For Luther the “Word,” as the organ and transmitter of the Holy Spirit, as the “life and substance of the church” (vita et substantia ecclesiae), is, in the strict sense, a sacred element of the church.
As a word spoken by human beings it is a piece of the world—and yet not the word of the world, but God’s Word. It not only consecrates the acts of Baptism and Holy Communion, but it also imparts a spiritual character to all “worldly things” with which it has to do (umgeht).
Accordingly, it gives them a character that is not worldly. By constantly re-creating and preserving the church it impresses on it a sacred character.
Elert, Werner: The Structure of Lutheranism. CPH, 2000, c1962, S. 263
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