A Waiter, Matchmaker and Wedding Planner for Christ - Sermon for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany

The Confession of St. Peter 
   and the 2^nd Sunday after Epiphany
January 18^th, A+D 2026
A Waiter, Matchmaker and Wedding Planner for Christ
John 2:1-11, Mark 8:27 – 35, Ephesians 5:22-33

Audio of the Sermon available HERE. 

   In the Name of Jesus, our Heavenly Bridegroom. 

   How do we conceive of the pastoral office?  How did St. Peter understand the ministry into which he was called?  How does Christ want the ministry He has given to His Church to be understood and conducted? 

    During our time as Lutheran missionaries in Spain, we knew a young man, for convenience sake we’ll pretend his name was Mario.  Mario joined our Sevilla congregation.  He had been studying at a Roman Catholic seminary to be a priest, but midway through he became convinced that the theology of the Reformation was correct.  After a time of searching, he found and joined our congregation, after studying with us and confessing the faith of Scripture, as taught in Luther’s Small Catechism. 

    Mario was interested in becoming a Lutheran pastor from the start.  Although we had a two-year membership requirement before any man could begin formally studying to become a pastor, we were happy to have Mario help out in many ways, for example, preparing for and cleaning up after services.  This was a great way to get to know him better, and let him learn more about the Lutheran way, that is to say, the Biblical way of being and doing Church. 

    Now, from April through October the weather in Sevilla, Spain varies from warm to scorching hot.  So I almost exclusively wore my “Panama” style clerical shirts, short sleeved and square at the bottom, not to be tucked in, allowing a bit more air flow, a bit cooler.  Black shoes, black lightweight dress pants, black short-sleeved “Panama” clerical shirt, my chosen pastor clothes fit the basic expectation of Spanish culture for clergy garb, and also kept me from melting in the Andalusian sun.  I could have worn a suit jacket, or any number of complicated, fancy clerical accessories.  But not me.  I treasure my right to bare arms, after all. 

    Now, one Sunday morning, Mario and I were setting up for service, and, feeling comfortable with me, I guess, Mario asked me why I didn’t dress up more, try to look fancier, wear more impressive clerical accessories.  I really didn’t know what to say, and so my reaction was basically a blank stare, I think.  I only remember that Mario pressed his point with the following:  “I mean, you’re the Bishop of the Spanish Lutheran Church, but you dress like a camarero, like a waiter in a restaurant.” 

    Mario thought my clothing made me look like a Spanish waiter.  I thought for a moment, and replied, “You’re right, I do look like a waiter.  And that’s o.k., because in many ways, that’s what I do!” 

    Mario did not like my response.  He had a certain image of what a clergyman was, from his Roman Catholic and Spanish upbringing.  Many Spaniards, especially from the left side of the political spectrum, quite despise Christian clergy.  But, in the mind of a faithful Catholic Spaniard, which Mario had been, a priest, and especially a bishop, is an important, upper class person.  And so, he should dress and act the part.  The bishop should have people serving him, and wear expensive and impressive clothes.  Mario’s conception of the ministry would prove to be a problem.  While he did pursue ordination, in the end, he was not pursuing the reality of pastoral ministry in a Lutheran mission congregation.  It didn’t work out for him; he never became one of our pastors. 

    So now Karla Efird knows why we have this photo on the bulletin cover.  She was very confused last Thursday, and I wouldn’t tell her why we were using this picture.  I have to do something to make sure she comes to church.  The funniest part is, this young man on our bulletins, modeling an all black waiter uniform for an online store, actually looks quite a bit like Mario. 

   No earthly analogy of Biblical realities works perfectly.  But thinking of a pastor as a waiter is a good one.  The congregation gathers, hungry for the bread of life.  I wonder what the main dish will be today, something from Luke, Matthew, John?  The pastor waits on the gathered guests, delivering the life-giving food of Word and Sacrament, helping to insure each “diner” receives the good meal of the Gospel that they need for spiritual health, for eternal life. 

    In fact, I once heard South Dakota native LCMS preacher Wally Schultz, long time Lutheran Hour Speaker and editor of the “Good News” magazine, speak about preachers as waiters.  He said, “When I go to the restaurant, I don’t much care what the waiter looks like, how eloquent he is, how fancy he’s dressed.  I just want the steak he delivers to be good.”  In the case of a pastor-waiter, the steak Wally referred to is God’s Word, His soul-saving message of Law and Gospel, served to God’s people through Word, Water, Wheat and Wine. 

