Lutheran Women in Mission Sunday 2024
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s
Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Ready to Serve
1 Samuel 3,
Philippians 2, Luke 1
Sermon Audio available HERE
Are we ready to serve? Are you ready to serve? Today we celebrate the service of Lutheran
Women in Mission, which both refers to a particular bunch of women all decked
out in purple, and in general to all the faithful Christian women who belong to
our congregations. Indeed, we celebrate
all faithful Christian women of every age, who were ready to serve in the cause
of Christ.
The Lord provides, and I’m again
and again amazed at how our Bible readings serve us. They were chosen for a given Sunday a long
time ago by folks who did not know what our current situation was going to be. But again and again they still manage to say
just what we need to hear, in order to face this day faithfully.
Today’s readings are a case in
point. The national Lutheran Women in
Mission organization selects special readings for this Sunday, well in
advance. Some years I use them, other
years we celebrate Lutheran Women in Mission using the readings assigned from
our normal lectionary. This year, the
selected readings focus on the service of Samuel, of Jesus, (no surprise there),
and of Mary. The Mother of
Our Lord seems like an obvious choice for a day focused on the service of women
in Christ’s Church. But, I don’t ever
remember Lutheran Women in Mission selecting readings for this Sunday that focused
on her. So, we had to use
them.
The Annunciation, the
announcement by the angel Gabriel to Mary, that she would miraculously bear
God’s Son, comes to our ears as we are fast approaching Election Day. And there is a life issue on our ballots,
the radical abortion Amendment G, which the citizens of South Dakota will
either reject, or enshrine in our state constitution. Amendment G would establish a legal right to
kill unborn babies through all nine months of pregnancy, putting our
constitution in direct and fundamental opposition to God and His Word. Because the Lord loves babies.
In fact, according to Psalm 139 and
dozens of other passages, God is personally involved in the conception of every
child. We need to and we have served the
unborn by speaking against Amendment G.
Which is a heavy thing, not altogether pleasant. Just me bringing it up again has shifted the
mood in this sanctuary. Here we go
again.
It is true, serving each other
and the world as Christians does mean we need to be willing to talk about
unpleasant things. But, we will lose our
gumption if we see this as only a grim task, a heavy burden, a
responsibility. To finish the course, we
also need some good news, a lot of good news, to keep us going. And, thanks be to God, working through the
folks who picked the readings for this Sunday, we have good news to the max
this morning.
Samuel’s introduction to the
LORD, Mary’s conversation with Gabriel, and the great Christ Hymn from
Philippians chapter two, these three readings can transform our hearts and
minds and fill us with a joyful determination to share the Good News of Jesus, even
when this includes addressing unpleasant realities and rejecting the lies of
the world. God through these readings
can make us cheerful servants of His Truth, because they shout
from the roof tops the wonderful news that God loves you, and that God has
loved you, perfectly, through the life, ministry, death and new life of
Jesus. You have nothing to fear from the
devil, or the world. Even your own
weakness and sinfulness need not make you quail or give up, because Christ is
on your side, forever.
Samuel is an unusual figure in
the Bible, because we get to hear about his life, from before his
conception to his death at an old age.
And we learn quite a lot about his childhood, his life dedicated by the
prayer and promise of his mother, Hannah.
Samuel was dedicated by his mom to serve at the Tabernacle of the LORD,
serving under the tutelage of Eli, the high priest. Today we heard young Samuel’s direct divine
call into prophetic ministry. The LORD comes
and stands next to Samuel, speaking to him in an audible voice, calling him
into service. “Samuel, Samuel! Speak, O Lord, your servant listens.”
Do you remember little Samuel’s
first task? Our Old Testament reading
ends just before the LORD gives it to him.
And it’s a doozy. Putting a “No
On G” yard sign outside the Church doesn’t begin to compare. Eli, Samuel’s master, had two sons who served
as priests in the Tabernacle. They were
both wicked men, using their position to rob God’s people, and enrich
themselves. They were forcing women who
served at the gate of the Tabernacle to lie with them. They despised God and blasphemed His Holy
Place. God had warned Eli again and
again to get them under control. But Eli,
old and tired, nearly blind and very overweight, would not, or could not. The LORD’s first task for Samuel was to tell Eli
that the time had come. His two wicked
sons were both about to die, on the same day.
In the morning, Samuel was afraid to speak this truth to Eli. But with Eli’s urging and God’s help, he
did.
