?

It has been said that an appeal to church councils is not as much as some think.  In fact, Luther himself says as much in his work On the Councils of the Church (first section) and again in his Treatise to the German Nobility (written some 18 years apart).  He is defraying the position of Rome and the Pope as well as conciliarism in general by seeming to demean them for merely explaining and asserting what is already there in Scripture.  I get it.  He is right, of course.  Faithful councils did not make up answers to the vexing questions of the day but concerned themselves with what Scripture says and then applied that to those vexing questions of the day.  But doing that is not a small thing.  It is the same problem I have who insist that ordination is merely apostolic custom -- well, yes, but, is apostolic custom something small or something important?

We tend as Lutherans to sound like we are demeaning both the testimony of the fathers and the edicts of the great councils as if they were not doing anything much at all but simply repeating Scripture and applying Scripture to the problems of the moment.  We are certainly NOT saying that this is a small thing.  They could have invented positions for the Church without Scriptural substance or support.  There were plenty who did (some of those deemed heretics and some who have a rather orthodox reputation).  We as Lutherans labored against all sorts of things not explicitly or even implicitly found in Scripture -- from the treasury of merits to purgatory to papal infallibility to a host of things down through the ages.  Inventive theology is fun and interesting but it lacks the warrant of God's voice and the blessing of His Spirit.  We need to stick with Scripture and then to apply Scripture even to those things not explicitly addressed in Scripture and then to shut up instead of venturing far from God's Word.  We are counseled by God's Word neither to add to it nor to detract from it even as we are called to heed its voice and hold fast to what it says.  But, of course, sometimes folks are of no mind to listen to what God says.  So when the Church can muster the courage to speak what God has said, it is never a small thing.

When a body like the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod comes together to commend what Scripture says and what our Confessions affirm and even what the fathers have said and councils have judged, it is not a small thing.  We live, after all, in a world in which inventive theology (and liturgy) is the regular practice of some, even many.  If that were not true we would not have seen the ordination of women, the embrace of same sex marriage, the promotion of birth control as normative and good, the acceptance of abortion as a women's health issue, the support for the myriad of genders, and so many other things.  These can only occur when we skip over what Scripture says and appeal to another authority or listen to another voice over what God has said.  So when we come together and say again what the Bible says, councils have confessed, fathers have testified, and confessions have adopted, it is never a small thing at all.  For the reality is that everywhere around us churches are ignoring what God has said in favor of all kinds of authorities in competition with God's Word.  So don't demean that as something unimportant or small when it happens that the Church marshals the courage to say this is what God has said and this we believe, teach, and confess.

At the same time, however, we must admit that there are many who disagree over what Scripture is even saying and who spend their days in creative exegesis in order to make God's Word say something different than what it does.  So when we promote the faithful exegesis and confess the truth of God's Word and, in so doing, appeal to council and the testimony of the fathers, that is a good thing.  It does not give councils or the fathers an authority greater than God's Word but it does show that we are not promoting novelty nor are we falling into the creative exegesis temptation so prevalent today but that we stand with those who have stood before us on the truth of God's Word.  That is not a small thing either.  Appealing to the witness of councils and the fathers in support  of what Scripture says is doing exactly what we ought to be doing as assert and give support to the fact that we are building upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, living in faithfulness to the traditions handed down to us, and giving care to holding to the sacred deposit once given to us and which we commend to those who follow us.  None of this is a small thing but a very important way that we testify to the catholicity and apostolicity of the faith we confess and which we live out around this Word and Sacrament.