“Stupid Boy”

I must be stupid. I thought “Stupid Boy” was song by a girl when it fact it is sung by a guy.  However, since that guy is Keith Urban, I can am excused for being justifiably confused, and believe it or not this confusion has something to do with what I’m writing.

The April 2006 Concordia Theological Quarterly has an article by Joel P. Okamoto entitled “The Office of the Holy Ministry.”  He writes “One reason that the category of ‘teacher of theology’ has been recently discussed is that there are women willing and able to teach theology in LCMS institutions of higher education” (109-110).

 I’m such a stupid boy; I thought Paul said that he does not allow a woman to teach or have authority over a man.  While men may believe women are able, the Lord says they not.  In the same way a male mother is a physical impossibility, St. Paul says (I Timothy 2:12-15) a female teacher of theology to men is a spiritual impossibility.  A man is not physically able to give birth; a woman is not spiritually able to teach theology to men.  Neither makes God a sexist.  It’s a matter of gift.  It’s not been given to men to birth or women to teach men.

My stupidity is equal opportunity.  The Concordia Seminary’s July 2008 Concordia Journal has an article by William Schumacher entitled “Thinking with Walther about the Church: Congregation, Synod, Church.”  He says in his remarks concerning Walther’s The Proper Form of a Christian Congregation, “[T]he congregation should look for ways that will build up and strengthen the whole Christian church, including the Lutheran congregation in the next town and the Presbyterian congregation across the street.  For Walther, being an ‘autonomous’ or self-ruling congregation brings with it the Christian duty of considering the needs of other Christian congregations” (202). 

Stupid boy! It turns out Walther wanted us to strengthen sects, schisms, and separatistic fellowships.  All this time I thought they were bad things.  That’s the impression I got from Thesis number 6 of the True Visible Church: “Communions that disrupt the unity of the church through errors not destroying the foundation of faith, or because of persons, ceremonies, or matters of life, are according to God’s Words, sects (schisms) or separatistic bodies” (The True Visible Church and The Form of a Christian Congregation, 29). 

Yes, this post is much like “I Hate Everything,” but not quite.  I only really “hate” Keith Urban, but I don’t really think I’m the stupid boy.  I think I am consistent with what we have believed, taught, and confessed in the past.  However, in a Synod that is Ablaze! with an evangelicalism that stokes the fires of evangelism using any doctrine that doesn’t happen to fit, I am being stupid.  Stupid but faithful.

About Paul Harris

Pastor Harris retired from congregational ministry after 40 years in office on 31 December 2023. He is now devoting himself to being a husband, father, and grandfather. He still thinks cenobitic monasticism is overrated and cave dwelling under.
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