¿Por Qué Andaba Jesús Sobre el Mar?

Sermon para el Noveno Domingo después de Pentecostés

Texto:  San Marcos 6:45-52

₄₅ En seguida hizo a sus discípulos entrar en la barca e ir delante de él a Betsaida, en la otra ribera, entre tanto que él despedía a la multitud.  ₄₆ Y después que los hubo despedido, se fue al monte a orar; ₄₇ y al venir la noche, la barca estaba en medio del mar, y él solo en tierra.

₄₈ Y viéndoles remar con gran fatiga, porque el viento les era contrario, cerca de la cuarta vigilia de la noche vino a ellos andando sobre el mar, y quería adelantárseles.

₄₉ Viéndole ellos andar sobre el mar, pensaron que era un fantasma, y gritaron; ₅₀ porque todos le veían, y se turbaron. 

  Pero en seguida habló con ellos, y les dijo: ¡Tened ánimo; yo soy, no temáis!  ₅₁ Y subió a ellos en la barca, y se calmó el viento; y ellos se asombraron en gran manera, y se maravillaban.  ₅₂ Porque aún no habían entendido lo de los panes, por cuanto estaban endurecidos sus corazones.

     San Marcos, a diferencia de San Mateo, no incluyó en su versión de esta historia muy famosa el tema de San Pedro y su deseo de andar sobre el agua como Jesús.  Esta elección de San Marcos me parece bien, por nuestra tendencia de enfocar tanto en San Pedro y su deseo de hacer como su Señor.  De verdad, es un momento muy humano e interesante.  Creo que cada uno de nosotros hemos pensado en qué haríamos en la misma situación. 

     Pero esto no vale la pena, ni sirve a nuestra fe.  Debemos recordar que el punto de esta parte de la historia recordado por San Mateo es que Pedro no tuvo la fe ni el poder de hacer las cosas de Jesús.  Trató de andar sobre el agua como Jesús, pero no pudo.  Por su miedo y falta de fe, comenzó a hundirse en el mar, hasta que Jesús lo tomó por la mano. 

     Pedro no tuvo la fe ni el poder a hacerlo como Jesús.  Ni los tenemos nosotros.  El fin de nuestros propios esfuerzos es hundirnos en el agua.  Aparte de la presencia y ayuda del Espíritu Santo, también están endurecidos nuestros corazones. 

     Gracias a Dios, el punto de la  historia de Jesús andando sobre el mar no es demostrarnos las cosas que debemos hacer para ser discípulos de Cristo.  Al revés, el punto, quizás más fácil a ver en la versión de San Marcos, es enseñarnos que hace Jesús para tenernos y guardarnos en su Santa Iglesia. 

     No podemos dejar la tendencia de enfocar nuestros pensamientos espirituales en los requisitos de Dios.  Esta tendencia puede venir de nuestra criatura nueva, creado por el Espíritu Santo, que siempre quiere seguir la voluntad de Dios.  También la puede venir de nuestro hombre viejo, nuestra naturaleza pecaminosa, que, tentado por las mentiras de Satanás, cree que podemos ganar a salvación por nuestros propios esfuerzos.  Lo peor es la realidad que es muy difícil, a veces imposible para nosotros distinguir entre los deseos buenos de la criatura nueva y los deseos orgullosos y feos de la naturaleza pecaminosa, que coexisten en cada cristiano en este mundo. 

     Por esto, necesitamos siempre recordar que la vida de obras buenas es importante, pero para durar en la fe cristiana, debemos enfocar en las obras de Cristo.  Porque nuestra salvación no viene de nada que hemos hecho o vamos a hacer, sino que viene exclusivamente de las cosas Cristo ha hecho, y está haciendo, para nosotros.  Podemos ver esta verdad en la historia de Jesús, andando sobre el mar, algo que no podemos hacer excepto si el mar sea congelado.  Si fuera necesario andar sobre el agua para ser cristianos, tuviéramos un problema grande. 

     Aún más, vemos esta misma verdad en la cruz, dónde Cristo murió por los pecados de todo el mundo, llevándolos en su propio cuerpo, aceptando toda nuestra culpa y todo nuestro castigo, para darnos toda su justicia, santidad y vida.  Este hecho, lo más importante de todos los hechos desde la fundación del mundo, y el centro del evangelio, fue posible solo para una persona: el verdadero Hijo de Dios, hecho hombre para salvarnos. 

     Vamos a tener cruces en nuestras vidas cristianas, sacrificios necesitados por nuestros vecinos, o persecuciones del mundo por llevar el nombre de Cristo.  Pero nadie puede, ni debe, ni necesita llevar la cruz de Calvario.  Gracias a Dios, esta obra pertenece exclusivamente a Jesucristo.  Aún mejor, esta obra es completamente terminada, y es la obra por cual Dios nos ha dado el perdón de pecados, y la vida eterna. 

     Con esta verdad en mente, volvamos al texto, para entenderlo mejor.  Como siempre en la Biblia, la barca representa la Iglesia, llena de discípulos, puestos a dentro por la Palabra de Cristo.  Y aunque, como los discípulos en el medio del mar, no podemos ver a Jesús, sí podemos confiar en esto: Él siempre tiene sus ojos fijados en nosotros.  Él siempre está mirando a su Iglesia, para saber cómo remamos en el mar peligroso de este mundo pecaminoso.  Él está, mirándonos, o andando adelante, preparando nuestro camino.  De verdad, si pudiéramos ver la realidad del mundo espiritual, las cosas pasando alrededor de nosotros cada momento, también nos asustaría, como los apóstoles cuando vieron a Jesús, andando sobre el agua.  Somos todavía pecadores, sin derecho propio a estar en la presencia de la santidad del verdadero Dios.  La vista de la realidad espiritual sería demasiado para nosotros.       

     Por eso, para calmarnos, Jesús esconde su poder y majestad y viene a nosotros en formas simpáticas y graciosas.  ¡Tened ánimo; yo soy, no temáis!  Como habló a los apóstoles en la barca, también nos habla Cristo hoy, verdaderamente presente con  nosotros cada vez que un grupo de creyentes congregan alrededor de su Palabra, cada vez que acudimos a su santa altar para recibir el cuerpo y la sangre para el perdón de todos nuestros pecados, cada vez que, escuchando y confiando en su absolución gratuita, acercamos a Él en oración.

