July 27th, Year of Our + Lord 2014
St. John and Trinity Lutheran Churches
Fairview and Sidney, Montana
The Fullness of the Blessing of Christ
Romans 15:29, Isaiah 55:6-13, Matthew 28:16-20
He’ll never be as good. Concerning the next pastor of St. John and
Trinity, the chances are extremely low that he’ll ever be as good as me, at
shooting three pointers on the basketball court, that is.
That he may be a better teacher or preacher,
that he may work harder or be better looking, these things are quite
possible. That he will be more organized
and less messy than me seems almost guaranteed.
H e will have gifts I do not have, and he will serve you just the way
you need to be served in the years to come, of these things you should be
sure. But that he’ll be able to dribble
off a pick and pull up to drain a twenty footer? That he will curl off a screen and catch a
perfect pass on the move into a knock-down jumper? I doubt it.
It could happen. But I know a lot
of LCMS pastors, and for most, outside shooting is a gift long forgotten, if
they ever had it at all.
Thankfully, you don’t need a pastor who
can shoot jumpers. Truth be told, sometimes I go on hot streaks
shooting the basketball, and other times, not so much. Playing basketball has been a valuable
avocation for me these last ten years, allowing me an outlet for my
competitiveness, and excellent exercise.
But you don’t need a pastor who can shoot hoops. You need a pastor who will come with the
fullness of the blessing of Christ. And
of this, you have great reason for confidence.
That a new pastor to comes to you with the fullness of the blessing of
Christ is God’s will, and the Lord has set you up to help this happen in a
number of ways, giving you earthly, tangible tools you can use to help insure
this happy state of affairs.
Before we consider the ways each one of
you can help your pastor come with the fullness of the blessings of Christ, it
makes sense that we first understand what we’re talking about. What is the fullness of the blessing of
Christ? When Paul wrote to the
Christians in Rome, telling them that he planned to visit them on his way to
preach in Spain, the Apostle said he would come to them in the fullness of the
blessing of Christ. A brief aside –
there are not very many missionaries today who receive a call to go to a
specific place mentioned in the Bible.
Pretty cool. Not tremendously
important, except for the Spaniards of course, but cool.
What is important for all people everywhere is to have someone come to them with the fullness of the blessing of Christ. Everywhere Paul went, he very consciously sought to come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. That is, Paul always sought to proclaim the full, radical, 100%-God’s-work Good News, that in the man Christ Jesus, the crucified and resurrected Son of God, sinners have forgiveness and righteousness before God. In Jesus, there is for every sinner the gift of justification, that is, the declaration that you are not guilty, and so are worthy to stand before God and live with Him forever. This gift is received by faith, completely apart from our works, when we believe that for Christ’s sake we are forgiven.
The fullness of the blessing of Christ is
the pure Gospel, the Good News of the free gift of salvation for unworthy
sinners, delivered to us today through Word and Sacrament, a work the Lord does
simply because God is love. The Lord
delivers the fullness of the blessing of Christ through His Word, which God
promises will achieve the results He intends. God causes this to happen through
Preaching, Baptism, Absolution and Supper.
Everyone, everywhere needs this gift,
because we are all conceived and born sinful, and we fulfill that sinfulness in
our daily lives. It’s my last Sunday, so
I won’t go through a laundry list of
your sins, or mine. Because you know,
and so do I. If we ever doubt our
sinfulness, all we need to do is examine our lives in light of the Ten
Commandments, and our sinfulness will become apparent, quickly. All of us are sinners deserving separation
from God, unworthy to dwell in His presence. So everyone needs the fullness of
the blessing of Christ. Thinking of
God’s Mission in these terms is especially appropriate for Spain. In Spain, they have Christ, after a fashion,
but the fullness of the blessing of Christ is rarely proclaimed in the land of
Don Quixote and Bullfights.
In Spain you will see many familiar signs
of Christianity. Crosses, crucifixes,
churches, images of Jesus, Christian names, including Jesús, and even many
Christian expressions are all very common there. But while the vast majority of Spaniards
would call themselves Christian, their faith is very cultural and not very
Biblical, very much part of the background, but rarely delivering the blessings
of peace and joy from sins freely forgiven.
While the Roman Church is inextricable from the history and culture of
Spain, the truth is most Spaniards are very secular, do not attend Church, and
most importantly, do not understand the freedom that Christ offers in the
fullness of His blessing. Even for those
Spaniards who are faithful in worship, the adoration of Mary and the Saints and
the depressing expectation of purgatory conspire, along with many other false
teachings, to hide and drown out the Good News of free and full salvation by
grace through faith in Christ alone.
And yet there is today a unique
opportunity in Spain for Lutheran Mission, because the Spanish have an inbred
sense of liturgy, and they do know the history of Christ, especially of His
crucifixion and resurrection. That’s a
big deal. Spaniards may not truly know
the Good News, but they can be quickly told about the full blessing, because
they know at least the outward form of the Church, and the key events in the
ministry of Jesus. On top of that, life
is increasingly hard in Spain, making many people ready for some truly Good
News. There is an opportunity for the
Lutheran Mission to Spain to connect by maintaining a good liturgical sense in
worship, combined with always declaring the free and full forgiveness of
Jesus. Many Spaniards will, Lord
willing, be ready to hear.
