LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 91

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5. ONE People Forgiven through Christ to Forgive in the Community
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit .
The Lord be with you .
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus Christ, before Your passion You prayed that Your
disciples may be one, even as You are one with the Father:
Draw us to Yourself, that in love and obedience to You we may
be united to one another by the one Spirit, that the world may
believe and confess that You are Lord, to the glory of God the
Father, as You rule with Him and the Holy Spirit, one God, now
and forever .1
A reading from Genesis:
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and
your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show
you . And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you
and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing . I will
bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will
curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”
(Genesis 12:1–3)
The Word of the Lord .

Helicopters hovering . Law enforcement cruisers lurking .
Sirens of ubiquitous ambulances uncharacteristically silent .
Investigators asking whether there were surveillance cameras on buildings . Yellow police tape glistening in the sun
against the plowed snow on city streets . The perpetrator of
this vicious double–murder was nowhere to be found, and
yet the very rocks of the pavement on the icy streets cried out
about this heinous crime, groping for justice as the pieces of
this poisonous puzzle’s jagged edges began to fit and form a
dastardly dismal picture . A young woman had been murdered
in her apartment, allegedly by her ex–boyfriend . And when
her little daughter tried to escape to get help from neighbors,
the same ex–boyfriend slit her throat so that this little girl died
at the door of the apartment, stopped in her little elementary
school tracks at the threshold that could have brought her freedom and that could have brought her mother needed medical
assistance . Abandoning the body of his ex–lover and stepping
over the corpse of this once–cheery little girl whose bright–
red blood trickled and seeped to the doorpost where the Angel
of Death met two damsels in distress on what would be a day
that would live in infamy, he waltzed out, only to be apprehended later .
With the chance to see such reprehensible recklessness
calmly characterized as “just another double murder” in a
city where such callous crimes make fresh blood run cold, the
people of God at a parish of The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod responded differently . “Thus far and no further,” the
Body of Christ proclaimed at Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran
Church in the Bronx, recognizing that this kind of crime a few
blocks away from the church building could not go unnoticed and forgotten . If a parish were going to be a “pro–life”
congregation, that needed to mean more than a January bulletin insert series or an election day choice between dueling

candidates . To be “pro–life” also means to value all life at
both spectrums as a gift from God who created all people and
all things . It means celebrating the redemption of creation by
Christ Jesus, a gift given to His people through His Means
of Grace, through the splashing Word–filled water of Holy
Baptism . It means receiving “the forgiveness of sin, life and
salvation” in the Sacrament of the Altar so that those to whom
God had given life would share life with others . It was time for
this neighborhood in the Bronx to learn this catechetical lesson about the Fifth Commandment, to learn the Fourth, Fifth,
Sixth, and Seventh Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, and to learn
what it meant to be one people forgiven through Christ to forgive in the community and the world .
Youth confirmation students began arriving that
Wednesday afternoon, many of whom had passed the
crime scene on their way from the bus stop and train station . Although they heard biased bits and sensational pieces
of the sordid story, they clamored to learn how the details of
this horror fit together . Even under their often harsh exteriors and urban “mind your own business” countenances, it
was clear that these young people wanted to do something
about this . That was when the poster board, markers, and
contact paper came out and messages and Bible verses about
salvation through Christ alone began to be written and colored . Pictures of Jesus Christ were collected throughout the
building . Candles were found . Even flowers were purchased .
The young ones rehearsed the Ten Commandments and their
meaning from Luther’s Small Catechism and the Lord’s Prayer
and its meaning from that same treasured jewel . They were
preparing to make a trip to this site, but to do so in a way that

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2010 Convention Proceedings