LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1967, Page 56

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56 CLOSING ADDRESS

our hymns, “we walk in danger all the way.” The
reality of that danger was brought home to us recently
when wives and children of our missionaries had to be
evacuated from eastern Nigeria. We sensed it further
when we had to move our missionaries out of Lebanon
and Jordan during the Mideast crisis. We recognize that
danger by what is going on in Vietnam.

Added to this we see evidences of danger to the
cause of Christ as we know it in our church life:
lethargy in church attendance; apathy in giving to God
in the same measure as God gives to us; indifference
to the study of God’s Word in Bible class and Sunday
school; secularism, materialism, relativism, antiorganiza-
tionalism slowly but surely are creeping also into our
congregations and our lives.

Therefore how necessary is this prayer for each one
of us before we declare the convention adjourned:

Abide with Thy protection
Among us, Lord, our Strength,

Lest world and Satan fell us
And overcome at length.

Vv

Finally we pray: “Abide with us, Lord Jesus, with
Thy love.”

We are living in a world which is dying for the
lack of love. Though men everywhere cry, “Peace!
Peace!” there is no peace. Millions are starving for the
lack of food in a world of plenty. The cry goes up for
social justice, but bigotry and injustice are having a
field day.

May we ever remember: God is love. “God so loved
the world that He gave His Son.” When we have said

everything we have to say about the Word, about truth
and doctrine, if we do not have love and show love and
live love, we are as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
We are fakes. We are phonies.

You and I need to love —love God, love our breth-
ren, love all the people for whom God sent His Son
to die and rise again. Men ought to say about us what
they said about Christians centuries ago: “See how
they love one another.” And men ought to see us
doing more than merely loving one another. Men
ought to see us loving people of all nations, origins,
and levels, especially people who are hopeless and
helpless in poverty, woe, sickness, sin, and shame.

He who loves us with an everlasting love has com-
mitted to us a mission of love, has equipped us for
a ministry of love like His. Ours is to share and show
the love of Jesus Christ, who bled to death to free all
men from the guilt and curse of sin, to make them new,
to give them the abundant life here and now and the
sure hope of everlasting life. This is possible only and
alone through the power of His love for us.

Therefore we pray:

Abide, O faithful Savior,
Among us with Thy love;
Grant steadfastness and help us
To reach our home above.

The time to adjourn this convention has come. The
time to do the work of this convention now begins.
Let us do the work of this convention during the com-
ing biennium with joy and enthusiasm, with this prayer
in our hearts and on our lips: “Lord Jesus, abide with
us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.”

Amen. . . .
ROLAND WIEDERAENDERS, First Vice-President