This past Sunday afternoon, I had the profound privilege of installing the Reverend Dr. Jon Steffen Bruss as the seventeenth president of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, at the opening Service of the Seminary’s 179th academic year. Christ be praised for His steadfast faithfulness throughout all these many years in maintaining the Church and Ministry of the Gospel among us by His grace, in no small part through this institution.
The occasion was all the more special for me, as my son Zachary was among the new students in the procession, and my son-in-law, Rev. Sam Wirgau (Bethlehem, Ossian), was among the local clergy participating. It was thirty-five years ago, in the fall of 1989, that I began my own studies at CTSFW, following in the footsteps of my father before me, a student in the late 1970s. It gives me such joy that the Lord in His mercy has brought us into this theological lineage and heritage of the Gospel, in which we are called to hand over what we have received from Him in faith.
In his welcome and address at the conclusion of the opening Service, President Bruss called our attention to the significance of the name, Concordia, which both of our LCMS Seminaries share, along with all of our Universities. The word itself is Latin for unity or agreement, that is, to be of one heart, mind, and spirit with one another. And for that very reason, Concordia is likewise the designation of our Lutheran Confessions, as we speak with one voice what God has spoken to us.
It is not a self-made or self-maintained “concordia” that we seek or celebrate in our Seminaries and Universities, but one that is graciously given to us in the preaching and teaching of the Holy Scriptures, in continuity with the Church’s consistent confession of Christ Jesus. As the Father openly declared this dear Lord Jesus to be His beloved and well-pleasing Son at His Baptism in the Jordan River – and there anointed Him with the Holy Spirit as the Christ – so did St. Peter confess Him to be “the Christ, the Son of the living God” at Caesarea Philippi (St. Matt. 16:16). And it is by and upon the Ministry of this Confession that the same Lord Jesus Christ establishes, builds, protects, and preserves His Church on earth, over against sin, death, the devil, and hell.
President Bruss demonstrated a beautiful example of the very thing the Seminary is all about, by teaching the assembly from the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions. He focused on the integral and intimate relationship between faith, God’s Word, and the confession of that Word and faith; for faith comes by the hearing of the Word, and as we thus believe and are justified, so do we thus pray and confess what we have heard, unto salvation in Christ Jesus (Rom. 10:9-13).
This faith and confession of the Word of God in Christ – from the ancient ecumenical Creeds of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, to the 16th-century Concordia – is the foundation, heart, and center of “Lutheran identity.” It is who and what we are, and what we are about, not by our own reason and strength, but by the grace of God, by the Ministry of His Gospel. This is what gives life to the Church and sustains it. And this is our unity, agreement, and fellowship.
Our Seminaries are a vital part of this ongoing Concordia, from one generation to the next, as they exist to teach and train their students “to accept without reservation the Ecumenical Creeds and all the confessional writings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church contained in the Book of Concord as a true and unadulterated statement and exposition of the Word of God,” and not only to accept them as such, but to preach and teach and care for the congregations of the Church with and on the basis of these faithful confessions of Christ Jesus. Thus are future pastors prepared to confess the faith once delivered to the saints, and the Church is preserved in the unity of Christ.