From a Brother in Arms Under the Cross

One of the great and wondrous things about being in the Office of the Holy Ministry is the collegiality of the fathers and brothers.  I am blessed with brothers in arms under the cross who come from every walk of life, scattered around the globe, of every tribe and tongue, engaged in the common warfare against sin, death, and the devil as servants of Jesus Christ.

The Rev. Fr. Wesley Tetsuji Kan is one such brother in the office. 

He is, as the kids say, if you'll pardon the expression, a "badass."  He is now a retired second career pastor, a former district attorney from Hawaii, and a man of Japanese heritage who knows and revels in his culture's warrior history.

I am glad to count him a friend and not a foe.

He has heroically driven more than six hours each way from his home in Florida to fill in for me at Salem when I needed help.

My dear brother wrote to me today, and said:

Earlier, I told you I refuse to provide you with a hanko (Chinese ideogram seal) for fear that you would use it in a stole orphrey or chasuble vesica.  Since then, it dawned on me that as cultured academic, you should have a hanko even though you don’t have a name that can be honestly rendered in kanji (ideogram).  However, your surname, “Beane,” means “life,” “enochi” in Japanese.  Larry is Laurentius in the original Latin, “man from Laurentum,” a Roman town that is associated with the laurel wreath, and in Japanese, that is “Gekkeikan,” that is also the name of the internationally popular saké.  I could render your name in Japanese but it would be unbalanced in a traditional hanko and it sounds really weird. 

The kanji is for “nanban,” literally “southern barbarian.”  Its first usage was in China when the tiny Han Chinese kingdom fought off the ancestors of Cantonese Chinese of what is now Guandong to Yunnan Provinces.  In Japan, it was used to refer to the Portuguese explorers of the late sixteenth century.  This was expanded to include the Dutch and English.  The term is now used mostly by non-Asian Europeans and Americans to sarcastically refer to themselves in the same way I call myself a “Jap” (as opposed to JAP–Jewish American Princess). 

The capsule cartouche is called an “inkan.”  The vermilion color is traditional.  I have given you the kanji in both the simpler modern and more complex traditional.  Abuse them to the glory of Christ (if possible).

And here are the two finished products.  I am honored, Father Wesley.  This is right up there with being made an honorary Marine by a Marine, and an honorary Seal by a Seal.  I suppose I can add honorary Japanese aristocrat to my list of bucket-list items completed.

どうもありがとう！

Do lay people "have the power to forgive sins (the office of the keys)"?

I recently heard from a lady attending a convention for Lutheran women.  There was a pastor there who gave a presentation articulating that the laity "have the power to forgive sins (the office of the keys)."  She snapped a picture of the Powerpoint slide on the big screen that included this statement and sent it to me.

Now, the office or power of the keys is explained in the Book of Concord in the Smalcald Articles, 3:7:1-3:


1] The keys are an office and power given by Christ to the Church for binding and loosing sin, not only the gross and well-known sins, but also the subtle, hidden, which are known only to God, as it is written in Ps. 19:13: Who can understand his errors? And in Rom. 7:25 St. Paul himself complains that with the flesh he serves the law of sin. 2] For it is not in our power, but belongs to God alone, to judge which, how great, and how many the sins are, as it is written in Ps. 143:2: Enter not into judgment with Thy servant; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified. 3] And Paul says, 1 Cor. 4:4: For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified. 


So far, so good.  The keys are given "by Christ to the Church."  But does this mean that every individual member of the Body of Christ, pastor and layman alike, has the authority to make use of the power of the keys in his vocation?

Augsburg Confession 28:5-9 also addresses the keys, what this office entails, as well as who is authorized to use them:

5] But this is their [our teachers'] opinion, that the power of the Keys, or the power of the bishops, according to the Gospel, is a power or commandment of God, to preach the Gospel, to remit and retain sins, and to administer Sacraments. 6] For with this commandment Christ sends forth His Apostles, John 20:21 sqq.: As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained. 7] Mark 16:15: Go preach the Gospel to every creature.  8] This power is exercised only by teaching or preaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments, according to their calling either to many or to individuals. For thereby are granted, not bodily, but eternal things, as eternal righteousness, the Holy Ghost, eternal life. 9] These things cannot come but by the ministry of the Word and the Sacraments, as Paul says, Rom. 1:16: The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.

Of course, the life of all Christians is a life of giving and receiving forgiveness.  But this personal forgiveness is something entirely different than the sacramental office of the keys ("the power of the bishops") as explained in our Symbolical writings.

Unless someone can explain how the statement that the laity "have the power to forgive sins (the office of the keys)" can be reconciled with AC 28, it seems to me that one cannot believe what this pastor is presenting and be authentically Lutheran.