Official Workbook PDF page source text

LCMS 2026 Convention Workbook: Reports and Overtures, PDF page 239

2026 Convention Workbook
204 
THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS  —COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
PASTORAL AND SPIRITUAL DIMENSIONS
37
the spirit of the times with its teachings about how to prepare for a “blessed death. ” He warns that Satan would have us /f_ix 
our gaze on death’s terror and God’s wrath, brooding over our sins.176 Luther stressed that instead of looking to oneself and 
one’s own works, “we must turn our eyes to God, to whom the path of death leads and directs us. ”177 Speci/f_ically, he points 
to “the picture of Christ” or “the picture of grace” — the image of Christ suffering on the cross for the sins of the world.178
Because of God’s promise of the forgiveness of sins, believers are encouraged to focus on “the glowing picture of Christ” in 
the con/f_idence that “death, sin, and hell will /f_lee with all their might. ”
179 Or as Luther summarizes: “In Christ [God] offers 
you the image of life, of grace, and of salvation so that you may not be horri/f_ied by the images of sin, death, and hell. ”180
End-of-life issues at the bedside soon give way to those of the grieving ones le/f_t behind. /T_he pastoral ministry at 
the point of death does not end with the one who died. Rather, it carries over into the ongoing ministry to the family 
and friends of the deceased. Here, too, the glorious promise of the Gospel needs to be heard. Perhaps no hymn captures 
the soaring truth of Christian hope based on the /f_inished work of Christ and His promise to us better than the words of 
Hamburg pastor Erdmann Neumeister’s “God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It” (1718). Every verse revels in the sacramental 
bene/f_its of Christian Baptism as the believer’s “great treasure of redemption and eternal salvation” and being baptized into 
Christ as “the shower from heaven. ”
181 Such strong and certain hope offers strength not only to the dying but also to those 
who grieve in the face of death and loss.
D. Christ’s Comfort for the Grieving
/T_he Pastoral Care Companion provides a number of liturgies, prayers and counsel for the a/f_termath of death. We have refer-
enced the “Commendation of the Dying” liturgy as a tool to use with families as they surround the bedside of a dying loved 
one. /T_he Pastoral Care Companion also includes helpful sections on “Comforting the Bereaved, ” “Entrance of the Body into 
the Church, ” the “Funeral Service” and the “Committal. ”
182 Pastors may /f_ind these resources appropriate for their hospital 
and hospice room ministry as well as the funeral and committal services.
Rather than offering pat answers and pious platitudes to deal with death’s a/f_termath, pastoral care involves entering 
into the pain of the bereaved and helping them respond to it in a faithful Christian manner, including the use of lament.183
/T_his document has emphasized the importance of learning to accept our helplessness — and to embrace our Father’s 
merciful care and trustworthiness — in the face of death. Y et it is also true that the prayers of the faithful in the Scriptures, 
especially in the Psalms, teach us to cry out honestly, boldly and even impatiently to our faithful God. Our Lord Jesus 
Himself displayed such moments of raw lament when weeping over Jerusalem, when appealing to His Father in the Garden 
of Gethsemane and when crying out from the cross (in the words of a “lament” psalm), “My God, my God, why have you 
forsaken me?” (
MATT. 27:46; CF. PSALM 22:1). A/f_ter all, as Bayer reminds us, “It is part of God’s own nature to let himself be peti-
tioned … . God reveals himself not as inexorable fate, but as biddable. ”184
176 LW 42:101.
177 LW 42:99.
178 LW 42:104–06.
179 LW 42:106.
180 LW 42:114.
181 Joseph Herl, Peter C. Reske and Jon D. Vieker, eds. Lutheran Service Book: Companion to the Hymns, Vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2019), 594.
182 Lutheran Service Book Pastoral Care Companion, “Comforting the Bereaved, ” 95–106; “Entrance of the Body into the Church, ” 107–109; “Funeral Service, ” 110–124; “Committal, ” 125–135; and 
“Burial for a Stillborn Child or Unbaptized Child, ” 136–147. 
183 Two helpful resources for Lutherans in this respect are Dennis Ngien, Fruit for the Soul: Luther on the Lament Psalms (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015) and Ronald K. Rittgers, A Widower’s 
Lament: /T_he Pious Meditations of Johann Christoph Oelhafen, Translated with an Introduction, Notes, and Epilogue (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2021). 
