Dr. James Burtness (1928-2006) was one of my toughest professors in seminary, but also one of my favorites. I liked him as a teacher, and did good work in the classes I took from him. But Dr. Burtness did not like my senior paper. The senior paper was to be a 40-50 page summary of our theology and our understanding of the ministry. We were required to defend it before a panel of three professors. Dr. Burtness was one of the three assigned to me.
Most of what I had written was just fine, and the interview was going well. But I had made the mistake of going off on some creative theological speculation about some things that are not made clear in the Bible. With a good measure of youthful pride and arrogance, I thought I could do it. I think some professors might have appreciated such an attempt, but not Dr. Burtness. He was always very precise and quick to point out the difference between what we do know and can say, and what we don’t know and ought to leave unsaid. He was very powerful in his affirmation of the basics of the faith, the basic central truth of salvation by faith in Jesus; and he had little patience with anyone going off on any tangents. He made me rewrite several of my pages, and then return for a second senior interview. I was much humbled, and did much better the second time around.
Many church leaders in the past few decades have gone off into many ‘creative’ and unbiblical tangents, and the result has been a disaster. Thus, I have come to a deep appreciation of Dr. Burtness’s insistence on sticking to the basic message. My paper had veered off into matters about which Jesus would have said as he said to the disciples in Acts 1:7: “This is not for you to know;” or, as Jesus said to Peter in John 21:22, “What is that to you?”
Dr. Burtness was right in not passing me until I rewrote those pages.
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Acts 1:6-8 — Then they gathered around Jesus and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Jesus) said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
John 21:21-22 — When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”
Job 42:3 — (Job said), “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.”
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We pray, Almighty God, that you send your Holy Spirit into our hearts, that he may rule and direct us according to your will, comfort us in all our temptations and afflictions, defend us from all error, and lead us into all truth; so that we, being steadfast in faith, may increase in love and good works, and in the end, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
—Service Book and Hymnal, 1958, Augsburg.
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Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious favor, and further us with your continual help, that in all our works, begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy name and finally, by your mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
—Lutheran Book of Worship, 1978, Augsburg.
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