Invocation for the Investiture of the Honorable Liam P. Hardy

Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

Washington, D.C.

May 19, 2022

United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

The honorable Liam Hardy is indeed an honorable man. A devoted husband and father, he is also deeply devoted to the mission of this court to balance the needs of the military with an impartial application of constitutional protections to those who appear before this bench. He gave me a certain liberty to give a few remarks prior to our prayer of invocation. As a Lutheran, I’d like to very briefly reflect on the nature and source of law through the lens of a Reformation controversy.

The Reformation of the sixteenth century is not without its share of scoundrels and miscreants. The worst kind of scoundrels are scholars, particularly theologians. Reform corrupted becomes revolt. So it was with the antinomians (those opposed to the law). Gospel detached from Law becomes permissiveness, then anarchy. Particular laws are made by men, but natural law, the law written in stone as well as on human hearts, serves as foundation for the laws with which we keep order in our society and among those who bear arms. In the First Antinomian Disputation, the reformer Martin Luther said this law is eternal.

The Decalogue … is written in the hearts and minds of all and will remain with us even in the coming life. [Even] baptism … will not remain, but only the Decalogue is eternal … because in the coming life things will be like what the Decalogue has been demanding here.

Only the Decalogue is eternal. God’s Law shows us the nature of God, and the intended structure of the world He made. That Law is eternal. So you do more, Liam, than adjudicate the details of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. You stand in the breach defending eternal truth from the barbarians who would bash it to bits.

A judge, whether he realizes it or not, is in a divine office. He stands in the place of God, exercising the sword in punishing or acquitting. When Solomon became monarch over Israel, he saw his chief task as judicial. This was his prayer: “Give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” (1 Kings 3:9)

This is what I ask God for you today, Liam: that you be given an understanding heart, to discern between good and evil, and apply the even scales of justice. That work has temporal and eternal impact. Let us pray:

Almighty God, Ancient of Days, before Whom all deeds are known and all secrets revealed: You have called Your servant Liam to sit in judgment over the armed forces of this land. Send down Your Holy Spirit on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. Make him unwavering in duty. Show him the way of escape in the hour of temptation, and deliver him from the evil one. Impute to him the righteousness of Your Son Jesus, our Lord, that he who judges others might be justified. Protect him, Jennifer, Grace, Luke, and Sarah from danger, and be to them a mighty fortress, for You live and reign with Your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.