     Vamos juntos, entonces, en la barca de Dios, en la iglesia, no por nuestra santidad y amor, pero mucho mejor, por la santidad y amor de Él que dio su vida en la cruz, para que pueda darnos su paz.  Cristo Jesús, tu salvador, te dice hoy: ¡Ten ánimo; yo soy, no temas!  Tú puedes durar en esta paz de Cristo, que es la paz de Dios, que sobrepasa todo entendimiento, y que guardará vuestros corazones y vuestros pensamientos en Cristo Jesús, Amén.   

When Jesus Comes to Your Wedding - Wedding Sermon for Jeremy and Teresa Warner

When Jesus Comes to Your Wedding.

Genesis 2:4-8, 18-24  Colossians 3:12-17 John 2:1-11

     Jesus was also invited to the wedding, …     and He brought strength, compassion, and great joy to the newlyweds, and to everyone gathered there. 

     Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God and before His Church to witness the union of this man and this woman in holy matrimony.  That is good.  Even more, Jesus has also been invited to this wedding.  That is especially good. 

 

     This gathering, this wedding, is a good thing, a very good thing, not just for Jeremy and Tig, but for all of us.  The institution of marriage seems to be struggling today.  Some even claim that marriage is soon to be a thing of the past.  But today I have good news, for you, and for all people.  Marriage is a good thing, and a Christian marriage is very near to the very best thing.  And so today, we rightly gather with great joy. 

     Now, certainly, all marriages struggle, and many fail, with heartbreaking results.  This is nothing new.  Read your history.  Read your Bible.  Talk to someone who has been married for a while.  Marriage has always been difficult.  And there have been better times and worse times for marriage throughout history.  But how we fare in the task of marriage is not what makes marriage a bad or a good thing. 

     As strange as it may sound, the value of marriage doesn’t depend on us.  Because it is God who has made marriage a good thing, in the beginning, in the Garden.  God fulfills His desire to have a people of His own by working through the mystery of the one-flesh relationship between husband and wife.   

    It is God who made marriage and family holy, as well as the foundation of society, and the engine of education and economic prosperity.  We can hurt ourselves, and each other, by neglecting or rejecting marriage and family.  But we cannot destroy marriage, because marriage comes from God, belongs to Him, and is precious to Him.  So it is good to be gathered here for the wedding of Teresa and Jeremy.   

     And today is an even better day, because Teresa and Jeremy have invited Jesus to their wedding.        

     Do you know what happens when Jesus comes to your wedding?    

     When Jesus come to your wedding, compassion and forgiveness are at the center of everything.  At Cana, Jesus was still three years away from the Cross, His plan of salvation not yet fully revealed.  But today, as Jesus joins us at this wedding, He comes bearing scars that remind us of the rest of the story. 

     Jesus was happy to attend the wedding at Cana, and willing to show compassion for the fairly minor problem facing the newlyweds.  But His greater desire was to win forgiveness for all people.  Jesus’ glory was not to be acclaimed as a miracle worker, turning water into wine, but rather His glory was to be lifted up, on the Cross, for all of us. 

     To prove His priorities, after He rose from the dead, Jesus kept His scars.  As we see in the painting above the altar, Jesus kept the marks of the nails and the spear in His glorified body, as an eternal testimony to the compassion, to the forgiveness and grace, that He has for all people. 

     It would be great to have Jesus provide miraculous wine at the reception this evening.  I wish that I had this power.  But in truth, it is not so important whether the reception has good wine or bad, craft beer or domestic.  It is good to have a nice reception after the wedding.  But nothing is better for a marriage than when husband and wife know and trust the forgiving love of God, revealed in the compassionate scars of Jesus.

     It is very good to have Jesus come to your wedding, because problems will come to this marriage.  Problems will come because you are both sinners, and on top of that, Satan hates a Christian marriage.  But do not worry.  Instead, remember Jesus, God’s eternal Son, who become a man, and then started coming to weddings, in order to bless them. 

     Jesus doesn’t come to your wedding to prevent you from ever having problems.  Rather, He comes with compassion for today, and with His eternal compassion, for marital problems, and all the problems of life.  Ultimately, you can deal with the problems of life, because you already have His eternal solution, the compassion of His blood bought forgiveness. 

     So remember, you face the problems that come to your marriage as baptized believers in Christ.  You have developed the most excellent habit of gathering around God’s Word and Sacrament to be forgiven and restored again, and again.  Jesus rejoices to come to you with His compassion, poured out for you on the Cross, delivering it to you day by day through His Word and Supper.  Sunday after Sunday, and even in between, you draw on God’s well of forgiveness, through which God gives you strength and forgiveness to resolve the problems that will come.    

     As husband and wife bound together with Christ, you can share His compassion with each other.  You can, as Paul says, put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you.  This will bind you closer and closer to each other, and to God, throughout the years to come. 

     Jesus by the power of His Word, has come to your wedding, which is good for you, and which also makes you a blessing of strength to the rest of us.  A good marriage is strong, sometimes obviously, sometimes quietly.  A good marriage brings all kinds of material blessings, greater health and wealth, happy, productive children, good neighbors, couples committed to improving their communities.   

     Even more, a Christian marriage helps people learn about God’s grace and love.  For, as good as it is to find fulfillment in the partner God has made for you, as wonderful as having children can be, as valuable as strengthening our society is, God has an even higher purpose for marriage. 

     It was our human sin that brought problems to the first marriage, and to every marriage after.  But God, in His loving determination, still chose marriage to serve as a picture of the Gospel.  In the Old Testament, the Lord describes Himself as a loving Husband to His people Israel.  In the New Testament, Jesus is presented as the Bridegroom, the Head of His Bride, the Church.  Jesus, the one perfect husband, gave everything, to serve and protect His Bride. 

     Now, today, as husbands and wives love and serve each other, and as each of you puts the good of the other before your own good, the world sees an image of Christ’s love for His Bride, the Church.  Your example need not be prefect, nor will it ever be perfect.  But by teaching you to overcome imperfections with the forgiving love of Jesus, God works through you, powerfully.  For all the opposition and scorn that our society likes to heap on marriage, there still is no better witness to the Gospel than a Christian couple living out their faith together.

     Your friends and neighbors will see you sacrifice and serve and forgive and love each other, and the Spirit will prompt many to ask why, and how, and whether they might learn what you know of God and His love.  If God grants you children, you will have the Spirit of Christ with you, reminding you to do as your parents did for you, to bring them to Holy Baptism and Sunday service and catechism class, and to join you at the Altar.  The Spirit will use you to speak His Word to your children, in order to pass on the faith to them. 

