The Christian in Community: Reflections on the Wind River Lutheran Mission

The Wyoming District initiated and maintained its mission on the Wind River Reservation because of a command and a vision. The command was from the Lord Jesus Himself: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). Likewise, in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation,” and in Luke 24:47, “that repentance and forgiveness of sins be preached in his name to all nations.” God gave the Northern Arapahoe and Eastern Shoshone tribes to the Wyoming District for us to fulfill this mandate in His name.

The vision was that of the Book of Acts and of the Book of Revelation. In Acts 2:5 we read that Peter’s Pentecost Sunday sermon was preached to “devout men from every nation under heaven,” with a list of nations following. He preached, “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21; see Joel 2:32 and Romans 10:10-18). The vision expands from Jewish “devout men” in Acts 2:5; to the Gentile “pious and God-fearing man” Cornelius in Acts 10:1ff, to both Jews and Gentiles scattered throughout the Roman Empire. What began as an earthly vision finds fulfillment in John’s vision in Revelation 7, where he sees the church as it is seen in heaven: “After this I looked, and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothes in white robes…” (verse 9). Without any doubt, God has gathered brother and sister saints from the Wind River Reservation into that great multitude of believers.

Our confidence in the truth of the vision is grounded in the promise of God, which we re-member with deep thanksgiving: “My Word,” He says, “which goes out from My mouth, shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish what I purpose, and it shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). Every sermon at the Reservation, every service, every Sunday School lesson, every Baptism, every Lord’s Supper, every Bible Study, every ministry care in nurs-ing home and jail, every catechesis, every word of counsel and instruction from God’s Word bears this promise. His Word makes Christians, citizens of the church and of heaven itself. We give thanks for the ministry of God’s Word on the Reservations, for the Christians who received this ministry with faith, for the pastor-missionaries who served, and for the many congregations and individuals who gave from their own livelihood to provide the Word to these our brothers and sisters!

Now, with the suspension of our mission on the Reservation, we ponder the Lord’s command and the Holy Spirit’s vision, along with the promise attached to God’s Word and the thanksgiving for all that God has done on the Reservation. But we must also examine our own hearts and actions and repent of our own sins. We bear some responsibility for the suspension of the Wind River Lutheran Mission. Looking back on our labors we also see that we made little provision for bringing our fellow Christians on the Reservation out of the web of cultural, tribal customs which are contrary to the life of Christian piety. We were not able to teach men to be faithful Christian husbands and fathers, so that they could establish stable Christian homes (see, for example, all of Ephesians 5 and 6). We did not succeed in establishing a Christian culture, distinct from both American and tribal “culture,” in the children and adults to whom we ministered. There were, I think, some small success-es, by God’s grace, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. But we were unable to maintain a functioning, healthy congregation complete with male leadership and congregational responsibility.

Our failures here are a warning and admonition to all of us in our own congregations. Like Zacchaeus, we are to repent and abandon the sinful lifestyles of our cultural past (Luke 19:1-10). We Christians are a holy nation, a people set apart (1 Peter 2:1-10). To us God says, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from the midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:16-18). God wills that the teaching of the Gospel create and form a holy community of Christians who are set apart from the corruption of this age.

The members of the Reservation may seem to us to be unlikely Christians. The history of their pagan past is still very fresh in their hears and minds. Pressures inside and outside the tribes urge them to reclaim the old ways, the old animistic relation of the ancestors. The losses, injustices, and wounds brought on by the coming of Western, Christian society and governance seems to pro-vide a justifiable reason to reject Christianity and its transformative culture. The old, demonic spirituality has bound them in chains of addiction, the dissolution of marriage and family, the loss of ordinary human virtues, and despair, often in the name of tribal identity. Unlikely Christians!

But in truth, the only “likely Christians” are those who are baptized as infants and grow up with God’s Word in their daily lives. Otherwise, we could as easily observe that God’s ancient Christian people, beginning with Abraham and his descendants, were unlikely Christians. They too were called out of a pagan, idolatrous Culture and created to be God’s people. We could say the same of the Greeks evangelized by St. Paul and with the classical Roman empire of late antiquity in which Christianity made a home. Even more, we Lutherans should be keenly aware that our German and Scandinavian ancestors were the plundering barbarians and Vikings of the Middle ages, enemies of Christianity, culture, and civilization. Unlikely Christians! Yet God took these idol-worshipping, uncivilized, savage hordes and made Lutheran Christians out of them, reformers and preservers of His be-loved church and her pure doctrine. We are their unlikely heirs.

