Enacting God’s Word in the Divine Service
Doxology Grand Reunion

Belleville, Illinois, 2011

1.	Introduction
•	Sasse: preaching the gospel instead of preaching about it
•	Common pitfalls for pastors
•	Talking about God’s word without doing anything with it
•	Didacticism: teaching of doctrines or theological ideas or religious principles rather than enactment of law and gospel
•	Disuse of God’s Spirit-filled word in preaching
•	Un-liturgical, dysfunctional  preaching
•	Lack of practical teaching for fear of legalism
•	Lack of spiritual help in pastoral care

2.	Enacting God’s Word
•	Heb 4: 12: The word of God is living and active.
•	Greek ’energēs: inworking, efficacious, effective
•	 Performative: does what it says
•	I Thess 2:13: So we also give thanks to God constantly for this, that when you received the word that you heard from God through us, you not take it as the word of men but as what it truly is, the word of God which is at work among you who believe.  
•	Two senses of Greek ’energētai: middle or passive
•	Middle: the word is “at work”
•	Passive: the word is “worked/enacted” 
•	God at work through the word that is spoken and enacted in the divine service
•	Luther on the Third Commandment in the large Catechism 94: Places, times, persons, and the entire outward order of worship (divine service) are therefore instituted and appointed in order that God’s word may exert its power publicly.
•	Pastors as more than just teachers of God’s word
•	Ministers who administer God’s word (Acts 6:4)
•	Stewards of God’s word who fully enact it (Col 1:25)
•	Workmen with Jesus who handle the word of truth by dividing it rightly (2 Tim 2:15) 
•	Luther’s claim in his essay on “Concerning the Ministry” from 1523: we teach with the Word, we consecrate with the Word, we bind and absolve sins by the Word, we baptize with the Word, we sacrifice with the Word, we judge all things by the Word (EA 40, 21).
•	Consecrate the elements in HC
•	Sacrifice = present the Offering
•	Basic thesis: we do everything with the Word
•	Preaching and teaching
•	Baptising and delivering from Satan
•	Absolving and retaining sins
•	Administering the Lord’s Supper
•	Blessing
•	Praying and praising
•	Confirming and ordaining
•	Consecrating and commissioning
•	Offering pastoral care and consolation

3.	The Authority of the Word and the Ministry of the Word
•	See Paul in 1 Cor 4:6: I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favour of one against the other.
•	Our authority as those under authority of Christ and his word
•	Our authorisation through the word: mandate for ministry
•	The divine mandates
•	The divine prohibitions
•	Adiaphora: enacting the word in a way that is consistent with what has been commanded with the right distinction between law and gospel
•	Empowerment by God's Spirit-filled word
•	Connection between the Spirit and God’s word
•	Jesus in John 6:63: My words are Spirit and life.
•	Spirit: word for air and wind in Hebrew and Greek
•	Connection between speaking and breathing
•	My weak words v the powerful words of Jesus
•	God’s giving of his powerful Spirit through his word
•	God’s delivery of his Spirit through the word in John 3:34-35: He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things in his hands.
•	The Father’s delegation of all things to His Son
•	His commission of the Son and pastors to deliver His Spirit
•	Delivery of the Spirit by speaking God’s words
•	Full delivery of the Spirit through the word
•	See 2 Tim 3:16: All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work
•	Since all Scripture is inspired by God’s Spirit, it inspires with the Spirit
•	Equipment of pastors for doing God’s work by his word
•	Competence from the Spirit through the word for using the word to teach, rebuke, correct, and train disciples
•	Operation by power of Holy Spirit through the word
•	Consecration of pastors and their work through the sanctifying word
•	See the prayer of Jesus in John 17:17-19: Holy Father ... sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
•	See 1 Tim 4:5: everything... is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
•	See Luther’s remarks on the Third Commandment in the Large catechism: The Word of God is the true holy thing above all holy things ... God’s Word is the treasure that sanctifies all things.  By it all the saints themselves are sanctified.  At whatever time God’s Word is taught, preached, heard, read, or pondered, there the person, the day, and the work are sanctified by it.
•	Gift of a good conscience through his word: God is pleased only with services instituted by his word and done in faith(Apol  XXVIII, 70)
•	Certainty of God’s approval and blessing
•	Protection from spiritual attack