And it’s really much the same here, in
northeast Montana and northwest North Dakota.
Most people around here, both long time and newer residents, will
profess to be Christian. But we also
know that for most people this self-identification is cultural more than
spiritual, based in family history, or a sense of morality, but not based in
the Word of God. People may know some
things about Jesus, but they have heard too many preachers excessively focused
on the works-we-must-do, thereby emptying the Gospel of much of its blessing. Worse, many have been taught by human wisdom
to deny the efficacy of God’s Word to do what it says. Many have been taught to deny that God´s Word
can forgive sins in combination with water, despite what the Bible says. Many have been taken in by the suggestion
that God can’t make bread and wine to be also the Body and Blood of Christ,
even though Jesus and Paul and the Evangelists all plainly say that the bread
is Christ’s body, and the wine is Christ’s blood. By these errors people are robbed of the
comfort that God truly forgives and saves us through His spoken Word.
And so we see there is also a unique
opportunity for Lutheran Mission here in the MonDak. Wherever we live, our calling is to proclaim
the fullness of the blessings of Christ, without compromising or watering things
down. This is the calling of the Church,
the public office of pastors, and the individual calling of every Christian
within their daily lives.
You have many tools to help you and your
next pastor insure that you are all proclaiming the fullness of the blessing of
Christ. You have God´s Holy Word, and
you have it rightly explained, briefly in the Small Catechism and at length in
the Book of Concord. You have the full
blessings of Christ proclaimed faithfully in hundreds of hymns, and dozens of
faithful liturgies, developed and chosen across 20 centuries of Christian
history. You have the right
understanding and faithful administration of Holy Baptism and Holy
Communion.
And, you have each other. You have each other, and you have other
Christian pastors, like your Circuit Visitor Pastor Hageman and your District
President Pastor Forke. You have your
combined wisdom in Christ, plus theirs.
You may not always know exactly what is wrong when you hear someone
restricting the full blessings of Christ.
But your instincts are good, and you should certainly ask
questions. Many of you have done just
this for me, dozens of times, gently correcting me when I began preaching
something less than the full truth of Jesus and His Gospel, guiding me back to
the path when I was straying.
When we listen and ask questions and
gently correct one another, when we seek the council of Church leaders, and
when we are ourselves open to correction under the Word of God, then we are
being led by the Spirit to maintain the fullness of the blessing of Christ in
our midst.
We all need help. We all need each other to stay on the narrow
way of Christ´s Gospel, because in each one of us remains a self-righteous,
proud sinner who does not want the full blessings of Jesus. Our reason, our emotions and our pride
conspire to twist the good news of free salvation into an achievement, a work we do, with God’s help. As strange as it may seem, in our sinfulness,
each one of us looks for ways to take some credit, to add at least the last 1%
to the salvation equation, so we can boast in ourselves.
Perhaps we celebrate our baptism in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, but we reject that we also need all the things Jesus commanded His Apostles, things like daily forgiveness, daily hearing and growing in His Word, regular dining at His table of forgiveness, daily confession and absolution. It is the self-righteous sinner in each of us who says: “I’m a Christian already. Quit talking about the Cross and sin and grace all the time, I don’t need that anymore.” Of course we do.
We all need more than the right
tools. As good and right as it is for
all of us to know the pure Gospel, to understand the reality of sin and the
necessity of living from the promises of Christ, as precious as these things
are, they still aren’t enough. We have
all the right tools, and yet we are still so prone to wandering away. We need more.
We need more than just having the right teaching, and
thanks be to God, Jesus gives us more, by giving us Himself.
We do need and we do have the right
teaching, the right understanding, captured in Scripture, Catechism and
Hymnal. But just having the Truth, just possessing
the right teaching of God’s Law and Gospel is still not quite enough. For if we
must apply it to ourselves, if we
must use these tools to keep ourselves in the faith, we will, sooner or later,
lose the battle. Having the doctrine,
having the right teaching, clearly explained, as precious as it is, is not yet
the fullness of the blessing of Christ.
You don’t just need to have the Gospel, you need the Gospel, applied to
your soul. You need someone to plant it
in your heart, to take away your fear, to forgive you and lift you up. Pastors and people all need the same
thing. To believe that the fullness of
the blessing of Christ is really ours, and for us to endure in this faith, we
need Christ Himself to come and give us faith.
And so you are forgiven, you are a child
of God, not because I say so or you say so, but because, through my speaking,
and your speaking, through the hymns we sing, through the meal we share, and
through the mutual consolation of brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus Himself
is speaking to you, forgiving you, and blessing you.
Rest and rejoice in the fullness of
Christ’s blessing, today, tomorrow, and forever and ever, Amen.
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