LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1962, Page 39

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PPS UP RARE ARE ET EN

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DOCTRINAL-DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS 89

wants you to be fearless. You are edgy and suspicious
of your brethren in your own communion and in the
whole Christian church on earth, when you know full
well that “love is not suspicious” (see Lenski on 1 Co-
rinthians 13:7). You are running behind in your budg-
ets because you are running away from your task. You
are so preoccupied with yourself that you have lost
sight of your occupation: “Occupy till I come!” (Luke
19:13)

So “the Lord sent out a mighty tempest.” Where
are you during these storms God is sending in the
world to stir the hearts of men “that they should seek
the Lord if haply they might feel after Him and find
Him” (Acts 17:27)? Thermonuclear blasts in the Pacific
and in Russia— mighty tempests! Enough thermo-
nuclear bombs in the possession of the U. S. and the
U.S.S.R. to be the equivalent of 20 tons cf TNT for
every human being on the face of the globe! Wars and
rumors of wars — hot wars — cold wars — “mighty
tempests.”

Where are you, Missouri? Fast asleep? Wake up,
Missouri! Wake up!

IV. Missouri Is Censured

“Then was the pagan world exceedingly afraid, and
said unto Missouri, Why hast thou done this? For the
pagan world knew that Missouri had fled from the
presence of the Lord, because she had told them.” (See
Jonah 1:10)

Because the Lord is mindful of His own, He chastises
that He may save, He rebukes that He may win, He
scolds that He may smile. Therefore He lets us bear
the sting of the pagan world’s censure and reproach,
so that we may see the enormity of our neglect, the
magnitude of our defection, and the weariness of our
tired, little faith.

The pagan world reproaches us for our feverish
protestations about the indispensability of our Christ
and our equally glaring and scandalous demonstrations
of His expendability in our day-in, day-out living. They
reproach us for our divisions in Christendom, and they
are offended by them, even as our Lord is. The pagan
world cannot understand how we can await this com-
mendation of our Lord: “I was an hungered, and ye
gave Me meat” — but we do not give them meat; “I was
thirsty, and ye gave Me drink” — but we do not refresh
them (our liquor bills are too high!); “I was a stranger,
and ye took Me in” — but our laws or customs will not
let them in; “I was naked, and ye clothed Me” — but
the shipment of our old clothes hasn’t come to them;
“I was sick, and ye visited Me” — but they are dying
in their tender years; “I was in prison, and ye came
unto Me” — but prisons aren’t the places for nice people
to visit, and few people visit them! (Matthew 25:35, 36)

Much of the literature and the drama and the art
of our age cannot be dismissed as only an expression
of a confused world without God and without hope.
It is an indictment of a silent church not true to its task
of proclaiming the Law and the Gospel. The pagan
world is trying to give us its questions, to express its

lonely aches and bitter despondency. It is crying:
“Come over into Macedonia and help us!” (Acts 16:9)

The world is afraid and despondent. It is censuring
us because we are not filling their lands with the pulsat-
ing, life-giving message of the Gospel: Be not afraid.
Christ died! He is risen, He is risen indeed!

V. Missouri Is Spared

“Yet hast Thou brought up my life from corruption,
O Lord my God.” (Jonah 2:6)

But though the heathen rage and shake their fists
at God and at God’s people, God remains Lord of all,
and He wills in His grace that which He expressed
in the person of His dear Son. “He is come to seek
and to save the lost” (see Luke 19:10), and so He spares
Missouri to be a seeking and a saving voice for Him.
His purposes for us have not changed. His commission
still reads: “Arise, go to this pagan world, and cry
against it; for its wickedness is come up before Me.”

He wishes to move us from an introverted self-inter-
est to an extroverted passion for a perishing world.
So He spares us that He may yet spare His Ninevehs
all over the world.

This is our day of grace, Missouri, a great day of
great grace. Therefore, we pray:

VI. Missouri at Prayer

“When my soul fainted within me, I remembered
the Lord; and my prayer came in unto Thee, into Thine
holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake
their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto Thee with
the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have
vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.” (Jonah 2:7-9)

To run away from God and from His orders is to
flee from our sure source of truth and power to a series
of lies and emptiness. So we confess that what we
have done is “the acme of stupidity, a tragic mistake, as
well as a great sin” (Alexander Maclaren on Jonah 2:8).
In the weariness of a soul that is tired of its frustrations
and yearning for release from the cloister of its bore-
dom, Missouri lifts its voice to its Lord. It is a prayer
stripped of all Madison-Avenue gimmicks —no tricks
and no treats. Just: “God, forgive us. God, restore us.
God, accept our gratitude for sparing us so that others
can be spared by Thee through us. God, save us. God,
take us back. We are sorry we ran away. We are tired
of running.”

A confessional church in Christendom and in the
world must begin with her own confessions of her sins
to her Lord before she ean properly and powerfully con-
fess His forgiveness to a pagan world. Before we can
serve Him, we must be served by Him and ‘sit at His
feet to receive His direction. There must be briefing for
the mission. So the place to begin is to ask for the
orders.

To ask for the orders is a big prayer. It is a danger-
ous prayer. It is an exciting prayer. He will give orders
that will make you deny yourself, take up your cross,
and follow Him. He will make big demands under the
compulsion of a great love,