From the opening of the Lenker edition of Luther's Church Postils -
The Church Postil, which Luther himself considered “The best of all his books,” was called forth by the exigency and need of the Church at the time. The majority of the preachers in those days were incapable of working out their own sermons, and were satisfied in reading the Epistle and Gospel lessons, and perhaps besides they read a sermon of another preacher to the congregation. The sermons for this purpose were those by Tauler (d. 1361) and those by Geiler of Kaisersberg (d. 1510).
But since the latter were not in all parts evangelical Luther concluded he would himself write an explanation of the pericopes of the Church year and place the same in the hands of the preachers for their use. This Luther did not only because the preachers were so incompetent, but also in order to prevent the work of the fanatics and the sects, never however in order to encourage preachers in their laziness to take their sermons from his and other good books, and then never pray, never study and never read and search the Scriptures. (Lenker introduction, vol. 1)
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| Matt Harrison trimmed his mustache during seminary. |
Someone watched the video and observed the attention he paid to how worn the copy of Luther's sermons was.
Harrison would have been more consistent if he had skootched up his slacks to display his Here I Stand socks from Concordia Publishing House.
Ever since 1981 - when Ralph Bohlmann, endorsed by Herman Otten, became Synod President - the Missouri Synod has embraced and promoted the anti-Lutheran dogma and practices from Fuller Seminary.
Barry-McCain did more of the same, and Kieschnick was completely supportive. Harrison-McCain continued the same disastrous course, oblivious to the ruin caused in every part of Lutherdom, including the copycats in WELS and the Little Sect on the Prairie. Someone who took refuge in the CLC said the clergy fell for the same slop.
But ask some Missouri pastors about Justification by Faith - and a buckets of offal will be poured over one's head, allegorically speaking. The same high churchmen, who are so prissy and daintily dressed, will start posting on FB like drunken sailors who had their grog stolen from them.
I hasten to add that the largest group of Justification by Faith pastors are found in the LCMS.
I was amused by Harrison pointing out that these were not actual sermons preached, since some are 100 pages long. The introduction to the Lenker set makes that clear.
Luther concluded he would himself write an explanation of the pericopes of the Church year and place the same in the hands of the preachers for their use.
I have posted many times that the beginning of any sermon should be a study of the text itself and Luther's sermon on that text. That is a good reason for using the historic pericopes and avoiding the Church of Rome's three-year cycle. (During a time of confessional crisis, we should avoid seeming to go along with others, even in adiaphora. See the Formula of Concord for that insight.)
I dare people to read one of these sermons and claim, "I have learned nothing." In fact, just the opposite is true. In the midst of doing the most mundane kind of proof-reading, people are telling me, "I am learning so much!" And so do I, after all these years of reading Luther.
As Lenski said, the true Christian Church does not grow with programs but with the Word of God. We have returned to the Reformation in the worst way possible. LCMS-WELS-ELS pastors copy and paste sermons from the heretics (just as McCain copied Rome on his plagiarizing blog) - collecting praise, protection, and admiration from the synodical leaders.
