Hearing the Voice of Your Shepherd

From February to May of this year, our adult class studied the Augsburg Confession. As I consider topics for when we resume this fall, I keep returning to the Smalcald Articles.

In 1537, there was talk of the pope calling a church council. Martin Luther’s health had been in decline, and many of his family and friends — and even Luther himself — believed he might not live much longer. In preparation, as he put it, “for the eventuality that…we would be condemned,” Luther wrote the Smalcald Articles.

These articles are often referred to as Luther’s own last will and testament: “so that those who live and remain after will have my testimony and confession.”

The Smalcald Articles are Luther’s own confession of the faith on which he intends to stand until death. He is not interested in institutional reform or in compromise for its own sake. His concern is that future generations would hear the Gospel preached clearly.

That is what makes the Smalcald Articles unique. They are not an academic treatise. They are deeply pastoral. Luther’s concern is simple and urgent: “Should not these same people hear this same Christ speak to them as the true shepherd of the sheep?”

Everything in the Articles flows from that concern.

Again and again, Luther returns to one central conviction: God alone is righteous and justifies the one who has faith in Christ apart from merit, works, or the law.

Over the summer, I will be working on several lessons on the Smalcald Articles. I hope you’ll join us this fall as our adult classes resume and we continue to study the Lutheran Confessions–and, more importantly, hear again the voice of our Good Shepherd.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Raleigh