Bucer #1 - Christ In Charge

Martin Bucer produced his handbook on pastoral theology, Concerning the True Care of Souls, in 1538, noting the contemporary 'Deplorable and Pernicious Sate of Religious Schism and Disorder' and expressing a desire to 'Return to True Unity and Good Christian Order in the Churches'. In other words, the contemporary church was in a Right Old Mess due primarily, as Bucer saw it, of a lack of a clear understanding as to who was to have authority (if at all) over the church.

On the one hand, the government of the traditional church in Rome accused the Reformers (or Lutherans) of overthrowing an ecclesiastical order established by God by their insistence that Scripture Alone should the guide of true faith and, as such, had separated themselves from the true Body of Christ. Alternatively, certain sects of the Radical Reformation criticised those leaders of church reform who wished to hold onto any ordered system of church government, stating that since the Gospel called individuals to a personal faith and repentence it would be inappropriate to place any human constraints on the expression of such a personal faith. Bucer himself denounces both positions, making it clear that he was neither a slave to tradition or a minimalist. He believed that Scripture clearly taught the need for ministers to be set apart for the good order of the gathering of believers in particular places. But what exactly was their role to be?

The early chapters of Bucer's work are devoted to constructing an ecclesiology in which the temporal Church is under the direct and personal rule of the resurrected Christ. Those who have been set aside for leadership of the community of faith (whether in the areas of instruction in the Word or the service of good works) must not assume for themselves what rightly belongs to Him. Either an over- or under-developed ecclesiology will ultimately fall into this error. In Bucer's mind Jesus is not absent or distant from our communal life, but is personally and actively involved in our church governance through those whom the Spirit has set apart. The issue, naturally, is that because Jesus is spiritually rather than bodily present in our gatherings and sacraments that the temptation arises for us to either a) rule in His absence, or b) deny His claims of authority. It also prompts the temptation for church rulers to claim credit for what Christ is actively accomplishing in the life of His Church. However:

All power and the whole work in this matter belong to Christ our dear Lord; but ministers are his instruments, through whom he effects and fulfils this work of his in his elect. (chapter 3)

This is a sobering thought, particularly when we consider the many aspects of our contemporary church culture on which the Scriptures are silent (home groups, online evangelism, etc). In ways that both the Apostles and Reformers could never have forseen the Word of God continues to go out into the world and new ministers are raised up. Yet we here in the 21st Century should have confidence that where His people are gathered Christ rules not mystically but through the (mostly unlikely) people that He has chosen.