4.	Help from Speech Act Theory
•	Work of J. L. Austin. How to do Things with Words, Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1955.
•	Analysis of what we do with words ► legal and ritual enactments
•	Divine service as a series of speech acts
•	Divine and human speakers
•	Meaning from function of each part in its given order
•	Questions for analysis: who says what, by what authority, to whom, with what, where, when, and for what purpose? 
•	Preaching as a divine speech act in the divine service
•	1 Cor 2:17: We are not, like so many, pedlars of God’s word, but...as from God in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
•	Authorised proclamation of God’s word in God’s presence
•	Enactment of God’s word as law and gospel
•	Five basic functions of speaking
•	Informative/constative: they tell how things are
•	Expressive: they express the attitudes, thoughts and feelings of the speaker
•	Imperative: they get the hearer to do something
•	Contractual/commissive: they commit the speaker to someone or to do something
•	Affective/declarative: they accomplish something 
•	Austin: three kinds of utterance with two kinds of speech acts
•	Locutionary utterances: giving information
•	Performative utterances: perlocutionary and illocutionary speech acts
•	Perlocutionary: getting someone to act or react by saying
•	Illocutionary: doing by saying
•	The nature and force of performative utterances
•	A performative utterance does something by being said.
•	“Receive the Holy Spirit.”
•	“I take you to be my husband.”
•	“I pronounce them to be husband and wife.”
•	“I believe.”
•	“I baptise.” 
•	Since there is no single grammatical way of making performative utterances, their occurrence and sense are determined by convention, usage, authority and context: implied ‘hereby.’
•	“I swear.” 
•	“You are pardoned.” 
•	“Tom is guilty.”
•	“I'm sorry.”
•	Some linguists distinguish between two kinds of performative utterances.
•	Performative utterances that accomplish an action are said to have illocutionary force (“I name this ship.” “I swear that ...” “Let there be light!”).
•	Performative utterances that intend to affect another person by either eliciting an action, as with a command or a request, or affecting their mental state, as with an assurance or a word of condolence said to have perlocutionary force (“I assure you”).
•	These two can be combined as with the words “Thank you!” by which we not only give thanks but also make another person feel appreciated (“Good day!”).
•	The power and validity of illocutionary performative utterances depends on the authority of the speaker and the proper use of the utterance in the right context and for the right purpose (‘I name this ship!” “Be healed!”).
•	Most words of Jesus are performative utterances.

5.	Three challenges
•	Exegesis: what is word of Jesus or this passage meant to accomplish by saying these words, and how?
•	“Blessed are..”
•	“Amen, I say to you...”
•	Liturgy: what is this part of the service meant to accomplish
•	“The Lord be with you.”
•	“Take, eat; this is the true body...”
•	Discussion: how can we preach God’s word performatively?

6.	Further reading
•	  Edward Flanagan. Language: Its Structure and Use. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: Sydney 1992.
•	   John Lyons. Semantics 2, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1977, 725-786.
•	  J. L. Searle. Speech Acts, Cambridge University Press : London and New York, 1969.
•	  R. J. Searle. ‘A Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts,’ K. Gunderson (ed.), Acts, Language, Mind, and Knowledge, Minneapolis, 1975, 344-69.
•	  David J. Schubert. ‘Liturgical Language- Register and Speech Acts,’ LCA : North Adelaide, 2006. www.lca.org.au/resources/cow
•	  David J. Schubert. ‘Speech Acts in the Liturgy,’ Lutheran Theological
		Journal 42/2(2008):58-67.  www.lca.org.au/resources/cow