• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
C
ONTENTS
Foreword7Preface11Abbreviations131.Lord,Have Mercy;Christ,Have Mercy;Lord,Have Mercy15
“Dear God,I’ve got an empty sack!”
2.Father,Son,and Spirit27
Who God is and how we will be.
3.Mercy Incarnate39
Have this mind in you.
4.The Heart ofMercy’s Heart51
 Justification.
5.Baptized for This Moment63
Water oflife in a world ofhurt.
6.Spoken Free and Living Mercifully75
“But do you forgive me,Dad?”
7.Christ’s Body and Blood87
“With might and main for our neighbor.”
8.Christ Cares for the Needy,Body and Soul99
We are beggars—this is true.
9.The Church:Holyand Whole111
We’re all in this together.
10.God against God125
Cross,suffering,and what God makes ofit.
11.Mercy,Money,and Missing the Stewardship Boat139
Where the Church is in motion,there is mission,mercy,and money.
 
12.Mercy and the Church’s Confession151
The Creeds and deeds.
13.Mercy and Office171
 Administering the marks and marking the Church with mercy.
14.What Is Lutheran Leadership?183
Reason serving the Gospel to get it done.
15.Mercy in the City197
 Acase for two-kingdom theology and cooperation in externals.
16.Repentance,Word,Vocation,and the Courageto Be Lutheran and Merciful223
Courage is fear that has been baptized.
Conclusion:It’s Time to Dare Something for Mercy’s Sake251
The Time and the Word ofGod demand this.
StudyQuestions258
6
 
Foreword
by Rev.Ray S.Wilke
Ihave waited thirty-eight years for this book to be published.Wenever learned the things presented in this book in the seminary in1966.All ofus suspected that there was some connection between theFirst and Second Tables ofthe Law given to Moses on Mount Sinai,but we didn’t know how that connection played out in the Churchand in the world.Nor could we put our fingers on the related theol-ogy presented in the Lutheran Confessions or the dogmatics booksthat we pored over in the seminary.Seven years as a missionary in the Philippines taught me that theneedfor “Christ-style mercy”was to be found in the bulging,protein-deficient tummy ofevery child ofthe rice paddy.The need for“Christ-style mercy”was to be found in the furrowed brow ofthetyphoon-blown mother sitting amid the rubble ofher nipa hut.Theneed for “Christ-style mercy”was to be heard from the lips offatherswalking in waist-deep water with a child on each shoulder,chantinghis own version ofthe Kyrie as he pleaded for the thirty-one consec-utive days ofrain to stop.But we were evangelistic missionaries;ourassigned task was to preach and teach the Gospel.It was not tobecome involved in social gospel.But then my Jeep stalled in four feetofwater while delivering sacks ofrice to people huddled in elevatedhuts,waterall around.Right then and there I reasoned that there mustbe some good Lutheran theology somewhere to justify the compul-sionsofmyheartin doing these things.I have finally found thattheology in spades in Matt Harrison’s comprehensive work
Christ Have Mercy 
.Adozenyearsagoover dinner and a nice glass ofChablis,the lateDr.Oswald Hoffman said to me,“We Lutherans have the best theol-ogy in the world,but we have yet to figure out how to pull it out ofthepages ofour theology books and down out ofthe airwaves and intothe trenches ofpeople’s lives.”Missouri Synod Lutherans need soundtheology to function.We know no other way to present the Gospel.7
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...