LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1971, Page 48

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48 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS

fectly joined together in the same mind and in the
same judgment.” (4:10)

What a way to begin a letter to a congregation torn
by divisions!

This polarization sounds familiar, doesn’t it? They
had parties with different leaders (1 Cor, 1:11-12) ; they
were puffed up over their own knowledge and scholar-
ship (1:17-29); and Pay] has to speak about the
preaching of the Cross as foolishness (1:18), and about
God destroying the wisdom of the wise and bringing
to nothing the understanding of the prudent (1:19);
he has to point out that Christ is a stumbling block
and foolishness to those who do not believe (1:23),
But he goes on to insist that Christ is “the power of
God and the wisdom of God” (1:24); and that, finally,
for both the Corinthians and for us Christ is made
“wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and re-
demption.” (1:30)

First Corinthians 1 is a good chapter for a church
that is troubled with factions. Paul wants no knowledge
“save Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (2:2). His

ct?

in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth but which
the Holy Ghost teacheth.” (2:31)

Paul points out to the Corinthians that the “natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God”
(1 Cor. 2:14), So he does not have God’s grace. But
through the Gospel the Spirit has opened their hearts

grace of God given us in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. As Pay] says in 2 Cor. 12:7-9, we have our thorn
in the flesh, but His grace in Christ is sufficient, and
in this way His strength is made perfect in our weakness,

In these letters, Paul attacks the various problems

judge that if one died for all, then were all dead; and
that He died for all that they which live should not
henceforth live unto themselves but unto Him which

died for them and rose again... . Therefore if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed
away; behold all things become new. And all things
are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus

tion: to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the
world unto Himself, not imputir g their trespasses unto
them; and hath committed unto us the word of recon-
ciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as
though God did beseech you by us: We pray you in
Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For He hath
made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
(2 Cor. 5: 14-21)

Here is the answer, here is our program, here is our
very life. In these verses we have when all is said and
done the complete story of what God has accomplished
for us in Christ, what we as the church are to do
in carrying out our mission in the world, what we should
do with and for one another. Our world is like Paul’s
— sinful, alienated, frightened — but the apostles turned
that world upside down. So can we, if we remain
faithful to our Lord and His Word and get busy in
proclaiming the Gospel of reconciliation by our words
and by our lives. And a fractured church can also be
healed in the same way —as we share God’s grace
with one another.

As we begin our convention we stand once again
in the presence of God's abounding grace, Grace leads
to repentance. So let us then acknowledge sincerely
that we have not loved God and one another as we
should. Let me be the first to confess it.

And yet even though I stand before God as a sinner,
I also rejoice in His reconciling, forgiving love. That
love belongs to you as much as it does to me. Far
from casting us aside, God has reconciled us to Himself
through the bitter suffering and death of His Son Jesus
Christ. In Him we now have redemption, even the
forgiveness of our sins. As forgiven men and women
we can forgive one another and together address our-
selves to the mission that God entrusts to those whom
He reconciles. In the power of God’s Spirit and grace,
we as reconciled children of God can move forward to
meet the exciting challenges of our time and thus realize

want of the Gospel.

May God bless our convention and out of factions
bring unity, out of anger forgiveness, out of confusion
faith, out of despair hope, and out of hatred love. In
that spirit let us then be about our mission: Sent to
Reconcile.

J. A. O. Preus, President