LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 95

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

CONVENTION BIBLE STUDIES

You have heard a few of the things that one congregation
has done; imagine what happens when that is multiplied by
every congregation of our beloved Synod . As forgiven communities of faith, every congregation becomes a sign of God’s
forgiveness in Christ for the world . Every congregation in our
beloved Synod becomes an example and inspiration to the
neighborhood and the world . Every congregation becomes a
place where our swords are beaten into plowshares, our spears
into pruning hooks; when we beat our blades into Bibles and
our guns into offering plates; when we beat our gang colors into
choir vestments and our gossiping into “Gospel–ing”; when we
beat our grudges into testimonies and our rumor–mongering
into works of mercy; when we beat our blogging into evangelizing and our weapons of mass destruction into vessels for
Mass celebration—Alleluia—which we can celebrate in our
congregations with greater devotion and earnestness than any
and all of our opponents .22
This is what one people forgiven through Christ to forgive
in the community do—they do what Christ does because it is
no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us23 . We are the
body of Christ and each individually members of it . We extol
the benefits of Absolution not simply in the freeing of individual consciences but for the sake of making community for
the sake of the wider community . We are one people forgiven
for the sake of the community so that this witness to oneness and sharing24 inspires people to ask about the hope that
is within us .25 We share that hope in our respective vocations,
“engaging the world with the Gospel of hope .”26 We are who
we are because of whose we are, and we are whose we are so
that the community and the world may know that the Father
has sent His Son to save us all . We do not receive forgiveness
on account of our confession but on account of Christ .27 This
great and wonderful treasure28 brings consolation as the very
voice of the Gospel,29 as we proclaim in our Confessions . In
this way, as we live by God’s grace as one people forgiven
through Christ to forgive in the community, Christ is lifted up
and all are drawn to Him .
Many were drawn to Christ that cold Wednesday night in
northern New York City . Many changed their tunes . Many
began to march to the beat of a different drummer . Many recognized that this Lutheran congregation in the midst of many
other religious establishments actually stood for something
and stood for something quite radically different because she
stood as one wed to the One who loved us and gave up His
life for us . Many are drawn to Him as we vigorously “tell the
Good News about Jesus,” as we “tell everyone what He has
done,” as we are in one mission with one message as one people, cross–focused, Gospel–oriented, baptized, and eucharistic
people from every race and tongue, from every folk and nation .
Looking in hope to the day of Christ’s return, God’s people
hear Him, pray to Him, and serve Him by serving others, all
in doxological recognition of His merciful rule of justice,
truth, and love . As His chosen ones, we put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing
with one another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven

95

us, putting on love that binds everything together in perfect
harmony as the peace of Christ rules in our hearts as we were
called to be one body . We thankfully teach one another with
psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in our
hearts to God, so that whatever we do in word or in deed, we
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to
God the Father through Him .30 Through us, as we are blessed
to be one people forgiven through Christ to forgive in the community, all the families of the earth will be blessed . The world
will not simply watch as we “do this in remembrance”31 of
Him; all the families of the earth will be blessed .
Yearning for our Lord to lead us to believe, teach, and confess His Word as we receive, teach, celebrate, share, and live
that immortal truth that He has taught us, we—together—as
one people forgiven through Christ are bold to pray as one
people for the community in this assembly . We pray those
words that were first given by our Savior to us, words that were
uttered by our sisters and brothers on that arctic Wednesday
evening both in the church building and outside on the frigid
street corner in the public square, spoken in defiant faith at
the very grave and gate of death itself . We are bold to trust in
His promises and to approach the throne of grace with confidence pleading,
“Lord, remember us in Your Kingdom and teach us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name . Thy
Kingdom come . Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven .
Give us this day our daily bread . And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us . And lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is
the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever .
Amen .”
Soli Deo Gloria

Endnotes
1 . Prayer adopted from William Temple . The Daily
Prayer of the Church, ed . by Phillip H . Pfatteicher .
Delhi, New York: American Lutheran Publicity
Bureau, 2005, page 1540 .
2 . Text: Italian, c . 18 th century; tr . Edward Caswall
(1814–1878) . Lutheran Service Book, 433:1, 4, 6 .
3 . Matthew 5:14
4 . Genesis 12:1–3
5 . Paraphrased from Sabine Baring–Gould (1834–1924)
“Onward, Christian Soldiers” Lutheran Service Book
662, refrain .
6 . Smalcald Articles, Article IV . (All quotes from the
Concordia are from The Book of Concord: The
Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, ed .
By Robert Kolb and Timothy Wengert . Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 2000 .)
7 . Johann Ludwig Conrad Allendorf (1693–1773); tr .
Oliver C . Rupprecht (1903–2000) . Lutheran Service
Book, 533:3 .
8 . Jay Z, “Empire State of Mind .”

2010 Convention Proceedings