No. 9. >> As I ask my question, I'm thinking about one of the more visible Neoevangelical pastors of Los Angeles. Here is the question: Since a pastor is clearly God's servant to the right hand realm, is it ever appropriate for him to enter into the left hand forms of service? I'm wondering especially about chaplains in the military. And if your answer to my question is yes and if my question were inverted, would it be fair to conclude that failure to serve in the left hand realm can be sin? >>DR. JOEL D. BIERMANN: All right. Nick, you're putting me on the spot here. And this is really getting tough. This is one of the trickiest things to work through. I think there's a good way to go about this. There's a fair amount of discussion. You're going to get some people who are going to maybe disagree vehemently with what I'll suggest. But I think there's a way forward on this. So let me kind of think this through with you. Is it appropriate to get involved in the left hand realm? Yes. We've talked about the importance of meeting the needs of people in the left hand realm like with the soup kitchen. We've talked about the importance of keeping our environmental aspects straight. Recognizing the place for environmental activism. But not getting carried away. So what about you as a Christian working in the left hand realm? Let me answer this kind of in a couple of levels. For an average Joe Christian, this is probably a lot easier. Because they realize that they live in both worlds. They live before God, coram deo. Receiving his righteousness. They come to church and hear the Word of forgiveness. And they know where they stand before go. Then they get busy in the left hand world going about their business. Serving the world around them. This is good. This is what Christians do. So they dig into that left hand world. And they work hard in their job, in their family, in their marriage. Doing what God has given them to do in their vocation. Luther taught this very strongly. They are doing that work. And they are just simply serving the left hand. And as they are doing this, they are doing it as Christian people. And whenever the opportunity arises, they open their mouths and they speak of Christ. They proclaim the Gospel. They are always interested in both realities. Do my left hand work well. And proclaim Christ whenever I can. It's not an either or. It's a both and. All the time. Now, for the average layman, that's pretty straightforward. They can see how this works. I speak of Christ when I have opportunity. I proclaim the law and the Gospel whenever I have a chance to do that. And I serve my neighbor simply by being a good citizen, a good husband, a good father. I do my vocation. For a pastor it gets trickier. Because a pastor is the absolution guy. His call is to speak God's truth. That's what he's there to do. And yet he's still, also, a human being and a creature and a citizen in the left hand realm. So he's got left hand responsibilities still as a pastor. Now, there are some who would say his pastor just kind of overwhelms everything. And he should never do anything left handed because it will always compromise his position and his message. And so he should -- he shouldn't even vote because people might think that he's voted for a certain candidate. And that would color everything. And he should just stay away from anything political. I think that's an error. I would say that as a pastor you have right hand responsibilities which are No. 1. But you also have left hand responsibilities. You still need to obey the speed limit when you drive. You still need to vote. You still need to be informed about what's going on in the world. And you still need to speak against injustice when you see it. Even as a layperson. Now, as a pastor you have another kind of interesting twist because you do represent God. And you speak the Gospel for people. So you have to be careful that your left hand activities, your left hand words don't ever detract from your right hand responsibilities of proclaiming Christ and preaching the Gospel. Now, is it possible to do both? I think it is. And you mentioned a military chaplain. Which is an excellent way to think about this, Nick. Because a military chaplain does literally wear both hats. I've had some long discussions about this with chaplains and those involved in the military. And the way I've come to realize this is I think what a military chaplain has to do is has to make a sharp distinction. I'm doing left hand stuff which means I'm serving my country and helping their agenda. Promotion of justice. The spread of what is right. And the stopping of evil. So a military chaplain wants to promote morality among the troops. Wants to promote good morale. Wants to help them sort out problems. Wants to stop them from doing things that aren't good. That's the agenda. Is that the Gospel? No; no. So a military chaplain a lot of time is going to be spent simply trying to help the government do its job better. Make sure we have a good cohesive fighting unit that can do the goals in the military. I'm here to help you do that. Now, I also have the agenda that I want to proclaim Christ whenever I can. And so when I have soldiers who come into my office and they say: Chaplain, help me sort this thing out. I'm going to speak of Christ. And I'm going to lay it on the line to him and talk to him about the things of the Gospel. But then when I'm in more my public responsibility, I might actually just sort of promote morality. Which is the left hand agenda. So there is a place for doing left hand work even if you're a right hand guy. You can do both. But you have to know what you're doing. And be aware of it. You need to almost say to yourself: All right. Now I'm going to be entering into the left hand. So I need to start doing left hand agenda things. And I'm going to try to carry out the work of the left hand. And I'm not going to try to force right hand stuff in the left hand. Now, like I said, this is kind of tricky. But I think there might be even times when it would be most appropriate for you even as a pastor not to try to interject the Gospel into every situation. Because sometimes it's just inappropriate. Your job might be simply to promote morality or to stop injustice or to help the government do its job of doing those things better. And it's really not the time to be pushing the Gospel into that situation. Now, I know the Bible says proclaim Christ at all times in season and out of season. And always the goal is to proclaim Christ. But sometimes the timing is not just the best. Or maybe even the situation doesn't call for it. If you're a military chaplain and your responsibility is to help the military do their job better, you need to kind of be able to judiciously think it through and say: When am I doing left hand things? When am I doing right hand things? And how can I make sure they are both happening in appropriate ways in the right way? It's not easy. And I think a military chaplain has one of the toughest jobs sorting out this distinction in doing both things well. And not letting one overwhelm the other. It's not an easy thing. But I will also say this: I think Lutheran chaplains are in a better position than anybody else in the military to be able to do this. Because we have this distinction. A lot of the evangelical chaplains get confused because they are trying to bring Jesus in all the time and they don't know what to do when he doesn't seem to fit. And that confuses them. And we have a lot better way of thinking about this that we can make a distinction and find a way forward being able to proclaim Christ into the Gospel and also help the government be the best government it can be, doing its job of promoting justice. It's not easy. It gets really, really tough. But I think you can do this. As a military chaplain. And even as a parish pastor. Because there are times as a parish pastor you enter into the left hand and you're doing left hand things. There's a place for that. Be careful of that and it doesn't become the norm and doesn't overwhelm the Gospel. But there is a place for it. So this is a tough one. And we probably could talk a lot longer kind of unpacking this and going through all of the what ifs, what ifs, what ifs because you get into a lot of kind of captiously sort of ad hoc situations here. What about this situation? What about this situation? And if I had four pastors, you might get four different answers on what they would do and what they think is right. And I think there needs to be some room for some flexibility. I tend to think there's not one hard and fast: This is the right answer. And if we start pushing hard for one right answer and it's black and white, we really end up in error here. And we are trying to push too hard an things that are just a little bit fuzzy in this broken world. It's not always clear-cut what the right way forward is. But if you're thinking about what does God want me to do in this situation? Am I serving in his left hand? Am I serving in the right hand? Do I have a right hand goal here or a left hand goal? Which one is the most important at this time? I think you have a good start forward in beginning to sort this thing out. Now, Nick, you asked that really kind of jab at the end, that if I don't do it, is it a sin? And the quick answer is: Yeah, it is. To ignore your responsibilities to the left hand realm is sin. Because you're not meeting the need of your neighbor. And you're not taking care of what he needs you to be doing. So I would call that sin. You bet it is. I have told groups of people: If you don't vote, you're sinning. Because you have the responsibility to vote. You have the responsibility to be a good citizen in this country. And as a pastor, you also have the responsibility to be a good citizen and to help your people think about what that means to be a good citizen. And to fail to do that is sin. And should be confessed and recognized as sin. Yeah.