# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_2013_S60
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

distinct, we cannot completely separate out mission to Spanishspeaking peoples in this country and mission to their countries of
origin. The same goes for Africa. The Gospel follows family and
tribal and ethnic lines, wherever they may lead around the world.
My friends, I am deeply honored to serve you. I have been humbled
over the past three years in many ways. I remain a poor, miserable,
fallible sinner, trusting in the sole merit of my Savior. Luther said
about Baptism that God is found under the cover of weak, external
things. In Baptism, said Luther, we die with Christ, but the dying
of our sinful flesh continues until we depart this life. Said Luther,
“The journey begins in Baptism. And as long as there is faith, man
continues on this course until he completes it through death” (AE
24:42; cf. Trigg, Baptism in the Theology of Martin Luther, 29ff.).
“Baptism is death; they are interchangeable terms in Scripture”

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2 0 1 3 C o n v e n t io n P r o c e e d i n g s

(AE 2:143). But because I have died with Him, I also live with
Him. And so do you!
Luther said that, if given the choice of receiving direct revelations
from God versus learning to treasure more highly and understand
all the blessings of Baptism, he’d gladly choose the latter. It has been
my deep prayer for you that our time together will help us grow in
our Baptisms—that we will grab hold of Baptism, the very Gospel
of Christ poured out on us, and that this Baptism will drive us.
For we are baptized for witness. We are baptized for mercy. We are
baptized for life together. And we are baptized for this moment.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

RE P ORT O F T H E P RESIDENT