184 Oswald Bayer, “Toward a /T_heology of Lament, ” in Caritas et Reformatio. Essays on Church and Society in Honor of Carter Lindberg, ed. David Whitford (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 
2002), 214.
PASTORAL AND SPIRITUAL DIMENSIONS
38
Lutherans may particularly bene/f_it from a consideration of lament as a way of living out our faith in times of crisis and 
grief. Luther’s moving writings on his trials and afflictions, his Anfechtungen (variously translated as trials, temptations and 
assaults), coupled with his teaching on what it means to be a “theologian of the cross” speak eloquently to our pastoral task 
with the bereaved. Robert Kolb captures it well when he notes, “In the midst of Anfechtungen of various kinds, Luther rec-
ognized that he had no answer that would give him mastery over the question of the ‘why’ of sin and evil. /T_herefore, Luther 
let God be master and simply turned to him in days of trouble, o/f_ten with the cry of lament. ”185
Luther likens the human heart to a ship on the seas driven by a storm. Sometimes the buffeting of circumstances and 
our particular experiences plunge us into the waters of despair. At other times, “the breezes of hope” bring us the prospect 
of potential happiness. Luther points to the biblical psalms as a rich resource for prayer in each of these seasons of life, 
including the darkest hours:
Where does one /f_ind /f_iner words of joy than in the psalms of praise and thanksgiving? /T_here you look into the 
hearts of all the saints, as into fair and pleasant gardens, yes, as into heaven itself. /T_here you see what /f_ine and 
pleasant /f_lowers of the heart spring up from all sorts of fair and happy thoughts toward God, because of his 
blessings. On the other hand, where do you /f_ind deeper, more sorrowful, more pitiful words of sadness than in 
the psalms of lamentation? /T_here again you look into the hearts of all the saints, as into death, yes, as into hell 
itself. How gloomy and dark it is there, with all kinds of troubled forebodings about the wrath of God! So, too, 
when they speak of fear and hope, they use such words that no painter could so depict for you fear or hope, and 
no Cicero or other orator so portray them. And that they speak these words to God and with God, this, I repeat, 
is the best thing of all.
186
It is instructive to consider even our Lord’s own prayer with its seven petitions as a /f_itting prayer for the grieving 
and lamenting believer.187 Each petition relates to the experience of a person in grief. In a world seemingly out of control 
with death stalking and then stealing from us those we love, we center our thinking by affirming from the depths of pain 
that God’s name is holy, and we ask that it be kept holy, even in this hurt. Second, while our minds may race to questions 
that all seem to begin with “why, ” we petition our heavenly Father for the Spirit’s grace that enables us to “believe His holy 
Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity” as members of His kingdom. /T_hird, we pray that in the midst 
of loss that leaves us reeling, God will superintend in such a way that He “breaks and hinders every evil plan” and enables 
us to hallow His name even when we hurt too much to care, and that He “strengthens and keeps us /f_irm in His Word and 
faith until we [also] die. ” Fourth, we ask for God to give us all that we need, even in our days of grieving, and to receive it 
all with thanksgiving. Fi/f_th, those who are grieving o/f_ten fall prey to anger and to thoughts of recriminations. Not uncom-
monly, the families of those who have died sometimes lash out at the physicians and institutions that provided support for 
their loved one at the end of life. We pray that God will assist us as we “sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who 
sin against us. ” Sixth, recognizing the emotional fragility of a person in grief, we petition the God of all comfort to “guard 
and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, 
and other great shame and vice. ” Finally, the Lord’s Prayer captures the aspiration of the disciple for God to “rescue us from 
every evil of body and soul” and “when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley 
of sorrow to Himself in heaven. ” 
Lutheran theologian Oswald Bayer rightly draws attention to the faith that undergirds a Christian’s lament. Rather 
than /f_inding its voice in “a nihilistic vacuum of unbelief, ” lament only occurs because our God speaks to us and hears us 
185 Robert Kolb, Foreword, in Ngien, Fruit for the Soul, xiii-ix. 
186 LW 35:255–256.
187 Notice how applicable the words of Luther’s catechism are to the experience of the grieving Christian. His words sprinkle this section with the aspirations of one in grief and expressing 
lament. See “/T_he Lord’s Prayer, ” Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, 19–22.
