Walther's Great Sin

Sadly, some pastors, without receiving another Call, leave their congregation as easily as one might leave a job at Arby’s.  Other pastors leave their congregation to start synods half way around the world.  I find Walther’s words to be extraordinary when he, 25 years after the fact, recalls leaving his Call as a pastor in Brauensdorf, Saxony to follow Martin Stephan to settle in America.

“This great sin of my life stand vividly before my eyes. It makes this day for me a day of repentance. I feel it deeply - God knows it, I am not lying. I would have deserved that God would have thrown me out of the Holy Ministry of His Church forever. Indeed, as a greater sinner than Jonah, I should have been swallowed by the depths of the sea.  But behold! God, who is rich in mercy... allowed me to find grace in the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, for all my sins.” 

C.F.W. Walther, 1862 Sermon on the Office of the Ministry, At Home In The House of My Fathers, 148.

"A greater sinner than Jonah!"  If only all of us pastors would have such conviction and passion for the Call in which God has placed us.  Yet, where even pastors fail as under-shepherds, there is grace in the blood of Christ for us as well.