All this is to say that the tribes of the Wind River Reservation are still our people. They are us. We are bound by divine command and divine vision to bring them God’s Word and the new life of the Holy Spirit. We still pray with Luther “that we His saving health may know, His gracious will and pleasure, And also to the nations show Christ’s riches without measure And unto God convert them” (LSB 823.1). We may step back and reconsider what we are doing to reach them. But we dare never give up on them just because they seem like unlikely Christians.

It may indeed be the case that in God’s own good and gracious will this is not yet His time to convert them to Himself. After all, it took centuries for our heathen forebears to embrace Christianity in both confession and life. But I propose that we should prepare ourselves and pray for an outreach that reaches deep into the hearts, minds, lives, and families of the Reservation—the same prayer we pray for ourselves and our own families and communities. We should catechize ourselves for this expectation: “I encourage you, therefore, by the mercies of God, which is your reasonable worship.

And do not be conformed to this age, but we transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove by testing what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2). Just as we Christians are transformed by the renewal of our minds, so also our congregations.

Our congregations are to be a shelter for the spiritually defenseless, a fortress for those tempted and tried by a hostile culture, a resting place for the weary and heavy lade, and a foretaste of our eternal home, filled with peace and love for one another. Our congregations are also to be schools for learning Christian doctrine and being formed as disciples of Jesus Christ. They are not to be conformed to this present age or to the tribes and identities over which the world obsesses. They are to be transformed through the renewal of a Christian culture which finds expression in sound doctrine and worship, music and art, marriage and family, and inseparable community bonds of love and peace.

For now, we must look to our congregations and pastors in the Wind River Valley to carry out this mission to the people of the Reservation: Bethel, Lander; Trinity, Riverton; Mount Calvary, Dubois. We owe it to them to pray to God that He give them His help and blessing. We ought also to encourage them and to help them as we have opportunity. This mission is their own duty and honor, but they also carry it out on our behalf.

Finally, we return to the vision of the Revelation, the church as it really is. There at the center, on the throne, is God the Father, together with the Lamb of God and the seven-fold Spirit of God. The Lamb—the Son of God and true man—is living, standing, as one once slaughtered to atone for the sins of the world. The seven-fold Spirit still goes out into all the earth, wherever the Word of God is purely taught and the sacraments rightly given out, to work faith when and where it pleases God in those who hear the Gospel. Around the throne is the multitude of the heavenly host—innumerable angels in festal gathering and the great multitude of believers in Jesus Christ from every nation and tribe and language and people. That is the place for the tribes in our midst. By God’s grace, it is our place also, with them. God grant it for Jesus’ sake.

Rev. John E. Hill, President Wyoming District LCMS
(This article is taken from the sermon preached on October 3, 2023, on the occasion of the closing and disposition of the Wind River Lutheran Mission, Fort Washakie, WY)

REFORMATION 500

In early December 1523, Luther finally published a suggested reform of the church’s Divine Ser-vice (called the “Mass” at that time). He explained the changes to his congregation on December 6 and put it into use on Christmas Day. “An Order of Mass and Communion for the Church at Wittenberg” (AE 53.19– 40), often referred to by the Latin Formula Missae, was the first official Lutheran reform of the liturgy.

Except for a few matters like giving communion in both kinds (the Body and the Blood), Luther had been resisting changes to the liturgy for years al-ready. Luther recognized that the liturgy was a very great matter. It is the common language and teacher of our faith. He knew that changes would have to be made carefully, conservatively, and in accordance with the restored and pure doctrine of Scripture. He had no delight in novelty. He removed the offensive portions of the Roman Catholic liturgy that made Christ’s body and blood into a sacrifice that the priest offered to God. He kept the basic outline of the ser-vice. He also understood that changes in the music of the liturgy should both be faithful to the text but also carry the rhythm and feel of the native German tongue. Nothing fickle or frivolous should be introduced.

You will recognize in Luther’s reformed service the basics of our common Lutheran service (LSB Divine Service Setting III, pp. 184–202). First, he retained the historic lectionary for Sundays and Christ’s Feast Days, complete with the appointed introits, graduals, alleluia verses, collects, epistles, and gospels for the day (compare TLH pp. 54–94).

Second, he kept the Kyrie Eleison (“Lord, have mercy upon us…” LSB 186) and the Gloria in Excelsis (“Glory be to God on high…” LSB 187–189). He wanted much more congregational hymn singing, but he warned against the songs that lacked the Holy Spirit’s teaching and comfort from Scripture. Extra things like processions with candles and the use of incense (for the reading of the Gospel) was left to the discretion of the pastor and congregation. After the Gospel he was pleased with the singing of the Nicene Creed and with preaching before the service of Communion. “For properly speaking, the mass consists in using the Gospel and communing at the table of the Lord” (25).