     In many and various ways, God uses earthly grooms and brides to teach the world about Christ and His Church, bringing everlasting joy to all who trust in His forgiving love. 

     When Jesus came to the wedding at Cana, He blessed the newlyweds with great joy, the very best wine.  Everyone expected the fun was about to end, but Jesus saves the best for last, giving joy to the couple and their family and friends, and creating faith in His disciples.  This is also His desire for you, the joy that comes from faith in His promises.  With Jesus, your “now” is good, even when there are problems, and your eternal future is glorious, and guaranteed. 

     Today we rejoice, because Jesus, the risen Savior, has come to this wedding.  We rightly rejoice, because He is our promise of joy at the end, and strength for each day.  We rejoice, and face the difficulties that are sure to come, sharing the same forgiveness that Christ has won for all people. 

     Jeremy and Teresa, rest and rejoice in this peace, throughout your life together, Amen.    

The Bound Will, and Trains

Note:  I've been gone awhile, actually not gone, just posting via other venues.  I'm back.  Hopefully will continue to be back.  Vamos a ver.  

Below is a message I sent out to some pastor friends, but which I think is appropriate for all.  

La Paz de Cristo sea con vosotros, pw  (Google translate should help you if you can't figure this out.)

Dear Brothers in Christ,

     Hurtling backwards at 253 KM per hour, four hours on the train leaves me with no excuse for not sending a “Friday” e-mail.  Actually sending it will have to wait until I get back to Sevilla, finishing up a weekend of travels, to Madrid for a service including a baptism on Saturday, then on to Valencia, where the congregation of actual members has dwindled to almost nothing.  Beneficial conversations with the deacon there, a good egg who is in a seminary by extension program with the goal of ordination.  Getting from here to there studying by extension, on the side, while working full time, and heading a household, is a daunting task.  

     The CTSFW website posts the OT and NT readings from the Treasury of Daily Prayer, which can be really handy for devotions on the go.  But they struggle to keep it on the right day.  The variable date of Easter is seemingly too deep a mystery for the webmaster.  But this limitation proved a benefit today, as the readings for this day, if it were not Pentecost Monday, would rightly come from Ecclesiastes and John 6.  Actually probably from yesterday, May 24^th, since I’m 8 hours or so ahead of Indiana.  Anyway, the readings are the point, to which I will Lord willing get soon.

     Do you ever notice how the Bondage of the Will pops up everywhere, once you get your head wrapped around it, (insofar as this is possible)?  The Preacher’s mournful lament in Eccl 1 seems to me representative of the honest and wise human who has come as close as we of our own powers can come to the reality of our bondage, without yet being enlightened by the mystery of the Cross.  Vanity.  Everything new is old, and pointless to boot.  Eat, drink and be merry, for this is as good as it gets, and tomorrow we die, (which just so happens to be a world view altogether common in Spain.)

     The John 6 reading is the aftermath of Jesus telling His disciples that they must chew on His flesh and drink His blood or they will have no part in His Kingdom.  As the crowd grumbles at this hard teaching, Jesus and John throw down a series of free-will and human reason destroying maxims, (as if eating His flesh and drinking His blood weren’t enough already).  “This is why I told you no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”  “He knew who would betray Him” and yet allowed it to happen!  “One of you Twelve is a devil.” 

Lord have mercy.  Any one of these, pursued to the tying up of all its logical implications, is enough to destroy for us the Gospel, and with it our feeble faith.  The music of the liturgy that accompanies Peter’s words from John 6 is altogether too cheerful.  The bouncy tune and the added alleluias contradict the desperation of Peter’s reply to Jesus’ question, about whether the Twelve also want to leave.  Of course they want to leave.  Their reason and will are screaming at them to leave. All the sensible people have already left.  “But Lord, to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life?” 

 

     Peter can only, and just barely, hold on to the Gospel of Life.  But that is enough, and actually an overstatement, because it is the Gospel that is holding on to Peter.  God’s gracious will continues to unfold, the Cross looms near, and with it comes the Resurrection, where all our impossibilities and the vanities of our bound lives dissolve in peace and joy. 

     The song we have drawn from John 6 to introduce the Gospel ought to be in a minor key.  But no matter, the words are good and right to memorize, and sing, for they do end in joy.  

      God grant you to remain with Jesus, hearing His Word of eternal life, for it is for you, and your people. 

La Paz de Cristo sean con todos vosotros.  D

 

p.s. While you were reading, we hit 300 km/hour.  Say what you like about socialism, the Spaniards have sweet trains.  

Church, Mission and Christmas

1^st Sunday after Christmas, Year B, 

Dec 28, 2014, Trinity Lutheran Church, Miles City, MT

Isaiah 61:10- 62:3, Galatians 4:4-7, Luke 2:22-40

The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations,

     and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! 

     His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

The Lord has made known his salvation;

     he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.

He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. 

     All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!

     The right hand of Almighty God, His all-powerful arm, ready to achieve in time the salvation of our God, is wrapped in swaddling clothes, a 40 day old infant, held in the arms of a faithful old man named Simeon.  This tiny but mighty arm of the Lord is also the Silent Word, the

Unspeaking Subject of the irrepressible telling that comes from the mouth of an ancient widow named Anna.  Righteousness has come down from above, and so praise breaks forth from God’s people, and before the nations, as the love of God beams forth from the face of a little child. 

     Merry Christmas.  It is an extra Christmas blessing to be with you here today, to gather around Christ’s gifts, and to tell you about the adventure my wife Shelee and I are entering, as I have accepted a call from the Mission Board to be a Missionary, a Church Planter, in Seville, Spain.  

     I pray that your week has been filled with the Good Tidings of great joy that Christ is born for you today.  I also pray that your week has been filled with joyful gatherings of family and friends, times of remembrance of joyful days gone by, and the making of memories for the future.  This is how we best love Christmas, when it is filled with homecomings, reunions with our loved ones.  Shelee and I were particularly blessed in just this way, as our son Jeremy came to Billings from Fargo, bringing both his sister Madeline, and his fiancée Teresa.  It was a bit crowded in our temporary apartment home in Billings, but we had a grand time, a Merry Christmas indeed. 