As 21st century Christians,
blessed to also be Americans, we can get confused about our proper role in
culture, society and politics. In the
U.S.A., the government does not establish one religion, and guarantees the
right of every citizen to worship as they choose. I’m glad our government doesn’t determine our
religion, because they would mess it up.
And we who have been set free in Christ rightly cherish that our
Constitution recognizes our God-given freedom of religion.
But the false idea has taken
hold that in return for this freedom, Christians are not allowed to speak to the
issues, that the Church can’t “get into politics.” We have had a law since 1954, the Johnson
Amendment, which prohibits churches or religious leaders from publicly endorsing
candidates for office, at the risk of losing tax-free status. This law has never been fully challenged, and
is rarely enforced, probably because it would likely be overturned as
unconstitutional if it ever reached the Supreme Court. But, setting all that aside, the Johnson
Amendment says nothing about churches speaking publicly on issues. And that’s good. Because, when an earthly law or a proposed
change to the law evilly contradicts God’s Word, the Church can and must speak,
come what may.
Of course, we as Church are not
primarily called to political action. We
are here to proclaim the Gospel, and care for each other and our neighbors, as
we make our pilgrimage to heaven. We are called to speak the truth, to each
other, to the culture, and to the government.
If God’s truth is seen as political by some, so be it. We are still called to serve by speaking
God’s truth.
Thankfully, we are not called to
try to run the government. But Samuel
was. For Old Testament Israel there was
no difference between Church and State.
The People of God and the Kingdom of Israel were supposed to be the same
thing. Samuel was God’s prophet, and
he judged Israel, and he led their military. Eventually, God would instruct Samuel to give
Israel what they asked for and anoint an earthly king for them. The LORD God was their true King, but the
people wanted a king they could see, a king like all their neighbors. So, Samuel anointed Saul to be king. Then, when he failed and turned from the
LORD’s way, Samuel anointed another young man, David, son of Jesse, to succeed
Saul. And so, we can head back toward good
news.
Despite his excellent name, David
was not the perfect king that Israel needed.
Even though he was the LORD’s chosen, and “a man after God’s own heart,”
he was also a sinner, who would make a mess of things in his family, leading
eventually to civil war and the division of Israel. Already with David we see that we humans
cannot achieve heaven on earth. We
should certainly pray for good, just, competent government, and do our part to
support it. But, there is no hope to eradicate
evil and create paradise through good government. Because every earthly government and every
nation is full of sinful men and women.
King David could not fix
everything. But God can. And He promised that through one of David’s
descendants, through the “Son of David,” God would make the Way of Salvation,
for Israel, and for the whole world.
Through another 1,000 years of history, the people of Israel struggled
along, with some high points, but mostly with low points. There was always a faithful remnant,
preserved by God, but most Israelites were unfaithful and eager to mimic the
unbelieving nations around them. To bring
them back, God again and again allowed evil to befall His people. A millennium of mostly sad history, with a
thin through-line of hope.
Then the archangel Gabriel
appeared to a young girl from Nazareth, an unknown and unimportant descendant
of David, to make a private announcement that would change eternity. Mary’s servant task was not to proclaim
publicly, but to bear privately. To
trust the Word of the Lord and accept the mysterious miracle that she would
conceive and give birth to the eternal Son of God. God became man, and redeemed humanity, by perfectly
passing through every stage of human life, from tiny embryo, to newborn infant,
to child, to adult, to death.
Gabriel’s announcement was the
best news that anyone had ever heard, and good thing, too. For Mary and her fiancé Joseph would face
many trials and persecutions as they fulfilled their unique callings. No one would believe their story, except a
handful of faithful Israelites and a few Gentiles, to whom God chose to share
the Good News. Zechariah and Elizabeth, Simeon
and Anna, the Magi coming from the East, the Bethlehem Shepherds watching their
flocks by night. The LORD created and
sustained their faith in the Promise, that the Son of David, the new King, the
promised Savior, was born.
Fearful, jealous King Herod did
not need an Amendment G to justify his attempted murder of Mary’s Son. The recognition of the humanity of every
person, from conception throughout natural death, is a novelty in human history,
a novelty that flows from the Christian message. In the ancient pagan world, the value of a
person was entirely dependent on the whims of the powerful. In his mad desire to kill the newborn King, Herod
could send soldiers to slaughter little Jewish boys in and around Bethlehem, without
fear of reprisal.
You see, those subjugated people
had no inherent value in the eyes of the government, and certainly their
children were inconsequential. In fact,
in the ancient world, the approved way to overcome the challenges of a child
born without perfect health and vigor was to abandon that child on the trash
heap, outside the city walls. So far,
the modern pro-death movement has avoided advocating infanticide. Mostly.