Then, having removed everything that smacks of sacrifice in the Lord’s Supper, he instructed the following order for the Holy Communion. First, the bread and wine are prepared. Second, the congregation proceeds with the Preface, word for word as we have it in LSB 194. Third, the bread and wine are consecrated with the words of Christ (see LSB 197). At this point of his reforms Luther preferred that the chant tone match that of the Lord’s Prayer. Fourth, the choir sings the Santus (“Holy…,” LSB 195), including the Benedictus qui venit (“Blessed is He who comes…”). Fifth, the Lord’s Prayer is prayed. Then, facing the people, the pastor continues immediately with the Pax Domini (“The Peace of the Lord…,” LSB 197), “which is, so to speak, the true voice of the gospel announcing remission of sins, and therefore the one and most worthy preparation for the Lord’s Table, if faith holds to these words as coming from the mouth of Christ himself” (28–29).

Sixth, “Then, while the Agnus Dei [“O Christ, Thou Lamb of God…,” LSB 198] is sung, let him [the pastor] communicate, first himself and then the people” (29). Following the distribution, Luther provided for an appropriate prayer, the Benedicamus Domino (“Let us bless the Lord…,” LSB 202) and a benediction.

Luther sought to balance two concerns. He wanted the Lutheran Divine Service with Communion to be pure and free from all false doctrine. But he also wanted to avoid binding consciences with detailed requirements about things that are neither command-ed nor forbidden in Scripture. He could say, on the one hand, “Even if different people make use of differ-ent rites, let no one judge or despise the other, but every man be fully persuaded in his own mind [Rom. 14:5]” (31). On the other hand, he warned “lest schisms and sects should result from this diversity in rites—as has happened in the Roman church” (31). In all matters, “Faith and love commend us to God” (31). And, “What is left can be decided by actual practice, as long as the Word of God is diligently and faithfully preached in the church” (37).

Luther then turned to instructing the church concerning who should receive Communion. Let “the bishop [pastor] be informed of those who want to commune…that he may be able to know both their names and manner of life. And let him not admit applicants unless they can give a reason for their faith and can answer questions about what the Lord’s Supper is, what its benefits are, and what they expect to derive from it” (32). “He should also observe whether they prove their faith and understanding in their life and conduct” (33). In other words, the pastor was to commune only catechized and repentant Lutherans and thus practice Closed Communion. “Those, therefore, who are not able to answer in the manner described above should be completely excluded and banished from the communion of the Supper….” (32). He added, “The communicants, however, ought to be seen and known openly, both by those who do and by those who do not commune, in order that their lives may be better observed, proved, and tested. For participation in the Supper is part of the confession by which they confess before God, angels, and men that they are Christians” (33–34).

Private confession before the pastor was not required but encouraged as useful. The pastor was to teach about all these things. The people were to commune in both forms, the Body and the Blood; those who refused were not to commune at all. There must be no “private mass,” that is, where only the pastor is present for the Communion.

Luther returned then to the singing: “I also wish that we had as many songs as possible in the vernacular which the people could sing during mass, immediately after the gradual and also after the Sanctus and Ag-nus Dei” (36). Latin hymns could be alternated with the German (vernacular) version. He called for more poets “who could compose evangelical and spiritual songs, as Paul calls them [Col. 3:16], worthy to be used in the church of God” (36). He commended especially two traditional hymns which he himself translated and adapted in 1524: “O Lord, We Praise Thee” (LSB 617), and “To God the Holy Spirit Let Us Pray” (LSB 768).

Finally, Luther encouraged the daily use of Matins (LSB 219–228) and Vespers (LSB 229–234), especially where there were schools. The readings in church should be accompanied by explanation by the pastor, either as a sermon or today as our pastors do in Bible Study. He emphasized here the importance of reading and hearing all the Psalms and all of Holy Scripture. Christians today fulfill this exhortation not only in their churches, but also in their own homes as they daily read God’s Word.

Today we are heirs, not just of the first truly Lutheran Divine Service, but of the doctrinal and pas-toral integrity of Luther the Reformer. We too ground our doctrine and practice of the liturgy and the sacraments in Holy Scriptures. We too treasure the liturgical order and text of the historic Divine Service as a gift that transcends the passing fads of our present time and place. At the same time, we too are attentive to the language and culture of our present time, not that our worship be conformed to this passing age, but that we ourselves might be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1–2).