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Johann Bugenhagen: A Pastor's Pastor

© John L. Hoh, Jr.

On Sunday mornings when we go to church everything appears constant. The same pastor usually greets us and leads our worship and delivers the sermon week after week. The same fingers hand us the body of our Lord and the same hands lift the chalice bearing the Lord's blood to our lips every week. Even if there is a vacancy, we assume that it is only a matter of time before the vacancy is filled.

When we look at the character of our pastors, we usually see some constants there also. We expect to see someone who is the bedrock of the church, upstanding in the community, always willing to lend aid and assistance. His wife is pleasant, always helpful, and raises well-behaved children. As adults we have a reverence for the office; children have an awe that sometimes manifests itself with, "Look, there's God!"

We always assume that our pastors have their "ducks in a row." They don't seem to be human; we rarely see them suffer. But they are human and they do suffer. They, too, are battered by sin and attacked by the devil. Temptations lurk in every corner of their lives also.

Martin Luther, the great reformer and theologian, was also a sinner. He constantly battled his sinful nature. God did not forsake or forget this soul of his, whom he used to restore the truth of the Gospel. God sent to Martin a pastor to look after his soul. That pastor was Johann Bugenhagen, the pastor at the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

Johann Bugenhagen is noted in the footnotes of history books as an organizer of Lutheran congregations. His skill as an organizer was evident in the congregations he helped organize in northern Germany, Finland, Sweden and Norway. His skills were also employed in the creation of an order of worship known as the Bugenhagen order, used by many Lutheran congregations today. But history often fails to tell us of Bugenhagen''s official position as pastor of the church at Wittenberg and his pastoral duties toward Luther.

Dr. Johann Bugenhagen, known by friends as "Doctor Pomer" (he was of Pomeranian ancestry), served the great reformer as more than just a footnote. He was a trusted confidant of Luther and was present at the great events in Luther's life. Dr. Bugenhagen officiated at Martin and Katherine's wedding and preached one of three funeral sermons at the death of Dr. Luther. Luther honored his friend and pastor by giving his eldest son the name Johann ("Hans").