Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text for this LWML Sunday is
the Epistle lesson read a few moments ago, Romans 10: 5-17.
Ask yourself this question: do we
need people to join our church, and if so, why? I’m going to give you a couple
moments to ponder that – do it in your head, not out loud. Be honest. Your
answers might include that we need them to meet our budgetary needs, volunteers
(aka "voluntolds"), church officers, Sunday school teachers, sew-ers, handy-men and
women, cooks, and other special skills. We need people to join our church so we
can grow and survive. How did I do?
Now, here is question two: Do the
people around us – the people of the Enid area – especially over here on the
East side - do they need St. Paul’s, and if so, why? Again…a couple moments.
Your answers here might have included things like we’re an old, established
part of the community, the school, we provide a place of sanctuary, we offer
some community programs like VBS.
Now, I want to draw your
attention to the questions themselves. To repeat them, the questions were: do
we need people to join our church and do people need St. Paul’s? At first
glance, they seem to be similar questions but, really, they are two very
different questions.
Take the first one: do we need
people to join our church? Who is the focus on? It’s us. In other words, what
do we get from their coming here – what can they give us. What we get are
bodies in the building, wallets at the welcome mat, and purses in the pew. Now,
we can try to sanctify that by saying “they’ll help us do the work of the
church,” and that is true…but, we have to add “because we’re getting tired and so
I don’t have to do so much anymore.” The statement is about us and what we
need. It’s a question of law that gives an answer of law. It points right back
at us, and what it says to people who visit us for worship is we value you for
what you can give us.
Now, consider the second
question: do the people around us need St. Paul’s? Here, the focus is on those
around us. It’s a servant-based question: how can we help them? What can we
give them? Instead of what do we get out of their relationship with us, the
question is what can we give them in this relationship? What will they gain?
The value isn’t in what they give, but what can they receive.
Enid is approximately ten miles
wide and ten miles long. We are in a community that, depending on your data
source, has about 50,000 people within 5-6 miles of where you are sitting right
now. Pew research says that
approximately 70% of Oklahoma identifies as Christian, so that means 30% are
not Christian. Note – Christian is the broad category of all who confess Christ
as Lord and Savior, so it is not denominational. So, do the math…if we use that
same 30% for this area, that means 15,000 people do not know Jesus as their
Savior. To make that a little more personal, that’s three out of every ten. So,
out of every ten people you know, statistically three of them do not know
Jesus. Think outside church friends, here – think about your exterminator, your
favorite nurse at the doctor’s office, the kid that recognizes you at the drive
thru with your #1, extra onions, no pickles, and a large Dr. Pepper. Three of
the people you know from this community would not be with you in the
resurrection at the last day. Three people are looking for answers to eternal
questions outside of Jesus.
Three people you know – not just
three generic citizens of Enid - those three-out-of-ten who literally live next
to you, who live four houses down on the other side of your street, or who live
in that schwanky subdivision, or who live in the trailer park…those fifteen thousand
souls from our area can go to lots of places to try to find answers. And they
do. They go to bars, and they go to their barber or hair stylist, they go to
their online video game, they go to the casino, they stay longer and longer at
work, they go to the open arms of an illicit lover, all looking for something
that might save them. They go…and they search…and they leave, temporarily – and
only temporarily - soothed but still empty.
If they can go to all of these
different places to find answers, what do each of these people need that they
cannot get from their barber, or the bartender, or the Lodge, or the casino, or
a co-worker, or another lonely lover leaving the lights on at the No-Tell-Motel?
The answer is: they need to hear of the kingdom of God that has arrived in
Jesus Christ. And, they need to hear that from us, the people of God called St.
Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Our community needs St. Paul’s as
a place where they can hear about the mercy of God in Christ Jesus our Lord and
Savior. But it’s about more than being a building, an address. A building needs
people to come to it. This community needs need St. Paul’s congregation to be
the body of believers where Christ is enfleshed so that they can see the love
of Jesus demonstrated to them. They St. Paul’s to be people who speak God’s
Word in truth and purity. That means they need the people of St. Paul’s to be a
gentle, but firm, voice that calls sin, sin instead of the conventional
cultural wisdom that says “anything goes…do what feels good.” They need the
people of St. Paul’s to be watchful to see a sinner who is trapped in a sin,
perhaps even in unrepentance, and who needs Christ’s Spirit to break a hardened
heart, but they do not need to be seen as a “bad person.” They need the people
of St. Paul’s to demonstrate mercy and compassion and grace and peace and
forgiveness in the words of Jesus Himself. They need to St. Paul’s to proclaim
that they, too, are beloved by God and He desires them, too, to be eternally
rescued in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Could they hear that elsewhere – maybe.
They could hear about Jesus from the radio, or the internet, or the TV, or the
randomly left Portals of Prayer. Could they hear it from other people?
Maybe. They could hear about it from a friend or family member or co-worker. But
that’s taking the chance on three-out-of-ten “maybe,” because maybe they will
turn to those other places, instead, for answers that lie, answers that
mislead, answers that the devil will use to lead them into eternity, alright –
the eternity of damnation and separation from Jesus.