    St. Peter had a lot of ups and downs in his itinerant seminary training.  The Gospel for celebrating his correct confession of Jesus as the Christ is a great example.  Jesus asks the Twelve who they say that He is.  Peter rightly identifies Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One, the new king, the Son of David, sent to save Israel.  Who else could do the mighty miracles Jesus did?  Who else would be able to explain the Word of Moses and the Prophets so clearly? 

    Peter confesses Jesus to be the Christ of God.  But then things fall apart quickly, because Peter’s idea of what Christ and His Mission were all about was totally wrong.  Peter was up, but then he fell down.    

    Matthew’s version of the same event adds details that show Peter’s high was actually even higher than St. Mark describes.  Jesus asked who His disciples said He was, and Peter answered:  “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” ²⁰ Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ.  (Matthew 16)    

     It is hard to imagine higher praise than what Jesus said to Peter.  He must have been exhilarated, flying very high.  Which made what followed devastating.  For Jesus “began to teach them that the Son of Man (that is Jesus favorite way of referring to Himself) the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And he said this plainly.  And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  This always amazes me.  Peter knows who Jesus is, and yet still thinks he should correct Jesus, that he should rebuke the Son of God! 

    But he did it.  Peter pulls Jesus aside and rebukes Him.   And here it comes, for then “turning and seeing his disciples, [Jesus] rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 

    Mario’s misconception of Christian ministry led him to correct and almost mock his bishop about his clothes.  But at least Mario didn’t rebuke the Son of God. 

    Poor Peter simply couldn’t conceive that the promised Messiah, the Christ of God, come to save His people, would be rejected by the Jewish elite and be killed. 

    It seems from the rest of the Gospels that the prophecy of the Cross always filled the disciples’ ears to overflowing, so they couldn’t hear “and after three days rise again.”  The thought of Jesus dying, of allowing Himself to be executed, was unthinkable, too terrible.  That cannot be what God would want, could it?  The disciples never could understand, let alone rejoice, in the Resurrection, until they saw Jesus, still bearing His scars, standing before them, risen from the dead.     

    To reject the very idea of the Cross, as understandable as it is, is Satanic.  It is to set our minds on the things of man, and not the things of God, and that is where the Devil wants us to focus.  God’s Way is not our way, his thoughts and plans are impenetrable to us, until the Holy Spirit opens our eyes, our hearts, our minds, to perceive that God’s strange Way is the Way of Life.  The only Way.  The Way that leads to and flows from the Cross of Calvary.  Without the Cross, the ministers of the church cannot loose sins, that is to say, without Jesus’ death, there is no forgiveness for the Church to proclaim.      

    There are lots of useful ways to conceive of Christ’s Church and the vocation of pastor, as well as the vocation of every Christian within God’s mission.  All good comparisons for understanding the reality of  pastors and congregations always keep Christ and His Cross at the center.  The Cross must be central, because it was and is the only Way for God to achieve His goal, which is to save sinners and have them living with Him in glory, forever.  A clear understanding of Christ’s Gospel will always focus on delivering this strange Good News to the people the Holy Spirit gathers. 

    To serve with the Cruciform Gospel is always the heart of a pastor’s calling.  If the suffering and Cross of Jesus and the forgiveness they bring to repentant sinners is not clearly at the center of what your pastor says and does, then you, dear Christian, owe it to him, your fellow members, and to yourself to ask why.  Someone needs to gently, or not so gently, help such a wandering pastor get back on the right path.  Because if a pastor will not stick to the Way of ministry that Jesus established, he is not serving the cause of God.  God’s people are being neglected, and sooner or later, such a ministry will end in ruin.      

    Another earthly vocation that is helpful in describing the pastoral office is that of a flight attendant.  In fact, both flight attendants and pastors are also called ‘stewards.’  Set aside for a moment that flight attendants are both men and women, while Christ has restricted the Office of the Holy Ministry just to men.  Just think about what the flight attendants do, and don’t do.  They are on a journey through the air with the people on the plane.  Flight attendants don’t fly the plane, the pilots do that.  The captain is upfront, unseen.  The attendants communicate from the pilots to the people, and they serve the people, both helping them with needs, feeding them, showing them the right way, and also directing them, to keep them safe.  “Seatbelts please.”  “Sir, I need you to sit down.” 