     It is, of course, always a little risky for a preacher to talk about what a great Christmas he has enjoyed, because some of you may not have experienced the same.  Perhaps your Christmas has not been quite so fine, because this is the first one spent without someone very special to you.  Or perhaps the hoped for joy of a family reunion did not materialize.  Perhaps travel plans did not work out, or they did, but tension and anxiety and simmering conflicts stole away the joy you hoped for.  Christmas can be the most wonderful time of the year, and it can also be the most difficult.  The devil works overtime to make fully visible the sin that infects our world and each one of us, as he seeks to spoil our celebration Jesus’ birth.  I dare say all of us over the age of 25 and most of us under the age of 25 have experienced our share of strife and sadness during the season of joy.  I hope this has not been the case for you, but I know that it is for some.  

     If your Christmas has not been all you hoped for, do not despair.  And, if your Christmas has been wonderful, be sure to still remember the True Center of the Holy Day.  For your best homecoming, best this side of eternity at least, is happening right now, right here, as the Holy Spirit has gathered us once again to receive God’s love.  The Lord knows how difficult life in this world can be, and so He is always working to gather us and bless us again, to have His herald announce to all, “Fear not, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which are for all people, for born to you in the city of David is a Savior, Christ, the Lord.  God’s desire today is to give you the confident faith and praise-filled peace that Simeon and Anna received, when they were gathered into the presence of the infant Jesus.  

     Christmas has always been a time of homecomings, of family reunions, from the house of David in Bethlehem at the command of a Roman emperor, to our houses today, filled with favorite foods and football games.  Security and love within the bonds of family are precious gifts from God, and vital for our lives, vital for us, and also for Joseph, Mary and the Baby Jesus, huddled in a stable, borrowing furniture from the animals. 

     And yet God’s Arm has been revealed in that Manger, and so we move quickly from home to the mission field, from gathering as the people of God in this place, to sprouting up before the nations, bearing the righteousness of Christ and singing His praises, by which the nations also come to hear of the Salvation that extends to all.  This movement of God’s people, gathering together to receive His Word and Gifts, leads to the movement of God’s salvation, the sprouting up of righteousness before all the nations.  Gathering and going, to and from the Christ Child. 

     It is quite simple, but the Church is filled with foolish sinners.  We are so prone to infection by worldly ideas.  We should learn almost all we need to know about Church and Mission from the Christmas stories, from the Shepherds and the Wise Men and from Simeon and Anna.  From them we learn of gathering around the Christ Child, in order to be sent out singing His praise and telling His story, gathering and going, each in the vocations and stations of life that God has given.  Gathering and sending, sending both near and far, sending as royal priests and as called ministers, each with a unique role to play in God’s plan - this is God’s unending pattern of mission.  

     Gathering and sending are mutually supportive, but too often we Christians resort to pitting these two movements against each other.  Simply “being in Church,” being the family of God, secure, receiving, protecting, enjoying, is too often pitted against “being in mission,” out before the world, risking, telling, seeking.  Our sin-limited minds think one is more important than the other, or that we can’t do both.  There are layers of error in this thinking, errors which satan uses to discourage and confuse and wear us down.  One mistake is thinking we are the ones really doing things.  Another is thinking that gathering and reaching out are opposed, rather than understanding they are the breathing in and the breathing out of the Body of Christ.  Another error is assuming a plan that does not fit earthly models can’t work.  Remember, God’s mission is exactly that, God’s mission.  The Mission of the Church belongs to God.  He is the one who planned it, who energizes it and who moves it.  We are useful and involved in God’s Mission only as He moves and leads us.  As we heard from Isaiah, “the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.”

     God does mission precisely this way:  First He gathers, in order to then reach out, that yet more may gather.  The Herald of God’s people cries out in service to God’s gathered people.  Again from Isaiah, “For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet.”  The herald preaches for the sake of God’s people, to increase their faith and steadfastness, to see them grow in Christ.  And through this pastoral care for His people, God causes the nations to see and hear, both by leading her to send missionaries near and far, and also by acting through the daily lives of each Christian.  And so Isaiah concludes His discussion of Church and Mission.  The herald keeps proclaiming, “until [Zion’s] righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch.  The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory. 

     Christ is the burning torch of salvation, the light which enlightens the Gentiles, and the glory of God’s people.  Today, the light of Christ shows forth when His people gather to hear the glorious story of God’s grace and mercy.  Christ first, in the fullness of time, and Christ still today, working through the words and actions of His people to reach yet more people. 

     Christ first.  You see, long before any Christian sprang up to praise Him before the Nations, Christ Himself sprang up.  The Son of God became infinitesimally tiny in the womb of Mary, a helpless baby in the arms of Simeon, a young boy growing strong in the Lord, at just the right time.  The willingness of Jesus to set aside His heavenly glory and pass through all the stages of human growth is a marvel of humble love, love for His Father, and love for you. 

     But the incarnation and growth of God’s Son born of Mary is only the first light of His Love.  Starting on His eighth day, continuing in our Gospel this morning, and each day of His thirty some years walking on this earth, Jesus perfectly fulfilled every demand of God’s Law, not for Himself, (it is His own Law, after all), but for you, and me, and everyone.  And then even more, much, much more, Jesus, who loved most of all doing His Father’s will, suffered in our place. 

     Dreading the pain to come, the One who was held by Simeon in the Temple knelt in the Garden,

and prayed.  Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed, prayed Abba, Father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering pass from me.  But not my will, but Thy will be done, Abba Father.  The Father’s will was done, and so, out of Jesus’ love for His Father, and out of His love for you, your sins have been taken away.  You and I and every other sinner on this globe were under the Law, under its condemnation, for we are sinners.  But now, the Law is fulfilled for you, by the life of Jesus, and your sins against God’s Law are forgiven, washed away in the blood of Jesus.  Your eternal peace and glory are guaranteed, in the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus. 

     The will of God, His great desire, is to rescue you from sin and death, and God’s will has been done.  So now we, who in our baptisms have been clothed in His garments of righteousness, are thus privileged to add our joyful Abbas to the Gethsemane prayer of Jesus.  Because Jesus fulfilled His Abba Father’s will, you can call His Father your Father, your Abba, your God.  Your Savior has taught you to pray with Him to His Father, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven,’ so that daily you might be reminded who your true Abba Father is, through the grace of Christ. 