Or they could hear about Jesus
from you.
This isn’t something that we want
to leave to chance. We want to be – our neighbors need us to be – deliberate in
speaking of Jesus and His death and resurrection. We need to speak of Jesus to
them. But not just TO them, but Jesus died FOR them.
Jesus died for people like this:
- · The young family with two kids who run around in bare feet and hand-me-downs that were worn our two kids ago.
- · The crusty old codger who drinks his dinner from a 16 ounce tall boy and practices his Clint Eastwood impression, “Get off my lawn…”
- · The woman with a record that all started one night when she was young, running with the wrong crowd.
- · The single parent who works two jobs, just to make ends meet – and even that is “barely.”
- · The elderly, lonely shut-in who wonders, “Why am I still here?”
- · The all-American family who seems to have it all – two parents, two children, two cars, two pets, all in a three bed, two bath, two car garage home – but none, not mom, dad, or the kids, know who Jesus is other than someone people talk about around Christmastime.
Jesus died for these people. Do they know that? We dare not assume so. So, how will we help them have the opportunity to hear it and know it and believe it?
LWML is traditionally about
speaking, sharing, confessing the Gospel. LWML has a wonderful history, and we
thank God for the service of the women of St. Paul’s and the LCMS. This LWML Sunday, I am talking about your
feet - not just your mouth. Yes, with your feet. Let me explain.
We talk a lot in our world. And,
unfortunately, the spoken word seems to have less and less value. How many
times have you heard – or even said – “Well, yeah, I said it but I didn’t mean
it…” After all, talk is cheap. But with your feet, you will live out the
Gospel. You can walk – literally or figuratively – alongside those who are
hurting, or struggling, or grieving, or trapped in sin-filled lives and
demonstrate Christ’s mercy to them. This actually is what our church body’s
name implies: the word synod, synhodos
in Greek, means “to walk together.” We walk together with those who are around
us and who need to know Jesus. You speak God’s Word to them – yes, for it is in
the Word where Christ certainly works both repentance and faith – but you also
show what mercy looks like to someone who only has seen grudges; you show what
it is to forgive and be forgiven to those who have only seen evil repaid with
evil; you show what true love looks like to those who have only known what it
is to be used and abused; you show what hope in the resurrection means to those
who think there is no such thing as hope; you show what peace in Christ means
in a world of chaos.
“Well, Pastor – that’s easy for
you to say. After all, it’s your job. And besides, Paul says ‘those who PREACH
good news…you’re the preacher, not me’.” That’s true: this is my vocation. You
are not called to preach in the office of the holy ministry. But you are called
to be disciples of Jesus, and as disciples of Jesus, you are called to be
prepared to answer to those who ask of you in Jesus’ name.
I’ll be honest – for many of us,
it’s a bit of a scary thing to broach the subject of Jesus, and faith, and
salvation, and damnation outside of Jesus. I still get butterflies in my
stomach and more than a few doubts when I am doing an evangelism visit. The
Gospel is not popular; the Gospel is not PC – we talked about that in Bible
Book Club last week. But the Gospel is life-saving; the Gospel is life-
changing; the Gospel is life-giving in Christ Jesus. So, in faith, trusting
God’s Spirit will indeed work in you and through you, you step out, walking
alongside those who are around us. And, boy, it feels like feet of clay –
doesn’t it? You’re not sure what to say, and you can’t remember the Bible
verses, and you aren’t sure if you should offer to pray or not, and you’re
confused about what the question was that was asked, and you’re doing your
level-best to answer faithfully but you feel so woefully inadequate and you
wonder, “How can God bless this mess?”
And, as you walk together,
something remarkable happens. Your feet – your stumbling, stammering, clay feet
are declared by God to be absolutely beautiful. Not because of your efforts,
but because of the message they are carrying and demonstrating. To you, oh
beautifully-footed carriers of the Gospel, God shows His mercy and His grace
and His compassion and His love for you in the very words that you yourself are
carrying.
It’s not about you at all. It’s
about the human feet that Jesus took upon himself to be a human. It’s about the
feet of the one who sat at the feet of His Mother Mary and step-father Joseph
as an obedient Son. It’s about the feet of the One who stood in the temple, His
Father’s house, surrounded by those who would want to kill him one day. It’s
about the feet of the one who walked on water as God of creation. It’s about
the feet of the one who stood upon the hillside to feed 5000 families with
bread and fish. It’s about the feet of the one who walked in the wilderness for
40 days, not with his friends but with his enemy, satan, and defeating him
there in the desert. It’s about nail-punctured feet of the One who went to the
cross to die so that death would no longer be our eternal reward.
I think most people know the
Great Commission: Go therefore and make disciples… What is forgotten is Jesus’
prelude to the Commission: “All power and authority in heaven and on earth is
given to Me, therefore, go.”
You go with the power and
authority of Jesus own words. Your feet follow in the footsteps of Him who
walked on earth carrying those Words. And, made holy in the Baptismal washing
and in the triune name of God, your beautiful feet carry those Words of Jesus
into this community.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
