NYC sermon at Walther's passing: Pieper's review of Pastor J. H. Sieker sermon (Der Lutheraner 1887) — Part 1

      It was for only a small pamphlet that the young Prof. Franz Pieper gave a review, a published sermon, in Der Lutheraner, but it caught my eye while going through the old volumes.  The year was 1887, the year that Walther "went home".  The Synod was in great mourning over the loss of its founding father.  And as I ran the German text through the online translators, I sat up and was amazed that a sermon on the passing of Walther in New York City could be so thoroughly… Lutheran.  I understood why Pieper gave one of his rare book reviews to make sure the pamphlet would not fall into oblivion. The sermon was by a somewhat prominent pastor, Pastor Johann Heinrich Sieker at St. Matthew's Lutheran in New York City. From Der Lutheraner 43 (Aug. 15, 1887), p. 132: 

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New printed matter. 

How Should Christians Look Upon and Honor the Men of God in the Church, who are adorned with special blessings, in a manner pleasing to God even after their death? Memorial sermon on the blessed Dr. C. F. W. Walther, delivered at the behest of the Lutheran St. Matthew's congregation in New York on Trinity Sunday 1887 and submitted to print by J. H. Sieker. (The surplus funds are intended for poor students). 

 

The honored author answers the question, which forms his theme, on the basis of 1 Cor. 3:5-9, 21-23. with three things: Christians should regard and honor the teachers of the church adorned with special blessings even after their death 

“1. as gifts of God, whom He has chosen and equipped for His purpose; 

2. as servants of God, through whom He has blessed many souls; 

3. as blessings of God, which shall continue to work for the salvation of the church and the praise of God who abides.” 

From the rich abundance of thoughts, we highlight here some main ideas: great teachers of the Church 

“with their blessed efficacy are gifts, gifts of God to His Church, which He prepares and sends in times of need . . . . Who could deny that Dr. Walther, too, was such a gift of God in this last afflicted time, through which the faithful Lord intended and bestowed incalculable blessings on His Church? . .. It is true that the Lutheran Church still existed here in America when Walther began to teach in the far West, but how distorted was its appearance! Where it had not sunk into the deep sleep of indifference, it courted the erroneous sects and had almost lost the precious heritage of unadulterated doctrine. The adolescent youth was completely neglected. The walls of the Confession were broken down, and over the ruins were plowed negotiations with the enemies of the pure Word as to the most expedient way to go forth in a great union. In this time of greatest danger for our church falls the beginning of Walther's work, which was to prove awakening, teaching, gathering and building in wide circles, as subsequent times have proved." 

But the teachers, adorned with many blessings, are only “servants of God.” 

“God's love is directed toward his bride, the congregation. If this is disfigured, if it is in danger, if He wants to adorn it, He awakens and empowers ‘servants,’ ‘through whom’ his beloved congregation can become the intended blessing.” “True as it is that Dr. Walther taught pure divine truth, which he had learned in the school of the Holy Spirit, especially under Dr. Luther's guidance, we do not follow him or believe him because he taught it, but because we have come to know through his ministry that he taught God's truth to us. Were we to follow him because he was such a great, eminent, blessed man, we would be dishonoring him, so humble a disciple of Christ, to the highest degree and diminishing God's glory.” “If” (but) “God blesses His Church” (with great teachers), “it is done with the intention that on and on, to all generations to come, His blessing should be propagated as a precious inheritance . . Also with Walther God wanted to achieve more than that we would be happy in his brilliance for a little while. What God has given through him, we are to recognize by diligent use as a gift of God and use it for our joy and faithfully preserve it for our descendants.”

The author rightly lays the main emphasis precisely on this point. To be sure, he reminds us that there may also be those 

“who seek to prove their faithfulness by unchristianly exalting this noble instrument of God, and thereby, as much as they care for it, corrupt the very work which God has built through it.” “Above all,” continues the author “the temptation is close at hand to forget the wonderful blessing which God has given to His Church through Dr. Walther.” 

So it is. God's Word, looking to our church, is now properly in the land. All the articles of Christian doctrine lie before the coarser and finer error in their comforting purity clearly attested. In our lower and higher schools, the youth hears nothing but the unadulterated teaching of the Word of God. What an unspeakable blessing this is! So we have to beware of the sin of complacency and indifference to the great abundance of grace. Otherwise God can soon let it come out of just judgment that God's Word becomes “dear” again among us (1 Sam. 3:1, Amos 8:11). Pastor Sieker rightly says: 

“This has always been a most harmful sin of men, that they did not faithfully keep what was entrusted to them, and thus the children of those rich in heavenly treasures were later found to be poor beggars.” 

The sermon, which we hope will be widely distributed and, above all, taken to heart, can be obtained from Concordia Publishing House. Price: one copy 10 cts. the dozen $1.00.  F. P. [Franz Pieper]. 

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      What makes this Der Lutheraner book review so special is that it was written by the successor to C. F. W. Walther, the second president of Concordia Seminary, the "20th Century Luther", who was always most concerned with spiritual matters.   

   As with the disciple Nathaniel, who said (John 1:46): "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" so it can be said: "Can there any good thing come out of New York City?"   Franz Pieper calls out to us and says, as the disciple Philip responded (John 1:46): "Come and see".  And indeed, as I researched St. Matthew's Lutheran Church (or now Ev. Lutheran of St. Matthew) of New York City I was pleasantly surprised to find an LCMS church that had not fled to the very liberal ELCA, as some other LCMS churches have done. I believe Pastor Sieker''s influence from over 100 years ago can still be having an effect within this famous congregation. — And blessed be the memory of Pastor Johann Heinrich Sieker, Lutheran pastor, in the oldest  congregation in America… in New York City. — 

===>>>  In the next Part 2 we present Pastor Sieker's full sermon at the passing of Walther, in English, – so that it may fulfill Pieper's hope that it be more "widely distributed".

2021-08-27 Postscript: this pamphlet was also announced in the July 21, 1887 English language Lutheran Witness paper, vol. 6, p. 32.