What follows is a selection from a "Circular Letter" Sasse wrote to two Westphalian pastors (Balzer and Linde - Anti Nazi champions). Dcs. Rachel Mumme sleuthed out the document in Germany, and provided the translation. The letter is dated May 27, 1943 and hitherto unknown. The photo is of Pastor Samuel Balzer (1907-1969). Matt H.
It is the belief of our church that there, where the true office [Amt] is, there is also the true congregation [Gemeinde].
Where the office of preaching the Gospel and administering the sacraments [ministerium decendi evangelii et perrigendi
sacramenta] is exercised, there the congregation of the saints [congregatio sanctorum] in the sense of
AC VII grows with exigency. For “God’s Word cannot be without God’s people.”
Where a pious individual expresses his religious experiences, there at best a society
of religious individuals gather themselves. This explains the fact that modern
Protestantism, despite all efforts to revive and organize the congregational
aspect of the church, generated so little true congregational life, and that
for example in Berlin, the Catholic Church had many more true congregations,
independent of the individuality of the pastor than did the Evangelical Church.
A true congregation does not gather around people, but rather around the Lord
present in His means of grace. Thus the power of the objective preaching of the
Gospel to build fellowship! Thus the power of the Sacrament to build true
congregational life,
a power that can’t be grasped by any rational explanation! Thus the disruptive
effect that a false preaching of the Gospel, that a false teaching about
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper (there is indeed no administration of the
sacraments without a proclamation about them, least of all in the Evangelical
Church) has according to the whole experience of modern church history. And if
there were nothing else that necessitated us pastors to take our being bound to
the confession of the church very seriously, then we would have to be moved by
sympathy for the poor congregations who have been ruined because of
individualism and subjectivism. They have perhaps taken a mighty upswing under
the effects of his glossy eloquence and his tireless drive. But in the meantime
they have been made into religious organizations [religiösen Gesellschaften] and have ceased to be congregations of
Christ, because that which held them together was no longer the real presence
of the Lord, no longer the mystery of the body of Christ [mysterium corporis Christi], rather the ingenuity of a man and the
strength of his religion. What appeared to the modern individualistic pastor as
a shackle of his personal freedom has proven to be precisely the most powerful
protection of the congregation. It is not necessary for the pastor to inform
the congregation in his exhortation on the Lord’s Supper [Abendmahlsrede] which more or less obvious hypothesis Professor
so-and-so recently drew up about the Sacrament of the Altar. When that happens,
it does not actually show respect for the Bible. Today, a great deal gets called
respect for the Bible, which in truth is only the very human admiration of a
modern exegete. However, what is necessary is that the congregation would be
led ever more deeply into the Biblical exegesis of the catechism, which is
indeed the confession of the church in its most simple form, one that a
seven-year-old child can grasp [S.A. III.12]. One should indeed not believe
that this robs the congregation of being able to understand and articulate the
teaching of the Bible. Quite the opposite! The experience of the church since
the days of the Reformation teaches that the congregation arises thus [via the
catechism] and thus alone. This congregation can, as Luther wanted, “judge
doctrine” and is capable in the strength of the universal priesthood even to
help correct her pastor should he at some time fall into error. Incidentally,
what church history also teaches is that the order of the clergy [Pfarrstand] was rich in creative spirits
and free thinkers when its being bound to the confession was still a matter of
the heart that was simply understood. The sects and the unchurchliness are what
flatten people out into a homogeneous mass. In the church of God there is room
for diversity. For the gifts of the Holy Spirit are always diverse.
The first task laid upon us by the situation in the church
is to strengthen and protect that which still remains of true spiritual office [echtem geistlichen Amt] and of true
Christian congregation [echter
christlicher Geminde] in Germany, as far as we men are charged with such.
May God help us to this end in the strength of the Creator Spirit [Creator Spiritus], for whose coming we
pray this week.
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