PASTORAL AND SPIRITUAL DIMENSIONS
39
when we cry to Him. “Lament does not become silent in light of the promise of an answer; rather, it becomes louder and 
sharper. /T_he distress articulated in the lament gains painful depth. ”
188
One of the most remarkable features of prayers of lament is the way in which they hold tightly together the seemingly 
opposite poles of grief and joy, despair and hope. Psalm 13, for example, opens with the aching cries: “How long, O LORD? 
Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and 
have sorrow in my heart all the day?” (
PSALM 13:1/endash.case2). Y et just a few verses later, the psalmist declares, “But I have trusted in 
your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation” (PSALM 13:5). On the one hand, this emotional ambiguity may be 
understood “not as … separate moments in the speaker’s life, but as states that exist simultaneously in his heart. ”189 On the 
other hand, there is a movement consistently exhibited by the biblical lament psalms, a movement from pain and lament 
to con/f_idence, hope and praise. As Luther says regarding this psalm, “Hope itself despairs and despair nevertheless begins 
to hope. ”
190
Psalm 22 is no different. As David concludes his convulsive paroxysm of pain, he breaks forth in praise of God:
22/uni00A0I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: 
23/uni00A0Y ou who fear the LORD, praise him! 
  All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, 
  and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! 
24/uni00A0For he has not despised or abhorred 
  the affliction of the afflicted, 
and he has not hidden his face from him, 
  but has heard, when he cried to him.
25/uni00A0From you comes my praise in the great congregation; 
  my vows I will perform before those who fear him. 
26/uni00A0/T_he afflicted shall eat and be satis/f_ied; 
  those who seek him shall praise the LORD! 
  May your hearts live forever! 
Lament offers a biblical template, then, for dealing with the bereaved, and it unites us together in the suffering, 
the prayer and the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Himself. Glenn Packiam notes /f_ive additional aspects of such 
prayer. It expresses the anguish of the human heart in prayer, represents an act of praise of God, bears testimony 
to the dependence on Him even in sorrow, shows the way forward in our relationship with God, petitions Him 
as our dear Father to engage with us in our suffering, and takes us into the very midst of the broken hearts of 
God’s people. Packiam concludes by noting the movement toward praise that undergirds the lament of believers.
Lament is not our /f_inal prayer. It is a prayer/uni00A0in the meantime. Most of the lament psalms end with a “vow to 
praise” — a promise to return thanksgiving to God for His deliverance. Because Jesus Christ is risen from the 
dead, we know that sorrow is not how the story ends. /T_he song may be in a minor motif now, but one day it will 
resolve in a major chord. When every tear is wiped away, when death is swallowed up in victory, when heaven 
and earth are made new and joined as one, when the saints rise in glorious bodies … then we will sing at last a 
great, “Hallelujah!”
191
188 Bayer, “Toward a /T_heology of Lament, ” in Caritas et Reformatio, 212.
189 Timothy E. Saleska, Psalms 1–50 (Concordia Commentary; St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2020), 285, citing J. Clinton McCann Jr., /T_he Book of Psalms in /T_he New Interpreter’s Bible, 
ed. Leander E. Keck (Nashville: Abingdon, 1996), 727.
190 Quoted by Saleska, Psalms 1–50, 288.
191 Glenn Packiam, “Five /T_hings to Know About Lament, ” N.T. Wright Online, April 2020, ntwrightonline.org//f_ive-things-to-know-about-lament/. 
CONCLUDING REMARKS
40
V . Concluding Remarks
In concluding this report, we want to remind the reader once more of the CTCR’s earlier reports, Christian Care at Life’s 
End and Euthanasia. /T_hose studies and their principles remain foundational for this report. As was the case with the 
Commission’s previous reports on how Christians are called to care and never to kill, we have sought herein to be faithful 
to a distinctively Christian understanding of death. We do not seek to avoid death as if it were a natural or medical obstacle 
to be overcome. Instead, we acknowledge it as the right and meet punishment we must all face as the wages of sin. Y et we 
do so with the hope of eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“Precious in the sight of the L/o.sc/r.sc/d.sc is the death of his saints” (
PSALM 116:15).
“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that 
is written:
‘Death is swallowed up in victory. ’ 
‘O death, where is your victory? 
O death, where is your sting?’
“/T_he sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord 
Jesus Christ” (1 COR. 15:54/endash.case57).