Teaching Constitutional Article IV. on Membership in St. Paul:
a. Regular communicant participation is the proper biblical expression of congregational membership. This participation begins with Holy Baptism and is expressed in (1) the prayerful study of Scripture, (2) the use of the Catechism (3) and the withdrawal from manifest works of the flesh, such as those listed in Galatians 5:19- 21.
There is an A and a B to the article on membership. This week we have A.
Membership at SP815 is defined as “regular communicant participation.” That does not mean that everyone who communes at SP815 is a member. Except that, it really kind of does.
On the day that anyone who is here with us in Rockford joins our communion to feast upon the Bread of Life, that person is a member with us, in the body of Christ and eating the body of Christ, here and now. We are one in Jesus in more than symbolic means that day!
The reason we have a church body like the LCMS is so that we don’t have just any old person join our membership roster and receive the benefits of our fellowship any old time. Rather, we consider our Supper to be very intimate. As we will see in what follows, we expect certain things from each other.
Regular communicant participation means that you commune often, as the Small Catechism suggests. Our original German constitution said it this way, “No one can be a member, much less become an official of this congregation, nor share in the privileges of membership, except he partake of Holy Communion frequently if he be an adult.” Dr. Luther’s Large Catechism, part of the Book of Concord of 1580, tells us that we ought desire to commune no less than four times per year, or we can’t really claim to be Christians! There is much good teaching on the Blessings of Weekly Communion in our Library. Ask me!
Our proposed text also includes in “communicant” membership the expectation of Trinitarian Baptism, the personal reading of the Bible, reliance on Luther’s Small Catechism in the family, and a life that looks Christian on an external level.
Without the personal Spiritual disciplines of prayer to Jesus and the reading of Scripture, it is hard to expect much out of Christianity. The more time you spend eating junk, the worse you are going to feel. So our membership includes the expectation that you will fight against the darkness in your world with the clear, shining light of God’s Holy Word. None of us is alone in the battle. We may be sent out on weekly missions, but in this way we are a great net spread throughout the city, ready to catch just the right fish when they swim by.
But when unbelievers enter your life, how are they to know of Christ? At some point, we must tell them. But even before then, it is expected that your life will look different from other lives. This is the point of Galatians 1:19-21, where the Apostle writes:
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
“Vice lists” in Scripture are important for the Christian discipleship on which the life of a congregation thrives. We can’t just be here to tickle our own fancies. We are here on a journey together. We are going somewhere. We are on the same team. So, we are expected to train like it matters, to fight like the game is real. Because it is decidedly not a game.
Other vice lists include Romans 1:28-32, 2 Peter 1:1-11 and the Seven Deadly Sins of early monastic fame. The Bible also includes virtue lists, the most famous of which is the Fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23.
Galatians 5:19-21 is the original vice list referenced in St. Paul’s historic constitutions, dating back to the original German. For our part, it is an important verse to return to as a source of wisdom, especially as we consider what kind of behavior is to be tolerated in the voting assembly, or anywhere else between members.
We are not here to police each other. We are here to build each other up in the good, right and true. We are here to draw each other further into the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ.
To be in, there must be an out. Out, for SP815, means unbaptized, uncatechized, and/or evidently active in things the Bible says to avoid doing.
When we give our hearts to daily Bible reading, praying the Psalms and Proverbs in the Name of Jesus, when we bow our knees and pledge our hearts to Jesus in the morning, when fathers teach their children the meaning of the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and our Lord’s Prayer, then we can be certain that the Spirit will blow within our families, and the great drag net of SP815 will find herself full of more and more good fish.
SOS Discipline - Daily Proverb and Red Letter Reader
It only takes one good man.
cf Pr. 27:29
Even with your eyes open you may be blind.
cf Mt 6:14
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