The Culture of God's Word

I can't resist at this point as we have two Lutherans online saying the great second Helvetic confession from Zurich of all places.

Chapter 1 has that great statement that when the Word of God is preached by those properly called to the task, we believe it is the very Word of God, which I think captures something of that.

It's not just an idle repetition.

There's a powerful dynamism there.

And I'm not a Zwinglian.

I don't really rate Zwinglianism much, but I couldn't resist pulling your legs just by spiking.

We'll accept that.

That's a powerful statement in terms of getting us to think about what's happening when the Word is preached.

So we believe that the Scriptures are passed along through the prophets and then ultimately through the apostles to be preached.

And so when the Word is rightly preached, it's not just simply when the Word is rightly preached.

It's not just simply to be my thoughts or my meanderings.

We believe that something powerful is happening there, don't we? It's not a spiritual TED Talk.

Yeah, exactly.

I liked Harold's use earlier on of the language of real presence.

That's the sense in which at the Reformation you get this shift where the medieval Catholicism, Christ is present in the sacrament.

That's the central aspect of it.

And church architecture reflects that.

And we're very sacramental as

well, but that's exactly, there's a sacramental preaching kind of thing going on.

I might add also, before the time runs out on us, we want to kind of dovetail with Carl's marvelous new book as well, in terms of catechesis and hospitality is very much our places that we need to focus in this particular moment in time, I think, in mission and ministry, because people have lost the overarching story of the Word of God.

So we need to retell that story, because we're really becoming a lost humanity.

Anthropology is lost, and that's why we have all these aberrations going on in our culture.

So to be able to bring people to the realization that they are created in the image and likeness of God Himself, and they have an identity because of their creation, but particularly, of course, by their redemption in Jesus and their sanctification by the Spirit as they're headed for a glorious future.

It's not just muddling through moment by moment, trying to make sense of a senseless existence.

And you learn that in a particular culture, which is a culture where the church is a unique culture.