Quinquagesima - G - 2017 - The Kingdom of Jesus

Confessions Study Sermon - February 24 - St. Matthias

IN the name of Jesus.  Amen.  Dear friends in Christ.  Today is St. Mathias day.  So what do you know about St. Matthias?  Well really not much of anything.  He is installed in the office of Apostle in our text for today, and we hear not of him again.  Sure, there are a few traditions, about planting a church in the region of Cappadocia, the armpit of the armpit of the Roman Empire, a land comparable to the badlands of North Dakota.  However, compared to the other Apostle’s the details are rather scant and vague.  We know little about the man himself, or what things he did as an apostle of Christ. 

There’s no accounts in scripture or outside of scripture of Matthias performing miracles.  There’s no glorious confessions of the faith before emperors or even governors so far as we know.  There’s not even large populations centers, instead only a few small underground towns and villages carved into cliffs.  Matthias goes not to the population centers, instead he is called to preach the Gospel in flyover country. 

And the way Matthias becomes an apostle is different as well.  He is put forward along with Justus Barsabbas as a possible replacement for the faithless Judas who committed suicide in despair at the death of Christ.   They both had followed Christ from the beginning, they both had witnessed what things had taken place, but they did so quietly from the background.  And when their names are put forward, they are basically drawn out of a hat, and Matthias is selected. 

There’s no booming voice from heaven, “This is my apostolic replacement, listen to him.”  There is no discussion of how good he is with the youth, or that he is a fantastic public speaker.  They didn’t examine his age, or his family circumstances.  They didn’t look to see if he had any advanced degree, or a trajectory to become a district president or synod bureaucrat.  He didn’t even write any surviving letters or books which sold so well that CPH had to put them on backorder.  All they cared about was that he had seen Jesus’s life, death and resurrection, and that God caused his name to be drawn in the lot. 

Yes, God is the one who made Matthias an apostle.  God is the one who gave him the Word to preach.  God put him in an office, and sent him to proclaim the Word about Jesus, the word about forgiveness of sins in the blood of the crucified and risen Lord.  God put him in an office to baptize.  To teach.  To distribute the mysteries of God according to the institution of Christ.  God sent him to the hinterlands of the mighty Roman empire to proclaim that Word, because God cared about the people living there as well. 

And so Matthias goes, and preaches, and administers the sacraments, serving according to the grace given to him by Jesus Christ.  He serves in the very forgiveness of sins that he proclaims, not earned but given.  And does so without glory, or recorded history, or even much remembrance of his name beyond 3 verses in one book of the bible. 

Dear friends in Christ.  Many of you too are put into an office by God.  You also are called to serve faithfully, to preach the Word, and to administer the sacraments according to God’s institution of them.  You are not the smartest pastor in the wider church.  You are not the most well-educated pastor in the world.  You do not have the degrees the world thinks are glorious, for Godly glory is not found in them.  You aren’t going to make big money – you might not even get paid what you ought to be.  But you do have the call of Christ to serve in His office as long as His grace places you there.  You’re no more than God’s man to serve God’s people.

And the place you are called to serve is not someplace fancy like Beverly Hills, or the mission fields of some exotic land.  You do not serve in a big city like Minneapolis or St. Paul, no, not even the sacred and holy city of St. Louis itself where our church body’s bureaucrats busy themselves.  You serve in a small rural part of fly-over country which many people of our wider nation think is too cold to even bother to visit in the summer time.  You are the servant God placed by his call to serve the people of North Dakota. 

And you serve here because God has caused your lot to fall here.  You serve here according to God’s grace.  You serve the people here because God loves them just as much as God loves you.  There’s no glory for self in it.  In fact, in 50 years you’ll just be a name written in a dusty church record book, or perhaps a picture hanging on the wall, little remembered except by those who say, “He was grouchier and longer winded than our current pastor.”  And that’s ok. Because you serve you not to be remembered for your great exploits, but rather so that through your preaching of God’s Word, God’s people will be remembered by their Lord.   

After all, you are not here for your own glory, or your own ambition, or self-advancement, or even as a stepping stone to higher positions in the church.  You are here because the Crucified and Risen Lord Jesus has caused your lot to fall here.  He has placed you in an office.  He has given you a task here, to proclaim His Word here in season and out, and to distribute His gifts to His people. 

And like Matthias, God is with you.  He forgives you the same way he’s forgiven those you serve.  Christ’s blood was shed for you and your ministry, just as it was for those you serve.  You are his man.  He has caused your lot to fall here, and he will not send you and abandon you.  He doesn’t require you to be brilliant, or good-looking, or even smart, just faithful to what He’s told you in his Word.  His mercy covers the rest.  His love cares for you and provides for you.  In fact, he even forgives your unfaithfulness, because He is more faithful to you, that you to him.  His blood covers you.  His mercy is yours.  You serve because His grace has called you. 

You might not become a bigwig in the church.  Your name might not be remembered more than the picture on the wall.  But God works through the Word he’s given you to preach, to serve his people according to His will.  Just like with Matthias.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.  

Evening Prayer - Large Catechism - Apostle's Creed

Sermon for the Installation of Rev. Paul Warnier - Zion Lutheran Church Claire City

Texts:  Ezekiel 34:1-16, Romans 10:14-17, Luke 12:35-43

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  Our text comes from the Old Testament lesson just read, especially these words, “I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear Pastor Warnier, and Saints of Zion Lutheran.  The Lord works in his Word.  In fact he does all his work through his Word in one way or another.  And if this should happen through the office of the ministry, the pastor must first and foremost see to it that the Word is preached in its truth and purity. 