     If that is not enough of a Christmas present, just wait, there’s more.  Even when you fail, even when you turn your back on God by falling, yet again, into sin, still God pursues His will to have you with Himself in glory forever.  You have been clothed in garments of righteousness, the pure white robes of Christ’s righteousness given to you in your Baptism, where God covered all your sins, and called you by a new name, calling you His beloved and forgiven child.  When you sin, when I sin, we soil the garments Christ won for us.  When we Christians defile the perfect gift we’ve received from our Father, any reasonable person would be done with us,   

     But not your Father in Heaven.  Even when you fall into sin, God is not done with you.  The Baptized ought never sin, but we do.  To our great shame, we who know Christ as Savior still fail to live as God’s children should.  And yet, despite what you deserve for your sins, the Lord is pleased to wash your garments clean again, to remove the stain of sin with His Word of Forgiveness, to purify you inside and out through His Holy Supper.  Great are the mercies that our Lord God has drawn us to, once again here, today, blessings for you, the people of God, and also a blessing for the nations.  This is why, as we leave Christ’s table, we sing with Simeon, Lord, now you let your servant go in peace, for your Word has been fulfilled.  

     And still God is not finished.  Christ first, and Christ still today.  This inward movement, the gathering by the Holy Spirit of God’s people around the Word and Signs of Christ, is exactly the beginning point of God’s plan to reach out to the nations.  God drew Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, bearing Christ, in order that the angels could herald his birth, drawing the Shepherds in to worship, and then sending them out to tell their neighbors all they had heard and seen.  God drew the Wise Men by the star to the home of Jesus, so that He could send them back out to the nations, carrying this good news that a new king has been born for all people.   God drew Simeon and Anna to the Christ, to reveal the Savior to them, and immediately their voices broke forth in praise, announcing to the nations that this Child is for them, too.    

     My wife Shelee and I are being sent to Spain, to an historically Roman Catholic place, where Mary is firmly in the center of their faith.  And yet, most Spaniards are Roman Catholic in name only, almost never gathering for services.  Worse still, in Spain more and more young people are denying Christianity altogether.  Spain is a wonderful place, but the missionary task will not be easy.  So, we are thankful to be gathered here with you this morning, to be strengthened for the work ahead.  Because of our shared confession of Christ, we are bold to ask you to support us.  Please support us with your prayers.  Know what to pray for by signing up to receive our newsletter.  And also, please go to your Abba Father in prayer, and ask Him how He might have you support our mission financially, both as individuals, and as a congregation.  

     Remember us, and also remember, God sends you, too.  Whether you are a banker or a rancher or a grade school student, whether you are a parent, grandparent, brother, sister or child, whether you are eloquent or shy, God sends you into your daily callings, and He goes with you.  He is not calling you to preach on the street corner, but rather to love your neighbor, and to be ready to give the reason for the hope that you have.  If you’re not sure how to best live out your role in God’s Mission, if you’re nervous about giving the reason for the hope you have, there is a simple solution.  To be better prepared for your tasks in God’s Mission, you can simply gather more, study more, hear more, and receive more.  Be filled up with Gods’ pure Gospel, and the Holy Spirit, working through the Word and the Supper, working through the instruction and wisdom of your pastor, will prepare you to fill just the role God has in mind for you.  

     Merry Christmas.  God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is thrilled to reunite again with you today, thrilled to take your sins and give you His garments of righteousness, thrilled to love you and give you peace.  Here your eyes see the salvation, which the Lord has prepared before the face of all people, a light, to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of God’s people, the New Israel, the Church of Christ.  Go forth in His peace, singing His praise, Amen.  

                                       www.godsreigninspain.org

Exporting Oil to Spain

Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost, November 9^th, Year of Our + Lord 2014

Our Savior Lutheran Church, Hutchinson, Minnesota

Exporting Oil to Spain

This morning I’m here to speak with you about exporting oil to Spain.

    I’m David Warner, formerly a member of Concordia Lutheran Church in Forsyth, MT, which explains my connection to your Pastor Oster, who served my family there, before coming to serve you here, in Hutchinson.  More recently, for the last ten years to be precise, I served as pastor of Trinity and St. John Lutheran Churches of Sidney and Fairview, Montana, two congregations nestled in the western end of the Bakken Oil Shale region.  Through our decade in Sidney, my wife Shelee and I experienced life in an oil boom, a life filled with change, challenges and opportunity. 

     In June I accepted a call from the Board for Intl. Mission to be a Church Planter in Seville, Spain.  Pastoral calls are often a bit mysterious, and I have not always immediately had an answer for those who asked why I received this call to go to Spain.  But now, having heard this morning’s Gospel reading, I think perhaps I get it.  The mission board decided it made sense to call me, a pastor from the oil patch, in order to export oil to Spain.     

     You see, Jesus tells us the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom, five foolish virgins, who took no oil with them, and five wise, who carried flasks of oil along with their lamps.  Jesus is teaching about the End, about the Last Day, the Day when He will return in glory to usher in the new heavens and the new earth.  Jesus is the Bridegroom, and the Virgins are us, Christians, or at least outward members of the Church.  The key point is that for us to be truly ready for the kingdom of heaven, to be truly ready for the return of our Bridegroom, it is not enough to look like a Christian.  As we consider the wise and foolish virgins, we learn that to be ready, we must always have oil for our lamps.  And, when Christ our heavenly Bridegroom returns, there will no longer be time or opportunity to get the oil you need for your lamp.   

     The oil which the virgins need in their lamps is the pure Word of God.  The oil is God’s Word of Truth, the truth about human sin, which requires God’s just punishment, and the truth of God’s grace and mercy, which led Him to make a way for us sinners to be freed from the punishment we deserve, and instead be welcomed into the wedding feast.  The Word of Life, the oil we need, is the goods news that through the life, death and resurrection of the Bridegroom, Jesus, we receive forgiveness, life and salvation.  The oil in the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins is the pure Word of God, by which the Holy Spirit creates and sustains a living faith. 

     Now, maybe you’ve asked a question about this parable.  When the cry rang out, “Wake, awake, the Bridegroom approaches,” the foolish virgins ask the wise to share their oil.  But the wise say no, they can’t, there won’t be enough.  Does that seem harsh?  If the oil in this parable is the pure Word of God, shouldn’t the wise virgins have shared?  Were the wise virgins being selfish? 

