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JAMES ARNE NESTINGEN: HE HANDED OVER THE GOODS
John Pless
I first met Jim Nestingen through Dr. Robert Kolb in the summer of 1984. I was ordained the previous year and was serving University Lutheran Chapel in Minneapolis; Jim was teaching church history at Luther Seminary. Bob had called me to see if I could give Jim a ride to a meeting of the Concordia Academy on the campus of Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. The hours to Dubuque and then back to the Twin Cities slipped by as I quickly discovered a kindred spirit in my travel companion.
That trip would mark the beginning of a long and cherished friendship. In those early days, Jim, Bob, Dr. Kenneth Korby, and I would often meet for conversation. We worked with Lowell Green to bring the Concordia Academy to Luther Seminary and again to University Lutheran Chapel. Jim was always an encouraging and thoughtful supporter of my work in campus ministry.
As a young pastor, I wanted to introduce the practice of individual confession and absolution at the chapel. I announced times when I would be available in the chancel to hear confession and speak absolution, but I didn’t have any takers. I confided my frustration to Jim. He reminded me that a pastor should always have “ears for the confession of sin.” He suggested that I not wait for students to come to me. Instead, I should listen for those who might unwittingly be confessing their sins over a beer or cup of coffee, in a conversation at the student center, or in a chance meeting in some setting away from the chapel. Jim said that they may not immediately identify their problem as sin, but “you are a Lutheran, so you’ll know sin when you hear it.” Jim said that I should respond by saying, do you know what you just said? You confessed your sin, now I’m going to absolve you.” Then Jim said, “haul off and say the words….As a called and ordained servant of Christ, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Jim rescued the practice of confession and absolution for me, and I’ve used his advice ever since.
In 2000, I was called to the faculty of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne. Jim encouraged me to accept the call and was full of encouragement as I headed out on this new venture. Moving from the Twin Cities to Indiana meant that I would not have occasions to stop by his office on the Luther campus or get together for lunch in Dinkytown by the University of Minnesota campus, but the friendship remained and deepened as God opened other doors for our respective ministries.
I was pleased that Jim was able to visit the Fort Wayne campus on several occasions. He was a speaker at our annual Confessions Symposium twice and he taught an intensive term STM course. His “fireside chat” on Luther’s treatise on the enslaved will was one of his most energetic and memorable presentations making an impact on students that continues to the present. In typical Nestingen fashion, Jim mocked much of contemporary theology as “Erasmus in drag.” That year, the fourth year class invited Jim to return to Fort Wayne as guest speaker for their spring banquet. A recording of the fireside chat on the bound will would somehow make its way to Norway, prompting Jarle Blindheim to invite Jim and me to speak for their Lutheran Study Days in Bergen. We did this together two summers in a row, focusing on the Small Catechism and Luther’s teaching on vocation. Given his own Norwegian heritage, Jim fit right in and won the hearts and minds of participants with his down to earth humor and his practical applications of Lutheran theology to daily life.
A major intersection with Jim over the last dozen years was the official dialogue between the NALC, LCMS, and LCC. Initially meeting twice a year, this group engaged in honest and open theological discussion and sought ways the church bodies might work together in areas of common concern. Over a series of meetings, the dialogue began a discussion on the understanding of law and gospel. Some of the fruits of that discussion, including a statement, “God’s Word Forever Shall Abide: A Guiding Statement on the Character and Proper Use of the Sacred Scriptures” were harvested in the Necessary Distinction: A Continuing Conversation on Law & Gospel (CPH 2017), coedited by Jim, Albert Collver, and myself. In this volume, Jim contributed an essay on Romans 10:4, which in many ways, serves as a crystallization of thinking on law and gospel proclamation. Another critical essay by Jim on law and gospel, “Distinguishing Law and Gospel: A Functional View,” appeared posthumously in Lutheran Preaching? Law and Gospel Proclamation Today? (CPH 2023), edited by Matthew Harrison and me.
It was a delight to be together with Jim and Carolyn for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in Wittenberg on October 31, 2017, as the NALC, LCMS, LCC dialogue met at the Old Latin School to mark the occasion. Jim and Carolyn almost missed that event due to the fact that Jim discovered that his passport had expired when he arrived at the Minneapolis airport. Determined not to miss being in Germany for the party, Jim rushed to the passport office in the Twin Cities to see if something could be done. Fortunately, the director of the office recognized Jim’s North Dakota accent and discovered that he grew up in her hometown. She managed to expedite a passport renewal and Jim and Carolyn were on a flight to Germany by the end of the day! Jim didn’t miss the party and with his sparkling knowledge of Luther and Wittenberg, he was a perfect guide to the city and the treasures to be found there.
Jim, John Pless, and Jarle Blenheim
Jim was an active member of the dialogue right up to his death. He attended the most recent meeting by zoom in November and he was looking forward to the face-to-face meeting scheduled for Fort Wayne this coming April. I was looking forward to once again hosting a fireside chat with our students. But the Lord had other plans for Jim. His deep insights into the scriptures and the confessions, his humor and warmth, will be deeply missed in the dialogue. From a human point of view, Jim is irreplaceable.
During the final years of his life, Jim was an active participant in 1517, an organization devoted to proclaiming and defending the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it was articulated by Luther. Jim found ready and eager hearers at 1517’s Here
Jim and NALC Staff
We Still Stand conferences held each October in San Diego. At the conference in 2018, Jim was presented with a festschrift under the title, Handing over the Goods: Determined to Proclaim Nothing but Christ Jesus and Him Crucified: Essays in Honor of James Arne Nestingen, edited by Steven D. Paulson and Scott L. Keith. The volume echoed the themes of Jim’s life and calling all clustered around “handing over the goods” packed in the Word of the cross. It was a memorable evening of joy and thanksgiving for those of us privileged to be there with our friend, mentor, and colleague.
When Mark Mattes called me on the afternoon of December 31 with the news of Jim’s death, I like many others was shocked and numbed. Later that evening, I went to what was one of Jim’s last written works, a short essay, “The Theology of the Cross in the Lord’s Prayer” now published in Luther’s Large Catechism with Annotations and Notes, edited by me and Larry M. Vogel (CPH, 2023). I was especially struck and comforted by the concluding words of that essay, so strong with the promise of the resurrection. So I’ll let Jim have the last word: “…Jesus teaches us to conclude the Lord’s Prayer with two magnificent petitions: ‘Lead us not into temptation’ and “Deliver us from evil.’ In the Sixth Petition, we turn our temptations to ‘false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice’ over to Christ Jesus. He can handle – in fact, has handled – decisively what we can’t. When he takes the field, ‘even when we are so tempted,’ the devil has to tuck his tail between his legs and flee. The ‘strong man’ is bound and we are free. And then faith can hear the rumbling promise progressing through the battlefield as our mighty fortress opens its doors and the Prince of Peace takes the field to win His ultimate victory against the forces remaining since Good Friday and Easter. Then we will be able to say the last Amen” (p. 520). Jim has uttered his final Amen and we who remain on the battlefield give thanks to Christ Jesus for the victory he now enjoys.
