17 Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders
of the church to come to him. 18 And when they came to him, he said to them:
“You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time
from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all
humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots
of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was
profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying
both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord
Jesus Christ. (Acts 20:17-21 (ESV)
Paul stops at Miletus and calls the Ephesian elders. Later in
this narration they will be called bishops, or overseers as it is translated.
You see the same interplay of words here as you to in Paul’s letter to Titus.
Elders in the New Testament were what we would call pastors today. What we call
pastors would have been called deacons at that time. He can call these men to
Miletus and not be delayed in his travels because they don’t have the wherewithal
to host him there. Instead you have something of a pastoral retreat happening
in which Paul is encouraging his brothers and giving them direction.
A large part of his direction is autobiographical. He holds
up his own life as a model for these pastors. They should do what he has done.
This includes teaching in public and from house to house.
When it comes to pastoral work both are needed. But things
can be addressed in a person’s home that perhaps shouldn’t be addressed in
public, this is true even of “public” sins in many cases. Sometimes the most
public of sins is the sin of addressing a sin done in public publicly. But it
isn’t just a matter of addressing a sin. The home setting often provides an
intimate atmosphere for instruction that allows the instruction to take in a
manner it wouldn’t in the context of a public sermon.
Though even here I wonder what is meant by public and house
to house. Paul would lecture in public halls, salons of learning, and so on. He
would lecture in the market place if possible. This allowed other people to
join in on the lectures, to overhear, to listen from the sidelines and perhaps
be drawn in. This was the model of evangelism. The worship service with
communion was for those who had been brought into the faith. This was often
done in the homes as one sees them breaking bread in the homes in the second
chapter of Acts. Worship wasn’t a means of evangelism, primarily because
worship without faith is not worship. One has to believe in order to worship.
So one had to be baptized in order to participate properly in the worship
service.
We live in a different age today. Today we invite friends to
church regardless of faith or background, and this is a good thing. They can
hear the word there, be introduced to the pastor, and they can in fact learn a
lot, especially from the first half of the service, the service of the word.
Though the second half, the service of the sacrament is perhaps not as helpful
until such time as they can partake of the sacrament. It is perhaps even
torturous to them. And I think we as a church in the LCMS need to come to grips
with the fact that it even serves to send mixed signals when we pronounce forgiveness
to them in the service of the word in confession and absolution, and even the
sermon and then deny them this forgiveness in the Sacrament of the Altar. One
sees why visitors and catechumens were sent out before the offering in the
early church. In the early church the offering was a privilege of the believer,
again, worthless without faith in Christ who has atoned also for your “good
works.” The offering is in response to the salvation given in Christ, never an
attempt to buy salvation as in a pagan context offerings, sacrifices, were
given in an attempt to purchase favor. So this was done in homes, a more
semi-private setting.
But it is vexing today. Where is the public square? Where does
one go to lecture in public? The opportunities are scarcer today. Sure there is
the internet. It is great for what it is and should be taken advantage of. And
yet, you find yourself being heard in Timbuktu, and no one in your own
community where you are called to be a servant of the word, hears a thing you
have to say. It is problematic. We don’t have a culture even that attends public
lectures. Our society is so closed you can live next door to a person for over
a year and not know who they are. I know this because as outgoing as I am, I
know people three and four houses down from me, even across town, and yet have
hardly had opportunity to say hi to those living in the domicile next to mine.
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