    There is even a liturgical connection between the work of flight attendants and pastors.  As flight attendants serve the passengers, on behalf of the pilot, they face the people, who always face forward.  If the attendants need to go to the pilot with some concern of the passengers, then they face forward, and head up to speak to the pilots on behalf of the people. 

    Liturgically, pastors follow a similar pattern.  The pastor and people are together in a vessel, traveling through time, to eternity.  The pastor is not piloting the Church; God the Holy Spirit and His two divine co-pilots have that honor.  Our Captain is unseen, but truly present.  The pastor, steward of God’s mysteries, attends to the passengers, the people who sit in rows, of pews.  On behalf of the Pilot, the Captain, the pastor serves.  When the pastor speaks to the people, on behalf of God, in the readings, the sermon, the blessings, he faces the congregation.  When the pastor speaks to God on behalf of the people, as in the prayers, he faces the front, toward our heavenly Pilot. 

   One more comparison: the pastor as matchmaker and wedding planner.  Which brings us to one of my favorite passages, the Wedding at Cana.  Marriage is God’s institution, given to mankind for our benefit, and also to fill God’s kingdom with souls.  If Adam and Eve had not sinned, growing the church would have simply meant having babies, and raising them.  Without sin, our first parents, and all their descendants, would have naturally raised their babies to know and trust God, and rejoice in His love.  There would have been no other Way. 

    But Satan slithered into the first marriage and destroyed God’s good creation, opening up the way to perdition.  The evil one successfully tempted the man and the woman to leave God’s Way, and follow him into darkness.  Curses and sadness followed.  But also, right away, God promised the Seed of the Woman would come.  All was not lost. 

    As Paul describes in Ephesians 5, Jesus has come to restore marriage.  He is the Seed of the woman, and the New Adam, the Good Bridegroom, who does all that is necessary, even giving His own life, to win back His bride, the Church.  Since the Creation, and also in His re-Creation project, marriage is important to the Christ.  So, Jesus attends the wedding at Cana, and goes out of His way to bless the newlyweds, just because His mother Mary asked. 

    Notice how our Lord works this earthly blessing through servants, ‘deacons’ in the original.  Deacons who have been given wonderful advice by Mary, in her last words recorded in the Bible:  Do whatever [Jesus] tells you.  The wedding party is saved, the newlyweds are spared embarrassment on their special day, and Jesus’ wedding-crashing disciples believe in Him.  The Twelve learn that this Teacher from Nazareth has miraculous power, starting Peter on the way to his great confession. 

    God loves marriage.  He created it as the means by which He would fill His heaven with saints.  And marriage is still essential, to life, and to Christian mission.  So, the pastor’s job has a bit of matchmaking involved.  Pastors sometimes literally play matchmaker, trying to connect single Christian men with single Christian women, for their good, the good of the Church, and for the joy of God.  This is not central to the pastor’s role, but it happens.  Pastors also support and teach about marriage, seeking to help the couples in his congregation to protect, build-up and rejoice in the marriages into which God has called them. 

    But even more essentially, pastors, serving God’s people and reaching out to unbelievers, are trying to cement a match between Christ and one more soul, who by faith becomes and lives as a member of His Body, as part of His Bride.  And the Divine Service is very much a wedding party, a celebration of the Bridegroom’s sacrificial proposal, a rehearsal for the celestial wedding reception, even offering a foretaste of that heavenly feast to come.  The very best wine possible is served here, best not because it’s Mogen David, but because, by the power of the Bridegroom’s Word, spoken over the bread and wine on the night He was betrayed, the wine we drink here is truly the blood of Christ, shed for the forgiveness of all our sins. 

    Jesus called Peter ‘Satan’ for denying the Cross.  The future Apostle’s expectation and understanding of Christ and His mission were all wrong, demonic even.  So that Peter could serve Christ’s mission for the rest his life, he had to be corrected, changed, and aligned with the shocking and life-giving reality of the Cross.  God is faithful; He completed this work in Peter.  And He is bringing this saving work to completion in you, for the great joy of having you with Him forever and ever in glory. 

    It is my great privilege to wait on your table, to help you find your seat in God’s airplane, and to oversee the joyful details of this wedding banquet rehearsal.  Together, having our conception of Christ and His salvation constantly renewed, we journey together to meet face to face with our Pilot and Captain, the Giver of the Feast, the only Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who reigns on high with the Father and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever, Amen.