LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 55

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56 CONVENTION SERMON

some responsibility of the delegate. They must decide
issues that may give direction to the kingdom work
of our Synod for many years to come.

Problems in the Church

The issues before you delegates relate to the prob-
lems of our church. Will Denver again give to our
Synod the voice of certainty about the Word of God?
Will Denver help remove doctrinal unrest? Will Den-
ver help the congregations of Synod see their total
ministry to the total man in his total‘ needs? Will Den-
ver help remove some of the lovelessness so evident
in our time? Will Denver help remove the practices
of some of Synod’s kingmakers? The number of king-
makers has from year to year been increasing. Will
Denver help the Synod stem the tide of character assas-
sination of which we sometimes have been guilty? Will
Denver help solve some of these problems?

Fellowship

Will Denver give us the answer for the problem of
fellowship? The moment the dialog on fellowship be-
gins, I’m in trouble. I’m in real trouble. I have certain
convictions. They were not easy to come by, convic-
tions reached after wrestling and struggling with one’s
self. Because I have such convictions, I imagine that
I have a halo above my head. I look at my brother who
has convictions diametrically opposed to mine, and
I imagine he is starting to grow horns. The tragic thing
is that my brother is also in trouble. With his convic-
tions he imagines he has the halo and I have the horns.
When I met him this morning I was sure he was looking
for the outgrowth of horns on my forehead. People,
if we are not careful in Denver, this convention will
go down in the memory books of our young people as
the convention of the horns and the haloes. Let’s make
sure we understand that God put both of us, my brother
and me, with our opposing convictions, into the world
for such a time as this.

Problems in the World

If these problems and issues are not enough to make
our delegates tremble, our present world has a few more
problems to throw at us. The basic problem of our
world is man’s ignorance of his God and man’s igno-
rance of God’s Gospel of forgiveness through the re-
demptive sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. Will Den-
ver help us solve the problem of getting this message
out? Will Denver help us solve the problem of world
hunger — hunger even here in the good old U.S.A.,
with its affluent society? Will Denver help solve the
problem of moral decay in our nation? Will it help
solve the problem of war? Will it help solve the prob-
lem of that diabolical attitude of supposedly Christian
people toward minorities that we call racism? Oh,
Denver, we are looking to you for a lot of answers!
We are looking to you to let the voice of God motivate
us to help solve the problems of our world. These are
the things that make us tremble as we stand before you.

With Confidence

But while we tremble, God says to us: “Be still and
know that I am God — not you!” And so, knowing that
God is still in the saddle, we have come to Denver with
high hopes and confidence, or as the choir sang it out
in its anthem a moment ago, “with high delight.” We
have come with the confidence that the Lord will direct
His people to do His will, with confidence that God’s
people will want to do His will, with confidence that
God by His Spirit will help us decide issues on the basis
of His Word of authority and not on the basis of the
deductions of smart people. God will not forsake us.
This is His promise. In His mercy He will take us by
the hand and lead us. If we but let the Spirit of God
speak to us out of His unchanging Word, then we will
be tools in the hand of our majestic God by which He
will rebuild, reshape, reconstruct our tottering society
and the world about us.

The Obedience of Faith

This is after all the crucial issue at Denver. Will we
let God’s Spirit guide us, instruct us, motivate us, and
revitalize us? If that happens, then Denver still has
the potential of being remembered with joy by our
children whom we have invited to be our guests at this
convention. If that happens, that the Holy Spirit is the
guiding power of this convention, then the now genera-
tion in its tomorrows will not speak of Denver in terms
like “Armageddon.” They will speak of Denver as one
of the garden spots of God where truth and faith and
love blossomed and came to fruition in all the fruits of
the Spirit. At Denver, our young people will say, we
recaptured the obedience of faith.

Is all this not precisely what the holy writer says
about Abraham? “By faith Abraham obeyed.” God
said to him: “Abraham, get ready and start moving.
I will tell you where you are to go.” Abraham did not
know his destiny. God gave him no road map. He got
ready and he went. Brother, that takes faith, to re-
ceive that kind of briefing and then get started.

God has always done it like this with His church.
He has never spelled out the ultimate, the destiny. All
He asked of His church throughout the ages was to
give Him the obedience of faith, to follow when He
called, leaving the destiny to Him.

Is this not what we need at this convention — a will-
ingness to listen when God calls, a willingness to follow
God’s leading, even though we may not know, like
Abraham, the goal to which God leads us? Do you
know how God wants to use you delegates at this con-
vention? Have you opened the window of God’s coun-
cil chamber and peeked over God’s shoulder to look
at the plans of God for His church and the blueprints
for the destiny of His people? Have you all the an-
swers? J don’t have them, and I am quite certain you
don’t have them either. God has the answers, and
I can trust Him. I am prompted to give Him the obedi-
ence of faith by the promises in His Word.

Therefore, it is of utmost importance that every dele-