     The wise virgins were not being selfish, there simply was no time.  Remember, this parable is about being ready at the End, on the Last Day.  Elsewhere, Jesus tells His disciples to work while it is day, before the night comes, and no one can work.  When the End comes, when the Father sends the Son to bring this age to its close, the time for work will be over.  The Wise Virgins were not being selfish, there was simply no way, no time.  In the end, none of us can believe for another.  Each of us needs to hear the Word, each of us needs to be brought to repentance daily, each of us needs God’s gift of faith for ourselves.   This parable is about being ready for the Day when the time for being filled with the oil of God’s Word will be over.  When the foolish virgins asked the wise for oil, there was no time left.    

     But there is still time today.  There is still time for us to share the oil we have.  And we are living in oil boom country, spiritual oil boom country.  Despite all the problems we see around us, despite the struggles faced by every congregation and every Christian, we still live in a place overflowing with the oil of God’s pure and precious Word.  The night is coming, when no one can work.  But today, we can gather whenever we want to fill our flasks.  Sundays, Wednesdays, school chapel, Bible studies, God has raised up many opportunities here at Our Savior for you to be filled up.  And you can supplement the gatherings here on your own, reading, praying and meditating on Holy Scripture in your own devotions.  We are truly blessed to live in spiritual oil boom country, with gushing opportunities to hear the Good News of God’s gift to us in Christ. 

     We enjoy gushing opportunities to be filled up with God’s Law and Gospel, and that’s a good thing, isn’t it?  We need the Good News, desperately.  Because it’s embarrassing, shameful really, how you and I sin.  You don’t know my sins.  I don’t know your sins.  But we both know how, like the Apostle Paul, we far too often commit the sin we hate, and fail to do the good we would so much like to do.  We cannot free ourselves from sin.  But from the pure oil of God’s Word a light shines, the light that teaches us to confess our sins, knowing that God’s response to our repentant confession is always the same:  I forgive you. 

     And if that isn’t enough, God gives more.  We can also confess our faith, and then kneel at this altar to receive the true Body and Blood of Christ for the forgiveness of all our sins.  Jesus our heavenly Bridegroom is busy every day, delivering to us the one thing we need most of all.  And so yes indeed, there is time today, time to be filled up with the oil of God’s pure Word, time to see the light of faith shine, time to rejoice in anticipation of the return of Jesus. 

     There is time for you and me to be filled with the oil of God’s Word.  And, there is also time for Spain.  Indeed, there is a new time in Spain, today.  Five centuries ago, the good news of the rediscovery of the pure Word of God by Martin Luther and his companions made it to Spain.  In the 16^th century, God’s pure Word began to do in Spain what it always does; it began to bear fruit.  The fire of faith in Christ alone began to burn in Spain. 

     But that fire was quenched.  The Spanish Church and the Spanish Crown moved swiftly to oppose the Lutheran Reformation in Spain.  In a truly dark episode in Church history, around 40 evangelically minded Spaniards were burned at the stake by the Spanish Inquisition in the 1540s and 1550s.  Hundreds more reformation minded Spaniards fled their homeland.  With support from the king, the Good News of the Lutheran Reformation was violently crushed in Spain, by the very church officials who were supposed to be caring for God’s people.  And so, for centuries, it was illegal to proclaim the full and free forgiveness of sins in Spain. 

     But there is a new day in Spain.  In the 1980s, religious freedom came to Spain, and in the year 2000, the Lutheran Church of Argentina, with support from our Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, began mission work there.  The work has been difficult.  Due in large part to their history, many Spaniards want nothing to do with anything churchly.  The Lutheran mission in Spain is still very small.  But the pure oil of the Gospel is being proclaimed, and there is a small but growing group of Lutherans in Spain.  I have accepted a call to join this mission.  My wife Shelee and I are preparing to go to Spain, to bring more of the good oil of God’s pure grace to a land desperately short on reserves. 

     Outwardly, Spain appears to be a Christian country.  Christianity has a long, long history in Spain, all the way back to the first century A.+D.  But for centuries the Gospel has been severely clouded there.  From the brutality of the Spanish Inquisition in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, to a heavy influence on praying to Mary and other saints today, in Spain the central message of Christianity has been set aside. 

     The main point of the Christian message is God’s gift of salvation, won completely on the Cross by Jesus, and distributed freely to sinners through the Word and Sacraments today.  The forgiveness of sins for Jesus’ sake should always be the main focus of all we do in the Church.  But this main point is rarely heard and even less often believed in Spain.  Despite the outward veneer of Christianity in Spain, the message proclaimed in the Church there is very deformed.  Like putting dirt and water in fuel oil, the false teachings that abound in Spain make it very hard for a flame to burn, very hard for faith to survive.  Without any Good News, the exodus from the Church in Spain by young people in the last three decades has been enormous.  And most of those who still claim to be in the Church hardly ever gather to hear God’s Word.    

     And so, why should we do mission in Spain?  Because Spain needs the pure Word of God.  Why do mission in Spain?  Because we can.  Why do Lutheran mission in Spain?  Because they asked.  It was a handful of Spaniards, who discovered Lutheran teaching on their own, who first asked for a mission to be started there.  Ultimately, there is a simple reason for doing mission work in Spain: Christ died and rose for the people of Spain.  We can seek to do mission work in any land, because Christ has taken the sins of the whole world to His Cross. 

     The Bridegroom has done it all.  Jesus has paid the Bride Price, that is, He has earned His place as the Bridegroom, by living the life of good works that God desires, perfectly fulfilling for us the command to love God and neighbor.    And Jesus has also paid the Dowry.  He has paid what we owed, the debt of suffering our sin deserves, paying for all our sins with His innocent death.  All that God requires for you to be His beloved child is completed in the Son, Jesus Christ.  Now, the Wedding Banquet is prepared.  The Son of God could not be held by death, for He is the Author of Life.  Jesus the Crucified is now Resurrected.  Jesus, alive forevermore, is now Ascended on high, awaiting the call to open the banquet doors. 

     And so, while there is still time, let us share the oil of God’s pure Word, with each other, and with the world.  I am bold to ask you this morning to come alongside the Lutheran Mission in Spain.  Help me export oil, the oil of the Gospel, to Spain.  I even have a simple, three point plan for you to be involved in God’s Mission to Spain. 

