LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 39

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DOCTRINAL-DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS 39

creator of the soul? If that’s true, I wish I had been
a trilobite.

Fifth question. I finally come to the question which
is the climax of my interrogation of the unbelieving
scientist, “Where do I go from here?” When my life is
over, what is my destiny? You want me to believe there
is a nothingness beyond the grave? You want me to be-
lieve that I have been designed by blind chance? Let’s
take an example. I’m a great ship, designed by a great
shipbuilder. He gave attention to all the infinite de-
tails of his product. His ship was the queen of the seas.
Came the day of the launching, and he says to his
fellow workmen, “Let’s launch her and then blow
’er up! I just wanted to see whether I could create
a ship.” You want me to believe that this is my des-
tiny, just a ship, blown up at death into nothingness,
before my journey into eternity begins? I’ve heard
more interesting fairy tales. Go back to your Snow
White and Seven Dwarfed Minds.

The tragic thing about this entire interrogation of
the supposed scientist is this, that he tells us in reply
that these questions do not belong in his field. He says
to us, “That’s not my field. You'll have to go to the
department of metaphysics for the answers. You'll
have to ask the philosopher.”

So I knock on the door of the philosopher. He is
very gracious, as all philosophers are. “Mr. Philosopher,
will you kindly answer these five questions which I have
written out? I was told that you would have the an-
swers.” He looks them over. He replies, “Well, Streu-
fert, that’s not my department. You'll have to go to
the Department of Science.” Somebody is giving me
the run-around, and it isn’t the track coach. Somebody
is not answering honestly that he doesn’t know.

If he doesn’t know, we do know. We do have an
answer to these questions. We do have an answer to
the question, Who created the first speck of matter?
We do have an answer to the question, Who created
the laws of nature, energy, which activated matter?
We do have an answer to the question, Whence came
the first life cell? We do have an answer to the prob-
lem of the soul, the origin of the intelligence of man.
We do have an answer to the question, What is the
destiny of man? Where do we go from here? Our
teachings are not our own. We received them from
Him who sent us. His holy Word, the Bible, is the
source book of our information.

The church ever lives in the afterglow of Easter.

Ours is a teaching church. This convention will have.

to give attention to this program in which all of us
are involved, fathers and mothers, schoolteachers and
preachers, prep-school faculties and the instructors at
our terminal schools, for but one reason, and that is,
to share the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus with
the world, for the world is God’s concern. He wants
to win it, but He said that He will do it through us.
“And thou shalt teach.”

God, make me able, for I am too weak. Amen.

IV

The Omniscient Lord Equips
the Church’s Messengers

To have walked among you and to have worked with
you during these convention days has been a most gra-
cious thing. I shall ever be grateful to the brethren, not
only for words of encouragement but also for words of
caution. I shall be grateful to the brethren who have
pointed out that there is no warrant for being dogmatic
when the Word of God has not spoken with finality.
I shall ever be grateful to the brethren who have pointed
out that strong conclusions become impossible where the
premises are weak. This is part of our fellowship. Let
us call it courteous helpfulness. For that we are grate-
ful. It has added to our convention joys.

“yen so send I you.” The afterglow of Easter is
still with us, is it not? We beheld the Sender, the Son
of God. We heard His mandate, to win a loveless world
by His love. We took a close look at the message of love,
the Gospel, and the method by which God would bring
that message to the world. Today I would invite you
to join me in looking at the messengers. We would ask,
Who are the sent ones, and how are they equipped?

May I read verses 3 to 6 of that dramatic chapter,
Exodus 19: “And Moses went up unto God, and the
Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying: Thus
shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the Chil-
dren of Israel: Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyp-
tians and how I bare you on eagles’ wings and brought
you unto Myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey My
voice indeed and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a
peculiar treasure unto Me above all people, for all the
earth is Mine; and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of
priests and an holy nation. These are the words which
thou shalt speak unto the Children of Israel.” On the
basis of this text I would say to you:

The Omniscient Lord Equips the Church’s
Messengers

Israel was free. Four centuries of slavery lay behind
her. Before God brings these freed slaves to their home-
land, the land of their fathers, He lets them rest at the
foot of Mount Sinai. Here they are to receive His reve-
lation, the revelation of His laws and the assurance of
His love. They are to hear that God in His grace se-
lected them above all people to perform for Him a holy
function.

The Sender Selects His Messengers

“Ye have seen what I did. I brought you unto My-
self.” It was God alone who did the selecting. It was
God alone who brought them freedom. There was no
army of Israel to fight for liberty. By the strength of
His arm God brought them out of bondage. Not one
arm in Israel was raised to defeat the hosts of Egypt.
“I, Jehovah, carried you on eagles’ wings.”

There was a purpose in this selection. “Ye shall be