At that time [the Reformation] people didn’t yet believe that the world could be renewed by world conferences. We believe that by conferences and organizations, by pronouncements and radio speeches we can spare ourselves the bitter way sorrows of contrition and repentance – until God’s mighty hand one day will also crush those means and teach us that the church lives by the means of grace, by nothing else, and that her life is expressed solely and only in this: that she becomes a praying church again, as she was in the days of the apostles. Then it was said of her: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in the prayers” (Acts 2:42). “And fear came upon every soul” is said of this praying congregation…
The praying church (which we do not want to confound with the church of the liturgical scholars) is a power which shakes the social and political world of our century, because in her and in her alone He is present unto whom all power in heaven and earth is given. The life of the Lutheran Church in this century depends on whether she again will become the praying church in the sense of Luther and of the Reformation.
Herman Sasse, Ecclesia Orans, Letters to Lutheran Pastor (1:84), HT to Pr Andrew Packer for sending this.
This quotation was first posted in the Wednesday What-Not. Sign up for the free weekly newsletter here.
Words from a giant of the faith.