     First, fill your flask.  To share the pure Word of God with others, first you must have the pure Word of God yourself.  Be filled up with the Gospel.  Be greedy for God’s Word.  Gather to confess your sins and receive the Absolution.  Hunger and thirst for the Sacrament.  Fill up your flask, for this is what we all need, the rich and daily forgiveness and strength of God, delivered by His Word.  Be filled with the Gospel, for in the Gospel of Christ is your true and everlasting peace.  Be filled with the Gospel, and by this Jesus will prepare you to be of use in His Mission.  Fill up your flask with God’s Gospel oil. 

     Second, make sure your oil pumping station here in Hutchinson is running well.  Pastor Oster has been given to you to lead the way in freely distributing in this place the most precious thing in the world.  Your first mission concern, the proper first mission concern of every Christian, is your home congregation. 

     Third, consider Spain.  You can start by being connected.  Sign up for our newsletter, on one of the clipboards in the narthex, or by sending me an e-mail.  Check out our website, www.godsreigninspain.org.  Be informed and encouraged about the work God is doing, and learn how you can pray specifically for the Mission in Spain.  Be connected, pray for Spain, and pray about supporting Spain financially.  My call is to go there and freely distribute the pure oil of God’s Law and Gospel.  Simple enough.  I am eager to be about the work, to join the devoted people who are already there working.  You can help that happen.  You can be a part of exporting the oil of the Gospel, which so enriches our lives, today and forever.  You can be a part of exporting the oil of the Gospel to Spain, as a congregation, and as individuals, by supporting us financially.  I ask you to prayerfully consider becoming an oil exporter to Spain.   

     Jesus says: Watch therefore, for you do not know the day nor the hour of His return.  This is a serious message.  We are all called to be watchful.  But remember, you watch with your ears, and your mouth.  God makes you ready for Christ’s return, not by demanding you do this or that, but by reminding you what He has done, for you.  Watch and be ready by listening, listening to His

Word, which tells you how Jesus loves you, that He has loved you, to death, and to new life.  Listen to His voice that says, “Take eat, take drink, my Body and Blood, given for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.”  Listen, and receive, and you will see that your greatest treasure is the oil in your lamp, the truth of God’s forgiving love, which makes you ready for His return,

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. 

Broken Missionaries

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, October 4^th, Year of Our + Lord 2014

Zion and St. John Lutheran Churches, Gwinner and Oakes, ND

Broken Missionaries - Matthew 21:33-46

  

Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God our Father, and Our Lord Jesus Christ.   

     It is a distinct pleasure for my wife Shelee and I to be with you here this morning, receiving God’s gifts in Word and Sacrament, and also telling you a little about our journey to Spain, where I have been called to serve as a Church Planter.  The day to day content of this first part of my missionary call is raising prayer and financial support, by going around, preaching and presenting to Lutherans in America, in order to find the people God will raise up to partner with the Lutherans in Spain.  So, as I stand before you this morning, I have to ask a question of your pastor. 

     Rev. Dr. Richard, “What kind of Mission texts are these?”  The LORD’s lovely vineyard yields wild grapes, so God is going to remove the protective hedge and allow the vineyard to be destroyed?  God seeks justice, but behold, bloodshed; God looks for righteousness, but behold, an outcry?  I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish?  And finally, from the mouth of our Lord, “the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”?  Where’s the happiness, the Word of the Lord growing, rejoicing in the Lord always, the sweetness and light passages?  Where’s the bold commission text, the fearless servants bravely venturing to the end of the earth?  Come on, Pastor Matt, this is what you give me to work with?  

     I’m kidding.  The readings are not your pastor’s fault.  Indeed, they are not anyone’s fault.  Taking what the lectionary, the reading system of the Church year, gives us to read is good for us.  For pastors to pick their own readings is a dangerous thing, because we all have the parts of the Bible we like, and the parts we like to avoid.  But we need to hear the full council of God, not just our favorite passages, or our pastor’s favorites.  Using the assigned lectionary readings is a good thing. 

     And, despite the harshness they contain, today’s readings are excellent texts for understanding God’s Mission, and our role within His Mission.  Because there is a necessary harshness, a brokenness even, to being involved in the Mission of God.  

     What comes to mind when you hear the word Mission?  Maybe you think first of helping people?  Certainly Jesus helped people.  We are in the middle of a series of readings all set during Holy Week, the days leading up to His Cross.   Jesus does a number of things which heighten the anger of the religious elite, including riding into Jerusalem like a king, accepting the praises of children, and telling very pointed parables against the scribes and priests, as He does today.  But back at the beginning of chapter 21, you’ll also notice Jesus was healing the lame and blind.  Helping people in need has always gone hand in hand with God’s Mission. 

     In fact my new boss, Rev. Ted Krey, Area Director for Latin American and Spanish Missions, and also a missionary pastor in the Dominican Republic, wants every Church within his mission area to also have a Mercy House.  In the Dominican the Mercy House is a home for developmentally disabled youth.  In other places it might be a school for the poor, or an orphanage.  In Spain we are going to be looking for the opportunity to pursue life ministries, as my wife Shelee has years of experience serving women in crisis pregnancies.  This is how it should be.  Christ in his earthly ministry was always caring for the sick and hurting, so Christians share His concern for helping people in their earthly needs. 

     But helping people with their earthly hurts and needs is not the heart of mission.  Jesus healed many sick and lame and blind, but these healings did not save their souls.  So also, while Christian mission is  rightly accompanied by human, earthly care, and while serving our neighbors is an important way we earn opportunities to tell them about Jesus, God’s Mission finally requires something different.  In fact, true Christian Mission requires harshness.  Scandal even.  An offense.  God’s Mission is centered on a rock that either breaks you, or pulverizes you, a stone of stumbling and offense, of scandal.  Certainly harsh.    

     In fact, as strange as it seems, Jesus is doing mission work as he verbally attacks the elders and scribes and priests.  This is the harsh part of mission work, the preaching of the law, in this case the declaration of the truth that these religious leaders were in truth working against God’s mission.  Despite their outwardly religious  appearance, the Pharisees, Elders and Chief Priests of the Jews all rejected God’s way of salvation.  They were fine with a certain amount of helping the neighbor, and very happy to go about appearing pious and law-abiding, making a show of setting a good example.  And they thought they were very much a part of God’s mission in doing these things. 

But no, says Jesus, they are wicked tenants, who have abused God’s vineyard, abused their positions of authority in His Church, and rejected the central point of God’s Mission of Salvation – the offense of the Cross.  When prophets speaking God’s truth came to Israel, calling them away from their sin, again and again, the people of Israel, leaders and people, rejected the message and abused the messengers.  Being a prophet to God’s people was never an easy calling.  And as in all things, Jesus is the greatest prophet, God’s final Word to His people, and the world.  So the Jewish religious leaders reject Him most of all.     