The ancient world was
cruel. But, as the Christian Church grew,
soul-by-reborn-soul, the Christians started doing some weird things. They became known for retrieving abandoned
infants and raising them as their own. They
extolled marriage as a lifelong, faithful union between one man and one woman,
and so transformed the place of women in society. And of men.
And of children. Each individual was
known by the Christians to be a creation of God, made in His image, and reconciled
to God through Jesus Christ. And so each
person is to be valued, as God values them.
This was a radical new
perspective. It took centuries, and has
never been a perfected project, but the Good News of God’s grace and mercy, the
story of His love poured out for every human being, this Gospel recreated
individual souls, and families, and communities. Eventually, whole cultures were transformed. Creating heaven on earth is not possible for
us. But the world is a lot better place
when it is filled with Christians.
How did they do it? How did those brave Christian women and men
serve the cause of Christ so boldly? How
did they love so fearlessly?
Because their hearts were
transformed, through Baptismal faith.
Reborn into God’s family, they were guided by a new mind, which was
theirs in Christ Jesus, 6
who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
(that is, Mary’s Son always knew, from eternity, that He was co-equal
with His Father, with every right to claim and exercise His Godly prerogatives)
But the
Son didn’t cling to His glory and power…. rather He made Himself of no
reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, (a slave, who came into this
broken world) in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in
appearance as a man, (a poor baby man, laid in a feed trough for a cradle),
Jesus humbled Himself (entirely), and became obedient to the point of
death, even the death of the cross.
God’s Son did that all that, because He loved His Father, and because He
loved you. He has loved you, ever since He
wove you together in your mother’s womb.
For the joy set before Him, the joy of rescuing you from sin and death,
Jesus served. He finished His course,
for you.
9
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above
every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of
those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of
God the Father. The humble Baby, who
became the abandoned Sinner on the Cross, who died outside the city wall, now
reigns in glory over all things. And He
is reigning for you. He serves, for the sake of all
people. He is the victorious Savior,
with forgiveness and new life, for everyone.
The
blood of Jesus has the power to cleanse us from all sin, including the sin of
abortion. If this great scourge has
touched you or anyone you know, Jesus wants you all to know that He died and
rose to forgive this sin, too. Repent,
and believe the good news, your sins are forgiven
Every
knee will bow to Jesus, someday. Every
tongue will confess that Jesus Christ, the humble servant, is LORD. The question is how many will hear this Good
News and believe unto salvation, before the final trumpet sounds, and the
opportunity for rescue ends?
Here’s
where we come in. First, we come into
this story because, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we have heard and believed
in the Promise of Jesus. What was
whispered to Mary and Joseph, what was hidden for the ages, and kept under
wraps until Resurrection morning, is now shouted from the rooftops. That Gospel cry has come to you, and to
me. We sing with Mary, “my soul
magnifies the Lord, for He has done great things for me!” Or maybe “Jesus loves me, this I know, on the
Cross He showed me so, Jesus died and rose again, washed me clean from all my
sin.”
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my
presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to
will and to do for His good pleasure.
Fearfully and wonderfully made by God, we also tremble in joyful fear to
be caught up in His salvation project.
From
Genesis to Revelation, fear and trembling are a sign of God’s presence with us
here on earth. So, we sinner-saint Christians
live with fear and trembling, because God has taken up residence in us. Temples of the Holy Spirit by
faith in Christ Jesus, we know that, as imperfect and error prone as we all
are, God is at work in us, both to will and to do, to desire to serve and to
dare to serve, as He is pleased to have us do.
Sometimes
God’s good pleasure for our service is routine and pleasant, like mothers and
fathers and grandparents loving and serving the little children God gives us,
or like LWiM meeting together to pray and study and laugh with their other
purple friends. Sometimes God’s good
pleasure has an edge to it. Sometimes we
are called to speak the truth of God’s love for life to a world that is
determined to regress to the brutal ways of the past, before Christ and His
forgiving love were revealed.
Like
Samuel, like Mary and Joseph, we do not face this task alone. We do not serve by our own strength. God the Father, for the sake of Jesus, gives
us His Holy Spirit, to strengthen our resolve with His joy, and with His peace,
the peace that the world cannot give, the peace that passes all understanding,
and keeps our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, for life.
Let us pray: Speak O Lord, your servants
listen. By your grace, O Father, with
Mary and Samuel and all your saints, we are your servants. O Lord, let it be unto us according to your
Word, today, and forever and ever, Amen.
