OUR SAVIOR'S LUTHERAN CHURCH

Pay Attention or Suffer the Consequences

Reformation Sunday
 

Today is Reformation Sunday and as such is one of those times in the life of the church when we stop and do some serious self-examination.  It is not a time to claim superiority over the world – as sort of churchly look at us, we are better than you. 

It is a time to remind ourselves of God’s continual invitation to repent and receive His forgiveness for the sake of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We acknowledge His continual blessing of mercy lavished on us on this day and renew our ministry of spreading the Good News that is Christ Jesus.

A part of our self-examination is to take a look at the basics – a catechism review if you will.  Understand, we all fall short in our attempts to be obedient to God’s Will.  None of us are able to perfectly obey God’s Law; we have no righteousness of our own.  We are in this sorry condition even though He has written that Law on our hearts and revealed it through His Word.

We must understand that there is no salvation in the Law.  Rather, the function of the Law is threefold.  It provides curbs for our behavior – jump the curb and exist in disobedience.  It provides a mirror for the Holy Spirit to show us our disobedience so that we will repent and receive forgiveness.  Finally, for the Christian it is a guide to acceptable behavior according to God’s Word.

While there is no salvation in the Law there is in the gospel.  This is where we find that it is in Christ’s sacrifice of His body and blood on the cross that our sin is forgiven.  He paid the debt that our disobedience created and that we are not able to satisfy by our own efforts.  We remind ourselves today that our salvation is a gift of God’s mercy on us and that our debt is marked “paid.”

So what do we do with this knowledge of sin and salvation?  Firstly, we must share it with the world for that is what we are called to do.  Second, we must realize that the message that we are called to share is eternal in its nature – God’s message has always been one of repentance and forgiveness.  That message will never change.  Finally, we must understand that unlike the message that the world hears now, the message that we have been given to preach to the world is a message of hope, not despair.  To live according to God’s Word is to know peace right now, not just at some unspecified time in the future.  We live with the promise of eternal life with God and the Lamb in His heavenly kingdom.

The question for us today is simply this, how do we go about proclaiming this message?  I could give you a list of suggestions but I’d like to propose something a little different this morning.  I would like us to spend the next year looking at this question in light of which we are as a congregation and where we are in our walk with God. 

The first task that I’m going to suggest is that a small working group be formed to look at our use of the internet.  We own a site but are we using it well in terms of getting the message of repentance and salvation out?  Does it invite non-Christians to hear God’s Word and then invite them to come to hear more?  Is it reaching the right groups and if not what needs to change?

The next task that I’m suggesting is that another small group be formed to examine what opportunities exist within the local media to get our message out.  Our radio broadcast, Pastor’s Minute, has been running for three years: is it time to make changes and if so what changes?  What other opportunities exist – no matter how far-fetched they may seem now?

I’m also suggesting that a third small group form to look at other opportunities to reach directly into the community.  Are our Wednesday School and yearly VBS programs the only ways to reach the community?  Are there other paths that because of tradition we’ve not explored?

Finally, a fourth small group needs to form to examine how we do ministry within our congregation.  Why do we do what we do in terms of programs and liturgy?  Are we following models simply because that is the way we’ve always done things?  Are there other ways to educate ourselves and our children?  Does the two-congregation parish model still have validity or is it time to consider something else?  Do we even still belong in the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Evangelical Church?

Do not misunderstand what I’ve just said!  I’m not proposing that we trash everything and start over.  What I am saying is that perhaps it is time to take a good hard look at who we are and where we are going.  Have we become too comfortable and too busy to make disciples, to baptize, and to teach in a culture that radically changed in the last generation?  If we have, then how can we call ourselves a Christian Church?

There is one more idea that I want you to consider on this Reformation Sunday.  Jesus Christ will come again but this time to judge, not save.  Are you living your life every minute as if He will come in the very next second?  If not then why not for this is the reality of your world as a Christian.  Perhaps if we are going to examine ourselves as a church we must first examine ourselves as individual followers of Christ.

 

Gloria Dei

October 26, 2008