# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1973_S67 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 68 CONVENTION SERMON of His pasture.” (Paraphrasing the farmer: “All our lives we’ve been looking for a church like that!”) Now God invites us to “Search for Him with all your hearts” (Jer. 29:13). That means more than knowing “about” God. A person can know a lot about God and not know God. He will never know God until he learns to trust Him and love Him through Christ. I recently read the life of Mahalia Jackson — one of the outstanding singers of Gospel songs this country had ever known. Barriers she had aplenty. But she also had commitment to and faith in God through Christ. Mahalia Jackson, up from poverty, sang to vast and enthusiastic crowds in many of the great concert halls of the world. She was born right over here on Water Street in New Orleans in 1911 between the railroad tracks and the levee of the Mississippi. Her father worked on the river docks during the week and was a lay teacher in church on Sundays. Mahalia had little schooling, not even a formal music education, but she heard the showboat music along the river Mississippi. She listened, fascinated, to the great jazz bands on Canal and Rampart. She came to realize that she had been given a truly great voice. From the early joy of singing in the choir in her beloved church . . . where she would lift her magni- ficent voice in moving Gospel songs . . . she went on to great success. At the close of her book, Movin’ On Up, New Or- leans’ own Mahalia Jackson beautifully testifies to Christ her Savior. She says: “Along the way I will re- joice with the Lord and sing my Gospel music... spreading the good news!” And how she did! Mahalia was a marvelous ambassador for Christ. Jesus says: “As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you.” (John 20:21) One evening in England I walked down a street on the west end of London and came on a Jarge building with a great golden eagle set high upon it. It is the home of the Ambassador of the United States. That lit- tle plot of ground is America overseas. And the Am- bassador who is quartered there lives in London, but his citizenship is in the United States and he carries out his work under the direction of those in leadership in Washington. The Ambassador’s task may not always be pleasant. If his country’s interests clash with those of the foreign power, he may need to hold a difficult position. He may be quite unpopular for a while ... but he has no choice if he is to carry out his mission! And you and I in the midst of a perverse, wicked, and hostile world are to represent God and His interests ... with love and with light . . . courageously and faith- fully passing along His enduring truth to all genera- tions. “God has made us His ambassadors. We are to be in the world but not of it— we are to represent the Lord in our communities. ... We are not to be isolated but rather involved as His sent ones.” It is reported that before the Second World War, a certain college professor, sensing the tragedy which was about to descend upon the world, decided to take his family to a remote Pacific Island, hoping to remain safe there until the trouble blew over. The island he chose was Guadalcanal, the site of one of the fiercest battles of the war. The fact is, we are all involved in the world, like it or not. There is no way to say: “Stop the world, I want to get off.” Our faith is centered in the Incarnation . . . the fact that God, Himself, became personally involved in our world in Jesus Christ. We are to face the world with the Bible in one hand, the daily newspaper in the other, as God’s people involved on a mission. One month after President Kennedy was assassi- nated, a memorial service was held at Arlington Ceme- tery. In the dusk of that December evening, someone lit a candle from the flame over his grave. Then that eandle lighted another and another until there was a long line of brightness flickering down the hillside to the bridge back to Washington and out into the Vir- ginia countryside. When we come to worship God it should be like that line of brightness. The end of worship is to signal the beginning of witness and service. We light our lives afresh at the eternal flame of Jesus Christ and then carry that flame of faith back to the darkness and let it radiate for Christ in our homes, schools, and busi- nesses. “If Christians would praise God more, the world would doubt Him less!” Isn’t it time for us to cease “bad mouthing” the church? I think it’s time for em- phasizing the positive. “For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.” We are reminded: “The symbol of our convention represents this emphasis, the flow of concerns and ef- forts within the church, which receives its strength from God’s act of redemption in Jesus Christ.” “A sunburst radiating from the Cross is a reminder that Christ is the Sun of Righteousness, whose love and triumph over the cross spreads to warm all creation.” “Take my life and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee; Take my moments and my days, Let them flow in ceaseless praise.” Now because of our sin, it doesn’t always go that smoothly or ceaselessly! We seem to have shortages when there should be surpluses! The answer to our shortage of man and money power was given by a wait- ress in Washington during World Ward II when sugar was one of the rationed commodities. A customer who had already received his share loudly ordered some more sugar for his coffee. Her answer was a classic in brevity and plain speech. She said: “Stir what you’ve got!” The psalmist is saying the same thing. He invites us to ‘Make a joyful sound unto the Lord . . . Come be- fore His presence with singing .. . And into His courts with praise.” The psalmist is saying in effect “Stir what you've got!” For renewal and commitment are wrapped up in the theme of this convention and in this text. An 85-year-old woman was struck with what was feared to be her final sickness. When her children were canes te epi oY an OC EES sateen anus peseeneryshy aoe eh :