     Jesus is the rejected stone of Psalm 118 which becomes the chief cornerstone.  Jesus is the stone of stumbling, the rock of offense, of scandal.  In Jesus God fully reveals the central mystery of His plan of salvation.  And this mystery is one we sinners quite naturally reject.  Yes, it’s not just the chief priests and elders.  We all like to sidestep, ignore or outright reject the scandal that is Jesus, because it is unpopular with the world, or maybe because of what it says about us.  The fact that saving sinners like you and me required the unjust execution of the sinless Son of God is crushing news to our spiritual egos.  But it is the truth, a truth without which we cannot be ready for the Gospel.    

     And so we see Jesus is the rock.  He will either break you, or He will pulverize you.  Jesus said, “the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him."  This is His warning to the chief priests, scribes, elders, to anyone who is proudly confident that by their own contributions and efforts and goodness they are earning their place in the kingdom of God.  If you persist in your self-righteous, stubborn resistance to the cornerstone, you will be crushed. 

     The alternative to being crushed doesn’t sound much better.  The alternative is to be broken, but then restored.  That is, everyone of us must be broken on the rock that is Christ, in order to be restored and brought into the kingdom.  For we are all sinners, naturally opposed to God and His Way.  To complete His Mission of Salvation, God must break us from our love of sin.  Consider Peter, broken by his threefold denial, as the rooster crowed, broken by his inability to follow Jesus to the Cross as he had sworn.  Or consider Paul, an enemy and persecutor of the Church, broken by the light, the blinding appearance of Christ to him on the road to Damascus, asking him Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?  Consider Martin Luther, torturing himself in a monk’s cell, trying to earn the favor of God, until the Word of God broke through, revealing that God gives righteousness as a free gift, received by faith, for Jesus’ sake.  

     As for all these famous Christians, so also for you, and for me.  We must be broken out of our complacency, or out of our pride and self-assurance.  We must be broken from our habit of loving earthly pleasures more than God and His Word.  We must be broken of our love of sin.  We all must be broken by the Law, both at conversion, and also throughout our earthly lives, broken so that with His Good News, with His Gospel of forgiveness and mercy, Jesus can restore you to wholeness, and present you to His Father, whole and blameless and beloved. 

     Jesus is the cornerstone of the Church, which is a building made of living stones, sinners who have been broken, but are now restored, made new, and joined to Jesus.  And as in all things, Jesus leads the way.  For He has already given Himself into brokenness, in our place.  Jesus is One man who had nothing to be broken for, the One with no sin for which to suffer.  But out of love for His Father, and love for us sinners, Jesus chose to be broken, even crushed, by all our sin, the sin which requires our death and punishment.  Jesus, the sinless one, the Son of the Master of the Vineyard, Jesus, Almighty God become a man, was crushed, becoming the sinner in your place, body broken and blood shed on His Cross, in order to restore you, with free and full forgiveness.  You are forgiven, all your sins are washed away, by the blood of Jesus.   

     This is the Mission of God, restoring broken humanity through the once broken but now resurrected body of the Son, Jesus Christ.  The Cornerstone is now set.  Jesus Christ, the head of His body the Church, now rules over heaven and earth. By His Spirit He now empowers His mission, which takes the Lord’s marvelous doing out into the world, proclaiming peace between God and sinners.  And, when God has brought us through the harsh things, then there is great joy.  Being caught up and involved in God’s Mission is wonderful, amazing, the best thing in the world.  It is also the one thing in this world that lasts forever, the gift of righteousness and eternal salvation delivered to a sinner, today, by the power of God’s Word. 

     This is the message that God has called Pastor Richard here to preach to you.  This is also the message that I have been called to preach in Spain, a land that very desperately needs to hear this truth.  For in Spain, the way of the Chief Priests and Scribes and Elders, the way of human pride and human accomplishment, the way of human works required to complete salvation, this false way is, sadly, the way the Christian faith has been presented for centuries. 

     Spaniards through their history have been taught a very works righteous misunderstanding of Christianity.  They are very much in need of the pure Gospel, and, since 2000, the Lutheran Church of Argentina, with LCMS support, has begun proclaiming it.  The Lutheran Mission in Spain is small, and spread out.  But Lutheran Mission is there, and the people are hungry for more Good News.  My particular task in Spain will be to come alongside the first Spanish Lutheran pastor, Juan Carlos Garcia, who serves a small congregation in Seville.  I am very much looking forward to working with him to reach out with the Gospel in Seville, and then see God grow His Church. 

     But first, my work is finding partners, Lutherans in America who want to partner with the Lutherans in Spain, and see the Gospel spread there.  God will raise up the partners He has in mind, prayer partners, and financial partners.   My wife and I are very thankful for the commitment you have already made to this work as a congregation.  As we rejoice in our shared restoration, I ask you to ask God how much more He might want you involved. 

     Are you feeling a desire to be more involved in God’s Mission?  Being involved is pretty straightforward. 

     Step 1, be fed, be filled.  As you are doing today, hear the Word, receive God’s Absolution, take, eat, and drink, for the forgiveness of all your sins.  Be filled with the Gospel, for this is how God prepares His people to be of service in His Gospel Mission.  When you are filled to overflowing with the Good News of God’s love in Christ, His Spirit then moves you to be a part of giving the gift to others.  Step 1, be filled, and keep on doing step 1.  The more you are filled with the Gospel, the more you will be ready to be involved in God’s Mission.   

     Step 2, attend to your own congregation’s mission first.  Zion/St. John Lutheran Church is God’s mission in this place, for God is always working through congregations, pastors and people together.  Step 2, attend to home first. 

     Step 3, look beyond.  Ask God how you can best be connected to efforts to proclaim His Law and Gospel to a world so much in need of God’s Truth and Love, revealed in Christ.  By your invitation for Shelee and I to join you today, and by the prayers and commitments you have already offered, you are already doing step 3.  I will go to Spain as your missionary, and that is an honor.  What more might God want to do through you for Spain? 

     As we move forward together in service within God’s Mission, first, last and always, rejoice in the righteousness of Christ that God has given you, rejoice that Christ has made you His own.  Marvel at the Stone the builders rejected, who has become your Cornerstone.  And the Peace of God, that passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.