After all, it is the Word that seeks the lost, that touches the heart of man and lets him know that God seeks after him.  But that Word must be God’s Word, the Living Word from God’s lips that is filled with God’s longing for His children. 

And it’s the Word that brings back the strayed sheep to the flock.  Only the Word can show the way home.  But, if the Word is corrupted it cannot lead right.  If our preaching does not lead the way, does not point to the springs of life in the Bible and the Lord’s Supper, if it does not speak clearly about the sins that bind men and haul them away, the neither can it lead them back. 

It is the Word that binds up the injured.  If the preaching cannot paint Christ as crucified and cannot proclaim His atoning death, then neither can it heal the wounded conscience.  It then leads only to complacency, to uncertainty, or to despair. 

It is the Word that strengthens the weak.  Only a rightly proclaimed Word can show men that they in their weakness can and may live in faith in Jesus, that it is the faith in Him that makes them children of God, and that it is this faith that strengthens our weakness so that we do not tire of seeking the forgiveness of sins and do not tire of fighting against our Old Adam. 

It is the Word that pastors are ordained and installed to bring out honestly, humbly, persistently.  If the pastor skimps, compromises or forgets, he hinders the Word from seeking, bringing back, binding up, and strengthening. 

The Word does the work.  And the pastor is given to carry this Word out into the world.  He must himself go out with the Word to seek, and lead back, to bind up the broken, and to strengthen the weak.  He seeks out with the Word.  Pastor Warnier, this is your task here in this congregation – to give God’s Word in season and out of season.  And Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

And that is good that God has brought you to proclaim his Word here.  Because it could be said of us all, even the members of Zion Lutheran Claire City, the same things as God says about Israel in this chapter of Ezekiel.  “My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every single hill.”  “With none to search or seek for them.” (3:6).  It is this that all too often happens. 

For if pastors are given to preach the Word, then congregations are given to hear the Word gladly, after all “Faith comes through hearing and hearing the Word of God.”  Congregations are to be in the pews, listening and rejoicing.  They are and to attend bible studies, they are to receive the Lord’s Supper gratefully and regularly for the forgiveness of sins. 

And not only are they to hear to Word, but they are also to love and support the one whom God has given to preach that word to them.  After all, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!  And so congregations rejoice in caring for the one who brings the Word to their ears!  They provide a living wage so that he can support his family and loved ones.  They listen to his concerns and they pray for and forgive his shortcomings.  For he brings the Word to their ears, and the Word does the work. 

But so often we listen not to the Word, but instead look to the man.  Our sinful natures want to look to the personality of the pastor, and decide whether we like him or not, after all, the pastor can be replaced if we don’t like him.  It wants to measure the entertainment level of his sermons, and points to its watch when 15 minutes of preaching has been passed.  It wants him to know his place, as servant, not master.  Our sinful nature is so willing to complain about the man God has sent us rather than to listen to the Word he proclaims. 

That’s why we need the Word the pastor brings so badly, because our sinful nature needs the Word of God to break its wickedness with the law, and to heal it perfectly and purely with the Gospel.

Such is the Word.  It breaks.  It binds.  It destroys.  It heals.  It seeks.  It gathers.  It feeds and strengthens.  It sets free.  It does the work of the Lord.  It brings Jesus to you here who need Jesus so badly. 

Christ comes when the Word comes, which is why the Word is so important.  The blood of Jesus covers the Words of the pastor so that they are his Word.  The blood of Jesus is attached to the Word of the pastor.  That’s why when he says “I forgive you all your sins” it really happens, because Christ is at work in His Word.  That’s why when he speaks, “Take and eat this is my body, take and drink this is my blood,” it matters, because it is God’s Word at work.  And even when that Word is combined with plain old water, baptism comes about.  The Word does the work of God.  And the pastor brings the Word. 

So the pastor uses the Word to call back the scattered sin filled sheep into the flock of the Lord.  The pastor strengthens the weak and the wounded with the Word of God.  The pastor binds up the wounded, visiting them in their homes and even while they are in the hospital.  The pastor brings the Word, the Word does the work, and the congregation rejoices that the Lord cares for them so much that they might hear the Word of God regularly and in their own community.  They come and they hear, and by their hearing they believe. 

And behind it all is Christ.  Pastor Warnier, as you begin to serve this congregation officially, you do so in the grace and mercy of the Word of Christ.  You do so in the forgiveness of sins earned by his cross.  You use the Word he gives you to care for His people, because He has placed you here – you are his man here and he will not abandon you, nor forsake you. 

And dear Christians, God cares for you enough to use his word on you, to send you a man to preach that word of forgiveness into your ears and hearts.  He brings you his grace day in and day out.  He loves you for the sake of Jesus, and he always will.  Listen to the Word that tells us of what Christ has done, and believe that word. 

Pastor Warnier, the Word is entrusted to you today.  Dear saints of Zion, this pastor is entrusted to bring you this Word today.  May the Word work in all of you, so that saints may be gathered, healed, and strengthened.  And God has promised that it will be so. 

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.  

Sexagesima - G - 2017 - The Word Alone Works

Evening Prayer February 15, 2017

Septuagesima - G - 2017 - First and Last

Transfiguration - G - 2017 - Listen Only to Jesus